This year is slowly coming to an end and it has me thinking of how fast this year went. My girls are 12 and 7 and I am trying to bottle up their youth. I want to be able to tell them all about who they were, what they loved, how silly and smart they were as little kids, but I am worried that if I don't capture it all in photos, my memory might fail me. I mean, if I can't even recall what I had for breakfast now, then how will I ever remember it all when they get older? I sit here crying just thinking about how much I miss them being so little and learning to walk for the first time, their little baby coos and cries. Time isn't slowing down anytime soon, so I need to find a way to document it in case my memory isn't very clear.

I have succeeded this year in pulling out my camera to document my little family during the most random of things: going to the salon, eating pizza at a new pizza shop, going to a cool ice cream truck. However, I have totally missed printing these moments and I can't let that continue to happen as there will be far too many memories to catch up on. What is the reason for having these photos anyway? Who am I taking them for? Why are they important to me now? How important will they be to me in the future? Technology has changed so much in my 35 years of life that I have seen digital age become a thing and prints become less a thing, but why? Sitting and looking through albums strikes up conversations so the stories can be told and become more personal to the person you are telling. As time passes, they can grab that same album and share that story with those that matter to them. I don't know what will come of digital photos but I can't imagine pulling up my cellphone, tablet or computer to share stories with my grandchildren. Maybe it just seems disconnected and another reason to be looking at my computer screen. I am also guilty of having cds full of images, never to be seen again, I have lost the discs. I have switched computers without bothering to transfer photos over, not realizing how much I would miss those images. I guess my point of this post is to remind myself and everyone that printing photos are the best way to secure your history. Yes, digital images are fun to have -- who doesn't like social sharing -- but in the end what is the reason for documenting these moments?