party girl

So, Sharon had her first big birthday bash with her classmates and friends. We held it at one of those jump/bounce/moonwalk type places. She was pretty overwhelmed at first, and i think she couldn't figure out why her friends from school were there (like maybe she thinks they all just live in the classroom), but once RJ got her out there playing she had a ball and really enjoyed herself.
note: i stuck a picture in there with me in it since people have been asking to see pictures of me pregnant. there you go. :)
Oh, and Aunt Marj, the sliding picture will also show you dear little Mary Helen going up the steps for a turn!
Cousin Rose again outdid herself with a Mickey Mouse cake for the occasion and it was just so fun to see Sharon having so much fun! We're really trying to help her learn to socialize better with kids her age and so events like this are a necessity to take away some of her fear and timidness. We were so proud of her for keeping it together while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and she was even able to blow out the candles! (those of you who see her frequently know that she usually cowers in times like that)...i think in the picture it looks like RJ is going to cut the cake with his shoe or maybe hit someone with it? but really he was just getting his shoes back on after the bouncing fun...and you can see Sharon's overwhelmed face, but a big step in the right direction that she held it together!
The next day she started her soccer league and had a ball then too (no pun intended). She is on the "Tigers" and RJ is coach so that will be fun for both of them! We'll get some pictures up when i get a chance to get some taken...
She has been getting to spend a lot of time with Uncle Jason recently and he is quickly becoming one of her very favorite people! Today they played soccer, used her swing, climbed on our rock wall...no wonder she loves him!

the big 4 year old!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON ISABELLA!!!
This was definitely her best birthday yet. I talked it up all week with her and her class celebrated with her on Wednesday to ease her into it. Rj and I carry on my family's tradition of "picking out of the bag" for birthdays (instead of wrapping presents, they all go unwrapped into a bag and the birthday boy/girl reaches in blindly to pick presents throughout the day). It's very fun and this is the first year that Sharon was able to really get into it. We would tell her "okay, it's time for the birthday bag" and she'd come as fast as she could to get to that bag! So fun! She loved her birthday dinner (pizza) and ice cream cake and was even excited to blow out the candles (in years past she has been too scared to deal with any of it!) She went to the science center today with her buddy Jack and got to pet some critters and see the monkeys that she loves (after a neurology appointment...guess it wouldn't be a complete day without at least one doctor appointment????)
Grandpa Baer came up from Florida so she has had a ball playing with him, barely letting him out of her sight for a minute!
The family came over the celebrate with cake and we got a nice group shot of that, along with a "picking out of the bag shot". I wasn't quick enough to get a good picture of her with the cake, but had to put one up since the cake was priceless. Rose, who is our resident cake girl, was ill today so Jason took charge and decorated the ice cream cake...if you can see, it actually says "Sharon" on there somewhere...

someday i'll have pictures again!!

My camera continues to be finicky...i'll get a new one someday!
In the meantime, i just noticed that my last post was about our "blizzard"....guess that was pretty much it for us. We've been enjoying 70-80 degree days recently and Sharon loves to be "out". Thankfully she hasn't figured out how to open the storm door or she'd be trying to go out all day long! She loves playing soccer with daddy, fetch with Dina, riding her Jeep, or going up to visit Namom and Pop-Pop (Dina likes to sneak up there for visits too....). We are due for colder weather for the next week, but this sure has been nice!
I promise i'll get pictures up for Sharon's birthday....

Hello All! Sorry it's been awhile! Sharon says hello to you all :) She's getting to be such a big girl, hard to believe that she is going to be 4 in just a few days....
she got to enjoy some snow this week, we got about 6 inches (a complete blizzard by NC standards!) Namon had her our tromping through the snow in her snow boots. Very fun, but she definitely doesn't like the cold...so we're ready for it to warm up!
We enrolled her in a brand new special needs soccer program for this spring. We can't wait! It won't start for a few weeks but when it does we'll post pictures. It's going to be very fun and will be something that Sharon does with her daddy and cousin Rose (who has signed on to be her "buddy" on the field).
I've had to do some comment-management here in an attempt to stop some strange ads etc that have been showing up. So, none of you will be able to post for a while, sorry!!!! (or at least, you shouldn't be able to post if i did it right....someone go ahead and try to post and let me know if it works or not:)