Simple Baby Books (by Bethany)

When I was graduating from college/getting married, my mom presented me with my baby book (as well as a handmade baby blanket for my future first baby, and a really sweet card that made us both cry). It looks like this:

My kids love it and I treasure it because it is mine and it was made by my mom, but there are many reasons why I didn't want to use a pre-made baby book for my own kids. For one thing, it's full of spaces for things you may not have the information for.

My mom left lots of blanks, and even covered over some pages with scrapbooking paper to add things there wasn't a space for, and to omit things she didn't want to include. I wanted to start with more of a blank slate.
I've done digital photo books as family yearbooks:

The problem with those is that you can't include the hospital bracelet and stuff like that. I wanted something I could do whatever I wanted with, insert mementos, add pages in the future, somewhat match from kid to kid, not spend too much money on, and most of all it needed to require no artistic talent. I am not even kind of a scrapbooker. 

So Sarah gave me this idea: a binder (cute, but not expensive), page protectors, and cardstock. Using two sheets of cardstock to a page protector (rather than one sheet front and back) makes it easy to switch order, or even scrap pages without losing too much work. (I used this same method for my mission photo book, since none of my pictures were digital.)

I used a gluestick for Grace's baby book, but some of the photos were starting to detach by the time I started Alice's, so I used double-sided tape squares for hers - love them! Then I just used a pen to write captions (messy, but easy, and it's in their mom's handwriting, so that's nice - right?). I used a marker or crayon to label the pages. I was going for speed!

The most time-consuming part for me was going through hundreds (maybe thousands?) of digital pictures and choosing my favorites. Then I had them printed at mpix.com, and went to work! Some of the things I like to include are:

The backstory/pregnancy. My pregnancies with both girls were preceded by miracles, so I typed those stories up for their baby books. My husband also wrote a letter to his future child each time we found out we were pregnant, so I included those. Plus the doctor's pregnancy verification note, and a big, fat picture of me! 

The pregnancy announcement. It's all online, so it was no trouble at all to print out the email announcement and facebook comments. It's so fun to have!

Ultrasound pictures. I always try to add any emails I can find where I announce things like the gender.

Baby shower invitations. I also try to incorporate any other cute cards I received.

Birth story and hospital mementos. Grace's book includes her first bow and the sign the nurses made for her. I also include the hospital bracelet, the stats card, and the footprints. I even included the hospital bill for Grace!

Firsts. Admittedly, I kept track of Grace's firsts better than I did Alice's. 

Baby blessing. I include the blessing certificate, who was in the blessing circle, and photos of the blessing day. Grace's book also includes the backstory on her blessing dress, which was handed down for generations.

First holidays. I intend the baby book to basically cover the first year. After that, I figure they can look in the family yearbooks.

Pictures with relatives. I devote a page or two to pictures with each set of grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, parents, and siblings.

Events. Family reunions, camping trips, vacations, even family photo shoots.

Anything I have multiple cute pictures of that I can form into a category. Pictures in the bath, in a swing, wearing sunglasses, reading books, wearing hats, in a carseat, playing toy instruments, similar poses at different ages, etc.

Artwork. 

First haircut. This is my exception to my rule of only including the first year, only because I can't put hair clippings into a digital family yearbook.

Other ideas.  Some other things I've included are: a family tree, their growth chart, the meaning of their name, and extra pages at the end with cute pictures that didn't fit into any other category.

This is what works for me. I feel like it's manageable, but meaningful. It can be as time-consuming, artistic, detailed, and expensive as you want, or quick, cheap, and minimal. (I choose the latter, though it is very detailed, with a date and caption for every picture, and tons of excerpts from journals and emails.)

Charlie just turned one and this is his Christmas gift - I better get to work!