The Dummer Family

We have been enjoying getting into the holiday spirit around the Dummer house... We had a cookie day with Granny and Aunt Heidi last weekend. Danika enjoyed helping, but only in about 5 minute time periods. She's help & taste, then play, then help & taste, then play again and so on...

 

 

Danika is a non-stop imagination machine and is always having picnics, playing restraunt, babies, movies, etc... Usually, she's pretty nice and lets Haddie join her too:)

 

 

Haddie continues to be adventurous and has discovered some new favorites lately...

Under the TV, where she can reach the cable 

 

And she's been drawn to the pantry, but the newest discovery within the pantry is the dog treats! No matter where I put them or 'hide' them behind other things, she can still find them! I finally had to put them in a more secure location...(A little bad parenting here...of course I had to run and get my camera for a picture of her chewing on it before I took it out of her mouth:)

 

 

This week I attempted to take picutres of the girls in hopes of getting a nice presentable picture that I could use for our Christmas card... I wasn't too successful. Danika is in a phase of REALLY big cheesy, "cheese" smiles and Haddie just wants to run away...

Apparently Danika thought if she choked her she'd stay still:) 

 

...and again "CHEESE"

 

So, we just played with lights instead:) 

 

 

This weekend we took Danika to the 8th Floor Macy's display in downtown Minneapolis and to meet Santa. (We actually didn't tell her about Santa until after we got there) She wasn't too exicted about it all, but I think mostly because she didn't understand what exactly she was going to see. Once we got there she loved it- The theme was "Santaland" with lots of elves and Santa's workshop. They used to change it yearly, but Santaland has been there for the past few years and sounds like it will continue to be. She liked the elves, but anything animal related was her favorite. After all was said and done we asked her what her favorite thing was and she said "The mouse running across the kitchen"

Yes, there was a fake mouse in the elf kitchen that they were trying to catch:)

We met some friends of ours and Danika had a blast with their daughter...

 

Buddies Danika and Rylan:) 

 

As for Santa, we only cohorsed her to go in the Santa room becasue Rylan did, and even though Rylan sat on his lap, Danika was NOT about to do that! She warmed up a bit and managed to whisper to him what she wanted, as we were about to walk out the door.

 

Before I sign off...I wanted to share with you a wonderfully written announcement...

 

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NO, not that kind of announcement! (I know what you may have been thinking:) No more babies in this household for now...

Daren recently took a new position at work. He still works for Pioneer, but with another 'department' if you will, and will be doing much of the same things, but have a bit more responsiblilty and working more closely with the farmers and seed salesman. I would say it's a 'promotion', although he doesn't use those terms:)

Here is the write up that his new boss wrote to all Pioneer employees (nationally) welcoming him to the position...

 

Announcement - Daren Dummer

We are pleased to announce that Daren Dummer has recently accepted the position of Senior Research Associate (IMPACT Area Lead) for the Northern Business Unit IMPACT team hosted by the Eau Claire Research Center, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Daren joined Pioneer in 2006 as a Research Assistant at the Eau Claire Research Center and was promoted to Research Associate in 2008.  He has contributed to several programs at the research center including management over the 95 and 100 CRM R3/R4 DP 100 testing program, management over aspects of the transgenic trials program, and contributions to the field testing programs including planting, note taking, harvest and cooperator relationships.  

Daren has a strong background in agriculture starting with experience on the family farms and as a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – River Falls in agri-business and agronomy.

In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his wife Jamie, daughters Danika and Haddie, and working on the family dairy farm.

Please join us in congratulating Daren as the newest member of the NBU IMPACT Team.

 

 

Isn't that nice he enjoys his family in his spare time;) Had to tease him about that one... He is a hard worker and earned it and we couldn't be happier for him, or more proud:)

 

 

We hope you are having a happy December and enjoying (safely) the beautiufl first snowfall of the season...

 

Love, The Dummers