Family Moments

I've decided to put into practice something that I've known for a while. In order to get better at photography, I have to keep taking pictures. Every day. I know this and yet I don't. I let myself get frustrated by my mediocre results and hang the camera up for another time. Or I give myself excuses that there's nothing 'picture worthy' going on so I should just wait until some big event comes along. Of course that's not true. My kids create beautiful moments constantly. So dag gone it, I'm going to capture them. (This goes along with another resolution to focus on those tiny moments that are so beautiful and pure and not get hung up on the frustrating things that seem so big.) So today's post is all about those little family moments that I treasure.

My family has been hanging around the house a lot lately. Literally.

Daddy's been reading more with the kids. I must admit that it is pretty exciting to hear them reading stories with more and more ease.

Taylor can be rather luke warm when it comes to Mark. So when she sat on the couch with him to peruse her new Squinkies Activity book, I ran for the camera.

This evolved into Taylor reading to Mark, and soon Charlie made his way to the couch for Taylor's story. It's so sweet when he feigns interest in Barbie and her adventures.

It melts my heart when I see my family sitting together sweetly.

Of course, with two boys in the mix, it's not long before it turns into this.

At least Mark tried to show Charlie how to put him in a headlock.

Nothing more to see here.

I did sneak the camera back out when I found us all in the loft together for the Bengals playoff game. It started out so promising with this touchdown.

Mark's face looked like this.

Of course we all know that before the end of the night it would look like this.

So I turned my camera on the other events in the room. The big kids were playing with Grandmama's ipad.

And Morgan was snuggling with Grandmama.

Lately I've been finding myself really appreciating the moments when we are all in the same room together. I guess it's because I know that the day is coming when it will be like pulling teeth to get all my kids to stay in the house on a Saturday afternoon, much less in the same room!

Then I'd miss moments like these.

Fast forward to Monday night. We decided to play a quick game of Uno after dinner.

Yes, I put my tripod up in the middle of the kitchen for this one. My family is doing a great job of tolerating my increased shutter clicks. It's a good thing, because my camera's not going away anytime soon!

We were so proud of both the kids. There was no crying or whining when they got skipped, or had to draw two. It was actually fun!

There were many times when someone was down to one or two cards only to have to draw a new handful to match the color (side note, Mark came up with the idea to say our numbers and colors in Spanish which lasted the whole game).

Our quick game of Uno ended up lasting about 45 minutes! And somehow, this boy who had so many cards for most of the game (he puts them on the table because his little hands can't hold them all), ended up winning!

Meanwhile, our sweet little Morgan entertained herself in the kitchen.

Eventually she tried to blend in to her surroundings!

It was a fun night and a reminder of the fun awaiting us as our children grow into bigger little people.