Snow much fun!

We were supposed to get 4-7 inches of snow last night. We got maybe one, but there is supposed to be more coming today. Kennedy could not wait to get out and play in it. This morning her and Jeremy got all "bungled up" as she calls it, and went outside to play. Here's what Ansley did. By the way, I took the video on the computer, which is why her shirt is backwards.

Morning Entertainment at the Picker House

Check out this video of Kennedy entertaining Ansley. She is singing her favorite church song, and dancing in her princess shoes. Ansley thinks she's pretty funny...but she was getting pretty tired by this point.

Almost 1!

Look who's almost one!  We got her one year pictures taken today.  Only about a week and a half to go until we have the big day!  It's so hard to believe!!!

New Shoes

Let me start out this post by saying I hate running. I despise it. I loathe it. I can think of a million things I would rather do than run. So, I have decided to take it up as a hobby. Why would I torture myself with something I hate so much? Was this some sort of crazy New Year resolution? Not really, although I have resolved to get healthier and lose my baby weight (all the way back to Kennedy...it never really came off 3 years ago). I have been using an elliptical in the evenings while I watch my favorite shows, and while I like it and it gets my heart rate going, I feel like I have had much more of a workout on those few times when I have tried giving running a shot. Plus, there aren't a whole lot of goals to set with an elliptical. Sure I can shoot for a certain number of burned calories, or miles in a certain number of minutes, but really, it's pretty boring.

The other day at my MOPS meeting a mom talked to us about running. She owns a running store and showed us a program we could use so that in 12 weeks we would be running for 30 minutes straight...which I can do on an elliptical, but running? No way! However, I was inspired. I didn't say anything about it for a few days, because I wanted to see if I still had the urge later on. I finally told Jeremy that I wanted to give it a try and that I was going to start getting up at 6 a.m. to run. I'm not sure if he believed me, but he supported me. So I started yesterday, and so far so good. Of course, I'm only running a total of 6 minutes right now and walking 24, but it's a start. My goal is to run a 5K this spring or summer, and my sister Betsy said she'd join me. If anyone else wants to jump on the bandwagon, feel free to join us!

Since I decided to get serious about this, I used the rest of my birthday money to buy a good pair of running shoes. Let me just say I had no idea the money it would cost! Now I really have to go through with this new "hobby"! I have never spent that much money on a pair of shoes in my life!

So why am I blogging about this? Mostly for accountability. I'll feel really silly if everyone knows this and I don't go through with it! So now it's out there. I have a really expensive pair of shoes and a new goal. I'm hoping running will grow on me. I can remember a vague time in my life when I didn't think running was so bad...like in 8th grade when I "played" basketball and was in shape. I'm really hoping I can get back to that. Hopefully in six months I'll be able to show you a picture of the same shoes, nicely worn! Until next time, here's a picture of my girls sporting mommy's new shoes.

Only with a second child...

Let me just preface this with--I would have never done this with my first child! But Ansley was so wanting a taste of my Dr. Pepper, and I figured what the heck! Her sister HATES soda, so I was curious if Ansley would have the same reaction. Here's what happened:

Bargain Shopping

I've always considered myself a bargain shopper. I never, well I should say rarely pay full price for things...except when it comes to groceries. I try and try to be a bargain grocery shopper, but I just don't put the time into it, or at least that's what I think my problem is. When Jeremy and I were first married I would get all the ads and have Walmart price-match everything I bought. I guess I had more time on my hands, and we had very little money!

Grocery shopping with kids has made it even harder. I'm in a hurry to get out of there, and I throw things into the cart without thinking about it. Then I can't figure out how my bill got so high! Well, one of our New Year's Resolutions is to be better with our money. I think we say this every year, but this year is crucial. We've gone from two salaries (really two and a half with Jeremy's part-time job) to one salary, and we are living in a house very comparable to what we moved from, but double the mortgage. Ick.

We've gone back to the cash system (Dave Ramsey), which we tried for a while, but didn't do very good. I am determined to be better, and if we don't have the cash, we don't get it. Last night I spent a few hours looking at all my coupons and online ads for our grocery stores. Generally I am a Super Walmart girl all the way. I know people have their opinions about Walmart, but for me, it is a one-stop shop, and generally it is cheaper than other grocery stores.
However I noticed Schnucks doubles coupons if they are $.40 or less and you can only use up to 15 coupons. Our Shop-n-Save (right across the street from Schnucks) does $10 Thursdays, where if you spend $50 you get $10 off.

So I got up at about 6:15 thanks to Ansley, and once I got her resettled, I got ready and bundled up for the -20 wind chill outside. Jeremy stayed home with the girls while I ventured out. First I went to Schnucks and used my 15 coupons. I saved $15.00 here. Then I moved across the street to Shop-n-Save and saved $16.00 there. For all those mathmatecially challenged, thats $31! I know it's not that impressive, especially when I've heard people say crazy things like "I got $200 of groceries for $12.89." But it was a good start for me.

And for those of you who only check the blog for pictures of the kids, here is a picture of the girls. Notice Ansley's sweater? It cost me $2.98 at Target the other day! I also got Kennedy two pairs of pants that were $.98 each. I love those kinds of bargains! I also found a KB Toy store going out of business and got around $70 of birthday presents for Ansley for $30! Yeah for bargains!

Trapped!

Hopefully these are the only bars my girls will ever be behind!

Our Little Ham

My girls make me laugh everyday. I can be so mad at Kennedy and then she knows exactly what to say/do to make me laugh...I need to work on that I think! Miss Ansley is becoming quite the little ham these days. She loves to make us laugh. Today she found a stocking cap on the floor and was trying to put it on her gynormous head and was laughing as she did it. I helped her get it on all the way and she walked around being goofy for the next few minutes. It was quite humorous. I also know anytime she is getting into something she isn't supposed to...I'll hear "no no no no no no" in her little voice as she does it. So cute...but I think I'm gonna have my work cut out for me!

My little "angel"

Warning: This is not a super exciting almost 5 minute long video...but we wanted the grandparents to be able to see what she does in tumbling class. Feel free to watch it if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you!

Kennedy has been taking classes at the Little Gym for the past few months. It is an hour long class every Monday morning. It usually takes the first 20 minutes or so for her to get warmed up and really ready to participate. She doesn't really like the silly running around they do to warm up, but she loves the balance beam and bars. She will hardly talk to her teachers, and is very timid. In fact, one day one of her teachers came to me after class and said "Kennedy and I actually had a conversation!". This is so strange to watch, because she is so different around people she knows. We also found she has a nervous habit/tick. She either pulls her shoulders up to her ears or puts her hands in her mouth (or both) when she is nervous or unsure. You'll see that quite a bit in the video. However, as soon as we get in the van she talks my ear off telling me all about what happened and then when we get home, she shows me her routines over and over again. She is constantly trying to do cartwheels, tuck jumps, etc. Well, today was her "show" day, so Jeremy came along to watch and video tape. You'll notice she acts like she doesn't know what to do without her teacher's help, however, I guarantee she knew both the floor routine and balance beam routine by memory and could have very well done it on her own...but she doesn't let her teachers know that! I wish I could've gotten Ansley on tape at the very beginning when Kennedy comes out (with the help of her teacher) and does her first cartwheel. Ansley was so excited, threw her hands in the air, screamed, and then clapped, saying "KK" over and over. It was so cute and you can hear her in the video. She really liked watching her big sis.

Cheerios!

So this is what happens when you leave your three year old to watch your eleven month old so you can go fix your hair...
I normally try to be up and ready before Jeremy goes to work, but since he is gone, I don't have that luxury. I've been taking my showers at night after the girls go to bed so I don't have to do that in the morning, but I still have to put on my makeup and fix my hair. Thinking nothing could go wrong, I kindly put Ansley in her exersaucer, filled with Cheerios, and left Kennedy in the recliner with her Poptart watching Diego. However, I must have left the box of Cheerios a little too close to the exercauser, and Miss Ansley grabbed them and proceeded to dump them all out. Kennedy, who was very willing to tattle on her (she learned that fine art from her cousin Sidney :) for some reason didn't think to take the box away from Ansley. Oh well, it didn't take much to clean them up, and started our morning off with something to blog about already! Well, Ansley is still in the saucer, and not happy at all about it, so I better go get her. Have a great day!

1st Post of the New Year!

Happy New Year! We are recovering from being off schedule, traveling, having company and just the holidays in general! Last week Jeremy's family was in town and we had lots of fun with them. I wish I could post pictures, but Jeremy is out of town with the camera I need. Of course our house didn't feel we were having enough excitement with a house full of people, recently broken furnace, and recently broken water heater, that it decided to throw another home improvement project at us.
That my friends, is a picture of my living room ceiling. Yes, that's a hole in it. We noticed shortly after we got home from Peoria a large water spot on the ceiling. The girls bathroom is directly above this spot, but we couldn't see any leaks anywhere. After a few showers taken by our company, we soon had a drip coming from the ceiling. Jeremy poked a hole through it to see if he could determine what was going on, and together he and his dad caught bucket after bucket of water. Turns out, our shower head was causing a leak somehow through the wall and down into our living room. Also turns out our home warranty won't cover this problem. Fun stuff.

The girls and I are missing Jeremy this week who is away in Colorado for a week with "work". I've been teasing him about his "work", which consists of staying in a nice hotel with a couple of college buddies, driving a Hummer H3 as his rental car, and going skiing for a day...oh, with a couple of conferences for youth ministers thrown in between all that. He's having fun, and we are trying to stay busy to avoid stir-craziness. Monday was a day filled with tumbling class and grocery shopping, yesterday we explored a mall we hadn't been to yet (with an awesome play area!) and today we've already been swimming and tonight we are going to the Magic House. Ansley is on her 4th round of antibiotics for her ear infection, and we go back to the doctor on Tuesday to get her re-checked. She's also pretty much walking everywhere. She recently turned 11 months old...so I'm working on planning her birthday bash...so hard to believe! Hope everyone is having a great year so far!