My Favorite Spreads from Avery's Journals

Well, this is my final trip down memory lane as I've been looking back through all the kids' art journals.  Today I went back through Avery's journals.  These are the prettiest ones, obviously, since she's a girl, and I had a hard time narrowing it down to my favorites because of how pretty they all are- ha!  But I got it down to twenty , and here they are...

 

 Had to include the above one- it's about the day we found out we were having a girl- my dream forever!!

 

Here is her birth timeline.

 

 Aaah, picking out little baby girl clothes...

 

 She started smiling as soon as she came home from the hospital!

 

 Her very special blanket, made by both my late grandmother and my mother- she later named it "Gee-gee", and still sleeps with it every night.

 

 Six months old...

 

 This baby was a major drooler!

 

 A page about waving...

 

 Her baptism...

 

 Her obsession with shoes when she was young!

 

 The many faces of Avery!

 

 Fixing little girl hair!

 

 Two years old!

 

 Her first day of preschool...

 

 First haircut...

 

 Moving from a crib to a toddler bed...

 

 Her first dance class...

 

 First dance recital as a bumblebee!

 

 Karate classes...

 

And finally, her fifth birthday...

 

All of her journal pages should be in this Flickr album, if you'd like to see the rest of them.  Thanks for indulging me in this little trip down memory lane for the last few posts!  It's been fun for me to look back over these books, and I hope you guys have enjoyed it, too! 

 

 

My Favorite Spreads from Noah's Journals

Today, I'm going to show you some of my favorite spreads out of Noah's art journals.  Both Riley and Avery ended up with six journals over five years, but somehow Noah only has five.  Poor middle child, I guess, but to make up for it, I feel like I did some of my best work in Noah's books.

 

 While Riley has a separate journal that followed his pregnancy (I just looked, and I don't have that album up on Flickr- I'll have to shoot some photos and add that, for those of you who haven't seen it before), Noah's and Avery's pregnancies are part of these art journals.

 

The above page was from Noah's journal, about finding out we'd be having another boy.

 

 Then here's the spread about his birth...

 

 I've always loved the above spread- he was a little colicky in the beginning, except when I had him in his Moby wrap.

 

 This one's about starting to see little bits of his personality coming out.

 

 Comparing photos of Noah and Riley.

 

 Six months old!

 

 This is about his lovey, a giraffe named Jelly.

 

 One year old!

 

 He loved playing with shapes and designs (he still does!).

 

 Our cat Ashley took a liking to sleeping on Noah's pillow.

 

 First day of preschool...

 

 Three years old!

 

 Noah and his multiple collections...

 

 Learning to swim...

 

 He was such a shy little boy- he didn't talk to any grown-ups for almost a year (except for family).

 

 Learning to whistle...

 

And finally, his fifth birthday!

 

If you'd like to see more spreads from these journals, you can see them here.  Stay tuned, and I'll show you my favorite spreads from Avery's journals next time!

 

My Favorite Spreads From Riley's Journals

 I gathered all the kids' art journals together, and came up with seventeen of them!  I put them up on our mantel to photograph them, and it actually makes quite a pleasing arrangement- maybe I'll keep it that way for a while- ha !

 

 As you can see, I used different sizes of books over the years.

 

 

 Doing the covers was always my favorite part, and I love the look of them all lined up, so that you can see the variations.

 

 I actually think I kind of like the looks of them turned around a little better!  All those pretty fabric ribbons showing...

 

 

 

 

In looking back over all of them, it was hard to choose just a few favorite spreads!  So I thought I'd break the posts down to show a different child's each day. 

 

First we have Riley's journals.

 

 This was the very first spread I did in his journal.  I did one like this in each child's- showing a timeline for their birth. 

 

 The one above talked about needing to stop breast-feeding him.

 

 And this one has a photo of me as a baby, and one of him, wondering who's side of the family he'll resemble.

 

 How soft the top of his head was- oh, to be able to rub my cheek against a baby's head again!

 

 I've always loved the one above- I did it on his six-month "birthday".

 

 Learning to walk....

 

 First haircut!  I also did a page like this for each child, with a bit of their hair from the first haircut.

 

 Just a fun page about those early years of excitement, seen through a child's eyes.

 

 Second birthday...

 

 Letting go of the pacifier!

 

 He was obsessed with the color yellow for a while.

 

 Learning to count to twenty...

 

 The above was from one of his books that was a vertical format- it was hard for me to work that way, so I didn't do another one like that once I finished that book!  The above spread was about his discovery of monster trucks, specifically GraveDigger!

 

 As the kids grew older, there weren't as many "firsts" to document, so this was just a page about simply being four.

 

 Learning how to swim...

 

And the final page in his book- turning five!

 

 

As I look back over these, it's obvious to me how much more time I had in the beginning of the books!  The pages are so much more detailed and thought-out.  By the end, I was simply trying to keep up, so I wasn't spending as much time on each one.  But they're still all very special to me!

 

If you'd like to see more pages from his journals, they are here, in this Flickr album.  I actually think there may be some from early-on that didn't make it into that album (I should update it!), but the vast majority are all there.

 

Next post, I'll show some favorite pages from Noah's journals!