Fingerprints on my heart! Grandchildren...

They come, little and big, with their giggles and wiggles.

They fill the house with laughter, requests, and sometimes...

there may be a few tears along with little tempers.

They are so sweet! Their eyes wide with enthusiasm,

inquisitiveness and even a little 'mischief' here and there.

I love the 'positive and enthusiasm' these little ones have!

'Can't do' or 'No' isn't acceptable to them. 'Yes, I can!'

'I will!' 'I have to!' Their little bodies come with Tigger springs!

They have GIANT spirits cramped in those little wriggly bodies

just waiting to come out!

Then our home is quiet.

What evidence is left when those little ones disappear?

Little hand prints and little fingerprints

and little kiss impressions left on windows and furniture.

Little sayings, crayon drawing and colorings on the

door of the refrigerator.

How soon will those get washed away

and fine art put away?

Oh, in a month or two!

I'm a long distance Grandma and

seeing those little 'reminders'

warms my heart! ♥

Family Time!

Julie and Zachary (age 6) and Braxton (age 3) came to visit us this past weekend. Bob was at a national volleyball tournament and didn't come and Quintin and Brynnly were still in school. So Julie came with her two little boys as it was her school spring break. It was fun having them here and we did miss having Bob, Quintin and Brynnly here too. :o(

While they were here I took them to our wonderful little bakery in our little town. It has the yummiest goodies in there!

Zachary loved his chocolate doughnut bar! I love his expression!

Braxton is down to serious business with his chocolate doughnut!

Julie is taking a bite out of her carmel frosted apple fritter! Oh, those are so yummy!

Yesterday I took Julie and the boys and Kirsten to the 'Fishin' Hole! Julie and I helped Zachary and Braxton catch two fish! I don't have any pictures because they are on Julie's cell phone camera memory card. I thought I brought my camera along and when we got there I dug in my purse to no avail. However, when we got back home and I took Kirsten's coat off, there was the camera in her coat hood! Bahhh! I forgot I put it there so it would be handy to grab to take pictures. The boys had a great time and caught two fish! We also fed fish food pellets to the fish. We saw peacocks, ducks, chickens, a goat and lots of fish!

Two years ago Kirsten's class went to this same fishery and had a ball.

Zachary riding down the hall on the push motorcycle. That toy was quite a hit!

Braxton loved playing with Kirsten's therapy ball!

Just sitting and watching some t.v.! :o)

Zachary and Braxton loved to play 'accident' and call for am ambulance. Here is Braxton as an accident victim! I'd check his body over for injuries, each time he was 'A-okay!'

Zachary liked the motorcycle and it got to be competitive at times to take turns!

We went to David and Angela's on Monday and took dinner over. This was taken after dinner. Time to settle back and let dinner settle in our tummies!

David painted their nursery lavender with a white ceiling and it's so pretty! They have everything all set up. Angela's mom, Barbara, cross-stitched this picture for her daughters, she has 3, and had it in their bedroom. Now Angela has it in their nursery! It's such a cute picture!

Angela has a zoo theme going on. This is a cute plate cover for the light switch.

Here is an elephant night light.

A glimpse of the top curtain panel with white blinds.

A cute lamp. Goofy the dog needs his nose glued back on. It had a little accident when it fell and the nose came off. Angela said it's been glued on several times from when she grew up with it at her house.

They have the rocker all set up. She has a cute diaper bag.

This dresser is full already!

The crib all set up! David grew up with the poster picture. He's going to frame it.

Nala all cozy on her mom's shoulder.

It was great visiting with David and Angela and Nala. Angela only has 2-1/2 weeks to go before baby Avery is due!

It was fun having Julie, Zachary and Braxton visit. I hope they have fun at Grandma's and Lisa's! Have a safe trip back to Utah Julie! :o)

♫ 'Happy 21st Birthday Kirsten!' ♫

A page from Grandma for Kirsten's notebook.

Kirsten celebrated her '21st' birthday on April 2, 2011, this past Saturday. We celebrated her birthday at her Grandma Valdine Guptill's home in Oregon City, Oregon. Kirsten has a very special close bond with her grandma. She loves her grandma sooo much. I did not want a big hoopla party, just her family. Her sister Lisa and her husband and children and her grandma and mom and dad celebrated her birthday. Her other siblings all live far away. I decided that I would put together a special memory birthday notebook for Kirsten's 21st birthday. Below are some of the pictures included in this binder.

I made a flyer for each of her brothers and sisters and her grandma. They were to write about a special memory about Kirsten. This memory would go into her notebook and would be their personal birthday gift to Kirsten.

A page from Lisa.

Page from Bob and Julie.

One of the pages from Michelle's family.

One of the pages from Douglas and Ashley.

A page from David and Angela.

One of Kirsten's class photos from Elementary school in Hawaii.

LaRue and Matilda getting ready to help Kirsten blow out her candles.

You can see her memory notebook standing next to a gift bag. The notebook is 1-1/2 inches thick. On the cover of her notebook is Kirsten's new photo we had taken the day before.

Birthday celebration!

We got an 'Elefun' for her birthday. Here she is laughing watching LaRue and Matilda playing.

Even Adelaide got in on the action!

Lisa gave her balloons and Kirsten had a great time with them!

We also got her some outfits.

Kirsten sharing a special moment with her grandma! ♥

Kirsten with her favorite Grandma! ♥

Kirsten had a great birthday and loved all the fun and especially being with her family!

We stayed at grandma's and Kirsten smiled the whole time we were there! When we left this morning she was sitting on her daddy's lap and grandma was on the other side. She was hugging her grandma and did not want to let go!

Spring is Here! Yes!

I am so happy that Spring is here! We may get a blustery day from winter not wanting to go away and let Spring take its proper place, but I hope not! The weather man said that today was going to be in the low 60's and sunny. It was 65 and gorgeous! The rest of the week it will be rainy and showers, so today was the day to do my projects outside! I worked outside for 4 hours! Woo hoo! :o)

I love Heather. I bought these three plants and in a few years they will be much bigger! I can't plant too much in this area since it's where two cable boxes are located. Originally the developer had three grass looking things growing in there and I never liked them. So out they came!

You can't see in this picture but to the left is a phone cable box. My flowering plum tree is finally beginning to bloom. It's a slow starter. I'm glad because when everyone else's tree are done, mine is taking it's turn for beauty!

This is the 'after' picture. If you look along the fence line it's just dirt. I spent two hours taking out weeds! In the next few pictures following you can see the weeds in the pictures along the fence line. Every Spring I weed and keep it that way until winter. I let my grand kids use this back fence to draw with sidewalk chalk and do whatever art they want!

Our Peach tree is beginning to blossom!

See those weeds along the fence line? Not pretty!

I am blessed to see my neighbor's gorgeous tree from my patio window in the back of the house! Those trees are so gorgeous!

When Kirsten was in her final year of high school in her Life Skills Class they had an art project to do. I cut 150 little pieces of double layered pink tissue paper into squares and twisted them into little blossoms for her tree. We put glue dots on the page and helped her press her flowers on! It was a big hit in the class. Seeing my neighbor's gorgeous flowering plum trees reminds me of Kirsten's beautiful picture!

I love yard figurines and today I pulled them out of the garage from winter storage and put them out. I love them!

I had to replace two of my rose bushes in this spot. I'm not sure what happened but they did not survive the winter like the other two roses bushes did. One is a double flowered orange and the other a single bloom red rose. My other two rose bushes are yellow and pink. I love roses!

I have wanted a bird bath since last summer. I found this one at Walmart. It's made out of concrete so Neil approves of it, of course! I need him to glue (or however he does it) the bowl to the pedestal so it won't accidentally come off if one of my sweet little grand kiddies grab onto it. I also planted some new flowers in my planter. I can't wait to see how much bigger they will be in a month or two!