Photo credit for book cover:  http://www.CarlyBish.com

I LOVE taking pictures.  I just love it.  And with the digital era happening, it is so easy to let my hard drive just fill up with thousands of jpegs; images of everyone and everything that I love so much.  It makes me so happy when I look through them and yet, I'm not printing them.  Iris, my three-year-old, appears in not even ONE frame on our wall.  About a week ago, Iris noticed and with a quivering little voice, asked me why she wasn't in any of the photos.  Knife in heart.  Ouch.  The next day, Iris found a photo book hidden under a stack of books and this may have been the best day of her life.  Since that day, little she's been flipping through the pages endlessly, carrying it around everywhere she goes, bringing it to school, and sleeping with it (weird?  um, yes).  It made me realize that, until these jpegs are printed, they're just a bunch of pixels floating in outer space.  But when they are right there on the wall, in a frame, in a book-- these images mean SO MUCH.  

"That's me and Beansie, awww," she says, pointing to a photograph of her and Beans, chillin' in the dog bed.  I have heard Iris say this more than 5,000 times in the last week.  It would make me nuts if it weren't so darn cute, and TRUE.  Yep, that's you and Beansie.  That's how you guys roll.  And the thing is, I'm loving looking through this book, too!  It documents a whole year of love and hilarity and everydayness that makes our family what it is, and I am so grateful.  

Sweet Iris, you have my word that your silly face will be smiling back at you in our hallway, and I am ordering some new photo books this winter, too.  I challenge you guys to do the same!  

To make it easy, here are some of my favorite vendors:

• For prints, I love MPix.com.  High quality, reasonable prices.  Please, oh please, do your photographs a favor and do not print them at Walgreens or Costco.  The few extra bucks for some high quality prints will be well worth it, I promise.  
• For photo books, MPix does a great job, and I have also been happy with MyPublisher.com.
• For canvas wraps, once again I heart MPix.  I also recommend CanvasOnDemand.com.

Okay.  Now go print those jpegs!  Get them in a frame, on your wall, on canvas, in a book..whatever!  Just get them on paper.  I'll do the same.  

xo,

Jaymee

p.s.  Carly Bish, thank you again for taking our family photographs..  They mean so much to me.  I will be calling you in the fall for another session!  Please check out Carly's amazing work at http://www.carlybish.com