Isabella's Karate class

Here is Isabella's frist Karate spar. She did awsome. Now all she needs is her uniform.

Since he's been gone...

Well we have made it almost 28 days since Jeff left. Yeah almost 30 days closer to him being home. We miss him so much. The kids are staying busy so they don't ask much about it. Mostly I think I try to avoid talking about it. He does get to call twice a day if he wants, which he has. He and I also email on a daily basis. The time is passing by but not fast enough for me. I have my moments but I am getting better. Me and the kids are trying to stay super busy. I enrolled them in Karate, and Gymnastics. Isabella gets to go take Karate with her good friend Machaila who she adores, which is great bc/ I am best friends with her mommy. Cole is taking Gymnastics with his friend Mason who he also loves to play with. They have known each other since they were two years old at Fort Rucker, which is very rare to come by with military families now. Somehow God moved us all here together at the same time. Chloe is also taking Gymnastics and she loves it. She was a little scared of the super tall balance beam so I didn't make her do it. She is so cute in that little leotard though. Well I am still same old me just one half of me is missing. I am about to start teaching Body Combat at the Gym. It is a great class and makes me feel so good. I love helping others so I also started up a myspace called Healthy_recipe_swap. We are all exchanging clean eating ideas. By the way I have almost reached my eating clean challenge for 30 days now. Yes I have cheated, but only a little and I mean very little. I feel so good know me and my kids will be healthier for it. I am even packing Isabella's school lunches again now that I know all the harm I could cause if I let her eat that food they serve with all that junk in it. anyway. I hope you all enjoy the new pics and videos. Keep us in your prayers.

Time to start the 12 month countdown.

Well this is one of the hardest of times for us. Jeff is now deployed officially.He left Friday the 12th at 3am on a bus to get on a plane from Ft. Campbell. it was so hard to see him go. It tore me apart!The kids made a really sweet video on Youtube for him so go check it out and get the tissue ready. I really hope I stop crying every few hours I know I need to be strong for the kids but I can't hold it back. Isabella cries when I do and she said to me tonight " Mommy I've never seen you cry like this before!" She is so sweet and I told her we would be strong for eich other. Please pray for him and for me to get through this.


On a brighter note, we did get to spend some great times together making great memories together as a family. We spent a weekend with his family at his sister's wedding a month ago. It was beautiful and the kids were too. I'll always remember how hard Jeff worked on his sisters wedding. He even missed to whole ceremony bc/ he was down a cliff waiting to shoot fireworks for a suprise at the end of the ceremony. It was beautiful! I know he wouldn't have traded that moment for seat at the service for anything. He did a great job. Chloe of course caused a little drama. She fell out of a chair at the reception dinner and hit her head on a metal chair leg and cracked her forehead open. It scared us to death as parents. There was a huge deep cut that was bleading really bad and we were in the middle of the lower AL counry with no where to go at night. I freaked of course and wanted to call an ambulance. My mother in law had a Dr. friend in the nearbye town and we took her there fast, within ten minutes of her hitting her head, and she fixed her up for us. She had to wear a big patch over her head for the wedding.




After her wedding weekend we took off on a plane leaving behind the kids with my mom for a whole 8 days in paradise. We went to Jamaica to a beautiful resort called the RIU Montego Bay. It was so nice and we had the best time. We are already planning our next trip back.Check out our Youtube vacation video we made.



Then Jeff helped me work on my Kraft cooking videos. Check those out on Youtube as well. We entered a cooking video challenge to win $1,000 and bragging wrights of course. I love to cook and this was so much fun. I am going to continue making my own videos of my own recipes and little how to tips and start a myspace page for friends to view. I'm hoping friends will log on and share there recipes with me and I can cook then and put them on video on my web page.

I am still teaching classes at NFC. I have a video on my LaineK2008 Youtube that you can watch. I love Les Mills and I am totally addicted to it. It changed my way I think about group fitness classes and helping others. I now am certified in 3 Les Mills programs and I will keep going! In the picture is one of my Best Friends Brandi.


We had a great Thanksgiving here in my home. I had 18 bodies crammed in my little house. It was so much fun. I love having people over to cook for. I made the Alton Brown Turkey! It was so juicy and tasty. It was my first Turkey ever to cook. I don't know how I got away with not cooking the Turkey all these years! Thank God for all the advice of my friends, grandmother, mother in law, and my own mother. Good times. Well Alton Brown would say, " Good Eats!"






The hardest part of it all though was saying goodbye to Jeff. Words can't describe how hard deployments are on families. I only hope and pray he stays safe for us and we stay safe for him. He will be gone now for 12 months. He will probably come home for R&R in May or June. We are going to be able to talk on the internet by webcam phones on a weekly basis. We are going to make home messages with our video camera and send them to him and he is able to do the same with his video camera he braught. He gets his own private 8x6 room, if you want to call it that. He braught a TV and a Laptop with him. Things aren't as bad to ship either bc/ things have been in place over there for 7 years now. If you want his address I can give it to you for sending packages or letters.
Emotionally I think it will take it's toll on us all but we can hang in there are try to keep our heads held high. I'm so proud of him and what he does. I love him so much! Keep us in your prayer.



Well I hope everyone is doing okay and I'll try to keep my blog updated more than twice a year! Have a great day and keep the Keown family in your prayers.

Welcome to our Blog page. I can't believe it has been a year since I started this thing. So much has happened as I look back. We got a pool this summer which was a very big deal. All the kids learned how to swim and we had a blast.
Now It's school time and this gives me a chance to post some firsts. Cole is now in Preschool and he loves it. It is at a Church and has a Christian based Curriculum. He goes only two days a week now for full days. I hope to get him into the five day program, but I think it is too much for now.
Bella started riding the bus for the first time this year. She is only going in the mornings though bc/ it was to much for me to put her on in the afternoons when the kids are crazy. She is growing up so fast. She is learning so much in 2nd grade also. It is much harder than from when I was a kid. She still talks to much and doesn't follow direction and already has to sit alone. Oh well! She still does her homework well and she gets A's and B's.
Chloe gets to stay home with me now. She is such a good little girl. She already wants to go to school but I can't let my baby grown up yet! She is such a good mix of Cole and Bella, I love her so much. She is such a daddy's girl though.
Jeff is packing already to leave for his deployment in December. I am going to miss him terribly. We are planning a last vacation together before he goes. We have never ever had time together like that so we are going to go all out and go to Jamaica.
I am teaching more at the Gym.
I am now Certified in Body Jam by Les Mills and I am about to get certified in Body Pump. I absolutely love teaching group fitness. I am getting in shape and having fun doing it. I also just cut all my hair off. It feels really good to have a new look and not have so much to take care of.
I hope everyone is doing well and living life to the fullest. Please keep in touch.

It's been way to long since I updated this thing.
So nothing major has gone on, but it is spring and some little events have taken place since winter.
Isabella lost her first two teeth on the bottom. She is still having trouble picking up on listening skills at school. She got sent to the principles office for the first time recently. "She just can't focus", is what her teacher says. I really need to get her checked out at the DR. to see if they can help me in any way to get her to focus. It affects her at school and at home. She seems so scatter brained and distracted all the time. She is way to talkative at home and at school. She is still very smart but she needs to reach her full potential with some help from the DR. She is reading much faster now. I think like, 30 words per minute. She is working on her speed addition and subtraction at school. In Girl Scouts she is doing great, but wants to do Dance next year. Our troop recently went on a train ride downtown and had a blast sitting no the upper deck surrounded by sky windows. We also did great selling cookies and are able to go to our firs Camporee soon. Our troop did a candle light ceremony to invest the girls into the troop and give them their first earned patches. Everything is going well this year. She has grown up so much. She is still the smaller one in her whole first grade but she is growing at her own pace. She weighs about 39 pounds now and has grown about two inches this year. She has also decided she wants to grow her hair out.
Cole is still hard headed and stubborn just like his dad. He puts on his mean face to anyone to show how tough he is. It's hard to get him to crack a smile but you can tell he wants to and that his frown is so fake. He is starting to figure out that he controls his own actions. He recently learned to ride his two Wheeler bike. He is doing great!He is becoming a good big brother. He sticks up for his sisters at the gym day care. When they fall and get hurt he checks on them to make sure they are okay and tries to make them feel better. He only does this if I am not around!!
Chloe is such a princess lately. She loves babies and barbies and loves dresses. She changes clothes without permission four or five times a day now. She comes to me and tells me she is a princess all the time. She is quite the girly girl. She even likes to clean and pick up when I tell her to. She is just so cute! I love this age.
Jeff and I are doing well also. We are working on the backyard together and still love doing any new home projects.
I am working at the Gym still even through all the chaotic ownership changes. I am training one person only bc/ Jeff doesn't want me to do it full time yet. I am loving Group Fitness though. I am about to get another certification in BodyJam. I am feeling stronger every day and it feels good to know I can keep up with the boys.
Jeff is flying still but they don't have many hours for him this month.
I hope you are all doing well and enjoy reading this.

December

This has been a very good month for us. We have been very very busy, but worked together to keep everything semi sane for everyone.

Jeff's parents came here this last week and we did Christmas for the Keown's a little early. The kids loved it! We had a really good visit except that all the kids got a stomach bug and took turns throwing up all over. Thank goodness for extra help from Jeff's parents.

I started teaching at Fuel Gym here in clarksville. First I was just a substitute and now I am more of a permanent employee. It's great bc/ I bring the kids with me and put them in the day care. Soon I will be looking into getting certified to be a trainer. I did get certified to teach Turbo Kick which was fun and exhausting at the same time. My Brownie troop is getting better acquainted with me and I hope to teach them as much as I can. I also learned how to make the traditional Ingro family cookie , the Goochadadi. The kids got to help of course.

Jeff has been doing really well flying. He is now planning the troops next Hail and Farewell. That is when they say goodbye to those leaving the squadron and welcome in newcomers. It's tradition here in the Cav. We had the 7-17 formal. That was fun! Jeff won a shot gun in a raffle drawing. He got lucky with that one. There was an empty table behind us so as they were calling the winning numbers he grabbed there tickets under the empty table behind us. Guess what? He won and everyone was jealous that they didn't think of it first. Unfortunately our river behind our house was so full that it took away Jeff's Kayak he had back on the river bank. We never thought the river would go up 20 feet.

The kids have been growing and developing as usual this month. Isabella is reading at almost 20 words per minute. She is in Brownies and has learned a lot about traditions and moral values. She starts selling cookies next week. Hint, Hint!

Cole is still a tough boy, but has his sweet moments. He is obsessed with Transformers now. We made him a club house in his walk in closet bc/ they kept making a fort in there so now its more organized and they love hanging out in there.

Chloe is talking like she is a big girl. She copies everything Cole does. Her hair is growing too. I can actually pull it all back. She is such a cute little thing. She still climbs in bed with us in the morning and ask for chocolate milk.

We hope you all are doing well this holiday season and I hope to see or hear from you soon. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too.