Pumpkins

 Gloria set up the artful photo above.  We enjoyed having the neighbors over to carve our pumpkins this year.  Gloria wanted flame eyes-yay for Caleb's manual dexterity!  Lydia felt proud to use the knife too!

Camping!

 We spent another beautiful weekend camping, really the weather could not have been nicer.  We went to the South Llano River State park which is where the hill country meet West Texas.  We got there in time to sleep the first night.  And we forgot pillows-but the air mattresses sure are nice!   The first night was pretty cold but then they were a little warmer and it sprinkled on Saturday night.

 Then a morning hike to the overlook.

 The turkeys were roosting so we could only go to the river from 10-3, but once it warmed up we went to wade and fish.

 Gloria is always excited to play with the fish Daddy catches.

 Afternoon slow time, art, playing with bugs (this pic got tons of likes and comments on Facebook), and just hanging out.

 Dinner and marshmallows by the fire.  We went to the interpretive program of videos of creepy creatures of Texas.

Lari Jo and girls arrived late the evening, the next morning we headed to the river for more fishing and climbing around.  Big sisters Taylor and Lydia hang off a cliff!

 This afternoon we made animals masks at the headquarters and played with hula hoops.

 Little sisters Gloria and Samantha enjoy their s'mores!  Lydia and I went to the turkey program (good thing she was learning since she skipped school on Friday!)

 Sunday morning we had a quick trip to the small lake, and for some pictures on a huge old log.  Then we rushed home to meet Mom & a piano before taking the girls to church for choir, Awana and we met friends for dinner!

Friends!

 We love having people in our home (and Gloria often asks when cleaning who is coming because its the only time for sure it gets a good cleaning!) Mariam's mom came to visit for the birth of Sara and they came over for a fish fry.  It was super fun and then we ate Kuwaiti food at their apartment before she had to leave.  And there is nothing sweeter than holding a tiny baby (and then handing her back for feeding and care!)

 A normal afternoon, tons of kids in the back yard.

 In Mission Friends they learned that pjs were invented in India and I got to wear my Indian clothes to show off!

We were out of town the weekend of Ron'Trail's birthday party so on the day of we had cake and a 'block' party in the front yard to celebrate after school.

Pumpkin Patch

 After the farm we went to our annual Sunday school class pumpkin patch party!

A great group!  Then Phils & Amy's for dinner & dessert.

Crowe's Nest Farm

 On a cool Saturday in October, Caleb was working so Mom and I took the girls to the Crowe's Nest Farm.  We had seen a raptor presentation by them at the public library and really enjoyed it.  It was much bigger than I expected with tons of animals and gardens and a fairy wood.

 Beautiful morning glories.

 A miniature farm area with horses, donkey and mule!

 I liked the morning glories :)  After petting and walking and the hayride, we watched the birds of flight show which was really cool with a very preachy presenter!

 There was a hay ride by the buffalos and ostriches.

A fun beginning of the day!

What do we stand for?

The popular band Fun! has a song with the lines-What do I stand for, what do I stand for, some nights I don't know anymore...

Our family listened to that song a lot this summer.  And one time we asked the girls, what do we stand for.  They said, I don't know.  After some prodding, Lydia finally said hesitantly...praising God.  Good start.  

I follow a mom blog (see it to the right, Inspired to Action) and Kat is really big on having a Family Vision.  I thought it was a good idea but was at a loss of how to actually write one for us.  Then I read a book that talked about it, and then heard someone talk about the benefits so okay, it was time.    I asked Caleb a way to start and he suggested an acrostic of our name.  Hallelujah a way to begin!  We knew we wanted it to encompass Love, nature, people and being joyful.  So this is what we came up with:

 For our painting we decided that less is more (which is good for 6 & 5 year old girls and a mom that has problems with over decorating, see our walls covered in pictures as an example).  So we left out some words.  But here it all is:

What the Harris Family Stands For-Our Family Vision
Honesty
Always choose LOVE
Respect
Rejoice
Interact with Nature
Share our lives with others
We accomplish this in our family, community and world by God's Spirit, the Bible and prayer!

We are still working on a verse to go with each one (there are so many good ones it's been hard to pick)

 Once we chose the words we wanted it displayed so we painted on canvas!  Lydia liked making it with texture (see the sun) and Gloria liked it smooth so the sky is smooth.

And added the finishing touches after it was dry.  Now these are some Fun! nights to remember for our whole lives!

Happy Birthday Gloria!

Gloria Joy is an amazing girl and she keeps us on her toes, in very different ways than her sister.
She wants a bikini and to be a zombie for Halloween (our answers: no & yes, but not to the church event, though she had a great comeback that Jesus was the best zombie ever).  All year long she wants to read Halloween books and will sometimes wear all black and sometimes pink and sparkles.  Her favorite shirt says Girls Rock and she said all the girls in the world rock and the only boys who rock are Jackson and Daddy.  She loves all critters including bugs.  She says she is ready to be a teenager but still often talks in a baby voice.  She loves to hip hop dance to music in our living room but isn't too keen on participating in her ballet class, "I'm too tired" is her response and we are trying to figure out how to teach perseverance to a girl who has had an asthma diagnosis.  She will joyful say, "Hola, como estas?" to anyone who mentions speaking Spanish but when I ask her to say goodbye to Arabic speaking friends instead of Mas Salama she says Banana.  She wants to travel to Africa and loves wearing bindis (the red Indian dot).  She can be picky with food but can also put away a ton of breakfast and mac & cheese.  She says she is ready to be baptized because she invited Jesus into her heart a long time ago.  She wants to know why God doesn't answer all her prayers.  She wants to live by the ocean and be a doctor for sea animals and will walk along the shore and through fish back into the water so they can breathe and she will dive down to see if any whales has scratches and if they do she will put waterproof bandaids on them.