When I scroll through the photos in my phone, I see countless images and videos of my kids. Everyday moments, special events, close-ups, action shots, etc. etc. I’ve been there for every second. Obviously, I took the photos to prove it.

But it’s rare that I see myself in the pics.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for my blog, I have no idea if I’d ever take photos of myself. Especially as I get older and my smile is surrounded by more and more laugh lines. (When did those get there???) But this blog isn’t just about my kids, it’s about me, and I make my business to turn the camera on myself when I start to notice that it’s been awhile since my readers have seen my face.

My belief is that one day, we’ll all finally get around to putting together a tangible album for our kids to look back on, and find ourselves searching and searching for photos of ourselves to include. A family album is obviously not complete without MOM.

That’s why, every year, leading up to Mother’s Day, I hold a contest requiring moms to turn the camera on themselves. For the past two years, my contest has been in partnership with CVS Photo, which has an amazingly simple app that allows you to upload your pics and get them printed for same day pick-up. How’s that for a last minute Mother’s Day gift?

The contest is simple. You just take a picture of yourself with your kids and post it on Instagram to the hashtag #PutMominthePhoto. Don’t wait for someone to offer to take a photo. Flip your camera around and take it yourself.

I’ve been looking through the hashtag each night and picking photos at random to win an $100 CVS gift card. One winner a day for ten days straight. That’s $1000 CVS dollars. So far, I’ve picked eight winners and I’ve got two more left to go. Do yourself a favor and look through the#PutMominthePhoto hashtag on Instagram. It’s filled with so much love and joy.

Check out these brilliantly beautiful photos of the winners so far:

Thank you to everyone who participated! I’ve got two more winners to pick in the next two days! But I’m hoping that even if you don’t win a CVS gift card, having your photos to add to your family albums is prize enough.

If you are looking for a last minute Mother’s Day gift, I highly recommend checking out CVS Photo. There are still photo gifts you can order that have same day pick-up, like personalized photo cards, photo books, and 8×10 single-sided calendars. You can find all photo gifts available for same day pick up here.

Last year, I made an album for myself which included every photo I could find of myself with my girls.

This year, I got even more creative and made a bunch of really fun photo gifts. I made a beach towel for my dad (since his birthday was May 6th)…

A deck of cards for the girls…

And my favorite, two throw pillows with close-up shots of Mazzy and Harlow on them that I’m planning on giving to to my mom (aka Grammy) on Sunday. (Hopefully, she doesn’t read this first!)

I mean, are these awesome or what? By the way, this was totally Mazzy’s idea to pose with the pillows like this.

If I had thought of it sooner, I would have had my sister make pillows of both her kids and my stepbrother make pillows of his kids and then on Mother’s Day, we could have surrounded Grammy on the couch with all her grandkids. And taken a pic, of course.

That would have been the best #putgrammyinthephoto op ever.

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I’m proud to be partnering with CVS Pharmacy to help spread the word about their photo services. All opinions expressed are my own, and all product claims or program details shared should be verified at CVS.com or with the appropriate manufacturers.