Selfie Love...

So I got in my remote for my camera this week!  Up until now I haven't ever used one (pause for gasping cries of horror followed by endless bouts of bowing);).   My remote got here on Wednesday evening and I couldn't wait to try it out so I planned a shoot for the next day.  That night my daughter started throwing up:( and I got the flu as well so we took a sick day:P.  Friday, the stars were all finally in alignment...all but one that is.  Let me explain.
Lucy was happy and healthy as was I, as was my hair (good hair days always rock my world), naps were being taken to their full extent....and it was overcast.  Overcast in photog speak means one of two things, one being very good and the other not so much.  It meant beautiful distributed light, like a world of open shade.  On the other hand it means the weather can turn ugly, meaning raining out a shoot or just getting nasty cold.  It decided to do the latter.  My husband takes the only car we brought to this internship to work so I had to walk to the park, which is pretty close, so I wasn't too worried.  When we got out the weather was pretty warm with just a slight breeze.  So I came prepared with sweaters for bothLucy and I as well as a hat for Lucy.  When we got to the park I was able to get a few good shots when the wind picked up and started feeling icy! So I gave up, packed Lucy in, with her hat and sweater, but because the wind was so cold I wrapped my sweater around her as well, pinning in her arms, which thankfully she didn't fight.
Then I ran home, in short sleeves, it was awful.  I also think that I am just running a lot colder lately.  Since I stopped breast feeding and my body has lost all that free heat that came with it.  So, all in all it was not what I had hoped for.  I fully plan to get out today and do some more since the weather seems in much higher spirits today and I will make sure I post those later;)
Now on to my explanation of the title of my post.  My family was teasing me, saying that I was vain taking all of these selfies.  So I thought I would list the reasons I am doing this and why it isn't vanity at all.
I am doing this so that I can for one, get good at it.  This is so we can grow up with not only pictures of everyone around me but of me!  I think my kids will love to have pictures of themselves but I also think they'll appreciate seeing pictures of their mom, and not just tired on trips, arms length hurried pictures, but real pictures.  I am sure they'll love seeing my different styles, hair cuts, and youth;P  I know I love this about the few pictures we have of my mom.   
I don't take these pictures out of vanity, I do however, have self love.  I love what my Heavenly Father made me.  Everyone is different and these different forms of beauty should be celebrated!  I am the ninth of ten children and every one of us has such a different form of beauty.  I also have 28 nieces and nephews and the same can be said for every one of them.  We may all come from the same gene pool in one way or another but we are all so different and I love celebrating that fact (as I am sure every other photographer can relate).
I used to complain to my mom all the time about my nose and ask incessantly for a nose job.  Of course we never had the money for anything like that besides the fact that my mother said I was beautiful and that what made me so special was my nose.  I never believed her.  I always hated my nose and let it hold me back from being as outgoing or as secure as I should have been.  But then life changed, I grew up.  I never really grew into my nose physically (well, a little bit, I was kind of a gangly youth so it looked a little less proportionate back then) but I grew into it mentally.  I came to love myself despite my nose and stopped letting it hold me back.  To give you an example of how insecure I was, I was afraid to be too fashionable or different in my clothing or hair because I was afraid of drawing attention to my nose.  Yeah, a little unhealthy.
So, not really knowing or realizing it my nose stopped bothering me.  This fact snuck up on me when a few years ago I had to get surgery on a deviated septum (the bone in my nose was crooked, cutting of the air to one side and making infection easier).  This was before I was married while I was still under my parent's insurance.  They asked me if I wanted to get a nose job during the surgery since it could be included for a fraction of what it would normally cost, since they were already getting in there.  I thought about it.  My husband and I were engaged at the time and I asked him what he thought because my own feelings were so jumbled.  He told me that he really didn't like the idea because he loved me for me and my nose made me the way I was.  When he said that I realized how much my nose had stopped bothering me over the years and how not only had it dissapeared from my negative thoughts but how it had become an asset to my character.
I'm glad I didn't get a nose job and even though I still joke about how big it is I really wouldn't be the person I am today without it, and not just physically;)  So that was my unnessesarily long explanation of my self love but there you have it.
So joining in Elena's I love me selfie challenge, here I am, big beautiful nose and all!

 

Btw, I know I was supposed to hold up a sign saying I am beautiful but seeing as I shot this at a park in the middle of the city I wasn't too keen on getting any more unwanted attention;)  So you'll just have to imagine it;)

 And just for fun I thought I would let everyone know that I'm evidently passing that self love to my daughter;) (that or she really needs a sibling to play with, I'm working on it baby!)