Capturing Memories

I came home to my 4 men picking me up from the train so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain.  When we got in the kids started flipping out to their Dad about something and I was asked to remove myself from the kitchen.

They called me into the dining room where I found them all surrounding a little ice cream cake that read "We Love You Mommy".  What a sweet "just because" way to end a dreary Monday!

The meatloaf I made yesterday for dinner was awesome as predicted.

As I was cleaning up this evening I was looking at these pictures of my babies on their first Halloween:

Get It Done Tip: I have friends who love to scrapbook and others who make elaborate shutterfly albums every month of their pictures.  I wish I could have someone do that for me, because I would love the end product.  I just got zip patience and time for it.

I think the fact that an average month logs at minimum 600 pictures has a lot to do with this - it is overwhelming task to go backwards and organize/weed through them all!

That said, you can get similar results with less time and less expense.  On Valentine's Day my hubby has made a tradition of making a book of select pics from the prior year and putting them into a book for me.

We also create an annual video montage of select pics and set them to the most popular tunes of the year. We play them on the DVD at the kids family parties.

Finally, for most holidays I take pictures of the kids in a similar pose and display them.  For Christmas I have each  year's photo with Santa hung from the tree, Easter I have out their first pictures with the bunny on the mantle.

And as you can see from the picture above, for Halloween I decided to buy a traditional costume for my first born - he was gonna be a pumpkin!  Each of the siblings had their turn for their first Halloween in the same costume and their photos are proudly displayed on the mantel each October. My older sons really liked looking at the pictures and debating which brother was in which picture.

You may be like me and too stretched to do elaborate books or scrap booking, but simple things like picking out a few seasonal, special pictures that rotate throughout the year, a DVD photo compilation or a once a year shutterfly book are a great way to display precious memories without taking up too much time or money.