Lilly's memorial tree notebook

We've all been enjoying Lilly's memorial tree this year. January was (and will always be) "angel month." We received so many special angels from people to hang on the tree. I was afraid we would forget who sent what, so I made a special notebook to keep track of them all.

In the notebook I made a divider tab for each month. Behind "January" I glued a picture of every angel that we received. (Plus what we started with - Lilly's own angel ornaments and some T. and I made.) I wrote the name of each person that sent the ornament. And if there was a story they shared about their ornament, I put that in too.

I figure the notebook will be a good keepsake. Plus, whoever inherits the tree (probably T.), will have the story for all the ornaments compiled in one place.

We decided that we will change the decorations each month on the 4th, since that would be an anniversary of Lilly's, being born July 4. So tomorrow is the day for February! The kids and I made some paper hearts for the tree, and T. and I have been sewing stuffed hearts to hang too. I have some fabric markers and we're writing on the stuffed hearts too. "Mamma Loves Lilly" and "Jesus Loves Lilly" etc.


I got some plastic tote bins to store the monthly ornaments in. Tomorrow's the 4th so we'll remember Lilly by changing out the angels for hearts.

We continue to collect ideas about preserving and sharing memories. One I found earlier this week was on Ali's blog (a little girl that lived over 2 years with Trisomy 13). Her mama has put together a baby board book of pictures of Ali for her baby sister. She ordered it from:
http://mycustomstory.com/ I thought this was such a neat idea and am looking forward to making one of Lilly for our baby-on-the-way. So many wonderful, comforting and healing ideas out there!

"The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." - Psalm 33:5b