2011 in review...

Another year is almost past...and I agree with the old saying "the older you get, the more time flies" because 2011 seemed to fly by for me!

As is my tradition here at Marsha's Garden, I like to do my year in review showing the header photos and to link to a few highlighted or favorite posts from each month.Looking at my blog stats, January brought the most visits to my blog with 2,089 visitors. The post that brought the most comments (11) in January was I love my family...part 2, on 1/7/11 and it was also the post with the most visitors followed closely by the next post, mosaic Monday...community support, which showed the events of Justin's benefit. In retrospect, it's hard to believe that the 2 most viewed posts were about Justin and just a short 11 months later he is gone from this earthly home.
February saw 1,730 visitors to the blog and the most commented on post with 15 comments was, Happy Valentine's Day. I need to drag those mason jars out again, they did make awesome photos :) I personally loved the post on Lac qui Parle wildlife, the photos aren't that great but what a memory that day trip was seeing all those wild deer in one day!
March brought 1,468 visitors and this post on hurry up spring, brought the most comments (10). My favorite post was mosaic Monday...finding spring, taken when we left the snows of a MN March and found spring beauty cycling in Tx.
April arrived and so did the gardening season, the blog had 1,229 visitors and the post with the most comments(10) was early spring in the garden, where I spotted my first crocus and the garden fairies were awake from their winter sleep.
May brought more garden color and 1,385 visitors. Mother's Day was the post that had the honor of the most comments with 9. My personal favorites were Alexis & Ashley's dance, dance, dance recital and new visitors where I saw "lifer" warblers in the garden.
June arrived and so did 1,402 visitors. It still amazes me that after 6 years people still navigate their computers to see what a middle aged woman from MN shares here! The post with the most comments(10) was rain, rain go away and I still have a love of photographing raindrops on flowers :)
July brings many things (1,351 visitors) but one of my favorites has always been fireworks, so the post Happy 4th of July is my favorite. Current Blooms, brought in 11 comments and earned the most commented on post this month.
August arrived and so did 1,452 visits to the blog. Blue in the garden was the most commented on with 7 comments and I especially loved my favorite yellows...part 2 with photos of a tiger swallowtail that visited the garden.
September brought the blog 1,432 visitors and by far my favorite post and the most commented on(12) was one of a kind...Mari Joy! Mari has been such a blessing to everyone who meets her but especially to my niece Ashley and her husband Cory who waited many years for a child. She was born in late August but I did not get to meet her until September which is why she was September's favorite. I am so in love with this little girl :)
October was our month of waiting for our own grandchild and once she was born it seemed like this grandma could find no other subject to post about! It also brought 1,751 visitors coming in second as the most visited month. The most commented on post was Baby Bee is here which showcased Brooklyn's birth day. Of course this would be my favorite post as well and this grandma still can't get enough of her! I am so looking forward to watching her and Mari grow up together and hopefully get to be as close of friends (and cousins) as Jayme & Ashley are.
November brought Brooklyn photos in my headers and hopefully you enjoy them because as a proud grandma I think all future headers will have to have at least one photo of her :) This month also brought 1,738 visitors which are probably mostly family coming to see that beautiful granddaughter of mine! The most commented on post (6 comments) was Grandpa & Brooklyn, where Jeff got to meet her for the first time since he was out of state during her birth. I loved every post showing Brooklyn :)
December brought much heartache as Justin declined and passed, I only posted twice this month until today (there are 3 new posts up today) and still had 1,570 visitors. My tribute to Justin, until we meet again, was the most visited and commented (10) on. We hurt with missing him, we hurt seeing his family hurting and we hurt knowing how much his children will miss here on earth without their daddy. Yet, Justin was such a positive, happy man, full of love and humor and he wouldn't want everyone to go through life burdened down with hurt and sadness so tomorrow starts a new year and I'm going to start a new project on the blog.

I end this year with a photo of Santa Jeff with Mari and Brooklyn that never made it on the blog or facebook. I love these beautiful little girls and Santa!

I hope you'll come back and visit in 2012...may 2012 be a year of peace, love and joy!

December 26th...

Our little Miss Brooklyn turned 2 months old on December 26th while her family was staying at Grandma's house. Since she is our little baby bee her mommy has baby bee stickers for each month to take her photo in a onsie to compare her current size.Her sentimental Grandma Marsha had saved Jayme's dress and booties that she wore on her 2 month photos so of course we had to put them on Brooklyn with photos of her mommy at 2 months as a backdrop.
She is every bit as beautiful as mommy was at 2 months and her uncle Nathan looked pretty darn cute in his "green jeans" as well at 4 years old :)
Brooklyn is such a good sport about having mommy and grandma's cameras in her face all the time...
but soon enough the "I've had enough" look comes out.
I LOVE this little girl!

Christmas 2011...

Our family Christmas was subdued this year but still very wonderful celebrating Jesus's birth and the love the family. My Christmas eve started out with a morning visit to this wonderful gift, Mari! It was her first Christmas and also one of the hardest for her family as her Grandpa S. passed away on Dec. 19 and her uncle Justin on Dec 22nd so I especially needed to hug and hold her and her mommy that morning. Cory wasn't home or he definitely would have received one too.Christmas eve afternoon was spent prepping food and setting a pretty table for our family dinner. The little stockings filled with chocolate on our plates are a family tradition...the other side of them each have a word, Love, Joy, Happy, Laugh & Peace on them and after grace is said each person turns over their stocking and has to tell something about the word they ended up with that brought them love, etc this past year.
In November, I planted a pot with 3 small ruffled poinsettias, a small holly plant and some paperwhite bulbs hoping to use it for the dining table centerpiece. As you can see, the paperwhites grew much taller than I expected so flowers and a candle got the centerpiece honors instead.
Our Christmas eve service at church is at 5 pm and when we get home we always take a family portrait in front of the fireplace with the self timer on the camera.
After dinner and dishes, it's time to open gifts but not before 2 children's books are read. This has been a tradition since Nathan & Jayme were old enough to read and they take turns choosing first which book to read - this year, Nathan read The Night before Christmas and Jayme read The Story of Christmas with Scripture. Afterwards, we played games and hung out around the kitchen counter full of treats. Of course, my very favorite gift of 2011 has been having baby Brooklyn in our lives!
Christmas morning Brooklyn was the first one to wake up and Grandpa helped her open her stocking while breakfast was baking.
Nathan & Tammy drove out for breakfast with the family before leaving to go to her mom's. Another tradition in our house is Christmas tree shaped cinnamon rolls :)
Our area had a "brown" Christmas this year with no snow and temps near 50 degrees. This is very unusual to be that warm that late in December so Jeff had to take advantage of the beautiful weather to say he rode his Harley on Christmas Day. He only rode for 5 miles or so but he still has bragging rights :) When he got back, Miss Brooklyn put on her Harley hat and posed on the bike with him.
Grandpa gave her a Harley Davidson outfit for Christmas but for now the shirt & pants are a little big so she at least modeled her new hat.

until we meet again...

You have all seen my absence on the blog this month...it has been a tough one as we watched my nephew, Justin, struggle with pain and then weakness. Though he is our nephew, Jeff & I love him like a son. One day, Jeff & I were talking about how people stand at a wake and tell the survivors how wonderful their loved one was and we decided we needed to tell Justin himself so we did. He got to hear how proud of him we were and how much we loved him and his family. I left him with a hug and the words "I love you" and he said "I love you too" - it was our last time seeing him as he went home to heaven yesterday.

In loving memory of Justin - May 1976 - December 2011
Please pray for Justin's loving family as they face a new life without their husband and father. For Heidi, Benjamin (11) and Alexis (7)...for his parents, brother & sister and all of us extended family who will miss him so very much.

Justin excelled at just about everything he did. He was so smart, was athletic, inventive, outgoing and good humored...he was just plain fun to be around. We had so much fun with our family and my brother's growing up together and had lots of picnics, canoeing and fun get-togethers. He was one of our first employees at 15 and Jeff admired his work ethic and still talks about the teenage Justin compared to some of the young workers we have had hired lately. There is no comparing him to anyone, young or old. When Justin had his own family, we took a family vacation together and such fun memories were made that they are still joked about 6 years later. As an adult, he became a farmer and a business man and we admired his ambition and lack of fear in starting new ventures. We are going to miss him so much, not only as a family member but as a friend! This fall, when I tried to say the right words on how sorry I was that the cancer treatments were no longer working, it was his steadfast faith and strength that brought me comfort by the end of the conversation. As time passed and he weakened, when I would visit him at home, I always left knowing that he loved the Lord and was not afraid of his journey ahead. Every time I listened to the following Selah song, I would think of him and know that he had a wonderful (though way too short) life, he did many things, loved many people but he loved the Lord more. You drove away not knowing if you would have a chance to see him again and the second part of the song always brought me comfort. I know Justin was welcomed into heaven by his child lost to miscarriage and all 5 of his grandparents. Someday, we'll also meet again on the beautiful shore.

Heidi wrote the lyrics to "There Will Be A Day" on a final entry to his Caringbridge site, here. No more pain, no more fears, no more tears...he's seeing Jesus face to face. Can you imagine a better Christmas birthday celebration then the one he is experiencing this year?

My Christmas Wish this year is for everyone to always tell their loved ones they love them. We never know what the future holds and I haven't always been a great one for letting my loved ones know how much I care for them. Don't wait for a cancer diagnosis to start saying it - say it everyday...I'll never forget that last "I love you, too"...

Busy days lead to less blogging...

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I blogged. I spent the break enjoying a visit from little Miss Brooklyn. She is growing so fast and is 5 weeks old already...here she is showing off her Brooklyn footstool which was a gift from some of my very special blogging friends.I also spent lots of time cross stitching instead of blogging and while I have to still sew it together I finished the pattern on her Christmas stocking.
On Monday evening, Princess Brooklyn dressed up in her party dress for time with Grandpa...
Then Princess Mari came over with her parents and changed into her matching party dress before...
a special guest arrived!
What a fun night it was and there were many more photos taken with Santa that you will be seeing over the next 25 days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I am grateful for all the readers who continue to come and check in here daily. Thank you!

The winner of the 25 free Shutterfly cards is Debbie from Mountain Breaths - Thank you for your comment and good luck in creating your cards.

Christmas cards...

I am one of those people that don't really like to rush holidays so I like to enjoy my autumn and celebrate November as a month of gratefulness and Thanksgiving before getting too excited about Christmas.

With that being said now is the time I better start thinking about Christmas cards and getting them ordered so that once December does arrive, I am prepared and ready to send them out. I have used Shutterfly Christmas cards for the last 2 years. In 2009, our card featured our family all dressed up at Nathan & Tammy's wedding and last year, I shared nature photos of the 2010 monarch migration on my photo cards. Can you guess the subject of my cards this year? Of course it will be our new baby granddaughter, Brooklyn Faith!
I especially love the above card selection because we have been truly Blessed this year. It is one of Shutterfly's flat 5 x 7 selections. (all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them)

If you like a folded card with lots of room to write inside as I sometimes do, I like that Shutterfly lets you search their card selections by color. With a little girl who looks great in pink, what fun it was to find cards with lots of pink in them on this page.
It is easy to create photo calendars on Shutterfly and this year, I am making a 2012 calendar as a gift for Jeff of our cycle trips in 2011.

I think we will both be excited to see special photos each month from places we have traveled to and the wildlife we have seen along the way.

If you are interested in Shutterfly cards and gifts they currently are holding "the giving sale" with some great bargains. Shutterfly has graciously offered me 50 free cards for blogging about them which is easy because I use their cards. They also offered me codes for 25 free cards (not including shipping) to give away to 3 lucky readers. I have given away 2 of those to faithful followers who commented on previous posts and I have one more code for someone that comments on this post - winner to be announced tomorrow. Good Luck!

Brooklyn's special day...

On Saturday Brooklyn and Jayme were honored with lots of friends and family at their baby shower. They were both dressed so beautifully in black & white...and Auntie Tammy was a beautiful hostess.
The table was themed "baby bee" of course...
and soon the house was filled with great friends and family who all enjoyed meeting Brooklyn and showering her with some of the cutest gifts.
Ashley and Mari came and met Brooklyn the first night she was here and we tried to take a fun photo of the 4 of them but Brooklyn was hungry and more interested in sucking on Mari's hand. We tried again on Saturday but neither Brooklyn or Mari were interested in looking at the camera :)
Mari wasn't the only cousin Brooklyn met that day, here she is with her cousin, Kaitlyn, who just started kindergarten this year.
After the shower was over at noon we cleaned off the table and then refilled it with tons of food as my whole extended family came to celebrate an early holiday dinner and to meet Brooklyn. Here she is with her cousins, Kinley (almost 6 mos) and Mari (3 months).
After having a house full of company all day long, both Grandpa and Brooklyn were exhausted!
Please continue to pray for Justin! He was so missed at our family gathering as he wasn't feeling up to coming. Pray for strength, healing from the surgery, peace and comfort.

mosaic Monday...spectators

I spent the afternoon trying to net goldfish (which isn't the easiest thing to do) and these guys were the spectator section.