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Ella & Emma

Ally & Nicole

Ash & Me

I am currently lying on the bottom bunk at my cousin Laura's house in St. Louis. Yes. I am in St. Louis! But no, we have not moved yet. My family and I are just trying to find a place to live!! Sheesh. It's quite aggravating. From the business standpoint, this is definitely a seller's market right now. Definitely not a buyer's market. So to say the least...it is basically impossible to find a place to live. Real fun.

BUT I am trying to enjoy myself at least a little while I am here visiting. Today my mom, Sarah, my cousin Laura, and I went shopping at the mall. Of course I had to buy something. It's not a shopping trip unless you buy something. I think the highlight was us buying matching pants from H&M. They are black Aladdin-like pants. They are sick. Probably the comfiest things I've ever put on. Pretty remarkable. I was hoping to spend some time poolside while I'm here and not having to work, but it's been cloudy and rainy...so probably not. Oh well.

Tomorrow night I'm pretty stoked because I'm going to this sweet ice cream place called Fritz's with my family. So dang excited. It has become a tradition between our two families to always go there when we are in town. Now that we are going to live here though...I wonder if we will go often???

Other than these few days in MO my life is not all that exciting. I work a lot at good ole Orange Leaf with the lovely frozen yogurt. Not much excitement there. I do get to be with my adorable nieces and nephew a lot, so that's fun (my four nieces in Kansas are in the pictures). And my beautiful sister Ashley (who is pregnant with her own little girl) just visited and her husband Pierre came later. That was wwaaayyy fun to be with them.

Until next time..

thattallgirl:)

Confessions of an almost 20-year-old

Since there's not a ton going on in my life, I don't have a ton to update on. However, I thought I would start up my confessions yet again. Today my confession is on movies. I love corny movies. Cheesy movies. Whatever you wanna call them. I love them.

My little sister and I love watching them together. We tend to find random movies on Netflix, and we start watching it. Then we realize it's kinda lame and horrible acting...but we can't stop watching. We are mesmerized. Don't ask me why...I have no idea why.

Disney channel movies fit this description quite perfectly. I know, I know...I'm embarrassing. I don't blame you if you wanna stop being my friend...it's understandable. But anyways! Sarah and my's latest addition to our corny movie list? It's called Radio Rebel. paha....it's a Disney movie. Check it out if you want something to do. It's a classic. Corny movie lovers unite!

Aside from that, I got a job! It's only temporary of course since my family is moving next month. My good friend CHRISTINA WILEY is the manager at two Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurts in my hometown...so she so kindly gave me my job back that I had about two years ago. So now I'm back to making yogurts and cash register-ing. I also get free yogurt every time I work...so that's a plus. Yum.

Anyways...if you have any ideas of what I should write about, feel free to comment!

thattallgirl:)

Just My Thoughts

As I said before, moving from Provo and coming back home was a hard thing for me to do. My friends literally became my family. When you are at home you live with your family. At college, your friends are your family. These last few days have been really hard for me. They have helped me realize how great of a "family" I had out in Provo. It's crazy how much you can miss people. Even doing every day, petty things makes me sad. Like eating guacamole and chips, playing card games, or even listening to the Bruno Mars song "When I Was Your Man" just kills me. I literally whine out loud to my mom and sister about how much I miss my friends (in which I am sure they are very annoyed). I don't even need to name names. You guys know who you are.

All I gotta say is, the people I got to know this past year have no idea the impact they made on my life. Some of them I knew the whole year and now are literally the closest people I have besides my legitimate family. Others of which I just recently became close to. Either way, I miss you guys.

On a happier note...I saw Iron Man 3 today! Freaking awesome. It is definitely a must see. You will be on the edge of your seat the whole time...and laughing of course. Gotta love Tony Stark. AND I got my old job at Orange Leaf (a frozen yogurt place) back. So in a few days I will be back to the old job and eating as much frozen yogurt as I wish :)

Well, that's all for today. Hopefully I have more exciting things to tell you next time!

thattallgirl:)

Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I promised, I am posting a new find! This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest that sounded delicious! And guess what? They were!!! Please make them because you will just love them I am sure. That is assuming you like pumpkin just as I do.
The original website is this: http://www.reciperoll.com/2012/10/spiced-pumpkin-muffins-fall-recipes.html....have to give credit!

HOWEVER, I had to add chocolate in some way...so here is MY version of the muffins :)

Don't they look delicious?!?!?...Well, they were!

SPICED PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
•  1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin puree
• chocolate chips--as much as desired :)

directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl whisk

together eggs, milk, oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Add this to the dry ingredients, stir until well blended. Do not over mix. Stir in your desired amount of chocolate chips. Divide the batter among the muffin tin(s), bake about 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Let them cool and enjoy them!!!! They go great with a glass of milk. 

Pause on College Life

Last time I posted I was still in the midst of my adventurous BYU life. Now I am sitting at my kitchen table back home in good old KANSAS. Having my mom close to me again makes me a lot more productive. I mowed the lawn, vacuumed and washed the van, babysat 4 of my nieces (2 of which are newborn twin girls!), turned in a job application, did some laundry, and now I'm wasting time on my computer. Phew. I am tired.

Aside from that my freshman year at BYU was absolutely fabulous. College is something that cannot be put into words. It is seriously a totally different world. It's so great. Those who are at a college or have been, you know what I'm talking about.

So now I am living at home for the summer and putting my college life on pause. Definitely weird to be back home and back to my other life. It was way more difficult to say goodbye than I thought. I cried my eyes out when I had to say goodbye to EMILY ATWOOD and RYAN HAMMAR. Especially since I won't be seeing Ryan for a couple of years since he's going to NEW ZEALAND for his church mission! Allie Jensen is also in that group...but we live like a mile away from each other. :)

On our last night together...ever :(

So now I'm just living it up...at home. My family is moving to St.Louis at the end of June so I will be helping out a ton with that! I am excited though. This summer will be a nice break from all the school and crazy stuff. But with all this free time now I plan on making new recipes and crafts and things, so I will make sure to post  my new finds and discoveries. 

But in closing, here is a video from our last night together. We thought it would be fun to record the crazy things we do...haha. Basically this video defines my freshman year (not!) of boys chasing after me. What can I say??? All the boys love me ;)

thattallgirl:)

Baking Adventures

As every human being will agree, cookies are oh so delightful. Allie and I decided to come up with a cookie that contains quite a few of our favorite things: pretzels, chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel. We call them Kallie Cookies (pronounced like Allie but with a "K" in front).

So, being the wonderful person that I am, I have decided to share this beautiful creation with you. The recipe for it that is.

Kallie Cookies
1 C. plus 2 Tbs. butter
1/2 C plus 2 Tbs. sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbs. water
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C broken pretzel pieces
1 C semisweet chocolate chips (not mini)
1 C peanut butter chips
Caramel pieces...do however much you want...we did approximately 1/4-1/3 C of chopped up caramels

Preheat oven to 350 degress F. Do not grease cookies sheets.

Cream butter in large mixing bowl until soft. Add sugars and beat until well mixed. Add eggs, water, and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until well incorporated. Add pretzels, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, caramels and mix briefly. Scoop and drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake till they're done. duh. (jk...the recipe says like 10-12 minutes...lesbe honest...take them out when they're ready).

Well, Allie and I devoured some when they were done. Results = PERFECTION. You will enjoy them..unless something is wrong with you.

I shall be posting something real about my life sometime soon. I just have a crazy awesome life so I don't have too much time on my hands.

Anyways....

thattallgirl:)

Feel the Need

Even though there hasn't been a ton going on in my life....okay that's a lie. I have said this so many times, but I will say it again. My life > your life. Sorry. But it's probably true.

These past two weeks have been very hectic for some odd reason. Probably because all my classes decided to give out tests. Another thing is that I have been doing a lot of fun things. I went karaoke singing for the first time ever! It was for a group date which was basically comprised of a bunch of my friends. My friends Dane and Ryan wanted to sing Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna. So we ended up singing it in the competition and we won!!!!!! So on February 19th we are going to the final round for the chance to win an iPad Mini...so stoked. HOPEFULLY we have a chance. Cuz that would just be sweet.

Then lately I have just been hanging with a bunch of cool people. New friends, old friends...it has just been awesome. But tonight I'm doing something adventurous :) Stayed tune for what it is...it's a surprise.

But probably the most exciting thing of late is my niece Avery Jade Barber was born!!! She is probably the most precious thing ever. SO tiny and SO cute. Don't worry...I have provided pictures. So while you are admiring her and her cuteness...have a lovely day.

thattallgirl:)

Avery and me...I'm the favorite aunt.

Me with the new parents.

She's just so tiny and adorable!

Return of the Routine

Wow! Long time no see....or more like read? Bleh. That was lame. Anyways....I received a friendly reminder that I have not posted in a while, so I thought I would take the time to do so!

Now that I have started the new semester here at lovely, frozen, snow-packed, freezing BYU, I am once again living the day-to-day adventures of college life. SO thrilling...I know. Once again I'm eating too many sweets and staying up too late. Oh how I've missed it. Procrastination is once again my middle name and I've managed to exercise at least once now! PATHETIC. I don't even try to deny it.

A surprising thing, though, is managing to go to bed around midnight almost every weeknight! That's a new record for me seeing as last semester it was more like 1:30 or 2:00. Terrible...terrible. I think what has changed is that EMILY is now an official roommate, rather than a visiting friend till 2:00 in the morning. So her moving in has been way more beneficial than I imagined!

One thing I am looking forward to is this coming Saturday. It marks the 19th Birthday of my all-time favorite person...ALLIE!!! My bff, roommate, soul sister, confidant, giggle buddy, occasional mother hen, and so much more. The girls and I (Allie, Karissa, Emily, and me) are having a sleepover the night before her birthday so we can get up early to go to Salt Lake City for the day! We are going shopping for literally an entire day. To say I'm not excited would be such an understatement.

Well that's all for now...but here is a picture that makes me laugh every time I see it. So I thought I would share the love.

thattallgirl:)