Who Needs Teeth Anyway?

On Christmas evening, Carter was doing some pull-ups on the pull-up bar at my folks house. This did not concern me in the least. He is always hanging from the pull-up bar in our basement. But I guess my folks pull-up bar wasn't 100% stable, and somehow Carter managed to pull it down, knocking his front teeth on it, and then falling back and hitting his head hard enough to give him a goose egg that made his hair stick out. Not the best way to end a fun Christmas day. Fortunately, he recovered relatively quickly, though he is missing a large chunk out of one of his front teeth. Dr. Stephensen is going to take care of that tomorrow.

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Not to be outdone by his big brother, Owen decided to do some damage to his pearly whites this morning while sledding with the Skow boys. On his second trip down the hill, he hit the ice and semi-dislodged one of his lower front teeth. Not a pretty sight. I left the other boys with Marti, (check out her sledding video on my facebook page), and Owen and I headed to the nearest dentist in Ankeny. They got him right in thanks to a cancellation (thank you Lord for that provision), and fixed him right up. He now has a wire glued across his front teeth, stabilizing the "injured" one. It's soft foods and no rough-housing for him for a while, but he should recover just fine. His body is accustomed recuperating. It has had a lot of injuries to deal with in his seven years on this planet.

Jean Jacques

Thirteen years ago, I met Jean Jacques. He lived in a small two-room house in Cazeau, Haiti, with his parents and 5 siblings. He was five years old. Their front door was a fabric curtain and inside the home was one bed and a few other furnishings. I did not grow up in a wealthy family by U.S. standards, but when I stepped in this boy's home, and thought of my home, I was struck by the huge disparity. Why did I have so much, when others had so little?
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The time I spent in Haiti working with a medical team, a construction team and a VBS team, was life changing. My eyes were opened to a people and a country that have not left my heart since I left the island. And I have had the opportunity to watch Jean Jacques grow up. The picture below is one I received a couple months ago. He is now 18 and has graduated from high school. I have been sponsoring him and corresponding with him for 13 years, so it was bittersweet to find that he is no longer in need of a sponsorship. But I am looking forward to getting to know another little boy after I receive my new sponsorship info.

Meet Billy Bob

Meet our wintertime lawn ornament, Billy Bob. It took the boys a while to muscle the gigantic snowballs across our yard. Corey helped them stack them on top of each other, and then we added Clementine eyes, a mulch nose, a wire pipe, a scarf, a hat and some rocks for buttons. We'll see how long the big man lasts.

The Night Beneath the Tree

The boys love their night under the Christmas tree with their dad. It's a tradition he started a couple years ago. Next year, maybe we'll add the crazy little guy to the mix.

Basketball

For the next couple of months we will be found at the 3Cs on Saturday mornings. Between Owen and Carter, we have a lot of basketball games in our near future.

The Joy of Being The Third Child

Maybe it's because it's harder taking two young kids on outings, maybe it's because Carter and Owen entertained each other so well that we didn't have as much of a need to get out, or maybe it's because I'm not too cheap to spend a dollar on a train ride anymore. Whatever it is, a trip to the mall to ride on the Christmas train is not something I did with Carter and Owen, but Lewis sure enjoyed it. He also enjoys much more frequent trips to the McDonald's playplace, and sometimes I buy him candy at the checkout at Walmart, but his big brothers don't need to know that.

Harms Family Christmas Cookie Adventure

My two children with serious sweet tooths helped me make Christmas cookies tonight. To my surprise, the one who is always wanting to "make" something, had no interest in helping.

I had forgotten what a joy it is to make cut-out cookies with a three-year-old.

The Dreaded Tree Picture

One of Those Days

I was a little grumpy when one of my children woke me up this morning an hour before I wake him up on school days, but I made some coffee and dealt with it. I was a little more grumpy when my van decided it did not want to go to church. You see, 75% of the time, Corey leaves for church over an hour before we do because of his various responsibilities. That leaves me to get the kids ready and out the door by myself. It's really not a big deal. I do it Monday through Friday too, so we have the routine down, but today, their clothing all matched, their hair was washed, and they weren't fighting as we headed out the door. So when I had to leave my van on the side of the road down the street and head back home instead of to church, I was a little irked. And then my husband did not get the message to pick us up for Sunday School because his phone was in a room behind the stage, so though we were ready to be picked up, it didn't happen. That made me kind of grumpy too. I thought maybe if I took a little nap, I could get rid of my grumpies, but no more than 10 minutes after I fell asleep, the doorbell rang. I ignored it. (Corey and the boys were watching the Vikings downstairs so they couldn't hear it). A minute later, it rang again. I ignored it. Another minute passed and it rang again. I was fuming when I went to the door. I JUST WANT TO SLEEP!!! I wanted to yell at whoever was crazy enough to keep ringing my doorbell. Instead, I listened to a well-meaning man try to convince me to sign a petition for close to a half hour. I understood his frustration, but I didn't sign it. I just couldn't stop thinking, "I could be sleeping right now." After that conversation, I was even grumpier. So, I've pretty much been grumpy all day. But tomorrow I'll have a fresh start, so I think I'll go to bed. Just beware if you are thinking of ringing my doorbell multiple times in a row on a Sunday afternoon. I may just let my inner-grumpies out next time!

Random Fremont Thanksgiving Pictures

Garrett and Lewis building with Legos.

Check out the hair on these boys.

This is a poor photo, but it shows how popular the ipods were. Even Shaan and Lewis were playing games on the iphone and ipod touch.

Corey's sister Gretchen and her husband, Robert, hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Erica and Dustin brought stuff to make turkey and pilgrims hats, so the kids had fun with that.

Nerts is the big game at the Harms' house. Not having any Harms blood flowing through my veins leaves me at a disadvantage, so sometimes it's better for me to just watch :)

Ball tag in the backyard

The Thanksgiving Tree List

Here is the list of items that my boys put on our Thanksgiving tree (in no particular order).

1. For our nice mom and dad
2. Having trees in the backyard to climb in.
3. Having a big backyard.
4. For having nice brothers.
5. For Legos
6. For everything God made for us
7. For all the time we have in this life
8. For people in poverty to believe in Jesus
10. Being able to be with our cousins who live far away.
11. For windows
12. For our neighbors
13. For all the food at dinnertime
14. For our wealthiness.
15. For Jesus dying on the cross for us
16. He made a horse and a cow and people, and we have hearts and we can talk

There you have it. Can you guess which two came from Lewis?

121 Dresses

My mom and I boxed up 121 dresses today. Tomorrow they will go to UPS. From there they will go to Miami, and from Miami to Haiti. From my understanding, they will be distributed by the January Mission to Haiti short-term mission team. I wish I could be there to help. I prayed for each little girl as I pinned tags with sizes and a French Creole version of John 3:16 on each dress, and I hope they feel loved as they receive them. I am so thankful for everyone who helped by making dresses, donating fabric and donating money (especially my mom who made at least 40 0f the dresses.) It has been really cool to see it all come together. What a fun way to bless a bunch of little girls I will likely never meet.

Football with Grandpa

This is a picture taken a few weeks ago when Grandma and Grandpa Harms came to visit for the weekend. Corey kept his dad pretty busy with a house project in the garage, but he took the time to play some catch with Carter in the yard. Carter could do this for hours! It's definitely one of his favorite pastimes. My spiral has improved greatly with all the practice I've been getting tossing the ball in the front yard.

Does Anybody Read This Stuff?

(I am totally stealing this idea from my friend Emily, who keeps a blog about her life with her husband and three kids in China. Thanks for the idea Em.)

I started this blog shortly after Lewis was born, mainly to post photos for the grandparents, so they could easily keep up with our growing family. Three and a half years later, it has become a bit of an addiction. I love to write, and I love to take pics of my kids, so I find blogging to be super-duper fun.

So, here's the deal. I'd like to know who reads this thing. I would keep doing it, even if it was just my mom and dad and my best friend Marti ;) But, I'm curious if other people are keeping up with the Harms family through our blog.

Here's what I would like you to do. Leave a comment about your favorite Christmastime traditions, and I will take all the comments and randomly draw someone's name to win a lovely set of Thank You notecards.

Let the commenting begin :)

The Thanksgiving Tree

We recently started having the boys thank God for more than just our meal when they pray before supper. I have been sadly surprised that it sometimes takes them a while to come up with something. Seriously, we have a gazillion things to be thankful for, and so much we take for granted! So, in an effort to make thankfulness a priority during this Thanksgiving month, Lewis and I made a Thanksgiving tree this morning. Each night at supper, we will write down a new thing to be thankful for, and then hang it on the tree. I hope that by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, being thankful will come a little easier.

Mario, Superman and Luigi

It's pretty handy to have a seamstress for a mother because my boys always get the coolest costumes! I'm a little sad that Lewis actually fits into the old Superman costume. It doesn't seem like that long ago that the other boys were flying around the house in it. You can tell by the big boys costumes that video games have become a big deal in our house. They went as their favorite game characters, Mario and Luigi.

As usual, we came home from trick-or-treating with insane amounts of candy; though I need to train Lewis on which candy items to pick. He came home with a couple bags of pretzels. Chocolate! You gotta grab the chocolate!!

Bye-Bye Leaves

In the past, the wind has blown all of our leaves out of our backyard. We have never had much raking to do. This year, the wind decided to blow all of the leaves into our backyard. Thankfully, our boys are old enough to work, and Corey and I didn't have to lift a finger. We offered them a little money, and they cleared out the backyard. Owen was the most motivated, and did the majority of the work (he even has some callouses on his fingers from the rake), but Carter and Lewis pitched in too. They all had fun jumping in the pile when they were finished.

The Catalyst

I have a feeling that your response to the above photo is quite different than mine. You probably see a mountain of colorful rubberbands that come in just about every shape imaginable. You possibly question my restraint as a parent, and wonder why in the world I would let one of my children have so many. You likely think they are a terrible waste of money. (You may have no clue what they are; if so, ask any elementary school aged child).

What I see when I look at these silly bands is hours (literally hours) of sitting on the couch listening to my son read. This is my son who HATES reading. This is my son to whom reading (so far) hasn't come super-easily. This is my son wants to quit trying after struggling with a couple words. This is my son who preferred to do almost anything besides read.

These bands are his reading rewards. They are the catalyst that changed him from "non-reader" to the one who asks, "When are you going to go get new books from the library?"

You may think it's tacky when you see kids with arms full of these, but I don't mind one bit when he wears them proudly from his wrist to his elbow. To most they are just a crazy passing fad. To me they are golden.

Wisconsin Dells 2010

We really owe Corey's boss a big thank-you for allowing us to use a free 2-night trip the company had earned several years ago. We spent those nights at the Dells, and loved it so much we have made the trip 6 times in the past 4 years! We started going on these trips when Owen was Lewis' age, which seems so funny to me. We have increased our ventures to three nights at a time, have switched to a different resort, and have added my folks and my brother, his wife and son; and we have a ball every time! We all love the waterparks; and it's such a nice treat to go swimming in the fall. I'm looking forward to next year already.

That's Carter's head in the middle of the picture in the wave pool.

My brother and my favorite toddler.

"Ah, mom. Not another picture."

Will he look at these pictures someday and ask me why I ever let him grow his hair this long?

Carter at the wave pool.

Corey and Owen in the lazy river.

Thankfully, we still have one child who doesn't realize these games take money. He is happy to just sit and play.

The ducks outside the resort ate bread right out of the boys' hands. They thought that was pretty cool.

We played 3D blacklight mini-golf. The course had several aquariums with eels and puffer fish and even sharks. Put your 3D glasses on to get the full effect of this photo.

ISU Football Game

Corey took the boys to their first Cyclone football game Saturday night. Not only was it their first Cylcone game, it was their first ever football game, and they had pretty close seats on the 45-yard line (thanks to Kate from Corey's office for giving these to us!!!) They had a great time, but that is a lot to live up to. I fear their first high school game may be a bit of a downer.

This Is What Happens....

...when you think God wants you to do something, and you don't say, "No, I'm not very good at that," or "No, that seems like it will take a lot of time," or "No, I don't really feel like it," or "No, my husband will think I'm crazy." (He already does, and that's okay.)
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This is what happens when you say "Yes." No excuses. No questions. Just "Yes."
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The little nudge I felt to sew dresses for Haitian girls with my mom has turned into
- 50+ yards of donated fabric with more coming
- financial donations to cover more fabric and shipping
- Two dozen women offering to help in some way
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Though sewing dresses seems like such a little thing as far as giving goes, the thought was somewhat overwhelming at first. 100 dresses seemed like a lot. Now it not only seems doable, it even looks surpassable.
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That is what I love about the God I serve. He likes to take our little victories in obedience and turn them into more than we imagined.
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100 dresses (or more) here we come.

The Last Harms Superhero

Do you suppose he's flying in his sleep?

She Floats

We took a very short trip on the water at Big Creek. Corey's hoping to take the boys on an overnight canoe trip in a couple weeks.

A Hundred Dresses

I believe that God sometimes uses the occurances in our daily routine of life to prompt us to do things we wouldn't necessarily choose on our own. And I believe he did that to me last week.

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Occurance #1 - a meeting with an aquaintance (now that I've had coffee with her and spent a morning with her, I'm going to call her my friend) from college who is in the process of adopting 3 (yes 3) children from the Congo.

Occurence #2 - an afternoon of sewing new curtains for Lewis' room.

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These two things may seem totally unrelated, but God fused them together and used them to put an idea in my mind. That idea is to sew dresses for little girls in Haiti. The number that is stuck in my mind - 100.

You see, I have recently been reminded more and more of my many material blessings, and I have been reminded that God doesn't want me to be a "blessing hoarder." So, what does he want me to do with my blessings? Well, there is this stirring deep inside of me to go get an orphaned child, and bring him/her home to love, but Corey and I are not at that place right now. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm off the hook when it comes to using my resources to care for them. Have you ever noticed how many times in the Bible taking care of orphans is mentioned? A lot. When God says something, he means it. When he repeats himself multiple times, I think it's because he REALLY means it.

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So, as I was sewing curtains, [You see, my mom taught me to sew when I was growing up. I wasn't always a very willing student, but I did learn. I would consider myself a mediocre seamstress at best, but my mom - she's good. Seriously, Vera Wang has nothing on her.] I started thinking about the little girls in Haiti who never get new clothes, and who are dependent on the kindness of others even for the few hand-me-down items they have. And I started thinking, I can sew. My mom can sew. My mom has lots of fabric. We can find some easy patterns that I can handle. We can buy more fabric. Maybe some of my friends would want to help...

That was how it started. I contacted Mission to Haiti, which is my favorite mission organization, and asked if they would distribute dresses if we made them. Well, they said yes, so I guess that means "game on."

I'm putting this out there for the readers of this blog in case anyone would like to help in some way. Can you sew? Do you have extra fabric? If you can't sew maybe you'd like to cut out the patterns for someone else to sew? Would you like to donate money for fabric or patterns or shipping? Please call me or email me or facebook me if you want to help in any way. I am excited to see how God help me follow through with this idea he placed in my head!

The Other Woman...

...she's lightweight, durable, supposedly loves the water and has taken up a lot of my husband's time recently. I can't help but be a little jealous of her, but spending time with her makes Corey happy, so I have been letting her exist in our garage. Corey already has two canoe trips in the works for this fall once Little Miss Kevlar is completely finished. Hmmm. I wonder what he's going to build next?

My Nine-Year-Old

1. He is 52 1/2". (That is going by the measuring stick at the beginning of the Space Shot line at Adventureland. He was very excited to be tall enough to go on that ride.

2. He likes to be goofy. He reminds me of his dad in a lot of ways. Quiet around people he's not really familiar with, but goofy with those he knows well.

3. He loves to push his brothers' buttons; especially Lewis. Believe it or not, he fights with Lewis more than he fights with Owen.

4. He loves to play knock-out and kickball and pretty much any other game with the neighbor boys.

5. He's excited to watch Vikings football with his dad.

6. He is a quick-learner, and I don't know if he'd admit it, but I think he likes school.

7. He loves to swim.

8. He loves sugar. Oh my does he have a sweet tooth!

9. He can kick a soccer ball really far.

10. He's a picky-eater (aside from the sugar thing.)

11. He's timid about trying new things, but he is naturally very coordinated and is very good at almost everything he tries.

12. He is growing way too fast for my liking, but when he is asleep in his bed, he still looks like my baby.

Carter's 9th Birthday Party

Carter had a great birthday party. He has such a good group of friends. I think everyone had a lot of fun. How can you go wrong with a swimming pool and a Wii?

Lewis got in on the ring toss game.

The forecast had me a little nervous, but God granted us a non-stormy afternoon for swimming.