Documentation

When we made the switch over to digital photography a few years ago (2007, to be exact; can it have been so recently?), I made up some albums of our photos from that year on my digital photo manager of choice, with the intention of doing the same during subsequent years. But time got away from me and I just never got around to it. Two years ago, I made getting caught up on albums one of my New Year's resolutions, but after hours spent shuffling photos that had uploaded crazily out-of-order due to some error I made in naming them, or something with my camera's numbering system, I gave up in frustration. Meanwhile, more time went by, and the prospect of assembling more (five!) years' worth of albums became even more daunting.

I finally logged into my Snapfish account last month and found, to my great relief, that I had one album (2008) completely done, and that recent software changes had made moving around photos and pages much, much easier than last time I tried. I ordered, and received, that 2008 book a couple of weeks ago, and I finished 2009 and uploaded and put into a book all of 2010, which are both on their way to me now, as we speak. Spreading them out, as it turns out, is a good idea, not only to save my wrists from carpel tunnel, but also because they can be a bit pricey, even with the coupons they send out constantly (but, I justify, it would cost at least as much to buy and develop film, right?).

The boys and I love looking back at their old selves (those cheeks! they slay me). I've noticed I tend to take a lot of pictures of certain things: camping trips (when I remember the camera card!!), the beach, the lake, the kids eating ice cream (why do I find this so photo-worthy? I don't know), and I'm glad that I take certain pictures for the blog that I might not have taken, which show more of our ordinary lives (like the kids doing craft projects, or reading or playing, although I haven't put any pictures of dinner in the albums yet).

How do you keep all the photo documentation of your family under control?