Its the Little Things in Life

It was hard to come into work this morning. Not because I hate my new job. In fact I really like it and I grow to like it more and more each day. But this morning I wanted to stay home. I wanted my weekend to continue just a little longer. It was mothers day weekend and it couldn’t have been more special. Its been over a year and half since I was diagnosed with IBC. I know your wondering how in the world I can make mothers day about cancer. Well in the weeks leading up to my diagnosis and the many weeks that followed I realized we didn’t have a single family photo on the wall. I don’t mean that we didn’t have a recent one of all five of us. I mean we didn’t have a single one of Shawn and I with any of our children.  I have tons of the girls now but still none of us with our kids. I realized back then that life was too short and we needed to take more photos of our family. I can’t believe I let all of this time pass and still not have a family photo taken. We have talked about it often but something always got in the way of us actually doing it. Last year I remember wondering if I didn’t beat the cancer if my girls would remember our family the way it is. Would they remember me? It broke my heart knowing that I might leave them behind without a single family picture. Somehow we have managed to go almost another two years without a family photo. I realized this again recently. I have been determined to live life to its fullest and yet still haven’t stopped to take the time and do a family picture. Its time for that to change. I want the wall of our house to be full of pictures of our family. 

 I love taking photos of people and for people. I love helping them capture memories of their family that will last forever and that’s what I wanted for mothers day. Our own family pictures. One that we could have printed and hang on our wall. I wanted something that would capture our family and our personalities. Years from now I want our children to be able to look back and remember how much fun we have. I want them to remember how close we all are. So armed with my camera, a tripod and a remote we set out to capture our family photo. It was a beautiful sunny day which happens to be the worst conditions to try and take a picture in but it was mothers day weekend and I knew this was my one and maybe only chance to get the family to cooperate. I was determined to make it work despite the bright conditions. It was also graduation weekend for MU which meant we had to find a new spot to do pictures. Everyone would be taking graduation pictures at the parks in town. There was a lot of complaining and whining and the girls were difficult too. In the end the family cooperated.  I will say that its much more difficult to do your own family pictures but I’m happy with it. At first I was frustrated that they weren’t perfect and then I remembered that’s part of the joy of our family. We aren’t perfect, we are each unique. Some of us are easily distracted and can’t seem to focus on looking in the direction of the camera, some of us like to play with our toes, some of us like to get really posey but when it comes down to it the whole family just likes to have fun. Its when I let go of the idea that they had to be perfect that our pictures came to life. I’m grateful to my family for making this little dream come true.The following are some of the pictures. This wasn't the only thing I got for mothers day but it was the best!