Family Year Book

Now that 2013 is in full-swing and things are settling down I can finally start to think about 2012 in review.

One of our favorite ways to remember and reminisce about years past are family photo books.

I first started in 2006 after our daughter, Brooke, was born.  Back then I did the scrapbook thing and after filling up an entire album for the first 6 months of her life I realized that this was going to be time consuming, expensive and space taking.

I also became frustrated that they weren't as "cute" as I wanted them to be - mainly because I really couldn't afford all the cutesy embellishments to make them cute.

So. I. Quit.

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Gave up.  Threw in the towel. Finito.

After the birth of our twins in 2008 I had a bit of mommy guilt that nothing was being documented like baby number one.  So, I used an online source to create a digital photo book.  I chose this particular company because you could use digital papers, stickers, embellishments for free and once you downloaded them to your workspace you had them forever and could use them over and over again.  Ah-ha! I could make them as cute as I wanted - FOR FREE!

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I was really happy how it turned out and the kids LOVED looking at it (and still do).  After a few years I thought it would be time to make another one.  I went back to that website and started the process all over again when I noticed all my FREE things were much, much more limited and you had to buy credits for any of the cute stuff that was currently offered.  No. Thank. You.

On the hunt for another option that wasn't web-based (after an unfortunate weekend retreat where a group of us girls planned to use the internet to get caught up on our books - only to find out the internet DIDN'T WORK) I came across this.

I downloaded the free software, got to work and furiously finished a book in 2 days so that I could take advantage of the promotion being offered!

And we LOVE how it turned out! It's less "scrapbooky" and more "yearbooky" and I'm so glad I made the switch!

I promise the kids look at this book at least once a week and it's so fun to see them excited about it that it makes me stop and look with them and remember their sweetness in its earliest form.

If you're looking for an easy way to put your family photos together and have a really professional finish for a reasonable price...look no further! Blurb is the way to go! It was SOOO easy... drag and drop into premade templates (and editable!) templates.

Right now they're you can save 15% off on your Blurb Photo Book purchase from 1/8 through 2/14 with code LOVEBOOKS. YAY for discounts.  Seriously, check them out... you'll be glad you did.  I plan to start working on 2012 before too much of 2013 slips by!