The Pankos

A visit with Santa

2011-12-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

Ready with our bells to call in Santa

Doing the Hokey Pokey

"Put your tummy in...take your tummy out..."

Story time

Sweet Santa baby

I've tried for weeks to get a picture of the three boys together. It's HARD!!

This one is so much better than most! (Too bad Jake had just wacked Mason's head on the blue present behind him!)

My babies with Santa. I love how they believe and get such sweet twinkles in their eyes when they see him!

The Christmas/Easter story...with a twist

2011-12-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

Jake to his grandpa, aka Gigs

J: Gigs, do you know why we have Christmas? It's Jesus' birthday.
G: You're right Jake.
J: Did you know they nailed Jesus to a cross? They took his hands and feet and put nails in them then he died and they put him in a tomb with a really huge rock in front. Then the next day the rock was rolled away and the people said: What the hell??

Well...pretty sure that's not a direct quote from the Bible but it did almost make Brad drive off the road from laughter. Not sure where he even has heard that expression! Kids...

The littlest love of my life!

2011-12-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

I so very much LOVE this little man!!

Gingerbread House Differences

2011-12-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

We made little personal gingerbread houses today. You can tell the remarkable differences in personality between my two boys in the finished product!

Jake's: thought-out and precise
Ethan's: happily thrown together every which way (notice the flat roof...he kept breaking the peak while ramming candies on! lol)

Two little boys...oh so different from one another. Wonder what Mason will be like!

Oh, I no mean to do dat...Dat an accident!!

2011-09-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

First days of School

2011-09-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

I can not believe J is in Kindergarten! And little E has started preschool. My babies are growing up!

For Ellen!

2011-08-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

COME VISIT US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God's son....John????

2011-08-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Jake went to VBS last week. He absolutely loved it! The theme was knights and princesses, which he is completely into these days anyways. Well, the knight part at least. Each morning he had a verse he was to memorize and recite. He learned them all, perfectly, until we got to the church. Now you have to understand, by the end of the week there were 300 kids enrolled in the camps with over 200 volunteers then all the parents/siblings dropping kids off. That's a lot of people and Jakers is a tad shy at times. My favorite memory verse recitation went something like this:
"For God so loved the world He gave His one and only son John...3 times! My mom said she'd never give me away though!"
I'm sure this didn't even make sense to him but the John 3:16 part "confused" him that morning! soooo funny. He won an award for being such a good memory verse learner!

One more time....

2011-08-25T23:48:00.001-07:00

I made a deal with my cousin that if she responded to my email, which she NEVER does, I would start blogging more regularly, which she has begged me to do. Well, to my amazement, she actually responded! So, here I am, hoping this time around I might actually stick with it.

My little baby starts kindergarten in less than a week. I am still in denial about this, even though I finally did cave and we went school supply shopping last night. He thinks it's great and is so excited. I hope that excitement stays...he's not very good with new situations, esp when mom leaves. He's going to a french immersion school so that is another whole new adventure for our family. Neither Brad nor I speak French...guess we'll all learn together!

Little E will start preschool. He is such a busy little guy and loves to chatter away to everyone, loudly! I think he's going to love school and all his new friends. I think I'm going to love getting some structure and discipline into that child...my little spirited one! He is the cutest little guy and just when you think you've lost all patience, he melts your heart. love him.

Baby P is expanding my tummy more and more on a daily basis and I have no doubts that he will either be an amazing soccer player or very active in some sort of way. He moves like crazy, usually just when I'm going to bed and trying to sleep! Names for this little man are not coming easy. B and I don't seem to agree on any of the same ones. I'm sure when the time comes I will agree to anything, just to get him out!! Due date: 11/11/11!!!

It is now 1:00 am and I should be sleeping!!! Here's hoping I'm back before Sept 2012!!

Yes...these are my angels after they pulled a drawer out of the dresser (breaking it) and then climbing in behind the other drawers and hiding. Took me a while to find where they were but their giggles soon gave it away!

Jake

2010-09-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

Jake comes up with the funniest things to say. He LOVES to talk...to anyone who will listen. He always has to figure out how things work and why they do so. He has the sweetest disposition, is sensitive and loves to make people laugh. I love him with every fibre of my being!

Here's just a few of the things he has said lately, funny and sweet.

Jake to my friend Andrew in the swimming pool: Excuse me, why do you have so much hair on your boobies??

To Ethan this morning: Come on Ethie...I'll read you a story. (to which he sat down on the couch and 'read' a whole book to his brother, even letting him turn the pages.)

"mommy, I love you more than chocolate milk"

still here!!

2009-11-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Ok...perhaps my New Year's resolution should be to do better at this whole blogging thing. Well, perhaps I shouldn't make it a resolution since we all know that those are broken real fast. It's not that I have forgotten about the blog, in fact, I think of it daily. Think...that's what I do, not post. sigh. I came on here today to find four posts just sitting in the draft stage, waiting to be posted. I promise, I'll try and do better.

I have much catching up to do but for now I will just post these few pictures that I had downloaded (in Sept) of the boys playing at the beach. We had a good Fall/Winter so far and I will catch you all up soon...real soon!

Brotherly love

2009-08-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Jake is definitely a three year old, testing the limits to see just what he can get away with and throwing fits for no apparent reason at all. He can go from the sweetest kid in the world to, well, not the sweetest kid in the whole world with no warning. It is exhausting and frustrating but then he does something that reminds you of what a little angel he really is. For example, the other day I was vacuuming the living room. Ethan was in his highchair and started looking like he wasn't really liking the whole vacuuming thing. Without me saying anything at all, Jake jumped off the couch, went over to Ethan, held his hand and said: Don't worry 'Essen', when I was a little baby I was scared of the vacuum too but now I'm a big boy and I'm not scared. You can hold my hand so you're not scared too cuz you're just a little boy still.

My heart melted.

Despite the times I feel like I will soon only have gray hair, I love him more than I could ever even begin to describe. He's my little man.

Webster's definition

2009-08-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Cuteness:

garbage trucks vs ice free windows

2009-08-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm not very good at updating this blog. I think of it everyday and know I should be posting something but then the excuses start. Mostly, I always think I should have some pictures to post and I hadn't downloaded any new pictures in forever. Poor excuse really. Sorry everyone!

We have been quite busy the last month. I have started back to work (sigh). I am working casual shifts at RBC and then I work in the evenings at a restaurant. I feel like I'm going backwards working at a restaurant again but once I pay for childcare, gas, parking etc, it's really not worth working downtown! Plus, this way I still get to play with my boys during the days!

Brad has been working on the garage. We've got the walls and tresses up. Hurray! It'll be nice to not have to scrape the car windows this winter! Jake, however, is undecided about this new development. He has been so excited for the cement truck, the bobcats, the big delivery trucks etc. BUT...this morning when the garbage truck came and he couldn't watch out the window because the garage was blocking the view, he demanded that daddy "take it down...right now"! We all have our priorities!

Daddy's little helper!

Muscles

2009-07-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

We are heading out to Calgary on Thursday morning to visit friends and just get away for a bit. It is Jacob's 3rd birthday on Friday so we are going to take the boys to the zoo that day. Jake is so excited to see all the animals but is quite concerned that they will get out of their cages. I'm not sure why he's afraid...after all, he is REALLY strong!

In preparation for our trip to the zoo, Jake had decided that he wants to "be" the animals.

Watch out animals!

the cute, little patient

2009-07-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan had to go in for day surgery. He did amazingly well...much better than his mom did, that's for sure! He didn't need any of the pain medication that was prescribed to him and he was back to running around within moments of being back with us. He's such a little trouper. Nothing slows him down. I thought I'd share some pictures from the day. He was so, so cute in his little hospital pj's.

Too big to laugh

2009-07-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

We used to read the book "Duck in the Truck" endlessly for Jacob but haven't read it in quite some time. This afternoon, he found it amongst all his stories and wanted me to read it with him. He always used to laugh at the ending of the book. When I was about to turn the last page, I was excited to hear his sweet laugh but it didn't come. He sat, just looking at the book...no laugh, no twinkle in his eye, nothing. I asked him why he didn't laugh and he simply said: I'm big now mom, I only laugh at this silly book when I'm a baby.

Sigh...he's growing up too fast.

A whole new world

2009-07-09T14:24:00.001-07:00

I am, what some may consider, computer challenged. I don't twitter, I'm hardly on Facebook and I know absolutely nothing about blogging, but here I am. This blog comes from a lot of "am I being a bad mother" moments. The past while, I have found myself wondering why I am not better at recording the things my boys say and do everyday that make me laugh (or pull my hair out). I am terrible at recording their firsts, thinking I'll always remember them. Well, Jake's only three and I already don't remember a lot of the important things. I'm great at taking pictures but then leave them on the camera. So, the Panko blog is born. Granted, Bree may be the only actual follower of this blog (and she is another major reason to do this), but at least I might move one step closer to being mom of the year (in two little boys eyes at least) and have a record of how lucky I am to be the mommy and wife of three terrific guys.
(pictures will come...promise)

~Saff