Beautiful....

Beautiful fall day, beautiful girl, my girl, and she is so very proud of her beautiful, little, pumpkins she helped daddy grow in the garden (32 total).  We love fall!  And how lucky am I to have such a sweet (most of the time...ha!), beautiful little girl (who really isn't so little anymore :( ), who I love more that I ever thought I could love someone.  I am beyond blessed!!

Lookin' good Sydney, with one of her many babies

Ha...this picture cracks me up....she is like, "seriously mommy, more pictures...ugh!"  Such a good sport! :)

There's that smile... :)



Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken on Oct. 10th, in Stillwater by Liz Westerhaus, with Foresthaus Photography.  We typically have her come to the house to take the pics, but this year I wanted some outdoor shots and what better place than Stillwater, MN on a beautiful fall day!  She took a ton of shots and these are only a sampling of the ones we got from her.  She always does such a good job at capturing Sydney's personality (funny, goofy, serious, stubborn..you name it, she gets it).  One reason why I love her style so much.  I can't decide which ones I'm going to use for our Christmas card, but once I do decide I will post the rest of them in another blog post.  Enjoy these for now.

Favorite Blogs

It really is no secret that I love blogging.  I love to read other people's blogs, especially ones that are, thrifty, crafty, creative and inspire me.  I have no idea how I stumbled upon any of them, but they are ones that I would probably have to say, I check daily.  Seriously, they are that good.  And they all seem to have "Show and Share" type of days on their blog, so that gives me the opportunity to look at other people's blogs that are as equally creative as the others.  Seriously, heaven!  Take a look, I promise you won't regret it!

Here are my favorites

• Just a Girl
• Organize and Decorate Everything
• Thrify Decor Chick
• Kelly's Korner Blog (her blog is a little different than the others, but it still inspires me...) 

Have a great weekend!  It's supposed to be beautiful in MN this weekend, so I know we will make the most of it.

I Shoot People....

....with my camera.  ha!  I love my camera!  In fact I have two camera's.  I have a small point and shoot Canon Elph from 2006.  I have shot well over 4000 pictures with this camera.  I also have a Canon EOS RebelXSI SLR.  She is a beauty!  I upgraded to her from my Canon RebelG film camera.  They are both great cameras, but I knew when I bought a digital I wanted to upgrade a little.  I bought my SLR in Dec. 2008, after I had saved for over a year.  I can't believe the pictures it takes.  I'm still amazed two years later at the quality of the pictures.  I have already taken well over 4000 pics with this camera too. 

There is a saying (or at least I think there is) that a camera brand is similar to a car.  You are either a Chevy lover or a Ford lover.  I happen to love Chevy, among those two.  So you are either a Canon lover or a Nikon lover.  I am, obviously, a Canon lover.  I would recommend either one of these cameras to anyone.



Disclaimer: I wasn't paid by anyone for this post.  This is entirely my opinion.  I just love Canon!


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Danker Family Wedding

The weekend of Sept. 24th - 26th, my mom, Sydney and I traveled to Davenport, IA for a family wedding!  My cousin Tom's daughter, Shalan, was getting married.  Woot!   I love family weddings.  We had a blast.  I love getting together with my extended family.  My mom is 1 of 7 kids and there are 26 first cousins and lots of 2nd cousins.  We had a pretty good showing of Danker family at this wedding, many I hadn't seen in years and one I got to meet for the first time (my cousin Scott's wife, Pam).  Okay, years isn't quite true, as we all say each other in May.  The wedding was a much happier occassion though. 

As a side note, 25 of us cousins were with each other at my aunts funeral in May.  My Aunt Donna (Tom's mom, Shalan's grandma) passed unexpectedly.  Although she wasn't with us physically at the wedding, we know she was still there.  We know she would have been proud!

Beautiful wedding, beautiful couple, priceless family memories!

Aunt Joanne with her family (minus 1 daughter and her family)
Jerry, Lorrie, Jeff, Terry, Becky and Steven

Aunt Evelyn with one of her daughters (she has 7 kids - 2 boys and 5 girls) Connie and Rob

My cousin Tracy and her family (minus their son, Remington)
Taylor (Lexi's boyfriend), Lexi, Scott, Tracy and MacKenzie



me, Sydney and my mom



My cousin Scott and his wife (due on Dec. 24th) 

My cousin Vicki and her daughter Taylor

13 of us 26 cousins (Johnny was missing from the pic), plus the bride, groom and cousin-in-law Robin (Tom's wife and bride's mom....love her!)
F: Marsha, Linda, Kyle, Shalan, Tom, Tricia
B: Lorrie, Becky, Steven, Vicki, Connie, me, Scott, Tracy, Robin and David

Sydney and "Uncle Tom"...as she calls him.
She is a little smitten with him as he is with her!

Sydney and the beautiful bride, Shalan

She lasted until 11:30..this was taken about 11pm.  She layed there for a short time, but quickly found a little more energy to dance some more

The bride's proud parents, Tom and Robin (married 34 years the weekend prior)

Happy Voting

Today, we as Americans, should be voting! It's your right to vote. It's your responsibility. Not everyone can vote in their country. So today I will be voting. But this year I am struggling with who I should be voting for, for our Governor. I'm not a Republican or Democrat so I don't vote based on party lines. I vote based on who I believe is the right person for the state, while not compromising my beliefs.

Mark Dayton, I do know that I will not be voting for him. There are many reasons why I don't care for Dayton. Biggest thing though is that I don't trust him. I'm not saying I trust all the others more, but there is something about Dayton that can't be trusted.

Tom Emmer, is anti-gay. He may have other things that I do like, this is one thing that I cannot overlook. I have many friends who are gay and I support them 100%. Voting for Emmer would be going against my beliefs and support for my friends. Simple as that.

Tom Horner, I believe he can be the bridge for the state of MN. He has been endorsed by a well known and well liked past Governor of MN, Arne Carlson. We need a change!

And a side note for my hometown, Austin, MN. It is time for a change there too. I can tell you my vote for Mayor would be Marian Clennon (although she is a Dayton supporter...her choice). I wouldn't be voting for her only because she is my friend, but because I believe the city needs someone that is to open to working for the citizens of Austin, not just the ones in the "good 'ol boys club". Go Marian!

Happy Voting!!

***This are entirely my opinion, as I know others may choose differently. That is the beauty of America and why we can vote.  We vote for who WE believe can do the job.***

Hello NaBloPoMo!

Let's give this a try....NaBloPoMo = is a month long writing exercise intended to occur annually in November. This means that I'm supposed to publish one post everyday on my blog. It can be words or pictures or both. Since I've tried many times to restart this blog, let's see if this inspires me. It's not that I don't want to post, it's a matter of taking time. It is easier to post my pictures to FaceBook (because I can upload the ones from my phone right to FB). And I don't even know who reads this blog anymore....ahh, who cares, it's my journal and I do love looking back on past posts.

To get this started, I will just introduce myself....(as if strangers read my blog...haha!) - I live in the midwest with my family - husband and daughter who is "4 and 3/4's", as she tells me. We have a dog - Bo. He is 8 years old and LOVES to hunt (with my husband, of course...what, you thought I was the one that takes him hunting...ha, far from it!). I love to scrapbook and my "season" is just starting up. I tend to take the summer months off. Being that we live in the midwest, I have to soak up as much of the outdoors that I / we can in those summer months, so scrapbooking is saved for the months when it is really to cold to be outside anyway. That being said, my husband would prefer if my "season" would be Jan. - August (aka...non hunting months)...but, that isn't the case and he knew that when he married me (heehee...really he did :)), so the deal is that I get one weekend in November to escape to a land of scrapbooking...ahh, how I love thee! He is always more than happy to give me that weekend too....haha.

Anywhoo, other things that I love besides my family and scrapbooking...

• Photography
• Blogging
• Decorating (although on a limited budget, I still love it)
• Spending time with my girlfriends
• Traveling (ahh, white sand beaches, blue ocean water, cocktails, no interuptions, relaxation....)
• Minnesota Vikings (although really tough this year....I do love Brett Favre though - Viking or Packer - one of the best quarterbacks of all time)

Things I inspire to do....

• To be organized - I really do dream about this for any of my friends who read this and know me :)
• To do something with my love of photography, besides just taking family pics and scrapbooking them
• To be debt free
• To own a new (new to us) Acadia or Traverse for me and a new F150 for my honey

That's it for today....I've got the rest of the month to tell you more about me or to show you pics of my beautiful family and friends.

Until tomorrow.....