{adapted and updated from a post a few years back}
If you read this post,
then you remember that I’m an only child.
And if you read this post and this post, then you know that memories are something I cherish.
And maybe that’s the reason that as a child I was obsessed with my Mom’s stories about her adventures {and mis-adventures} with her brother and sister.
From the time they dared each other to jump off the roof so they could feel the “zi-zee’s” in their feet, to the time they convinced the neighbor girl to lick the melted Popsicle in the freezer until her tongue got stuck–these were stories I made my mom and aunt tell me over and over.
And then I remember sifting through the pages of my Mom’s high school yearbooks and photo albums time and time again. I had those pages memorized. The page where she was pictured in her cheer leading uniform. The one where she was all dressed up for prom with her high school sweetheart. The one with her Charlie’s Angels hair do. And the one where she was riding the dirt bike in her ripped jeans.
I stared at these photos and imagined her life before being my momma.
My mom’s memories have always been special to me.
A few years ago, she had those memories in mind when she gave me one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever.
A Mommy Memory Box of my own,
so that I could begin collecting my important memories for the boys.
She even filled the box with some of the memories that she had been collecting over the years,
and I have since added a few items myself.
My baby book. Put together by my Mom.
You guys, look at the first name written as an option if I was a boy.
I didn’t discover this until Wesley was about 6 months old. Crazy huh!
As in the t-shirts, bedsheets, dolls and Tiger Beat posters kind of obsessed.
Team Jordan all the way.
The keychain to my first car. My middle school basketball button.
Each of these items tells a story about a milestone, meltdown or memory that have made me the ME I am today–the memories that have made me the mother, wife, daughter and friend I am today.
Thank you for teaching me the value of memories.
What memories have you been holding onto for years?
17 Comments
Katie
May 15, 2013 at 10:22 amMy mom was a total tom boy who followed her older brother and his friends everywhere. One friend of my uncles in particularly despised that my mom followed them everywhere. Fishing, skipping rocks, feeding the farm animals, etc. Well long story…short….that friend of my Uncles, married my mom! They are celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary in July!
I love to hear my dad tell the story of how my mom transformed in his eyes from the annoying tom boy to someone he couldn’t take his eyes off of! 🙂
jual besi beton sni
March 22, 2016 at 2:22 amWhat a lovely story…
sew~amy
May 15, 2013 at 1:44 pmI am like your mom and have a huge baby book filled to the max of info and documents for each of my 2 children. I hope one day they will love and appreciate them as much as you do yours. My daughter is turned 18 in January and leaving for college in Aug… I have 3 full books of her life documented, I am going to fill lost when she leaves and I don’t have anything else to document.
Margaret
May 15, 2013 at 7:08 pmIt’s hard when children leave home but I think you will still have things to document, it will just be different. When my daughter left for university she sent me emails and I have printed some of them and when we visited her I would take photos, so there are still memories to preserve. You could make a special “My time at college” book for her.
Margaret
May 15, 2013 at 2:27 pmThat’s a beautiful memory box you have, what a thoughtful gift from your Mom. I’m an only child too and very sadly lost my Mum when I was just 7 years old (she had cancer), so memories are very important to me and I have kept everything I could get my hands on of my Mum’s, photos, jewellery, everything. And now I’m the same with my children, I keep every little memento and keepsake and have made memory boxes for them to remember their own childhoods. I’m in the process of putting together an album full of family history for them so the information is there for them when they have questions. That’s amazing that your Mom had chosen Wesley as a name for you!!
Lani @ Elle Dee Designs
May 15, 2013 at 2:31 pmI had that tape too! Now I’m wishing I had saved it! Great memories.
Becca L.
May 15, 2013 at 2:55 pmMan, I wish I had saved my NKOTB cassette! This is so great! You are inspiring me to make one for my son!
Lisa
May 15, 2013 at 6:37 pmYour husband was a missionary! That’s awesome…My son is on a mission right now.
Misty
May 15, 2013 at 6:46 pmI love this idea, I started one for my Logan a little while after he was born, I go through it from time to time. I have his little beanie they gave him at the hospital sealed up in a ziplock, it still smells like baby. 🙂
xoxo,
Misty
Andrea Worley
May 15, 2013 at 7:29 pmlove this idea, love that you have a NKOTB cassette
Ashley
May 15, 2013 at 9:08 pmStopping by from http://Www.thepinningmama.com! I am so happy to hear that you appreciate all of the special memories that your mom put in that box. I have a box for both my kiddos. I joke and say that they prb won’t even care, but oh I so hope they do! Even I enjoy going through them even though the oldest isn’t even 3. 🙂
Mique
May 15, 2013 at 9:13 pmI love everything about this. I’m the ultimate memory hoarder. I have a hard time parting with things because every little thing holds sentimental value to me. So it’ll come as no surprise to you that I have Josh’s missionary badge, a crown like that and you have seen some of my flattering teenage pics. I love that your mom gave you the box. And I could almost see you sitting there listening to your mom and aunt’s stories. xoxo
bradey
May 16, 2013 at 1:00 amI’m glad I’m not the only one with a box like this. I actually have one for my “marriage memories,” one that has things from my childhood, and one for my daughter. I am very very sentimental. One of the biggest things I hold on to are pictures. I don’t have many from my childhood, and I want to be able to look back when my memory fails me so I don’t ever really forget.
Thanks for sharing. <3
Liz
May 16, 2013 at 1:41 pmI believe I have that same KNOTB tape!!! What a trip to look back! Thanks for sharing (PS love the basketball curls!)
LB
accordingtol.com
cassaundra hull
May 19, 2013 at 7:28 amreally cute idea
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