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Trip, school, Karlee, etc.

So Jay finished the semester!!!! It was such a happy day when he took his last final. Right when he finished we got in the car and headed to Boise to spend the weekend with his family. We had a good time there and had fun shopping and going on walks and playing at the park. Karlee did great with her grandparents and aunt. She loved going to the park! Her new favorite thing is the slide. She wanted to go down it over and over. We got her some new clothes and shoes and other things she needed. She has finally grown out of more clothes! We came back on Monday. Then on Tuesday Jay and I celebrated our third anniversary. Wow! Three years already. I can't believe it has already been three years. And it is so amazing to look back and see what has happened and how far we have come in three years. We have been so blessed with so many things, especially our beautiful daughter Karlee. Karlee is a bundle of joy. Speaking of Karlee, here are her new stats... She went to her 15 month appointment on Wednesday and she was 19 lbs 2 oz. in the 4th percentile!!! We are going up! And she was almost 30 inches long in the 29th percentile!!! That seriously is the best weight gain she has ever had. She has been on about a 1/2 pound weight gain a month. I took her in when she was about 13 and a half months and she was 17 lbs. 10 oz. So in about a month and a half she gained about a pound and a half! Wahoooo that is a pound a month! I am so proud! Karlee also has a lot of new words. She loves to say nana for banana and night night whenever she goes down for a nap and for bed. She also says Papa, for my dad now. There are a few more, but you get the point! She is so much fun now. I just can't believe how much she changes and grows all the time. The other day we thought it would be fun to take her to the park to play on the swings. We got to the park and before we got to the playground Karlee fell flat on her face. After screaming and bleeding and more screaming we got her cleaned up and feeling better. Her cheek got pretty torn up, but luckily none of her teeth got hurt. And... she has six teeth coming in right now. So, a lot of this post has been about Karlee, but that is pretty much what our life revolves around now. Jay will be starting back to school again on Tuesday, back to homework and classes and not seeing him much. This week has been very nice to have him home in the evenings and not worry about homework. But, I am so proud of him and for all of his hard work and dedication he has. He works so hard for us and I am so thankful. Me, well I am just staying busy with Karlee. I still go running in the mornings and my goal is to run a half marathon in June. It is only about two months away and I still have a ways to go, but I am determined! I will keep you posted on how that goes. I am getting so excited to be going home to Virginia at the end of the month! I can't wait to see my family and my adorable new niece and go to my cousin's wedding! Sorry there aren't any pictures, I am on our new computer that doesn't have any pictures on it yet. But, I will post some pictures soon!

Way too long!

So I accidently uploaded these pictures in the wrong order, but I don't really want to do it again... so no biggie. Things are going well for us here back in Rexburg. Jay is busy with school and work and tons of homework. He is so ready for the semester to be over. Karlee and I stay busy each day by playing and eating and doing house work. Also, every morning I go up to the indoor track here and run about 5 miles. Karlee does pretty well in the stroller as long as I am running. Which, is a good thing because it makes me run more. Karlee is a little busy bee now. She is running around everywhere and getting into everything. She keeps me on my toes for sure. She is such a picky eater... we are working on that. I took her in for a weight check about two weeks ago and she was 17 lbs 10 oz. and in the 2nd percentile for weight. So we are making some progress... but in the mean time she is still in a rear facing car seat at 14 months! Really, that is ok with me though. Here are a few pictures since we have been back in Rexburg.

Food ends up everywhere
So, one night after she went to bed I folded all of her laundry... the next morning she found it and unfolded it all, it gave me a reason to laugh first thing in the morning. She loves the rocker my dad made her, but I find her standing in it a lot, we are working on having her sit in it more.

Enjoying her milk first thing in the morning.

So one day Jay decided he wanted to put gel in her hair and see how tall it was... this was the result! She was not a fan of it and got a bath right away!

She loves this riding toy from her grandma and papa T

Jay and I went to a BYU game back in February, it was so much fun!

Cutie pie

Family picture in our new apartment

Other stuff!

We decided to do a little birthday thing for Karlee before we left. She LOVES pizza so we had pizza for dinner and then cake and ice cream. She wasn't so sure what to do with the cake but she quickly figured it out! I can't believe she will be 1 in just a few days on the 11th! She is growing up so fast!

Not so sure what to do

Singing!!! Not a pretty cake, but a thrown together in a short time impromptu cake!

Figured it out for sure!

The after shot!

Our drive back to Idaho went a lot better then we were both thinking it would! Karlee was a champ and did such a great job! We left Virginia on Thursday afternoon and got to Rexburg, Idaho on Saturday afternoon 46 hours later!!! We only stopped on Friday night for about 9 hours to get a few hours of sleep and mainly to be off the roads on New Years Eve. She only had a coupld break downs and those didn't even start until Friday evening. We bought car DVD players on Black Friday to use on this trip and man they were a life saver. She has never been interested in tv or movies at all. But she was totally into it on this trip. Probably because it was right in front of her face and she couldn't do anything. She loved Elmo! We got all of our stuff out of our storage unit on Saturday night thanks to a few of our friends and people from our ward who came to help! We are all moved in and loving our new apartment. We are still trying to get used to the time change again, but we are getting there. I will get some pictures up of our apartment soon for you all to see! In the mean time... I am home all day long with Karlee and love it, but at the same time I do get a little bored and lonely throughout the day. So if you are here in Rexburg, I would love to get together during the day some time!

Other December festivities...

We also celebrated Jay's birthday on the 21st of December. We had a great day! I was recovering from the flu from the day before... but I was feeling a lot better that day. He got some cool gifts!

Enjoying her time with Papa

Karlee even got to stay up late to do cake and presents!

Karlee LOVED this candy cane!

Playing in the snow!

Christmas! a little late...

We have an interesting Christmas this year. This was Karlee's first Christmas... but it was nothing like what I had pictured it would be. This is why... On December 23rd Karlee started to get a little caugh and runny nose, no big deal I thought, just another cold. She has had so many cold's that I wasn't worried about it. Then, the morning of the 24th, she woke up a lot worse. I got a little bit more concerned but continued with our plans for the day. Christmas Eve was the annual Teerlink Christmas party at my grandparents house. We gathered everything together to get ready to go. I put Karlee in her high chair to try to feed her a little bit before we left. She was not interested. Then in the time of about 20 minutes her breathing continued to get worse. I decided she shouldn't go to the party. My dad volunteered to stay home with Karlee while the rest of us went to the party. So we went, we ate, we did our nativity play and opened presents. I came home when it was all done and was very suprised by how bad Karlee was doing. Jay and I decided it was best to take her to the E.R. So we bundled her up and off we went at about 5:50 pm. After spending the evening in the E.R, having tests and X-Rays done they diagnosed her with pneumonia. They gave her a shot and sent us home with an antibiotic. Now the question was what pharmacy is open on Christmas day??? Well we found one and were able to get her medicine. Christmas morning was still a wonderful day, but we had a very sick little girl too. I was sad that she wouldn't get to enjoy this day. Even though she wouldn't understand everything, she didn't feel well at all. By that evening she seemed to be getting better, I was thrilled. Then Sunday comes and goes and she still seems to be doing a little better. Then Monday morning.... bam she is ten times worse and is struggling to even breathe let along have any energy to eat or do anything. We take her into the doctor and she is sent back to the hospital for another X-Ray and she was tested for RSV... results... Positive. So then she had pneumonia and RSV. Well we were origianlly supposed to leave Monday to drive back to Idaho for Jay to go back to school... plans changed. We were now dealing with a very sick baby. It was so scary watching her struggle to take every breath. We were able to keep her nose suctioned and the mucus out and keep her breathing ok with her albuterol and antibiotics that she never ended up being hospitalized thank goodness. We were in limbo as to what to do. Jay needed to get back for school but we couldn't travel with a sick baby. We went back to the doctor on Tuesday and her lungs sounded a little better. The doctor said to come back on Thursday and see if she would be ok to travel or not. We now had to decide if Jay should go ahead and leave and drive back by himself and get me a plane ticket... or if he would wait until Thursday to see if we would be able to come with him. After much thought and discussion he decided to wait. Tuesday evening and Wednesday we saw progression with her. Thursday we loaded up the car and went to the doctor to see what they thought.... and the doctor said.... SHE COULD GO!!! So we went back to my parents and loaded the last few things and said our goodbyes. We knew this day was coming the whole time we were there. But it was so hard to say good bye to my family. We really enjoyed our time there with them. Karlee became so close with them and I can tell that she misses them.

Well... I guess I should say a little bit about Christmas itself. We had a great Christmas... everyone was so nice and generous to us. But one of the highlights from Christmas morning was when Karlee saw the rocking chair that my dad (Papa) made her. She walked right over to it and loved it right away. Since we have been back in Idaho it has become her favorite thing. That is the picture at the top! She also got a lot of books that she loves! And a lot more things!

Finally some writing!

So now that I have posted all of those pictures... I guess I will tell you a little bit about what has been going on in our lives the past few months. Jay has been doing an internship for the last few months here in Virginia. He LOVED it. He finished this last Friday and is now enjoying spending time at home with us! We are loving having him home with us!
Me, well I spent my fall taking care of Karlee and another little boy named Ben. Now let me tell you a little something about Ben. He was a cute little thing... but man he was a very needy baby. And he hated the bottle... making 9 hour days VERY long! He is 4 months younger then Karlee so they really didn't care much about each other until the last few weeks when he started in interact more with her.
During the fall my sister and her family came to visit a few times. It was so much fun having them here and having the cousins all together. I am so sad though we didn't really get many pictures of them together whenever they came.
Also, this fall we went to almost all of my brother Christopher's soccer games. He plays for Southern Virginia University here in VA. It was fun to go watch him play. But man it made me miss soccer a lot!
It has been a lot of fun for me to spend so much time with my mom. Our relationship has grown and changed a lot and it has been a neat experience. I thought it would be a little difficult moving back in with my parents after being gone for so long, and being married, and with a baby. And yes it has had it's difficult times, but all in all it has been wonderful. It has been a lot of fun to see my parents interact with Karlee and to see her interact with them too.
Karlee has changed a lot since we have been here. She started crawling at 7 months and picked up on it very fast. Then at about 8 months she started walking along furniture and would get where she wanted to that way. Soon after that she really showed interest in the stairs and figured out how to climb up them really fast. But she took a while on learning how to come down. But she is a champ at it now. Then, at 10 months Karlee started walking! She was pretty shaky at first of course but really mastered it quickly. She walks everywhere now. And if she falls down, she gets right back up and keeps going. I can't believe she will be 1 in less then a month. This whole year has gone by so fast.
It was fun to be here for my brother's birthday also. And, Jay will have his birthday also on the 21st of this month! Happy 25th Jay and Christopher!
We are excited to be here with my family for Christmas, but just a few days after Christmas we will pack up the car and head back to Idaho for Jay to get back to school. It will be pretty weird for me to go back there and not be a student anymore. But I am very excited to stay at home with Karlee and enjoy the milestones with her! We have missed a lot of friends and family as we have been away. But we really believe this was a great experience for us and something that we needed to do. We have learned a lot through out this fall as well. I am so grateful to my wonderful parents for openeing their home to us to live with them for 5 months! We will miss them so much when we go back. But, it's also what we have to do. Something that my mom and I have talked about is the fact that Karlee won't remember this time at all. But, mom and dad, and Jay and I will! It is a little sad that she won't remember any of this, but that's why we have pictures to show her later on. What a wonderful blessing it is to have such a wonderful family and extended family. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that families can be together forever. I love my family so much and am so grateful for the wonderful family I have and for Jay's wonderful family as well. Jay is so good with Karlee and I am so blessed to have him as my husband and Karlee's father.
I am so sorry I have been so bad at this all fall. But, I have been very busy and spent my time in other ways. But, I hope you feel like you are a little bit more updated and I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures!
Love,
Jay, Savannah and Karlee
Christiansen