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.