Pictures – The P’s

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.  – Dr. Seuss

Life is a vapor. It appears for a little time, then vanishes away. And I tell you! Life with kids seems even more of a vapor as you can almost weekly measure their growth and their changes. Little munchkins are meant to steadily grow, constantly developing their bodies and their minds. It means they are healthy! (I keep telling myself that as a consolation.)

I would probably label myself as “emotional” when it comes to looking back over the years, particularly those years which include one, two, or all three of my peanuts. Memories of their younger days are bitter/sweet for me. They make me long for those days, sounds, smells, and moments and marvel that the days and years sped by so quickly. Yet, at the same time, the memories fill my heart with so much joy that sometimes my eyes and heart burst at the same time and there is a fountain of waterworks. I’m thinking of my dear friend and cousin, Mandi, right now. She has a heart of gold and she knows the “leaking-eyes-syndrome” in regards to aging kids and stages.

The things that probably bring these precious memories to life for me are:

 A picture is worth a thousand words, but the memories are priceless.

Marching forward with the P’s of Mommying series, PICTURES is next on the list.  My husband and I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with pictures. Mostly we love them. But, sometimes we hate them. Well, maybe not hate the pictures themselves, but more the organizing of the 40,000+ we have accumulated in the last 15 years. He has been very helpful and amazing with getting all the digital ones all in one place and backed up. (Thank you, babe!) Word of advise: develop a quick, easy way to store your unprinted pictures!

Pictures mean something to me and this word made it as a “P” on my mommying list because I have really enjoyed family photos for as long as I can remember. There is something special about going back and letting your mind wander to the events found on the image. It’s even more fun to sit and look at the pictures with someone and share the memories together. I wanted to have this experience with my kids and about each of their lives, so I have tried taking a photo or quick video of them as often as possible from the time my first son was born.

Here are a couple of ideas we do with our pictures:

• Each child has a baby book. These were at the hospital when they were born to be hand and foot printed, guest-signed, and the family tree pages filled out. From there, we added a few pictures and memories about their firsts.
• Each child has a photo book of pictures from their first year of life. (My youngest is 6 and truth be told, hers is still a work-in-progress.) This book has pictures of their first home and room, then just a progression of baby pictures from newborn to their first birthday.
• We have an annual Christmas photo book. For every Christmas since we have been married, we print the pictures from the holiday, label them, and put each Christmas in its own photo album. These get stored away with our Christmas decorations and pulled out each December. It’s been a fun way to reminiscence with the kids.
• 3-inch mini photo books – I make one for each child every year and it is one of their Christmas presents. Each book contains 24 pictures of them from the previous year.
• Family calendars. These include photos from the previous year of each of us, from my parents, to my siblings and their spouses, to each of our kids. This happens to be the Christmas present that both sets of our parents and our siblings receive for Christmas every year.
• Photo books for different occasions. My husband has made me several over the years and these are very special to me. They sit on our bookshelves in the living room and the kids like to randomly pull them out and look them. I cherish the times we’ve sat together pouring over these books.

Scrapbooking is admirable for those who do it! One of my sisters does one photo book for each child every year, which is a wonderful idea! My other sister recently shared with me that she takes the cute sayings her son expresses and adds them as a note in her phone. She later prints the sayings and sticks the pages in his baby book, which is another fabulous idea. My sister-in-law is a photographer and we are super thankful for her skill in taking all the special photos we blow up, turn into canvases, and hang on our wall!

Taking snapshots of your children really doesn’t take a lot of time. Organizing them, storing them, then printing them or creating something does take a little extra work. But, I believe it’s a labor of love that the family can treasure. 

Are having pictures of your kids and special events important to you? What do you do with the photos you take of your kids? Do you have a good, organized system for the accumulated pictures?

this is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it

(Psalms 118:24)