30 Weeks

Well 30weeks + 4 Days
Thats like um 10 weeks till my due date...... CRAZYNESS!
My Nova should be about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds about the size of a head of cabbage. 

My baby is a mover it sometimes feels nonstop. It is amazing watching my belly shape shift and feeling her head or bottom poking out my side just not so much at 11pm when I'm trying to sleep! Everything is looking great we were told she had a gorgeous heart and a ton of hair for a 28 week old i am now giddy for bows and hair flowers.

We have been collecting fun things for her room for awhile now and things are really starting to come together.

How far along? 30 weeks

Sleep: Not so much... my baby loves to "punch" my mattress when im on my side which keeps me up. Also my belly is big and getting bigger so sleep is getting harder

How am i feeling: I really have been feeling good a little tired here and there Nesting! Nesting! Nesting!

Total Weight Gain: 20 pounds - My maternity jeans are officially snug i can where them out and about but not if I want to sit down for long periods of time they cut into my belly :(

Food Cravings: Hmm more watermelon please!

Gender: GIRL

What i'm looking forward to: our childbirth classes start in a few weeks and i am very excited :)

Best moment this week: When Aaron calls her by name and she responds... its Awesome!

Milestone: I am at the beginning of my third trimester and time is flying by! A crib has been bought and nursery things are really coming together

Positive Results

Stay Tuned... For more on this crazy happy news!! :)

Sunset Action

Thanks to the gorgeous weather that was beckoning us to the backyard, I was got inspired to snap some shots of a couple of my gals, along with a gorgeous sunset...right from our backyard!

See California...every now and then we get some nice light!

Enjoy!

- Aaron

oops...

Hey there blogger world, it's the Tharpey's again! Did we forget about you for um...a year??


SORRY ABOUT THAT! Our "home computer" was tied up for a while with work related tasks, and we just couldn't find the time to put some thoughtful posts together. It's our bad though, and we can admit that. We're back in action now!


Well a few things have happened since last we talked....


- We bought a house (oh yah, you kinda already knew that...and thats kinda where we left you hangin', isnt it?) Well let me tell you, owning a home is some hard work! (especially when moving in right before the holidays last year...pretty sure thats even harder!) BUT, we did it and hosted our first Thanksgiving too. And though we didnt let anyone open our closets, our home was clean, and thanks to my husband, we are completely unpacked! (As of two weeks ago). We literally had four boxes left in the spare room full of mostly junk that took us FORRREVER to go through, and now we're organized and ready for a garage sale. :P 
Ahhh feels so good to be home!


- Had some major job switcheroos: ME (rachel) - the good Lord opened a door for me to work in an exciting, creative environment with some pretty crazy talented people over at 31Films, where I especially enjoy working side by side with my favorite dude (hubby). I was previously employed at the family business, Cornelius Contracting. I'm so very grateful for my time spent there and the things I learned! Basically being together as couple 24/7 has its challenges, but for the most part it's super FUN.


- We've done a bit of traveling from California to Cincinatti; our job has taken us to some fun and interesting places, and we are so grateful for things we get to do and the places we get visit :)


- - FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA: So we never realized the prison that good ol' Johnny Cash sings about was in....California?!? Does that make any sense? I pretty much dig all things Cash though, so we of course considered taking the tour of the prison, however watching the news one night during our 4 day stay in Cali, we discoverd a 250 person prison riot happened the very evening we arrived. We even saw the ambulances swoop by on our way to our hotel. The report was 13 injured and the riot occured during rec hour so um yah... no prison tours for us.. sorry Johnny. Aside from prison drama, I absolutely love the town of Folosm. Lots of charm, super cute, historic district, full of awesome shops. (and showcasing a breath taking view of folsom lake.) I'm adding it to the list of places I want to move to one day :)


pics of the beautiful folsom to follow...


- - CINCINATI, OHIO: Ok, so not exactly on our dream list of places to visit, but off we went to make wedding film magic ;) and stayed at a pretty ritzy hotel smack in the middle of down town Cinci. We did a bit a browsing on the streets, not to bad a place and we had the privledge of meeting up with some pretty awesome friends (Steve and Reagan Zegulter) who also happend to be in the wedding filmaker biz.

- Nina is still adorable. We did the yearly "Furry Friends" shoot with Clark Lara Photography, and he captured the little cutie pie....leash and all (since we can't trust her on her own)

Aside from all of that...we're having an incredibly exciting year. We're coming up on our 2 year wedding anniversary and our 1 year home owning anniversary. Tons of fun stuff happening for our family and friends, tons of adventures for us, and tons of learning and goal-setting in motion for us as well. We'll save it all for their own posts though. 

For now, it's good to be back. Hope the feelings are mutual :)

Much love,

the Tharpeys

Sister!

            dear sister i can not! can not! believe you are 18 today :)

           you are the smartest, funniest, most beautiful eighteen year old ive ever met.

        

p.s.
your are a marvelous dancer i think you should go pro!
-rachel


check out her senior photos
here :)

Images for the Tharpes

We took some fun pictures awhile back with Clark Lara Photography

He is very good and we had such a blast!

check them out here :)

clarklaraphotography.com

(just so you know although we may not be smiling we are actually quite happy)

Herb Garden - Take 1#

so, i started some garden fun last week - with these cute little planters i found from Target in the $1 section, which was so cool! they're called "Buzzy Mini Grow Pots" and they come with little porcelain pots, seeds, and a little pellet of soil that expands. it was loads of fun!

these are the kits

these are our own mini bowls

i spread it all out on the countertop

tried to keep it all organized so we know what's what

this is the soil that's been freeze-dried - i think? :)

then i just added a little bit of water

then the soil magically expanded!

and i did the same thing for the rest of the little soils

then i mixed up the soil and water

and i put a little over half of the soil into the planter

and these are the cute little seeds (5 in each pot)

i put the little guys in the pot

then i covered it up with the rest of the soil and lightly packed it in

then we put 'em on our window seal

and now we'll just have to wait and see!

thanks to husband for taking the pics!

all i have to do is keep the soil moist. its so fun to watch these little guys grow.

i hope to have a huge vegetable garden one day

........baaaaby steps though....baby steps!

:)

House-ness

So we haven't been so great with the house updates....and we apologize

Here are some of the most recent details :)

Sidewalks are laid! (*lain?)

Bricks and Painted Siding all up!

(Driveway and walkway are actually down now too...)

All landscaping should be done this week!

Inside- All sheetrock/texture/paint/fixtures are up!

Cabinets and countertops installed! (waiting for backsplash)

Tile in bathrooms is down (and up)

Even sinks are in...

The rest of the flooring will be in sometime during the next two weeks.

Appliances have all been ordered too!

Me and Rach already shopping decor/fixtures and planning our "upgrade" work :)

We'll be hitting the hardware store soon to grab a few power tools so i can deck the place out! :) lol

We'll keep you updated, we swear!

-Aaron and Rachel

i want my husband back!!

my dear ole husband has been sick for 6.5 days now.... he was slammed with several types of sickness stuff this past week leaving his body needing much much rest and i miss him...

its been boring around here without him being... him....

theres no one to make me laugh

or talk to

or cook with

or play games with

ive been so bored im watching E News, i hate E News

and im talking to myself

please get better soon aar i miss/need you

and i already have 100 plans for us to do when you get better :D

love you

-Rae

...house update...

in other news our house is coming along just swimmingly cabinets are in, walls are painted and brick and window sills are up

Nina is for the birds....

So this afternoon, I was doing my weekly Maintenance Connection documentation work from home - which means I get some "quality time" with the pup. She typically spends the day asleep on my lap or right below my feet. Occasionally though, when I'm going to give my eyes and backside a break, I'll take Nina out onto our back patio where she loves to just walk around get some rays. I'll pour some iced coffee and just relax out there for a few minutes until we get back to work.

Well, today I was walking to sliding door to open it up, and I remembered that I had a scheduled phone meeting around that time with my supervisor. So I almost let her out, but decided to just open the blinds a little bit and let her enjoy some sun!

About 1 minute later, I heard her barking frantically. I had a feeling I should go check it out. I walked over to the window, and what did I see, but a HUGE HAWK perched on our balcony railing staring at Nina like she was a field-mouse. This thing was so gorgeous and so big! (the pictures don't do it justice). It was totally majestic and was about 3 feet away from me. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots of that bad boy through the blinds/door screen/smudgy window. It sat there for a good minute or so, until I got risky and tried opening the door. It was incredible when it flew away though. It's wingspan was just amazing. Check it out...

I have no doubt though, that if I would have let little Nina out onto that patio while I made my call, she would have been bird food! That hawk was about twice her size with some mean claws! Thank God (and my supervisor) though....'cause Nina is safe and sound watching the birdies from afar!

(btw - she's been "shaking hands" like crazy lately, but that's for another post...)

-Mr. T

Colorado Pictures :)

so - i got to go to colorado this weekend for a company retreat.

check out the post here