Well I gave Joe the shutterfly book I made and he loved it!  I was so excited to give it to him.  I was also partly nervous that I did that thing people do when they give gifts suitable for themselves vs. the recipient...but then I thought, 'who wouldn't want to see pictures of his handsome self sharing special moments with his beautiful kids?!'  You'd have to be dead inside.  [But I did buy him some Nike running clothes just in case..he was dead inside ;)].

Anyway, I mentioned here the reasons why I think photo books make fantastic gifts so I won't detail it again.  But I will say making this book was really a gift for me too...for a couple of reasons.  Warning: It's about to get real.  The first reason?  I'd be lying if I said I don't get a tiny bit sad sometimes about our lack of freedom to do what we want when we want.  Or about the fun days of 'just the two of us.'  I'm sure I'm the only one who feels this way ;) but 2 1/2 years into parenthood & two bambinos--while awesome--does change things.  I bring this up because on Joe's 30th birthday I made him a photo book.  It was chock full of self portraits of us traveling all over the place and doing fun stuff.  Well besides the fact that we now have kids, I'm also a SAHM so our "travel and entertainment" budget isn't exactly staggering.  I say all that to say, that there are times when I miss the way things were and feel like we never do anything fun.  (side note: it's silly to say 'never,' because it's rarely ever true! Of course we do fun things--just not as often and a different kind of fun).  Looking at this book reminded me of what we ARE doing.  We are growing kids.  And it takes a lot of time, money, and energy.  But it's also freakin amazing.  Like probably the best thing I've done with my life so far.  And I know at this point it may seem obligatory to say, but I would seriously not trade it for the world (or to see the world).  So seeing 35 pages of my love with our loves makes my heart so happy and shuts that nagging "we never do anything" refrain right up!

The second reason is equally as judgment inducing.  Sometimes, just sometimes I convince myself that I'm the one pouring the blood, sweat, and tears out over these kids...not that Joe isn't an active parent. Frankly, he's amazing.  But one of the things that makes marriage hard is our inherent selfishness.  The marriage conference we attend talks about the fact that you can never really know if you or your spouse is doing his/her fair share.  Who determines that 50/50 line?  Neither of us is objective enough to know for sure.  So of course there are times when I'm convinced that I'm doing "more."  Well going through the tons of photos of Joe with our girls to pick out the hundred or so that I used was a sweet and gentle reminder of just how much time he spends with his girls.  And I loved seeing that.  


Okay, well I think that's enough terrible mom and terrible wife confessions to strangers for one day.  :)  Take a look at the book and let me know what you think!  Have you created a photo gift for someone recently? I'd love to hear about it!