Christmas at home

Today we had Christmas with just me, Jim, and the boys. It was obviously Colton's first Christmas, and he celebrated by trying to eat as much wrapping paper as possible! :)Cooper got a lot of race cars ("with numbers on them") and spent the day racing them and taking them everywhere with him! Cooper was SO excited as he opened his presents, and kept saying things like, "WOW! Look! Another race car! WOW! Look at this one!" Later I asked him which present was his favorite, and he said, "The #1 race car." I asked him why he liked that one so much, and he said, "Because I've been wanting it for 20 years!"

Christmas preparations

Christmas is my favorite holiday and having kids to celebrate with makes it all the more fun and magical. Thanksgiving morning, Cooper and I decorated our Christmas trees (mine and his), and this weekend we made cookies and delivered them to our neighbors and decorated a gingerbread house (which I found out is hard to do with a 3 year old!)Cooper consumed WAY too much sugar, but we had a lot of fun!

Open House 2008

We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving with my parents and grandma Fry the weekend before Thanksgiving during my parents' annual Open House & town Outhouse Tour. Cooper had a blast as always an even got to help make his very own pot on the potter's wheel! I enjoyed seeing friends and family and drinking my mom's hot, spiced cider and eating her delightful lemon poppyseed bread!

Halloween 2008

We had a fun Halloween this year! We went to Forsyth First Baptist's Family Fun Night and had a blast! Cooper was a Bug for Halloween and Colton was Mickey Mouse. Cooper loved the huge inflatable slides, obstacle course, and bouncy room! He also enjoyed digging for candy, fishing for candy, eating candy, golfing for candy, eating candy, throwing beanbags at targets for candy, eating candy, and oh--did I mention eating candy?! :) The hayride and maze were also hits!

Fall Memories

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Pumpkin Carving Time

Jim and I had never actually carved pumpkins before, so we thought that would be a fun activity that we could do with Cooper. Well, Cooper lost interest (and was grossed out) after about 5 min., so Jim ended up doing it pretty much by himself. Cooper was thrilled with the finished product though, as was Jim. He was so proud of his accomplishment that he even took a picture of it on his phone so he could show his buddies at school!

Fall Fun

Fall is one of my very favorite seasons! I love the cool weather after a long, hot summer. I love digging out my cozy sweaters, watching the leaves change colors, visiting the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, drinking apple cider, and all the other fun fall traditions that make it such a fun time of year. I also love visiting Silver Dollar City and Celebration City in the fall because it's not so hot and crowded and because they always go all out with their fall decor. It always makes for some great photo ops!

Zach & Laura's wedding

This weekend (Sept. 27th) we attended the wedding of my "baby" brother Zach and Laura, one of the sweetest people I know! She was a God-send to us the week after my accident when she volunteered to stay with us for a week and help out with the boys, with meals, and with house work. She is an amazing person! Their wedding was at my parents' Rock Garden in Elk Falls, KS. It was BEAUTIFUL! The weather was perfect, and the atmosphere was enchanting! They are currently on their honeymoon in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee!

My boys

After my accident, I have found myself more aware than ever at how blessed I am to have my wonderful boys and to have them ALIVE! I thought the song that I put with this photo book was appropriate because it IS only by God's grace that we're all alive and here today!

Make a Smilebox photobook

My accident

I realize that most of you have heard about the details of my accident that happened on Aug. 17th, but I thought I'd put it on here anyway as a way to remember the miracle that God worked that day. It all started on the evening of Aug. 17th--the day before I was supposed to go back to school. I had parked on our very slanted driveway and was unloading the boys from our Lincoln Navigator. Colton was out and as Cooper was climbing out, he accidentally knocked the car out of gear. It started to roll VERY quickly down the hill with him in the driver's seat. I took off after the car and tried to get my arm in to press on the emergency brake. In the process, the car his a rock flower bed in our neighbor's yard and my foot got smashed between it and the car (I think; it all happened SO fast). Anyway, it's a good thing that happened though because that caused the car to change directions and go into our other neighbor's yard instead of off the cliff that we live on. I had been hanging on and dragged along until then at which point, I was thrown off. The car sped into our other neighbor's yard and crashed into his storage shed, finally stopping the car. Cooper was screaming hysterically for me, but I couldn't go get him because there was a huge gaping hole in my foot. When I looked at it, my first thought was, I'm going to lose my foot. I found out later that a tendon had been cut, my bone chipped, nerves were cut, and a chunk of muscle had been lost. Anyway, I started crawling up the hill to where my cell phone had landed. I tried to call Jim but my phone died before he could answer (he was at the gym at his school). I screamed for help for what seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only 5 min. Finally, the Matneys heard me and rushed to the rescue. They called Jim, called 911, and took care of the boys. Amazingly, Cooper didn't have a SCRATCH on him --which was a miracle in itself! After being taken to Cox South, they did surgery on my foot and I've been in an "air cast" and a wheelchair ever since. They took the stitches out last week, and said that I have about another 3 weeks until I can start physical therapy to learn to walk again. It's been a long, difficult journey, but I'm getting better every day, and I'm SO thankful that the boys and I are alive. In church today, my brother-in-law (who is also the pastor) talked about how sometimes God allows suffering to teach us to depend more on Him and to glorify Him for His miraculous grace. That is SO true. Even though it hasn't been easy, there has been SO much good come from this. We've seen God provide for us in SO many ways--financially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We have seen how many TRUE friends we have and what a WONDERFUL family we have--friends and family that have gone above and beyond to help us out. I used to be the type of person who tried to do EVERYTHING just because I knew that I would do it right. I've been forced to slow down, enjoy my boys more, and learn to depend on God and others for almost everything! It hasn't been an easy lesson to learn, but I'm thankful. I'm so much more thankful for life and I've learned that I often take my family for granted--and I'll never do that again!

Lake of the Ozarks vacation

With such high gas prices and all, we decided that we couldn't really afford a big vacation this year, so we went on a "mini-vacation" to Lake of the Ozarks instead. We were there for 5 days, and had an absolute BLAST! Cooper didn't want to leave! All that was available at the resort we stayed at was a studio room which had a kitchenette, bathroom, bed, tv, table, 2 chairs, and closet. It was very cozy, but Cooper loved it that way because he had everyone to himself and we were all right there close by! While there, we went swimming, played mini golf at 2 different places, went shopping, ate out a lot, and went to Miner Mike's (a VERY fun kids' place complete with an indoor train roller coaster, covered wagon ferris wheel, bumper cars, arcade games, and this HUGE maze thing that was like those McDonalds play place things but about 10 times bigger!)Zach & Laura came down Sat. evening, spent the night, and then left Sunday afternoon. Cooper LOVED having them there! Sunday morning, Jim's parents' came and stayed until Monday afternoon. While they were there, Jim and his dad played golf at 2 different courses, so Chris, the boys, and I went shopping in Osage Beach and went to Jefferson City to see the Capitol Building. We got our own personal tour and got to use the governor's elevator since we had Colton in his stroller. So, that was neat! I didn't think Cooper would enjoy the tour, but he did quite well (except at the end when he was getting tired of walking slowly, being quiet, and listening)! It was a very fun trip, but it was good to be home and back in our own beds!

Predator World

Today Jim, the boys, and I went to Predator World in Branson West. It was fun to get a close-up look at some animals that we usually only get to see from far away. In some cases, I would have PREFERED to see them far away--like the HUGE Burmese pythons! I only took pictures of them because I was amazed at just how huge they really were--NOT because I liked them! Cooper didn't like them either. He kept saying, "Let's get out of here!" Besides the snakes, we got to see lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Sorry! I couldn't resist! We also saw crocodiles, a kangaroo, all kinds of fish--including Nemo & Dory (from "Finding Nemo"), tarantulas, wolves, HUGE turtles, sharks, sea turtles, Sting Rays, panthers, cougars, and some weird animals that I can't remember the names of! Cooper had the unique opportunity to feed some Sting Rays, a GIANT sea turtle, and sharks! Wouldn't you know it though, my camera batteries decided to die just as Jim and Cooper were getting ready to feed the Sting Rays! And the 6 spare batteries that I thought I had were all dead as well! Figures! Cooper dropped the little fish into the pool for the Sting Rays to eat and Jim fed a Sting Ray from his hand--with the guidance of the lady who worked there! I wouldn't have done that! Jim talked me into feeding one of the sharks. The Predator World guy put the fish on the stick and gave it to me, and I nearly screamed when the shark came up and ate it! Once I felt the power of the shark as he bit the stick and saw him just a few feet from me, I jerked the stick away as fast as I could! Let's just say I didn't enjoy that experience very much! Besides that, though, Predator World was a lot of fun!