Blog Book

I haven't been blogging lately. I'm sorry! We moved into the new house (finally) last Sunday and have spent every day and night working on unpacking and getting some of the many projects started. I really, really am trying to get some pictures to put up here to see the inside and see some of the progress we've already made but I'm just not there yet. I apologize.

Two new things:
I had my blog printed into a book. The main reason I started this blog was to make it easier to share updates about our little family with the rest of our family, but another reason was to document my own experiences through my pregnancy and now through motherhood. In that sense, the blog has turned into a bit of a diary for me. I used to be very good about journal-ing, but since having Audrey I have written only two entries and they both are quite nonsensical and ridiculous. Instead, I have found it much easier to just pop on here every few days and write an update - that way I am more likely to write about the little goings-on and less likely to miss anything (it is so hard to come back after 2 weeks and try to fit everything in that has happened in 2 weeks...). SO with all of that said, I'd like to share with you - Patience and Perspective: The Book!

There is a website I found that basically just prints your blog into a hardcover book. I had mine done with a table of contents which was unnecessary but I didn't see an option to change that. The posts were printed chronologically with pictures, which is great. I had it printed up through Audrey's birthday. I think I am going to do this annually from now on so that one day when the internet disappears or is replaced by some super fancy better-than-the-internet thing, I'll still have this documentation of what our lives were like and how we felt. :) The only thing I don't like about this book is that in the posts where I had videos, there is nothing. So from now on whenever I post a video, I am also going to post a picture so that when I have the blog printed a photo will be in the book.

Moving on...I also FINALLY got around to ordering a photo book for 2010. Yes, in October of 2011 I printed our 2010 photos. It was hard work. If you remember, my computer crashed in August of last year, and I lost all of my pictures. I had some, but not all of them saved online. This was honestly a blessing. I had something like 3000 pictures just from August-December of last year. I learned two things. 1) I need to edit my photos and get rid of the ones that are crappy. I tend to just snap snap snap away when I have the camera out and of 20 pictures, only 10 are clear/in focus/useable. While I do still want to keep the less than cute pictures, I think I am going to start moving them to a "not perfect" folder so that it makes it easier to locate good ones for printing. 2) I need to start working on my photo book earlier so I don't feel rushed. The company I ordered from was running a special and I wanted it NOW. Which meant that instead of putting the time and effort into a well done book, I just let the computer auto fill using the pictures I selected and it came out less than perfect. I ended up getting a pretty standard book and the price was reasonable, so I'm happy with it overall. And now we are almost at the end of 2011 and I have probably 5000 more pictures to sift through to get started on this year's book. Lots to do!

I will try to update later in the week with pictures of Audrey and of the house.
xoxo