I'M ON A QUEST

I'm on a QUEST!!!!  This whole season I've been looking for THE BEST Hot Chocolate around.  I've googled, emailed, and searched profusely for the thickest, yummiest, creamiest hot chocolate out there.  I've gotten close... but I'm still searching.  If any of you have an unbelievable recipe and you would like to share... please do!

Here are my requirements:

Thick

VERY chocolaty

frothy

and HOT

Please do not submit anything that says "add water, swiss miss, and stir".  That's NOT gonna cut it.  I'm talking UNBELIEVABLE Hot Chocolate here, people!  Please!  Help me out!

A TRIBUTE TO THE KEETERS

I have this best friend named Leah. She's been in my life for 10 years now. Granted life has taken us on different journey's and sometimes we lose contact for a year here and there... but some how we always manage to come together. Stronger then ever.

Leah's brother Brian was just in a terrible car accident recently. And by terrible I mean collapsed lungs, broken back, on a ventilator, breathing tubes... terrible. When you know someone close to you that is going through such a terrible thing, your heart goes out to them. It breaks my heart to know that the Keeters are going through such a painful trial right now. However, I know what a strong family they are and that they are able to lean on each other for strength. I also know that Brian will heal in time. I have faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have a strong testimony of the unity of family. There is nothing more important in this world then that.

I thought it would be fun to write some things to my Keeter Meter Family:

Kermit... oh dear, wonderful Kermit. You introduced to me the delicious-ness of Peach Salsa. I would have never tried it without you. You're the strong silent type... that's exactly where Brian gets it from. Where would we be without your weather forecasting skills.

Louane... you have always made me feel welcome in your home. You have a wonderful warmth about you. When anyone is in your presence, you naturally feel comfortable and at home with you. You're a great mother and I absolutely LOVE you!!

Kara... I love that you're a mother! I want to meet that sweet little Owen that I've heard so much about. I've heard he's quite the rapper... Good Ole Uncle Brian, teaching Owen the skills that will get him through life.

Brian... I have to say, the first time I met and hung out with Brian it was at the Keeter's house. I was with the twins and Brian had just got home from playing basketball. Sweaty and gross. And what did we all do? You guessed it! Watched American Idol! It was during the auditions and Brian and I took turns cracking on every single person. Little did I know that Brian was so dang witty. It took a lot for me to keep up, being the hilarious person that I am. I'm pretty sure he "clowned" everyone of them 100 times better then me.

Myra... oh my lovely Miatra... as I would call you. I love your BOOMING voice, your out of control eating, and dancing with you at a church dance... (don't act like you don't remember!) Ruby Tuesdays. Spanking you and you HATING it. Remember when you dated Brian Hourigan? good times good times :)

Last but not least...

Leah, LKK, Gypsy, Cowgirl, and lover of all things turquoise...

I have soooo many memories beginning with my Sophomore year of High School. You giving me rides EVERYWHERE! Listening to (and tolerating) DMB... before you turned all country:) Having World Civ. with your big Pacey picture on your notebook. Katie Holmes. Butterflies. Abercrombie and Fitch. Tinky Winky. Taylor. Ah... the good ole days. And then there was Ruby Tuesdays! Who knew working in the same greasy, gross, tacky restaurant when reignite such a strong friendship. Those were good times too. Mmmm Coconut Frappachino's. Red shirts and black pants. Always eating candy out of our aprons. Johnny Mac (oh geez). Getting yelled at by Johnny Mac's girlfriend. Parties. And then we became roommates. You got the bigger room... naturally. Remember when I went out on the side walk... with a broom.... and yelled up at the guy upstairs. Remember when some guy peed on my window. "I want to go to heaven so I can play with tigers". Wake Tech. Yelling matches. Our little neighbor kids who lived across from us... they were so cute! Ross and Jeff. Taylor parking outside our apartment. Walkie Talkies. Loooong talks. Tons of Laughs. Pineapples. Carolina Ale House. More Parties. My feisty little temper. You... running... like 3 times a day. Rookie Monster. Blitzakins. I could go on and on and on.

I love those times and I miss those times. But mostly I love the people that I have had those memories with. Thank you Keeters for being such important people in my life. Let the Lord be your strength during these trying times. You are in my prayers! Love you!

~k~

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS... IT MAKES ME WANT TO THROW THEM AT PEOPLE.

So much has been going on lately. Between getting ready for Christmas and just everyday life... things get hectic. On Thursday I took Landen in for his 4 month check up. He did great... got a little mad at the Dr. but who doesn't. He weighs in at 16lbs. and can start solids any time now. Got his shots. Handled them like a champ. While we were there the Dr. recommended that we all get flu shots (since Landen is too young and we need to make sure we keep the flu away from him.) So I went ahead and got mine. Then it was Kalea's turn... this is where all heck broke lose. Kalea came into the room and was all gun ho about it and as soon as that needle pricked her arm... oh geez. She RIPS it out of the nurse's hand and starts screaming bloody murder. Not only did she freak out she scraped the needle down her arm with a deep scratch. You KNOW that hurt. So then we had to get a team of nurses to hold her down to get her flu shot. She fought like her life depended on it. When it was finally over she cried for 45 min. I kid you not... 45 M.I.N.U.T.E.S. It was horrible. Luckily my mom agreed to watch the kids in the waiting room while I took each one back. So when it was Mia's turn she sat on my lap, simply stated "I don't want to". And got her shot. Done. Quick. Easy. She got a sucker and was happy as a clam. I come back out and Kalea is STILL crying her head off. I get her to the car and she's STILL crying her head off. At this point I'm about to lose it. So I ever so sternly tell her that it wouldn't have hurt if she hadn't taken the needle from her arm and scratched it. And that she needs to let the Dr.'s do their job. She understood. She quieted down. Later that day she kept repeating, "it's all my fault." Which it kind of was, so I just told her "don't do it again." Then she informed me that she'll need more shots before she can go to school. Also true. In which I replied, "i don't want to talk about it." End of discussion.

I found the cutest little Newsboy hat for Landen. It's a khaki corduroy color. It's adorable! I'll be sure to post pictures of my little stud muffin in his hat.

Tuesday Morning: I was upstairs with Mia and she was in the bathroom standing by the sink. I come in there and I smell poop... naturally. So I ask her if she's stinky which she replies yes to. So I look in the sink and there are brown specks all in the sink. I asked her if she was playing with her poo poo. Which she replies with another yes. I freak out, wash her hands, change her diaper. Then Kalea comes upstairs and I asked her to look in the sink and to see it it was poop but not to touch it. She looks in the sink and says, "no. we made cookies with daddy and i had to wash my hands." Which totally made sense since they were crushing up Oreo cookies to make Oreo balls. So I looked at Mia and said, "you didn't put poop in the sink?" and she said no. crazy kid.

Christian is going to be home for 2 weeks on vacation. 2 W.E.E.K.S. That's a lot of "TOGETHER TIME." I better make a list of chores for him ;)

HE SUCKS

...HIS THUMB, THAT IS.

This is a new thing for Landen. For some reason he's prefered his thumb to his passy lately. Which I'm not thrilled with since a passy is easier to take away then a thumb. However, it is kind of cute and he is able to sooth himself when fussy. I quickly learned how much his loved his thumb last night when I kept trying to give him his pacifier and he kept spitting it out and trying to put his thumb in his mouth. But being persistant, I won and he fell asleep with the pacifier. He does tend to get angry when he can't find his thumb and ends up with a fist full of fingers instead. That definitely does not make him a happy camper.

THERE ARE 2 THINGS I LOVE IN LIFE : EVERYBODY AND TELEVISION

It's official.  I'm back to dark brunette.  Brazilian Brunette... if you will (that's the name of the hair dye).  It feels good to have my natural hair color back.  In case you didn't know, I tried to die my hair when Landen was 2 weeks old.  I bought 2 boxes of Clairol's darkest brown.  Umm.... HUGE mistake.  It dyed my hair black.  I washed it 14 times in 3 days and PURPLE was running out of my hair each time.  It was a D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!!  So my friend Stephanie fixed it with Many Many Many highlights.  I had damaged it so bad that my hair was breaking and turning into stringing nastiness.  So, needless to say, it looks healthier and I look just as exotic as ever. (*wink wink*)

What would Christmas be without forcing your children to dress for a nativity scene. That's exactly what I did last Saturday at church for the Creche.  Mia wasn't too thrilled with the dressing up part since I wouldn't allow her to fully undress down to her diaper and put on a dress.  She finally was ok with it when I told her I would dress up also.  And lo and behold we have a very entertaining nativity of our own.  For those who are wondering the Joseph in this scene is none other then my buddy Tyler Higbee.  Mia took a quick liking to him and they were quick buddies.  Here are some wonderful pictures to put you in the Christmas mood.  

(Don't be jealous of my awesome pictures)

I'm not quite sure why my words are being underlined at this exact moment.  I swear... blogger can really do some crazy stuff.  Just try to ignore the underlining.  

Here are some fun/crazy things that my children had done or said lately:

Kalea: "Daddy!  The bad show is on!  The bad show is on!"

Me (at work, on the phone):  What show is it?

Christiain: "Gotta go.... it's Family Guy"

If you've ever been to our house before you'll now that when you go up the stairs we have a banister divider (instead of a wall) between the stairs and the upstairs hallway.  We tend to hang the girl's towels on the banister after bath time to dry out.  Well I found her scaling across it above the stairs.  I just about had a heart attack!!  I went and grabbed her and told her never to do that again cause it makes mommy feel very scared.  She looked a little nervous herself while trying to go across, since she couldn't really see the bars to hold on to from the towels being in the way.  I swear that child has a death wish!

Kalea decided to go through each and every room and clean yesterday.  Including our bedroom.  She absolutely NEEDED praise after each job she did.  She was very proud of herself for all of her good work.

Landen has been sleeping in his crib the past few nights.  Except for last night, Christian had a cold and I kept trying to put a Breath Right strip on his nose.  Apparently he didn't like that so he decided to go and sleep on the couch.  Which I responded with, "You know I don't like to sleep alone!"  So he says, "Go get the baby."  Which is exactly what I did.

I'm extremely excited because I'm going to go to Redbox after work and pick up Dark Knight.  And it seems like NOBODY goes to the Redbox at the Walmart in Wake Forest so I know I'm going to have first dibs on the movie.  Or so the internet tells me.

Today I went shopping with my mom for my kids and Luke's kids for Christmas.  That woman needs all the help she can get. (love you mom!)  Anyways,  my sister-in-law Cherre watched the girls for me while I went and did that.  When I got back to her house Landen wanted to eat.  So of course I nurse him quickly and try to get the kids out the door so I won't be late for work.  As I'm putting Landen back in his car seat Mackenzie informs me that I forgot something.  What was it you ask??  My nursing pad.  Ahhh... dear sweet Mackenzie.  Such a life saver :)

And last but not least:  I informed him that when I'm at work that I am able to catch up on old episodes of 30 Rock online (which has quickly become one of my new favorite shows.)  Christian then looks at me and says, "How can you EVER complain about going to work!?  It's your dream job.  You get to watch tv, get occassional free massages, tan for free, and sit on your butt."  This is true.... little did I know... this is my dream job.  Thank you Christian for the wake up call.

One more:  Christian's shoulder has been hurting lately and he hasn't gone to the doctor yet for it.  So one day when he was complaining about it I said, "Wah Wah WAh!  My shoulder hurts!  Get over it!"  To which he responds, "Wah Wah Wah,  I'm depressed.... I need medication!"  Ahhhh what a loving and sweet relationship we have.

If any of you are thinking that Christian and I have a verbally abusive relationship... well... this is true.  But this is how we say "I love you".  It works for us.  And it makes everyday life REALLY fun.

PS: A shout out to my sister-in-law Brit!!!  I'm way excited to try your hot chocolate recipe!!  LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS WHAT CHRISTIAN DOES WHILE I'M GONE AT WORK

(In case you were wondering, Christian was asking Landen if he wanted a "booby snack". A phrase we stole from my nephew Noa.)

THE DREADED FAMILY PICTURE

Every year Christmas sneaks up on me and I am never prepared for it. So this year we got our Christmas shopping done early, we put our decorations up ON Thanksgiving, and we took a family picture for our Christmas cards that I never send out. I totally plan on doing a letter, picture, AND card. What can I say... I'm an over-achiever. Well, as most of you know, when you have 3 young children and someone is just snapping away with the camera NONE of the pictures are going to come out perfect. The below pictures did not disappoint... they are all equally terrible. So let us start at the beginning:


Picture #1: Apparently mom is taking a quick nap, which Mia is confused by. Landen and Dad can't keep their eyes off each other. And Kalea seems slightly amused at how dysfunctional her family is.



Picture #2: I have to say that this picture isn't bad. Kalea looks a little constipated and I can't say that I'm in love with my smile. But Christian and Mia look pretty darn cute. But what's funny is that Mia can look like THIS in one picture and then look like...



Picture #3: .... THIS in the next picture. My favorite of her faces.

Picture #4: I think Landen is trying to jump from my lap while I fix my hair. I'm pretty sure Christian is hating this whole ordeal.

Picture #5: This is Christian's complaining face. He makes this face about once a week. Usually it's when I'm asking him to do chores of some kind... or change a poopy diaper.

Picture #6: This picture is the perfect description of our family without using words... chaotic. Kalea looks genuinely happy. Landen's doing who knows what.... I can't seem to keep my eyes open... and I'm not quite sure what Christian is looking at on Kalea's face.

Picture #7: This is my "I'm EXTREMELY happy to be here face." or my "I'm really annoyed but I'm hiding it well" face. Either way, NOT flattering. While none of my children can manage to look at the camera.

Picture #8: Wiping the drool from my face while I stare at my SEXY husband. Nuff said.

Picture #9: This one turned out half way decent.

Picture #10: As did this one.

I'm sure one of these delightful pictures will end up in your Christmas card. I haven't decided if we should put a really terrible one in there just for the fun of it. Just to show everyone what an unbelievably funny person I am. So... go ahead... wait by your mailbox for my Christmas card. You know you want to.

k

ZIP IT!

WE WENT TO CHRISTIAN'S PARENTS HOUSE ON WEDNESDAY FOR AN EARLY THANKSGIVING. WE HAD SUCH A GOOD TIME. NOT ONLY DID WE EAT TONS OF GREAT FOOD, WE PLAYED TOO. CHRISTIAN'S DAD PUT UP A ZIP LINE AND AWHILE BACK HAD BOUGHT A GO-CART. EVERYONE TOOK A TURN ON THE ZIP LINE... EVEN KALEA AND MIA. KALEA LOVED IT... SHE EVEN WENT AT NIGHT, ALL THE WAY FROM THE TOP (LIKE 30 FEET UP)... 4 TIMES. SHE'S CRAZY!! MIA DIDN'T LOVE IT SO MUCH... ACTUALLY, NOT AT ALL. HERE ARE SOME VIDEO'S OF ALL OF US DOING IT... IT'S PRETTY ENTERTAINING!

KRISTY'S TURN

CHRISTIAN'S TURN

KALEA'S TURN

MIA'S TURN

TWILIGHT REVIEW (NO SPOILERS)

So last night a bunch of girls from church went to see Twilight.  I was SOO excited and antsy for this movie.  I've read all of the books twice and absolutely LOVE them.  Christian thinks I'm such a dork:)  We had such a fun time going and watching all the overly hormonal teenage girls squeal and act like... well... teenagers.  Was Twilight my favorite movie of all time? No, most definitely not.  Was it good?  At parts I really liked it.  There were definitely some cool action fight scenes.  I guess because I like the emotional depth that the books portray, I had a hard time connecting to the movie cause it seemed so much more shallow then the book.  However, I would definitely go and see it again.  And yes, I probably will buy the DVD when it comes out.

* waiting for the movie to start *

* Leah asked somebody 2 rows to take a picture.  Hilarious! *

* Ben and Jerry's... sooo yummy! *

Favorite Parts of the Evening:

1.Cutting in line to get good seats.  We're going to have to go to the Bishop for this one. :)

2.  At one point there is no talking in the whole movie (just music) for like a full minute.  Some teenage girls were giggling... someone yelled "shut up".  And I thought to myself... "YEAH! CAUSE I CAN'T HEAR THE DIALOGUE".  relax people.

3.  Watching Angie swoon over Edward Cullen :)

4. The baseball scene. love it.

5.  Anticipation of the whole experience

GUESS WHO LIKES HIS...

...BUMBO!!

THIS GUY!!

Oh my gosh, this kid is such a stud. Could he be any more squeezable?!?

And check out the cheeks and double chin he's got going on. Crazy! No wonder he's already in 6 month clothes. And to think he starts to eat rice cereal next month. Oh no!!! Chunky Monkey on the loose!!

And to end... a picture of a napping baby. Who doesn't like to see a baby sleep.

(...and yes, i know he's on his stomach, so shoot me.)

MY TALENTED HUSBAND

Christian put together this awesome video of his entire family. Enjoy!

LIVE LAUGH LOVE

The older you get the faster your memory fades. I do pride myself in having a FANTASTIC long term memory. But when I want to post stuff I always seem to forget the fun stuff. So I decided to write some of the things down so I wouldn't forget. TAKE THAT Crappy Short Term Memory!! So is just a hodgepodge of things that I have found entertaining recently.

Christian bought catfish. Yes, that's right... catfish. I've never eaten, smelled, or craved this particular fish.... ever. But it was on sale, which of course means Christian has to buy it. So I looked up a recipe on my favorite recipe site and looked a recipe for catfish. It sounded ok and it got a lot of really good reviews so I decided to try it. HUGE, GIGANTIC, HORRIBLE MISTAKE. Here was my first clue... it contained 2 tsp. of Cayenne pepper and 2 tsp. of black pepper among other things. When I seared this fish of cat it put a huge amount of *something* in their air and we all started coughing up a storm. Ok... if that wasn't bad enough... we ate it. Well, Christian ate it (and nicknamed it Volcano Fish). It was soooo stinkin spicy that I took one bite and almost died... literally. Ok, not literally, but I couldn't eat it especially since I'm nursing Landen and I didn't want him to have a heart attack from it. So I made something frozen, the girls ate chicken nuggets, and Christian ate Volcano Fish of Cat. Did I mention I also ruined the rice? How do you ruin rice? Very carefully....

Can I just tell you how entertaining Mia can be. One of my favorite things about her is her imagination. She can take ANYTHING and make it a person (personification, if you will.) She'll do this with my cooking oil and vinegar on the bottom of the pantry and personify them. She'll do it with shoes, money(change), dolls of course. She has the best imagination and can suck you right in with her. The other day we were walking downstairs together and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, shhhh... don't wake the jaguar." So we had to tiptoe past the Jaguar and did our best not to wake him up. She also has this little black and brown puppy that she takes everywhere. It makes a very specific sound and if you don't get it right then she'll correct you in a heart beat. It goes something like this : wup wup (slurp slurp). But you have to make the slurp slurp noise. And you can't say ruff ruff or bark bark... it is WUP WUP (high pitched). Mia has perfected this noise and Christian and I are quickly learning how to do it correctly. Kalea, however, has failed miserably.

Can I just gloat for a minute about my cute, adorable, chunky, chubby, happy baby. Landen is such a wonderful baby!! I just adore him. He's gotten so chubby that a smile barely fits between his fat little cheeks. I just want to kiss and squeeze his little nugget face (as Brit would say) all day long. And I do... in between feedings, burping, and napping. I just started putting him in his Bumbo see and he LOVES it. He just looks around with his slightly unstable bobbing head. You can literally hold a conversation with him for about 20 minutes and he'll just coo right back at you. I could not imagine life with out him!

And lastly I have to say that I had such a fun time when my Grandparents came in town last week. If you've never had the pleasure of meeting my Grandpa Allen, you are missing out on something fantastic. This man will literally say anything. And what's funny is you can't blame it on old age either, he's always said what he wants. For example: At church on Sunday my mom was introducing a missionary to me that used to be in her ward. As most of you know, my mother and I look NOTHING alike. So my mom was making a joke about it and here comes Grandpa out of left field and says, "This is my granddaughter. Can't you tell." And pulls his eyes all slanty like a 5th grader. And leave it to him to swear... not just around me... around anyone. He just kinda lets it fly and it cracks us all up. Completely uncensored. ahhh... good times.

~*PRINCESS PARTY*~

Kalea and Mia were invited to our good friend Lindsay's house today for a Princess Party which involved lots of bright shiny dresses, Tinkerbell Movie, fighting over toys, and a snack.  It was pretty fun to watch all the girls in their dresses act certainly NOT like Princesses.  Fun nevertheless.  They all did seem to have a really good time together.  The girls were really excited to go to Kaitlyn's (Lindsay's daughter).  But as soon as we got there Mia acted like her usual self... attached to my hip that is.  It took her a little while to warm up but once she did, she did not want to leave.

All the girls... and Mia (showing some skin)... my little rule breaker.

Kaitlyn and Emily with the tea set... coveting each other's toys

Olivia and Landen.  They're about a month apart and were absolute the dolls the whole time.  Landen is NEVER going to be able to escape all of this Princess junk.

Kaitlyn and Kalea sharing fantastically

Snack time for the Princesses.

WOW! SO MUCH GOING ON!

Can I just start by saying that I'm not thrilled with the outcome of this years election.  However,  as an American I stand by and support the decision of the people.  It may not be as bad as some people are thinking.  I'm just going to be optimistic.  That being said here is what is really important... what is going on in MY life... 

Ok... So I'm really not that important.  But I did have a spanking awesome good time on Saturday with some girls from church.  We went out to eat and left our kids with the hubbies.  We pretty much laughed ourselves into a stuper the whole time.  It was very entertaining.  Here are some pictures of that night...( and if you are in are our ward I'm sorry for the repetitiveness of the pictures that have been on all of our blogs.)

What fun girls!  I do have to say that when I got back that night it seemed like Landen was a little upset with me.  I held him until he fell asleep but them when I tried to lay him down he just cried and cried until I picked him up again.  Apparently he didn't want to be away from me since I was gone all night.  What a sweet little boy!  I adore him.  

Trunk Or Treat

My friend Lindsay took these pictures last week at Trunk or Treat.  The girls had a really fun time.  Not only did THEY get candy a whole week early... so did I.

Apparently I was on a Sugar High

Lindsay and me

Christian and Steve with our sleeping newborns who are about a month apart.  It kind of looks like Christian is holding Steve's hand... I don't think he is... but I'm not making any promises.

Mia and Kaitlyn... SO Cute!

HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES

The night before Halloween we carved a pumpkin with the kids.  I don't ever remember doing that with my family as a kid.... my mom wasn't really into Halloween.  But Christian knew exactly what to do.  What I do remember is that I don't like the smell of pumpkins when you're scooping all the gross stuff out.  I distinctly remember saying, "Ew, that stinks."  And right after Kalea gags and was completely grossed out. Christian thinks I put the thought in her head, but they really do stink.  Mia was quite scared of the insides.  It was funny to watch her run away.  So of course I had to catch her and stick her hand down the middle.  Hopefully I didn't traumatize her.  

It was such a beautiful day outside so the girls took some cute pictures in their little Halloween shirts.  They crack me up!

Christian got the girl's witch costumes for a great deal!  He also found mine for a really good deal.  We thought it was going to be a little bit big on me but it fit perfectly.  I think he was hoping it would fit a little bit smaller *wink*wink*

3 witches, 1 cowboy, and a baby Jaguar (like on Diego... according to Mia)

The girls had a great time trick or treating.  My parents (Alo's) came over and hung out with us and then helped me take the kids out while Christian stayed behind to hand out candy.  It started to get cold and Landen got a bit fussy so they took him back early.  Mia was a little bit scared in the beginning but warmed up rather quickly to everything.  She's so funny.  Kalea had so much fun that she didn't want to wait for Mia since she's slower paced then her big sister.  I had to keep telling her to slow down.  I'm relieved to say that they didn't get too much candy.  

LANDEN'S PHOTO SHOOT

Here are some pictures that Landen and I took when he was 2 weeks old.  He's 9 weeks now! Holy Cow time flies!!  Anyways, I didn't get a chance to post them until now.  There's a lot of them, I know.  But Linda Connor did such an amazing job that I wanted to post as many as I could.  Enjoy!