hot date

Last night Jamie and I snuck away for a fun night out in Fayetteville. We went to dinner (and got to sit down for a long leisurely meal)! Then we found a quaint coffee shop/bookstore on Dickson that was really cool!

I ordered a mocha that was not only DELICIOUS it was very pretty, too. :)

I definitely want to go back when I have more time to peruse all the fun books!

We went to see the musical, Sundown Town, at the Walton Art Center (Nadine Baum Theater). And it ROCKED! Such a good show. Even better was the fact that our friend, Val, was in it. She did awesome and we stayed after the show to visit with her for awhile.

Here is a photo I swiped off an online review of the performance. You can click HERE to read more.

It was such a nice date night with my boy. A huge thank you to Donna for working a 'double shift' so we could go out! :)

makes me happy

Ok, I have to document this so I can read it over and over when the girls are moody teenagers (not that my girls will be anything less the perfect... ha!) but the other night Audrie was standing on a chair next to me in the kitchen helping me cook and she just leaned over, wrapped her arm around me, and said... "Mommy, you're my favorite girl". 

My heart melted in a pool of happiness.

She is such a sweet girl!

Honestly there were times when I wondered if Audrie would always be a terror. (I'll have to delete all this before she's old enough to read this blog!) But about 18months when she started throwing tantrums in the floor, screaming NO at me and making demands... I thought we were doomed. And truly it's just been the last 6 months or so that I've realized we're gonna be fine. She's a super loving young lady with a big heart.

I love watching her at gymnastics. She is SO good in class, follows directions, waits her turn patiently, and works so hard to impress her coaches. It's such a relief for me to watch her being so well behaved!

So even when she has her terrible bratty moments, at least I know she knows how to behave when she's supposed to! I'll just keep praying everyday that God will show me how to be a good mom for her.

work wives

What do you call a fairy that doesn't bathe?

Stinkerbell!

ha ha ha

(C'mon....I teach middle schoolers all day!)

Just wanted to share a few pics of what keeps me busy at my 9 to 5 (well actually 7:15-3:00) every day.

It's hard to believe this is my tenth year doing this! You'd think I'd know what I was doing by now. :)

I really do have a great job and if I have to be away from my girls all day, I'm glad it's doing something I truly enjoy!

This year I have a terrific group of students to work with. Of course I have a handful of unruly kiddos that like to test my breaking point, but overall this has been a wonderful year so far.

It's crazy how much becoming a parent has changed my outlook on teaching. Sometimes when I get frustrated with a trouble maker, I try to remember that student is some mama's baby, too. :)

But the true reason I keep my sanity at school is because of my 'work wives': Kate, Shannon, and Mel! These three lovely ladies are my fellow fine art teachers in our school, my lunch buddies, mommies of toddlers, and totally 'get' me. I am so lucky to have these girls as coworkers and friends!

Why doesn't Dracula have any friends?

He's a pain in the neck.

Mwaah ha ha!

audrie birthday round two

 With all the snow the past couple weeks we had to postpone Audrie's birthday celebration with Jamie's side of the family. But finally last weekend we went to Green Forest to Donna's house. Audrie was excited! (And I'm sure very confused about when her birthday really is.)

She loves going to Grandma Cornett's house.

Annie was a little more unsure.

But after a few minutes playing shy in Grandma's lap she was ready to go.

Everyone wanted to see Annie walk and tried hard to get her to show off.

Larry even shook his keys at her, but she was being kind of particular about who she walked to.

She was a cutey though!

I'm sure Audrie was wondering why Annie was stealing the show. :)

But Audrie was excited everytime someone showed up with a present for her!

It's always fun to see how many people we can fit into Donna's house. :)

Cute little boy, Jess.

Jamie ordered a ton of pizza for everyone.

After lunch Audrie was ready to dig into her cake.

We ordered this cake from a bakery in Springdale, Shelby Lynn's, and it was cute and tasty. Chocolate cake with cookies-n-creme filling. Yum!

Audrie had a big crowd singing to her. It was so sweet of Jamie's family to all get together just for Audrie.

She is a pro at blowing out candles now. (Especially because whenever Audrie plays make believe it usually involves a birthday party for someone.)

Then she opened presents and got so many wonderful gifts from everyone.

Audrie loved each one she opened!

She got a cute little purse to keep the money from her birthday cards. And I have to tell you that when we got home Jamie gave Audrie ONE dollar to keep in her purse and the other $40 he made her put in her piggy bank- which he deposits in her savings account every couple months. He's such a finance major. :)

Donna got Audrie a Sit-n-Spin and it was lots of fun.

Dylan had to show Audrie how to get it going fast.

It was a fun afternoon in Green Forest!

Thank you to Jamie's family for helping make Audrie feel so special and loved!

the big snow

Here are my photos from the major snowstorm that hit last week. I knew I wanted to capture of few photos of this historic snowfall because who knows if we'll ever see this much snow again! The news said we got about 20-25 inches in our area. It was crazy!

Here is a photo our neighbor, Stuart, took of our house the morning that the snow was coming down.

 There was a beautiful frost on the trees when it finally stopped snowing.

 After the sun came out, and Annie was napping, Audrie and I went out to check it all out. (Jamie actually drove to work. Crazy boy! He had to be pretty desperate to not be snowed in with us girls. Too bad his office made him go home a few hours later. ha!)

 Audrie tried to walk in the snow but it was more like swimming!

 She kept losing a boot or a glove in the snow so we didn't stay out too long.

 But Audrie actually had a good time out there.

 I was kind of nervous that one of these huge icicles was going to snap off and do some damage.

 And remember the snowman we built? Here he is....!

 The snow on our back porch was amazing. I was wondering if there was a weight limit on our deck!

 Here is Audrie's playhouse buried in snow.

 Even the baby swing was loaded down.

 You can sort of see in this next photo how much snow our neighbors had to shovel in their driveway. I actually borrowed their snow shovel and shoveled our entire driveway and walkway, too! I had never done that before and it was kind of fun!

All the snow this winter has racked us up 10 missed days of school, so as of now we are going to school until June 13th. I really hope we don't get any more snow! I've never celebrated my birthday (June 18th) at school before and hopefully I won't have to this year.