June trip to California

This was a very exciting trip out! Jason had a retreat in San Clemente with the Creative Staff at our church. Since they were all driving out to a place that was 25 minutes from my parents I decided to tag along. Jason dropped me off at my parents and I spent the week visiting friends and family. It was great to catch up with everyone!

Friday was Jason's birthday, his retreat was over so he was back at my parents house. At 4 am on Friday morning I woke up having to pee (TMI). I knew that I should use morning pee to take a pregnancy test. I was pretty darn sure it would be negative so I thought, heck I will just take it right now so that way I can know I am not pregnant and go right back to bed. Well, as soon as I took it the test showed a BIG "+" sign.  I was shocked! I couldn't believe it! I went back to bed and tried to fall asleep but how could I after finding out the news. So I laid in bed, looking over at Jason for any movement that would indicate that he was waking up so I could tell him. So from 4am-6:15am I wrote a short poem to give to Jason on his birthday to tell him I was pregnant. At 6:30 I couldn't stand it any more so I woke him up. He was surprised to see me all bright eyed at such an early hour, especially since I am not a morning person.

I gave him his present. After he was done opening it I gave him his card with the poem in it. I was shaking with excitement as I handed it to him. He opened it and read the poem. Here's the poem:

The greatest gift of all

Is not something big, but something very small

Where once was one, now is two

Will it be pink or will it be blue?

He looked at me and said "That's very nice, thanks for the gift." I couldn't believe it! He didn't get it! i looked at him and said "Jason..... I'm pregnant!" He was shocked.... He said "Oh that's what you meant by the poem, I thought you were just talking about the future."

We then told my parents, who FLIPPED! They were so excited!

I went out to tell as many people in person as I could. I showed up on my friend Beth's doorstep with Karli in a "Big sister" t-shirt to tell her the news. I was so happy to be able to tell her in person!

Later that night we had a little get together for Jason's birthday. I put Karli in her t-shirt to announce the news to the friends that came! I was so thankful that I was able to be in California when I found out. It would have been really hard to be away from family and friends when I shared the news. Here are a couple pictures from the shindig.

Kaitlyn holding Karli

The soon to be married couple + Jason

Me with some of my wonderful friend and two adorable babies. I'm holding my new nephew Liam. Oh how I love that litte boy!

Arizona days

We have been so blessed to make friends so quickly out here. We have met such quality people. We feel like God has been affirming that this is where he has us. 

Karli has been such a love bug in the last couple months. She just loves to cuddle with us. I always try to remember to take the time and snuggle with her. It is SO sweet.

We have loved spending time with new friends at the park! Karli thrives off spending time with other kids.

The heat here is starting to rise. So are the bug counts. We check the house for scorpions every night. I must say, I have loved almost everything about Arizona, but the scorpion thing creeps me out SO much! We are excited to move more towards the middle of the city so there won't be very many scorpions. Luckily we haven't found one in our house yet. Praise the Lord!

We are gearing up to buy a house. I hope everything works out. I can't wait to decorate a house exactly how I would like it for our family.

California

Since moving out to Arizona we have gone back to California an avg. of once a month. In May we came out to see my adorable new nephew Liam. We were able to spend some great time with some friends.

We spent a day at the beach club. Karli loved seeing Lexi!

It was wonderful to see Karli and Hannah together again! They played together so well and talked gibberish to each other, somehow know what each other was saying.

This picture makes me want to cry. It is a picture of God's faithfulness to me and my friends. We were all pregnant together and now all our babies are over a year. There are a couple of kids who couldn't hang out that day, so in reality there are even more kids who should be in the picture.

It was also Mother's day while we were there. I was hoping that when we were there I would find out I was pregnant so I could tell my family on Mother's day. Unfortunately I wasn't pregnant. 

Missouri

Jason and I were really looking forward to going to Missouri. We were so excited for Karli to see Alana, her cousin, and to see all the family out there. Bummer was, the trip did not go as planned. We left on a SUPER chaotic day. Karli had a fever and it turned out she had an ear infection. Her pediatrician almost didn't let her go. Thankfully he gave her some ear drops for the flight which made it bearable. I was so stressed out getting on the flight from a day of running all over the place getting prescriptions going to a couple different doctors and packing all while having a very fussy child. We were excited that Karli was probably going to sleep most of the plane ride, uhhh not so much. She was up 90% of the ride wanting to run. When we got there we were so excited to see my mother in law and Joya, my sister inlaw. That made the car ride nice because we were to happy to see them. We had a 2 hour car ride from St. Louis to Columbia. The next day was great spending time with the family, however Karli was not herself. Thursday Jason got a fever and a really bad cold. He had to miss the bachelor party. He was SO bummed! Friday we drove to Kansas City, 2 1/2 hour drive. That day I got sick. Karli would not stop crying that day. I broke out in tears. I felt awful, she felt awful. We were so bummed because it is so rare when we get to go to Missouri we want to make the most of the trip and we were sick :(
Heres some pictures from the wedding in Kansas city.

Karli and the groom Zach. Not quite sure what to say about this picture

Karli and Patrick. She loved him!

The day after the wedding we headed back to Columbia to spend more time with the family. Karli really enjoyed her time with Grandpa. They colored and played piano.

Karli and "nana" (as Karli says)

We got Alana an ironing board for her birthday. Joya taught her how to iron

Alana has the cutest personality! She loved wearing this scarf/shirt thing

Karli and Alana reading

 The next day we headed back to St. louis to see Gigi and Joya and Alana. Gigi gave her some adorable gifts. Including this doll that she now calls her baby. She LOVES that baby.

Joya made us a YUMMY lunch!

Me and my two favorite little girls

Karli wth Gigi :)

All in all we were happy to see everyone. Wish we could have been well so we could have fully enjoyed every moment. But anytime Karli gets to spend with her family is much needed!

Amy's baby shower

The Smart family took a short trip to California. We were going to celebrate one of my favorite people, Amy Rupple, my wonderful sister in law. I loved seeing her with her beautiful belly. Looking at her just brings me so much joy because I see God's faithfulness to her. Justin and Amy lost their first baby a day before Karli was born. I remember calling Justin to tell him how sorry I was and to let him know I would not be offended in the least if they didn't show up to the hospital to see Karli. I knew the wounds were so fresh for them, and to be in a delivery room rejoicing with a birth is probably the last thing they wanted to do. But I remember Amy telling me that she wouldn't have missed Karlis birth for the world. She walked into the delivery room, gave me a great big hug and beamed from ear to ear rejoicing in the birth of her niece. I knew my sister-in-law was an amazing person but that day I just realized how incredible she really was. 

Her baby shower was beautiful! Rachel, Stephanie, Jenna, and everyone else who worked on it did an incredible job! Amy looked radiant!

Amy with her adorable dessert table

The shower, I love Vanessas expression, she really was happy to be there :)

Grandma and Amy

Me and the Amsters

Amy and my beautiful cousin Rebeca

The day was beautiful! Now we wait in anticipation for the baby to be born so we can know if it is a girl or boy. It kills me to think that I will be in Arizona when the baby is born and the first time I see the baby will be on facebook. Being away from family and friends is one of the hardest things about living in Arizona. Gratefully I have been making some great friendship out here or else I would be going crazy. Thankful to God for that!

whats new

Gosh when we moved here I thought I woud be twiddling my thumbs, home with Karli all day. Between being sick twice, having visitors 3 times, going to California and Missouri, being a Jr. High Leader, and possibly getting a part time job I have found myself quite busy. I must say sometimes it is kind of nice.

These past weeks I have seen the huge transformation in Karli from baby to toddler. Walking was a huge milestone. Seeing her toddle around the house is one of the cutest things. Whenever she leaves a room she says bye to everyone in it. "Bye mommy, bye boon (balloon), bye gabba (yo gabba gabba), bye daddy." She sings along to Twinkle Twinkle little star and gets a lot of the song right. I was counting with her the other day and to my amazement she counted some with me. She got 1,2, 3, 7,8,10 right. I was AMAZED! "Your baby can read" has been paying off too. She reads about 20 words.
One of her favorite things to do is sit down and read a book out loud to herself. Although she is just babbling it is the CUTEST because she reads it with the proper cadence and she will point to the words as she thinks she is reading them. Often times you can find her walking laps around the house singing and dancing.

As for me, the most exciting news is that I am trying to grow my hair out. lol. I am pretty boring. I am currently reading through the devotional "Jesus Calling" that my mom gave me. It is really good. I am always trying to meet new people. Jason and I feel like we are making some solid friendships out here which we are really thankful for. I am so grateful for facebook because I am able to stay a part of the day to day lives of my wonderful friends back home. I am SO thankful for that. Without it I would be having a MUCH harder time.

As for Jason, He has been super busy. The cool thing about his job is that he gets to show off his work to thousands of people each Sunday and from that he has been getting freelance jobs. We are soooo thankful for that! It is much needed.

Recently Jason and I have really been thinking about the future. Will we buy a house? And if so, how?When will we start trying to have another baby? All have yet to be answered but I know no matter what it all rests in God's hands and I am so thankful for that. I am just so grateful to God for guiding us and providing for our needs. My challenge to myself is to never forget that because you are forced to depend on him when you are in times of need but in times of prosperity it is easier to forget your utter dependency on him.

Mason comes to visit!

Uncle Nathan, Aunt Danielle and Cousin Mason came to visit because Nathan had some work out here. We were able to spend some time with them at the beautiful hotel they were staying at. It was so adorable to see them together and spend time with my brother and sister in law! Karli and Mason love each other so much.

LOVE these kids!

They look so big!

Mason showing Karli "nigh night"

Karli going "nigh night"

Catching up

Ok, I am so behind on blogging. We went to California about a month ago, and we are going back in 4 days. But I thought I would post some of the adorable fun that Karli and I had out in California. Daddy was at Sundance Film Festival in Utah so I talked him into letting Karli and me go to Cali so we didn't have to be home alone in AZ.
Karli needed some good quality time with her friends and so did her mommy so we all head to the mall.

Karli walking along the "Wawa" fountain

It is crazy to think there are 8 babies in this picture (3 are not born yet)

karli with Grandma

Adorable Paityn, Just learned to walk.

The boys showing off for the ladies

BFF kisses

Babies on the Loose!

Our nightmare

About 4 weeks ago Karli started to show signs of a cold. The cold lasted a couple days but I noticed she was very irritable and fussy. I just thought, she probably doesn't feel well. On Saturday of that week she started to get a fever and losing her appetite. By Sunday she was extremely sick and would hardly drink. I decided we should take her to urgent care. To say that the Urgent Care we went to was incompetent would be an understatement. The Nurse Practitioner didn't know what she was doing. She looked in her ears and said there was a lot of wax so she couldn't tell what was wrong. Did a chest x-ray. 2 1/2 hours later she sent us home with an antibiotic and told us to go to the ER if she gets worse.  Karli continued to fever and was drinking and eating less. The next morning she was worse so we went to the pediatrician. Karli had reached 105 that day. The pediatrician took one look at her ear and said she had a really bad ear infection and gave her a shot of an antibiotic. There was something in me that didn't feel like it was just an ear infection, she was way too sick to just have an ear infection. I asked the doctor if it could possibly be an Urinary tract infection. He said no, it is just an ear infection.
We went home then Karli went down for her nap. She wrestled in her sleep and moaned for a 1/2 hour. I went and checked on her and she was burning up. 107 was her temp. I immediately called the doctor while Jason started a luke warm bath to get her temp down. She was super lethargic. Our pediatrician won't let you speak directly to him, you have to speak to a nurse. The nurse said to put her in the bath, if the fever goes down she will be ok. Sure enough it went down to 101. We were so happy! The nurse had informed me to give her tylenol then motrin every 3 hours (Which I later found out was bad advice) but God gave me discernment to only do it every 4 hours.
That night she started eating a little, we were so encouraged. I was holding her and then she threw up everything. I knew she wasn't getting better.
The next day she still wasn't drinking and she was running a high temp again and she would scream and squirm like she was in intense pain. I held her weeping trying to console her but there was nothing I could do. I called the doctor and again I got that nurse and she told me to go to the ER. Thank God I did.
Karli hadn't had a wet diaper in about 7 hours and would cry with no tears. I knew she was dehydrated. Sure enough, when we got to the hospital, they put in an IV in right away and ran 4 different tests, all of which we had to pin her down for (one of the hardest things I have ever had to do). As they were running the tests, I looked over to Jason who had tear stained eyes. Our poor baby was in so much pain and it was taking everything within us to hold it together. The horrible thing is you can't explain to your child what is going on. She would look at me as if to stay "Make it stop mommy." and there was nothing I could do. They put a little cast around Karli's IV so she couldn't pull it out.
 Then we waited in a holding room filled with other sick kids. Luckily the Therapy dogs came to visit and made Karli's day. Finally, about 3 hours later we meet with the Dr. again who tells us her white blood cell count was way too high and they are putting her on an antibiotic through the IV. He says due to her condition he would like to admit her to the hospital and have her stay overnight. I must say, I was kind of relieved to hear that they wanted to keep her. I was scared to take her home because I was afraid she would get sick again and I didn't know how much more we could take.

Karli with Daddy in the waiting room, waiting to hear from the Dr.

Thankfully about an hour after we got into our hospital room Karli was getting back to her normal self. The fluids were making a HUGE difference.
The next day was filled with more tests. I think by this point I was so exhausted I couldn't hold it in anymore. We went to get an ultrasound of her kidneys and Karli screamed the whole time. I laid next to her stroking  her hair and singing "Jesus Loves me" while tears rolled down my face. This poor little girl had been through so much and I just felt so awful for her.

Feeling better having the IV in, in our temporary room until an upstairs room opened

Finally moved into our hospital room. All of the rooms were taken when we first got there

Karli playing in the toy room. She was in heaven!

Thankfully all of the tests came back normal and we were able to leave that night. Karli was able to play with some really cool toys and was able to see the therapy dogs. While there God gave us such a heart for the families who practically live in the hospital with their little ones. We only had to stay 2 days. I pray differently for those families having had a little taste of what they go through. I thank God that Karli seems to be doing well and I pray we wont have to experience this again.

God can do a lot in a year

Last year was such a roller coaster for us. We started off the year with a newborn and a couple hundred dollars to our name. We were living with my parents. (Which was SUCH a blessing) Jason and I were kind of discouraged because we knew God had a plan for us, we knew that Karli was no accident, but we just felt like we had no idea what we were doing with our lives and we were just waiting on God. Jason kept looking for jobs, even looking at jobs that I knew he would hate. The thought of him going to a job where his creative talents couldn't be used sickened me because I knew how miserable he would be there. We were met with closed doors upon closed doors.

We knew that God was faithful and we knew that he had something planned for us. I began to worry that perhaps God was going to move us out of state because at the time it felt like we had exhausted California's job market. God began working on my heart and softening it to the idea of living somewhere else. The thought of being away from friends and family was heart wrenching. I began to realize that I have lived my life never really stepping out of my comfort zone. I have always played it safe. I knew that God was going to do something to stretch me. Sure enough he did!

I ended up going back to work, which was a big bummer at first but I ended up getting put in a great center with wonderful women who I will be friends with for the rest of my life. I was so thankful for that! In the mean time Jason and I were barely surviving pay check to pay check and still living with my parents. By August we were really discouraged, nothing was changing, or so we thought. In September Jason gets a Facebook message from a church in Arizona saying they are looking for a video guy. Jason told me about and we both thought we should probably pass because it will probably pay like $10 an hour. Jason and I sat down and talked about our finances and came up with a monthly income that we needed in order to be comfortable and able to move out on our own. Jason and I decided it wouldn't hurt just calling that church back and finding out more about the position. Jason called and found out that not only would the position be  something he would love and would use his creative talents, but the pay was EXACTLY what we had decided we needed monthly. Only bummer, the job was in Arizona.

I had mentioned that I felt God was moving me out of my comfort zone. Well he did but I see how much he loves me in the fact that he moved us 30 minutes from my grandma and aunt and uncle. It is only a 6 hour drive to go home, not that bad.

I wanted to write about last year because it has been such a source of encouragement for us and it has been an encouragement for others too. I realize now that it felt like we were waiting around FOREVER for God, but now I see it was PERFECT timing. Through that waiting God worked on us, exposed some trouble areas in our marriage that probably wouldn't have been exposed had we not been waiting. He worked on my heart and Jason's and got us ready for ministry. Back in January we weren't ready but by October we were because all that time God was preparing us. By having my parents around I was able to learn from them some great parenting tips. Jason was able to spend great quality time with Karli which is a bond that she has so deeply with him now. God is faithful, and his timing is perfect. Even though we don't see it.

New Years

Jason and I were able to stay a whole week in California. So we were able to ring in the new year with some of our great friends. 

Big year for Justin and Amy! Baby on the way

Love of my life! So grateful to spend another year with him

Every year the bridge church plays flag football. Jason participates every year and every year I have to nurse him back to health afterwards. Jason gets thrashed every year. His team won this year. I was such a proud wife!

Cheering section!

Karli rooting on her Daddy

Reunited!!

It was so cute to see Karli with her friends again. I missed my friends horribly and I could tell she missed hers. All of the mommys, minus a few who couldn't make it, got together and had brunch at Lindsey's house. Karli was so excited to see Hannah, Paityn, Luke, and Nathan. It felt like we had never left. Looking around the room I just can see God's faithfulness as all of these little ones are growing up so well. It was so wonderful to see them all play together. I feel so blessed to have such amazing Godly friends in my life! Everyone lifts each other up and spending time with them is like a breath of fresh air (as cheesy as that sounds).

Karli loved Lindsey's blinged out phone!

Baby pile up on Beth

Karli loved wearing this hat. She kept taking it off and putting it back on

Oh Beth... How we miss you!!!!!!!!! Friends like her come once in a lifetime