how we keep and record memories

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing the process of how we keep and record our memories. Our photos, our moments, our us.  I am happy to share with you how I compile all of our family memories because I simply love keeping memories.  I will share the five main ways that I keep memories and photos for our family.   That is, photos, phrases, tidbits, the simple moments, that we moms keep along the way to remember our precious ones.  I love to keep and record memories, it is a huge part of who I am.  As a mom, time runs thin, and my long days of detailed scrapbooking are definitely over, but I have found my groove and wanted to share it here!

I have perfected my own system for how to record all of the stuff and I hope my sharing of our system will give you new ideas for how to keep and record your own precious memories.

I divide my memory keeping into five parts:

I will have a blog post on each of the following parts, so stay tuned for in-depth details about each element for how we keep and record memories!

• every six month photo albums: every 6 months, I compile our best pictures into beautiful shutterfly photo albums

• school memories notebooks: for each individual child’s school and art work

• family project life album: our compilation of all things for our family, from our wedding invitations to my birth stories to important Christmas cards

• a project life album for each child: each child has a two-page spread per month in their album, and throughout each month, I write memories down on project life cards to include for that month’s spread

• memory boxes: every family member has a box for cards and other memorabilia that won’t fit into an album

 When my children are 18-ish, they will have:

• their school notebooks: one per year is overkill.  this is what I’m doing now, and I’m sure I’ll sparse things down later.
• their memory box: for all of their cards and other items that wouldn’t fit in an album {project life does have envelope slips for this purpose}
• project life albums {probably 4 per child}
• **This will not be a part of the series, because I won’t be making these yet, but this is my intention : I will also make a Shutterfly album for the children with just two of their best photos from each year, to be given to them when they are 18 years old. So, they will each have one shutterfly album as a culmination of gorgeous photos {this will be truly difficult to sparse down the best — but I already have created a folder, in my iPhoto, and have chosen favorites for each of the kids’ years}.

After my kids are grown, I will have:

• our family project life albums {going on about 5 years in each album, since they only touch on highlights}
• shutterfly albums every six months {I love that these can be remade in case either of the kids wants a copy}
• I will *try* to copy, as in xerox, my children’s project life albums, which I think will be completely do-able and affordable by that time.
• mini project life albums for fall and christmas, highlighting moments from each year’s holiday {this is not a part of the series, but I will be sharing about this in more detail at a later time when they are more completed!}
• our memory boxes for additional memorabilia

I hope you will enjoy these posts and this journey I am on in keeping and recording our family memories!!  Thanks so much for reading!!

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