I asked my dad to send me a baby photo of myself the other day for the baby book I’m working on and he sent me over 2000 photos from my entire childhood (at least I know where I get my memory and photo hoarding tendencies from)! But in all seriousness, scrolling through the gallery he sent made me so thankful (again) for the legacy he has passed down to me. For years, I watched him set up the tripod every Mother’s Day and Christmas to take our family photos. I saw him lug the big camera along on camping trips and field trips and bring it out for ordinary snow days and grandparent hangouts. Every year I saw how much my mom lit up when she saw the finished photos and how much she loved hanging them, framing them, and putting them in places around the house where she could see them often. Now that I’m an adult taking pictures of my kids with their grandparents, I’m amazed and even more thankful for my dad’s commitment to capturing our family memories for so many years.

I love that it is now my job to take our yearly Mother’s Day, Christmas, and in-between photos. Getting to see my mom enjoy photos of her grandkids is such a treat! And seeing my sweet siblings use their photos to make gifts, hang memories on their walls, and send Christmas cards is so precious to me! Every time I run from the tripod to hop in the family photo, I laugh thinking about watching my dad do that year after year while we were growing up. Now he gets to sit there comfortably now watching me huff and puff back and forth 😉

Everyone loves the yearly calendar my sister in law makes for my parents’ Christmas gift! And everyone is obsessed with watching these sweet cousins grow up together <3

As I continue to work through sorting all of our 2024 photos for our family photo book, I can’t help but be thankful for the legacy of family photos that has been passed along through the years and for the precious memories we get to enjoy as we look back at photos together <3