Chatbooks – My New Love

Have you heard of chatbooks?

Well, they are super fabulous little 6″ x 6″ photo books that are created from Instagram or Facebook accounts.  You can subscribe and every time you hit 60 posts, a new book is created and sent to your home.  The books cost $8 for standard binding and $13 for hardcover binding.  They ship free and take about two weeks to arrive or you can pay a little extra for faster shipping.  You can also create other types of books with photos you upload.

So here’s the deal.

Once I realized how amazing these little books are I joined Instagram and created a private account.  I only follow family members and I only allow family members to follow me.  I have like a whopping 16 followers or something like that.  I use Instagram as my everyday scrapbooking.  Because the thing is, I used to be an awesome scrapbooker.  Now?  Not so much.  And I don’t want my kids to miss out on having current photo albums to look at and reminisce about their favorite memories.  So Instagram and chatbooks to the rescue!

Our first chatbook arrived a few weeks ago and we all love it.  Even my teenage boys can’t help but flash a grin when they see a picture of themselves and some caption I wrote about them like, “I love this handsome boy!”  Because even though I tell them that, like all the time, there’s something extra special about seeing nice things printed about yourself.

Ever since RootsTech, my Instagram posts have been more meaningful to me.  Before, I was okay with short updates next to a great photo.  As I have been considering the importance of story I have really stepped up my efforts to be a good recorder of the little moments, big moments, funny moments, and tender moments.

And now all of that family story goodness will show up in my mailbox every 60 posts.  It’s just like magic!

Here’s a little sample of a recent post I wrote.  It’s just too good to keep to myself.  A few helpful pieces of info:  the three previous posts were about our family going to see a musical; a General Authority is a leader in our church who is responsible for a large geographic area and a visit to a local unit or “Ward” is quite rare; in our church everyone 12 and up has the opportunity to give talks occasionally in our main Sacrament Meeting.

Photo credit – (my 3 year old), taken 23 December 2015. On Saturday as we were walking into the play I told my family a General Authority was speaking in our ward the next day. (My 17 year old) said, “What?!” with the most awesome look on his face. He hadn’t told me yet that he was also speaking.  So after the play I was helping him prepare. His topic was “Why do the choices I make matter?” He had his talk pretty well finished but he wanted to add a story about someone in his family who made a decision that changed their eternity. I told him two cool ancestor stories and the story of my mom joining the church. He chose to tell his grandma’s story. As we talked it through he said, “Wait, grandma lived in San Fransisco? Wait, is grandma a hippie? Oh, that explains so much!”  #allinlovegrandmaallinlove ❤️

Now isn’t that a fun little story worth remembering?  I thought I was going to die laughing when my son asked if my mom was a hippie and then instantly decided he was right and declared, “Oh, that explains so much!”  My mom is sooooo not a hippie.  🙂

If you are interested in giving chatbooks a try for free – here is a coupon code you can use.