Bargain of the Day

Now tell me these aren't cute shoes! I bet you'll think they are even cuter when I tell you I got them for $2.54! Well technically $7.62 since I bought 3 pairs! They are Carter's and 90% off at Kohls right now plus I had a 15% off coupon! Had I bought them at full price ($29.99), I would have spent $89.97! I never would have paid full price though! I bought Kennedy a pair to fit her now, since she is still squeezing her feet into size 8 Elmo tennis shoes, which are clearly too small; and I bought Ansley 2 pair to grow into--she's too young to complain about wearing the same pair of shoes two sizes in a row right? The only problem is I went in looking for white dress shoes for both girls and still have yet to find those. Kohl's only had one style, and they were $29.99 and I am NOT paying that for shoes that will be worn one season! Walmart and Target have a horrible selection right now too! Isn't Easter right around the corner? Where are all tht $7.99-$9.99 choices that I pick from every year? I'm having the worst time finding them. Maybe my girls will just have to be unfashionable this Easter and wear brown or black. I know they won't care...but can I handle that? Probably not. The search continues...

How a Bride Eats Her Breakfast

The past few days it has been pointless to get Kennedy dressed. She has started undressing herself to put on her princess dresses. As long as we are home this is what she is wearing. She also has a headband with a veil attached to it that she is frequently sporting. She calls it her "bride hat". Today she was wearing it while eating her breakfast. With each bite of her donut, she would lift the veil and then when she was finished, put the veil back down. It was quite humorous.

I also had to warn Jeremy today that Kennedy is not his only daughter with a shoe fetish. Yesterday I tried on some white dress shoes on Ansley to see if they fit her, and she cried when I took them off. Then we went to Target to look for some new shoes and she reached and cried for many pairs of them. I finally found her a cute pair at Walmart and as she has been walking around this morning she keeps staring at her feet and smiling. I think they get it from their Nana! Here's a picture of her new shoes, and what Kennedy is wearing on her feet too.

Surgery Day

We got up at 5:30 this morning to go to the hospital for Ansley's tubes. She was just as happy as could be until we had to put her in the hospital gown. Then she was fine until anyone new came in the room to take a peek at her. The surgery lasted about 10 minutes, went fine, and then we had to wait for her to recover. THAT was not fun! She cried really hard for at least an hour. Finally, they gave her some motrin and she cried herself to sleep on my shoulder. We got home a little after 9:00 and after a big bottle of milk, she was pretty much herself again. In fact, Jeremy just took the girls to play at the park for a few minutes. It's almost hot today! The ice cream truck just came by too and of course we had to make a purchase! It's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow, but I think thunderstorms are expected. If we wake up to sun though, I think we'll venture out to the zoo. Ansley has really taken a liking to animals lately. I think she would really enjoy the zoo now.

In other news, thanks to everyone for the kind words in regards to my running. Last night on our way home from a park, Jeremy dropped me off 2.5 miles away from our house so I could run back home. I wonder what the people driving by thought seeing him slow down the car, and me jump out and start running! Jeremy had miscalculated the time that he dropped me off, and as I was running onto our driveway he was loading up the girls to come search for me! He thought I had been gone 45 minutes, but it had only been 30. I'm glad he was thinking of me though!

Kennedy has been a bit concerned about leprechauns today. I told her about St. Patrick's Day and how we wear green so we don't get pinched. But her friends Abby and Bailey really get into the day. We played at their house yesterday, and they had leprechaun traps set up to catch the leprechauns. At their house, the leprechauns have been known to pull stunts like rearrange furniture so they were trying to trap them this year. I don't think Kennedy quite knew what to think of that. We have had many questions about where the leprechauns are today. She was a bit concerned when I changed her into different clothes to go to the park because they weren't green. Hopefully we don't start having nightmares about little green men!

5K Here I Come!

I never run on Sundays, but today was just such a perfect day. It was just a little chilly when the wind blew, but sunny and springlike. We decided to take the girls to the park, so I decided to start my next week of running early. If you recall I am not supposed to be walking anymore during my 30 minute run. Let me remind you that the first week I started I ran a total of 6 minutes and literally thought I was going to pass out! I coughed and wheezed the rest of the day and thought I seriously had asthma. Eight weeks have gone by and it has gotten somewhat easier, but I add minutes of running each week, and it has remained quite a challenge. So did I do it? Did I run all 3o minutes today??? Are you on the edge of your seat yet?

I DID IT!!!!!!!!

I am just a little proud of myself. I really never saw this day coming and am proud of myself for sticking with it. I think it was probably around 2.5 miles that I ran. So now I just need to continue with it and push myself to eventually get to a little over 3 miles so I know I can do a 5K. I thought about rewarding myself with a chocolate milkshake, but then I remembered I lost 4 pounds this week and that might defeat the purpose of my hard work. I know people always say "If I can do it, you can do it", but I really think it's true! Running was not my thing in the slightest, and honestly I don't think I've ever ran more than a mile in my life, and never just because...it was always because I had to for sports or school, and the last time I did that was probably 7 or 8 years ago! I actually felt better today after the run than I have the past eight weeks. I don't know if it was the fact I wasn't stopping to walk and then having the agony of having to start running again, or the fact that I wasn't constantly looking at my watch to see when I got to stop. I kept telling myself "you don't get to stop, just keep going" and I felt really great!

Here's a picture to leave you with...but it's not of me, because I am not looking pretty after that run!

Another Glimpse of My World

Here's a picture of Ansley discovering the leftover poptart that her big sister didn't finish at breakfast this morning. It's 3:00 in the afternoon, and it may or may not have been left sitting on the living room chair all day long...
Notice Kennedy is not very happy. She stopped screaming and crying when she realized I was taking a picture.

Now she is pretending to show Ansley some love so she can sneak a bite of the stale poptart. Ansley is just so excited that she has successfully found the chocolate poptart and mommy is letting her eat it.
And here's a picture of Kennedy still screaming at 3:10 in timeout, while Ansley is still extremely proud of herself. I asked Ansley if she would give Kennedy and bite and she ran the other direction. The fun never ends at the Picker house. Anyone in the mood to babysit?
3:15--Poptart is successfully devoured except for what's left on Ansley's face, Daddy is home to save the day, and now I hear Ansley playing in the toilet. Gotta go!

What's Been Going On

This is actually a photo from a month or two ago, but I just came across it and thought it was pretty funny. I'm trying to love on Ansley, she is making a face like "Lady, get your lips off my cheek!", and Kennedy is in the background with her fingers up her nose. Welcome to my world.

I feel like it's been a while since I blogged, but my last post was March 2, so it hasn't been too long! Not too much has been going on around here. Ansley gets her tubes on Tuesday as long as she doesn't have a fever at that point. We had to take her into the doctor again this week, as she has another double ear infection, and was having fevers with it.

Kennedy is as onry as ever. Anyone know how to spell onry? Every combination I could come up with was wrong...so much for that spelling bee trophy I received in third grade! We are taking her and Ansley to meet Biscuit the Dog tonight. He is from a book series that Kennedy has recently become fond of, and he will be at the Barnes and Noble here tonight. I'm not sure what to expect, if it will be a real dog, or someone in a dog costume. Either way, I hope the girls aren't scared. Ansley loves to see dogs, but Kennedy is a little more hesitant.

I'm on my last week of running with walking involved. I'm running 27 minutes and walking 3 (run 9, walk 1, 3 times). Next week I am supposed to run for 30 minutes straight. I'm a little nervous about this endeavor, and am not so sure it will happen. Even though I am only walking a minute in between my runs, I really LOVE that minute! Maybe I'll shoot for running 15 and then walking 1, and running the rest...I don't know. Betsy and I are trying to pick out the 5K that we want to run. I'd love to do a Race for the Cure, but I'm not sure any of the dates will work. We may do one that the high school most of our youth group goes to is putting on for ALS. We'll see.

That's about all I can think of for now! We are looking forward to Betsy being in town next Friday night (which happens to be her 24th birthday!) before she flies to NYC to visit her friend. Kennedy always gets very excited when Betsy comes because she gets to have a "slumber party" in her room...aka Betsy sleeps on the trundle in her room and even though she goes to bed much later than Kennedy does, it still is exciting for her.

Until next time...

From Kennedy's Mouth

I've seen this on Facebook and other blogs and decided to ask Kennedy these questions. I asked her them about her mommy and her daddy. The answers about her mommy are in pink, the answers about her daddy are in blue. Cute stuff! By the way, Kennedy did her hair in that picture!

1.What is something mom/dad always says to you?
Yes, I love you

2. What makes mom/dad happy?
Kissing me, Playing with me

3. What makes mom/dad sad?
Crying if she doesn't get the things she wants (This was a big issue with her today...I think it was on her mind!), Crying

4. How does your mom/dad make you laugh?
When she falls down, When he falls down (This is how she makes Ansley laugh)

5. What was your mom/dad like as a child?
Like me, crazy

6. How old is your mom/dad?
22, 22 (huh?)

7. How tall is your mom/dad?
This much (with hand as high as it will go), Same as mommy

8. What is her/his favorite thing to do?
Go to the park, Play hide and go seek (I think at times she got confused as to whether this was a question about mommy/daddy or her!)

9. What does your mom/dad do when you're not around?
Cry, cry

10. If your mom/dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
Loving God, singing

11. What is your mom/dad really good at?
Making cookies, fixing my flashlights

12. What is your mom/dad not very good at?
Hula hooping, fixing shirts

13. What does your mom/dad do for a job?
Stay home, works at the church offices

14.What is your mom/dad's favorite food?
Pizza, pizza

15.What makes you proud of your mom/dad?
When she jumps over mud puddles, Fixing my flashlight

16. If your mom/dad was a cartoon character, who would she/he be?
Dora, Diego

17. What do you and your mom/dad do together?
Play, play

18. How are you and your mom/dad the same?
we have the same color hair, we have the same legs (I always tell her she is lucky she got her daddy's skinny legs)

19. How are you and your mom/dad different?
My name is Kennedy Joy Picker, her name is Laura Lynn Picker, we don’t have the same hair

20. How do you know your mom/dad loves you?
She plays with me, he hugs me

21. What does your mom/dad like most about your dad/mom?
Kissing him, kissing her

22. Where is your mom's/dad's favorite place to go?
Stores, specifically Shop-n-Save (ick!), Apple store (Mac computers...she got that right!)

First Haircut

I decided it was time to trim up Ansley's hair. She doesn't have a ton, but it was starting to get in her eyes and it was just really uneven. So today we headed out to the Hairy Elephant for her first cut. Kennedy said she did not want a haircut, because she wanted her hair to grow to her bottom, but changed her mind when we got there and ended up getting her hair trimmed up too. Ansley's really doesn't look that different, it's just a cleaner look. Here are some pictures.

BEFORE

AFTER

Kennedy in her chair

A Weekend Away

This weekend, Jeremy and I took the youth group down to our alma mater, Harding University. Kennedy and Ansley had a lot of fun with Jeremy's grandparents and his aunt and uncle. Jeremy's Aunt Brenda was so sweet and bought the girls Harding cheerleading uniforms to wear to the basketball game on Saturday night. During the game, Kennedy mimicked the cheerleaders and Ansley clapped and cheered in her own way. It was really cute. They even got their pictures taken with the Harding cheerleaders (which Kennedy was really excited about, but you'd never know based on the picture)! We had a great weekend, and are now trying to get caught up, unpacked, and ready for the week. Click on this picture to see more.

From Weekend in Searcy