WOW...What a Year It's Been

As I type this I can't believe that 2009 is already over, boy what an exciting year it's been. Nothing can top 2008, since that is when Olivia joined our family but 2009 was just as exciting for our family. We started off the year having a crawler and soon having a walker on our hands, remember Olivia walked at only 9 1/2 months(mid Jan). We also had a lot of firsts for Olivia from her first steps, to her first Easter egg hunt, her First birthday, first hair cut, first set of swimming lessons, first jet ski ride, first major boo boo, and so many others that I'm probably forgetting right now.

I've learned so much as a mom this year too and I still can't believe how selfless Olivia has made me become. In the 21 months since she was born I've become a less selfish person and do so much more for her then I ever could of imagined(I do still have my moments though).

I realized how lucky I am to be able to be a part time stay at home mom with Olivia. I absolutely LOVED being home with her this past summer, much more then last. I miss her every day while I'm at work but I'm grateful for the 10 weeks I get to be at home each summer and the many breaks we get from school. I will admit I do get a little jealous of the full time stay at home mom's. I've got to make the best of what I have, my time is all about quality not quantity.

I reluctantly learned to not worry about what others say about my family and my daughter. Who cares if she bigger, taller, louder, younger, a picky eater, just plain old picky, doesn't sleep through the night, and well frankly is a little high maintenance? I sure don't and it's taken more almost 21 months to realize that what other mom's and people say doesn't really matter either. Olivia is mine and all of those things make her special to me and if you have something to say about it well....

So what does 2010 have is store for the Panke's? I really don't know. I hope that business continues to do well for Paul. He has been such a hardworker during this recession and hasn't given up on his business through it all. I hope our family continues to be healthy and happy. I hope Olivia continues to grow and thrive as she has for the past 21 months. And, wow how can I forget we'll be celebrating a 2nd birthday in a few months.

So at the close of 2009 I'd like to wish everyone who reads this(all 10 of you, if that) a Happy New Year from the Panke's:)

Christmas With The Panke's

**Warning--this post contains LOTS of pictures***

Christmas with our family starts on Christmas eve at my mom's house. We open all our presents and have Christmas dinner at her house, a new tradition we started after my father died a few years ago. At first it was weird but as the years pass we have really come to enjoy it, especially since Olivia has joined our family. This year we went with the traditional Christmas dinner then it was time for presents-YIPPEE!! Olivia was so much fun this year, she really got into opening her presents and actually cared what was inside-most of the time. Since Santa comes to our house Mom and Stacy spent the night Christmas eve so they were able to see Olivia's reaction to her new toys Christmas morning-it was priceless!! We had a great time opening presents from Santa at our house, he brought Olivia a play kitchen, an art table, and a water table for outside. She loved everything he left. I had some presents wrapped for Olivia to open too but she wanted nothing to do with them once she saw her kitchen, so I opened them and I'm a sucker for opening presents even if I already know what's in them. After we opened gifts at our house we headed down to Russ & Jen's for breakfast and more gift opening, Paul's mom and Jen's family are there too. All the kids opened more presents then took them outside to play with them. The fun didn't stop there we had one last stop to make-Paul's dad's to open more presents. Finally we were done running around and it was time for Olivia to take a nap for Mommy and Daddy to clean up the house. After nap time we headed back down to Russ and Jen's for Panke family Christmas. WHEW what a day!!

Here are the highlights in pictures...

Coming out of Olivia's room to see what Santa brought

Colby took Olivia for a ride on his new 4 wheeler Santa left him

Olivia is a late sleeper so we had to wake her up to see what Santa brought. When we woke her up she was her normal bright eyed self and I was so excited. I asked her if she knew who came to visit her last night and she yelled out *Santa* and jumped up and started jumping up and down. How stinkin' cute is that?!?!

This year we had a great Christmas!!! I can't wait until next year I'm sure each one will just get better and Olivia will have more fun each year.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

How I found her after a nap..... Following in Mommy's footsteps, shopping.....

Our offical Santa visit at the Town Center.....

Santa coming by our house on the firetruck, check out that smile.....

Life Can Change In An Instant

Today is the 5 year anniversary of the day that changed my life. 5 years ago, at about the same time I'm typing this, Paul and I were hit by a drunk driver less then 3 miles from our home, what a way to start off a Christmas break-right. We were extremely lucky to say the least. I was asleep when we were hit(which is probably why I lived) and was thrown about 50 feet from the vehicle, Paul remained in the vehicle and sustained only bumps, bruises, and some temporary pain. Me on the other hand was pretty banged up-broken back/pelvis, massive bruising, and pretty darn lucky to be alive and not permanently scarred or paralyzed. At the scene they were unsure how severe I was injured internally so I was taken to ShandsTrauma center by helicopter.

I don't remember much of the accident, luckily, but there are a few things that stand out in my mind-being yelled at by the trauma doctor at Shands telling me that most people who are ejected during a car accident aren't seeing him they are downstairs. What is downstairs you ask, the morgue... Hearing my dad crying and saying "my baby can move her legs". I had no idea what he was talking about but later learned that they were still trying to figure out if I was going to be able to walk...Being really ticked off when I realized that they had to cut off my new jeans and sweater to stabilize me, I do have my priorities you know. I ended up spending the next 5 days in Shands-not a pleasant experience at all. I was put on bed rest the entire time and for 3 weeks after being discharged-I'm telling you this Christmas break was the best ever. (Can you sense my sarcasm here.) On the day before I was discharged the nurses came in to take me to try and walk for the first time in days. This may sound easy but the part of my pelvis that was fractured was about a 1/4 inch from the base of my spinal cord meaning, if the bone fell into place correctly I was fine and if it didn't, well the worst could happen paralysis... like I said I was a lucky girl. The bone fell just right I could go home but again had to be on bed rest putting no weight on the bone until it had time to heal, 3-4 weeks minium. I was so excited to go home but dreaded not being able to do anything and being completely dependent on others for everything.

I went home hoping and praying for the best. Up until this point in my life I was never very religious and didn't think prayer could work. I prayed more in the 3 weeks I was laying on my back that it would heal properly and all would be fine then ever before. Well all that prayer worked at my 3 week check up I was completely healed, the doctor was amazed he said it usually takes 4-6 weeks to be healed completely. I was given the ok to walk again without assistance, YAY, the only restrictions I was given were no running or driving for a few more weeks. I could live with that I could walk and I was alive!!!

Life can change in an instant and make you reflect on everything you do and have done. I'm still trying to figure out why I made it out with what I relaized later were minor injuries, they were pretty major to me at the time( 9 out of 10 people thrown from a car die on impact). It's something I'll never know but apparently God wasn't ready for me to leave earth and frankly I wasn't either.

Be thankful for everyday you, live your life to the fullest, and live with no regrets.....

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmastime is here and for the first year in quite a while I'm actually enjoying the season. We got our tree up early, on Thanksgiving day, we're all decorated outside(pictures to come later), and I have about 90% of my shopping done. For the past few years I haven't really been in the Christmas spirit when the holidays role around but Olivia is making things brighter for me, each and everyday. I'm having so much fun this year, we've actually been talking about Santa and Olivia can recognize him, even though she doesn't understand who he is yet it's still fun to hear her say *Santa*.

The other night I decided to try and get some pictures for our Christmas cards. I thought since there was only 11 days left until Christmas I better get on the ball so they could be mailed in time. Here is a quick overview of our little photo shoot-I got Olivia dressed in her Christmas outfit, we finally got Daddy inside to help, we added a few more ornaments to the tree, fixed the tree skirt, and started shooting. Olivia was really NOT in the mood to have her picture taken here are a few of the first set of photos I got...
I got this...
This......

and this.... No matter what I did or said the little turkey wasn't interested in the camera or smiling. She would run to Daddy, sit in the doorway-nowhere near the tree, play with a toy, or try to read a book. She did however discover the step stool which suddenly made her happy. We decided to put it in front of the tree and see if she would sit on it-BINGO!!! She sat her little behind right on that step stool and smiled her little heart out for almost 2 dozen pictures. I was so excited I finally got a few usable shots to make our cards. Here is the edited photo, I did my best to get the stool out of the shot since it wasn't fancy it was just a regular old stool still with the sticker on it, I didn't think anyone wanted to see it. When I put the photo on the card template it cut the stool right out, thank goodness. I just LOVE that smile!!! We also made a little trip to see Santa the other night. This was an "unofficial" visit, a friend of ours is Santa at Woody's on Monday night. We decided to have dinner there and see how Olivia reacted to Santa. She was a little hesitant at first but after a minute, and a few candy canes later, she was fine. Olivia and Santa...don't let the face fool you she wasn't scared or anything she just wanted to get down because he stopped giving her candy.

Keep checking back for my Christmas light post. Let's just say we're the Griswold's with all of the light and sound we have in our yard, I'm waiting for the FAA to call and ask us to turn the lights off because the planes can't find the airport. I just keep telling myself that Olivia likes it:)