Family Yearbooks!

 A couple years ago I decided to reorganize my photos. I had some in albums that had been torn as well as some one different websites (shutterfly, mix). I also had so many on my phone. I came across the idea of a family yearbook and loved it!

I started with 2013, the year our daughter was born, and the first 5 years I was able to make shutterfly books with our favorite photos from those years. The photos were already saved as I used to print all my photos monthly. Instead, I decided to only print out photos that I was going to put in frames instead of using photo albums. I bought some great clear containers from amazon that I filled with photos of each of my kid for their memory boxes as well as for myself and husband. I did declutter some of the photos that were duplicates or scenery of places.

In 2018, I came across the website Artifact Uprising, and loved the look of their photo books. I downloaded their app and chose the template I liked and was able to fill in the book through out the year and then order it in January.

Last year I listened to a podcast that talked about Amazon Photos. I have be an Amazon prime member for 10 years and this was a feature that was free that I hadn't used yet. I downloaded the app and was able to save all my current photos and whatever photos I took going forward.

This is a tradition that I will continue and I think it would be a great gift idea for family members as well. Once I was able to simplify my photo storage on my phone via Amazon photos, chose to only print photos for frames, as well as created the family yearbook, I felt less overwhelmed with all the photos I had and felt more in control of the process.

I have actually tried to not have my camera on as much and started living a little more in the moment instead of trying to document everything which I think my kids enjoy as well!