writing a yearly love letter to your children...

each & every year since my first daughter, Jordan, was born i've written love letters to each of my girls on their birthday. in 365 days there is SO much change that goes on while they are young that i want to summarize their year past year in a love letter to them.
i include...

-all of their major changes (like potty training, getting rid of binky's, habits, learning to ride a bike)
-relationships with loved ones & friends & how they have evolved & any new ones that have developed
-what they like to do with their time (play, read, watch movies, be w/ friends, etc) & make sure to include specific mannerisms.
-a list of favorite things
-anything you want to specifically touch on that is significant

it's a great way to start out a "new year" older in their albums & something that i enjoy reading after years go by. it captures their age & really sets things in time.

so many fun ways to do this as well... here are some of my examples...

*this layout is one i "dreamed" up...you know i come up with some of my best ideas just before i drift off to sleep. i took my small circle punch (& you could use any shape) to punch out images from my contact sheets from Costco. the photos are ones from her 2nd year & added a few snip-its of scraps as well.


this layout is using the March 2008 Damask Me No Questions kit. which happens to be one of my all time favorite kits! this is a straight forward letter & photo layout.


for this layout i typed out all her journaling/love notes & cut them apart & scattered them around my photos.

& in doing this blog entry i realized i never did Jordan's 10 year birthday letter...off to double check but it's not in my gallery...hmmm!