Happy Birthday Brody!

We have officially have a 1 year old!! We can't get over how quickly the last year has gone! What a fun birthday Brody had! Poor guy woke up so sad. I kinda boil it down to Mike and I had all these visions on how perfect the day would go and if I've learned anything this last year it's as soon as B hears our plans...he comes up with a way to change them :) So he began teething the  night before which equal a very crabby boy :( It got to the point that I was feeling like the worst momma ever making him attend his birthday party. But after a decent morning nap and some good pain medicine, by the time guests arrived he was a smiling machine  :)

 The theme of B's part was "A Winter-One-Derland"

 Everything was blue, white, snowflakes or snowman. The little snowman in the middle of the table was B's cake and then behind it was the grown up cake. I couldn't have asked for a better cake!

 Snowflakes were all over from outside to inside.

 Every month of Brody was represented in snowflakes, it's so fun seeing these all together and the progression of him becoming such a big boy!

 (These pics are all out of sorts!) I think the best entertainment of the party were the kiddos watching the pups outside. They kept telling whoever would listen, "The doggies want in". So sweet!

 

Brod had a great time opening his presents (when he was focused). 

 All the snowflakes made B so happy :)

 What made him REALLY happy though was getting to eat his very own snowman cake! He started with the frosting and realized how yummy it was (takes after his momma!) and then slowly led into this cute, messy boy :)

 The birthday bash was a hit! What fun we all had :) Brod has so much sugar from his cake that dinner was a huge loss for the boy..lesson learned ;) We loved celebrating our son!

I may upload more pics but I'm done with this entry for now. I've been working on it for over an hour (not a fan of blogger right now!!)

Christmas

What a pure blessing it was to be able to celebrate Christmas with Brody this year! Yes, even though he couldn't appreciate anything it was so fun to see Christmas through his eye's.

A tradition Mike and I have always done is sometime Christmas week we order pizza (and go all out with bread sticks and pop!) and watch Home Alone. We kinda figured Home Alone wasn't too baby friendly so we got A Charlie Brown Christmas. What a fun 30 minutes of watching the movie :)

Christmas Eve Brody and I joined Mike at church and then at home opened our first round of presents, pajamas (a new tradition). I'm pretty sure B's pj's are big enough he could wear them next year :) He loved them none the less.

 

 A family photo before heading to bed.

 We eagerly woke up Christmas day so excited to see what Santa brought! B's eye's lit up at the site of his new tent!

 These cars were the highlight of his day.

 What a great 1st Christmas! We look forward to next year when we have a 2 year old and a 5 month old :)

 This pis was just too cute to not add :)

December highlights

 Well praise the Lord this week has brought about a good feeling momma! No Zofran or Ginger for me this week :) We went to the Dr. a couple weeks ago and got to see our tiny new peanut, perfect sight! We discussed the game plan for this pregnancy so that no "surprises" will come about at the last minute. The game plan includes ultrasounds every visit to measure growth, no complaining over here to get K2 every visit :) I'm definitely feeling as if I'm carrying a sweet and sassy little girl. I've felt much more sick and VERY grumpy. I'm shocked sometimes at what has been coming out of my mouth, oh Lord forgive me! 

Anyways...we are having fun introducing Christmas to the B Man. He loves the lights, presents, not Santa and hearing about Baby Jesus. The other night we took him to a drive thru light display and let him get out of his car seat and "drive". We ended up going around the display twice because he had so much fun! We may just have to do it again before the year is over.

 This month also brought a super fun overnight visit from the Kaelber kiddos (and their parents)! What do you get from 8 people and 2 dogs in one smallish house....lots of laughter, noise and fun :) Gunner and Trigger received more love in 36 hours then they have all year I'm sure of.

 Brod had been busy helping me around the house. He loves the vacuum! He always wants to push it when it's out. Great help I keep reminding myself ;)

 All smiles all the time :)

There are two words that always come out of this boys mouth. "Daddy" and "doggy". We are working on momma, the kid loves his daddy and doggies just that much though :)

Round 2

  B has been all smiles these last few weeks as he thinks about his new responsibilities that will be coming up. That's right, the Brod Man is in training to be a BIG BROTHER!!!!! Yes, sometimes I think we are so crazy but couldn't be more excited about welcoming Kaelber baby #2 sometime around July 12th. A nice hot, summer baby :) So different from our freezing cold, blizzard boy ;)

At 9 weeks pregnant Momma is feeling alright, better and better by the day. Thankfully B takes 2 naps a day and so that means I've been taking 2 naps a day. My newest philosophy regarding our home is, "The dirtier it gets, the better immune system B will have" all true right?? I couldn't be more blessed with a such a great husband though! Mike has been wonderful at helping out! So the news is out and getting more excited by the day for our growing family :)

11 Months

 

I'm crying right now at the thought of this being the last update until I can officially say our little, tiny, baby son is 1! Where has this year gone? Is this really how fast children grow up? Really can someone please tell me where the pause button is because this is just too fast for me!

Some of the B Man's highlights this month:

• We have a walker!! He took his first set of steps on our anniversary and the kid hasn't stopped sense.
• B climbs on EVERYTHING!! He looks danger clear in the eye and laughs! He truly is a monkey as he uses Gunner or Trig as step stools to get on the couch or wherever. Maybe our fault for decorating his room with monkeys.
• Weighs in at 18.5 lbs. I don't see a front facing car seat for this kids future anytime soon!
• 2 teeth occupy his mouth as he eats pretty much whatever we eat. So much freedom in this, however, it sure does point out how "unhealthy" Mike and I sometimes eat.

 Brod met Santa last week! Oh how this boy was terrified! Considering he has never met a stranger we really didn't see this coming.

 I had these great visions of B sitting on his lap all by himself....

 He had a death grip on me anytime I tried to hand him over! So I had to settle for the 3 of us :)

Last week B had his first big time fall. We were all hanging out in our room when B tripped and did a face plant right into the medal frame of our bed (I envisioned pictures of the ER and everything as soon as I heard the crash). I grabbed him as blood was coming from his nose and mouth (Lord can this never happen again please!) and held his as he cried and daddy was wiping blood. Then in no more then 30 seconds Brod wanted down to continue to play. Really!! I wasn't emotionally ready to let him go yet, he needed his momma still!! He didn't see it that way unfortunately. Thankfully, other than a fat scabbed lip, as you can see a little of in the pic above, just a few tears and some blood. Thank you Lord for keeping your angles around this boy! I  have this feeling though, that with the fear B does not have, we will be making trips to the ER. Oh Lord prepare us for this! :)

Tis the season!

 The Christmas season is finally upon us! We couldn't wait any longer and so yesterday we busted out Christmas at the Kaelber home :) Above is B helping me with some cute little Santa window stickers. These stickers bring this kid so much joy :)

 Picking out the perfect Christmas tree! Brod wanted to touch everyone of course ;)

 I think we found it! The most perfect real "un-perfect" tree at Lowe's.

 Decorating was a bit different this year. However, this will be a new normal for many years to come I'm guessing. Little hands always adds more fun to things, right??

 My favorite boys topping off the tree. Brod is doing surprisingly well at keeping his distance from the tree! Mike and I weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into, but we are very proud. He will walk/crawl by and reach his hand out for a touch but obeys very quickly when we tell him, "no". Way to go peanut!

 

 Uncle Adam got B an early Christmas/Birthday gift, a Spider man chair! He loves being in it during story time.

 Today was a big day. I finally caved and Brod received his first haircut! We went to a real fun place designed just for little ones. He sat in a race car watching some cartoons, he was a fan of every second! Above is the before picture.

 Here is a during picture. I just can't ever get over his cuteness! If I had my way I would be kissing those cheeks every second!

And now I present to you no more Baby Brody but hello Little Man Brody!

Family pics

We had some family pics taken last week. I've added a few favorites but the real favs will be on Christmas cards that will be sent out soon....so stay tune :)

We had the pups in two different shots for the whole shoot. I know I felt terrible not including them in all, however, it was just too much work fidgeting with B and the pups. Frankly the Gunner and Trig just wanted to run, so we did all have fun.

This week Mike and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! How crazy time goes by so quickly! This was his year to plan and he did such a wonderful job! Mike even arranged for Brody to stay at a friend's house for the night! We went to the Melting Pot and then stayed at our favorite hotel in Tulsa. It was the most perfect time of getting away, laughing, eating tons, and just not having a schedule :) We did miss the Brod (TONS!) but it was a great get away.

10 Month highlights

Sweet B, at 10 months:

• You have 2 teeth!!
• Walk like a crazy man with your walker train thing
• Love banging things together to hear the noise. Along with that you love making loud noises yourself.
• You eat finger food and do it great! You make one huge mess but it's so fun watching you go to town with your food. Your favorites are bread and cheese (your momma's favs also!) Your not gaining weight (big bummer) so we keep trying different combos of food choices to try this weight gaining thing. 
• You've learned the art of throwing tantrums (no bueno!)
• 9 month clothes fit you the best still.
• Still enjoy reading books. We started going to the library once a week for story time, you are so entertained for a good 10 minutes before needing to look for friends around you :)
• You are beyond adorable and we love you so, so, so much!!

Dear Santa....please bring us a new camera

 

We borrowed a friends camera yesterday. What fun! We are very thankful Christmas is coming up so we now know the one gift we both want.....a new camera :) (Don't overlook the above picture. It's one of our favorites due to an unexpected Trigger appearance in the left corner, hehehe!!)

Enjoy the pics!