What I learned from 3 days without a phone + Snapshots from our life lately

After being without a phone for three days (after it went for a swim in the bathtub with Ryan), I realized I quite enjoyed the break from being so connected all of the time. But as Matt pointed out, while it might have been a nice break for me, it was pretty annoying for everyone else who had to email me when they wanted to reach me. Fair enough.

But in those three days, I found myself completely present when I was playing in the living room with Ryan, enjoying quiet thinking time when we were on our afternoon walks, and really loving that my time with Matt when he got home couldn't be interrupted by phone calls or text messages.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love keeping up with friends and family through texts, FaceTime, phone calls, and being able to send pictures of funny things that Ryan does throughout the day, but for three days, it was nice to enjoy the quiet.

Maybe I was born in the wrong decade. This is definitely not the first time I've had this thought.

So while I am thankful that my phone is working again and that I am again able to connect with the people I love in a matter of seconds, I did decide to take a step back from my daily #nelsendays pictures and focus more on being present in the moment, rather than trying to capture it.

As you will see from the pictures I'm about to share, I am definitely still a picture-taking fool, but something about not finding that one to post each day has been a nice change.

Maybe one day I will take and share daily pictures again (I did, after all, love the routine for a good 1.5 years), but for now, I'm enjoying sharing pictures somedays, and not even taking a single one on others.

If you want to keep up with us on Instagram, you can find us @hmnelsen or by clicking here.

Now here's a look at what we've been up to recently!

Ryan loved watching Wimbledon with us. He would hilariously clap and grunt at all of the appropriate moments. Future tennis player perhaps?!

When Matt got home from his golf trip, Ryan and I weren't the only ones who were super excited to see him. :)

Ryan's new favorite trick when he eats yogurt- biting the spoon and then leaning forward for you to wiggle it in his mouth. Silly boy.

Morning walks with my boys- this is one of my favorite traditions we have going right now. Sometimes we walk twice a day, but we always get out at least once.

One afternoon, we had Hagan (our next door neighbor's dog and Tal's bff) come over to hang with us. Ryan kept trying to get her to kiss his face like Tally does, but she just kept looking at him like she was so perplexed by him, and then would scoot herself to a new position... at which point Ryan would crawl over and reposition himself right in front of her face again. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

We had a fun playdate at the YMCA pool with Mr. Cade and his mama!

Ryan spent most of his time pushing this baby adirondack chair around, so I spent most of my time chasing him. ;)

Hard at work putting the patio furniture together. ;) More to come on this later this week!

One of my favorite things Ryan does right now is find pictures of Matt around the house while he's at work and point to his face and say, "Dada. Dada. dAdA," over and over again. Whenever I ask who else is in the picture (i.e. ME- Mama... you know that word he spoke before Dada?!), he goes right back to pointing at Matt and saying, "Dada." Here's a little video if you're interested in the full effect.

Last week we took a trip to the pet store and met up with my friend Andrea and her kiddos who live in the area. It was so fun! Ryan was beside himself seeing and touching all of the animals (that he thought were all dogs- "dah, dah, dah") and Mama had fun with them too. ;)

I mean, that face. And those little folded hands. He was a little not gentle with this pup that's 1/8 the size of Tally, but he was SUPER excited to be on the floor with the little thing. :)

See?

Now kiss me pup. Super sanitary, right? But how can I not let this moment happen?!

The gang and the pup :)

And just because- these two were free to roam the store while we were there. Seriously, this place was the best free fun we've had in a long time!

We met my sweet friend Lynn and her daughter Ginna for a picnic lunch and walk at the park one afternoon. Love these girls so!

Tal enjoyed the fresh bed of pine straw I laid last week. Now we're trying to train him to potty in it instead of the grass.

During Ryan's nap, while I was doing some yard work and laying the pine straw, I decided to start a "little" fire to burn a bunch of wood that we had leftover from various yard projects. This was not even as large as it got, so I was a wee bit worried and hoped that Ryan would stay asleep until I could watch it go down to a more manageable size. And it did. Eventually. All's well that ends well?!

This buddy. He was so proud when he made it in that basket all by himself. :)

Game night date night! We opted for a game of Clue with some takeout Mexican. It was quite fun, until I lost. Ha. Rematch this Friday. Just saying.

Saturday night we had some friends over for pizza and let all of the kids play and wear each other out. And we even managed a group photo!

Tal was spent after everyone left and retired to his curtains early that night. Notice how he has them cover his eyes when the lights are still on... that pup- he's a funny one.

We've started putting books in Ryan's crib for him to flip through when he wakes up. It is the cutest thing to watch him turn the pages, point his little finger, and babble at the pictures inside.

We got the greatest little hand-me-down kitchen from Matt's sister and Ryan is LOVING it! It is the perfect size for him and has everything you really need for a kitchen! We were going to get him one for his birthday that was much bigger (and not cheap!), so we were very thankful to receive this one for free! I had no idea they came in this size! You can check it out here.

Peek!

These two are always next to each other. And when Ryan moves to another room, Tal isn't far behind. :)

Yesterday we visited the splash pad with some friends and Ryan kept himself busy crawling all over the place.

But as much fun as he had in the water and on the stairs...

...I think he was most excited about the food. The boy loves to eat.

The drive home from the splash pad

Post-nap books with Tal and Mickey

He gets really into the cooking segments on the Today Show. He's probably wondering if there's a way for him to eat what he's seeing, but I'm kind of hoping he's showing an early interest in cooking. I mean who doesn't love a guy who can cook, right?!

Please notice where Tal rests his head during mealtime.

That's all for now! Hope you all are having a great week!