2014 Title Page

I finally finished my 2014 Title page this past week. I've followed the same format for the past few years. I get a picture of all four kids, then I stamp their hands directly on the page. Last year and this year I decided that the handprints might last longer if I heat emboss the ink, so the handprints are shiny in real life. The hardest part for me the last couple of years has been to figure out how to fit the handprints on the page, since Anthony and Alex's hands are pretty big. I had to ask them to squish their fingers together, so that made Anthony's hand look thinner. I should have done an actual comparison and had them put their hands together. I probably could have arranged the handprints a little differently here, but I wasn't about to do this again. The kids surely would have balked.

The kids all then write their names next to their handprints. Eric decided that his name was too far from his handprint, so he drew an arrow. Alex was in his own world as usual and automatically wrote out his whole name and not just his first name.

Usually Patrick will get the heights and weights for me, but he was busy preparing dinner, so I did that this year. Alex was disappointed that he and Anthony were the same exact height--71 1/8 inches tall. They had just weighed themselves when Grandma and Grandpa were here, so they didn't want to get weighed again. Anthony was 147 pounds and Alex was 157.5 pounds. Alex has always had more "meat" to his frame, so this was not surprising.

Natalie has made the most physical change this past year, I think, and I'm not referring to her height and weight. She and Eric both grew a couple of inches and she's gained about 15 pounds since last year--all muscle from swimming, I'm quite sure. I asked Anthony if he thought Eric had changed while he was gone. Anthony replied, "Not really."  When I asked him if he thought Natalie had changed, he said, "Oh yeah."

Eric is just a little guy. He is 45 inches tall and 44 pounds. I just looked it up and Natalie was about that height and weight at the same age. Anthony was that size at about age 5 1/2. Alex was at that size around when he was 2! Eric is still growing, though, slowly but surely. We can certainly tell that he is maturing by the way he talks and moves around.

Yes, my babies are growing, which is good. Whether or not I make another scrapbook page this year, this page is still the most important.