I’ve been slacking in the picture taking department lately. In the past few days I’ve snapped a few pictures of the kids though.

I made Sam a homemade football tee kicker out of an empty Diaper Genie refill. Genius if you ask me…especially if someday he ends up in the NFL:

Just like Carter, Sam has become obsessed with books. I think today we’ve read at least 50 books, and Sam doesn’t even have 50 books yet. Yes, we read books over, and over, and over, and over…

I always check on the kids before I go to bed. Brad asked me one night why I did that…I guess it’s the mother in me, who knows! I just want to make sure they’re all nice and cozy before I go to bed. The other Sam was laying with his leg in between the rails – don’t worry, I checked to make sure it wasn’t stuck:

A couple nights later I found him like this…think it’s time to upgrade him to a king size?

After Sam woke up from his morning nap I was changing him out of his pj’s. He’s a bear lately to try and change his diaper or clothes – the kid has got to be moving! Once I got his shirt and socks on, he was literally crawling off the changing table, so I just let him down while I got his jeans out. Of course he ran out to hang with his BFF:

So we’re finally on the mend after having either food poisoning or a stomach virus. Whatever it was, it wasn’t fun! Thankfully Sam never got it. Today I had to get out of the house, so we ran a few errands and I asked Carter what he wanted for lunch. He said he wanted a picnic. I told him it was too cold for a picnic – he said we could have one in the basement with our picnic table! So we stopped by Taco Bell for a cheese taco and cheese quesadilla and did just that – had a picnic in the basement:

You can’t tell, but we were watching Willy Wonka:

Carter just HAD to take a picture, so I told him he could take one. He took this magnificent picture of Sam and I:

That’s all for now…we’re off to Sam’s 15 month check-up tomorrow as long as the weather cooperates!

I’m finally posting the pictures from the Slusser Winter Gala! We had a great time and really enjoyed having it at Jeremy and Annette’s new house in Jacksonville. They were great hosts!

Eating and hanging out:

The talent show!

Family picture time!

Mom & Dad:

Josh, Sheri & Brea:

Emily, Jake, Paul & Dinah:

Cousin Annette, Molly, Hannah, Jeremy & Grace

Cousin Tony, Alex, Trela & Luke

Cousin Jaime & Chris:

Cousin Chris & Megan:

Bernadine, Sandy & Aunt Sue:

Kids playing:

Only 3 because these were the longest 3 and the free Vimeo account only allows 500MB per week. So next week you’ll get the rest of the videos! I think you’ll like these 3 though…

Pay attention when you use your ATM card at an ATM.  You can read more about it here but this picture explains a lot:

What you’re looking at is a piece that fits over the normal ATM card swiper. This one wirelessly transmits the information on the magnetic strip on your card to a nearby computer and even has a tiny pinhole camera to catch you typing in your PIN. Just pay attention and be careful out there!

2 weeks ago we went to Wheaton, IL for my NIU friend’s wedding. Larry and I lived on the same floor freshman year of college – Grant South 12th floor! Several of us from that floor have remained really good friends ever since!

So it was freezing the day of their wedding! Not a good day to be in a dress and heels. And someone had the bright idea it would be fun for the guests to light these ginormous sparklers, while Larry and Jen walked through them. It would’ve been cool if it wasn’t literally 2 degrees out with a wind chill of like -15. I was about 2 minutes away from getting frostbite on my toes. I sure hope their professional pictures of that turned out good because I’m not doing it again!

After freezing our booty’s off, we went to Steve’s parents’ house, who also live in Wheaton. We had some time to kill before the wedding and his Mom was a great host! We finally made it to the reception and enjoyed some wonderful appetizers and awesome food!

After the meal and while the dancing was going on – they had a coffee bar, candy bar, and little hamburgers and fries! I was completely stuffed from the chicken and filet mignon!

Of course Matt made room for a burger:

The happy couple, who just got back from their 2-week honeymoon in Thailand. I can’t wait to hear what it was like!

Friday was a ‘first’ for Carter. His first dentist visit. He and I went together, and he made me go first. He got to watch short movies about animals going to the dentist while I got my teeth cleaned and examined. He actually did really well. The dentist did a quick look and counted his teeth – he said whatever we were doing to take care of his teeth was working because they looked perfect. He was a little more antsy when it was time to get his teeth cleaned. He got to wear some shades and he thought he was pretty cool. He did fine while she put the toothpaste on his teeth, but he didn’t like when she rinsed it off. When she rinsed the bottom teeth, he ended up swallowing the water instead of the letting the little vacuum suck it out.

Totally chilling in the dentist chair – legs crossed and waving:

Getting his teeth cleaned with his 80’s shades on: