Preschool Graduation

I figure I need to get his one up before he starts 4K in a few weeks!!!

Chris and I headed to Cort's 3K graduation honestly just expecting a very small little presentation and we got way more then we expected. The 3 and 4 years old put on the cutest little program with several songs, complete with movements, rhythm sticks, and parent participation. Sweet little slide shows of each class made for a fun walk down memory lane and they all looked so cute and tiny standing on that big stage and receiving their diplomas.

Cort had a great year at Brushy Creek this year and just loves going to school. I am in complete denial that after one more prek graduation, my sweet boy will actually be going to kindergarten!!

So proud...


Friends...

Old MacDonald

Farm Day at School....

Mother's Day at Cort's School

So I can't even pretend to be a little bit caught up when I'm posting Mother's Day in July( almost August!!) I had a goal of getting caught up by the end of July - that's obviously not happening. I can't stand being so behind and I hate not posting about the daily things that I want to but oh well, I'll get back there I guess, and I care more about scrapbooking my sweet memories with my two sweet boys!!

Cort's class put on the cutest little mother's day event. I joined him in his class where they all sang us 4 or 5 ADORABLE songs. I was so sad not to have my video camera...I'll know for next year!! My two favorite were the ladybug song and "brown squirrel."

Cort had also drawn a portrait of me that said I deserved 1st place for playing with him. And that had a sheet of our "favorites" that the kids filled in themselves...apparently my favorite hobby is watching submarines!!

They had made sweet little potholders and butterflies out of dish clothes for us and gave them to us while we had cookies and juice. We hung around for a while to let the kids play on the playground after that.

It was all so sweet!!

Mickey Love

Our boys are serious about some Disney...

Cort's been to Disney World and seriously talks about the trip pretty much every day since we went( which was 9.5 months ago!!)/

And Cohen, while he's never been to Disney World, loves him some Mickey. I mean, he can pick him out from far across a store or on something really tiny. And when he comes on TV there is this specific excited noise that he makes, that makes us know he saw Mickey even if we didn't!!

And if he's on the floor, when Mickey is on the tv, here is where you'll find him....

You should know....

..you should know that one of my favorite things we did this summer was to visit our great friends Kelly and John for a quick over night trip at the beach....

...that Kelly is expecting her 1st sweet baby, a baby girl, for whom we have prayed for for a VERY long time...

...and that I could not be more thrilled!!

You should also also know that our little boys are total beach bums...

....they love it....

.... and make it really easy to snap 100's of pictures in a matter of minutes...


...and that try as I may, I am no professional photographer and don't own a good photo editing program( nor would i know how to use it!!)...

...on the beach in particular, I tend to not get the lighting right, and it takes me a while to find the right setting(if I ever do!!)...

...which brings me to another thing that you should really know about...



A friend of ours has started an online photo editing service where Mom's like me can send pictures of our kids( or something else i guess, if you ever felt like it!) that we love but that just aren't quite right and he'll edit them for you. He also has a ton of great photo taking advice, tips, lessons, etc that are really easy to follow. You should check it out.

Here's a few examples of what he did for me and my beach pictures from our visit with Kelly and John:
(unfortunately, the pictures wouldn't post side by side!!)


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And my personal favorites..you know that great picture you have of your kids but he/she has food, dirt, or *gasp* snot all over their face? Here's you answer....

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Here's a hand full of other pictures from the beach that I didn't get edited....

Beach Week '10

We have been truly blessed to get to go to the beach each year with one of our families. This year we spent a week in Ocean Isle, NC with my parents and with my sister, Michelle( and her family). All of our kids are little beach bums and while we talk of possibly going shopping one day, or to an aquarium, etc., we always pretty much just end up hitting the beach each morning and spending all day there. In fact Cort drew a book about our beach trip just the other day and over and over again he drew the beach and then our beach house, the beach and then out beach house bc basically that's what we did....to the beach and back to the house to eat dinner and sleep!!

Cohen LOVES wearing things like hats and sunglasses. And he loved this little bobber( baba) for some reason too!!

Papa and Cort having a water splashing war...

Cohen also LOVES the water, and he adored riding the waves in this boat.

What good is a beach trip without digging a huge hole in the sand?

A highlight of the trip is always the fishing and the crab catching on the dock with Papa - I'm not sure how I don't have many pictures of that this year!!! Cohen even caught his first fish!!! Here's Chandler and Cort checking out the crabs that Papa got out of the cage.

And this is what Cohen did anytime my sister even talked to him....

And here's the 2.5 seconds that he let her hold him without screaming....

In my sister's defense Cohen was going through a crazy( and I mean CRAZY) separation anxiety phase( as in lasted four months) where he really had nothing to do with anyone but me and would scream if I even looked away from him. ( I'm happy to report that the phase has sense pretty much ended and my life is MUCH easier now!!)

I had to post this picture because all week we talked about how dark Chandler was( she lives at the beach) and how white Cort was...in this picture we had just put on Cort's sunscreen( that natural kind that never rubs in!!) and the contrast just made us laugh....

back at the beach....

I love this one....

Cousins....

It was really fun for Cohen to be mobile on the beach this year....anytime we set him down he would immediately head to the water...

Cort was a lot more brave this year and even rode in some waves on a boogie board!!!

Love this little guy........

Chandler is completely fearless and would body surf and go out super deep with her Daddy!

The only time they all three sat still for more than 2 seconds...

There were millions of tiny minnows in the surf and Cort and Chandler both loved trying to catch them with their nets...

Taking boat rides in the canal was another favorite activity. This year the house we stayed in had a bunch of "beach toys" they let us use so we had 2 boats ( chris' and there's)

The whole trip was great. Cohen didn't sleep well but that's pretty typical when he's in the room with us. Cort and Chandler shared a room and loved that..they played together well and were sad to see the week come to an end. They of course, all enjoyed their time with their Grammie and PaPa and are never ready to leave them!!!( i don't know why this is blue!!)

We all enjoyed the week full of beach days, yummy food, bike rides, putt-putt, ice cream, reading on the porch, boat rides, and overall relaxation!!! Thanks Grammie and PaPa!!!


Click on older posts below to also see a few other beach pics from forth of July!!