Dear Diary

I started this 'Blog' thing to keep friends and family up to date on what was going on with Will while he was in Afghanistan. Sometimes I 'Blog' for fun, but lately I've decided that I really need to use this wonderful tool as a journal. You know those times when your child does something amazingly funny or says something really smart or looks super cute and you think that you will NEVER forget that moment and how he/she sounded and what they looked like. That you'll never forget that special memory with a loved one or a friend and have eternally etched in your mind what they said? Well, I've come to realize that...I forget.

I was really, really good at recording things when I only had Jay. I had his first year of 'firsts' on a calendar and all kinds of information that he would never care about in his adulthood, all recorded, very responsibly and energetically on a calendar. As well as his baby book. Jay has two FULL 12 x 12 Creative Memories scrapbooks...my girls have 1 that's maybe 1/2 full. Sadly, all my scrap booking efforts completely stopped about 1 year after I had Emma.

Too much cutting out and too many cute paper choices and it was so hard to be original with every page. Mine always turned out looking exactly the same but with pictures of different sizes and different colors of paper. All square. All framed. All predictable.

So everyone, welcome to my scrapbook!

I've been making a Blurb book of my blog the last few weeks (AWE-some) and looking back at the pictures from only one year ago and realizing how fast my kids have grown and reading and seeing things that I had totally forgotten about. So this here blog is now my scrapbook and my journal, which it kind of has been already, but now I must add more interesting only to me information that I'm sure no one else will care to know. Nothing revealing, just some of those - I'll-always-remember-when moments...that's I'm sure I'll forget!

So here's one.

We measured all the kids on Friday. Here are the results since I won't be recording them on a calendar for each of the kids and I won't be able to drag my broom closet door with me wherever I go to remember my kids heights at what ages.

Jay - 6 ft 1/8 inches (not including the carpet of hair on his head) at age 14

Katie Jane - 5 ft 5 inches at age 12

Lauren - 5 ft at age 11

Emma - 4 ft 2 inches at age 6 (almost 7)

Doesn't almost every home have a measuring mark door? My grandma Jane had one in her kitchen and we even measured our Cabbage Patch Kids dolls on it! It's flooded with markings and it's a treasure! Our measuring door is my broom closet door - or my vacuum closet door because that's my broom. I almost had to get a step stool to write Jay's information on the edge of the door. The kids love measuring how tall they have gotten and all four of them have grown at least an inch each since June 1, 2009. Lauren was most especially excited because she was convinced that she had stopped growing. Go Lauren! Go Lauren!

So now, when I finish my Blurb book, I can always look back through it's pages and remember how tall my kids were on October 16, 2009 without having to decipher which line goes with which date and which child's name, and hopefully remember all the neat things a mom always tries to find room in her brain to remember about her children!

The sad part is, is that I'm 12 1/2 years behind already. What's that saying? Oh yeah...one day at a time.