Blessings of going to the temple

Charlotte is in a gas crisis right now. Luckily for us we only have one car and Jake bike's and takes the bus to work, so we have been fine. The city has gone crazy though, in my opinion. People are panicked and have waited in line for hours and have paid big bucks cause all the station had was Premium. People have even parked and waited for a shipment to come. We've also seen traffic control, police and even violence.
Yesterday we went down south to the Columbia, South Carolina temple. I'll admit I tried to make every excuse not to go. Having just driven to Florida I didn't want to get in the car, we had a huge to do list, the kids would be cranky from lack of sleep, and what about gas? Well, we still went. On the way out, at 6am there was a huge line at the gas station. We had a good half tank which could easily get us down there. Turns out there's plenty of gas just 15 minutes south. The gas people are wasting idling their car and driving around to find a station with gas, they could use to get down south with no lines and normal prices. Funny.
I'm so glad we went to the temple, it was a great experience. And now we have a full tank of gas and we were able to get everything on our to do list done. It was a great day. Hopefully some blessings continue. I'm not sure about news outside of Charlotte but if you haven't heard, Wachovia is looking to merge, which means some major changes. So we'll see. No matter what happens though, I'm not too worried, I know everything will work out.

A Dream Come True

This is long...but I thought the grandparents would enjoy it.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

With Jake on break from MBA school we decided last minute to drive down to Orlando to experience Disney World. We have a friend that works there and got us free tickets. That's right...FREE. You just can't pass that up...especially when it's 8 hours away and you still have a compact car (considering gas prices these days). We packed in 3 parks in one day, starting off with Magic Kingdom. To say Rachel loved it is an understatement. Her favorite she says was meeting Cinderella. She also LOVED the dumbo ride. She did not like the wicked fairy in the castle show and she hated Peter Pan's flight. At Hollywood Disney (MGM) she thoroughly enjoyed the Pixar Parade and was enthralled with the Little Mermaid show. At Epcot she loved the Nemo ride and could have spent hours watching the fish, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, manatees and scuba divers in the aquariums.
Disney World is always great fun, but when you experience it with your 3 year old daughter it's magical!! We loved focusing on her all day. Although once they crashed that night, Jake and I got to splurge a little on ourselves and enjoyed some French pastries :)
The next day we spent swimming at the Animal Kingdom resort and drove back Sunday. All so worth it. THANK YOU SENTA!!!

Dance class

A couple of weeks ago I went to take a dance class. I want to keep up my technique and style, get a good work out, plus I just really miss it. But I'm having a hard time finding something that works for me here in Charlotte. Well, Rachel saw me all dressed up and told me she wanted to go to a dance class too. I thought it was a pretty good idea but I struggled with the idea of signing her up somewhere because I could teach her. I have this huge conflict in my head of what I want to do about my dancing career. Anyway, I looked into it and signed her up at the YMCA we have here that's just a couple miles away. We went last Tuesday to register and she was dancing all over the lobby and when we went to leave she was in big crocodile tears. Heartbreaker! Thursday was her first day of class. Then came my tears. I'm not sure if it's because she's growing up too fast, or the joy of seeing her so excited, or being proud to see her dance and follow along so well, but it does indeed make me cry. She came out of class just laughing and giddy, she had such a good time. She wants to wear her "tar", "pretty skirt", "soft and gentle tights" and "ballerina shoes" everyday. When I picked her up from nursery at church yesterday all the leaders told me how she taught them all how to dance. That's my girl!!

Ebenezer Scrooge

For Labor Day, we went camping. Now I bet a lot of you are thinking, "they're crazy to go camping with two small kids." We know, but we both like camping, we've had the gear for years and basically have never used it, and we thought it would be worth the risk. I had my expectations prepared from the beginning.

We chose a place nearby (in case...) called Ebenezer Park because of the swimming access of the lake, which Rachel loved! We had a pretty successful evening, depite the trouble with starting a fire and it feeling like 100 degrees. But we were having roasted hot dogs for dinner, and what is camping without fire and some marshmallows. Afterwards we barely escaped the rainstorm and Rachel and Tommy finally crashed to me singing lullabies. Tommy only woke up twice. Each time he did I was so grateful for having woke up, cause it meant that I slept. Like I said, I was preparing for the worst, and it took a while to fall asleep with the rain and our neighbors chopping wood till 3am. Come on guys, it was raining for goodness sake!!

At breakfast Jake gave the experience an 8 out of 10. That is until Rachel ended up having quite a fit over every little thing that morning. Even still, I think we all had fun.


Lake Wylie


Notice the sweat?

4 months

He's now double the size he was when he was born. He is now over 15 pounds. They grow way too fast! He's probably ready for solids, but I'm sure not...sorry little dude. Just another month, or two.
One thing about this kid is he loves his tummy. Every time I lay him on his back he'll roll over. He's not looking for a toy or to get around, I think he just likes the view better.Or maybe it's just that he hates his back. He can't stand his bouncer anymore and this is what he does in his swing. He gets good ab workouts this way. And we've got ourselves a thumbsucker, which I like. He's not too good at it yet though.
The other thing I like about this little guy is how ticklish he is. Anytime I change his clothes, he laughs hysterically. He also LOVES Rachel. He'll laugh at her for no reason in particular.