For his birthday, we wanted to present Zeb with a keepsake to commemorate his first decade. Something to have forever to remind him of his friends, family or favorite things now and over the past 10 years. I had originally thought of doing a traditional scrapbook until Justin’s aunt introduced us to her bff, Teri who helped me create this awesome keepsake.
A lot of time, sweat and tears (oh, a whole lotta tears) went into this project. Friends and family contributed what they could. And I spent several 10+ hour days trying to crank this puppy out in time to have it shipped for his birthday. And it was worth everything when my 10 year baby cuddled up with me and asked me to read it to him.
The book is professionally printed and bound and looks *amazing*. It chronicles his “Story” – from how I found out I was pregnant, to choosing his name, all the way to to present day favorites. I included pages with letters and favorite memories of his grandparents and silly poems from his friends. The effect it had on Zeb was wonderful. He was and still is in awe when he reads it. 
I really can’t say enough good things about this company. I just wish I had given myself enough time to add more!
And because we so loved our book, I sweet-talked Teri into being a blog sponsor. Yay! If you’re looking for something really unique, extremely well-made and totally inspiring (anything from a storybook like ours to a personalized deck of cards!), be sure to check out her site. The company is amazing and Teri’s even available through email or phone to help you. Her link will be found in my sidebar for awhile.
If you’re considering making a book like this, take my advice: The program was simple for me to use (all of it was drag and drop and easy enough to edit) and they offer thousands of really great embellishments. It’s a lot like scrapbooking but I enjoyed it more. However, give yourself plenty of time.Going through hundreds of photos, uploading, organizing my thoughts and editing would have gone so much smoother had I given myself at least a month or more (not including the week for printing and shipping). There are so many things I wish I had remembered and so much more I wish I had done.
That being said, with only a week to work on it, I’m so happy with it. And most importantly, so is Zeb!
If you’re interested, you can see all the pages and read most of the text here.
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
What a great idea and it looks fabulous Tara. I’ve been wanting to do this for both the boys telling the story of their birth and babyhood. Maybe this will get me inspired. Thanks
I have a friend that was doing this for her father last Christmas. She talked often about Heritage Makers, but I wasn’t really sure what it was all about. After hearing more about it, I will be looking into doing something for the boys.
What an awesom gift…I read through some of it on twitter. He will cherish this for life, great job mom! kim
Oh that’s a lovely gift. I have seen things like this and I think they are amazing keepsakes. I’m going to look at more of the pages.
What a great gift! It looks amazing and I’m sure Zeb is pleased as punch with it. And well done for doing it in a week!
What an awesome gift! Love it!
I wonderful idea! It looks amazing!
Tara, I loved this book! I looked through all of the pictures/captions on Flickr. Thank you for sharing this with us.
That is SO cool! What an amazing gift. I would love to do something so special for each of my boys when they turn 10. I think I better get started now…!
What a gift. This is amazing!
That book is beautiful! How did you ever narrow down which pictures to use??? I want to make one for Michael’s first year, but I am imagining lots of pictures per page. But then, I have to save room for writing!
That turned out SO FANTASTIC! I’m definitely going to have to look into doing something like this for Silas. I like the idea of it being for birthday #10, that gives me almost two years to plan for it.
What a great gift idea – it looks amazing!
What a wonderful gift!
Been wanting to do something like that for Jack but it never quite happened. I think the kids would love it.
Thanks for the tip. I better start organising now.
that is so neat! perfect way to celebrate a decade.
Great, now I have to go check them out, and probably spend my money too! Dang all you great bloggy-buddies who insist on reviewing really neat stuff that I can’t resist! LOL
I’m guilty of it too, though. *chuckle*
Hey Tara! I just stumbled upon your book on flickr, and then found your blog from there. I LOVE this book! I’m currently working on a similarly themed book for my daughter. I actually thought I was finished, but then I happened across your photos and I fell in love with this book! Anyway…I have a teensy favor to ask…could you possibly share this book with me through HM so I can use it? I’m actually doing a 5×7 book, so I’ll have to change it some, but I just love the look of it. My acct # is 379030 Thanks!