Another Winnipeg Trip

We just got back from another quick trip to visit with my family. Stephen has started a paintball team through Prairie Storm Paintball, and they were playing in their first tournment in Steinbach this weekend. So it worked out great for us to tag along and see my family.

On Friday we took the boys swimming at the water park in Steinbach. Saturday was my lovely sister in-laws birthday so my mom and I whisked her away and took her for icecream (all 3 of us are quite fond of chocolate + peanut butter) Later that evening we celebrated Corissa's and my dad's birthdays. On Sunday my mom and I were able to get to the mall for a few hours without the kids, which was a treat for me! The rest of the weekend was spent in my parent's amazing backyard, the kids could not get enough. To top it off, on Monday I was able to see my gorgeous friend Danene at the womens program she is running with Teen Challenge outside of Brandon. We toured the farm they are running and finally got see where she has been putting her passion and skills for the last 6 months. It was a great weekend.

Guardian Angels

May has been a busy, typical month. In consistent weather, as usual has marked our Canadian spring. Some days as warm at +27 then we will have a week of +5 and rain. But as the month comes to an end the weather is warming, flowers are blooming and gardens are being planted. Of course not MY garden, oh no, it would not be a typical spring if I wasn't a good 2 weeks behind everyone else getting their garden in!
May has been a month of hair raising events as we have learned the hard way that Jackson is to adventurous for his own good. The first event took place one day when I had the boys in the backyard. I had latched the gate and ran back inside to grab my phone from the living room. All week I had an unexplainable nagging anxiety about Jackson getting out of the backyard and making his way to our street. I couldn't explain why I felt that way, as our backyard gate has a high lock on it that I was certain he was safe back there. As I was in the living room, grabbing my phone, for some reason I looked up and out my front window onto our street. And I couldn't believe my eyes when I say my itty bitty Jack walking down our street in his blue and red rubber boots. My heart stopped, I screamed "JACKSON!" and sprinted through the front door, across the yard and scooped him up. I couldn't figure out how he got out of the yard. I was pretty shaken up, as we live on a some what busy street and right near a corner that is very busy. I definitely shed some tears as I held him that night whispering prayers of thanksgiving to God for his hand of protection on my little Jack. (after the incident, I put Jack into the backyard and hid to see if he had let himself out or if one of the kids I had been watching forgot to latch the gate. To my amazement Jack did not waste anytime climbing the bottom part of the fence, reaching as tall as he could go and successfully unhooking the latch. We have since move the latch higher, much to Jack's disapointment.)
The second incident took place at Chapters a few nights later. I was watching both boys, as Stephen and I take turns going and looking at books that interest us. I had taken my eyes off of Jack for no more than 3 seconds to make sure Linc was still playing ok and when I turned around, Jack was gone. I have had boys wonder off before, but usually are not far. But this time as I quickly checked the rows of books that were closest to Jack and realized he was not in any of them, my anxiety grew. I continued to make my circle of search larger and larger, dragging Lincoln along with me with an undeniable look of panic on my face in my movement. A wonderful grandmother who had her grandchildren there noticed my panic and simply said "Can you find him?" I said "No." And she began to search with me. Thankfully Stephen returned and I told him panicky, "I can't find Jack." He took off up the main aisle. As I turned around to expand my search further, my mind taking me to worse and worse scenarios as every second ticks by, I glance up and see Jackson trailing behind a chapters working who was saying, "is your mom back here?". I ran to him and grabbed him whispering "Im sorry." She told me she had found him at the front of the store. The kids section was at the back. Once again, his guardian angels were working over time.
The final incident that happened was only a few days after the Chapters incident. Jack has discovered how to let himself out of the backdoor at Stephen's parents house. He had let himself out, but Stephen's dad and brother were sitting on the patio so they were watching him. They were unaware that Jack is, what we lovingly call, a runner, and so stopped watching him for a minute or two. When Stephen's dad realized Jack was no where to be seen, he started the search. He found Jack had walked down the hill, through the garden, over the dirt road that leads to the paintball (and it was a sunday, so a busy day at paintball) and was walking down the hill that leads to the the highway. THE HIGHWAY.
I have learned 2 things during that time period. 1. Jackson is extremely adventurous and we now watch him like a hawk, and even have this cute frog backpack he likes to wear that has a leash on the back. 2. God has BIG plans for Jacksons life, for the amount that he has spared him in just that short week, it is exciting. But I am sure I have shortened my life my several days, if not years, with the amount of stress I have experienced with him. Lincoln was never like that, always cautious, always aware, always satisfied to explore with us.

Lincoln's 4th Birthday(s)

We celebrated Lincoln's 4th birthday three times this year! First was in Winnipeg, when we went up for Easter and my mom threw a birthday party for all three of her grandboys! We went to Kid City where the kids played and played and then we had individual cakes and gifts for each of the boys! They were thoroughly spoiled, and it was a great time spent with my family.

On Lincoln's actual birthdate we spent the day at the farm. It was a sunday so Stephen had to work, but he still had fun playing with his cousins at Grandma + Grandpa's all day. We gave him a few gifts in the morning and I brought out cupcakes to enjoy with everyone after dinner.

As much as I love putting on fun birthdays for my boys, this year our birthday season (what I so lovingly call the period between March 28th - April 21st as Jack, Linc and my birthdays all fall during that period) was exhuasting. So I ended up postponing Linc's birthday party until almost a month after his birthdate, to give me some time to excited about it again.


After go back and forth between Lincoln wanting a lego birthday or a race care birthday, he finally decided that it was going to be Lego this year. I was thrilled as I had a lot of ideas off of pinterest. Plus our little family LOVES lego. Like seriously loves. Let's just say when Lincoln was 3 days old on our first family outing we took him to a toy store where Stephen bought him his first Lego set. A little red fire truck and wagon. We've been collecting lego ever since. Lincoln finally in the last few months has gotten to a point where he really enjoys playing Lego with Stephen, and I am constantly picking up lego pieces scattered around the house. Lego is such a fantastic toy, totally encourages creative thinking, imagination and problem solving. Love it.

We invited Lincoln's 3 cousins, Ezra, Francesca, and Cosette. We also invited 3 children that I babysit, who also happen to be Stephen's cousins kids, Abby, Emma, and Aaron. Abby is Lincoln's 'best friend' right now. So cute. Plus, Stephen's family and my cousin Carey was the lone brave non Dombowsky to come and represent my side!


We started the evening with Pizza and playing. After a little while Stephen set up the ramp for the Lego Stock Car races. They had fun taking turns racing their cars and seeing who won. Most cars fell off the edge before making it to the bottom, but they still had lots of fun!

After the races we opened gifts. Linc got some great gifts, but was most excited about the Dinosaur Lego set we got him. Dinos + Lego? My 4yr olds 2 favorite things. yup it was a hit!

Of course we then moved onto to cake, as the kids were so anxious to get into that cake!

I also had a lot of fun putting together Lego themed favor bags for the kids. I printed their names in the Lego font, made little note pads with their first initial out of lego, made Lego man crayons, and bought lego brick candies:

It was a lot of fun. But I'm glad it over... ha ha ha!

Jack Jack turns 2!

Besides birthing my children, there is nothing more that I love doing than celebrating their birthdays! I love to celebrate in general, and birthdays are a really special to me. Plus, having kids I find I no longer have as many creative outlets, so I tend to really enjoy putting together themed parties! Enter Jackson turning 2! We decided to go for an airplane theme, since Jack Jack loves anything that has wheels - semis (he calls them prime, as in Optimus), trains, and planes (which living near the airbase he regularly informs me when he hears a plane passing over the house) Plus I found a really great airplane cake idea online! Jack is such a fun loving kid, loves to make people laugh, and is always good for whatever is going down.

On his birthday we decided to take the boys to Regina, their favorite place to go. I know, horribly sad, but if it makes them happy. First we set up this silly streamer and balloon wall for Jack to see when he first woke up. He and Linc loved to run through it. Then we gave him his gift, which was this loud and obnoxious fire truck called Smokey. It's pretty much a toy fire truck on drugs. It sings, dances, shoots balls and apparently says 95 different sayins. But he loved it. Then it was time to go to Regina. First we took the boys to the museum. They liked it, mostly enjoyed being able to run around freely. Jack was definitely terrified of the mechanical T-rex, and Lincoln wouldn't even go in the same room as it, but I think they had fun. Then we had a ton of errands to run for the business and for Jack's party. So we hauled them around and Jack missed his nap, which made for a very crazy afternoon! We got home very late, and I wasn't feeling well so I had a nap while Stephen played with the boys. We then sang Happy Birthday to our little man and put him to bed.

For his birthday party we had so much fun! We invited Great Grandma + Great Grandpa Siggelkow, my Uncle Brent + Aunty Cheryl, Mike + Debby, Aunty Elise, Uncle Luke, Aunty Emily, Uncle Braden + Aunty Nina and cousins Ezra, Francesca, Cosette, Marcy + Dwight with Gabby +Amara, Brent + Janice and their son Soren. It was a packed basement. We let the kids play and adults talk. We ate food and laughed at the kids. We then opened gifts, ate cake and called it a day! The kids are still so young doing any type of organized activity. Jack loved it when everyone sang. I know because he got all bashful and shy. He actually started acting shy for the first time at his birthday party. I do mean literally acting - he is such a ham!

January - March

Ok, so far my resolution to summarize monthly what has been happening has well, not been happening. But that's ok, because I'm going catch up! We have had fairly normal life going on. We had planned on building this year out on the farm, but that fell through due to sub division taking too long and the cost of developing the land to build on. We have all been sick far too much and it seemed to just cycle through the family. But I think we have finally got everyone healthy again. So as I flip through our shockingly limited number of photos from January, February + March I am reminded that the boys started to be friends, continued to have baths, Jack tried his hand at painting and LOVES IT, Jack also discovered how to put the train tracks together by himself. We enjoyed very few days in the snow, and cheered Stephen on at paintball!