Kids Beach Photo Session or Whatever You Want To Call It!

I have no idea why I put myself or these kids through a beach photo session.  Every year someone cries, jumps in the water and/or yells.  There is really no way to make it through a photo session with these kids peacefully!  To make matters worse this year, my dear husband had just had his first ever Monster drink and was wilder than usual.  So he sure didn't help matters by standing behind me dancing or acting crazy while the kids looked past me and at him.  I'm pretty sure every one else on the beach was looking at him too!

Before the stress began, we found someone on the beach to take our picture! One thing that Monster drink did do for me.....a tiny little smile from my husband (the man that never smiles in pictures)!

 Then the fun begins!!!!

 Why are you two not looking at the camera????

 Um what is with Ry's silly smile and Teg once again not looking at me?!?!?!?

 It all goes down hill from here!

 No...I don't want your shorts to be try for the picture!

 Tegan, you are not a superhero so stop standing like that!

 PLEASE ACT RIGHT!!!!!!

 Ry....why are you smiling that way???

 I'm about the kill your daddy who is standing behind me making you laugh!

 Wait...was this a good one before Teg got his shorts soaking wet??

I like it!

 Just when you think all hope is lost, you pull them up on the computer and see that you got a few that make your heart happy and all the grief worth it!

 Love her to pieces!

 I just decided that these wet shorts on this boy are part of his personality!  Being wild is part of who he is....not matter how much it exhaust me:)

 There it is!!!!  That precious melt my heart look!  This look is why he is rotten!

 No one (but their daddy) can make me so mad but yet feel so blessed at the same time!

 She really is this sweet!

I have no idea why I have never taken pictures on the beach under the pier before but I think it is my new favorite spot.  We have a tradition of walking on this same pier at least one night at the beach. So from now on I am going to get a two for one....pictures on the beach and a nice walk (or run if you are with Tegan) on the pier:)

I got to take pictures of memories that I will always keep and I am pretty sure my kids will always remember me as the crazy lady on the beach forcing them to do this!

Don't forget to look below....I have updated the blog twice in less that 24 hours!  That is a record for my pattern lately!

Myrtle Beach Bums 2013!!!

We wasted no time going on summer vacation this year.  Kids were only out of school for a couple of days before we headed to the beach.  I said we were going to go somewhere other than Myrtle Beach this year but in the end, we went with what we are use to.  We love Myrtle.  We know where all the good places to eat are and all the fun stuff to do is. 

I had a few moments where I had to secretly push down some anxiety attacks but that is a different blog post.  We had a great vacation and made lots of great memories!

 

Most of these pictures aren't great quality b/c I took a lot of them on my phone this year.

This is going to be picture overload but here you go....

 

 In the picture below....we saw this sign and had to have a picture.  This is Rylee's motto about life!

She had on her DRAMA hat for the majority of the trip.

Me with my sweetheart! It amazes me how different I look from one picture to the next....one second I look like a kid and the next a grown up.

This is Chrissy, one of my friends.  Her and her husband just happen to be on vacation the same week as us and we stayed at the same place.  Tegan fell in love with her.  He has always known her but for some reason, he decided that she would be the love of his life.  I think he is trying to prepare me to let go of him in the future:)  The funny thing was that after they took this picture below, we got in separate cars to go eat and he said "now Chrissy can always look at that picture on her phone".   Like he was so excited for her b/c she would always be able to look at that picture of them together.

He didn't want anyone walking beside her.  At one point she was having to hold her husband's hand and his....I think the boys were jealous of each other:)  He wanted to go home with her!  It was really sweet.  It takes a lot to connect with Tegan.  He doesn't really have a connection with anyone out side of our house except his friend Kailey but he really connected with Chrissy and thinks she is the best thing ever!

Also on vacation the same week as us and staying at the same place was my older brother, his wife and 2 kids.  The kids loved getting to play with their cousins (and their uncle as you can see from the picture).  It was fun for me to watch them enjoying each other so much!  

 One night Tegan took vacation to a whole different level (insert anxiety) when he wet the bed.  This came out of no where b/c he hasn't wet the bed in forever but he said he was dreaming about peeing:)  Ha!  Anyways, do you know what it is like when a kid wets the bed at the beach at 4:00 in the morning and you have no extra sheets???  I changed him in the dark and we totally got his pajamas all wrong.  Side note....yes I was tired so I may of just threw a towel over the wet spot and made him lay in it.  This picture below is the next morning....he was enjoying the view while eating his cereal with his pajamas on backwards....tops and bottoms!

 Sad attempt at a selfie with my ancient phone!

 We have taken a picture of the kids in this chair for the past three summers.  At some point when it isn't the middle of the night, I am going to find the other two pictures and compare how much they have changed!

 Tegan kept basically trying to overthrow himself off the pier so my husband was in panic mode and just held him like this the whole time.  I was thankful too when we saw a very large shark swimming around the pier....not a baby, a big one!

 I think they got tired???

 My sweet family! 

 I hope we always get to take great family vacations together.  Rylee says that even when they are grown with families, she hopes we always go on vacation together.  Her daddy says no, we are going alone but I know that me and Rylee will find a way to get what we want:)

I am saving the "photo session" pictures for their own post.  All the stress I had getting those pictures makes it deserve its own post.

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

What a difference!!!!

Well it is happening whether I like it or not....these kids are growing up! 

Today was the last day of kindergarten for my boy and 4th grade for my girl.  I honestly can not believe that I will never have a child in kindergarten again:(

I took last day of school pictures of them this morning and put them side by side with their first day of school pictures.  It really shows how much they changed in such a sort time and how fast the days are going by.

I didn't really think Rylee had changed much this year until I saw her 1st and last days side by side.  Wow....even her little face looks more grown up:(  She is changing so much everyday!  She had a great school year.  She got two awards at school this year....one for exceeding in all areas of the CRCT (with a perfect score in reading) and she also got the reading award for her whole class. I think it is safe to say that she grew right up on me this year:(

Looking at Teg's 1st and last days pics may of heart my heart a little.  His cheeks and hands were still so chubby at the beginning of the school year but not so much now.  He has gotten a lot taller and slim.  See the wood going behind his head in the second picture, he is standing on the same screened in porch for his 1st day picture and you can't even see that board....it really shows how much taller he got this year.  He had a pretty good year in kindergarten.  He is a busy little boy and luckily he had a great set of teachers with more patience than me.  He learned all of his sight words this year which is a pretty big deal! 

I honestly am in shock that next year will be Rylee's last year of elementary school and that Teg will be in 1st grade!  I just don't know where the time is going.

Oh and just to let you know, Teg's hair looked way out of control in his last day of school picture.  Plus I thought it made him look more grown up and possibly a little redneck and since I didn't like that, I took matters in to my own hands:)
My husband always cuts his hair but he hasn't had any free time to cut it lately so I found the clippers and did it myself....

Ahhh.....I felt like I got a tiny piece of my baby back!!!

Well I guess this means it is officially summer time! 
Let the fun begin!!!

Where in the world is she????

I can not believe how long it has been since I last updated.  To say that things have been crazy are an understatement.  Business at Cohen Lane has been so crazy that I am at this computer probably about ten hours out of every day and when I do have down time, typing on the computer is the last place I want to be.

I have had to let some stuff fall by the way side and since my family still requires time of me for some reason, the blog and house cleaning have been the first two things to go.

If you don't follow me on instagram (tabatham8) yet, you probably should b/c that seems like the easiest way to keep things posted.  

Here is a recap from the past six weeks.....

 In case you forgot, this is what I look like:)

Me and this sweet man celebrated 12 wonderful years of marriage.  I still can't figure out how I am old enough to be married for 12 years....the only explanation is that I got married when I was ten:) 

 We had what felt like a never ending T-ball season.  I love watching him hit the ball, run the bases, play in the dirt, watch the birds, climb the dug out fence, etc.  This was my little man's last year in T-ball.  He will move on up to coaches pitch next year.

Rylee has been having lots of fun in her dance class.  This year she joined a great Christian based dance school and is taking jazz and tap.  I have never seen her be so excited about an activity as she is this dance class.

 Dance picture day!

We enjoyed a Sunday watching my husband's beloved Braves win some baseball.

 He is thrilled to have his picture made!

We had a great Easter with these two cutie pies!

My dear husband requested that I let him skip the Easter pictures this year.  

He hates having his picture made!  So the kiddos and I took a few without him!

My little business has recently started printing invites.  It isn't a well known thing yet but if someone ask and request it, I am happy to print them.  This has been what has made things a little more busy.  I am hoping by the end of the summer to launch a full website of printed invite options.  Something about seeing my invitation designs printed out on paper just makes me giddy with excitement.

 Most of our spring here in Georgia has either been cold, windy or rainy but we managed to catch a few days to run around outside in flip flops and shorts while having a water fight.  

They mean business!

 I was (probably still am) a horrible test taker in school.  I got anxiety like you wouldn't believe and pretty much felt like throwing up through all my test but my Rylee has this down pat!  For the second year in a row she exceeded in all areas on the CRCT and got another perfect reading score.

 Sweet little Jack has become a part of the family.  He was so cute and fuzzy but I got a wild hair one day and took him to have all his hair buzzed off.  None of us have been the same since.  Poor fella.  I probably won't be doing that again any time soon:(

Before his cut....

 You can't really tell in this picture b/c he was so mad at me and wouldn't look at me for 3 days!

After the cut....

 I am a huge believer in the fact that you don't get your own Mother's Day as long as you are blessed to still have your mama with you but things just worked out different this year.  My mom wanted to go to lunch on the Friday before Mother's Day and my mother-in-law wanted to go to dinner on that Saturday night.  That left Sunday open for me and for the first time since becoming a mommy ten years ago, I got my own Mother's Day.  I would be telling a story if I didn't say that I really enjoyed it!  My husband and babies woke me up early and took me to a great place heading in to the mountains for an amazing breakfast at a place called the Dillard house.  Then we headed to the little town of Helen and spent the rest of the day walking through shops, eating ice cream for lunch and enjoying the river.  The kids even washed my car when we got home! It was a great Mother's Day....I am so blessed to have these two love me so much!

 Mountains in the background.....Tegan has never been to the mountains and was amazed.  He is going to be super excited when we take a four day mountain trip later in the summer. 

 I made a point to make sure Rylee took a picture or two of me on my cell phone so that they would know that I was actually with them on Mother's day:)  I am always behind the camera!

 Tegan made me this cute little hand towel in kindergarten.  I am already missing Rylee making me things at school (she is too old for all that) but she did write me a super sweet letter that almost made me cry!

Tegan has a hard time at school.  He is way too busy to sit still and learn but I am super proud of him for finally getting all his sight words for this year.  It has been a battle for sure and if it weren't for my husband finally taking over that job and helping him out, he still wouldn't know any of them.  Me and Tegan would fight over these every day but he would sit right down with his daddy and do them.  I do have to take credit for the last 70 words though, Paul was working a side job and didn't get to help him much so I was forced to figure out how to make him set still and learn them.  Super proud of this! 

That just about catches you up!  If I'm not running to t-ball, dance, the school, grocery store or any of the above stuff, I have been sitting right here in front of this computer working my tail off on my business.  

No worries though....sand, sun and the ocean are in my very near future!!!!