Our 1st Home!

We bought our first home! We absolutely love it. It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house. The previous owner had some interesting choices in paint color. Once we get the rooms repainted I will post pictures of the inside. Matt has been the an awesome handy man. He has become very familiar with Lowes and Home Depot.

Big News

Matt and I are happy to announce that we are having a BABY! Our due date is March 25th. Every thing has gone very well so far. While we are preparing for the addition to our family we have been adjusting to some other changes in our lives. We recently moved back to Greenville, SC where we both started new jobs at GE. In addition to work Matt is attending Clemson University to get his MBA. AND we will be moving into our FRIST home by the end of October. More pictures to come.

Sisters Weekend 2008, Seattle, WA

Every year all of the girls in my family get together for what we call "Sisters Weekend". The date and location change every year. This year my oldest sister, Amie, invited us all to Seattle. She was a great hostess. She planned every detail, down to the weather. We enjoyed sunshine the whole time we were there.  We went to pikes market, the beach, the Locks, and of course shopping. 

 The Water Taxi

Amie lives in a small town outside of Seattle. Instead of driving in we decided to take the scenic route and ride a water taxi into town. It made parking a lot easier. Above is one of the few photos were I am taller then Sarah. Below is a picture of Maddie, Amie, Sarah, Mason, Christy and myself.  

Pikes Market

We took a stroll through pikes market. The fish throwing was interesting, but I thought the flower shops were incredible. The flowers were gorgeous and cheap. Amie then took us to a nice restaurant to try some good sea food. Mostly trying to help us branch out. I don't think she knew who she was dealing with. Christy wanted nothing to do with fish and went straight for the chicken. Sarah got a tuna fish sandwich, and my Mom and I split fish and chips. I don't think that is quite what Amie had in mind. 

Shopping Challenge

While we were shopping Amie was sneezing a lot. Maddie, her one year old daughter, decided that she wanted to be just like her Mom and started coping Amie by fake sneezing and whipping her nose. 

There is always a shopping challenge during girls weekend. Usually it is who can get the most complete outfit on a budget that my mom sets up. This year there was a twist. This year you could not shop for your self. Everyone was assigned someone different to shop for. You got to buy what you thought that person should wear. The assignments were as follows:

Christy shopping for Sarah

Sarah shopping for Rachel

Rachel shopping for Amie

Amie Shopping for Mom

Mom shopping for Chirsty

It was a lot of fun. The final outfits are in the picture at the top of this blog. My favorite outfit was my Mom's. It was the last thing she tried on and she only did it because she was being a good sport. It is not something she would have picked out. 

Craft Corner

Amie is a very crafty lady. While on our trip she taught us how to make a wallet and some decoration onto a canvas bag. Below Christy is diligently working to finish her wallet. 

Summer Vacation

Kim and Phil Stubbs

The first dance for the new couple. I got to spend some time with Kathy Horspool and Nancy Tang.



Matt helped me cut this table runner. I think that it is the best thing on the table.
Matt and I both had a great time and wish the couple the best of luck.

New York, New York

Matt and I recently took a trip up to New York. Neither one of us had been to New York City. We (meaning Matt) made sure to pack every day full with new adventures. These pictures actually go backwards, starting with our last day and moving towards our first day.

These pictures are taken from some air conditioning units on top of an older building found in the heart of New York City.

Turns out if you act like you know where your going in New York you can end up in some pretty cool places. One of Matt's mission companions, who lives in New York, took us to this hidden treasure.

This is latter the we used to get to that great spot. Little scary!

Earlier that day we went to a session in the Manhattan temple. It was incredible.

We spent some time at the Natural History Museum. Matt loved the dinosaur section.
I really like the Marine area. You can actually spend the night in certain areas of the museum on these little cots. It sounded like fun, but Matt and I stuck to the hotel.

The first day we got a behind the scenes tour of the 30 Rock building and some of the studio's in there. This is were the tape NBC News. We made sure to stop by the Saturday Night Live set before they took it down. They are going to use that studio for olympic updates this summer.

Unfortunately I could not get all of our photos to load, but I promise we were there together even though we are not together in any of these photos. We spent some time on Broadway at The Lion King, Mama Mia and of course the ESPN Zone.

I realize that I have not been the best blogger but I am trying to be better. To make up for my delinquent behavior I have posted a funny video of Matt. Over Christmas my little sister , Sarah, and my Dad took us horse back riding. I think that Sarah really enjoyed being able to tell her older brothers a sisters what to do. She was a really good teacher, and every one left unharmed.

In addition to horse ridding we did some pretty intense go kart racing. Some how Matt positioned himself right in front of me and NEVER let me pass him, and trust me I tried desperately to pass him. In the photo is myself (Rachel), Matt and Amie Spjut(my oldest sister). Below is the winner of the race Daniel and Hallie. After see Daniel drive on the go kart track some of us are a little reluctant to get in the car with him.