Our "Thankful" Tree

This week we started our family "Thankful Tree" tradition. The kids got to color a handful of leaves, and each day during breakfast they get to write what they are grateful for and put that leave on the tree branches.   

I'm so grateful for the month of November. It is a month where we can turn our focus on appreciating the gifts we have been given. We have so much to be thankful for. I feel overwhelmed with the gratitude I feel when I think of the wonderful blessings I've received personally. This pregnancy has been brutal. I have spent many hours in bed each day, and I cant't even begin to count how many blessings we've received as a family through the service from our wonderful neighbors. We have had meals brought in by four amazing families, a phone call asking to come clean my house from Bishop Ford's wife, my wonderful friend Brianne Ford Judy coming and taking my kids for a afternoon so I could rest, our Vietnamese neighbors bringing us homemade egg rolls, and our next door neighbor bringing us fresh veggies from his garden. Oh, and of course my amazing mom who checks in with me daily, brings us dinner and even went grocery shopping for us. I could go on and on. I really have felt the Lords hand in my life,( through the service of others) especially the last few months when I really felt discouraged and sick thinking I will ever feel "normal" again. I'm so excited to spend the remaining of this month focusing on our thankful tree. It is a great way to start our day with Gratitude.

Here are some of the things the kids wrote on their thankful leaves:

Allie:

Grateful for her new fish she got
Grateful for her family

Grateful for her friends at school

Grateful for Jesus' love for us

Grateful for her new baby sister
Grateful for her grandma and papa's

Mason:

Grateful for his Birthday

Grateful for his pet frog "Bullseye"

Grateful for snow

Grateful for his "ipad" Kindle
Grateful for otterpops ( those are his favorite)
Grateful for Mrs. Karen (his preschool teacher)
Grateful for his momma
Grateful for his daddy

The kids coloring their thankful leaves

Our thankful tree with thankful leaves on it

Here are the leaves we used for our thankful leaves. I printed them on card stock,then we cut each leave out, punched a hole at the top ( using a hole puncher). The kids then were able to put the leaves on the branches using the holes we made.