Happy 3? Birthday Dada!!

We enjoyed spending the entire day today celebrating Don's birthday!! This morning I had the joy of letting Don sleep in when James woke up at 5:30!! James and I than made him his favorite breakfast, eggs, bacon and blueberry muffins in bed. James helped me blow up some birthday ballons and decorate a bit for dada. Don's parents came up for lunch around 11:00, we went to our family resturant for birthdays.....Texas Roadhouse. It was yummy, as it always is!!!! Came home and had some spiderman cake that James pick out for his daddy. Don got money, some new Under Armor shirts and a new stocking cap from all of us.  Than we all took naps and woke up about 2 hours later. I cant ever remember it being this warm outside on Don's birthday....77 CRAZY!!! We will take it though!!

Night Eyes at the Zoo

This year we decided to take James to this event at our zoo called night eyes. It basically just trick or treating in the Zoo and they have everything lite up with lights and fun games. He had a blast and we enjoyed watching him enjoy it!! Each kid gets the perfect amount of candy at differnet stops along the way. James is really loving wearing his costume this year, unlike other years!!!

Thomas the Train in Boone!!!

Today we spent the morning visting Thomas the train. James enjoyed it a lot more this year than last and the weather was a lot better too! We even found the train Billy that we have been looking for for a months!! Don's parents were able to join us this year, which was great and James was glad that they came too. I am not going to write too much because the photos pretty much tell the story :)

 

~1st Day of Preschool~

James had his first day of preschool 2 weeks ago. (sorry behind on the blog) He is really enjoying it and learning a lot!! The past 2 weeks they have talked about the letter A and the color RED. James has now learned to write the letters Ja of his name all by himself!! He is pointing and counting things at the same time. Connie tells us that he is a sponge and learns things so quickly and memorizes things so fast. She hopes he is not bored when he gets to school, since he is picking up on things so quickly!! Don & I both do not learn this way so it is kinda of funny to us that he does. :) 

HyVee Triathlon!!!!

I DID IT!!!!! After 4 months of hard training the day was finally upon me!! I had to wake up a 4AM to get ready to head to the race. I had to be checked into transition by 6AM, which means hurry up and stand around and wait and think about how nervous you are!!!  I entered the water at 7:47 to do a mile swim in Gray's Lake. I swam it in 53:13, which surprised me since I had been swimming it in the pool at 48 minutes and thought it would be alot longer since it was open water. It was also the first time I every swam in my wetsuit, the only thing I wasn't familiar with was when you are in a wetsuit and you stand up coming out of water it all comes rushing out of you at the bottom and drags you down, which makes it hard to walk let alone run!! I did get kicked in the jaw on the right side of my face ( which is still a little sore) and one guy grab my shoulder and pushed me completely under water, which I thought was really dirty. Most people if they kicked you or grab you they said sorry. I understand it happens since it is the lake and you cant see very well.  This guy didn't!!It is such a adrenaline rush coming out of the water. Family &  friends were there to cheer me on too, which always helps! :) My team finished the whole tri in 3 hrs and 33 minutes. Jose biked his 25 miles in 1 hr and 25 min and Micheale ran her 6.2 miles in 1hr 10 min. (approx times) We all had a blast and are wanting to do it next year already!! It has taken me pretty much all week to recover but I did start working out again on Wednesday for the next Tri. I am now training for next springs Copper Creek Triathlon which I am going to try to do it all by myself. It is a half mile swim, 13 mile bike and a 5K run. I am now hooked on doing tri's, it is such a neat thing to see how far you can push your body!!

I am in the lime green cap

 

Running up the muddy hill to tag Jose to bike

My team before hand

My 2 big cheerleaders Zoey & James!!!

My biggest fan of the day!!!!

 

 

James turns 3!!!!

We can not believe that our little boy is 3 years old!!! It doesnt seem that long ago that he blessed our lives!! James had a great birthday week, I say week because he had his party with family & friends last Saturday and than yesterday on his actual birthday day he had a party at daycare!! The theme of course was Thomas the train and at daycare the theme was CARS!! James got alot of nice toys and has been keeping us busy putting them together and playing with him. :) Now that James is 3 some of his biggest accomplishments the past year have been:

~ James can trace his name and write the letter J all by himself!!
~ Going down the waterslide at Adventureland all by himself!!
~ Getting over our fear of lawnmowers & vaccums
~ Asking ALOT more questions as to why things are the way they are
~ Reads us some books at bed time
~ Counting in english to 20 & spanish to 10
~ Putting on his own shoes by himself
~ no scared of as many bugs :)

We have not gotten the whole potty training thing down yet, but it will come. If you know James at all you can NOT rush him to do anything. He does it on his own time and NO one elses!! We love everything about James and we are very grateful to God for loaning him to us!!

Orange Beach!!!

Well we finally got to go on vacation. I have not been on one since our honeymoon almost 5 years ago!!
We had a BLAST!! The car ride wasn't too bad either, you can get there in about a day and half. We of course had to make several stops so James could get out and move around alittle. Overall he did VERY well, better than we had expected. :)

During our trip in the morning we would go to the beach from about 8:30-10:00 than go do something around town. It was nice since our hotel was right on the beach we could just walk outside and we were instantly on the beach!! In the afternoons our time was spent by the pool and on the beach jumping the waves from the ocean. James LOVED the ocean and beach, I was worried that he would be afraid of it but he wasn't. One day we drove into Flordia which is only 10 miles away from where we were. We went to the Gulf Shore Zoo another day and some fishing shops that we always get magazines from, so it was neat to see the stuff and store in person.  We also found a HUGE tanger outlet stores in the town. It was so big it would take days to get through. Jo & I had fun shopping in the coach purse store!! James found a Toys R Us store too. :) The next day we went to this resort called the Wharf. It had neat little shops and was right next to a high end marina with lots of Yachts in the water!! We ran into a Build A Bear shop there and James got to build his first bear there. I have been waiting till he was old enough to really get into it since it is not the cheapest thing. He chose a bear with fishes and stars all over it and the teddy is holding a little nemo fish. We dress the bear with a tee shirt that says Orange Beach, AL on it and put the song Under the Sea in it. It was a really neat experience for kids, James ended up naming his Teddy and we even have the birth certificate that goes with it to prove it!! We ate ALOT of seafood such as Red Snapper and Grouper, Shrimp it was all very good and fresh!!

It feels great to be home, but I already want to go back!! James keeps asking us when he can go back to the beach. I have already started looking for places to stay for next year!! Enjoy the photos below!

View from our hotel room

~ Easter ~

We have a very busy Easter weekend. Glad that the weather was nice for once too!! Saturday we spent the afternoon/evening with my side of the family. James had a blast with his cousins Asher & Seth!! Sunday morning he woke up asking about them, it was pretty cute. My parents had a nice Easter egg hunt for the kids. James was much more into the egg hunt this year, so it was fun to watch. Sunday morning James finally noticed that the Easter bunny came and brought him lots of treats such as yogurt treats, M&M's (his favorite) Kit Kat's, new Thomas movie & book and goldfish. He also got his first fishing pole too!! We than headed down to spend the day with Don's parents. James had another egg hunt and got a chance to try out his new fishing pole. He did pretty well for the 1st time using it. James came home and took almost a 4 hr nap which we had to wake him up from. Than had our easter egg hunt at home. In the end James got a HUGE amount of candy & toys. Enjoy the photos!!!

~ Spring Time Fun ~

It has been VERY warm here the past few weeks and we are LOVING it at the Sharr house!! This means late nights of playing outside till it is dark, which is later now :) Grilling, long walks & sunscreen!!! James has been sleeping pretty well the past week due to playing so hard during the day. He has spent alot of time down at his grandparents house throwing rocks into the pond & watching his daddy fish. Yesterday he helped grammie Sharr decorate some cookies for St Patty's day and today has almost all of them eaten. :)

Don & I have been busy with work & trying to get our yard ready for spring/summer. Our grass seems to still be alive, which is a relief!! It is spring break this week at my work so it is going to be CRAZY busy at work for me. Friday we helped over 600 customers in 8 hours, it was exusting, and to think I will have to do it all over again next week....ugh!!!

Enjoy the pictures!!

Bowling fun with Cousins!!!

My sister and her family came down for the weekend last Friday. Grandma & Grandpa Lorenzen took everyone bowling and out for pizza!! James had a very fun time, he has been wanting to bowl for a very, very, very long time. He actually had a really good score around 60, with the help of the bumpers too. :) Don & I were both a little sore the next day from our bowling. I guess no matter how much you workout if you are not use to using those muscles it really wears you out!!! Enjoy the photos!!

SNOW....FINALLY!!!!!

Well it took till the 1st weekend in February but it has finally snowed enough here in Des Moines for James to go out and play in it!! He had a blast, he wasn't sure about it at first. He is kinda of OCD in the sense that when he got any snow on him he would start to cry.  We got to try out his sled that he got from Santa for Christmas. James also helped us shovel. Today is pry the first time that I missed living in the condo, since we had to do our own snow removal. Enjoy the photos :)

Santa

We took James to see Santa tonight. We knew it would be a toss up weather or not he would freak out or not, but he did pretty well & no crying this year!! James even told Santa what he wanted for Christmas this year. Which was Anna & Clairabell from Thomas & friends. It was very cute :) This is the same Santa we have gone to for 3 years now he is great!!

Thanksgiving

Well Don & I cooked our first turkey together this year!! It turned out pretty well :)
Thursday we spent the day with Don's family, his brother from Missouri came up for the day. We had a pretty laid back day on Thursday even had pizza for lunch!! Friday evening we decided to invite over both sets of grandparents for a fest!! We had a turkey, standing rib roast, green beans, corn, potatoes, gravy, bread, cherry salad, & of course cherry & pumkin pie.....YUMMY!!! My stomach still hurts even thinking about all that food again :) James enjoyed having everyone over and got to show off all of his stuff for everyone. My grandmother and Aunt were able to come as well!! Enjoy the pictures below :)

Bye Bye Crib!!

This week we transfer James out of his crib into his big boy bed! I started on Monday with putting him in there for his nap and he did pretty well. James went right to sleep and slept for about 2 hours. Monday night I still put him in the crib. Tuesday night James slept in his big boy bed. Once again he went right to sleep. He woke up at 3AM & than again at 5. He has gotten better every night & last night he slept from 8-6:30!!! So tonight we took the crib apart and got the rest of his room ready. James decided on a Thomas Bed, enjoy the pictures :) Having computer problems with post the picture of James in his new bed soon, well as soon as my lap top lets me :)

Trick or Treat!!!

James had a blast tonight going from one house to the next saying trick or treat!! He very polite and said thank you to everyone and there was even a few happy new years in there too for some reason :) James had a Halloween party at daycare on Friday and refused to wear his costume, so I was VERY VERY happy that he wore his costume the whole night tonight!! We were gone for about a hour and than he had fun handing out candy to all the kiddos. Halloween is SOOOOO much more fun with a kid. You really do see things through their eyes!!

Truck School

I had to go to truck school these past few days in Cedar Rapids and learn how to drive a semi. Which I guess makes sense since I test people I guess I should know how to drive one :) I was super nervous and didn't have much interest in driving the semi out on the road. I was ok with in the parking lot but not out on the road. BUT I decided to drive out on the road. I figure I may not have the chance ever again! Not only did we drive on the road but I got on & off the interstate too. We did some of the same testing that the applicants do when they come into the DOT to get a Commerical Drivers License. I didn't hit any cones, people or poles, I was pretty proud of myself!! I would say the hardest thing was that since I know how to drive a stick shift in a car I thought I could do the truck. The shifting is completely different. What would be 1st gear in a car is reverse, so I didnt want to get that one mixed up!! All & all I had a pretty good time, better than what I thought I was going to. It was very hard to be away from James those 3 days but I was nice to see how excited he was when I went to pick him up at daycare!!