Thanksgiving/Picker Family Reunion

We spent Thanksgiving just outside of Searcy, Arkansas at Camp Tahkohdah for a Picker Family Reunion. We have one every other year at Thanksgiving and they are so much fun! We just hang out, relax, play games, and eat, eat, eat! We had a few rough nights of sleep, as Ansley is fighting a bad cold, and Kennedy had her first night terror the first night we were there. That was scary! She was determined there was something green and yucky in our room from there on out, and would not sleep in our room, so her and Jeremy ended up on couches in the main room of the retreat center the rest of the weekend. We got home Saturday night, and once again had a rough night of sleep. We are thinking Ansley may have an ear infection and are planning on taking her to the doctor tomorrow. However, Sunday we did wake up (after just a few short hours of sleep, thanks to Ansley) to our first snow of the season. It wasn't much, but we were excited! Here our some pics from our weekend.

Jeremy's entire family

I'm looking a little tired here...it was after a rough night.

Playing a little Guitar Hero

Kennedy never falls asleep on the couch...but she was dealing with a little constipation issue and not feeling so hot

Ready for a hike in the woods

What we woke up to on Sunday

Ansley's New Look

Ansley has a new face that she likes to show us quite often. I'm not really sure why she does it, but it's pretty cute. She also huffs and puffs out her nose while she does it. Silly girl.

I succumbed!

So I said I would never get a fake Christmas tree. I tried to hold my ground, but Lowe's got the best of me. The whole fun in a real tree was going to the tree farm (preferably Red Barn in Morton) and cutting one down. However, Jeremy and I stopped doing that a few years ago when Christmas trees were costing us $70. Then we moved to Lowe's pre-cut trees for $19.99. However, last year we got the driest tree ever, and there were pine needles everywhere. I even stepped on one last year and it went in my foot like a splinter. I remember saying "Maybe next year we can get a fake tree." I didn't really mean it though. Red Barn tree or Lowe's tree, you still can't beat the smell of a real one! Jeremy has been pushing for a fake one for quite some time though, I think mainly because he hates the work of putting it up. Conveniently he "misplaced" our tree stand in the move, so we were going to have to buy a tree and a new tree stand. We went to Lowe's last night to check out the selection, and then we saw it...a pre-lit tree for under $100. Jeremy spent a few minutes talking me into it, and then I agreed, only because it's not one of those plastic looking fake trees...although they did fool us, and there are some of those plastic looking leaves in certain parts of the tree...and because we have a nine month old child that I really didn't want to have to worry about ingesting pine needles daily. I agreed, but only if we could start getting real trees again when the kids are older. What a compromise huh? So here it is...The Picker Family Christmas Tree.

Houston Trip

I know I already posted today. But it's Friday night, the girls are in bed, Jeremy has company, and there's nothing good on tv. Be prepared. This is not the last post today. There are more to come. I am playing catch-up. We went to Houston last week so Jeremy could help with some Hurricane Ike clean-up and I could visit with some family and friends. It was a great trip overall, and I got to see all my siblings on this trip! I realize that pretty much makes me the best sister in the world, and now I fully expect both sisters and brother to come visit us soon! :)

We first drove to Rogers, Arkansas and stayed with Betsy for the evening. It only takes about five hours to get there. The next morning we got up, went to see her class at school, and then got on the road around 10am. Finally around 9pm, we arrived in Houston. It was a long drive, but the girls were champs. My brother and sister-in-law live in Houston, and my older sister lives in San Antonio, so she and her two kids came over for the weekend. The four cousins had lots of fun together, and I'm pretty sure we helped Jeremy and Kendal decide they didn't want to have kids for a long time!

Later in the week we got to spend some time with our great friends, the Venables, that lived in Peoria for a short time. They now live in Houston and have a little girl Mabry that is almost two, and is a doll. We went out for some Mexican food one evening and then Addie, I, and the girls spent a day at the mall together.

To top off the week, we even got to make a trip to IKEA and the Cheesecake Factory, which are both little slices of heaven for me...I just wish I had more money to spend there (at IKEA that is)! On the way home we stopped back at Betsy's again and helped her get some Christmas decorations set up. Then we made the last leg of the trip home. Here are some pictures of the cousins together, and one of Betsy and the girls.

Yearbook Yourself

Kennedy and I had some great bonding time during Ansley's nap this morning "yearbooking ourselves". If you haven't tried it, it's a lot of fun. We laughed and laughed. Check it out at yearbookyourself.com. Here are some of our favorites.

Kinda looks like my mom's senior picture

Pretty sure my Aunt Rose sported this look circa 1980

I definitely tried to achieve this look in the 90's



Bowtie baby!


Is that Jeremy or Bo Duke?

Ah, yes, the mullet!


Who ate Jeremy?

Drama Queen

Miss Kennedy is becoming quite the Drama Queen! She has learned how to turn on the tears in an instant, she gags at every meal, and she's just plain goofy. Here are some pictures of her having fun on the computer camera tonight. Notice Daddy having fun throwing Ansley in some of the pictures too.

9 Months Old

Guess who's nine months old? Well, actually almost nine and a half by now! I'm a little late on posting due to our crazy past few weeks.
Here are her current stats:
Weight: 19 pounds 4 ounces (50-75th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 19.5 inches (off the charts)
The doctor was a little worried about her head size. He thought it was probably just due to genetics (she can thank Daddy for that) but wanted to check it out just to make sure there was no water on her brain. We had to have an ultrasound done on her head, but the good news is, she just has a big head!

Some other things about Miss Ansley:
--She can say "Ma-ma", "Da-da", "Hi!" and when she wants food for some reason she says "Nah Nah!" over and over again. I have also heard her say "dah" when she looks at a picture of a dog or when she saw my brother's dog last week. She can also sign for "more".
--She learned last week to say "hi" and wave at people. Boy was she having fun doing that at church this morning. It's really cute though, and she says "hi" in the most high-pitched voice.
--She loves her big sister and laughs at her all the time.
--She hold remotes and toy phones and puts them up to her ears and jabbers.
--She can stand for a few seconds on her own.
--She is trying her hardest to walk and loves to pull up on things.
--Due to that fact, she often has scrapes and bruises on her face.
--She is the most easy going baby I have ever known. We just got home from a 30 hour round-trip to Houston, in the car, and never once did she make me question whether I was sane or not for trying to make that trip. She was awesome. She just chilled in her carseat and rarely got upset about anything. I'm not so sure I can say the same about her sister...although she was pretty good too!
--She sleeps about 12 hours each night, from about 7-7, however, she is super flexible if we can't get her in bed by 7, and just goes with the flow.
Two kids can be challenging at times, but Miss Ansley's easy-going nature reassures the fact that I want to have more kids...someday...not anytime soon!

Pulling up to look at the TV

Saying "hi" to mom

Talking on the phone

Enough already!

Weekend Recap

Jeremy was gone this weekend with the youth group, so I decided rather than stay home alone and deal with sugar highs all by myself, I would take the girls to my mom's house in East Peoria. We went up Wednesday so we could "Trunk or Treat" at my mom's church. Kennedy had a lot of fun with that, and continued to wear her Ariel wig through church that night. Thursday we spent the day with Grandma Horsley and went to "Crackel Barrel" as Kennedy calls it. Her and Ansley had so much fun playing with their Great-Grandma. Friday we went to my mom's school for her classroom Halloween Party and Kennedy got lots of treats there. Then on Friday night, my Grandma kept Ansley for us, and Kennedy, my mom and I went trick-or-treating together. The weather was awesome and Kennedy didn't even have to wear a jacket. Last year she didn't really know what to think about trick-or-treating, but this year she had it down pat. After each house she would say "I just love trick or treating!". Then at one point she said "Why doesn't everyone tell me how cute I look?" I guess had heard that so often, she expected it at every house. My vain little child. After she asked that though, it seemed like almost every house we stopped at said something to that affect. She certainly got lots of comments about her red hair. However, thanks to the time change and coming down off the sugar high, Sunday was a pretty awful day. Kennedy was in quite a mood and had many meltdowns. We went to our old church, and she was very excited to see her old friends, but leading up to church and following church was one big crying at every little thing fest. It probably made us leaving easier on my mom! Here are some pictures from our visit.