Baby Books

You are not a bad mom if you don't have baby books.
They are tough to keep up with, and honestly the nice ones can be really expensive! Not everyone is into scrapbooking or keeping up with everything, and that's perfectly fine.
Here's how I do it. We have three children and they each have a "Baby Box". The boxes are stored inside the top of our guest room closet.
I have three more boxes that store other things because these containers came in a set of six. I'll tell ya what's in the other three later!

Each box holds..

• a specific baby book that you can find at baby stores, Target, etc.
• a 12X12 scrapbook
• an accordion folder
• baby clothes and other keepsakes

This box is Henry's. It's his birthday today! This is his Baby Book:

It has the pre-typed spaces to fill in certain things and I've tried to keep it up. I am pretty good to keep my personal blog updated, so I sit down with it every 6 months or so and fill in things. I also have pictures just stuck in there and when I have the time I cut them and tape them down on the appropriate pages.

Here is the accordion folder. This is where I keep his birthday cards, Bible class papers and papers from preschool. I DO NOT keep them all. No No No. I am very selective and only keep the special ones.

I also have a 12X12 scrapbook in there. I am not into scrapbooking. I did these before I had the actual boxes to store things in. This is where I put things from his newborn days that did not fit or have a place in the Baby Book. I cut out the written notes people sent me when he was born and taped them in here so they were easy to find.

I had access to an ultrasound machine every day, so that is why I have an unfair amount of pretty 3D ultrasound pictures!

Also in the box are some of his sweet newborn clothes and pictures. It's nice to have these items all in the same place.

When the kids get something I know I want to put into his or her box, I usually just set them on the top of the box inside the closet (out of the reach of little hands). Then when I have some extra time and think about it, I will pull the boxes down and try to put the things where they belong. I usually do this after birthdays since we have invitations, new pictures, birthday cards and pediatric check-ups around that time and it seems to be a good time to look back at their little things, too.

*The boxes came from Bargain Hunt, but you can get that style basically anywhere. The baby books came from either Carter's or Babies R Us. The scrapbooks are from Hobby Lobby (40% off coupon or 50% off sale week). The accordion folders are from WalMart.