Self portraiture.

I take most of the pictures around here. I have an interest in photography, but it's an interest that requires more time and effort than I have right now, so my working philosophy is: if I take hundreds of pictures, there are bound to be a few that I like. My goal is not to commemorate every waking hour and fun thing we do, but I like to have pictures of our everyday life so that one day, any one of us can look at the pictures and remember what life was like.

The biggest problem with this is that I don't appear in many of the pictures since I'm the one pushing the buttons. Of course, there are advantages to this. I have no desire to commemorate my chin/neck hybrid or my post-baby belly roll or my bad hair. On the other hand, I'm not the kind of mom who feels bad on Mother's Day--which is to say: I appreciate (perhaps "demand" might be a more accurate word) recognition, and when my kids look back on the pictures of their childhood, I want them to see me (chin/neck hybrid, bad hair, belly roll, and all). Because I was there.

So I've been making special efforts to get in the pictures at least once a month (a grandiose goal, I know). Sometimes, I find a perch for the camera and set the timer. These shots always look so natural.

Apparently I have an emerging hunchback. Health diagnoses: another good reason to photograph yourself.

Sometimes I pretend to be an artiste and use whatever my children are playing with in order to make a self-portrait. (This is the only time that has ever come close to working.)

Doesn't Cecily look thrilled? 

Or I ask people to take pictures for me. If this person is Caleb, clearly I am desperate and expect nothing.  In fact, all the pictures he has recently taken are so horrible, my self-preservation strategies will keep me from posting them on the internet. Paul, on the other hand, usually does a much better job. He just has to know how to answer the question, "Do I really look like that?" (It's really best for him if he takes pictures of me after I've done my hair and run several miles.)

On Ensign Peak. CC stealing from Caleb.