family yearbooks.

For Christmas, 2012, my gift to David and the kids was a photo book of our year-and-a-half in South Asia. It took me many hours, and the book turned out to be 90 pages long (!!??), but it was well worth it. I tried to document as much as possible of our life there, in lots and lots of photos, and in written descriptions of everything from Judah’s preschool to family vacations to our two homes to having to say good-bye.

The book has proved priceless already. We took it along when we went to visit churches and supporters, to give them a glimpse into our South Asia life. And every so often we pull it out and look at it together. It saddens me how much Amelie has already forgotten of our life there (she was two when we left), but I hope that through this book our South Asia world and friends will always be familiar to her.

We loved our South Asia book so much that recently I started thinking of making another. I saw the idea for “Family Yearbooks” on the Young House Love blog here, and thought it was perfect. Specially I wanted to chronicle the nearly-two years since we returned home from South Asia, because so many momentous things happened to us. New job. Buying a house. Judah starting kindergarten.

One thing I specifically wanted for both our family photo books was to not gloss over the hard things. I’m a pessimist when it comes to the future, but an optimist about my past. When I sat down to work on both books and relived memories, I was surprised by how much I’d already forgotten (blanked out?).

Well, I don’t want to forget. I want to remember all the parts of our family story, because the hard times have shaped us just as much and perhaps more than the easy ones. I want to remember God’s faithfulness — that He’s never, ever left us alone. I want this to always be part of my kids’ memories — that real life is good and fun and tough all at the same time, and God uses all of it to show His love for us and glorify Himself in our family.

I was surprised by how much I cried making these books, but also by how much I laughed. It was a healing process, and each time, receiving my orange Shutterfly box in the mail and holding a real-life photo/story book in my hands I felt like I could close a chapter in my heart. Not so that I wouldn’t think of it anymore, but so that it’s power was lifted. I’m free to move on.

I have only ever used Shutterfly for my photo projects, and love the company. They usually have discounts for photo books, however I will say neither of these books were cheap. I order the 8×11 size and think they average about $1/page when all is said and done. So yes, our South Asia book was about $90. But honestly that seems like a small price to pay for how special it has become to our family.

Looking back it’s the details of our every day life that I want to remember most — especially from different stages of Judah and Amie’s little lives. Somehow those are the details that get lost the quickest and ones that aren’t really included when we just make photo books about a specific vacation.

Here are some other ideas to include to help capture every day life in our yearbooks:

Books we read
Photos of kids’ artwork
Favorite family songs (who knew “Some Nights” by Fun would forever transport us back to that shocking summer after South Asia, or “Party Rock” would conjure dance parties in our Richmond Town flat?)
Fave TV shows and movies (esp for the kids)
Fave restaurants and why
Toys the kids received
Room-by-room photos of the house and yard (include photos of imperfection decor and messes because that’s real life!)
House projects (before and after photos)
Funny words and sayings from the kids
Vacations, trips
Birthday and holiday traditions
“A day in the life”
Friends/neighbors

The actual process of making a Shutterfly book is definitely not my favorite (just ask David, there’s lots of complaining involved). It takes a long time. But it is so worth it. Especially in this age where all our memories seem to consist of updates on a screen, it’s nice to sit with a real live book in your hands and see the big picture.

You may not be like me — you may not particularly enjoy writing, or process your life in that way. If the idea of lots of writing daunts you, check out the Young House Love post, because their family yearbooks are mostly photos.

And don’t get stressed about “catching up.” If it’s easier, just start from last year. I still really, really want to make a “first year” book for Amelie like I did for Judah’s first birthday. Maybe one day. Sigh.

From this point forward I plan to make one per calendar year. I can’t believe we’re already almost halfway through 2014!