This past January when we were visiting my sister Celeste in Salt Lake City during Alt Summit, Henry saw that both of his little cousins had ‘baby books’. They were sweet picture books my sister had printed about their birth and the first few months of life. Henry was obsessed with them! He looked at them over and over again and I was determined to make him one when we came home. I kind of felt bad we hadn’t done something like this before, we took all these photos and they’ve just been sitting on our computer for no one to enjoy!

When Pinhole Press, one of our sponsors, offered to print one for us I took them up on it! After looking at the different options, I went with their panoramic storybook which makes it easy to incorporate words and images into a story.

I really liked the idea of the book telling a story. It was hard to get into the mindset of story writing, but once I did it was really fun to write it as I thought Henry would enjoy it. I wrote it all in the third person, talking about a little baby named Henry and his adventures and experiences with his parents the first year of his life.

I tried to include little jokes and other silly notes he’d think was funny like what things baby Henry would cry about, what a mess he made with his first rice meal, and how his first friend was a stuffed sock. I also tried to include pictures of trips we went on and his favorite toys. Things I wanted him to remember about his first year.

Keep reading for more snippets from Henry’s baby book…

The book was really easy to put together. It’s designed to be that way with not too many options to make your head spin. You can pick the design of each page from a template and can swap images in and out until things look right. It took maybe 3-4 hours of work, combing through pictures and putting it all together. Henry helped me while we made it and was counting down the days for it to arrive. He was so excited to read it.

This will truly be book we will cherish for a long time. I’m really so glad I made it! Find out more about Pinhole Press storybooks right here.

For other moms out there, do you make baby books for your children? If not, do you have other brilliant ideas for using all those baby pictures?