It's time to set the record straight. I have heard that he and I, we are the perfect couple. And with our beautiful girls, we make the perfect family.

We aren't perfect. In fact, we are far from it. Are we in love? Yep. Madly? You betcha. Our marriage is the product of the conscious choice to choose each other, each and every day. I adore my family, the same way our skin adores the warm sun, on those early spring days. They give me wholeness and peace, even on our roughest days.As a family photographer, I am an avid social media user. I love the ability to share my joys with friends and family. I try to make it a point to also share our strife, the difficulties that come with raising good humans. The struggles of being a military spouse.  It's hard to convey those parts on social media sometimes. It's easy to let each other in on the good times in our lives, we want to share those. The hard times though, no one really wants to share that part. It leaves us vulnerable. I'm okay with being vulnerable if the cause is breaking the picture perfect image social media can sometimes create. We argue, we disagree, we struggle. 

We also, more importantly, love each other fiercely. We forgive quickly and we move on. We choose to spend our time and energy on the good. So when you are scrolling though your feed and you see nothing but happy pictures of smiling faces, remember it's the highlight reel.
 

For every healthy balanced meal, there are nights with pizza rolls.

When you see smiling children, remind yourself that there was probably (definitely) a massive meltdown.

When you see that happy couple laughing in pictures, know they've probably worked really hard to get there. 


And when you're done reminding yourself of all of these things, put your phone down. Run, laugh and play with your people. Let those good times fill you up so they can carry you through the tougher times, the ones we all have.