"Unbelievable memories inside"

I have always loved scrapbooking. I used to have more time for it :o) I have a book for each year that Brandon and I dated. I started a book for Kaitlyn when she was born and finished it by her first birthday. I thought it would be sweet to have at least the first year scrapbooked for all my babies. Well that was the thought when I only had one! I started one for Nathan after he was born and it's still stuck on his three month page. I know, ridiculous. I just hated to drag everything out and then pack it away only to have accomplished two pages in two hours. I will finish his one day, but I wanted to come up with a new plan for my future scrapbooking.

First of all, I am obsessed with taking pictures. I had just over 5,ooo in my iPhoto from last year. This among other things, causes my laptop to be slow and leaves no room for updates which frustrates the mess out of my husband. I didn't want to just move all the pictures over to my hard drive, because then they would just sit there. So, I decided that every year I am going to make a digital scrapbook. What a brilliant idea. No mess to clean up (and let's face it, I have enough to clean up every day!), and the pictures will always stay in good condition. I figure it will be my project every January and by February I should be done so I can then remove all the pictures on my computer from the previous year. I used Shutterfly for my book, but I know that Apple has a program on the Mac's. I thought that Shutterfly had more to choose from as far as customizing and page layouts. I just got my book in the mail yesterday and I LOVE it! The outside of the package said "Unbelievable memories inside".. how personal and so true. I was excited to open it!

I will say that it can be expensive depending on how many pages you use. The set price comes with twenty pages and then you add based on what you need. I ordered my book when the photo books were 50% off which was perfect timing. I realize that this is not a new concept but just new to me. I have some friends that have been doing them for a few years. I just decided that my hard drive was not where I want all my memories. I want to be able to pull out a book and look at my pictures. Now I can! Once you finish a project on Shutterfly you can "share" them, so I am linking mine below.

One day, when I am not chasing after the kids or have a million and one things to do, I plan on going back and making a book for every year since we've been married. This may not happen until they are all in school but it's a goal nonetheless. I am going to do Rebekah's first year this way too. I think in the long run it will be less time consuming and the best part is I don't have to worry about cutting straight lines anymore. Seriously, I cannot cut a straight line for the life of me.

Click here to view this photo book larger