Mom's salary

We all know that mothers are priceless, but salary.com has created a calculator to put a price tag on what we do. It uses the number of children you have, whether you work or stay at home, and allows you to put in your hours spent on different tasks. According to the calculator my annual compensation should be $127,312. Thank goodness I get paid in hugs and kisses because that amount doesn't even come close to the money it would take for me to accept this job if I was working for the paycheck!

MOPS

I just finished up our last MOPS meeting of the year, and I did so with mixed emotions. If you had told me a year ago that I would be coordinating one group and filling in as a coordinator for another group I would have laughed at you. Public speaking is definitely not one of my gifts, so hopefully I compensated for that with my gift of administration. I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to serve these wonderful groups of moms, but I have to admit I am also relieved to finish up leading three meetings a month. I am extremely excited about what next year is going to bring! The relationships I have formed with all of these women have been an incredible blessing. Both groups of ladies were so sweet to go out of their way to give me thank you gifts. Evie was just beside herself with excitement that we now have purple flowers at our house. The chocolate gift basket is just incredibly decadent, especially the chocolate bath soak. I can't wait to try it out!

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed ~ Proverbs 16:3

Flowers from the Central Bearden MOPS

Yummy chocolate from the Bridgewater MOPS

Little girl hair

Evie inherited my fine hair. Both of her grandmothers, her dad, and her auntie have thick curly/wavy hair, so I had hoped she would inherit those genes. It just didn't work out that way though. You would think that I would know what to do with her hair since it is just like mine, but after 25 years I am still trying to figure out how to make mine look good. I've been pretty limited in the little girl hair do area so far; a bow clipped on one side or pig tails have been the best I can manage. My efforts are hampered by hair that doesn't want to stay, a little girl who can't sit still, and that little girl's aversion to having anything clipped onto her head. Tonight after her shower we decided to try a different avenue and pull back some hair with a hair band and tie a ribbon on instead of using an alligator clip. Evie loved it! We will see if it survives preschool tomorrow, but she was so happy with her hair she didn't want to lay her head down on her pillow and mess it up.

A pretty pink ribbon

Lovin' the hair style

Pretty girl

Bowling and Bruster's

The kids had a great time bowling with Sydney and Kaitlyn tonight! Evie and Andrew just adore the girls. We went to Bruster's for ice cream afterwards, but I was too busy eating ice cream to take pictures :)

Four little cutie pies!

First Hike

We took the kids to the UT Arboretum this afternoon to try out hiking. Andrew kept wanting to run too far ahead of us (which stressed me out) and Evie fell on our way back to the car and busted her lip and cut her gums (thank goodness Nana had a napkin in her pocket for all the blood). Other than that, it was a good time!

Fun Day

We met Lydia at the mall today so that the boys could play together one more time before they leave this weekend. They had a great time running around, eating Chick fil A, and playing in the lion fountains. My plan was to take Andrew home for a nap before we went to get Evie from preschool, but he wasn't having any of that so we went to Ben & Jerry's for free cone day instead. Not the best logic (no nap so let's get sugar!), but it was fun anyway. I also learned don't give a toddler bright purple ice cream. It will make a mess! Notice Andrew's new hat. $0.80 at Children's Place. I love clearance bins!

William and Andrew on the caterpillar
Andrew loved riding with William in the sit n stand stroller
Boys playing in the fountain
Berry Berry Sorbet @ Ben and Jerry's

Farewell Cookout

Our Sunday School teachers hosted a going away cookout tonight for the Mearse family. Stanley and Lydia have been wonderful friends to us and our boys are such good buddies. We are so sad to see them go, but we know God has big plans for them in Louisiana.

The kids enjoying the yummy food

All the little ones (except baby Shawn)

Our class

A reminder of East Tennessee for Stanley and Lydia

tired toddler and cute craft

The boy who refuses to nap...passed out during a Little People movie at 4 pm

Cute plates that we decorated at MOPS. We have done such wonderful crafts this year! A big thanks to Jovelyn for writing the kids' names. My handwriting is terrible.

Orange and White Game

We took Evie on her first trip to Neyland Stadium today. She was a very good girl and had a wonderful time! Her first question was "Where's the baskets?" Can you tell she watched a lot of basketball this season?! She got to go down close to the field and wave to Smokey, but if you ask her what she saw her answer will be, "Clarinets, trombones, trumpets, tubas." She was very excited to see the band!

Daddy and Evie

Evie and Nana

Evie's Birthday Party

We celebrated with Evie's preschool friends this morning at Chuck E Cheese. Evie had a lot of fun playing games and going on the slide with her friends. Sleeping Beauty came to her party in the form of a 3 foot doll and plush fairies. Evie and I had fun with the princess theme!

Our area at Chuck E Cheese
Evie had fun playing the bee game Blowing out the birthday candle
An Evie balloon