300th Post!

This is my 300th post! To celebrate, I'm sharing some fun facts about 300:

*Six year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults laugh only15-100 times a day. Another great lesson from my little boy- laugh more! And preferable the throw-your-head-back-hysterical-tears-in-your-eyes-belly-laugh!

*A hedgehog's heart bets an average of 300 times per minute. This takes me back to high school and my pet hedgehog Ramona-Rembrandt. She was fun for a little while, but pretty prickly.

*300 is the highest possible score in bowling. Kenny and I were on a Sunday night bowling team in college and I he gifted me with my own bowling ball one year.

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Mommies of the Valley Giveaway!

A while ago I posted a link to the interview my friend Lauren over at Mommies of the Valley shared on her site. Now we're teaming up with a Thirty-One giveaway! The winner will get their choice of a Large Utility Tote, or the new Top-A-Tote. Entering is easy and you can earn multiple entries. Check it out here. Post a comment on my blog if you've entered the giveaway!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day usually falls on the first day of camp or staff training, which is a very busy time for us. Last weekend the kids and I were up early on Saturday and they decided they wanted to make Daddy breakfast in bed. I made the coffee, they fixed the cereal and made him a card to celebrate our own Father's Day. What a great reminder that we don't need a "holiday" to tell Daddy how much we love him!

Fun

We kicked off our Memorial Day Weekend by watching Daddy play softball. After about 4 weeks of rained out games, we were excited to be able to make one at 6 pm while everyone was still awake (they play at 6, 7, 8 and 9 pm)! The kids and I had a picnic dinner while I taught them the basics of softball, then they were off to play in the dirt pile.

Highlights from today:
*We slept late
*Brinley & I walked to a neighborhood yardsale
*Donuts from our favorite local donut stand
*Lots of laundry
*Tumbling
*Popsicles in the backyard with our bare feet in the grass
*Dinner with friends and their kids. Three families, 8 kids between us- 4 girls and 4 boys spanning all ages from 1-7!

Today was a great day!

Cowbell Tales

My sorority sister, Leslie Penn Petro, is writing a book about the cowbells of Mississippi State University. Check out her blog and submit your photos and stories!

Rite Aid- last week

Here are my Rite Aid deals from last week:

Jewelry- buy 2 get $4 up = $2.49 each (it was Mother's Day!)
Extra gum $.88, $.50 coupon off 2 = $.63 each
Paper plates buy one get one free
Arm & Hammer Spin Brush sale $7.69, buy one get one free, 2 $1 coupons = $2.85 each
Suave detangler $2 each
Vitamins (from rain check), Buy one get one, $1 coupon = $5.57 each
Milano cookie 2.99- $1/2 coupon - $2UP = $1.49 each
Hershey Pot of Gold box $3.99 - $2 UP = $1.99 each
MnMs 2/$5.50- $1.50/2 coupon, $1 UP = $1.50 each
12 packs Dentyne gum from Rain check: $3 - $4 coupons= $1 money maker

Momma Strong

Check out what one of my childhood friends, Courtney Wycoff Benavides is up to at Momma Strong. Visit by May 20 and enter to win goodies! From her website:

On Momma Strong, you will find online videos that address your special needs with my innovative approach to pre- and postnatal fitness.   And I have designed each program keeping in mind that you are either:

1) an exhausted whale of a pregnant person,

2) an exhausted, baby-carrying, mushy-brain new mother,

3) an exhausted and overworked mother who has gone years after having a baby without ever really getting her core back in order, or

4) all of the above

Lately

 MOPS project- flower pens- given to our teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week

 Brinley had a run in with some playground equipment and busted her lip and scraped up her face

 Dancing in dress up clothes

 Sweet bridge!

 Cindy Lou Who cut another tooth!

Dancing

Here is a sweet video of my darling daughter dancing in dress up clothes. Note- this is not a professional video shoot and you will see the mess of real life in the background. Just keepin' it real. 

Mommies of the Valley

Check out what my friend Lauren Mills is doing over at Mommies of the Valley. She's just launched this site to connect moms, provide info on what's happening in the valley and share encouragement for whatever stage of mothering you're in. Today she's featuring yours truly on her blog!

Finally!

14 and a half months old and she's finally getting the hang of this walking thing, though she'd much rather be carried around by Mommy!

Mother's Day

Today was a great day. Woke up to this sweet girl's happy face

Got all of these lovely cards from Brayden & Brinley

 Brayden made me these Coupons of Love. They are good for: projic (project), xoxoxoxo and 1 pet (he told me he plans to get me a fish).

 Photgraphy by Brinley

 Photography by Brayden

Sporting the lovely macaroni & straw necklace that Brinley made me

Got a 2 hour nap with Bristol after church (ahhh!), lunch at my favorite Chinese place, Brayden lost his 3rd tooth. What a fun day!

Lovely Day

We are enjoying the warm weather by playing outside a lot: picking flowers

 making creations (this is a boat)

 playing ball

My husband

My husband was ordained as a deacon at our church this Sunday- congrats, Kenny!

Fun

Here's what we've been up to lately:

 Celebrating 1st birthdays with many of the dozen babies who were born at our church in a six-month span. E is totally digging his cake!

 Sharing

 Popsicles on the back porch

 We saw a hot air balloon over our house- also on my bucket list!

 Golf cart fun with Daddy at camp

 I love this one, especially how Brinley is doting on her baby sister.

 Lots of lego building

Tumbling

I will preface this by saying that I sooooooo wanted to be a gymnast like Kim Zmeskal when I was little. Either I wasn't very good and/or my parents were not really into driving me to practice at crazy hours and letting me skip school and all that jazz, so I think I took lessons for a year or two. I tried out for but never made the cheerleading or dance team in middle school. I still love to watch gymnastics and cheerleading any time the are on tv! So I'm trying to find a good balance between hoping that my daughters will love dance/gymnastics/cheer so that I can live vicariously through them, and not being a crazy mom who pushes her kids into doing things they don't love. So, we're dipping our feet in the water. My friend Heidi has opened Renown Cheer and Tumbling and our first class (ages 3-5) was this weekend. Brinley was shy at first and didn't participate in some activities, but then came around and warmed up. 

 On the left in pink/black, in the middle of bunny hopping

 Worn out!

Tumbling

Brinley told me the other night: "Mommy, I love tumbling and I don't want to ever miss it! I think I should take a rest before tumbling though. Just wake me up when it's time for lunch." She's fallen asleep in the car on the way home from tumbling the last few weeks. She's got forward rolls and bridges down and she's working on backwards rolls now. 

Brayden

How did we get from this...

 ...to this so quickly!?!?

 Spring Kindergarten picture, still just as sweet!

DJ Smalls

Bristol's nickname is Smalls around our house- partly because she's so petite and partly because it fits with the nicknames of the other kids: Snoog and Snooglet. Possible career opportunity here...besides her good looks, she may have real talent!

 As a dj...

 Ready to spin tunes

 Can put on her own equipment

 And do tricks

 Where's the party?

 If she gets hungry, she might just take a bite of her headphones for a snack...

 ...or suck her thumb...

 ...or suck both thumbs!

Working Hard

My little ones have been hard at work lately! Brayden and Brinley were so excited to help me put labels on the new Thirty-One summer catalogs. I was a little nervous about making sure they still look professional, but they did a great job!

Working hard on melty bead creations

Bristol was working hard on climbing up on top of this box and sitting on it- pretty funny!

We got Brinley a Kindergarten workbook so she can do her "homework" too and she's loving it