happiness has arrived {My Publisher}

I take a lot of pictures. I take pictures for me. For my family. For my friends. Mainly, I take pictures for my kids. I want to document their years. I want to document our life as a family. One day my 4 year old will forget how he slept with Lego men cuddled next to his face. One day my daughter won’t remember how much she loved crashing her doll strollers into walls. One day my 2 year old won’t recall how much his baby sister frustrated him (or maybe he will!). And one day my oldest will no longer have to stand on his toes to get milk out of the fridge. I document their days for them.

It is highly important to me that they enjoy the pictures I take now…not just when they are older and looking back at their childhood. Each year I create albums of our pictures. I make two copies of the albums – one that is safely tucked away and one that is out for my kids to enjoy. (No, I don’t make 4 albums…too costly…they will have to share one day. Or if I win a bunch of money I can go back and order them each a copy!) I don’t stress when they are looking at them. I don’t get mad if a page accidentally gets wrinkled or torn. I want them to enjoy the albums. As they enjoy the albums they enjoy my camera. They recognize that the photos I take aren’t just stored away where they can’t enjoy them. They know the pictures I take are for them…that a book will be made that they can enjoy anytime they want.

The book comes with a note that says “Happiness has arrived.” It is true. When we get our albums and we look back at the day to day of the previous year…happiness does arrive. We have so much fun reliving the little moments.  Moments that would have been forgotten are remembered.

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Every January MyPublisher runs a great coupon that lasts about 8 days. Every January I rush like crazy to create albums of our pictures from the previous year…trying to beat the deadline. This year the coupon was 60% off an order $200.00 or more. The MyPublisher albums are limited to 100 pages each and I can never fit an entire year in 100 pages. As a result I order “Book 1” for the first 6 months and “Book 2” for the second six months. On top of that I order a second copy of each book. That means a total order of 4 100 page books….well over $200.00. 60% off is a big savings when your order is that big. Ideally I would create the pages throughout the year and avoid the January crunch, but that is idealistic.

I have used MyPublisher for 5 years now. There are so many other companies out there I’d like to try, but I just can’t find ones that offer the coupon savings that MyPublisher offers. Have you found some companies that are easy to use and offer great coupons? I really, really, really want to make an album like this next year.  We shall see. For those of you that do digital scrapbooking…where do you print your books?