I will never forget the day my youngest, who must have been 7 or 8 at the time, walked into my room and asked: “Mommy, do I have a baby picture book?”

My heart sank. She did not.

You see, when my eldest was born in 2001 I only had an analog camera. I always ordered double prints of all her photos. I made albums with them and gave the extras to extended family.

Our first ever family photo album (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

So yes, my eldest has not one or two, but several baby photo albums.

When my youngest popped out in 2004 I had my first digital camera courtesy of my sister. Then, four months after my little one was born I moved from Spain to Florida.
And so the digital camera came in handy. I uploaded all the photos I took of my kids and shared them with faraway friends and family. Very rarely did I request prints, although I do have a few.

All of my youngest´s photos, from the day she was born, up until now that she is 12, are in digital albums.

I explained that to her when she asked me the question that made me feel like a really bad mom.

That Christmas, Santa Claus gave her a photo book. It was a summary of her life from the womb up until that day. The photo book was made through Shutterfly.

I wish I had done this sooner! (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

I´ve also used Shutterfly in the past to send my grandmother in Spain photos and photobooks of her great grandkids.

A year after I met my husband with whom I created a blended family, I made a photobook of all the kids and grandkids for my mother in law. It was a Christmas gift. She was very pleased with it. Again, I made it with Shutterfly.

But guess what.

I never made a photobook for us, for our quirky blended family
We met seven years ago, and we already have so much history together. With the advent of digital photography and the ridiculous number of photos I take every year, I just never got around to actually curating and printing them.

The day we ALL got married. (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

I feel I just never have the time to go through thousands of pictures that live on my computer and in my Shutterfly account.

I´m so busy all the time that I didn´t even make a photo book after our wedding over two years ago.

They say when the student is ready, the master appears. And so I was really excited to partner with Shutterfly to experience their Make My Book (TM) service. I would finally have a family photo book! And I wouldn´t have to spend hours making it either.

There are several ways to take advantage of this service, where a Shutterfly specialist helps curate, organize and showcase your photos in the best possible light. Best thing, it´s free to get started. You pay a one-time fee of $9.99 for the design service, only if you end up ordering the book! 

Oh, these kids were so little back then (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

How Make My Book (TM) works
I uploaded over 60 random photos and disregarded the fact that they should be in chronological order. I was away on a business trip and worked on this project from my hotel bed. I was bone tired. I just wanted to get it done.

In the special instructions box I allowed the Make My Book (TM) service to curate the photos, only use the best ones, and organize them as they saw fit. I could have asked for embellishments and special effects but I prefered a simple layout. I also explained that my quirky blended family didn´t have a photo book of our seven years together.

We really have had many adventures! (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

A couple of days later I received an e-mail letting me know my photo book was ready for my review. I was pleasantly surprised by how they had selected the best pictures and how they grouped them. I okayed the project, and placed my order.

We finally have a family album!
When the photo book arrived in the mail yesterday, my husband, a professional photographer, looked through the album and said: “I´d actually been thinking of doing this for a while! Hey, I guess we do have a great quirky family.”

So now that I´ve tried the Make My Book (TM) service and loved the results, I know I will be using it again.

They are the real protagonists (c) Lorraine C. Ladish

I see the value of having a physical photo book of family memories to browse and share with the kids. And I´m very happy that I can hand over the task to someone who knows how to make the most of our pictures, so I can focus on what I most enjoy: making those memories!