2018 in Review in Book Form

Preserving memories of our family, couple, friends,

food and grandchildren activities is one of my

passions.  This year I created a book of memories

for each of us consisting of these 16 picture

pages made on my phone using Pic Stitch.

They were all printed on 12x12 glossy pages

in Costco Photo books.

We started with Thanksgiving 2017.

A granddaughter who turned eight in December and her baptism.

The Grinch holiday cheermeister party for the family.

 Before Christmas celebration in Salt Lake
at the Grand America and the Roof Restaurant.

A sleepover for the grandkids who don't spend the night

on Christmas Eve.

Our Nativity night, done a couple of weeks before Christmas.

The table set for Christmas Eve in blush pink.

Christmas morning.

Dinner with the adults at La Caille Restaurant

to celebrate my birthday.

Disneyland trip for my birthday, with a surprise

visit from my middle son and his daughter.

Then from Disneyland on to Hawaii to celebrate

getting another year older.

A trip to Cabo to check on construction.

The Atlantis in the Bahamas with friends.

A new grandbaby.

And a celebration of pictures of her first year.

Historic Easter with the bunnies.

New York City to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Our anniversary celebration in Southern California.

Glamping in Moab, Utah.

Lake Powell with the family.

Mermaid party with the grandkids.

Another granddaughter turning eight and being baptized.

River rafting in Wyoming with the family and friends.

Another Lake Powell family trip.

Just some fun moments with family and friends.

Visiting my sister with friends in San Antonio.

Garden party with kids.

Our luxury "camping" trip while the others went

backpacking.

Lake Powell with friends.

The beginning of fall and Halloween.

Hubby's birthday - again stopping at Disney and then off

to check on our Cabo place.

A shower for our upcoming grandbaby.

Halloween with Harry Potter Theme.

Thanksgiving in St. George with a live Nativity.

Tea with Papa and Mrs. Claus.

 Grandchildren chocolate dipping, after our tea party.

 2018 progress on Cabo construction - slow and painful!

        Christmas at Disneyland, our last trip on our year pass.

A Night in Bethlehem in December.

Sweet baby Elyse born.

The traditional trip to Grand America 

with dinner at the Melting Pot in Salt Lake.

 Christmas Eve dinner,

and pajamas.

Christmas morning!

Whew I get exhausted when I look at it in one sitting,

but we have had a lot of fun.  I want the little ones to

remember, so I publish books, and this is going to

be my new tradition - the year in review.

Their books go from October to October as

I need to have time for publishing, and I plan

on about a month.

I love family histories, and picture books are such

an easy and fun way to keep those histories.

Have a wonderful New Year's Celebration

and may 2019 be a peaceful, healthy and happy

year for you and yours.

Publish A Family History at Lulu

I have been furiously at work on several family

histories for the last two months, so blogging

has taken a back seat.  

I was reading blogs one day and someone recommended

Lulu.com for publishing their blog, as it

was much cheaper than some of the other companies.

Sorry that I can't remember whose blog it was!

I was working on my dad's history and decided to give

Lulu.com a try.  I wasn't finished yet - maybe half done,

but I sent off for a book, just to see the quality and price

for what I would be getting.

I was THRILLED with what I got back from them.  The process was

super easy, and the price was incredibly reasonable compared 

to what I had paid for printing my blog.  

What was the most incredible part of the process was how

the quality of their printing and papers improved the look

of many of my old photos.  The oldest photos in black and

white are crisp and clean, but a lot of the photos from the

70's on are so poor, yet they printed out really nicely

in Lulu's book.

I just created a word document and uploaded it, previewed it

and created the covers using their formats.  The process was

so fast.  (My next one I saved in a PDF file and uploaded it, 

as they say they prefer that.)  I did not have to add to the
margin for binding, I just did a regular word document.
Talk about easy!

This one of my dad was just under 200 pages.  Once

I published one item with them, I started getting discount offers,

so I have waited to publish again until I got another discount offer.

With a discount, this book cost me $39.  I can order one, I can order as many as I want with additional discounts 

applying after 15.  I can

also give the information to family members who want a copy and

they can get on Lulu.com and order their own copies, without me

becoming the middle man.  It takes just about three weeks to receive the books in the mail.

I just submitted two more this week.  This one is about my grandparents and great grandparents.   I designed my own cover on Picmonkey for this one - I just did an 8x10 project for it.

And my niece designed this cover for the collection of my mother's

short fictional stories.  It ended up being just under 200 pages too.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the books I have published

with lulu.com.  I have not been compensated for this, I just 

have to tell you about things that I love!!

Unfortunately, they turned out so well that I have a whole list

of more that I want to write!  This makes doing family histories fun.

I will be posting this with

Metamorphosis Monday

The Scoop