Clicking Away

Over the weekend I was out playing with the girls, we were painting the sidewalk, using the plastic baseball tee, learning hopscotch, running around and just really enjoying the day.  Of course I was snapping away in my camera making sure to capture as many of their little smiles as I could.  It has always broken my heart that there aren't many pictures of me and the girls, I've asked Will to take some but he doesn't see a need to many pictures.  When my dad died it was devastating to realize that he was always behind the camera and pictures with him were few and far between.  This is why I've tried to be in as many pictures with them as possible, even when I felt 100% uncamera-ready (it's a word, I promise).

This weekend I remembered the best camera accessory I've even purchased, my remote!

Seriously, I picked this thing up from Amazon for around $5, I used it a little last year but it kind of just hung out in my camera bag forgotten for the past year.  First I took some posed shots with the girls because I don't remember when we last did that in a nonselfie way.

They didn't all work out...

But I did capture one that is just perfect...

...from TC smirk to Addie's bord messy face - it captures my girls' personalities at this moment.  (And this is why I will be using this picture for pretty much everything all summer.)

I set my camera up in a few places, set it on a 2 second delay and played as normal.

Sure I felt a little silly but in the years to come I know I wont be thinking about how silly I felt doing this I will just be glad to have some pictures on my little girl so excited about painting that she kept begging me to get her more paint.

I know there are so many reasons not to be in the picture, from just being the one always behind the camera to not feeling comfortable at this weight/in this outfit/while my hair was a mess/no makeup/whatever the reason but I am encouraging you to turn that camera around.  I know it is because I lost my dad when I was 20 that I am so sensitive to this, I was robbed the opportunity to make up for lost time with him.  Our time on earth is not guaranteed, I want my girls to have everyday memories to look back on whenever my number is called.