How Do You Document Your Kids Lives?

Digital photo books. We make one each year. I also take pics of her cutest artwork from that year and include it, as well.

Uh-oh.
We're supposed to be documenting?
Darn! Lol

I use Creative Memories Memory Manager software and an external hard drive (everything is backed up on that and it's stored in a fireproof safe). The Memory Manager system lets me create virtual "sort boxes" by any category I want. Then I can use their Story Book Creator software to make a book or photo gift, either a big one of their life, or a small one of an event or special memory. It's so nice to have everything in one place!

I have scrap-book calendars for each year of each of my children's lives. I put pictures from that month on the top part, and then I write in things we do each day/week to document their lives. I also have a journal for each child, and when something really special or traumatic happens, I write a letter in the journal to my child, telling them about the situation and such.

I don't know if they'll appreciate these as they grow or not, but it's been wonderful for me. When my daughter was born, I pulled out the calendar from my son's first year and I was able to see what we had done for various things with him, it helped remind me of techniques, and it was just fun to see what each of them had done when. Those calendars are my most treasured possessions. ^_^

If you're the type to be that organized to keep up with scrapbooking and such go for it. But even a bin or box is better than nothing.

I have a bin for their drawings and such and also have them keep up with a book of drawings from stories I tell or read to them. I have pictures I put together according to the year. I also keep a journal often mentioning what is going on with them and the things they do and say. They'll read it when they're adults someday.

I'm like you. I have tons of half-projects. The only thing I've been able to stick to and keep up to date with is the snapfish photo albums. I get the largest one possible and make it the annual family photo album. I keep it up to date by adding photos all throughout the year, and then at end of the year, I'll purchase it once the last photos are made (I always include at least one photo of New Year's Eve). I like them because it's easier to use (shutterfly infuriated me with a couple silly glitches after I'd invested time, snapfish hasn't done that to me, and kodakgallery has now moved to shutterfly)....Walmart.com has them also but I just stick with snapfish. I'm happy with their site, happy with the quality, and they have a buy 1 get 2 free deal a few times a year and that is good for smaller projects or gifts for the grandmas. I do smaller little photo books through snapfish for special things for each boy.
I do love to scrapbook! I really love it. But it takes a long time for me because it's something I need to be "inspired" to do. I've woefully behind, but I do some journaling, letters or lessons to them from me (done with some art), as well as more traditional types of scrapbooking. Digital is cool, but sometimes I just want to cut and do more actual hands-on stuff as an outlet for my creativity.
I have photo boxes that are tabbed by year and big events, and someday I'll get off my bum and put those in albums. But not today...

I scrapbook!! I keep all the pictures on Shutterfly and also on our own backup hard drive. I print out all of the pictures from the time I last scrapped until the current date and scrap those. I usually only scrap a total of 5x per year but two of those times are full weekends (Fri-Sun) with friends/family. I do have a scrapbooking table set up in our basement but can't seem to find the time to go down there and do it! I also journal for all the events in my scrapbook so the kids can read what happened and not just look at the pictures. I also keep track of different milestones in a journal and I sometimes ONLY scrap the information in the journal entry (for example I'll have an entire page written about her first day of school and turning five) in addition to the pictures I took.

I have a small book that I document both of my kids' 'sayings's. These are just funny or random things they have said to me in the past. I keep it at work so when I get to work in the mronings, I can jot down any funny sayings or stories from the night before.

I use my scrapbooks like 'baby' books - it contains pictures as well as all the necessary information on when they crawled, walked, etc.

I do not blog. I do update FB but I also have those pictures on my Shutterfly account. I keep a few art projects/papers and classroom papers from my daughter's class and will put those in her scrapbook so she can see what she was doing at the different ages. I also have a box for each child and I put some of their art work/school stuff in there. I figure when it's full, I will go through and keep only a few things. I have a family scrapbook that includes the events we do together and pictures of us together and then each of my children' have their own scrapbook so when they get married, they can take those with them. The family ones will be split up when hubby and I die so each of the kids gets a few.

Three-ring binders. As the parent of a special needs kiddo, I have to document EVERYTHING - school, medical, even her "recreational" activities. We have pix on our computers but otherwise it's strictly business with documenting my daughter's life.

Photos saved.

I have a book documenting all of his stages, cute things he'd sone & said etc kept in a firesafe.

I have a scrapbook for my SD w/all of her cute drawings . Also, in the firesafe.

Then I have a plastic bin of their cute artwork.

Photos are all printed out & kept in boxes. Then hubby keeps some on the computer (he saves them to a disc? He saves them on something in case our computer crashes.). That's about all I have time for. It's not much but it's what I can do. :(

I just save all my digital photos by year in folder of the event. So under 2011 we have: birthday, anniversary, summer vacation, thanksgiving, christmas, visit to grandma, zoo visit, etc. Each folder has the digital photos in it. I also make Picasa albums that I give captions so I can share my digital photos with family by just sending them the link.
But now that they are teens there are less and less photos from going to the playground or the animal farm or apple picking, etc. so perhaps it is easier than when they were little. And when they were little I had a 35mm camera so I would print all the pictures and only put the best in an album.
PS: make sure to save digital photos in more than 1 location. I save them on my hard drive in the computer, but also on a back-up drive twice (photos, back-up photos) incase a sector or whole drive goes bad. And even if they are back up, you need to re-copy them in about 5-8 years since digital storage only lasts so long. Laptop computers are especially problematic because there is not much room in the case for air and fans. The only way to make sure your data will not be lost is to backup your data on a regular basis. Best practices will have you store a copy of your backup data off-site, preferably in a secure location that will not be affected by any disaster that may destroy your home or office.

We take tons of pictures and I keep a journal of all the cute little things they say and do.

I do a photo book each year after his birthday. I use Shutterfly, Snapfish, iPhoto, whatever site I get a free book coupon from. It's really easy to hit the highlights of the year and I don't ever get behind!

Just regular photo albums.
I also kept a large "school days" scrapbook for each kid, which included photos, artwork, certificates/awards, report cards, etc. from preschool through elementary school.