What Happens If Your Heart Stops?

Cotter was splashing water at an electrical outlet the other day, and Roy warned him not to do that. He told Cotter the dangers of messing with electricity and how he could get electrocuted. Cotter, replied, "And I would go like this?" while imitating convulsions with his body. Roy said, "Well, more importantly, your heart might stop!" So, pondering the significance of this, Cotter asked, "So, my heart would stop loving?" Too cute!

WAY Too Close for Comfort!

I don't think we've ever experienced God's protection in such an obvious way as we did this past weekend. Our family was travelling back home from our Amelia vacation, on a major highway. We were in the far left lane, and a garbage truck was in the center lane to the right of us, ahead of us by maybe 50 feet. All of a sudden, the garbage truck blew a front left tire, and the driver started losing control. He began skidding into our lane and somehow flipped over in the process, right in front of our car! Roy was somehow (by God's grace) able to swerve around this huge truck as it was flipping over, with a huge plume of dust and debris flying everywhere. Visability was terrible, and there were also cars behind us and to our right to avoid as we swerved out of the way. We did get a glancing blow from the truck on the side of our car, which broke our headlight, scraped some paint off the side and knocked the driver's mirror out. But, other than that, our car was in good shape and completely driveable.
Miraculously, on this busy holiday travel weekend, this accident did not even scratch any other car, and the driver of the garbage truck, though taken by ambulance, seems like he'll be just fine. And, it was even good timing for another woman whose husband stopped at our accident scene and notified the paramedics that his wife was having severe chest pains. She got taken away by ambulance, too!
We know without a doubt that God had His hands in all of this, and we rejoice that he has spared us from what could have been an extremely devastating crash.

Aidan provided us some comic relief when he pointed out the sign posted at the back of the overturned truck. It reads, "How am I driving?"

Fun at the Playground

The Beach at Amelia

Vacation at Amelia Island

Here are some photos from our relaxing week at Amelia Island over Thanksgiving. It was so great to just get away for a while!

Kaitlyn Turns 2

Well, Kaitlyn was already two in spirit, just not in size. But, it became official on November 3rd. My baby is two! It's definitely hard to believe. As announced in a previous post, we indeed threw Kaitlyn a "shoe party." Everyone had a blast! We carried the shoe theme over into her decorations, food and party games. Here are some of the highlights:

• Flip Flop birthday cakes
  
• Flip Flop cookies
  
• Boots and Feet-shaped sandwiches (cut from cookie cutters)
  
• Streamers tied in bows decorating the walls


• A foot/walking maze taped to our family room floor, helping the sock find the shoe
  
• Shoe-themed games (like guess the famous feet, with various famous cartoon character feet)


• A loud, energetic game of Hullabaloo
  
• Lots of running around in the back yard when the sugar-high began


• Opening of shoe presents (We asked parents to pick out some shoes for Kaitlyn from a thrift store or clearance section instead of the usual gifts. Some cheated and got her other things, as well.)

I'm not going to post pictures of other kids at the party, because I'm too lazy to get permission from their parents for their pictures to go over the internet. But, the party had a happenin' 17 kids show up! Quite a zoo.

Halloween Fun

We all had a great time on Halloween. The kids dressed up as the Flash, a ninja turtle and piglet. See if you can guess who is who. :-) The kids did the typical trick-or-treating, followed by 10 minutes (on the clock) of candy engulfing and choosing of 10 pieces to keep. My kids are funny (and definitely different than me as a kid). They will pick some candy to keep and rarely even ask for it after Halloween. I won't complain.

Kaitlyn even got into it this year, following behind her brothers to the various houses to gather treats. She was a little intimidated when some people answered the door dressed up in scary costumes, but overall she had fun.