Pregnancy Journal (from 2008)

Well, I stayed up way too late last night, but I finished up my Blurb book about being pregnant with Claire. Wow, what a trip down memory lane particularly since I'm pregnant again.



Here are a few screen shots of pages in my book. I put this together by going through my pictures from 2008-2009. I had already gathered up most of my belly shot pictures planning to do something with them, but I also included some pictures of baby gifts that we got and of setting up the nursery and as well as some other pictures of me while pregnant that weren't taken specifically because I was pregnant.



The only page I'm not entirely happy with is the cover. I couldn't find a good picture for the front cover. I'm not sure I want a picture of Claire and I don't have any really GOOD pregnancy pictures of me (which is something I'm definitely doing differently this time). Right now the front cover is just gray with the title of my book on it. I might make a cover in photoshop with some kind of generic cartoon-y pregnant lady silhouette. But I haven't done it yet and not sure if I am going to.



Going through my pictures made me realize that I took way fewer pictures in 2008 than I do now and my pictures are way better now than they were back then! Of course, now I'm using a DSLR and in 2008 I was using a little Nikon Coolpix Point-n-Shoot. I still have that camera...I let Claire play with it...



I also had two books, one journal and one pregnancy book, that I filled out and wrote notes in while I was pregnant with Claire. It will be nice to have all of the pictures and information in one place.

I love Blurb Books

I really love Blurb books. They are pretty and nice and so easy to make. I've made 4 books...I think. Well, I made 3 different versions of a 2012 book (changed out a few pictures based on who the book was for). I made my December Daily album for 2012 as a Blurb book, and I'm planning to do the same this year. I also just finished, but haven't ordered yet, a book about our Family Vacation to Colorado this summer. Here are a few of my favorite pages:



The front & back cover (well, the back & front cover). I love these two pictures. I have no clue where in Kansas we were what I got that one of the sun, but it is beautiful. The front cover was our view off one of the decks of the "cabin" we stayed at near Black Hawk, CO.



We spent the first few days in Colorado Springs. We were VERY busy for those few days - Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge Railroad, driving up Pike's Peak, and visiting the North Pole theme park. Lots of fun.



Once we got to Black Hawk we slowed down...a lot. I realized after I did the screen shot here that I put Blackhawk instead of Black Hawk, so I'll need to fix that before I order. Claire got sick on the way to Black Hawk so I ended up spending a lot of time dealing with that, including an hour+ drive to Lakewood to the ER - you know you aren't having a good vacation until you have to go to the ER! My brother had also brought a very lovely cold with us to Colorado, which after spending 2 days with 8 people in 2 hotel rooms or cars, we had all managed to share in his misery.



Obligatory visit to Rocky Mountain National Park! We did just a little hiking, not much because of the sick preschooler and the not much better pregnant lady (I was about 2.5 months pregnant at the time). Also, pregnant + twisty curvy roads + worrying about a throwing up child = LOTS of fun! We actually did have fun, I just like to complain. And isn't that waterfall/cascade thingy pretty!



Once Claire got to feeling better, we spent a day in Denver. We went to the Denver Aquarium which was pretty nice. Then most of the family went to Chipotle for lunch while Claire, Grandma & I went to the Denver Children's Museum which Claire thought was the most amazing thing EVER and would have seriously stayed there all day long if we would've let her! Later that day, we were all sitting around the cabin bored (probably watching HGTV), the closest park with hiking trails was Golden Canyon State Park, so I convinced everyone to load into my Dad's truck and we made the short drive to the trailhead and hiked part of the way up a hill before admitting defeat (for the sickly ones) and walking back down.

I may go back and make more pages. This one is actually 20 pages long right now, I just didn't share all of the pages. But I know there are other good pictures of some of these events that I might want to include. Particularly since this is pretty much the only way any of the 508 pictures that I took are actually being printed! Well, I suppose my mom & my sister-in-law might print some of them for their own projects, but still 508 pictures taken and only 52 are actually being used. Good thing I didn't waste any film! :)

* I have no affiliation with Blurb books (although if they want to, you know, that would be cool!), I just really like their books.