Happy Birthday Brody Daniel!

 This crazy boy is 4 years old! I cannot believe it for one second!!! He was SOOOOOOO excited to FINALLY have his birthday! He kept saying, "After Jesus birthday, it's mine!" He woke up to balloons, birthday banner (fist debut of the banner!!), cinnamon rolls and apple juice in the real glass! ;) For lunch the birthday boy choose to eat at our favorite Mexican place :) YUM!

 Then on to the party! We've incorporated something new to the Kaelber kids bday parties......NO THEME!!! So liberating, so "cost effective" so laid back! We took Brody to Hobby Lobby and he choose the colors of plates, napkins, cups and silverware and those colors were transferred to the cake colors. Blue, green and orange were the pick this year :) Then off to Aldi for B to pick his snacks he wanted to serve. Marshmellows, M&M's and (brace yourself) BBQ Chips (ICK!!!) but he really wanted them! ;) 

 How adorable is that cake!!! Just the number 4 with his name! Again, simplicity is the new norm here!

 Had some sweet friends over and it was a jammed packed, party filled home :)

 I put together some really cheesy games, but really the kids know how to play. Next time, probably no games. The party was from 3:30-5:00 (at least that's what the text message invite said, again simplicity!) Around 5:30 I was noticing no families were leaving. So......Mike made a pizza run and the party continued through dinner and straight to bed time! All 10 kids even ended playing in the kid's room leaving us adults on our own. So B's bday party turned into adult game night! I hope this is a new trend to birthday parties! A small little incident did happen. A chair was pushed into Brody's forehead, blood everywhere, gashing hole in my sons forehead! Mom's went everywhere trying to find all my first aid supplies (kinda convienent to have moms all over!) as we tried to close his gash. Poor guy! I went back and forth if this was ER acceptable or not. I choose not to take him in, but I soon regretted that decision. He's almost healed now, but he will have a pretty cool scar. A nice present from his bday, right?! That aside, a super fun party and day celebrating our first born!

And to end with a super cute pic of my "pre" teen ;) Wearing my boots, hat on and cell phone in hand. Oh my little girl, SLOW down! ;)

Christmas

Cant believe Christmas has come and gone! Here are just a few snap shots of our last few weeks :)

 This picture above makes me laugh! Santa sent packages in the mail for the kiddos. Just look at everyone's faces to grasp what they all were thinking and feeling ;)

Oh my Parks! He doesn't crack a smile for much ;)

 Decorating sugar cookies. Such a mess, soooo much fun!!

One of our Christmas traditions is a pizza movie night. We order pizza, eat it on the couch (this NEVER happens, that's why it's so special!) and watch a Veggie Tales "St. Nicholas". This might be one of my most favorite traditions. I LOVE how much joy it brings the kids to not only watch a movie, but watch a movie on the couch WHILE eating dinner!! Crazy!! :)

 In our Christmas Jammies! :)

Then our Christmas traveling started. We ventured 12 hours to Wisconsin the first part of the week to Mikes parents house. The cousins met us there and so it was some crazy fun! Learned 2 big life altering things. The first, Brody gets car sick :( Lots of puke many times in the van. The second, Parks Man is allergic to cats :( Within 10 minutes of being at his parents house his eyes were swollen! Poor guy! He survived great on Benadryl and Zyrtec.

And of course, LOTS of snuggles from Grandma :)

It was cold, cold, cold in Wisconsin. But, NO snow! What a bummer!

We then headed 4 hours down to Iowa. In Iowa, we stay at a great hotel and were curious if we could make staying in a hotel feel "Christmasy"? The answer is YES you can! Mike thought I was a crazy person while packing :) We had a tree, garland, paper garland, stockings, my favorite Christmas coffee mug and plate, hand soap, candles, lots of lights, some of Brody's artwork from school, and books. We truly felt and looked festive! :)

We brought all our Christmas Eve traditions to Iowa and it was a ton of fun!

 Santa even know exactly where we were ;) Right, this looks great!

We had a great Christmas! No, I don't want to travel every year for Christmas. Yes, I would still love to get away to the beach for Christmas. But this week away was super fun! We all needed a "break" from regular life and this trip did it :)