On the town

I feel so sorry for my poor camera. I picture is as a toy from Toy Story. It's probably so happy after I use it all day, day after day. Then I get busy, or just down right lazy, and my camera gets sad and wonders if I still love it.

I'm on a mission to make my camera feel loved again! I took it with me on my outing with the girls today and this is what we came home with:

Since Paislee has started school again Harleigh and I get a lot of time together and we do take a lot of pictures. I feel a little bad that I have so many more pictures of her than Pais. Another reason to give my camera more lovin'.

Here are some Harleigh/Mama moments:

I'll never stop taking pictures of my girls... but my goal is to make my next post about other things. For example:

This is my new front door. Well, its my old door just painted red. It looked a little plain so I painted our name on the bottom. I hope to find a pretty fall wreath to put above it soon.

Happy Fall!



New Beginnings

First days, first days. This past week has been hectic, exciting, and a complete blur. I feel like the guy backstage, unseen, making sure everything goes off without a hitch.

Paislee started her second year of pre-school. Last year she only went two days a week but this year she's a big girl! She was pretty darn excited to get back to it.

Little Miss wasn't the only one starting a new chapter. William officially left his job of 5 years to serve his hometown as City Marshall!

Poor guy's got a lot on his plate and a huuuuge mess to clean up. I'm praying that with time he'll enjoy being chief as much as he enjoyed being a county deputy.

Yep, here's my man. <3

Last but not least, my beauuuuuutiful cousin, Sydney, got MARRIED! Both of the girls walked down the aisle along with Syd's gorgeous daughter, Avery.

 She was quite possibly the most stunning bride I've ever seen. Much happiness and love to Tony, Syndey, and baby Aves!



I'm sleepy. Here's some snapshots from the rest of the week.

Hot, hot, sizzling summer

Wow! It's stinking HOT outside! It's miserable to be in the sun for too long. The temperature only got up to 99 degrees today and I felt like it was a huge relief compared to the 112+ days we've been having. After 2 weeks of scorching heat I feel like I'm getting used to it.

The past weekend was amazing with good friends, great family, and the unusually hot but never disappointing county fair! Don't misunderstand, we didn't do anything spectacular... But I enjoyed my frozen cheesecake, shaved ice, roasted corn, and onion blossom just like every year. The heat didn't put a damper on the festivities like I thought it would.

The only downside was that it was a little too hot to carry around my heavy camera so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted.

I've been wanting to blog for about a week now but between the fair and working and haven't had  lot of time. So I made a little extra time to take the girls out for a sort of "photo shoot."

I don't mean to brag but, boy are they beautiful or what?? :)

I'm really excited for this fall! Not only am I looking forward to "light jacket" kind of weather, but I have the honor of shooting not one, but TWO sets of engagement pictures! I won't be getting paid much, in fact not at all for one and the other is against my will. Either way I am so honored to get to do so, I'm confident they'll turn out amazing!

I'm such a sucker for love...

Wet-n-wild birthday

I dropped the ball. The birthday party was amazing. It was a total success. We had a blast with so many friends and family and I got so caught up in the celebration that I forgot to take pictures! I got the most important stuff, but we won't be able to remember everyone who was there. That really bums me out.

 From the very beginning Paislee told everyone who asked that she wanted a mermaid costume. Not just any mermaid costume, a purple one! So,when her birthday rolled around, her birthday wish was granted.

These are the bare bones of Paislee's cupcake birthday cake!

And, of course, we did the traditional first birthday "cake smash!"

And, of course, Grandpa Bob was there to help!



Ye-haw

Harleigh's first birthday has come and gone. She is officially one year old. Normally, I would be saddened by this but we have yet to have her party! There is so much more "first" excitement to come! I can't wait to catch all of these memories in my camera!

Speaking of firsts... she got her very first goose egg on her forehead this afternoon. Poor gal.

This...

Quickly turned into... This.

Now, I had a hard time getting a good angle on this bump and I still didn't succeed in doing it justice... it's pretty huge.

Harleigh got a new sandbox for her birthday... with BLUE SAND! Yippee! She has so much fun playing in that thing, that I'll overlook the fact that the stinking sand is so fine it sticks to everything and makes a HUGE mess! :)

This is one of my favorite things about living in Podunk, USA!!

<3

A little bit of splish, a little bit of splash

With the recent happenings in the news I feel the need to show a little extra love to my girls. They are complete and total blessings to my life. I wouldn't feel whole without them and I pray I never lose them. Children bring such joy to this world, each one of them should be loved and protected like precious jewels. I believe 100% that one day, in a place far from here, they will be.

As promised I took my camera to the pool and captured some priceless moments.

 This picture is SO Harleigh. This is how she walks everywhere.

Such a priss. <3

Paislee and I made a special trip to the local snowcone stand. She had her little heart set on a PURPLE one! I got her regular ol' grape but she sure loved it.

The "snowcone experience" was a success!

Last but not least I am proud to announce that my littlest love bug is celebrating her very first birthday tomorrow!! This past year has FLOWN by and it couldn't have been any more enjoyable.

This momma is so in love with this baby girl!

Happy Birthday

Harleigh Rae Tatum!!

No time like summertime!

They say that time flies when you're having fun. Boy is it true! I started a new "job" a little over a month ago but it seems like closer to a week. I get to spend the hot summer days basking pool-side and swimming with my girls. I spent almost everyday at the pool last summer and I'm actually getting paid for it now... can't beat that! I plan on taking my camera to work over the next couple days to give a glimpse of how I'm spending my summer.

I haven't gotten my camera out since I started working so the following pictures are from Memorial weekend and the beginning of the summer.

We do two types of fishing when we camp during Memorial Weekend:

Pole fishing

... and trot line fishing

And this is his trophy!

Being caught on our trot line was not this guy's only problem

Breakfast of camping champions



Let me explain...

Over the weekend we used a four wheeler to get across to this other bank since the water was so shallow. This is typical mimicking by a child, also known as "monkey see, monkey do."

(This is a battery operated, child's four wheeler. It was not quite big enough to make it across.)

Grandpa Spencer

Here are some more random snapshots from May