Merry Christmas To All

MERRY CHRISTMAS from The Coppersmith's!!

My faith in humanity has been renewed tonight... We have been having a tough time lately with the pressures of life. This Christmas season as been accompanied with ALOT of stress. Well, tonight there was a knock on the door, and this is what i found...

I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES!! I immediately started crying! We have been praying for a miracle, and this was it! Nobody was in sight, and there was no name signed, just a note asking us to fill up the jar throughout the next year, and pass it along to someone in need. Oh man, I'm tearing up again. Thank you kind stranger!! You'll never know how greatful we are!

We often get so caught up in everything else, we forget what Christmas is about. We are celebrating the birth of the Savior of the World! Let's all try to remember that a little bit more. It sure makes the holiday alot easier to enjoy!

We love you all, and wish you a very merry CHRISTmas!

Studio KURT

(Sing the K.U.R.T. like it's a jingle for a radio station. That's how we say it at home. It's more fun that way.)

To see The Husbands new art blog, click HERE

He Rocks My World!

Family Pictures

Thanks Andrea and Todd!

The Lemonade Stand.

Today Allison decided she was going to set up a lemonade stand. We all kinda thought "yeah, yeah, we tried that too when we were kids... didn't earn more than two bucks" But she insisted on doing to anyways. She started out in front of our house, where very few cars drive by. She quickly learned there would be little business there, so she moved down to the corner of our street, on a busier road, and across from a golf course. After she earned two dollars in the first ten minutes.... we decided to get serious.

We went to the store and bought more supplies, and decided to make our stand a sanitary stand, by selling bottles of water and crystal light packets, so there would be no chance of child germ contaimination. She also decided to hire Shannon as an employee. Kurt and I watched from our front porch, in awe, as car after car pulled up to purchase from these two little girls.

We tried different selling techniques, which included this fun sign. Some people donated extra for tips, and another family stopped and donated without even making a purchase. The girls were very exited when they ran out of their waters, and added up the money. The grand total?? $24.00!!! We never would've guessed. Needless to say, they'll be out again tomorrow....

Our New Addition

Tomorrow is this cute little boy's third birthday! (Christian invited his friend George to dinner with us, our visitor even had to have his own place setting.) And this is the cute little boys birthday present.

Kurt sure adores him. He sat on Kurt's chest for an hour and licked his face, and then hopped over to my belly and relieved himself. Disgusting. The bunny and I are not friends.

Cherry Hill

Next time you are driving by "the greatest fun place you'll ever know, Cherry Hill," take a minute to check out the new Double Dragon water slide, and the castles that the dragons are wrapped around. Those castles are being painted by my awesome husband! We never would've thought he'd be painting a water park someday...i think that's pretty cool! We had been praying for him to find some temporary jobs this summer, when Rachel's boyfriend's dad showed up to Rachel's graduation BBQ. Jeff is also an artist, and we kinda hinted that if he ever needed help he should call Kurt. The very next day Kurt got a phone call. We are so thankful Kurt has been able to help out, our family really needed this job! So he's painting the two castles, a sword in the stone area, murals on all the bridges that cross the slides, and painting scales and the belly of the dragons. His good work should also lead to future projects and also get us passes to the water park this summer! Now I'm trying to get him to build and paint and castle in our backyard. The kids would have to coolest club house on the block! Here is Kurt working on the second castle. It is now done. I need to get more pictures.

And this is the first castles finished project.

If you too have a water park or a clubhouse in your backyard that needs to be painted, or if your wanting a portrait drawn of you or a loved one, or a landscape painted of a recent vacation you've been on... you should definitely give Kurt a call. He would love to help you out.

I will post more pictures soon of the finished project. The dragons are gonna look mighty cool. once they get those scales on them.

Washington D.C.

Well, I don't really know when the last blog was published. But I am sure it was last year. This is my first attempt (at my wife's request). I will try not to disappoint me, my wife, and the entire beehive state. I would say there was quite some apprehension involved with this trip. Flying non-stop to Baltimore, a full ride scholarship phone interview, driving on the beltway with my parents (to be mentioned later), oh yeah, and seeing my brother after a 10 year estranged relationship. All in all the trip was really good. We arrived 3 hours from SLC to Baltimore, pretty dang fast. The beltway, on the other hand, was a bit more bumpy. Probably the fact that I had to pee didn't help either. But that was resolved when, just as I was nodding off, I was awakened to an 18 wheeler horn blaring and merging into my dad's rental car. However, we made it to the hotel in one piece and met my brothers family. Katie, my niece, made it all worth it when she hugged me and about knocked me over into the armoire. It was her wedding after all, and she was my buddy when she was little. I also saw my brother Clifford for the first time in a decade. I gave him a lithograph of a charcoal I made of my grandfather. It was good to mend our differences. The next day we went to Katie's endowment and did some sealings for my sister-in-law. It was a great experience, her mother and father were never members and Kathy was finally sealed to her parents after joining the church 28 years ago. The next day Katie and Henry were married in the temple. After that we drove to Williamsport PA, for the reception. It was a good time and I was able to see my Aunt and Uncle as well. We had a brunch Sunday morning at my brother's house and spent time getting reacquainted. My nephew Cory, I found, has the same twisted humor I do. It was ever evident when we played apples to apples, the sick and twisted version. The next morning we headed for DC, my brother gave me a big hug (and a kiss?), and it was great moment for my mother, who has been waiting for her children to reconcile for 12 years .

A quick note: Jessica has now met all my siblings in a matter of 7 months, many that I haven't seen for at least 7 years. She has been such a good little camper, I love her (even when she's a grumpy gus).

Speaking of Jessica, she had waited all this time to get to the nation's capitol. She listened to my mom tell our family history from pre-revolution to present (my family is from Pennsylvania and New York) all the way back to DC. We even stopped in York, PA, where my ancesestors settled. The town where absolutely nothing is open on Mondays. Well I take that back, except for a biker bar where they asked if I was lost and made a comment about my faux hawk, I promptly left. We got to DC a little late and decided to still do the monuments. Apparently, the monuments are safe at night, it's the walk between them that isn't. We got to Union Station and tried to get the night tour, but the last trolley, we were told, had left. We were going to get a taxi when we noticed the trolley was still there. It had broke down before it could leave. We paid the conductor and got on the tour after all. Meanwhile, my dad had stayed in the hotel and was eating Mcdonalds and watching the Sci-Fi channel and reading a book all at the same time (nerds unite!). He missed a great tour, we saw everything that was of relevance. Jess was able to sit up by the driver and get some great shots. It also dropped us off at 3 memorials including the Lincoln. It was amazing at night and saved us time for Tuesday. The next morning we went to JFK's grave and the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery. It was sombering hearing funeral rifle volleys and taps being played at the same time of the ceremony. Near the end of the cermony Marine 1 also flew over and landed at the pentagon, crazy morning. After the cemetery we went to the Smithsonian. We all chose one thing to see, since time was limited. Jessica chose the ruby slippers, my dad chose the Lincoln exhibit, my mom chose the First Ladies Gallery, I chose the cafeteria. After that it was to the airport to fly home. 3 hours to Washington, 5 and a 1/2 back. It was a flying nursery, eight infants and children under 2. The longest 5 hours of our lives. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, just not on an airplane. But we made it home and what was 6 days felt like 2 weeks. We are glad to be back. Sorry to ramble on, maybe I won't ever be asked to blog again, but then again, I doubt it.