MOPS SUMMER PLAYDATES

Please join us for a monthly summer playdate!! We will also be accepting memberships at these playdates. Please click the JOIN NOW tab above for more information on 2013-2014 membership.

See you there!!

**In case of rain-we will be meeting at McDonald's Playland on the west side.**

Nutrition

During our February meeting, we did a survey for all of you MOMS. Based on the results, we scheduled the remainder of our meetings on the things you would like to get out of MOPS. Nutrition was the most popular request. At yesterday's meeting, we had the pleasure of having Bonnie Schnautz as a guest speaker. She is a certified health practitioner here in Evansville. She discussed healthy meals & kids snacks on the go. There were a lot of eye openers for us moms at this meeting. Especially seeing Bonnie's "unhappy meal"....which was a 4 year old hamburger from one of those restaurants we've probably all been to.... The frightening thing was-her hamburger in her sealed container was 4 years old. It looked maybe a week old! YIKES!

What ARE we putting into our bodies & what type of effect is it having on not only our health, but our children's health?  Please check out Bonnie's Facebook page HERE where she provides useful nutritional information/tips.

Bonnie provides private consultations for those looking for natural options for their health as well as various group coaching programs. Please feel free to contact her.

We would like to congratulate 2 of our MOPS moms! They will be welcoming baby girls into their families soon! We can't wait to meet them!! :) 

All About Love

When you think of the month of February...you think about- LOVE. Right? Well, our steering team thought it would be appropriate to discuss The 5 Love Languages this month. A few of us just finished this book along with our husbands in our church small group - it was a huge success.  (to be honest-a couple of the husbands were skeptics and didn't want to read the book in our small group-but once they gave in and did....they were so thankful for doing so!) EVERYONE can benefit from reading this book from dating couples, newly weds, couples having problems or couples that have a great marriage. Every person can learn something from this book!

If you weren't able to attend yesterday's meeting-please consider going to the website HERE and taking a very short quiz. Have your spouse take the same quiz. Once you get your results-you will then know your love language. Click HERE to read a brief description of your love language. Obviously, the book goes into much greater detail on each of the love languages.

Falling in love is easy. Maintaining healthy relationships is a daily, lifelong pursuit. But it doesn’t have to be that hard. Once you know your “love language,” you’ll understand why some attempts at romance work while others fall flat. Dr. Gary Chapman’s perennialNew York Times bestseller, The 5 Love Languages® is full of “Aha!” moments that make expressing love easier and more desirable. You’ll find yourself more motivated and more confident that you can succeed in having the relationships you've always wanted.More than 8 million copies sold!

We highly recommend you and your spouse reading the book. I admit, I am not one who enjoys "reading"...gasp...I know...but I actually read this book in 2 evenings after my kids had gone to bed. My husband read it fast too- it's a really easy read. Amazon has the book for less than $10.00 HERE or I bet you could rent it at the library. :) They also describe love languages for your kids! That's right, they have their own love language too! I have not read the book yet for the kids-but based on what I learned from reading the book for adults-I already know what my kids love languages are...and they are both different. It's really neat how this book has opened my eyes in not only a new way for my marriage but for my parenting as well!

Words Of Affirmation, Acts Of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Receiving Gifts

Which love language are you?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Holly K. Dunn-Stories of Survival & Success

We had the pleasure of having Holly K. Dunn Pendleton as our guest speaker this month. Holly is also one of our coordinators for MOPS! 

For those of you that missed this month's meeting, Holly gave a very emotional & inspiring talk today about her story. She is the only known survivor of the Railroad serial killer. She has been featured in People & Glamour magazine as well as an interview on 48 hours. Her testimony was powerful to just how awesome our God is. She just wants to spread awareness to others. If you would like to learn more about her please check out her  website or find her on Facebook here.

Thank you so much Holly for touching our lives yesterday at the meeting. You are an amazing woman & I am proud to call you a friend!

MOPS Moms Shop & Give For Those In Need

At our December meeting we discussed TRADITIONS....and FAMILY....It was SOOO neat to hear all of the different and similar traditions people do during the Christmas season. We also took cash donations from our MOPS moms. 100% of all the money we collected went to provide a Christmas for a family in need via Holly's House. We were able to purchase clothing, diapers, toys & a WalMart gift card for the caregiver of all of the children. 

We began the night with a MOPS MOMS night out starting with dinner. Then we were off to Kohls and Walmart shopping away/marking off the items on the family's wish list. It was a great evening!!!

About a week after we shopped for the family in need-We wrapped up all of the gifts and a few of us went to Holly's house with our children to drop off the gifts. We did not get to meet the family in need-which is ok. It was a great experience for our children to understand the TRUE meaning of Christmas and it is always better to GIVE than to receive!

 Holly Dunn-Pendleton (The founder of Holly's House) Left, Holly Wildt, Leisa Hape & Sara Cape (right) with all of our children to drop off the gifts.

A special thanks to ALL of you were able to donate for this and if you weren't able to- thank you for praying for this family in need. We gave those 3 children and grandparents a Christmas they will never forget! You all have amazing giving hearts!! 

Merry Christmas!

Kick Off Meeting!

It's all about FRIENDSHIPS!!!! So very important to every mom-to have FRIENDS! This was our topic for our kick off meeting! How appropriate...right? We got to meet so many new moms today-it was awesome! I see some lifelong friendships being made in this group!

We ended the meeting with a super fun craft! After all, how often as a mom, do we get to actually sit down and work on something for us...uninterrupted...start to finish? Rare! Right? :) Rachel & Michelle (crafts team) did a fantastic job picking out this beautiful bracelet for us to make! It was a lot of fun & we had a pretty finished product!

Thank you to ALL that came to our kick off meeting yesterday! We are already looking forward to December's meeting! We have a lot of fun stuff planned!

Pre-Registration Playdate FUN!

We had fantastic weather for our 2 pre registration play dates! We had a terrific turn out and we are really excited for our first meeting to happen in November!!! Below are some pics of just a few of the sweet kids from our playdate!