Having pictures has always been something that’s important to me. As I was watching “Bringing Up Bates” the other day, I saw Erin and Chad taking a cute little family picture in the snow and got to thinking about how we keep our memories. I have a lot of memories from when I was a child. Some that I know I remember and some that I think I remember simply because I’ve seen the pictures so many times and heard the stories or seen the home videos. I loved watching home videos as a kid. 
So here’s my beef- I’m tired of people complaining about other’s selfies. I love selfies. If you look at my blog, instagram, or facebook, you’ll see that I don’t even have that many posted, but I do take them, because for most of us, if we don’t take it, who will? I know some bloggers seem to have an invisible professional photographer who follows them around and catches all these cute moments of them of their kids but most of us don’t have that luxury. For some of us, if we don’t take the selfie, then there won’t be pictures of us with our kids, or pictures of us having fun in our 20’s or whatever it is. I know looking back at photos from years gone by that there isn’t a single one that I wish hadn’t been taken ( I mean, sure, sometimes I wish it had been taken from a better angle or that the camera made you lose twenty pounds haha) but I’m so glad they’re there. The point is, we have to capture those moments that count. Even the little moments become so special when we can look back on them.
When Sawyer was a baby, he had colic for 9 months. Being a photographer, I couldn’t wait to take pictures of my adorable little baby and then I ended up hardly taking any because he was just always crying. The few that I took I thought I looked so bad in at the time and now, four years later, I cherish those pictures, even though most of them are just grainy cell phone pics, because they are the only ones I have and they captured my little guys cute babyhood as best I could.
Little moments- a Mommy/Son date, trips to Home Depot, the casual backyard playing, those end up being my favorite pictures years down the road because they really capture the essence of who our family is. Watching “Bringing Up Bates” I see so moments that they did such a great job of making special and capturing like shopping for Michaella’s wedding dress, working with their Dad, or their cute family playing in the snow.
You’ll never capture those moments forever if you don’t break out the cell phone. Here’s one I took the other day of Ford sleeping on me, and now it’s one of my favorite pictures. 
To see the next “Bringing Up Bates” family moments captured, tune in to UPtv Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET for the newest episode. I’ll be watching along as they make more family memories!
This post is brought to you by UP, but thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thanks for sharing! I agree that there is a lot of selfie-shaming out there. I always feel a little embarrassed taking a selfie even though I know we all do it. That pic of Ford sleeping is truly the cutest. I really need to start remembering to take out the cell phone and document!