Christmas

We had a perfect Christmas this year!  We arranged it so we would have all the kids on Christmas morning!  We opened presents at Gma Kelli and Gpa Scotts house, so that all the family would be there and be able to watch.  The kids got SO MANY presents.  It was a wonderful time to be with our family.  We opened presents and then ate breakfast together.  The kids played and played all day!  It was great having our family together that day.  Greg and I had no kids on Christmas eve.  It was our first Christmas as a married couple...and it will be our last one with, just the two of us since Ellie will be joining us soon.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones as well!

I will have to post more about our exciting Christmas break, once the kids are back in school and I am home alone being bored!

Going private...

Yes, I still plan on making my blog private.  I have a list of everyone that commented to my last post and wants to be added to my list...you will all be able to still read my blog.  Before I post anything about Ellie being born, I will make this blog private.  So, if you come to this blog and its private...that means she has arrived!!

If you want to be added, just send me your email in a comment to this post (no one else will see it) or you can always email me at heatherdombek@hotmail.com

Lovebirds

Greg and I went to his work Christmas party!  We had to go shopping to find something for me to wear!  Greg made me try on tons of shirts!  He picked this one out for me.  I thought it made me look huge, but I was glad to wear it if my hubby liked it!  He was happy to show off my baby bump to everyone and talk about him being a daddy again soon.  It was so cute :)

We had a nice evening.  Greg's company makes airplane parts, so they had the party at an airplane museum in downtown KC.  It was pretty cool!  We went on some tours of really old planes.  The manikins on them were a little creepy, but it was pretty neat.  There used to be A LOT more leg room in planes!!  It was good to meet all Greg's co-workers and put names to faces of who he is always talking about.  Oh, and eating prime rib can never be a bad time for me!!

Northwest Graduate!

I did it!  I graduated from

Northwest Missouri State University

with a Bachelors Degree.

I have been going to college for 10 years now!  I was just thinking about all the different majors I have had.  I went to Ricks for my first year of college, moving away to Idaho.  Then I moved back home and was a student at NW for a semester.  Then I wanted to move out of my parents house so I started working and quit going to school.  I then moved to Grand Forks, ND.  I started classes there but dropped out after not being able to get financial aid and having to pay out of state tuition!  I then had my first daughter and moved back to Maryville.  When Kaden was about 6 months old, I went back to school to get a 2 year in Childcare Administration.  I then used that degree to teach at daycares and watch kids in my own home.  I decided to finish my degree when I knew I was getting a divorce.  I needed a degree to be able to better support my kids.  So, about 2 years later, after being a single mom, working part time and being a full time student....I AM DONE!  I never want to go back to school again.  But I think I am going to work on getting certified in specialized fields for my major.

I am going to be staying home with Ellie and then all the kids until summer is over at least.  Then we will see if I am ready to work or not!  I am blessed to have a husband that supports me in being a stay at home mom.  I never planned on sending any of my kids to daycare because I had kids so that I could raise them, not send them off to be with someone else all day. 

Orange Julius

Grandma and Grandpa-

this post is for you!

Greg had his very first Orange Julius!  Can you believe this boy married into the family and it took us this long to get him an Orange Julius.  We went shopping at the Independence Center Mall and saw a treat center....I told him all about my days as a kid, going to visit my grandparents in AZ and Grandma taking me to work with her for a while.  I would stay in the back and color and play with the kids meal toys!  I would always have a strawberry bannana orange julius and a corndog for lunch!

Greg had a strawberry one and I had a pina colada.  They were delicious!

Our Christmas Card Picture

Here is our family picture that went

 along with our Christmas card this year!

Christmas Letter- 2010

Dear family and friends:

     2010 has been a year full of changes for us. The “Dombek Bunch” came together when Greg and I were married in March with our toes in the sand at Ocean Isle Beach, NC.
     Greg graduated with his Master of Business Administration degree from Northwest Missouri State University in April. He accepted a new job at B/E Aerospace in Lenexa, KS. B/E Aerospace makes interior components like seats, overhead compartments, galley inserts and oxygen systems for commercial aircrafts. Greg is an Operational Excellence Specialist and uses lean and six sigma manufacturing techniques to improve business processes. His job required us to relocate to the Kansas City area. We bought a house this summer that has kept Greg busy with yard work and many home improvements. Greg is currently finishing a 4th bedroom in the basement.
     I have made it to my final semester and will graduate December 17th, with a B.S. My major is Child and Family studies with a minor in Gerontology. I am excited to finally be done with college after many years of hard work. Since we moved, I have been commuting an hour each way to class 3 days a week. I also stay busy being a mom, volunteering at the kids schools and being pregnant.
     Kaden (almost 8) is enjoying her new school and loves her 2nd grade teacher. She has made some new friends and seems to be adjusting nicely. She is doing well in school and is one of the 3 fastest at addition problems in her class. She is taking gymnastics lessons and loves doing gymnastics in the living room. Her favorite things to do include; playing school, playing Barbies, writing and coloring.
     Brylie (almost 6) is in Kindergarten and enjoying her new school as well. She talks about all her friends and the fun things she does in class. She has started reading and is very smart. She is taking gymnastics lessons and is also in Girl Scouts. Brylie still likes to think she is the baby of the family some times. She does well letting her sister boss her around and not complaining about it too much. She loves to draw and write, watch movies, and play house.
     Jaren (21 months) is a happy, healthy big boy. He is an easy going kid that loves to play with his sisters and follow them around. He is a major Daddy’s-boy and always wants his dad to hold him. He has a very big vocabulary for being so young; he picks up on everything so fast.
     Baby Ellie – We are expecting a daughter that is due February 5, 2011. She is a very active baby in mommy’s belly. We are thinking she might come a little earlier since mom is already having contractions. Everyone is very excited to get to meet her and have her join our family.
     We wish all of you a great holiday season.

Love,

Greg, Heather, Kaden,

Brylie, Jaren & Ellie

Ellie Update

31 Weeks

     I am getting closer every day!  I went to the Doc yesterday and everything is looking good.  I have stayed dilated to 1 cm for a month now, so she isnt too worried about it anymore.  Ellie's head is really low and getting in position for her birthday!  I am still having lots of contractions. 
I am done with school next week and then it will give me time to get ready for Ellie.  I have lots of the girls clothes to go through and wash.  I bought our first pack of diapers and some bottles yesterday.  I figure we better have the essentials now in case she decides to come a little early.
Knowing my luck, she will be stubborn and be a few weeks late!!

     Greg and I are getting so excited.  We are going to our childbirth class soon!  We cant wait to meet Ellie and hold her.  We already argue about who is going to get to hold her more.  Greg says I better get my fix while he is at work because once he comes home- she is all his until bed time!  I think this little girl is going to have her daddy wrapped around her finger!  It is so sweet to have a husband that is so ready to have a baby.

Thanksgiving weekend

It feels like I havent posted in a long time.  Things have been busy here as my final semester is winding down and all my assignments are being due!

Greg and I were alone for Thanksgiving this year and our plans kind of fell through. So we decided to go out to eat instead! We went to a yummy buffet at the Ameristar casino in KC. I thought we would be the only ones out to eat on Thanksgiving, but the place was packed!!! Here are a few pics of my food:



Turkey, Ham, Prime Rib, Potatoes & gravy, stuffing



Dessert: Bread pudding, something very very chocolaty, and some apple pie (not pictured)

We also did some shopping during the wee hours of the morning for Black Friday.  Greg had never done it before, so I made him come with me.  It was so crazy!  We saw two ladies get in a fight over one of them taking something out of the others cart!  The lines were insane and too much for this pregnant lady to handle.  After our first store, we gave up!

We also went to a Missouri Mavericks Hockey game.  It was really fun.  Greg graduated from the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, ND (where I lived when Kaden was born).  We have both been to plenty of Sioux Hockey games, but never to a game together!  Even though I knew no one on the team, there was plenty of excitement.  Live hockey games are the most fun sport to watch!

The Mavericks Won!

On our long weekend without kids, we have also been trying to clean the house and get a few things rearranged before the baby comes.  We are moving every kid in this houses room to give baby Ellie her own room!

Speaking of Baby Ellie, I am almost 30 weeks now.  I have been in the hospital already for having contractions early.  I spent a night there and had contractions every 4 to 8 minutes all night long.  I am already dilated to 1 cm.  They didnt give me any medicine to stop the contractions and I still have them irregularly throughout the day.  They told me to just rest more and drink more fluid.  I went to the doctor last week and I was still at 1 cm.  I am thinking Ellie wants to come early.....which is fine with me, as long as she waits until January, so that she is healthy enough to not have to stay in the NICU!  She is the most active little girl in my belly.  I get kicked ALL day long.  I dont think she ever sleeps in there.

Growing Belly

It has been 10 weeks since I took a belly picture.  I am totally pregnant now with a HUGE belly.  You cant NOT notice it now!  I have another doc apt this week.  I will have to post again after that. 

Baby Ellie is a very active little girl.  She likes to kick me all day and all night.  I dont know when she ever sleeps!  I have been feeling the Braxton Hicks contractions already and find them to be quite annoying! 

We are excited that we are finally towards the end of this and will get to bring our baby home soon to enjoy.

We are planning on taking child birth classes next month since Greg has never been to them, and he will need to know how to rub my back and give me lots of encouragement!

Ellie has a little set of drawers in the kids closet that we have been filling with all the newborn things we find around the house.  It looks like she has enough clothes for the first month of life already too :)

Ellie, we cant wait to meet you!



Having a Bouncing good time

We went to a new place that is full of different "bouncy" play sets for the kids to run wild on.  They all loved it.  Since the weather is getting colder, we have been looking for fun indoor activities to do.  This place was great because there was so much for the kids to do, they totally ran for hours and wore themselves out, and it wasn't even busy on a Saturday evening!

We will definately be going back in the future.

The kids faces in these pictures say it all!

Talented Kaden

The 2nd grade put on a musical concert called:

"This is MY Country" in song

They sang lots of cute patriotic songs. 

They honored our soldiers and veterans. 

The program listed all the childrens relatives that were in the service.

Kaden honored her Grandpa Scott and her Uncle Ryan.

Kaden has been singing these songs at home for weeks and was so excited to get to perform them for us.  The Platte County 2nd graders did a great job!

Going Private

I think its that time again.  I have decided to make my blog private so that we can post more details about our family, especially with the new baby coming.  I just want to be safe and not announce to the whole world that we have a newborn living here (in a few months anyways). 
Anyone who reads my blog currently is invited to keep reading it.  Just push the comment button on this post and type me your email address, that will add you to my "private list".  No one else will see your email because I have to read all postings before they are published, and I wont publish that.

Thanks everyone, I look forward to lots of future blogging!

Happy Halloween!

We are done trick-or-treating and its not even bed time yet!  The girls were shy when it came to trick-or-treating.  We went around the block and they wanted to be done.  They both filled their buckets though.  It was windy and starting to get cold.  Here are some pics of:

Princess Tiana and a cute witch!

                                                    

Picture Preview

We got our family picture taken for our holiday cards this year.  I wanted to do it early since I am only getting bigger!  This is one of the pictures of the kids, we got a REALLY cute family picture taken, but you will recieve that in the mail with our Christmas card.    We also got our pictures taken early so that hopefully I will get them sent out by the time it is Christmas.  Since I am graduating in December, I might be a little busy with research papers, presentations, and finals!

Fall Fun

Another fun weekend has come to an end.  We went on a hayride, and roasted hot dogs and smores around the camp fire at gma & gpas farm.  It was really fun.  The kids had a blast running on the tops of the hay bails and riding on the four-wheelers. 

We also went to chuck e. cheese. (I think we should buy stock in the place since we are there so often.)  Kaden had a friend spend the night, so we wanted to take her to do something fun.  We won over 900 tickets this time and got lots of prizes!

We had a great weekend.  It is always awesome to spend the whole weekend together as a family.  We have been blessed to have all that we have!

Birthday Notice

Happy 25th Birthday (again)

MOM!!!

I know, this is a day late now!  But my mom celebrated her birthday yesterday and is another year wiser.  Although she still claims to only be turning 25.  My kids no longer believe that story since their mom is older then their grandma now! 
I hope you had the best birthday ever! 

We Love you,

Heather, Greg, Kaden,

Brylie, Jaren and Ellie

Faulkner's

This weekend we went to Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm in Kansas City.  I looked online for a pumpkin patch that also had lots of fun kids activities and this is where we decided to go!  First of all, I cant remember a time ever picking out my pumpkin and sweating!  I thought we were in AZ again!  It was a hot afternoon in October for once.  Good thing they had fresh lemonade for us to enjoy.

The kids had lots of fun.  They fed animals in a petting zoo, jumped in a bouncy house, went on a train ride, and a hayride, went through a corn maze, milked a pretend cow, had duck water races, climbed through a caterpillar, played on a playground, and did other activities.  We didnt even get to do everything because after a few hours we were all hot and tired.  Everyone fell asleep in the car on the way home except for the driver!

Then for family night last night, we carved our pumpkins.  The girls drew their jack-o-lantern faces on and we helped them cut them out.  Brylie, my wild, not afraid of anything kid, really did not like touching the "pumpkin guts"  she would not use her hands, she would only use a spoon, and she ended up having everyone help her with hers.  Kaden on the other hand liked helping everyone clean out their pumpkins.

I think the kids are getting excited about Halloween.  Kaden is going to be a "cute witch" this year and Brylie is going to be Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.  She has been waiting since last year to be Tiana!

 Our finished projects:

We took our 3 little monkeys to the...

ZOO!

We went to the Kansas City Zoo this weekend.  I havent been since I was pregnant with Brylie!  We had the perfect weather for it.  We brought the wagon, so two kids could always have a ride.  Here is a collage of some of the animals that we saw.  I think Jaren liked it the best.  We would show him the animals and he would say, "pet, pet, pet".  He just wanted to get in there and pet all the animals.  Brylie really wanted to see the Sea Lion show.  So we did that, and now the Sea Lion is Brylie and Kaden's favorite animal! 

On Sunday, Kaden gave her first talk in Primary.  She told the story of Daniel and the Lions Den.  She says she "felt weird inside" when she was done.  She read her whole talk with little help from mommy, and we just wrote it the night before!  She has a new BFF that lives down the street and is in her primary class.  Life couldnt get much better for her!

Also, I started volunteering in the Library at Brylie's school.  I got to see her in the hall the first day.  She is so excited to have me there and I really miss working at the library in Maryville, so I am happy to come and help out for a while.

My one hard class at school is starting to get busy.  I have a huge research paper and two presentations that I have to be busy working on.  I am nervous about all 3 of these tasks....but hey I just need a C in the class to graduate, so that shouldnt be too hard!!  My other classes are really easy and I just have busy work to do, but its all stuff that I have already learned in my other classes.

We are halfway through our pregnancy now.  We just have the belly-growing part left now!  Thank you everyone for your prayers for our baby.  We did get told that she might have a heart defect, but today we did a higher level ultrasound and found out that her heart is completely healthy!  It was a long 5 days, waiting to know for sure.  We are so thankful that Heavenly Father has blessed our little baby to be healthy.....so far :)

This week we have a schedule full of girl scouts, gymnastics, friends coming over to play after school, and spirit week at school. It should be a great one!

Baby Girl Dombek

It seems like I am just getting bigger and bigger these days.  We have made it half way since I am 20 weeks!  I will have to take another picture soon.

Our Baby has become very active and I can feel her moving around in there now.  I feel her the most at night when I finally get to lay down and relax.  Greg has gotten to feel her move already too!  She is a strong kicker!  Greg is finally excited to be having a daughter.  He has been so involved and supportive in my pregnancy every step of the way.  This is his first time getting to experience every little pregnancy detail, as circumstances didnt allow him to be that involved with his sons birth.  I am so greatful to have a partner that has been there for me (I didnt really have that my last two pregnancies either). 

We have our "boppy" pillow still out from Jaren and the girls use it for their baby dolls.  I was telling Greg that we are going to need a new cover for it since its blue, and we need pink!  I told him we will have to put that on our wish list and let people know.

Well Greg went to Babies R Us and picked out a pink cover with flowers on it.  It was the cutest thing ever.  That was our first purchase for the new baby, and he went and did it without me expecting him to.  He also got us a new diaper bag!  Why is that the cutest thing ever, to see your husband baby shopping, or holding a baby?

Next week we are going for our ultrasound here in KC at our new doctors office.  I am hoping that they have the 3D ultrasound!  We will get to check on all of babies body parts :)

We think we have her name picked out, but its not 100% sure yet, so I wont post it until we have finalized that decision.

Weekend Activities

Today, it is estimated that one in every 110 children is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined.

On Saturday morning we joined the family in St Joe to support Autism Awareness/Research. We walked to support the Autism Alliance of Northwest Missouri. (To donate to this great cause you can go to their web site: http://www.nwmoautismalliance.org/)

It was a great event, some of the highlights were:
* the weather was perfect
* the kids had a blast in the bouncy house and ride
* the hot dogs were yummy
* we looked awesome in our TEAM KALE shirts
* we won prizes in the raffle
* and we were all there together

Kaden said, "It was fun.  I had a blast.  I loved jumping in the jumpy house!  When we were walking, I saw balloons in the sky."

Brylie said, "I liked jumping in the jumpy house and going down the slide.  And I liked riding on the train.  I like 'Party in the USA' and they played that song!"

TEAM KALE did a fabulous job at showing support.  We love Kale and want to help him and his family out in any way that we can.  Kale is such a sweet little guy that always makes me smile!  (Love you Day-day)

After the walk we went home and enjoyed playing outside because the weather was so nice.  We then got dressed up to get a family picture taken!  Since I am only getting bigger....I wanted to get our holiday picture done early :)  Then we went out to a fancy dinner.  It was fun!

Labor Day Weekend

For the weekend, Greg and I went to

Nauvoo!

We have been trying to make it there all summer. We had a great time seeing the sites, doing all the tours and watching the shows. It was peaceful and quiet there without all the summer tourists. The weather was perfect (I dont recall ever going to Navuoo and not sweating ALL day!)

We saw a lot and learned a lot. Nauvoo is a very special place to visit. The spirit is there continually. The early Saints went through a lot in that town and I am thankful for what they did for me.

We hope to go back again with the children sometime. (Kaden and Brylie went this summer with Gma and Gpa)

Here is a slideshow of some of our pics:

Click the X on that Pet Pop-up and you can read my captions!

Gymnastics

The girls started their gymnastics class last week. They went to one class during the summer before we started to make sure they wanted to do it. They both had a fun time and really seemed to enjoy it. I didnt get any good action shots yet, but I will try again this week!

Here they are right before we left for class.

Last weekend

We had a great weekend. We had a garage sale on friday and saturday. It was SOO busy on Friday and we had almost everything gone before Saturday. Greg and I had two of everything when we moved in. So, as we unpacked we have went through everything on got rid of TONS of stuff. We had a whole garage stall full of stuff! We made lots of money, have our garage back and closed early because we had nothing left to sell. Platte City is a popular town to have a garage sale in I guess!

We only had Jaren this weekend. It doent happen often that we only have one kid. So, we like to take those opportunities for lots of one on one fun time!
We went to Toys R Us to buy Kale a B-day present and Jaren got a new bike! He helped his daddy put it together and rode it around the kitchen and had a blast. Now all the kids have a bike we can ride at the park just up our street.

Jaren loves Elmo and when I was going through stuff for the garage sale, I found Kadens old Halloween costume. We put it on Jaren and he LOVED IT! We showed him himself in the mirror. It was so cute! Look at his smile in this picture, haha he was so happy!

Then we ended the weekend celebrating Kale's birthday. Jaren had a good time meeting some new cousins he had never seen. He was really buddies with Jake, and was walking around saying "Jake, Jake" before the party was over.

We love our time with Jaren. He is a total Daddy's-Boy. They call each other "Buddy". He is such a fun and good kid!