The Family Yearbook 101

I'm here for the pictures. Truly. There won't be a week without at least a picture (or 10) on my phone from the week's activities. Whether it's a sporty weekend, a dressy night out, or a moment when I see my kids enjoying the little things in life, I am ready with my phone to grab that snap. Thank goodness Apple has spent millions making the Iphone camera decent enough for -dare I say it- printing! I'm not an influencer, though I never say never, and I am not sharing 99% of these pictures with anyone but myself, so what do I do with all the photos? Enter Shutterfly.

When I was married in 2009, the only real album I had was from my wedding, but when my first baby arrived, I logged into Shutterfly to create a book for the first two weeks of his life and I fell in love. Since then I have a turned to Shutterfly to build albums for all 3 of my kid's births, a few vacations, and special birthdays, but my real love and energy is put into my annual Nisbet Family Yearbook that I've had going for 11 years. THIS is where all the pictures go!

Its not easy, its time consuming, and I once had one printed in May of the following year (pregnancy with Tom took me down), but I absolutely love the result. 100+ glossy pages in chronological order of the year in pictures. Very few pages have text, but all tell a story. Every holiday, birthday, and category of memory (school, sports, beach nights, events) gets its own page. I end each year with 2-3 full pages of my social posts to remember what I shared that year (although the internet will never forget). Its the most fulfilling part of taking all the photos from the year to showcase the joys of winning a soccer game or just a magical night at the beach that I want to savor. My daughter shares my love and often looks through the books with smudgy fingers (yikes) and loves to point out the memories from the day not captured in the photo. Oh the joy! If you're interested in learning how I do it, stay tuned. I will make a post on my process to make it easier to get started. For now, I would great an album on your iphone and title it 2022 pictures. Start adding photos from January til now that you *might* want to include in a story page. If you just like the picture, add it anyway and we'll figure out how to fit it in. Until then, take more pictures. You won't regret it.

~Lauren