Just an idea...

I love history and I have always been fascinated with old photos, letters, artifacts, etc. My mom is really into geneology and she is always trying to find old pictures and other things that help her get a better idea of her family heritage and history.

I often think about how years from now my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will look back at Scott and I wonder what they will think or us and our lives. Will they know who we really were as individuals and not just as parents? Will they know we had strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will they know how much we loved each other and the experiences we had in our marriage? Each day we are writing our own history and I want my posterity to have the opportunity to learn it.

Turning my blog into a book (which I mentioned in a post last night) is one way I hope to accomplish this. I contemplated erasing all of the questionnaire posts, but then I thought...my grandchildren might want to know "The Unknown Side of Me" so why not leave it in there?

One other thing that I do to help preserve my history is to write letters to my children.

When Caden was born I decided to write him a letter at the end of each year telling him all of the things he accomplished that year, experiences he had or our family had, what he was like at that time, thoughts, feelings or just the things that I appreciate and love about him. I wish I had something in writing from my parents so I could read about what I was like growing up. Of course, they tell me stories and I have pictures and things to help remind me, but something personal, like a letter from your parents is priceless to me.

So I have done this for Caden before and today I finished my letter to him and Abbie for 2008. Writing it is always challenge trying to remember all the important stuff and putting into words the feelings you have as a mother, but I love this experience. It helps me reflect on each of my children and how special they are to me and our family. I hope one day they love and cherish these letters as much as I do.