Pictures of Sisters

I've decided that this year I need to make it a priority to get all of my photos organized. I'm probably the worst mother alive when it comes to my kid's pictures. I have zero photo albums and only a couple actual printed pictures of them in the house. Know what's even worse? I don't even have prints of our wedding pictures yet and we were married almost a decade ago. Seriously, I'm hanging my head in shame. And it's not that I don't love family photos in the house, it's just that for some reason this has taken a back seat for far, far too long. Occasionally I scroll through the pics on the computer and wonder why the heck I don't have these wonderful memories scattered around my house to enjoy every day.

First things first, I've got to get the kids pictures under control. My iphoto library is a disaster and I've got discs and discs of backups from old computers. Rather than taking the time to organize pictures when I upload them they go straight into iPhoto without any labels whatsover, I mean, who has time for that!? Geesh. But all kidding aside... why the heck didn't I just organize as I went!? Ok, that was the old me. The new me is turning a corner and trying to be more mature and more organized. So, first step is to consolidate all the discs and digital libraries into one. I think I want to then break up the photos by year / age. But let me ask... How do you organize photos? Is is by age or by event? I don't even know if I know how to utilize iPhoto properly!

Step two will be to pick favorites to frame for the house. We have a fabulously large blank wall that will be home to our family photos and I already have a bunch of frames. Step three will be to put them into albums. Now here is where I keep waffling... I'd love to take the time to design digital scrapbooks with journaling and pretty frames and lovely scrapbooky things. BUT I know that's probably overly ambitious and I'll never make it through them all. I don't know if I should have them printed digitally or buy traditional books to just place the printed pics in. Again I'll ask for suggestions... what do you guys do with your family pictures? I want something that the girls can look through (they LOVE going through mine and my husband's old photo books), so something sturdy that will last and can be passed down. Do you have any suggestions for great albums or is digital printing the way to go? This is going to be a HUGE project but I think if I take it in chunks I'll be more successful. I'll definitely share progress!