Pictures

I have been really horrible about getting pictures of Livy and Jackson. But I am determined to be better about it. One night when Ben was gone last week, I was getting into bed and I started looking at all the framed pictures on my dresser. The ones of Livy are when she was 6 or 7 months old. I started really looking at her and trying to remember her at that age. And I felt like I couldn't. Thankfully I have a great friend, Donna. She is so amazing with my kids. (Again, one of the many benefits of coaching. Meeting awesome people.) When Livy was young, she watched Brooke and Livy a lot. Her and her girls watched them for 9 days when we went on a cruise. And she took lots of pictures of them. I am so thankful. Because that night when I felt like I couldn't really remember livy, I went to the family room and I pulled out two small albums that Donna had given me. They were all the pictures she had taken of my girls. I loved it.
But it also made me think about my ability to keep a "journal" or "baby book" of my kids. So I am more determined to get regular pictures-even if they aren't that great and put them in an album. It is not going to be a beautiful scrapbooked album. Just an album that I can slide an 8x10 into and put the date and age of my kids. That is something I can do.
So I started today. I went and got pictures at JCPenney (love the 3.99 coupons and free sitting fee). It was such an enjoyable experience compared to 10 months ago with just livy and jackson. Last time we went Livy cried the whole time and we didn't get one picture. Jackson (he was only 6 weeks old) as always was a champ, not crying, but no smiling either. This time the kids did great, for the first round of all three of them together. But, the photographer didn't get one good picture of all three of them...but I didn't care. At least I have an 8x10 to put in that album. Brooke and Jackson were awesome, but Livy wouldn't do any of her just by herself. But she has some pretty cute "cheesy" smiles when it was all three kids. I'm patting myself on the back for getting them all there. They all looked adorable. And I am not worrying about the fact that there isn't one of them all looking and smiling. (Instead I ordered one small picture of all three of them and I am going to put it together and write...this is real life. We rarely get all of them being good at the same time.)