The Kids’ Birthday Bash!

I am almost a year entirely too late on this post, but… better late than never!!

You may have seen me post yesterday on Instagram about how I want to start being more intentional about using my camera more in my personal life. 98% of the photos I have of my kids, which are thousands upon thousands, are all taken on my phone. Which, let me just say I would much rather have phone photos than no photos, but it still bothers me that I don’t use my camera on me or my kids hardly at all.

My goal for 2020 is to be more present and only take my camera out to document moments here and there for a handful of minutes at a time. I don’t need to have it in my hand all day every day and risk not being fully present in the moments… but I want to start having more sharp images that perfectly reflect not only Skylar and Zakaree’s expressions, which change so so fast as they continue to grow, but also just having more bundled moments of the things we do as a family.

For example, yesterday my sister and brother-in-law took the kids skiing in the yard since we have the most perfect bunny hill! It was a lot of fun, and in just 10 minutes I snapped some of the most amazing portraits of them in action that just wouldn’t look the same on my phone.

I’m not saying everyone has to go out and get an expensive camera to document the little moments throughout their week or month. But for me, and who I am, and the career I have… I think it’s important for me to do that. I spend so much of my time documenting others and their families and lives, so the point of this rant is for me to say… it’s important for me to start doing it for me, too.

And, since I took the time to document my kids’ big birthday party last year, here it finally is!! I am a HUGE fan of throwing big birthdays. I remember watching home videos of me and my siblings birthday parties growing up and how many moments I loved looking back on. And, I love decorating and going all out so, last year we chose to combine their birthdays to form a Unicorn and Dinosaur themed party!! It was so much fun, and this year I have even more crazy ideas!! Spiderman and mermaids seem to be the theme they are going with so, hopefully by June I will have their blog up and not wait a full year to show everyone!!

xo – Jess