A Special Gift For Grandkids

**I was compensated for this post.  This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.  All opinions are my own.

     I absolutely love being a grandmother.  My husband and I have 10 grandchildren and they are the best in the entire universe!  My heart nearly explodes when I think of each one of them and there is nothing I want more than for them to grow up happy and healthy and good.  They all have good parents to lead and guide them. (My wonderful children and their spouses) But, I feel like as a grandmother, I can be a loving and good influence in their lives.  I didn't ever really know my own grandparents. They all passed away when I was very young.  I know other people have related to me how important their grandparents have been in their lives.  I want to be important to my grandchildren.  I want them to know that I am here for them and that I will always love them, no matter what! 

     For almost a year now, I've thought about writing a little book for my grandchildren called, "What Grandma Wants Me to Know."  I considered a board book but I wasn't sure about illustrations.  Maddy didn't have time to do them for me.  Then, I discovered Mixbook!  Their photo books are beautiful and completely customizable!  The photos of my grandchildren could be my illustrations!   So, I teamed up with Mixbook to make my first photo story book for my grands. 

     I had already come up with a list of ideas that I wanted to include in the book.  Some of them were simple joys, like baking cookies and swinging. Some of them were deeper and more meaningful, like learning to love to read, and realizing that God loves them. When you think about it, you can make a list a mile long that covers the things you want your children and grandchildren to know. You can customize this idea for your own family! Since I had my list,  I went through the pictures that I have and started to match them to the topics I wanted to cover. It was so easy to upload them to Mixbook.  Then, all I had to do was choose my cover and design of my book.  There are a ton of great templates and sizes to choose from.  I decided to start mine from scratch and make it a totally custom creation. I easily arranged the pictures and the texts where I wanted them to be.  Mixbook would give me a hint if a certain photo needed to be resized for the best appearance in the book.  Not only that, but I was unable to finish the book all in one sitting, so it was saved to my account until I could come back and work on it again. 
     Not every page in my book had photos.  I included some text of poetry and "words of wisdom."  There are also choices of fonts and stickers available to add interest to your pages.  The entire process was a lot of fun. 

     Now, here are some of the best parts!  

• Once I completed and ordered my book, it got here amazingly quickly!  I was so excited! 
• They are always offering discounts to help you save!  Right now there is a code that they gave me with my order that gives $25 off an order of at least $25!  Just enter MIXMAS when you check out.  (This code expires 1/31/19, Limit one per person, tax and shipping not included). 
• Once you get an account on Mixbook, you will receive other discount offers via email! It is awesome! 
• Mixbook has a 100% happiness guarantee.  If you don't like the end result, you will get your money back! 
• There is so much more to do on MIxbook than books!  There are ways to make cards and posters and calendars, too! Not only are they great gifts from grandparents, they are of course great gifts to grandparents! 

     I've only had the book for a couple of days.  I plan to keep it out at my house where I can read it with my visiting grandchildren whenever possible.  There is a possibility of printing one for each family, but right now I love seeing how much they enjoy seeing themselves in the book when I read it to them.  I feel like I am sending them a message that they will one day get as we share this book over the years.  A message about how special they are and about what marvelous potential they have and that there are cheerleaders all around them, including me! Who knows, there may be multiple editions as they grow and I think of more that their grandma wants them to know!

Here is another great deal:

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy other ideas for your grandchildren on these posts:

• Bow Ties for Boys
• Homemade Oatmeal-Lavender Soap
• A Scrappy Snake
• Little Owl Purse