We bought a house!!!!!

Our new home (barring problems), 2 story, 4 car garage (ridiculous, I know)


Wonderful back deck to watch the kids play in the spacious backyard.


The wet bar in the basement. Great for margaritas!


This kitchen really is nice. I love the cabinets and the double-ovens.


This is the theater/media room. Won't the watch parties work great here?


OK, so the chaos of our lives continues. We were supposed to go out house shopping today but the weather prevented that, too icy. Instead we spent hours on the phone with Mike (our agent) and made an offer on this house. It went back and forth, and short story..............they accepted our offer! Thanks Mike for all your help! We hope to clarify with all the details later this week. We will keep you updated. Too bad we can't be in by Christmas, but shortly after, with closing set for January. Anybody out there feel like packing and moving in the dead of winter?? :)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Happy St. Nick's day to all! We had St. Nick visit last night and leave some goodies for our good boy and girl. Emerald was very excited and couldn't wait to (see) share Calvin's stocking when he woke up.

Unfortunatly, we lost our computer monitor on our main computer, and this was the way we dumped our digital pics. So, for now, you will have to wait for pics. I will ask Skip to help, but it doesn't seem a priority for us right now.

We put the car in the shop and are hoping it will look brand new soon. We did go see 5 potential houses last night with our realtor. We saw a couple of potentials last night. One of them is a fantastic home, with a media room setup and fantastic wet bar. It has a 4 car garage (ridiculous, I know) that Skip said would make a great indoor driving range. :) Leave it to Skip. We are going out again this weekend to look at more options. Hopefully this will give us many good possibilities.

I will try to post pics when I can, but it could be a couple of weeks. Sorry!

Many Hats

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel as if you couldn't possibly spread yourself any thinner? That is my day. We haven't posted in a long time, but honestly, we haven't had time! We spent the first half of the day dealing with insurance (yuck), but the car is going in the shop tomorrow to get fixed. We are trying to get all of the paperwork done with Calvin's adoption, which is almost there. Next we are busy preparing for the upcoming Christmas season by teaching them about the season, decorating the house, finding the right gift without little eyes seeing and telling everyone what they are getting. We looked at 12 houses yesterday and are meeting with our agent tonight. That isn't even talking about time being a wife, mommy, and oh, friend, to all thouse deprived friends out there, sorry!

I included a few random shots. Calvin is trying to clap these days. His signing is getting much better, and I think he is trying to show us bye-bye. Emers, well, I don't know what she was thinking with Calvin's hat & bib. As you can see, I need to find timefor a haircut for the kids, and then pictures with Santa. Argh, I need 10 more hours per day. They were also hanging out having a good time with Daddy before bed.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

We drove the broken van home. The seal between the doors was broken (as the door was bent) so it was a little cold driving home. I know it doesn't look all that bad, it could have been a lot worse! It just stinks knowing that we've only had this van for 6 months and it is a 2007! Let me tell you, while we were driving home, we continued to observe each ditch we drove by. God really was in charge as we drove down the embankment....it was so shallow and easy to take at the speed we were driving. How much difference a second can make in life. I know I already said that, but truly, it means a lot to me right now. Even the cries from my kids seem so much sweeter.

We did find time the next day to build a snowman. If we are going to live in this cold weather, at least we can enjoy the benefits of the cold. It was Emerald's first real snowman and true "playing" in the snow. She had such a good time. Calvin napped through our snow time, and when he woke up, most of the snow had melted. Unfortunatly, we didn't get a picture of him with this snowman, but I have a feeling there will be more to come in the near future.

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. We feel like we ate too much and now feel like we need to eat nothing for a week.

On our plates for the upcoming week....take care of the car, start looking for a house with our new real estate agent, continue Christmas shopping, unpack from our 2 weekends of travel, and start decorating our house for Christmas. That should be a fun, calm week for us!

Thank You God!!

Well, as if we didn't have enough going on in our busy lives...............we were in a car accident this evening. Most importantly, everyone is OK!! It is times like this that you realize how much difference 1 second can mean!! We were driving back from Wichita where we had dinner with Steph's parents and Aunt & Uncle from Florida. We were heading toward Skip's parents house. We got about 12 miles south of McPherson, and were crossing a bridge. The snow was coming down pretty good. The car in front of us slowed down and began to fish-tale in front of us, heading toward the left. We went onto the right shoulder and they "slammed on their brakes" (something they told the police) and whipped 300 degrees around to slam into the side of us, pushing us 100 yards into the ditch where, thank God, it was a gradual decline to the access road. Everyone was fine, but I lost it because the car slammed into the side near Skip and Emerald. Calvin slept through the entire thing (yes, my son that never sleeps :) ). We are away from our home computer, so we aren't able to dump pictures to show the damage. It doesn't look all that bad, but we can't open either driver door. We were able to drive back to McPherson. I guess we will call tomorrow and see what to do next. Wish us luck with this new event and please say a special Thanksgiving (appropriate) prayer to God for keeping us safe this evening.

Our First Kansas Snow!

Yep, that's snow you see, and on Calvin's 10 month b-day! It was 75 degrees yesterday and snowing with 30 mph north winds. The actual temp right now at 3:15 pm is 32, and wind chill is 20. Let me say again, it was 75 yesterday! What were we thinking :) Emerald kept asking "where is the snow" this morning. We didn't bring Calvin out yet, as he is just getting over a 2 weeks illness.

We went to Wichita/Belle Plaine last weekend to celebrate with Steph's family. Her 2 cousins flew in from Chicago and brought 8 month old Ben. It was nice to meet him. Her aunt was there from Florida. We had a nice visit, too bad it was so short.

This weekend we are headed to McPherson to see Skip's family and our Laney girl. We miss her lots and can't wait to cuddle up with her in this cold weather.

Calvin is looking forward to his first Thanksgiving. Emerald just wants to eat all the pie!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for our family and friends, our health, new job, and most importantly for the 2 little angels in our life that keep us smiling every day. May God bless you with as many things to be thankful for, also.

Calvin is SOOOOO Big!

It amazes me how these sweet angels continue to learn something new every day. We have been SICK, SICK, SICK at our house this weekend. Even through feeling like crud, Calvin made us smile by showing us he was "Soooo Big" all weekend. Now he will raise those hands on command every 20 seconds if you ask (and Emerald does, often). I even got one picture of him trying to say it while crawling.

It was so sad to watch both kids as sick as they were and not be able to help them. Luckily, Nana was here and she and Daddy took good care of the kids. Sad to say, they both got sick later, as did Uncle Jeff (how nice of us all to share). For Skip to take a day off work, that is saying a lot. Hopefully we will all be feeling better soon.

Since the last post, we have had Steph's friend Stephanie Lindsay and her family, Kyle, Keegan, and Gavin visit. It was tons of fun. We visited a kid's play space that was perfect for our little munchkins. It was a little busy trying to keep 4 kids under age 4 entertained, fed, and napped on a sane schedule. The best part of the week for me, though, was going to the opening night of the Garth Brooks concert! Talk about a blast! I wish Skip could have gone, maybe next time. I miss Garth.

We started to look at houses and did see 7 houses the first weekend of the month. At one of the housese Emerald was offered her favorite, a sucker, from a very sweet lady. As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed every last lick. Maybe we should call her Smurfette. We plan to get back into house hunting once the family feels better. For now, it is lots of rest and liquids. Oh, and many, many diaper changes. I can't imagine how any single parents do this job!

We're Kansans Now!!

Here we are in front of our Texas house for the last time.

We made it....finally. It took an extra U-Haul and lots of help from family and friends, but we are here now. We have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks unpacking, taking turns getting sick, Skip getting adjusted to his new job (that he really likes a lot), and celebrating Halloween. Our rental house turned out very nice, considering we never saw it before we moved in. It has been an adjustment having to fight Calvin with the stairs. Emerald tells us several times a day that "I like my new house." It confused her a little as we began a new search for our next home (the permanent home). She keeps pointing to every house we pass and says, "That's my new house??" She misses Laney, as do we all. She is staying with Walt & Cheryl and "chasing Maggie" as Emerald thinks. Now we are just focusing on selling our Texas house, finding the right area to raise the kids, and beginning to shuffle plans around the holidays. Wish us lots of luck in our endeavors. We really need to sell the house in Texas to make Skip feel comfortable.

Emerald was so worn out from the move that she fell asleep in her cow. We searched all over the room for her, and finally looked inside the cow to see her curled up with Mango.

Calvin likes the stairs. He loves to pull up on them and laugh at the happenings below.

Calvin as the golf ball in Daddy's arms. We got to trick-or-treat at Daddy's work (Garmin). Skip is really enjoying his new job. If any of you need a GPS system, let us know!

I had witnesses for the photo session. Jeff & Heidi can agree that trying to get a happy, smiling picture of both kids is near impossible. It was a long day. As you can tell, Calvin made it thru 2 costumes. The golf ball only last an hour, then we had to change clothes and he became "brother bear." Emerald helped pick out this costume.

Under Construction!

The Pankewich household is under construction. We won't be able to post another blog for a couple of weeks. We are just too crazy with the upcoming move. Please check back near Halloween. I won't be able to resist posting pics of my sweet pumpkins then. Thanks for being patient and understanding. Wish us luck in our move! Until we are Kansans . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.legacydigitalphoto.com/g/pankewich

http://www.legacydigitalphoto.com/g/pankewich

Check out this website to see pictures of the kids. There are more to come. These were taken by Greg Cutler, brother to Christi Cutler, my long-time friend.

There are some great "fang" shots of Calvin.

Finalization!

Yesterday we all got up very early in the morning, got dressed up, and went to meet our lawyer by 8:00 am. We signed some official looking papers, watched some office ladies coo over the kids, and walked to the courthouse. Emerald was quite impressed with all the rides in the elevators. We waited around until our lawyer could find a judge (all of about 10 minutes) and then we walked right up to the judge. It is a little intimidating going into court especially when you have a sleepy (and loud) 8 month old, and a chatty, interested 2 year old. The judge was very patient, even giggled when Calvin began blowing raspberries, and he addressed Emerald. All told, it took about 5 minutes in the courtroom (including picture time) and it was done. Calvin in now officially ours and officially Calvin Charles Pankewich. There was another family right afer us that had about 20 family members. It seemed a little silly, since it all happened so fast. Our lawyer told us that last Friday was the "adoption day" for the month. He helped finalize 31 adoptions. I have to say, though, that the description of their day was less personal. I like how our day turned out.

Both Calvin and Emerald received a stuffed animal from the judge. The police officer handed it to them, and Emerald asked if he was the judge. It was all very cute. Of course, Emerald already had Mango with her, so we ended up with more animals than kids :)

We spent the rest of the day with Daddy, as he took his last day of vacation from UST. We tried to go ride the train, but it was closed. Then both kids fell asleep in the car (too cute) from getting up too early. We went home for naps for 3 of 4 of us. Then we went out to eat BBQ, Daddy's favorite. Calvin got his first taste of ice cream and liked it. We went to pick out pumpkins and came home to work on more moving stuff and get a real nap for the kids. Trying to get pictures with the pumpkins wasn't so easy. Calvin was distracted by the hay touching his legs, and Emerald was just too busy.