Here is the video of Charlotte that I mentioned. The first verse we taught Charlotte and what we refer to as "her verse" is John 3:16. She knew the verse she was supposed to say, we even practiced with her saying it to her teacher that morning, but I guess in that moment she just reverted back to the good 'ol John 3:16 :)
Sorry for the lack in posting lately. I've been out of commission for a few weeks. Here's why...
Yup! I'm preggers again! We're all thrilled, including the girls. Well, mainly Charlotte. Naomi is still clueless to all that's going on. Charlotte shared the news with the family, which was especially cute. We stopped by my Dad & stepmom, Bobbie's, house on the 4th of July and in the middle of a conversation Charlotte just blurted out, "And guess what? Mommy has a baby in her belly!" And later that day while we were out at Lake Swan Camp, where Jared's dad is the new camp director, his dad prayed for our meal and after "Amen" Charlotte said, "You forgot to pray for the new baby in Mommy's belly!"
Other things that have gone on around here...
The girls and I have kept very busy.
Naomi has had much business to tend to.
And I've been teaching the girls important things, like how to curl your hair. Life is rough, I tell ya what.
Back in June, we went down to Gissy Springs, southwest (I think?) of Ocala. It's owned by some good friends of my grandparents on my dad's side and they invited all of the Meng family to come down for my grandfather's 90th birthday party.
Pop, all embarrassed that such a fuss was made over him :)
And this is part of the spring area. The whole setup out there is beautiful! Kayaks, snorkel gear, rope swing, that screened in area for the food, camping area with a volleyball court... It is beautiful!
Also in June, we drove over to Gainesville to watch Megan pinned as an officer in the Gainesville Police Department. She kicked butt in the academy and had the fastest hiring process in the history of the department. And now she's packing heat!
Charlotte went to VBS at our church and had a blast! The Sunday afterwards, all the kids sang some songs and shared some verses they learned throughout the week. Charlotte was one of the kids they asked to share her verse. We have a cute video of that that I'll try to upload soon. From the picture, you can see how into the songs and motions she got! 
And, in other exciting news... we have a new niece! Katie Joy was born on June 10th and weighed a whopping 5 lbs 6 oz! She is tiny and precious and just perfect!
That about sums up the past month or two around here. We've been busy but the last couple weeks have slowed down a lot with the pregnancy hitting me hard. The nausea seems better than it was with Charlotte and Naomi but it's still wiping me out. It seems to be getting a little better so hopefully I'm on the upswing! I have my first appointment next week and will hopefully have some alien-like ultrasound pictures to share!
Last week the girls and I met up with Arin and her kids for our last Disney day for a couple months. We have the weekday season passes which have blackout dates during the summer. We're not too sad about missing the summer months because it's not even the middle of the summer and it's already ridiculously hot!
We started our day at Hollywood Studios and ran straight for Toy Story Midway Mania, a ride that we missed the last time we went because the line was ridiculously long. We got there around 9:45 and the fast passes were already for 6:10 that evening. The wait time said 70 minutes and we figured that would be the shortest the line would be all day so we hopped in line and heard the "cast member" standing there tell someone else the wait was only 30 minutes. Yay!
Here is the best shot I could get of 4 kids under the age of 5.
Asa is such a sweet little guy!
Charlotte and Anson with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins. Naomi and Ella were not having anything to do with them. Naomi likes the characters from a distance. She gets so excited to see them, especially Mickey & Minnie, but getting close to them freaks her out!
At one point, the kids decided they wanted to play ring around the rosie. Here's how that went down...
Naomi wanted to play too!
But Naomi wanted to go straight to her favorite part of the game. Instead of "we all fall down" it was just Naomi falling down.
So the older three continued on...
They fell down...
And Naomi came over to join in on the fun part once again!
Then we went to meet Winnie the Pooh. All except Naomi were big fans!
After lunch, Arin and I did something crazy and park hopped with the five kids. Did I mention that it was just us with the kids? As in, no Dusty or Jared. From Hollywood Studios there are two ways to get to Magic Kingdom. Drive your car to the MK parking lot, take a tram (because we would have gotten there later in the day and would have been in a parking lot too far away to walk), then jump on the monorail that will take you to the park. Or take a bus to the monorail. Both the tram and the bus require folding up the stroller, which with Jared's help isn't as big of a deal, but I had the double jogging stroller (it maneuvers really easily through the parks) and it doesn't fold up very compactly and you have to lean it just right or hold it so it doesn't fly open. We survived, but it wasn't the easiest process.
After we did a few rides at Magic Kingdom we went on a hunt for ice cream and caught the end of the parade. This was Charlotte seeing the princesses. Homegirl likes her princesses.
As we were leaving the park, we saw that the wait to meet Mickey was only 5 minutes so we decided to hop in line. Five minutes was actually 10-15 minutes, and of course, like any Disney attraction, you leave through a gift shop. The process of picking out a souvenir took another 10-15 minutes so our 5 minute stop to meet Mickey turned into quite an ordeal. But not as much of an ordeal as it was getting back to the cars... When we went to MK, the bus wasn't too crowded. But the reverse route had a bus full of people. And I had that big ol' honkin' stroller to try to finagle with. I had a couple people offer me their seats because I was holding Naomi but I told them I better stand by the stroller to make sure it didn't unfold. It wasn't the most pleasant ride, but I survived and only fell on the people behind me... twice. I bet they didn't think they'd be getting a lap dance as they left the Magic Kingdom!
I mentioned this little story on Facebook and Twitter, but just in case there's anyone who doesn't follow me on either of those, I have to share this little gem that Charlotte said a month or so ago...
She was sitting on the potty and told me, "Mommy, it's like my poopie has its own swimming pool... Oh, here come more friends!"
Potty humor from a three-year-old. Gross, but coming from her, incredibly funny.
Roughly a month has passed so it's about time for another blog post, huh?! How about I tell you about our fabulous final day in NYC? It was incredible. Lots more walking. So incredible.
We walked out of the hotel and couldn't see the tops of the buildings. The fog was crazy.
We had planned on going up in the Empire State Building but knew we wouldn't be able to see anything so figured paying the money to see fog would be a waste. :(
But that definitely didn't put a damper on what was to come...
Breakfast at Tiffany's! I've talked about doing this for years. If I had a bucket list, it would have been on it. We made a stop by Starbuck's so I could grab a muffin to eat in front of the store. I'm pretty sure Jared was horribly embarrassed to take this picture. People might have been staring. Whatever, I was happy!
We went up to the sixth floor (six floors?!!) so I could get my ring cleaned in the lounge. Yup, a lounge. They used the same term for their bathrooms. When I saw a sign for the "Men's Lounge" I thought it was a waiting room with big screen TV's and Sports Illustrated's laying around. Nope, it's just where they keep their toilets. But if the Women's Lounge was any indication, the men's lounge might have been the nicest bathroom those men ever use!
From Tiffany we headed to Times Square. Not a short walk, mind you. But it was fun to see all of the beautiful churches. Seriously, these are just amazing!
We made it to Times Square. Huge, I tell ya. Lots of lights. I'm sure you know that, but for real, it's big.
We had lunch at John's Pizzeria and had the Hawaiian (with sauce). It was delicious. We were seated in the front area of the restaurant so we didn't see how beautiful that place is.
After lunch we headed to this place!
The Gershwin Theater to see Wicked!
I was able to snap a couple pictures of the set before the camera police came and told me to put my camera away.
Can you tell from the pictures how close our seats were?! I don't think we could have gotten much better than that. The show was incredible! Even Jared, who doesn't care much for musicals, enjoyed it. I think I smiled through the whole thing. I read the book in college and have the soundtrack so I knew the story and the songs, but seeing it on stage was just amazing. The actors, the costumes, the music, the set... it just brought everything to life. We got a flyer in the mail advertising Wicked coming to Jacksonville next year and I'll definitely be going to see it when it comes to town! I would love to have the voice and talent to perform on stage like this. It just looks like they have so much fun and what a rush it would be!
After the show we went to the hotel and fought over who was going to pick where we ate dinner. Neither of us were craving anything in particular so we called the front desk of the hotel to get some recommendations. The woman asked what we were in the mood for... She kind of laughed when I told her nothing in particular, just wanted to know what was good that was close. There's a hundred of every type of good restaurant near you where ever you are in the city. We ended up eating... I don't remember where. I got some pasta something or other and Jared had something with lobster in it. Both were good. No pictures of the food, but here we are!
On Monday we spent hours in the air port because of weather delays. The Delta terminal at La Guardia airport is not meant to hold the amount of people who were there when we were. There weren't nearly enough seats for everyone, so there were people sitting all along the walls, from the food court area to the gates. There was even a large group of high schoolers laying on the floor in the middle.
We finally made it home and were excited to see our girls!
Charlotte was excited about the souvenir we brought her. She enjoyed being the "Statue of Delivery". Yesterday she was playing with the globe and told me that she wanted to find a new place to live. I asked her where she would rather live and she told me at the "Statue of Delivery" :)
Naomi didn't care so much about it, so I used her hat and became Lady Liberty myself.
Cheesin'.
The end!
We spent the majority of our Saturday in New York standing and walking around the city. To say that we were tired at the end of the day is an understatement! But we saw so much and had a wonderful time, so it's hard to complain.
Grand Central Station
We became experts at the subway system while we were there. Okay, maybe not so much. We had to ask some people for advice on how to get to such and such a place once or twice, but for our first time taking public transit on such a large scale, I think we did pretty well.
Immediately inside Grand Central.
There was a space like this to the left and right of the area in the picture above. I think you can rent this hall out for events. Can you imagine a wedding reception there? I don't know the price, but I'm sure it would be out of our budget!
And this is [a small part of] the main area of Grand Central. The terminals for all of the subways are off of the hallways and down a flight of stairs or two (or five!).
The subways had a variety of smells, none of them pleasant. Urine, fish, crotch...
After taking the subway down to Battery Park, we bought our tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We didn't buy tickets ahead of time and saw on the website that they have a limited number of tickets to buy the day-of. We weren't sure we'd even be able to get tickets to get into the monument, but we did get there in time for those. We were informed, however, that tickets to climb up to the crown are sold out through September!
While in the [very long] security line for the Statue, we saw this memorial in the harbor for the Merchant Marines. Pop, my grandfather on my Dad's side, was in the Merchant Marines, so it was neat to see this.
The view of the Statue and Ellis Island across the harbor.
A view of the city as we took off to Liberty Island.
This is the security line we stood in to get onto the boat. We had to go through security once again when we entered the monument.
A view of the city. I've seen pictures of it and even looked at Manhattan on google maps, but you just can't get a feel for how BIG this city is until you're there. As I flew in on Friday, it was as if the pilot was doing his best to give me a great view of the city. Each block of the city has huge buildings right next to each other, and then the blocks just keep going on and on. It was incredible to see!
Lady Liberty herself. Something else I've seen tons of pictures of, but just did not realize the size of until I saw it in person.
A torch of years past. Retired in 1986 (I think??).
Her face is an entire story tall.
Looking up her robe from the top of the pedestal upon which she stands.
Us cheesin'.
I look like I'm about to fall.
My lunch. Southwest chicken panini with fries. Fries were good. Panini was good. Would have probably been better if it were fresh or at least hot.
Then we hopped on the boat and cruised over to Ellis Island. It was pretty incredible.
These are some of the trunks and luggage that were brought with some immigrants. Not sure if the immigrants just decided they didn't need them anymore or if they were donated or what. But anyway.
"You can't come in. The quota for 1620 is full." After a few years of having so many immigrants come in, there were limits put in place to control how many people came in and from where (some countries that weren't as friendly with ours had lower quotas). 
We read some journal entries and one of them talked about the voyage across the Atlantic. It mentioned a baby being born on the ship. I cannot even imagine! Some of these people were coming across in the dead of winter, so to deliver at that time in a place with no heat and and no clean hospital... it blows my mind and makes me grateful for modern healthcare, as expensive as it is!
"How do you spell your name?"
This is Trinity Church, the one in National Treasure with the underground lair that contained lots of treasure. Remember it? I loved those movies. I've heard rumors of a third one coming out this Christmas!
Aren't these windows beautiful?!
Some of the gravestones were marked in the 1700s. It was burned in the fire of 1776 when the British seized non-Anglican churches and used them as prisons and barracks. We think that's why some of the tombstones were brown and falling apart and others were just algaefied. Some of the ones that were burned looked like they would fall apart if they were touched. Source
This isn't the original store, it's the one on Wall Street. We weren't planning to go into this store, but we happened past it and the sparkles lured us (read: me) in. The architecture of the interior is just amazing! Marble staircase, beautiful columns... It was gorgeous! The displays and cabinets and things looked a little dated, but I think that's the modern look (that I'm not a huge fan of) they were going for. Do you see those things floating from the ceiling? They had sparkles and jewels all over them so when you walked into the store all you saw above you was bling. Even if you don't buy anything, it's such a fun place to wander through!
Black feathers on her head with a gown that looks like lingerie with a poofy skirt. I know every person has their own style, but seriously?! This was just ridiculous. She had four photographers, a videographer, and a coordinator with her. This was the second of four brides we saw on Saturday. I'm guessing each of them had a huge budget to have a NYC wedding!
The detail on the buildings is incredible. Faces and gargoyles looking down at you.
RC Cola and Chocolate Soda! The chocolate soda tasted like carbonated Yoo-Hoo. Jared was a big fan!
