Easter snuck up on us so quickly! I absolutely hate that it does that! I LOVE Easter. I love celebrating New life in Christ, it's so exciting! But...year after year, I feel like I drop the ball! Lets see.....how did we celebrate....We read from the actual Bible every night that week (no little kids devotional Bible), Easter Egg hunt at Church and Easter Morning we made Resurrection Rolls (crescent rolls wrapped around a marshmallow and then baked) Yummy!! The only thing I got pics of was the Easter Egg hunt, huuummm......

 Our attempt at an all kid pic ;)

 We choose pictures now days based on if Mike and I look good ;) Is there any hope for this family of 5 to take a decent looking picture?!

 For Christmas I got Mike tickets to the Thunder/Spurs Game. We like both teams but he LOVES the Spurs! The game was last week. I then surprised him for his bday this month with staying the night in OKC after the game! Wow, was we surprised!! We had a blast! A full 24 hours with NO kids! :)

 We are done with any type of surgeries from here on out! I can only pray, right!? This time it was Parker's turn. He needed to get a clogged tear duct unclogged. Turns out he had an actual membrane grown over the duct, so there was no way it would have resolved on it's own. The night before Brody specifically prayed that Parker would be "brave and strong". Oh my word, melt my heart!

Quick surgery, sad little boy. It was awful when I got to see him. He was still coming out of the anesthesia so of course he looked like my Parker. But his breathing, his whimpering, the look he gave me, NOTHING was my Parker! I kept telling the nurse that I knew he was fine, but this wasn't my boy at all. I kinda felt like he didn't recognize me :( Then after about 15 minutes he just snapped and was my Parks man again. PHEW!! I felt so bad for him. He's doing great now! Gunky eye is gone, he's just fighting like 3 more wicked teeth and that's making him miserable!

SNOW!

We've had snow twice this last month! Kinda sad, we don't have sleds and my kids have no clue what to do in it. Aubs only lasts about 5 minutes before she's "too cold" and Brody could stay outside all day :) It is fun to be able to use our winter gear more than once ;)

The Parks dude hasn't ventured out in the snow yet. He's been fighting ear infection after infection and some mean teeth have been trying to poke through. So....rough life for the baby :( BUT........in between round of antibiotics and feeling better he's mastered walking!!! He has the Frankenstein arms and the wobble down pretty well :) Brod and Aubs get SO excited when they see him on the prowl :)

 

Surgery for Aubs

 Totally forgot to post anything about surgery day! Back in January Miss Aubrie Marie needed to have her adenoids out and tubes round 2 back in :( December she had her regular 6 month check up with the ENT and a year and half after first round of tubes her first ear infection popped up. After 2 rounds of antibiotics the ENT decided her adenoids needed to come out. How this surgery was going to be different then what she had when she only got tubes, is first is what at the hospital and second she was going to be put asleep (like breathing tube and all!). She was the cutest little patient as we got up super early in the morning, dressed her in jammies and her robe.

 As soon as the nurse brought her crayons, she was set! We sat in that chair together and colored, sang songs and snuggled. She was then given some loopy meds :) Oh my!! We have some great videos of how SILLY she became. Mike and I were rolling! Then the most un-natural moment came when I had to put my pretty little girl on the stretcher, kiss her, and watch her be rolled down the hallway. Of course I cried my eyes out!

 Surgery went well. A little longer in recovery then expected due to my drama queen holding her breath and turning blue not once but TWICE! HA! That's my Aubrie for you ;)

 Once we got home, it was tons of watching Doc McStuffins, drinking apple juice and eating jello :) Toward end of the evening she was feeling better and even felt like being the Doc herself and gave Mike a checkup ;)

Our sweet girl made a full recovery in about a week! Praise the Lord! All in time now for Parker to get tubes and unclog a tear duct next month :( Go figure.....my breastfed, pureed food, non smoking kiddos and the ones needing the most help lately!

Parker Michael is 1!!!!

Our sweet baby is 1!!! How can that be!? We had such a fun time celebrating our laid back kid :) And....this was the first 1st bday party of any of my children I wasn't sick for (morning sickness!!)! Kinda nice :)

We had a few families over for lunch. Pulled pork sandwiches, chips, fruit and cake. It was 70 degrees outside and the kids played in the backyard most of the time!

Parks really wanted nothing to do with his cake. He was in disbelief that we were really letting him make a mess. I guess he doesn't enjoy being a mess because he did not enjoy having frosting on his fingers ;) Aubrie got a bit impatient....so....dove right in to his cake to show him how it was done! :)

Thats what big sisters are for!! He watched Aubs and then dove right in himself :)

Pure chaos opening gifts! Parker is smack in the middle of all that mess! ;) Each friend who brought a gift thought it was their job to open it also, ha! So sweet!

Hey! Look at that! It's a half smile from our thrilled birthday boy! Such a fun party! He had so much cake he truly had a sugar high! I felt like we drugged him actually. He was giggly, smiley and just "whatever guys" HA!!! And really no afternoon nap because of it ;)

Had to include this picture. This is BY FAR my ABSOLUTE favorite picture! I love every smile of 3 children! Especially the smile of my 1 year old! I promise he is a happy baby, and when he smiles he melts your heart! :)

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 :)

Santa!

Santa came to the hospital! Love this Santa! His eye's turn you into a child again and make you want to sit on his lap and tell him everything you want for Christmas. He makes you really believe! :)

 NO tears this year! Brody had so much he wanted to tell Santa but couldn't get his voice above a whisper ;) Aubs clung to daddy's leg until we said, "Smile" and she shot this beauty at us and Parks just started this jolly, red man down.

Brody even got to hold Santa's cane!! I've never seen this smile on my boy before. He was busting at the seams with excitement and nervousness! 

These smiles are a big step up from last year ;)

 Wow, I'm a little behind! Not sure how a whole month has gone by! It goes by faster and faster! Well if you go back with me to Halloween, here are my little critters. A dinosaur, pumpkin and Spider Man :)We have a costume bucket and so they picked out their costume for the night. We really never knew until the last minute what they were going to be because they kept putting on different costumes :) Doesn't Parks just looked thrilled :)

 Our church does a fun carnival that we went to. Lots of games, TONS of candy, tears to be had when we left because of the fun! It was even better this year due to daddy being able to walk around with us the WHOLE time. We didn't have to share him one bit due to him not being a Pastor at the church anymore! LOVE having daddy with us :)

 Love this family ;)

 Now just some cute pics :) We gave the kiddos an old camera of ours to take their own pictures with. Life behind their eyes is ADORABLE! We've done many photo shoots with their Planes and babies :) We've even seen some pics pop up of every day life. Me feeding Parker (delete that one!) and me going to the bathroom (OH MY!!! no words for that!). We've been talking and teaching about what we take pictures of now ;)

 Mike and I got away for our anniversary trip! Two nights away to Branson, Missouri! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE time away just us! We really didn't do anything exciting but whats the greatest is having NO schedule and getting to talk to my husband uninterrupted! :)

 This little man is almost 10 months old! How can that be!? He is the cutest little crawler we've ever seen, has no interest in standing up, is SO independent lately! He flat out refuses to be fed by a spoon, he wants to do it all on his own. Parks Man continues to be one laid back boy and just goes with the flow of our crazy lives. He loves the attention he gets from Aubs and Brod and truly puts up with anything they do to him ;) Praise Jesus for how big he is (just over 20 lbs!) because if he was smaller, he would be crushed ;)

 We have packed up fall and have gladly welcomed the Christmas Season! Each year just gets better and better with seeing it through the kid's eye's! Mainly Brody right now, but he is SO excited about Jesus birthday and Santa coming! He's been asking some crazy cool questions about Jesus and Santa. We are not downplaying Jesus at all, He is why we have Christmas. But, we are including Santa also. I love Santa and the mystery and excitement behind him. Lots of my childhood memories include the shear excitement of Santa. Anyways, enough said. We do both, and I'm proud that we do both!

And I guess this is how we watch movies around here ;)