40 years later...

40 years later and this is all of our family (Neil & I). Neil's mom is on the far left. There are 25 of us all together! Whooppee! We have 11 grandchildren. This is how we celebrated our 40th anniversary! All our children and families came together for Christmas and we spent it at Neil's mom's home. What a blast!

Top row on wall left to right-QuintinWard, Tyler Gleed, Adelaide Newby & Brynnly Ward, Braxton Ward, Lauren Gleed

2nd Row-LaRue Newby, McKenna Gleed, Brooklynn Gleed, Matilda Newby, Zachary Ward,

3rd Row-Valdine Guptill (Neil's mom), Douglas & Ashley Guptill, Neil & Diana (Mom & Dad), Lisa & Jordan Newby, Angela & David Guptill, Julie & Bob Ward, Michelle & Chris Gleed
Chair-Kirsten Guptill

This is a recent picture of Neil at his cousin's daughter's wedding.

This was taken earlier this year.


This was taken at our wedding reception a few weeks after we were married, way back in the day, 40 years ago!

A lovely picture of this very young couple, 40 years ago!

A picture I took earlier this year for Valentines Day. Yes! I kept the wedding cake top piece! The decoupage plaque is of our wedding invitation. It was 'the thing to do' back then to decoupage your invitation.

As you can see, 40 years later, the cake top piece shows signs of wear. Ahh, so does the bride and groom! :o)

December 24, 1969 Neil and I were married in the Arizona Temple in Mesa, Arizona. I remember the day vividly! It was Christmas Eve and the weather was 75 degrees, sunny, clear and gorgeous! It didn't feel like Christmas! Neil was in the Air Force. He did his four year tour and in 1970 that ended and we moved up to Oregon to be near his family. He went to college and I worked.

We have 6 beautiful children. All, except Kirsten our special needs daughter, have married wonderful spouses and 3 of them have beautiful children. The other two have only been married just over a year. We're blessed to have Kirsten still with us. She turns '20' on April 2, 2010.

I don't know where those 40 years went! Some times it seems like it's been forever and other times I can hardly believe it's been 40 years! We are happily married and hope to make it to our golden anniversary, ten more years from now.

What have I learned over the past 40 years?

Gravity takes over, curves pull downward and are not as firm! Wrinkles come more often!

Marriage takes work, every day of your life!

You learn to compromise. Neil is my other half. We are not the boss over each other.

Being 'right' is dumb. Agree and move on!

Forgiveness is divine!

See the best in each other. That takes work!

Be a cheerleader for each other.

Be selfless, not self absorbed.

Never take each other for granted.

Somehow our personalities reversed! I am like he used to be. He is like I used to be. Hmm. That's a good thing.

Forgetfulness occurs. I sure wish our brains had 'instant reply' when I've lost something I'm looking for!

Our mountains have turned into molehills.

You spend far less time worrying over mundane things!

It's dumb to be mad and pouting, uses too much energy. Just move on!

I've learned to just wait until the final moment for events to occur, his mind changes often like a revolving door. Just stay tuned in because at the last minute things fall into place.

The garage is my husband's lair. I have right of passage...to go through it!

Live, love and laugh a lot!

Tillieisms!

Tillie, the Official Quality Control Tester! She loved eating the peanut butter ball dough!

LaRue did a great job with rolling out her peanut butter balls. She also loved eating them too!

This is Adelaide and her cute little self and smile! She left no cupboard door unexplored!

The finished product! We made advent stockings.

A Christmas Advent Stocking. I printed and cut out all the ornaments and put them in a snack size Zip Lok baggie. I stored it inside the stocking, good please to keep it and not lose it! In the above picture I had laid out the ornaments for both sides of the stocking to see if they would all fit!

Tillieisms...

Lisa and her three beautiful daughters spent a week with us following Thanksgiving. Jordan was at home working, going to school and doing clinicals. Our week was full of laughter and of course a few tearful moments, and sibling rivalry, the norm. Tillie just turned '3' in November. I had forgotten what a 3-year old is like. I never laughed so hard in my life. It was so funny and enlightening! :o) Here are a few Tillieisms. Tillie talks with a lot of 'enthusiasm, diction and drama!' :o)

'Grandma! Your toys are wonderful!'

'This is awesome!'

Mom told her to pick up a Hello Kitty Bingo game...there were a lot of discs...Tillie: 'This is going to be difficult!'

LaRue and Tillie are in the backseat of my van. Tillie does not want to hear her sister LaRue anymore...Tillie: 'La, la, la, la, la, la, la..then bursts into song...Rain, rain, go away, rain in LaRue's eyes! La, la, la, la, la, la, la. I'm not listening to you!'

Another ride in the van...Tillie to LaRue...'No, no, you don't understand, I want my privacy!'

Same ride in van...Tillie: (she's talking away to herself and ends with this...) 'but you don't understand me!'

Me (grandma) to Tillie...'Tillie, you have to pick up all the game pieces before you can plan another game, okay?' Tillie: 'No problem Grandma!'

Mom (Lisa) telling Tillie on several occasions to do such and such...Tillie: (With total body language, eyes rolling up and exasperation in her tone) 'Aaahhhh!' She then marched off and did whatever it was her mom told her to do.

NEXT-

LaRue is in kindergarten and doing so well! She missed this past week being up here but had a journal she was to keep. Her mom would write one sentence of what laRue wanted had to say. LaRue drew a picture of what that sentence was about. She is reading more and more every day. She takes the time to sound out the letters, figure out the words and then say them. I was quite impressed! She was quite helpful in the kitchen too. It was fun watching her and Tillie help Lisa and I make my annual Christmas peanut butter balls. I dip them in chocolate after a few days. They were my volunteer work crew getting them all made! LaRue did her best to roll her little peanut butter balls. I gave both her and Tillie their own little pan. It was a bit much for Tillie to roll them out. I gave her a new job description, Official Quality Control Tester! Tillie: 'Oh Grandma, this taste sooo good! This is sooo yummy!' She ate handfuls!

Adelaide is such a cute cherub! She has the cutest little chubby body! She smiles a lot! She has her mom wrapped around her finger. I'm sorry to be a tough love grandma sometimes. Sometimes kids just need to cry it out and figure it out. The minute Lisa picks Adelaide up, it's a miracle! No tears, no crying just pure satisfaction that she has conquered all and is quite happy to be carried around by her mother! Adelaide can stand up and balance herself and can take two steps before 'bottoming out!' She is just so cute!

I made Christmas construction paper chains with LaRue and Tillie and attached the chain to a large paper bell. They enjoyed making the chains and also taking off a chain link each day. I also made Christmas Advent Stockings for them. I glued the edges together and then punched holes down the sides for them to lace up with yarn. I made 24 paper ornaments from my pccrafter clipart program and cut them out. I put an 'x' with a number for days 1-24. It took both sides of the stocking. Each day they glued on an ornament. LaRue and Tillie, with help, sewed the yarn around the edges. They did a great job! They liked gluing on their ornaments. I sent their crafts home with them to continue until Christmas.

It was fun having them all here and we'll see them soon. Lisa wants to come up for a few days when Bob and Julie and their kids arrive. It hasn't been dull at Grandpa and Grandma's home!

(I still haven't figured out how to separate my paragraphs, everything runs together. I put paragraphs in but they never show up! Grrr!)