Pics with Mommy

I take a lot of pictures.
An understatement perhaps.

One of the things I like to do with all those pictures is put together
family year-in-review scrapbooks, 
annual yearbooks.

I started this practice a few years ago and as I looked back through all the pictures I had taken that year-a lot of pictures- something become apparent-
I wasn't in very many of them. 



I wasn't the only one who noticed this phenomena. My husband and oldest child noticed too. Since then, the three of us together have become much more intentional about making sure mommy is in the pictures. Josh takes more of the pictures. Pellie is learning how to take pictures. I'm learning to turn loose of the camera.
And there is now much more proof that Mommy has been here all along;)

This one is by Pellie

It seems to fall naturally to mommies to be the primary family photographer, 
the family historian. 

So how do we make sure Mommy is in the pics too? 

In addition to getting more family-member-photographers involved, there is another solution, 
thank you modern technology- 
Enter the smart phone. The digital camera. The camera on your computer. Any camera really.

Grab your baby (whatever his or her age) and take your picture, 
the two (or more) of you together.

The pictures may not be perfect. They may not be "photo-shoot" quality. 

But Mommy will be in them. 

Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity.

You, the two of you, may not be in the perfect outfits and those outfits may not be that clean.
Know what? You can’t smell pictures:)

Your hair may look crazy.
 

This may be a no-makeup day. 

It’s Okay. Go for it anyway.

Grab your camera and head for the giant mirror in the bathroom. Or just sit anywhere and turn the camera around and point it at yourselves. Or use that handy reverse camera feature that some of the smart phones have. Or sit in front of the computer camera.
 
Or do what I did and grab a full-length mirror (one of the legs on this one broke. I just took them off & use it anyway), turn it on it’s side and have fun! It takes a bit of experimenting to get the angle right, and the baby might not want to be real still, but that’s okay (that's what the delete button is for).
 
The point is-just go ahead and do it!

(even if your phone ends up in the pictures & even if the mirror is not perfectly clean)

Or you could try a little video.

Whatever you do just don’t put it off.

The days fly by too fast.

Even though these days can seem sooooooo looooooong at times,
they are fleeting.

And I don’t want my kids to look back at the family photos and ask “Hey mom, where were you when I was little? And who took all these pictures?” 
 ---
I’d love to do another all-out photo shoot with our family one of these days
 (my sister took this shot of us last year)-like this gorgeous one over at Emily Sue’s-
and it would be fun to do a “What I Wore” like Mary Beth did today.

In the meantime though, I’ll keep taking pics of the everyday (most of them with my phone) and try to sneak in some Mommy & Me Pics occasionally.

Because these days are temporary and precious.
 
I never want to forget them. 

And I want proof that I was there ;)



A few extra notes-
Check out this post on HelloBee for some tips on taking self portraits with your children-Thanks Liz for showing me that post!

I did use PicMonkey to do a bit of editing to most of these pics. It doesn't take too long and you can add some fun "extras".

For my family year-in-review books, and other online digital scrapbooks, I really like Mixbook (who didn't pay me anything to say that, btw).

Also, if you do Pics with Mommy, or plan to, I'd love to know or see what you come up with if you're willing to share:)