Our Little "Helper"

Brady's new thing is to "help". In his cute little voice, he will approach you at the most inopportune time and say, "I'm helping!". Then he proceeds to only be in the way. There's no way I can say no to his sweet little face. Neither can his Daddy....

"Helping" Daddy drag dead branches from the woods up to the fire pit for the night's bon fire.

"Mommy, i'm stuck!"

The boy loves his sticks!

Did You Know??

Did you know that if you click on any ads on my page, I get paid for it? Just sayin....

Hook a girl up with some spending cash please. =)  You don't have to participate in any of the ads. Just click on them and then continue on to whatever you were doing.

Off To The Pumpkin Patch!

We were sent a request via text message to my phone that my brother in-law and his girlfriend would be at my in-laws house on Sunday and that they were officially requesting the presence of a certain little "B-Man". In case you didn't know, that's the family's name for him on Chad's side. The conversation between Chad and his brother that day was that we would all be going to the Arboretum for Pumpkin Palooza. I was excited! We got to Chad's parents' house and started waiting for the couple that bar tends all night and then sleeps until the hours of late morning/early afternoon that make this tired mommy jealous. While we waited, Brady and Grandma made some delicious (yes, and fattening) cookies.

Helping Grandma Put them on the cookie sheet.

Putting cookies in the oven.

Pushing random buttons and hoping he is making the cookies cook really fast. He really hates that they actually have to "cook".

When Brad and Jade finally arrived, we decided it was a tad too late to be going to the Arboretum. I was very sad about that, because the scenery and pictures would have been way more amazing than what we decided to do instead. We were bound and determined to go to the pumpkin patch down the street from Chad's parents' house.

Walking up to the pumpkin patch from the car.

Brady had picked out our wheelbarrow.

The long walk out to the pumpkin patch.

Brady, enjoying the ride!

He's scanning the area for the perfect pumpkin!

How about this one mommy?

Watching daddy pile up our selection to pick from.

Uncle Brad, Auntie Jade, Brady, and the dog, Cash.

Grandpa, hauling the giant and heavy load up to pay for them!

Brady helping Grandma push the load!

Jade and I being silly!

This is why I love this time of year!

Is My Boy OCD, Like Mommy?

I thought I should start documenting Brady's strange rituals with his toys and the furniture. He seems to think everything should be neatly organized. Unless, of course, he is just randomly throwing toys all over the living room and down the stairs. Today was full of his crazy and random bouts of tidiness. 

No, we do not keep these chairs in a straight line. Brady drug them from the sides of the table into a straight line and seemed very proud of himself for it!

See What I mean? Just proud! My little weirdo!

This is one of his oldest rituals. The line-up of toy cars. He will count them as he lines them up and count them as he throws them.

Yup. That Definitely Looks Like Fall Out There!

I woke up this morning and Chad had left the window wide open in the bedroom when he left for work. It was FREEZING in our bedroom! All I could hear was wind, birds, and what sounded like rain. I jumped up to close the window. Not just because I was freezing, but because anyone who knows me well will tell you I am NOT a fan of the birds in the morning. They drive me nuts! So, as I reached to slide the window down, I noticed that I could see the entire pond and the houses across the pond. Just 2 days ago, we could not see those houses and only half of the pond was visible through our small woods behind our house. The wind was gusting and blowing the leaves off the trees in a down pour. Almost like they were all suddenly weighted down like bricks. 

Chad came home early today. So, after dinner the boys went outside to wrestle around in the yard. It was very windy. I had gone to Target earlier in the day and bought little plastic, white ghosts that you stuff with newspaper and cinch off below the imprinted face of a surprised ghost. They are meant to decorate one tree. But, I like to spread them out on the house and the tree. I had also purchased some fake spider webs, which I am thinking I may have been premature putting those outside. I am guessing if it rains even once, they will be on the ground in big, white lumps of cotton. I looked around and then noticed the once, big and lush, green trees that surrounded our neighborhood were all dead-looking. Not a green leaf in sight....anywhere. It definitely looked like the first official day of Fall today.

**I will have to get some pictures of my decorations posted tomorrow. I love decorating for holidays!

A Beautiful Day At The Park!

I could have told you it was the middle of Summer yesterday. The entire weekend, the temps have been in the 80's! Chad and I were both tired from staying up a bit too late with the neighbors the night before. And yet, something just didn't feel right that we were sitting around a bonfire in t-shirts and we were still very hot. We didn't care. We were in good company, enjoying cocktails, and gazing at the stars with the kids. After the whole family napped the next day, I decided we need to get outside and take full advantage of the weather. After all, it is October and I was informed that a year ago, this weekend, it snowed! We headed a couple of blocks away to the local park. It is usually deserted, so Brady can run around and I don't have to stress about him being a bully to strange children.

Brady is in love with the spiral tube slide!

He has gotten the hang of using the crane.

Climbing with Daddy as the spotter. No, Mom is not comfortable enough to let him do this all by himself yet.

Look! He has one leg!

The boys being silly through the grate to each other.

The view from the park. The back of our house is behind all those trees on the far side of the pond.

The trees are getting bare and the colors on the leaves are peaking!

As I mentioned before...the park is usually deserted. When we got to the park and pulled up, this was the only thing there. No children. I am pretty sure I have spoken of my fear of dolls and clowns in this blog. Just, creepy!

If I didn't light a fire under Chad's butt, he would have just sat there all day like this.

 Brady still has a love for airplanes. Guaranteed...one cannot fly within a couple of hundred miles of here without him spotting it from a distance!

Poor, lonely ball. Brady brought you to kick around and play with. But, there Brady is...playing with his first love. Rocks!

What happened to Halloween?

As I search everywhere for the "perfect" costume this year, I have to wonder. Why is everything "sexy" or size 2-6? Do these companies not realize that women have children? That their metabolism is shot by age 25? Yes, about 10 years ago I was a size 6-8. But, not anymore. And then these women put on their "sexy" costumes. Their cleavage spilling forth from the top of the outfit. Their butt cheeks peeking from underneath. Then every guy that hits on them gets the "stink-eye" from her. Then she will proceed to get mad and complain to her friends that men are disgusting. Excuse me...YOU picked out the outfit with the title, "sexy" on it.

I am simply saying that I am very frustrated by the lack of "mom-friendly" costumes out there. What happened to Halloween being for children? Society makes me ill sometimes.

Fall is our favorite time of year...

We love Fall around the Johnson house. Crisp air, decorating for Halloween, no more mowing the lawn every week, and leaves falling. Which, also means we have to clean up those leaves. Brady was excited from the second we bought the pumpkin leaf bags at the store this morning.

"I'm Drawing Mommy!"

So what do you say to a blue covered face that is sitting next to a couch that has become his canvas? This is our first time dealing with destruction at this level and I am sure it will not be our last. Thank goodness for microfiber covered in Scotch Guard!

BOO! It's Stacy's birthday!

Since October is here, Stacy decided for her birthday that we would go to Scream Town in Chaska, MN. Now, if you live here, you know about the flooding issues. Even more, you would know there are only a couple of ways to get across the Minnesota River. 101 though Shakopee and the 35W bridge. 101 always shuts down when there is ANY amount of flooding. Seems Chad and I were the only 2 that remembered this. we started out at Chad's parent's house, where we dropped off Brady for the night. They live in Shakopee. Chaska technically is only 10 minutes across the 101 bridge. We had to go the 45 minute route. That SUCKED! When we finally arrived, we had to wait about a half an hour for the rest of the party to arrive. What was the funny part? Chad ended up being the only guy there! I really wished we had taken some pics while in the haunted attractions. But, I am sure they would never allow that. I would recommend everyone to visit Scream Town this Halloween season. It was pretty spooky, but SO fun!

It got pretty spooky when all the fog machines started rolling!

This is as close as I would get to the Klown Housse. I have a major fear of dolls and clowns.

Below is us girls practicing our scream before we went into the Haunted Forest.

Me? Blogging? Well, this is new...

Well, who ever thought of me as a blogger? Hey, I never thought I would do it either. I complain of having no time to myself after having a baby a little over 2 years ago. But, here I am! Mostly, I am thinking this could be a creative outlet for me. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I take millions of pictures wherever I go. I might as well have a place to put the real story behind them. Plus, I know a lot of people hate Facebook and I might as well not spend EVERY minute of my life on there. Will I keep up with this? Who knows...

At the moment, I am sitting here. Stressed about finding a job. I was laid off from my Project Administrator job at Toll Brothers in January of 2009. I have had the luxury of staying home with my beautiful baby boy, Braeden (Brady) Joel since he was 6 months old. I feel as though I have applied to about 25-30 jobs (literally!) in the past week or two. How is it I have only had one interview since I finished medical transcription school back in August 2010? I am sure the rest of MN is also looking for jobs in this crappy economy. I just feel like I have so many years of experience to offer that my phone should have been ringing off the hook by now. I guess I will just keep plugging at it as I get more desperate for work.

You must wonder what I do with all of this free time. HA! There really is none. When you have the most energetic, crazy, but wonderful 2 year old running your life for you, there is no such thing as free time.

How on Earth did my baby go from tiny and quiet to large and in charge?