Our home thru the eyes of Emerald

This is my table where we eat dinner.

This is where Calvin eats, b/c he's still a baby. Lobster is going to use this chair next.

This is my kitchen where I cook like mom and dad. Santa brought it to us last year.

This is the wall that mom and dad still need to paint.

Some nice cabinet in the kitchen.

This is our kitchen and I help mom and dad load the dishwasher.

This is our table, that we got to sit at for Thanksgiving and Christmas and when friends come over.

Here is the stairs, they lead up to our bedrooms.

Here is our living room, see our tree.

This is Calvin, my brother-bear sitting at the desk.

My puppy-girl and where she lays in her sun-spot.

Emerald wanted to take pictures the other day. She decided that it was important to take pictures of our house and things inside it. It is an interesting perspective to see our house through her eyes! She wanted to show what was important to her, and from her height. Too sweet!

Busy Christmas weekend

Keegan was making Calvin laugh like crazy

Gavin, super sweet and innocent, right?

Sad to say, but this was the only pic we got of the 4 kids together. Poor Gavin was a little tired.

All the Grissom grandchildren.

Don't let this picture fool you, these 2 can wrestle like you've never seen. They do love each other, though!

The best we can get with all the family trying to look at the camera.

By looking at these 2 pics you can tell Calvin's job is to try and keep up with his big sis. I can't express just how much he looks up to her!

Emerald trying to decide what she wants to paint on her face.

The final choice, a butterfly!

Although, I don't think she needs paint, she's pretty cute anyway.

We received a better pic than this from Garmin, but this was the best I got with my camera.

This weekend was jam-packed!! We started out by making our gingerbread house Friday night. Saturday morning Garmin had their annual Christmas party for the kids. Have I mentioned that I LOVE that Skip works at Garmin?? They are so incredibly awesome to their employees!!! We feel so blessed to have ended up in such a great place and at such an amazing company. Thanks, Garmin, for giving the kids a chance to visit with Santa, enjoy yummy treats, and many other things. They had people there to do hair braiding (Emers was not interested), balloon animals (the line was too long for sweet Calvin), and face painting, which Emerald enjoyed. Calvin was not in the mood for one more line after waiting patiently for Santa. Emerald was a great translator when Santa asked what Calvin wanted, race cars, and what she wanted, (energetically) a baby doll!! She's going to get a real-live baby doll soon after Christmas!! :)

The party was fun and encouraged the kids to sleep on our trip down to Wichita after the party. We traveled down to visit with Steph's parents, although it was brief, and to see our friend, Stephanie and her boys. Steph traveled all the way from New Jersey, so we had to go and visit. Man those boys are growing up so fast. Steph's mom was kind enough to let us crash their family Christmas time and to feed us a great meal--thanks Cassie!! We had a great time, even though it was short. Steph and her sister, Tami, enjoyed laughing over my expanding mid-section, commenting that they'd waited a long time to see that! So have we!! The kids played like they were together all the time, even though Emerald and Keegan haven't played since June, and honestly, Calvin didn't play much with Gavin even then.

We had to cut our visit a little short, due to weather coming in and our having to drive back to KC in the weather. It was kind of yucky ice part of the way, with horrible high winds. It worried me a little after our car accident last year. I joked with Skip that I could have added to the stress of the drive home by claiming to be in labor :) He didn't find it too humerous! We made it home thru the winds, ice, and snow and actually were able to discuss baby names. I think we may have our top 3 picks of both boy and girl names. Maybe Lobster will end up with a name after all (although Lobster is growing on us all). Sorry, you'll have to wait until this baby decides to enter the world to find out 1) if it's a boy or girl, and 2) just which name we chose in the end. I know, that really makes some of you mad. Sorry, but that's just the way we do things and it works for us!! Only about 70 days left until our actual due date anyway, so really it's not too far away!

Our 'gingerbread' house, is a very, very fine house!

Our finished product.

Calvin was loving every minute he could help. He acted like doing this job was as important as a job at NASA!

Our little show-off.

Showing off their names. They decorated them in Calvin's words "my do it self".

We made our first gingerbread house Friday night. It was so much fun watching the excitement that was on fire in our children's eyes. They thought it was especially fun to decorate their names. Emerald has been very into identifying her name lately and was quite proud of herself for making an E and M on the house. Calvin was trying hard to say his letters, too. The most fun of all--eating the candy!! Of course I don't know which of my 3 kids liked that part the best!

We have Santa mail!

Big sister telling Calv all about being good, or else Santa won't bring you presents!

Calvin all sorts of excited to get mail from Santa.

Emerald giving her typical face.

Sweet cards from Santa.

I sit, finally sit (ahhhhhh), and update the blog!! It is very hard following the orders of "rest", don't you know!! As I look outside I see about 3" or more of fresh falling snow on our back deck. It has been snowing a fine snow all thru the night and all day. Emerald woke up screaming at Calvin that "it's white, it's all white Calv". I love that she calls him Calv.

We got some awesome Christmas cards in the mail the other day from Santa!! He did such a good job praising the kids for being so wonderful. It is hard, when you are caught up in the day-to-day grind, to fully appreciate just how much these little munchkins are still learning and growing every single day. I love having the opportunity to reflect on an entire year and think out what they have done. Santa really reminded us just how lucky we are to have such great sibling interaction, intelligent, well-behaved (for the most part) and awesome little tykes running around our house.

I had a sonogram Friday and all looked great!! Everything checked out with the baby and the measurements actually were above "normal" which is just what we want to hear. The baby is supposed to be around 2 1/2 lb now and he/she weighs 2 lb 10 oz according to the docs measurements. Once again we got to hear the doc tell us that this baby is "an active one". What does that mean for us?? Yikes!! We already have 2 pretty active ones now :) This sonogram was pretty neat b/c the detail of the baby seemed better. I mean I could really see the details of the face, hands, and other body parts. When they were looking at Lobster's face, she/he covered it up with cute, tiny little hands, and then gave a great thumbs up sign!! I love it!! I have pics, but don't have a great way to scan them into the computer. Hopefully we can figure this out someday! I have decided that we will have an entire album full of just sonogram pics!! Oh I am so far behind in scrapping. We have another sonogram in 4 weeks and had our 30 week check today. All was great, and again, the measure of the belly showed a little above normal. I just think I've got a long baby in there--I mean look at daddy and I'm not all that short!! The heart beat was 156, which sounded so fast! We go back to the OB in 2 weeks. We will be back in his office day after tomorrow, though, for our first non-stress test (NST) (to be done twice a week). Don't tell anyone else, but I'm secretly looking forward to these quiet 30 minutes twice a week. Some people get pedicures, some people get spa days, I'll take NST's to get some quiet time in :) This is a secret, though, so don't tell anyone :) Of course in order to have this quiet time happen, I have to arrange for like 20 hours of someone else to watch the kids--not an easy task. So, all looks good with baby Lobster!! Thanks for all your love and support and prayers, keep them coming.

We have another new cousin--Josiah Scott is here!!

Josiah Scott Pankewich arrived Tuesday, December 9th at 9:55 pm weighing in at 7 lb 8 oz and 19" long. Just perfect and in time to celebrate Christmas with all of his family.

Josiah loves his warm blanket.

Such tiny little feet.

I love this picture. It shows how much in love J&H are with their new little boy. Like I said, it is an "awe" moment seeing this new role and dynamic of their lives.

This is a sight I won't ever tire of--my sweet husband holding a tiny baby--his nephew. Even though we've been parents for several years, it is different being an aunt and uncle! Now we can buy the noisey toys ;)

So hard to think how fast you forget, how fast they grow up. He was so little.

Uncle Jeff seemed pretty excited to show off his new boy to his niece and nephew. Emerald was amazed at how "tiny his little feet are."

I missed this photo opp. I guess Calvin even got in on the action of holding baby Josiah.

The proud new parents.

Jeff and Heidi delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy on Tuesday evening. We are so super excited to meet our new nephew and cousin. Emerald was quite excited, and Calvin, well, as excited as an almost 2 year old boy can be about a baby. We had to wait forever (until Skip got off work) to go meet the new family member. Heidi is doing great, and I am quite impressed with her 4 hour labor!!! I am so jealous!! She did a great job and we are so thankful that everyone is healthy. We got to help out a little by taking care of their first baby--their sweet dog, Zane, aka Zander. He doesn't know what is in store for him!! We were trying to get Laney to give Zane some doggie advice to prepare him!! It was super sweet watching Heidi and Jeff take on their new role of mommy and daddy. We are excited to watch the kids grow up together. Seeing this little guy makes me get pretty anxious about meeting our new little one, too. We were also pretty happy to see Emerald's excitement and understanding about the baby in hopes that she will be prepared for her new sibling. We can't blame Calvin, he is just still so little and already has a sibling to watch that he adores who actually interacts with him. They are bringing Josiah home today and I can remember what that felt like bringing both our sweet munchkins home for the first time--excitement, nervousness, feeling of joy, and emotional ups and downs. He is a precious boy and is welcomed into our family with lots of love both near and far! The one thing about meeting Josiah that made me sad was not yet having met our other new nephew, Simon. Simon is 3 months old now and already has a new cousin younger than him. We look forward to seeing all the kids together in February. Congrats Heidi and Jeff and Happy Birthday Josiah!!

Weekly update

A little update on our lives:

Emerald got a haircut, finally! Pictures to come.

I found out I do NOT have gestational diabetes, thank you God!! I don't think I could add anything more to my plate right now. I went in last week for my 28 week check, and the one hour test showed high numbers. So, I got to take a fasting test last week that lasted until about 11:00 am. It isn't nice to tell a pregnant woman not to eat until 11:30 in the morning! They poked me 4 times in that time period, and the doc (who again, called me himself, man he's awesome) said my numbers were below the level. As a bonus, the kids had a fun time with daddy!

We took our birthing class last weekend. It was enlightening and informative. It was great to be able to spend the day together, focused on the baby. Sad to say, but in the chaos of our world, we don't spend a lot of time focused on child #3. We enjoyed the hospital tour and are a little less nervous being a little informed going into this process. I have a lot of faith that my sweet husband will keep me sane when the time comes. My biggest worry/fear right now is not the delivery, but more the other 2 kids--during the actual time we are in the hospital, once we come home, juggling all three kids, if we have to have a C-section and I can't lift Calvin or drive Emerald to school, etc. I have total faith that I can parent this baby, but still continue to pray that he/she is healthy and that he/she is a good sleeper :)

It snowed quite a lot yesterday. It was maybe 3-4" in the end and was beautiful coming down. I took some video, but feel too lazy to dump it right now. The kids want to play in it so bad, but that is a lot of work for this tired mommy.

Skip is having a fabulous friends and family discount on 2 Garmin units right now. I don't know if any of you need a GPS, but he can get one more before Christmas. Contact us if you need more info.

Still trying to come up with names for our Lobster! Why does this have to be so hard?

We have a sonogram on Friday to make sure Lobster is growing well. I will keep you informed on how that turns out. Then we have an appt next Tuesday with Dr. Peck.

Our first real snow of the season

Calvin wasn't sure about touching the snow, at first he was full of "uh, oh"

Daddy teaching Emerald how to make a snowball.

Emerald's there to tell him, "it's ok, Calv, you'll have fun"

Calvin's not so sure about this!

Emerald taking her turn sledding.

Really, I wonder if I have 2 kids, or 3!! He is just a big kid!!

We had our first "real" snow of the season this weekend, although it did flurry a little 2 weeks ago. Not big, Telluride snow, but a good test-run for winter. Saturday was a wet/snow mix all day, and then overnight it began to stick. Emerald woke us up Sunday morning with an excited, "look, look, it's white outside". I just love their enthusiasm for all things!! It was pretty hard to tell them we couldn't go play in it yet, as we had to get ready for church. While walking into church it was all we could do to keep them out of the snow. When we got home, it took us awhile to prepare for our first outing into the snow. Thank goodness this year we are a little better equiped with "snow gear", but had to find it all in order to go and play. Our little munchkins turned into little eskimos. Calvin wasn't so sure about it at first, and really hated having to wear all the gloves, hats, etc. However, it didnt' take long to get into the swing of things after he got his first "sled ride" down our itty bitty hill in our backyard. They had fun throwing snow balls at us, sliding down their super slippery slide, and chasing Laney in the snow. Emerald was quite a good big sister making sure Calvin got his turn on the sled and teaching him how to make snowballs to throw at mommy, daddy, and Laney. Calvin didn't get much of a chance to play last year, as he was barely walking as of January. I think we are going to have a fun winter!

We had a doc appt today for baby Lobster. Everything seemed healthy enough, heartbeat sounded strong. I did "fail" my glucose test, though, and have to go back in for another, longer, test. My numbers were too high, and they ordered a 3 hour test to be done. They say that can possibly happen if you have eaten something in the last few days that can change the results. Hopefully we won't have to add anything else to our plate right now!! If I do have gestational diabetes that just means another appt or 2 and watch what I eat. I guess they will watch the baby closely, but I already feel like we are doing that. We are 28 weeks tomorrow and in our 3rd trimester!! We start going to our doc every 2 weeks now. We are also starting our non-stress tests after our next appt. The receptionist and I scheduled out our next 9 weeks of appointments and I left there with 21 appointment cards, plus this 3 hour diabetes test!! That is a lot of trips to the doctor!! I think it kind of stressed Skip out a little when I showed him in the waiting room. It stresses me out!! How I'm going to juggle 22 "normal" visits to the doctor (w/o any other complications), Christmas, chasing 2 little munchkins around, prepare for this new baby, and do what my doctors and family/friends recommend--rest, relax!!?? As long as baby Lobster is healthy, I guess we'll just make it work! Now, if only I can convince my husband to not worry, after all, he is his father's son!!!