Our Christmas Letter

Well to make a long story short, I ordered our Christmas cards at the beginning of the month and the store cancelled my order and emailed me at a wrong address to tell me.  That is why we are going "electronic" this year.

2011 ...

was a year that changed our family FOREVER.  Im sure we will all remember this year.

The year started out great when we welcomed our newest child to the mix.

Ellie Dombek 

(She won't have a middle name until she gets married and her 

maiden name will become her middle name)

Born February 3rd at 10:44am

She was a perfect 7lbs 13 oz and 20 1/2 inches long

     Everyone was so excited to meet her.  She brings us together as a family, because every member of this family is blood related to her!  I have been blessed to stay at home with her and be there to take care of her and watch her grow.  She started out with some sensitive tummy issues and was a cranky baby, but after getting her on soy formula she has been great.  She is almost 11 months old now.  She has 6 teeth and LOVES to EAT!  She is a smiley happy baby.  She gets sooo excited when her big sisters or daddy come home....she starts clapping and squealing with delight.  We are so blessed to have her in our family.
   
     When Ellie was 6 weeks old we went on her first trip.  We went to Washington to visit Greg's Sister and her family.  It was great to get to meet them and hang out.  We had a great time and I am sure they liked meeting Ellie

(Greg and Ellie on a ferry ride)

     This summer the girls and I took our annual trip to the beach in San Clemente, CA with our whole extended family.  We DROVE (along with my sister and some of her kids)!  Yes, it was a long 20+ hours, but it was very fun.  Ellie got to meet her great grandparents, and tons of aunts, uncles and cousins!  Kaden and Brylie had a great time playing in the sand and hot tub with their cousins.

(Some of the kids cousins and Great Gpa Holman)

   This year Kaden turned 8. (Now she is almost 9)  She was baptized by her Grandpa Holman at church.  She is in the 3rd grade.  She was sad that none of her friends from last year were in her class.  She has made new friends and her favorite subjects are math and art.  She is still taking gymnastics classes and enjoys doing gymnastics and dances during recess time.  She is a great 2nd Mother to Ellie (and to anyone else who she can boss around).  She really has a sweet and caring heart.  She always thinks about others feelings.  We are so blessed to have her in our family.

(First day of School)

    Brylie (almost 7) is in the 1st grade.  She is doing excellent at school and getting the best grades possible.  She says her favorite subject is math.  She is one of the best readers in her class and enjoys reading chapter books already!  This fall she decided to play soccer.  It was her first season.  She started out a little timid but scored her first goal in her last game.  Once she got down the rules and got aggressive, she did so good!

Brylie is a smart, funny girl who likes to keep us all laughing.  We are so blessed to have her in our family!

(Brylie is in the Orange-about to kick the ball)

    Jaren (almost 3) is an energetic, loving boy.  He has the BEST time when he gets to come hang out with his three sisters.  He cries and won't let go of his daddy when he has to leave.  We were worried that he might be jealous of the new baby, but he is very protective of her.  He is gentle and sweet with her!  He is definitely a daddy's boy though!  He loves having his daddy throw him around and play with him.  He is very talkative and happy.  We are so blessed to have him in our family.

(Jaren loves doing "boy things" with daddy!)

    Greg continues working at BE Aerospace.  He loves his job and is doing great at it.  There was nothing but praises said about him at his work Christmas party.  But even more, he loves being a Daddy.  He tucks Ellie in to sleep every night so mommy can have some time off :)  

    We hope this letter finds all of our family and friends having a great holiday season.  We love keeping in touch with you all and feel free to stop by if you are ever in Missouri.....we would love to have you.

                                                                              Love, 

                                                                          The Dombek Bunch:

                                                                         Greg, Heather, Kaden, Brylie, Jaren and Ellie

Our beautiful children!

Thanksgiving

It was a great holiday as to be expected.  We had a great time hanging out with family and filling our bellies with all kinds of yummy foods.  We have so much to be thankful for!

 This is the grapes & cheese kabob turkey that we made!

 Ellie LOVED all the yummy foods!  Her favorite thing to do is eat, so we think this will be 

her favorite holiday :)

I can't see why she wouldn't love it! 

(Taylor wait until you have your own kids....payback will come!)

It only takes one word...

Fun times

Whats new?  Well, not really that much.

Ellie and I have been taking a water babies swimming class once a week since September.  She LOVES the water.  Well, Greg has been jealous because we go during the week and he doesn't get to watch.  So, this month they had a class on Saturdays, so I signed Greg up.

They had a blast.  Greg is totally a water person, while I like to watch from the shore :)  So, they had a blast at these classes.  Ellie got so excited when she would jump in from the sides.  She is fine with going all the way under the water.  Her favorite things to do are drink the water and splash it all over.  She even kicks her little feet when you ask her too.  We are still working on the blowing bubbles in the water, because she likes to lick it and drink it better.  And she was totally the cutest baby there....look at those chubby thighs!


Also, a few weekends ago, Brylie and I got to spend a lot of one on one time together.  Kaden was at a friends bday party and Greg watched Ellie.  So, we went Rock Climbing!  We went with Taylor too.  Brylie loved it and looked so cute.  She did an awesome job.  She got just as high as me and Taylor could! She can't wait to go again and take Kaden to show off her skills.

Kaden and her pirate friends

Halloween

We had a great Halloween last night!  We all started out together, the girls wanted to go to every house in our subdivision.  We did about half the houses and Ellie started to fall asleep in her stroller.  We headed back home where Daddy and Ellie stayed to pass out candy.  The girls buckets were already getting heavy, so they dumped them out and we went out to get some more.  Last year the girls were so shy and quiet.  This year I think they finally got it.  They were still quiet saying "Trick-or-treat" and "Thank-you" but they got excited and were running from house to house this year!  It was lots of fun.  The weather was PERFECT!  Our last house was our neighbors who let us make smores in their fire pit with them.  It was a great treat to have last.

Then we went home and emptied out all our candy to take pics.  Ellie was wide awake then.  She loved just playing with the candy and hearing all the different sounds the wrappers make.  We gave her a twizzler, she sucked on it, but didn't really care that much.

And here are some pics of course:

Kaden: the pink pirate girl

Ellie: the Ellie-phant

Brylie: the cute witch

Sunset

The beautiful girls in the beautiful sunset!

Fall

We went to the pumpkin patch to find our perfect pumpkins:

We are a little behind on getting our pumpkins this year.  So after we got them, we decided to just decorate them and not carve them, since Greg and I end up doing all the work anyways :)

Our Finished Projects!

Soccer Season Ends...

Brylie's soccer season has come to an end.  On saturday, at her last game day, she scored her 1st goal!  We were all so excited for her!  She really has come a long way in a short amount of time.  She has learned to really get in there and get the ball.  It has been so fun to watch her play.  She got a medal for participating.  Kaden is jealous of all the attention and says she will be going out for soccer next season.

Tooth Fairy time

Brylie lost her first tooth at her soccer game this weekend.  She ran over to us with a bloody mouth during the game.  It was obviously coming from her tooth.  Greg said let me see...and popped that tooth right out of there!  What a great way to loose a first tooth!  She rinsed her mouth out a little and was right back in the game.

The tooth fairy came last night and she got $5 for her first tooth!  She is saving her next tooth to try at dads house to see if the tooth fairy there gives more money :)

Way to go Brylie!

Halloween Preview:

Presenting:

Ellie

as an

"Ellie-phant"

Greg and I have had so much fun with the elephant theme since Ellie was born.  Elephants are so in right now!  She has tons of clothes with elephants on them, the cutest stuffed animals, Gma made her favorite blanket that has pink elephants on it, and we even decided to redecorate her nursery with the elephant theme after she was born.

So of course for her 1st Halloween she had to be an elephant.  And since she is bald and everyone thinks she is a boy, we went with a PINK elephant!

We know our elephant obsession will have to stop bc we are sure she will end up hating elephants.....but until she can talk, I think she is out of luck :)

Soccer Mom

Its offical, I am a soccer mom.
Brylie had her first 2 soccer games today!  She did awesome especially since she has never played before.  And I know for sure she was the cutest little girl on the field today :)

Here are some pictures:

A week at the Dombeks...

This week went by so fast, I can't believe it is already Friday night.
We have so many activities lately that keep us pretty busy.
Here is a look into our week-

MONDAY: Get the girls off to school, babysit, coupon clip and check out all the ads.  For FHE we went to Trey's football game in Savannah.  I babysit, so we didn't make it there until half time.  Everyone had fun.

TUESDAY: Babysit. The girls had a Walk-a-thon during school.  Brylie had to take show and tell in.  It was 1st grade reading night.  Brylie and I went and we won a prize!

WEDNESDAY: It was Picture Day at school, we were up early to curl everyones hair!  Ellie and I had water babies class.  We did a weeks worth of meal planning and grocery shopping.  Brylie had soccer practice.

THURSDAY: I took Kaden to the eye doctor and she had to get new glasses, which took us 2 hours!  The big girls had Gymnastics class.  There was a Rollerskating PTA party that we went to right after that.

FRIDAY: Babysit. Brylie had soccer practice.  We had a church party to attend this evening.

Tomorrow: Brylie has 2 soccer games!

I love that my girls are involved in things, they really are having a blast.  Its fun to watch them try new things.  They sure do keep me busy, but I wouldn't change a thing.
I love being home with Ellie (and the girl I babysit).  It is so great to not miss out and to help them learn and grow.  I am so blessed for a husband that works so hard everyday so that I have live my dream life.  Being a mom is the best thing ever.

Playing catch up...

Ok, well I haven't been blogging like I would like to.  I can't seem to find the extra time.  I have been busy with other things as you can imagine.  I like to think that my blog is a type of journaling that one day the kids can look back at and read.  I got way behind with my scrapbooking though, and it has taken all my time to get up to date with that.  I always just did a scrapbook for each child (so I did two).  Now, I have been scrapbooking for the girls, Jaren, Ellie and I do a big family book.  So now I have been trying to keep up with 5 at once.

I want to get back into blogging though because it helps keep my extended family up to date.  All though, if you are my Facebook friend, you will probably get the most updates and pictures.
Also, I have had requests to go public again. Im not as worried about someone stealing my newborn anymore.

So, lets see what I need to catch up on.

Ellie is getting a lot bigger.  She is such a happy baby now.  Ever since she started eating real food, so is so much better.  Also, we FINALLY let her cry it out at night to learn to go to sleep herself.  Greg's parents came to visit and his mom convinced us to do it!  I thought it would be so hard to listen to her cry for hours and hours, but she was still waking me up at least twice in the night.  So, one weekend when it was just her at home, we decided to do it.  She cried for about 20 minutes and that was it.  Then about 5 the next night.  And now she is our sleeping champ!!!  If we would have known it would be that easy, we would have done it months ago!  She sleeps about 11 hours a night now!
She has two teeth now.  She is not interested in learning to crawl at all.  She has started to stand up against toys, so we think she might just start walking.  :)

Jaren is getting bigger and talking a lot more.  We can actually carry on conversations with him now and he tells us all kinds of stuff.  He still loves hanging out with his big sisters.  The 3 of them love playing and doing everything together.  But he is also very sweet with Ellie, he calls her "Baby Ellie" he likes to make sure that she is taken care of.  He is defiantly a daddy's boy though.  He loves having daddy throw him around, tickle him, chase him and snuggle with him.  He cries just about every time that Greg has to drop him back off and keeps saying, "Daddys house, Daddys house."

The big girls started school and are both doing great.  They didn't have any friends in their class this year so it was like starting all over.  They both like their teachers though.  Both girls are signed up for gymnastics again.  Kaden also goes to achievement  day activities and Brylie has joined the city soccer team.

I have just been staying home.  I babysit an almost 2 year old girl three days a week.  We spend our time playing, reading, coloring, going on walks to the park, and playing in the backyard.  Then when its nap time, its cooking and cleaning time.

We really have been so blessed.  Our lives couldn't get much better then this.  We have 4 awesome kids and love the great family times that we get to share together.

 The first day of school

 First time at the Circus!

My handsome boys

6 months

Ellie turned 6 months and of course we got her pictures taken!

 Our sweet girl

 You can see her first tooth

 With her favorite blanket that Gma Kelli made

Our favorite pic!

Photo Shoot

We had our first professional photo shoot with the whole family.  The photographer did a great job.  She took 99 pics!!  The kids did great.  I though pictures with a new baby and a toddler would be a disaster...but they turned out great!

Here are some of my favorites:

3 months old!

Ellie is 3 months old!  We have a doctors check up next week and I will post how big she is getting.  She LOVES being talked to and smiles all the time!  We cant imagine our lives without her!

We love you Ellie!

job shadow day.

Last week the girls school had job shadow day.  The girls were allowed to go to work for the day with someone from their family and be excused from school.  Both Greg and Matt's work do not allow children in their facilities.  Most of my other family members work in the medical field, which I didnt think would be appropriate.  So, I asked the girls if they would like to job shadow ME!


I feel bad that since the baby has been born, there are times when I have to tell the girls they have to wait until I am done doing whatever with her before I can help them with what they need.  Sometimes if the baby cries right in the middle of us doing something, their time gets cut short.  They have complained sometimes about this, and I try to explain that they  had their turns as babies and now it is Ellie's turn to be first to get my attention.  Also, some days when they get home from school I am so tired that I dont have the energy left to do all that they want me to do!


I thought this would be a great teaching opportunity for them to see what I really do on a daily basis.


The girls were told that if they stayed home and didnt do the things that I did, started complaining, or wanted to give up, that they would be taken back to school.


They both decided to job shadow me!


We were up about a half our later then normal (bc the baby slept in!) We got up and I taught the girls how to make a bottle.  One of them fed Ellie while the other fed a baby doll.  Then I burped Ellie while they both burped their babies.  They were complaining about being hungry and I pointed out that when your a mom you have to take care of everyone else first!


Then we ate breakfast. After that we started some laundry, folded some clothes that were done the day before,  loaded the dishwasher, and those type of things.


Then I told the girls we had to plan what we wanted for dinner.  They decided to make tacos.  We listed all the ingredients we would need.  We fed our babies again and got dressed and ready to go to Walmart to get our ingredients. (We also went through our coupons and the ads to see what was on sale that we needed.)


We went to JCPenny first b/c I was looking for outfits for the girls to wear in our next family picture soon.  We found some.  Then we went to Walmart.  Brylie was tired of walking before we even got there.  I told her mommies have to walk and push the cart!  I gave in after a while and let her get in b/c I could tell how tired she was.  


We got our groceries....we were there for like an hour!


While we were shopping, this couple asked me a question and I talked to them.  Kaden said, "why do moms get to talk to strangers."  I  told her that when your older you can talk to strangers in a store because you should be safe.  She said, "Oh, no one wants to kidnap mommies?"


We came home and Ellie had a screaming fit, where she cried for about 20 mins.  The girls were frustrated to have to stay in the same room as her and her that.


When school time was over I told the girls that they could go play for a while, but they would have to help me make dinner when it was time.


We made our tacos, and it was time to start our evening routine and get ready for bed.


I dont think the girls had fun at all.  It was hard for them to sit still and feed there babies.  Brylie would set her doll down and tell me she needed to go grab something real fast and I would tell her no, she cant do that.  She said she would take her baby and feed her while she got the thing.  I told her that you cant feed the baby and be doing things because you dont have enough hands.


The funny quotes of the day were:


"I wish you worked at Schlitterbohn(a waterpark) testing all the rides" -Kaden


"I don't want to go back to school but I wish your job was more fun." -Kaden

2 months

Ellie Update

Ellie is 2 months old now.  She is so precious.  We have put her on soy-formula and it has made a world of difference for her.  She no longer cries everytime she eats.  We have taken her off the acid reflux medicine, this seems to be the answer.

She is awake a lot more during the day and has started sleeping from about 10 pm to 7am with only one feeding in the night.  It is a lot better then waking up every three hours.  Although, it is still not a whole nights sleep without interuption....but we will get there.

She is smiling up a storm these days and even has a "giggle" that is her sucking in air and sounding so excited.  She loves watching her siblings.  Kaden has been a big helper and will watch her so I can shower when they get home from school!  She is great at feeding Ellie her bottle, but she has yet to try changing a diaper :)