A few weeks ago I finally started to work on the girls 2nd year albums (I know, I am WAY behind with my own albums!) and realized that I was rarely in any pictures.   To a large degree it is because I am always behind the camera, chasing after Victor and the girls.   But partially it is because for the longest time I did not want to be in the pictures -I felt that I did not look good enough and did not want to be captured for prosperity with the 15 lb of baby weight that I still needed to loose….I kept telling myself – ‘once I get in shape I will have plenty of images of me and the girls’.  But a lot of time passed by and with the exception of two professional family sessions we since the girls were born, I was rarely in any of our family images.

But recently I had an epiphany: I realized that 10, 20, 30 years from now I would not care if I still carried the baby weight around.  What I would care about is having images of me as I was – loving my girls and enjoying every minute with them.  And what’s even more important – these images will be priceless for Mia and Alexa – I want them to be able to see how much they are loved.  So this Mother’s Day I threw my vanity out the window and asked Victor to photograph me and the girls.

As I was working on these images afterwards caught myself smiling as I was looking at them – they brought back pure joy and love of that day.  And although I don’t look like my pre-pregnant self, I don’t care …well, not much anyway:) – these images are honest, authentic and they capture us as we are at this moment.

So if you are like me and have been putting off having a having a family session because you don’t believe you look your best – reconsider.  Don’t do it for your current self – do it for your kids.  And I am sure that your future self will thank you as well:)

and it would not be right not to include at least one image of Victor because even though I was in front of the camera for majority of the day I did manage to get a few images of Victor:)