Things that make me smile.....

"Grandchildren fill a space in your heart that you never knew was empty."

That is so true. When I think of my grandchildren, my heart swells with so much love and joy that I feel like I could burst. Each one is special in their own way and each one owns my heart.

Garret is my oldest. He turned 12 last month and he is growing up so fast. He loves to hunt and fish. It always makes me so proud when he gets a deer or catches a fish. They always eat what they get. He caught this one over the weekend. He has a deep abiding love and knowledge of animals. I never argue with his animal facts, no matter how far fetched they sound. If I question him, he makes me look it up on the Internet and he is ALWAYS right. I've learned never to doubt what this child says. I can't count how many times over his younger years we have played "zoo" with his plastic animals when he visits. He has said for many years that he is going to be a zookeeper when he grows up. He even spends time with his buddies at school drawing out the design and layout of his own zoo.  I worry that as he gets older, he won't want to spend time with Mamaw. But the last time he was over, he said he couldn't wait to get his license and get a car (in just four short years, he can). He said then he can come to my house any time he wants.

Caleb was the next one to come along. He will be 8 in May. He is our analytical grandchild. He is a semi-truck nut. His daddy drives a Peterbilt so he is obsessed with them. He can give you every detail you ever wanted to know about trucks, trailers and equipment. Those are his favorite toys to get and he has tons of trucks/trailers. He is one of those children who can sit down and play with their toys for hours on end. It's really cute because he always has a theme. He may play haul scrap or zinc. He may use pencils or popsicle sticks for logs. Or he may be fighting fires with his firetrucks (his daddy is also a volunteer firefighter.) He has many trucks in the 1/32" scale and many in the 1/64" scale. He is so detail oriented that he will only play with matching sizes at a time. He told me one day I didn't understand depth perception. (How a 7 year old even knows what that is blows my mind.) Then he proceeded to show me why something didn't match up because of the size and depth of the one truck compared to the other. He is so precise when it comes to matching up the trucks for his play time that it just amazes me.

Our middle grandchild was our first granddaughter, our first little princess, Alexis Caroline. She will be 7 in September and is still so tiny and petite. She was our 2 month preemie who weighed a little over one pound. She is one of the most loving, sweet little girls you will ever meet. She gets so upset if she hurts one of the other kids feelings or anything and then she gets even more upset if they won't accept her apology. She is so kindhearted and precious. She is also one of our little talkers. She never runs out of anything to say. It doesn't even matter if there is no one in the room to talk to, she will talk to her toys. My son told me one time they had over a 9 hour drive from Panama City back home and he thinks Alexis talked 8 hours and 45 minutes of it. She loves to play with little toys she can hold in her hands like Dora, My little Pet Shop, Tinkerbell, things like that. She loves her Princess stuff. This past year I took the two granddaughters to the Disney Princesses on Ice and I don't think Alexis blinked for two hours. She was so spellbound, I got more wrapped up in watching her than I did the show. She always has such a big hug for me and jumps up in my arms whenever or where ever I see her.

Our next grandchild was our other little princess, Shelby Rayne. She'll be 3 in July. As you can tell by this look, she is pure "you know what" on wheels. Her mommy started her out on her princess route by decorating the nursery in the Disney princess theme and buying her frilly, lacy dresses. She went so overboard with the princess theme in year one that Shelby is turning into, what a lady at church calls, a little diva in year two. She will put on her sunglasses, place her hand back behind her head and say "Look at me. I a mobie (movie) star." She can look so sweet and innocent, but can also get into quite a bit of mischief with her big brother Caleb. Her mommy bought her a beautiful lavender frilly dress for Easter with all the tulle layers underneath. The moment she got her dressed, Shelby turned around in a couple of pirouettes and then bowed down and did a little curtsy. At church on Easter, she kept walking up to every one, doing a couple of twirls, then her little curtsy. Can we all say DIVA? She is all girl. She loves baby dolls, dishes and strollers. She plays "mommy" all the time.

Oh, what pride and joy we take in our newest addition, Colby James. He was our unexpected gift from God. We thought both our children were through. They had both told us repeatedly no more grandchildren. You can imagine how excited we were to find out one last blessing was on the way. When my son called to tell me, I cried after I hung up the phone. I love my grandchildren so much and to know we were getting another one brought me such joy. He was born with a beautiful head full of hair and never lost it. He is so cuddly and snugly. I'm so excited that he'll get to stay all night with us this Saturday along with his siblings, Garret and Alexis. This will be the first time I will be taking all 5 of my grandchildren to church at the same time with me on Sunday (my son and his wife live across the county so them and their 3 belong to a different church than my daughter and I do.) It will be interesting to see what his interests will be as he gets older.

Yes, my grandchildren are one of the best gifts from God and they can always bring a smile to my face.