Celebrating Baby Jordan!

Emerald was trying to feel HER baby cousin moving.

Both aunts loving on Emers and all she can do is be goofy.

Aunt Laura loving on both her nieces.


Matthew being patient during pictures.

The mommy and daddy-to-be. Laura looks too cute pregnant.

Shane loving on his boy.



Baby Waige's grandparents, both sides.


We celebrated with Aunt Laura and Uncle Shane last weekend. We were helping to spoil their little boy with goodies before he comes to meet us all in September (or August, who knows). the kids got him a stuffed animal, called an Ugly Doll, named Wage. This is something that they had registered for, and were excited to receive. After telling us their hint, that the baby's name has 5 letters, we have decided that we shall call him Waige. So, for future reference, any time I mention Waige, I will be bragging about my nephew! It was awesome visiting with Laura and Shane, even though it was a short visit. Poor Shane came to Kansas with a broken foot hobbling on crutches. The worst part about it was that he had to drive a car back to Telluride on Sunday (15 hours I believe). Thankfully, he made it safe and sound. We loved seeing all our family and the Jordan family. It is always nice when you can combine 2 families and they all get along. Shane's niece and nephew, Grace and Matthew, were such well-behaved children. Shane's sister did a great job helping with food, and Heidi did a fantastic job helping with the cute cupcakes. We felt blessed that we were able to host the party in our new home. Emerald ate up the attention of having all the guests on her turf. She thoroughly enjoyed getting some love from Aunt Laura (who was able to stay at our house in her bed). Calvin did his best to show off his increasing vocabulary and even called for Laura to come rescue him from his crib (he went through the litany of names, including Laura, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Pop Pop, and probably even sissy) hoping that someone would get him out of his jail. We wish Laura and Shane the best of luck as they welcome a very calm, sleepy, quiet, peaceful, attentive, patient, sweet, loving baby boy in a couple of months (I am praying for all of these things for you guys, I promise). Parenthood is a fantastic thing and I am so happy that they are going to be able to experience this blessing in life.

10 years---love, laughter, and tears (both happy and sad)!

Can you believe he got me a dozen roses? Shocked me, too!


(It's sad that our best most recent picture was taken by our 2 year old daughter).

Who would have thought he could put up with me for 10 whole years? Amazing, huh? Happy Anniversary, special love of my life! You really are my angel on earth, my best friend, my special gift from God. Without you I don't know that I'd be half the person I am today. You inspire me to want to be the best person possible. You are such an amazing father. I didn't know that anyone could love you the way I do, and then along came Emerald and Calvin.



Reflecting on the last 10 years brings a smile on my face. Some of the harder times in our lives--mom's cancer diagnosis, moving--twice (always a great chance to argue), our house being burglarized, you traveling to China w/o me for 3 weeks, hospital visits, trying to sell our house, going thru the ups and downs of becoming a family, the negative adoption moments. Through it all you stuck through it all and put up with my pre-stress chaos, and all those tears. The happy times--#1 by far was the placement of our babies in our arms, the day you said I Do to me, the many fabulous journeys we have been lucky enough to experience together (Tahiti, Alaska, Cozumel, China, Florida, PV, Colorado, and many more), buying 2 houses together, adding new family members, all our wonderful friendships we have created, and so many others. It has been an insanely busy 10 years, and I look forward to spending many more wonderful years with you. It is hard to imagine how much your love for a person can grow, and change. It has, and I assume that somehow we will continue to grow our love and memories over the next 10 years. Although you better start saving now, you promised we'd return to Tahiti for our next big anniversary! :)

I send out all of my love to you my sweet angel bear. You deserve so much on this special day! I promise to love you always and forever..............me

Tiger and Annika, look out!

Yesterday we got a package in the mail. While working at UST, Skip helped design some Nike junior shafts. Now his former boss works for Nike! So, Don was sweet as can be and sent our children some clubs of their very own. We tried to head outside for a golf lesson, but it didn't work out so well. There were some neighbor kids that came over, and Skip didn't want the amatuers swinging clubs near other people. Maybe later I can snap some pics of the next lesson. For now, just know that we are working on molding our very own little Tiger and Annika!

Sorry the video is crooked. I don't know what I was thinking. It is sweet to hear our little girl so excited about golf, though!

Keegan, Emerald, Gavin, and Calvin......oh my!!!

I think she likes Keegan, she won't usually smile for the camera like that! Keegan, cookies, it's a good combination.

I am listing lots of pics (not necessarily in order) of our trip to Arkansas. Skip is back, safe and sound, yeah!! We had lots of fun playing in the sprinklers, baking cookies, and just hanging out together. We are going to miss our friends when they move to New Jersey! They did keep us busy all week. Sharing is not a favorite of 4, 3, 2, and 1 year olds! Funny thing is that the non-siblings got along great, go figure!

Missing Daddy-O

We are currently in Arkansas while Skip is half-way around the world, literally. Skip is in Taiwan for work this week. He is having a good visit and learning a lot. This is a rare thing at his new job--travel. We love that! They say that he might only have to travel over to Taiwan once a year at most. Yeah!! We actually talked on the phone tonight and he got to visit the tallest building in the world. This sounded interesting to me. Taipei 101. He seemed pretty impressed with this building. He really hasn't had a lot of time to do much sight-seeing, mostly work, work, work, getting back to his hotel at 10, to crash and get up early. He did say that he is eating "too much" which is good, as you never know what food you will be fed in a foreign country. We can't wait to see him and wish him safe travels.

The kids and I have been having fun with a high-school friend, Stephanie, and her 2 boys, Keegan and Gavin. Sadly, they are moving to New Jersey soon, so we've been helping pack and playing, oh so much playing. The packing reminds me of the last year of our lives, and makes me thankful that we are finally settled. It does feel nice to be settled, and able to be mostly out of the "boxes" stage. We went to the pool today and Calvin was in heaven. Emerald was a little timid, but she warmed up pretty well. The sprinklers were a big hit yesterday. Let me tell you, chasing, feeding, and cleaning up after a 4, 3, 2, and 1 year old will wear anyone out! Steph and I got a babysitter Monday night and enjoyed a quiet dinner to ourselves!! I don't have the opportunity to dump pictures here, but look for pics to come. We are thankful for good friends and happy we had this opportunity to spend time with Steph and the kids before she moves across the country (although what a great vacation we will have in the near future!).

We heard from the people who moved into our old house. It is so nice to know that it will be loved by them. It is their first home like it was for us. They also have family in Kansas. We wish them well.

We will have our Daddy-O home for Father's Day. We wish all the daddies (and daddies-to-be) a happy day, and a special day to my daddy and Skip's father. We love you lots! The following weekend we are hosting a big shower for our coming nephew. We are all anxious to have Laura and Shane visit from Colorado and are thrilled at the chance to spoil them with love and gifts.

Until I am home and have time (remember the above paragraph) to update the blog, Happy Father's Day and look for pictures to come......

Happy Birthday Laney-Girl

Those 2 have a special bond.

You can tell she is getting older, she does a lot more resting now. Maybe she just knows to rest when the kids aren't around.



This is what she has to put up with!

Meeting Calvin for the first time.

Emerald as a 6-month old, couldn't keep her eyes off Laney.

Age 1 1/2, still loves getting puppy kisses.


One year old, and loving the Laney attention.

Did you know "Laney" in baby language means pillow?

As I looked thru pictures, it was hard not to find pictures with Laney in them!

Today is our sweet Laney-Girl's 7th birthday. In taking a moment to reflect, she really has to be one of the most patient dogs in the world. She gets sat upon, saddled and ridden like a horsey, yelled at, kicked, pulled on, forgotten, and thrown in her jail. Still she sits and takes the abuse for one single pet behind the ears, one throw of the frisbee, or one sweet treat from the cookie jar. Without her, I don't know what Emerald would do! From day one, Laney and Emerald bonded. Not to say that Calvin doesn't like the "dawggggg", but I guess he has his big sis to watch and chase around. Laney, we are so happy to have you in our family. Thank you for always putting up with the kids, and with our busy schedules. We remember when we first brought you home from Oklahoma and Skip wanted to call you Boomer. You hunted and pointed Skip's golf balls in the living room and bounced all around it like a crazy dog. When you were just a few months old, you were in the house when it was burglarized and we were so thankful that you were ok. You have your crazy moments, but they are getting fewer and farther between as you get older. You made for some awesome teachable moments with my students and even inspired a DOG (Depend on God) themed year. Thanks for being our sweet Laney-Girl, and happy birthday sweet puppy!

One year anniversary of our blog

One year ago I decided to start our blog. If I stop to look at all that has occurred in our lives in the last year it blows me away. Our first post was about Calvin's baptism. I think it was appropriate for a religious event to be in our first post, because without God in our lives none of this would be possible. He has helped us create the love we share between us. He helped bring our 2 precious angels into our lives. He guided us through the job search and delivered us to our new home. We offer a prayer of thanksgiving for all the wonderful opportunities, friends, and precious family in our lives. Who knows what the next year will bring?? I'm sure you'll see lots of pictures of our growing munchkins and lots of photos of the soon to be nephew and ??? babies who will be happily added to the Pankewich family in 2008.


Thanks to all of our family and friends for helping us to create this wonderful life. Without you all we wouldn't be were we are now!

New furniture

I just had to post this bad hair shot. This is Emerald first thing in the morning. The mood fits the hairstyle if you know what I mean :)

Our first large purchase as a married couple was our couch. 10 years ago we got the big green sectional that has lasted through many moves, a puppy, 2 young kids, and lots of guests! It was time to update when we moved into the new house and possible once we sold our Texas house. Here you go, our new furniture. Emerald seems pretty happy with it.

Monkey-ing Around

We did it! We finally "threw" some paint on our walls. The first room we tackled was a small room--the kids' bathroom. As many of you know, Mango and Bo Bo are pretty important to my kids. That (and some adorable Target items) inspired us to do a monkey-themed bathroom for them. I loved the colors, fun to play with, in a bright smurf blue and lime green. I had planned to use our overhead projector, but Skip laughed and told me they'd be easy to draw. He is more talented than me! I think it turned out pretty cute.

Emerald kept wanting to touch everything (probably b/c we told her NOT to touch when the paint was wet). She had to point out everything to Calvin. Here is the monkey's belly, say belly Calvin.