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.