goodbye 2013…a blog year in review

It's hard to believe it is the last day of 2013 already. I believe it is true that as you age time seems to move faster! December flew by for me - I wasn't prepared for Christmas and was at the sewing machine crafting a gift for the girls until the day before we opened gifts (Christmas eve), then we had a wonderful 2 days of family time and then I got sick. Yuck! Six days (and a MD visit) later, I have an antibiotic and hopefully will feel more like my "old" self soon (yup, I had a birthday thrown in there too).

As per tradition I am showing a review of my 2013 blog headers. Wow, watch those cute granddaughters of mine grow before your eyes :)

My most popular post of January 2013 was RENEW in 2013 where I expanded on the word I chose as my "inspiration word" for 2013. An inspiration word replaces resolutions and 2014 will be my 4th year (Grateful, Joy and Renew). A personal highlight of January was our vacation to Mexico with J's 2 brothers and my wonderful sister-outlaws.

This "mosaic Monday…backyard birds" was the most visited post of February 2013. Looking back at it I sure miss my cardinal that spent last winter here in the garden. Not only have I not seen a cardinal since last spring but the beautiful pheasants have not been coming up to the yard either. A personal highlight was taking wildlife drives with my hubby, especially the two times we spotted 100s of deer in a field.

March brought Jeff & I back to Texas for a few weeks of cycling which is always a highlight for us. A post titled "Happy 1st Day of Spring" showing the azaleas in bloom at the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden in Nocogdoches, Texas. Winter has barely started here in MN and oh how I wish it was spring already! It has been very cold here and temps will barely reach 0 today so those azaleas are looking pretty inviting to me about now.

April 2013 brought winter trying to beat out spring and the post, "Sprinter sunrise", was the most viewed. It was a highlight to see a new hawk in my yard which I was hoping would stay and take care of my garter snake population but alas it didn't happen ;(

May finally brought spring and I was anxious to get out and garden. I showed lots of posts with migrating birds and spring blossoms but the post titled "cousins tea party" gathered the most views. Oh how I love those two little girls and watching them grow together. How exciting it is for us that their new siblings will only be 3 months apart and also grow up together!

June brought camping trips, time with those granddaughters and more gardening for me. Every year I seem to find more and more stuff at thrift shops to add to the fairy garden and once set up I photograph it to show on a fairy garden blog. "Pine Hollow 2013", a post with a tour of the spring 2013 garden was not only the most visited post of June but also the most visited post of the entire year. I received some very cute additions for my birthday so look for expansion once again in 2014!

July was FUN! Not only did little Miss Bailey have her 1st birthday, but all 8 of my family went on a trip to Seattle, Washington and had the most amazing time. Grandma's saving up for another trip once the new babies are a little older. A 2 photo post saying "I'm back" was the most viewed of the month.

It wasn't hard to figure out which post was the most visited in August because I only posted once! "wordless Wednesday" had lots of photos crammed into mosaics so maybe that made up for it a little. I spent it enjoying life with lots of time spent with family and camping with extended family.

September brought a little blog melancholy as I couldn't decide whether I should hang up my blogging hat or not. It had been 7 years of blogging in June 2013 and I was feeling the 7-year itch. This all started as a garden blog and this summer I was too scared to go out in my own garden because of all the snakes! Gardening was no longer enjoyable and I had a lack of stuff to blog about. I put the question to you, my readers, "Should I stay or should I go?" and received a wonderful response asking me to keep blogging (also the most viewed post). Once again I thank you and I have lots of ideas for 2014.

October is my favorite time of year, I love the colors, smells, sights and sounds of fall. Brooklyn celebrated her 2nd birthday and we took 2 camping weekends. Fall camping is the best! "Seasonal Colors" a post showing a few of October's colors around my garden and yard was the most visited post.

November showed me to be a failure x two when I tried the daily photo challenge once again since I didn't seem to pull it off in October. Ha, guess it was more of the same for November! Two posts tied with the number for most viewed post and they were "Surprises" and "nuthatch portraits". Nuthatch portraits reminded me how much I like to photograph birds so look for me to resume that hobby on the blog soon.

As I said at the beginning of this post, December seem to fly by for me. Once again I had only posted twice before today and the "December garden tour" was the most visited. Other than being sick for the last week it was a fantastic month and I was so busy enjoying it I truly forgot to take photos. I also missed coming to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and for that I am sorry! I took the front of our Christmas card and changed it to Happy New Year just for you to make up for it. Thank you for coming to visit, I wish you a Happy New Year and I hope you'll be back to join me in 2014. I'll announce my inspiration word and some plans to blog "theme" days for 2014 tomorrow.

December garden tour...

My December garden tour - snow, ice and some beautiful lights. The majority of the fish are hibernating in the garage for the winter (a few stragglers refused to be netted) and I'm toasty warm in the house tonight. It is COLD here, our high temp was 5 degrees and the windchill well below zero winter has definitely made an early appearance here in MN.

Can you "DIG" it?

I don't know if all of my blog readers know that my husband and I own an excavating company so we have lots of "big toys" around our yard. This weekend I took a few shots of the next generation of employees during our family gathering times. These two most certainly love to "dig" together...

It's beginning to look a lot like the Christmas season around here. I put up the trees last week in preparation for a few "christmas card" worthy shots of the family and snow is forecasted to cover the ground by tomorrow. Hopefully, I am inspired to blog a little more often :) You may have noticed the following news on my sidebar counters but for those who read in a "reader" here is a little visual of how exciting our 2014 is going to be!

In the last post, Mollie asked about the name puzzle stools, I received Brooklyn's as a "grandma" gift from some very dear friends and I loved it so much I purchased Bailey's. They are from Damhorst Toys and both girls love to play with them as do most kids that come to visit.

Happy Thanksgiving

especially for spending the day with this little cutie...

and for being able to spend the entire weekend with all the family!

nuthatch portraits...

I haven't had the camera out in a week and there were days the cell phone camera was quiet as well so I am missing a week of photo inspired posts and hope to get back in the "inspired" mode soon.

In the meantime, I was lucky enough to get a white breasted nuthatch to sit for a portrait session yesterday, she was even a little bored at times and closed her eyes :)

Harvest...

"Autumn ends the harvest
And breathes old thanks-filled tunes.
A fruitful, swollen storing time,
It hangs huge, yellow moons."
Mike Logan

Harvest is almost done in my area of the country and most of the tractors I see driving by are now pulling plows instead of wagons. The fields across the road have already been tilled and the field next to my house was harvested while I was gone last week. Cornstalks and partial cobs await the next round of equipment to move in to turn the soil.

Sight

Today's photo prompt is "Sight". I spent most of my day on the road with a few shopping stops to stretch my legs during the 4 hour drive home from Jayme's. The only photo I took today was with my cell phone on the drive home when I saw someone already hauling home a Christmas tree! I thought November 3rd was a little early to be selecting a tree but I guess if you want a perfect one then it might be for you. It was a "sight" to see for me :)

Lessons learned...

Saturday, I was up at still up at my daughter Jayme's house visiting and I was having my second large cup of coffee because I was TIRED.  We were talking and I told her the photo prompt of the the day was "lessons learned" and she told me to go take a photo of my iPad because I had stayed up reading till 2:30 am and didn't fall asleep until almost 3 am and my "lesson learned" was I would be tired if I stayed up that late :)    I love to read but I get so involved in a book if it is good that it is sometimes hard to put down.  Friday night's book was "What Alice Forgot" the third  of Liane Moriarty's five books, I have finished the first 3 and look forward to the last two.

So Jayme was right - I learned my lesson!  But that didn't stop me from enjoying a busy and full day.  So full as a matter of fact the only photos I took in the entire day were on my cell phone of 2 pairs of purple shoes I want to buy my little Princesses to go with their Christmas dresses.  A second lesson might be "a princess can never have too many shoes"….just wish they were still 87 cents!

Surprises...

November is a quieter month for me and I'm going to try the daily photo challenge once again even if it ends up being a photo from my phone which I always have with me. This month's challenge also emphasizes gratitude which is a lot easier for me to elaborate on the subject title.

Today's subject was Surprises. I'm spending a few days up north with Brooklyn and we are having lots of one on one Brooklyn and Grandma time. She is a very vocal little girl and her vocabulary for someone just turning two is amazing, I'm not just being a proud grandma either - people comment to J & S all the time on her vocal skills for her age. To say that this little girl is full of surprises is an understatement to me. Today she told me a long story about a little boy that came over to play and he pushed another little friend, so his mommy had to have a talk with him and he had to go to timeout in her room. When I ask her if she needs to go potty, she tells me "No, I'm fine, I'm really fine". A new favorite is to tease her mommy with a line from a movie…"MOM, the Meatloaf!" and then she giggles and giggles. Finally, the biggest surprise to me is her aptitude with the iPad and her mommy's phone. She just whizzes through games and sings many songs with the apps and I sometimes struggle with new computer skills :)

So surprised and proud of this little two year old!

I'm equally proud and constantly surprised by the new things my darling little 15 month old, Bailey! She walks backward and does the moonwalk. She has no fear so needs to be watched closely. She is learning to talk and learns new words daily, even if she can't say the exact word, all the syllables are present.

My trick or treaters trying on their costumes together earlier in October…

Grandma added a bow to Brooklyn's penquin to make it a little more feminine like Bailey's leopard.

I'm so filled with gratitude for these two little angels and can't wait to experience our expanded family in 2014!

Happy Halloween!

still here...

Yup, I'm still alive but boy did I fall off that photo a day in October wagon! Autumn is my favorite season and I've been too busy enjoying it (without a camera) to stick to my blogging every day with a photo challenge. I'm going to cry "uncle" on this month but stubborn as I am I will try again in November when it's too cold to be outside and I have more time to sit with the computer.

That said I've spent the month enjoying the season's changing colors and temps with a few weekends away and lots of time at home doing cleanup and other autumn chores. I've also spent a fair amount of time inside sewing and crafting. Five little girls each got 2 new ruffle skirts & matching t-shirts and Brooklyn got a few party decorations as well as a birthday shirt & flag. I'll share photos of Brooklyn's party (which was held a week early) this Saturday on her actual birthday. October's cooler temps and many rainy days have inspired me to turn on the oven and make more "comfort" style meals as well as baking too.

Of course, any and all free time I can manage seeing these two Princesses usually tops my list :)

Last weekend's party girl - we got a few smiles but she was sick with a fever for her party so I hope she has a better day for her birthday this weekend.

Seasonal Colors...

The trees around my home are not yet showing today's photo prompt of Seasonal Colors so I went looking around my yard for other spots of seasonal color.  First up is a branch on one of the sumacs...

and some wild Virginia Creeper vine that winds around some of the trees.

The hydrangeas that were white earlier in the season have all turned soft shades of green and pink...

and did you spot the bee?



Fall mums are blooming and the annual infestation of asian beetles has started...

I always love seeing the yellow mums reflecting in the pond and currently several dozen frogs are living in the pond. Two of them are in this photo...

Chinese lanterns spread by runners and took over my old garden in the middle of the yard. That garden was taken out quite a few years ago and this spring I hauled in several 5 gallon pails of dirt off our company's black dirt pile to fill in some holes in the garden and wouldn't you know it some Chinese lanterns popped up from that dirt! Of course, these were in the most snake infested area of my garden so I was too scared to work in that area digging them out and as a result I have some beautiful fall color.

Pinks and purples are not usually thought of as an autumn color but in my garden they are two of the most gorgeous. Pink asters...

and purple ones.

Purple also makes an appearance in the flowering kale...

Last but not least is our view across the road which has changed from green to golden browns...