Word Choice Olympics

Picture 1-
    As he took his first steps back into the country, he felt a wave of warmth spread over his body. Standing tall and proud in uniform, he bid his fellow army men goodbyes and turned his head to find three children and a mother standing a few feet away from him. Two of the children's faces were awestruck, their eyes as big as dinner playes and their mouths slack jawed. The smallest child didn't understand what was happening and just clung to the woman next to him, burying his face into her long skirt.
"I'm home." He said, kneeling down on one knee and spreading his arms out as wide as they could reach.
The two older children took advantage of his stance to jump into his arms, their faces lit with smiles and their hearts about to burst from their chests. The last child uncertainly inched forward and placed an arm around his brother, looking up at the man, bewildered by his teary eyed face.
"Jacob, why don't you tell this man how old you are?" The woman chimed, her voice soothing the man's ears like a melody from a piano.
"I'm twee..."
"This is your father Jacob."
The young boy looked at his mother with the same expression that his older siblings had and tightened his grip around the man and his brother, a toothy grin appearing on his face.

Picture 2-
    The lights in the room dim to the point where it was almost pitch black and papers were thrown around the room as a pair of frantic hands practically tore through every shelf and drawer in the vicinity. The man wiped a drop of sweat from his brow, but kept his composure, taking a moment to take a deep breath before continuing to search around. The blood in his veins were pumping with enough speed to give him an extra shot of adrenaline and he grew frustrated from the lack of results. Taking his two fists, he rammed them against the wall with enough force to break his bones, but the only thing that broke was a painting that fell off of it's mount. He cursed and walked over to place it back into its orifinal position when he came across a sleek black panel in the wall, the safe was found at last. As his hands caressed the dial with utmost care, he heard something click from behind, the metal clinking together making the hollow noise echo through out the room.
"Not today." The voice whispered, her feline voice making the man clench his hands into fists.
The feminine voice was the last noise made before the bang went off and a body dropped to the ground.

Picture 3-
    The battle was fierce and the sound of a camera was drowned out by the loud screeches and shouts coming from the crowd. Both teams were tied and tired, but their faces still determined as the score was still needed to be settled. As the ball went up, the two players' eyes flickered from each other to the brightly colored sphere and then that's when the battle really began. With their forearms red and their backs aching, they used all of the energy in their bodies to throw themselves towards the ball, hearts matching the level of the ball as it rose and dropped. The other team was distracted by the amount of people cheering and the girl on the opposing team saw this, using it to spike the ball down into the sand with a bruising smash hit. The crowd exploded with elated screams and pained groans, but the two girls weren't even paying attention to them, their eyes locked on the fact that the ball fell on the other team's side. Turning to face each other, their faves broke out into exhausted grins and they did their own victory dances while the camera clicked away, still capturing the energy of the moment with his lens. The woman who had been standing on the sidelines felt her own heart thumping as if she was in the game, but kept her excitement to a minimum as she kept pressing the shutter, taking snapshots of these moments to last a lifetime.