When Amy McManigal was pregnant with her second baby she thought of ways to help her first born, Turner, manage the exciting transition from toddler to big brother. Already a scrapbooker and a Shutterfly customer, she browsed the Shutterfly Gallery to get ideas. “I knew I wanted to do a brothers' book from the start and once the title popped into my head, the rest fell into place.” And so, soon after her second son Sullivan arrived, the idea for her rhyming storybook, “When Turner Met Sully” was also born.
 Channeling your inner Seuss
The story begins on December 1st when big brother Turner came into the world. The first few pages are dedicated to the new family of three. Then there’s the discovery of mommy’s growing belly. Amy confesses, “My favorite is Turner kissing my round belly. Every day he would point to my belly and say “baby” and give it a big kiss. Sometimes he would drive his cars over it too. I am so glad I have a photo to remember this time.”
Then the day arrived when baby brother Sullivan joined the family. The pages that follow show the boys enjoying each other’s company and getting plenty of love from mom and dad. Part of what makes the book so appealing is its simplicity. Each page has no more than two pictures and the written couplets are central to the page composition. “I try to think of subjects and photos that my boys want to look at themselves—animals, and special people in their lives—and I try to create books that will be interesting to them. I like to create rhyming stories just because those were the type of books I liked as a child and I think they are fun to read.” Which is a good thing since the McManigal brothers can’t get enough of their new favorite story.
 Picking favorites, but not playing favorites
Amy admits that choosing the photos was challenging. She says, “I try to stay as organized as possible. When I upload my photos I keep the pictures organized by date and I try to put all of my favorites into a separate folder by month.” Having the story to follow made it easier. “Writing the story was the most time-consuming part of the process. But once I had that done and created the first page it was clear sailing.”
The first page indeed sets the tone for this charming book. It begins with a photograph that captures all of the wonder and excitement of a baby brother. Little Turner, pacifier in place, is examining his brother Sully up close, he himself still just a little guy. That’s one of the most emotional parts of having a second child—the realization that your baby is no longer the baby. Both boys have an equally special place in the family and Amy tries to reflect that in her photo books. “I keep the bookmaking as even as possible between my boys. To make things easier I will often create essentially the same book for both boys just changing a few words to personalize it for each of them. Or if I created one for Turner before Sully was born that I really liked, I will use the same layout or theme again.”
 Getting better with practice
Amy had done traditional scrapbooking for years but has fallen in love with digital photo books. Her first digital departure was her wedding album. But since the boys came on board she’s been making photo books by the dozen as gifts for friends and family. “With a traditional scrapbook it is hard to let little ones look through it. Stuff falls out; the albums are so big; they end up being very expensive to create. The 8x8 photo books are the perfect size for the boys. I also do one book for each of them for the whole year. Because it is digital, it is easy for me to create the pages as the year goes by with no mess. At the end of the year I get a beautiful photo book which takes up a fraction of the space a scrapbook does.”
While finding the time to documents kids in a meaningful way is always a challenge, especially when extra sleep seems a nice alternative, creating photo books has helped streamline the process for Amy. Will there be more photo storybooks for the McManigals? “Absolutely. Now that I’ve made ‘When Turner met Sully,’ I am constantly jotting down ideas for new books to make for my boys. Maybe one day I’ll even get to write ‘When Turner and Sully met baby #3’”. Stay tuned.
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