The Steiner Life: Mom Heart Conference

Last weekend one of my very best friends, Andrea, and my wonderful new friend, Amanda, came into town to attend the Mom Heart Conference here in Dallas. On our way to the first day of the conference, we stopped to eat the Rainforest Cafe, since most of us hadn't been there before! So fun! The boys will LOVE it someday!!

(Sorry about the terrible quality iphone pictures!)

Marina (a student that lives with Amanda), Amanda, Andrea, Me
(No, we didn't eat at the bar... we just liked the stools!)

In front of the amazing aquariums

Andrea is an amazing photographer with her own business out in California (When Time Stood Still), so she took a few great pictures as the conference with her fancy camera that she shared with me... so much better than an iphone!!

Andrea and I have been friends since 6th grade, and I'm so incredibly blessed to have her in my life! She inspires me to be a better woman, is an amazing example of a patient and loving wife, and has given me so much encouragement in being a mom. She has two precious boys and a beautiful baby girl, and she is the kind of person who I'd love to be like when I grow up! =)

Amanda is my new friend, but an old college friend of Andrea's. I've heard so many amazing things about her through the years, and I'm so glad that I finally got to meet her! She is an incredible woman and I love her honest and straight-forward personality!

We all had such a wonderful time together, and I feel all came away with ways that we could go home and be better mommies!

At the conference

With Kat, one of the women who has an incredibly
encouraging mom blog!

With my beautiful friend!

The conference notebook--full of wisdom

It was amazing, refreshing, encouraging, motivating, and challenging all at the same time. Sally Clarkson, a woman that I hadn't heard of before this, is now one of the women I look to for encouragement as a mom. She and her husband Clay have been doing these Mom Heart conferences for 15 years, and they have a passion for encouraging, equipping, and training moms as we raise our children for the Lord. I can't tell you how much her message spoke to my heart... I've always known I was meant to be a mom, and I'm loving every single moment. But it was so encouraging to be in a room with 800 other moms, knowing that all they want are to be moms who love their kids and desire nothing but to raise them to love and follow Jesus! Ahh... filled me up!

If you too have a desire to grow as a mommy, check out Sally Clarkson, or any of the blogs on my sidebar under "Christian Mothering". (I'm reading Sally's book "The Mission of Motherhood" and it is amazing.) One is Sally's blog (which she is starting a Mom Heart blog soon...I'm so excited!), and some are blogs of other moms who spoke at the conference. Can you tell that this was a life-changing weekend for me in my mommy-hood journey?!

I copied these off of a blog of one of the speakers, since she took the time to compile them before I did...

Wow. So good... and there was so much more! Thank you Andrea, for knowing about Sally, finding this conference, and coming out here to let me soak it in with you!

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And, since she was at my house with her incredible camera, she was so kind to take some amazing pictures of our cutie-pies!!