I'll tell ya little story. We bought a Sony hi-8 digital camera in '99. Cost about $1000. Well, we made lots of family movies and now the kids are having a ball looking at this old footage of them when they were little.
Keep rolling tape on the kids!
I bought my first videocam in 1988 - the shoulder mount VHS variety. It cost $1600 ~ which was a huge sum of money to me at the time.
A few years ago I started converting all my family vids to DVD. I did a lot of editing to keep them interesting. I sent copies to each of the kids and they really enjoy them.
I will say this ~ you can't shoot too much video of your family growing up! Tapes only cost a couple of bucks. Shoot hours and hours of footage. Years later you will really be happy you were a videocam Dad/Mom.
Think long term ~ this is stuff several generations on down the line will watch someday. Someday you'll be gone and the kids will be showing this stuff to their grandkids and great-grandkids. Videos shot today will become Thanksgiving and Christmas family gathering classics several years from now.