Week of Even More Changes

This past week has been one full of changes for our little family. First of all we finally CLOSED on our house. We are officially home owners and it is crazy. We had been hearing all of these horror stories from everyone about not being able to close for one reason or another, but we were so blessed that everything went as smoothly as it did. We were able to close the exact day that they had planned on. We are definitely excited, but overwhelmed at the same time with everything that we need to do to get everything ready and moved in. We just feel grateful to even have a home to live in so the rest will take care of itself. At least I need to remind myself of this while I am painting. For some reason I thought it would be such an easy, non time consuming thing to do, but today I spent all day painting 1 coat of paint on the kitchen. It consists of 1 1/2 walls. I have learned a lot in one day and hopefully things will go more smoothly from here on out.

So the other changes have been in Emma. I can't believe how much she is growing up. Just in the past week she has decided to roll over more, sit up on her own, get scared at loud noices, get upset when I put her down instead of giving her attention, she likes to play games with us and thinks she is so funny. We can't get over her fun loving personality that get's stronger everyday. Our little girl is growing up so fast and I just wish time would stand still sometimes. We love her so much and I had no idea I could love and worry about someone this much. It is pretty overwhelming, but also wonderful. We are so very blessed.

Life in Bakersfield

So this is the face that we are so lucky to see everyday. Emma has been sticking her tongue out a ton everyday. She does it when she is happy. It is pretty funny to see her like that. This picture just cracks me up. So we are doing really well here in California. Mike started his new job this week and is enjoying it so far. He really likes the people on his team. This is such a blessing since he works with them all day long. They are really positive about each other and so it makes working with them a pleasure. He is mostly "shadowing" in order to become familiar with everything that is going on, but he's been able to help out quite a bit as well and they are really happy to have him there. They have a lot of pressure on them right now to finish with a project and with Mike's help it will take them a lot less time. So we made a couple BIG purchases this past weekend. Sears was having a Columbus Day sale and so we got a good deal on a washer and dryer as well as a fridge. We probably should have waited until we closed on our house, but I wanted to get the sale price. So we are crossing our fingers that everything works out with our house. They bumped up our closing date to October 23rd which is exciting. Our loan officer is going to Jamaica for 2 weeks and is really working hard to have us close by the 23rd. We'll see. We won't officially be living in our new home until Mike gets back from Columbus where he will defend his thesis. Luckily we have temporary housing until November 13th and so we can move in slowly. So we are finally getting more settled her in Bakersfield.

Going Private!

We hate to do this because we want as many of our friends and family to be able to access our blog, but with all of the changes in our life right now we felt like it was time to make our blog private. If you would still like to view our blog please send us your e-mail address and we would be happy to include you. Please let us know as soon as possible. Thanks so much!
The Sharps

Settling In

So I had to show these funny pictures of Grace. It has been a little overwhelming for our cat to have a new place to explore, but she has found some perks, like this spot above our cabinets. She has been driving me crazy by trying to get into EVERY cupboard. She does it just to get our attention which is fine until it is in the middle of the night, and then I am not a happy camper.

I also had to share by excitement regarding Emma. This may sound crazy to most of you out there, but Emma slept the first time in her crib without being "swaddled". I have been wanting to ween Emma away from having to be swaddled for 2 months now and either she wasn't ready or something came up that made it inconsistent on my part, but I decided to try again and I found SUCCESS!!! Woo Hoo. I couldn't believe it. Whenever I used to lay her down she would just kick and play and cry for an hour and never fall asleep, but she slept all last night and her naps today without the swaddling blanket! She is just growing up so fast. Just this past week she has progressed in so many ways. She is getting physically bigger, but she is also sitting better on her own, making more consonant sounds, she has been singing a bit (well we like to think so), and has definitely began understanding the world around her and her role in it. We are getting better at understanding her moods and what she is trying to communicate with us. She is just FULL of personality. It has been so much fun to see her grow up but we also know this is just the beginning and soon she'll be moving around, talking, going to school, dating and getting married! Good thing we have awhile until those days, but I know they'll come sooner than we think. We are just enjoying this time while she is still young.

California Dreamin

So we are officially Californians. We flew into Bakersfield late last night and have been spending the day getting settled in. We have been really blessed in that Dreyer's is putting us up in temporary housing for 45 days. It is fully furnished and all of our necessities of life besides food are pretty much payed for. It has really made our transition very easy. Yesterday was a little crazy, but good for the most part. We were able to get our home cleaned really quickly. It was SOOOO nice not having to pack or move any of our stuff. We were so spoiled and felt stupid just sitting on the couch while other people pack our things. It has been a great load off of us though with Emma and all of Mike's school stuff that he still had to complete. We basically just came along for the ride. We had a lot of help from friends in the ward as well. One couple lent us their car after ours was shipped off and another provided us with cleaning supplies and a ride to the airport. We are really going to miss Columbus, we got to know some amazing people and will truly miss them. It's a lot harder saying goodbye to people that come into my life lately. I mean it is always hard, but as I've gotten older I guess reality hits a little bit more of how I may never see many of these people again and that makes me sad so we will get off of that sad subject.

Our flight as a lot smoother than we were anticipating. Gracie did the best of all. She didn't even make a peep and most people didn't realize we even had a cat with us. Emma on the other had made plenty of peeps. She was really tired and had a difficult time falling asleep. So the end of our day was the hardest because Emma was 3 hours past bedtime, our cat needed to get out of her carrier, and it took us 2 hours after landing to finally find our apartment and get settled. We're just glad to be here now and realize how blessed we are to have gotten her safely, have a place to live, family and friends that love us and a job. We are really fortunate and thank you all for your support.

OH, Emma is also 6 months old TODAY! I can't believe that we have had her for that long, but it has been a wonderful 6 months and we sure love her.




We wish we would've gotten more pictures with all of our friends out here, but of course we never had our camera with us, but at least we got a picture with the Renchers who were good friends of ours from our ward.

Emma at 6 months

Us at the airport

Ashley and I

The Cute Rencher Family

Emma Helping Pack

Mike always says he's going to ship Emma off to live with the Gypsies.