Well. It happened. I finally joined Pinterest.

Considering how little free time I have had lately, I doubt I’m on it very often, but it is SO cool to see all the neat ideas everyone has! And, since I’ve been in the process of decorating my living room for the past almost three years, I figure maybe now I’ll actually decorate it instead of just coming up with ideas that never pan out.

Yesterday, after Nathan woke up from his nap, he decided he wanted to watch a “movie” (meaning the Cedarmont Kids) while he ate his snack. So, he got to sit in his new little chair with his apple slices.

I thought he looked so grownup. 🙁 Then he noticed I was taking pictures and gave me this face:

Ha!

When Jon got home, he and Nathan built a fort together. The first fort in the O’Brien house! Nathan LOVED it. I have SO many memories of building forts when I was a little kid, so I love that Nathan will most likely be doing the same thing. 😉

Did you ever build a fort with your parents’ pillows and blankets?

Since I had to order a new lens for my camera anyway, I decided I might as well get the $13 remote for it as well. 🙂

The lens hasn’t come yet, but I had the zoom lens that I used at the fair, so I put that on since we had to try out the remote after Nathan’s THREE HOUR nap (praise God!). Please pardon my messy ponytail – we’ve been home most of the day. 🙂

It wasn’t too cool until he realized that no one was behind the camera and it was still flashing.

Ha! Then, Mom was generous and let Nathan have a turn with the remote.

That was FUN.

Which is why I found these on my camera next…

My life is never boring. 😉

Y’all.

I am at home. ALONE.

All by myself. No husband, no child. I do still have a dog here, but he’s even being quiet at the moment. It’s very nice. 🙂

I can’t even remember the last time this happened. Jon took Nathan with him to watch Monday Night Football at a friend’s house with him and his kids, so that left me all alone.

Which meant I finally had time to clean the shower. And then take one.

Oh how things have changed. I do remember a time in my life when I started everyday clean and pretty. And where a night alone meant painting my toenails and watching Gilmore Girls while eating cookies.

We spent the weekend with my aunt and uncle who came in town on their way to ride 475 miles on a bicycle this week. Actually, I do believe the two of them will have two bicycles. I waver between envy and sympathy for them.

After Lunch Bunch today, Nathan and I came home, he took a nap and I did things around my house like laundry and straightening up toys (how does ONE child make such a huge mess??) and then we ran to Kohls real quick to return some shorts that didn’t make the cut with Jon.

And then I made dinner, we ate it and Jon and Nathan left.

And here I am. Showered.

This might be one of the more boring posts I have ever written. 🙂

Earlier today, I was trying to take a picture of Nathan while he sat on his cute little chair that Gammy bought him this weekend and I said, “Nathan, take your paci out and say cheese!”

So, he yanked his pacifier out and did this:

Little sugar.

Which is AWESOME.

🙂

I confess, I have all these visions of chasing Nathan across our green lawn, tackling him onto the cool, thick grass and then watching him play out there while I get some writing done.

Soon.

This past week, Nathan, Gammy and I went to visit our friends in Colorado Springs. We had a great – but fast – trip! We left Monday morning, got there that afternoon and then spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning before coming back. Very quick!

The boys had a great time. I think Noah appreciates Nathan a lot more now that he can walk and go see cool things like trains with him. Someone still has yet to find a replacement lens, so pardon the iPhone pics.

Buddies. Nathan found a rock, so of course we had to bring it back with us because who can measure the worth of a gray rock?

On the way home, we stopped at Subway for lunch and Nathan got to eat a sandwich by himself – usually I’ll cut it or tear it up unless it’s grilled cheese, but I figured, he could try it. His expression was perfect:

Yesterday was spent cleaning out closets – my absolute favorite thing in the whole wide world to do. Not. But, we had to make some room because 1) Nathan no longer fits into any of his 6-9 month wardrobe (cue the tears as I looked through some of my MOST favorite outfits for him), and 2) He hasn’t been able to fit in those for about six months. So, it was definitely time to pack away clothes. Plus, we went to one of those consignment kids sales today and Nathan MADE OUT.

I found toys I’m going to save as Christmas gifts for him and enough clothes to get him to spring. Yay! Gammy went with us and she found some adorable things too. So fun!

Apparently, too much fun. This is what I found when I opened the back door when we got back home today:

It’s such hard work being one. 😉

Y’all have a great weekend!! Any fun plans??

We’ve been busy these last few days!

Jon’s aunt, cousin and cousin-in-law came in town last week and took the three of us out to dinner. We had such a great time with them! Nathan loved showing off his new tricks and some of his favorite toys. And he did NOT want to go to bed. Ha! 🙂

Friday night, we had Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley over for dinner. Then we put the kids to bed and had a great time talking and playing games – so fun!! It’s nice to have “kid-free” evenings every once in awhile. Even if that just means having them after bedtime. 😉

Yesterday, Jon, Nathan and I went to the state fair!! We had SO much fun – what a great family day! I’m so glad it worked out for us to go – we tried to go Saturday, but after spending TWO HOURS in traffic to get there, we gave up and went to Gammy and Pops’ house for dinner. We planned better yesterday and went right after church got out.

Nathan loved the baby animals! He got SO excited! But his favorite part of the fair was definitely the “McDonald’s Farm” where all the little kids can walk around and gather fruits and veggies and eggs.

I thought he was the CUTEST thing in his apron!

The kids all got to ride tractors too, but since Nathan’s feet didn’t even touch the pedals, he got a little help from Dad. 😉

He took a 40 minute nap the ENTIRE day, so at the end of the day, he was wearing out fast, but he still was happy enough to have some laughs with Mom.

I love this boy!! He grabbed my face and started saying, “I laa laa laa…” SO sweet.

Such a fun weekend with my boys!!

We finally finished the yard!! YAY!! We finished it Saturday and spent a MUCH NEEDED day of rest on Sunday. Such relief here! Now just praying for our grass to grow! So thankful for all the hard work Jon and my dad did!

The “helper”:

This last week, Nathan has only been taking one nap a day, which means that by 5 or 5:30 at night, he is the biggest crabby-head in the whole world. He cries and whines and follows me around whimpering with big huge tears rolling down his face. And the fits! Oh my, the fits…

Poor kid. He is not taking the transition to one nap well. Neither, I might add, is his mother. 😉 Look at this sad face:

And, speaking of big huge tears, Nathan found my camera on some of our lawn furniture and decided to throw it on the patio and broke my lens. 🙁 It was my own fault for leaving it within his ever-expanding reach. I’m so bummed. I need to take it in to see if I can get someone to fix it. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to take pictures of my grouchy child with Photo Booth. Poor baby. He went down pretty early tonight for bed – praying that he’ll sleep very well and we’ll both wake up ready for a cheerful day tomorrow!

Has anyone ever broken a detachable lens camera? And ballpark – how much did it cost you to fix it?

The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.

– Henry David Thoreau

Praying for all of the men, women and children forever affected by this day a decade ago. May God bless their families and may we never forget those who continue to risk their lives everyday for us in our prayers.

Thank you again for praying for me for this, guys! Hope the shaking isn’t too obvious. 😉

Has everyone settled back into their fall routines? 😉

This will probably come as a huge shock to all of you, but I tend to be a girly girl.

I like things to be clean – including me. My shower is quite possible the best part of my day.

My idea of the perfect day would include reading, watching a movie and giving myself a pedicure. With pink polish.

I have been camping once and HATED it. I don’t understand why you would willing forgo a shower and a comfortable mattress.

Not to mention the dirt. And the bugs.

This landscaping project has given me new appreciation for soap. And loofahs.

So glad that my child feels the same way. 😛

He is SO his daddy’s boy!

I will tell you this: I am ready for our landscaping project to be done.

But, as of yesterday, here’s what our yard looked like:

Ugh. I told Jon this morning that I really needed a butler, because there was no way I was going to be able to get out of bed. I am SO sore from helping dig those trenches. And I only worked the 2.5 hours every day while Nathan slept! I can’t imagine how Jon and my dad feel today after working for three days straight on the yard.

Since we can’t really go outside, Nathan and I have been trying to stay busy inside. I pulled out a coloring book for him the other day and he really liked it for about three minutes.

Then, he had more fun running with the book behind the couch and taking all the crayons one by one back there.

A little artifically colored wax never hurt anyone. Though, I was telling him “No, Nathan!! We don’t eat crayons!” the entire time I was taking these pictures.

I’m a terrible mother.

The aftermath:

Coloring may not be an everyday activity for awhile yet. 😉 Eventually, we gave up on the coloring and Nathan defaulted to his favorite game – tickle monster! And we worked on his “cheese” face:

We watched his friend Hayley on Friday night while Clint and Leigh Ann went to a wedding. We had so much fun with her! And Nathan had lots of fun grabbing her paci and running for it. Are we seeing a trend here now that he can run? 😉

Saturday, Clint came over to help Jon on the yard and then they went to a football game. It’s the start of football season! Which means… it’s officially FALL!! I am SO ready for some cooler weather! Afterward, we met my family for a late dinner at Chili’s since they were having a couple of Labor Day Weekend specials. And the last thing any of us wanted to do after working in the yard all day was cook. 😉

Someone, though, is loving all this yard construction:

“Guys!! Hey, guys!! I got the hammer, guys!”

We came home from church on Sunday and immediately got to work, then we celebrated my dad’s birthday that night. I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful Dad! It’s so fun to see him as a grandpa too – he and Nathan have so much fun together. I just love watching it.

And then yesterday, we celebrated Labor Day by doing more of it. I told Jon that we can’t move from our house for ten years – not with how much work we’ve put into this yard! Ha! We are so close – Jon and Dad got the sprinklers installed yesterday, so all we need to do now is add our top soil and then seed it and we are DONE. All we’ll have to do after that is sit on our porch and watch our grass grow.

Nathan, however, might be bummed that there won’t be huge trenches throughout his yard anymore…

And our little master artist got the gist of coloring – just not the proper place to do it. Look what I found last night as I was going to bed:

Seems like someone got a hold of my eyeliner pencil and had some fun on my bathroom drawer. He is such a mess!!