Does anybody physically scrapbook anymore? My mom has several scrapbooks of each of us kids and us as a family growing up. Each page has cute little captions, notes, decorations and you can feel her love for her family on each page. I’ve been meaning to scrapbook for years. We have a box somewhere of pictures from the past nine years, but intention and desire are two very different things. While I intend to eventually scrapbook, I have zero desire to actually scrapbook. We all have different talents and I happen to hold a masters in procrastination of doing things I don’t want to do. Also, I’m not artistic in anyway shape or form. Me attempting to scrapbook could also be construed as me butchering family memories, it’s just a sad reality. 

While I try to remember to take pictures, I try to find the balance between taking a picture and actually being present to make the memory and not too focused on getting the perfect picture. However, pictures also get forgotten and lost in the camera roll unless you print them out. 

“The love in our family flows strong and deep, leaving us memories to treasure and keep” ~ unknown

All that to say, this is what I do with our pictures. Once a month (or once every couple months, if we’re being honest) I go through my phone and print off pictures in a 4×4 size. This is the size that any picture posted on Instagram will automatically be scaled to. I find it to be a fun size and perfect for what I want. We’ve had this “memory wall” in our home for a little over a year now, and the kids love it! Once the wall is full of pictures, the kiddos help decide which pictures come down when new ones go up. Currently, our wall is full (overly so), so next month the girls will help decide which pictures to swap out with the new ones.

Before I put the pictures on the wall with the kids, I go back through my phone and write on the back of each photo the date, location and names of those in the picture. That way when the pictures are rotated off the wall and into the bottomless pit….I mean, placed carefully into the box of pictures… the pics are already tagged. 

The girls love having pictures on the wall they can look at, talk about, and show their friends. I love seeing reminders of all that we’ve done together and all the memories we’ve made. Family time is very important to us and having a wall of current family memories is pretty special. 

During the fall and winter I have strung fairy lights up and made it all sparkly and cute. Brian doesn’t understand the joy this makes for me, but I’ve graciously forgiven him for not understanding the wonder of fairy lights. Also, he does have a point that replacing batteries in fairy lights is a pain. 

I’ve been printing the pictures off at Walgreens. I find their prices to be comparable and they’re very quick with completing orders. If you go to RetailMeNot.com and type in Walgreens Photo there are usually a lot of different coupon codes to apply to your order. I only order pictures if I can get them for at least 40% off. 

If anybody has other or better ideas for how to display pictures, please comment and let me know!