side rolls.

first things first, do you see luke's side rolls?!?  so cute.  

sometimes luke is obsessed with me and just stands at my legs and yells until i pick him up... and carry him around all night.  so, i've started using the 'gendong' at home, like our babysitter does.  he likes it and i can get more done.  if you're wondering what that big light in the upper right hand corner of the picture is, that's our mirror and the flash shows you exactly how dirty it is.  luke likes to look in the mirror and put his sweaty little hands all over it.  and today we found mary rubbing a slice of cheese on the mirror.  not sure why she thought that was a good idea but that helps explain the gross mirror.  

more side rolls... 

the last few days ibu sri has come to babysit the kids her daughter has come along too.  she's in her last year of highschool but had less class because of finals.  mary loves when farah comes with ibu sri.  she's such a sweet girl and our kids love her.  

i think mary was telling her a story... a very serious one.

do you see what mary is wearing?  again, she picked out her own outfit....very usual.  a tanktop that she loves, a diaper with underwear over it  (after christmas we will again try to wear the underwear without the diaper underneath!) and luke's crocs.

i love it!

today i'm thankful for our neighbors: kasih (age 10), setia (age 8) and langgeng (age 6).  they live down the street from us and visited often for a month or two.  we didn't see them for quite a few weeks and then on luke's birthday they showed up with the sweet homemade card and a ball for luke.  i can't even remember telling them when his birthday was, but they remembered.  it was really sweet!  since then we've visited their house twice and they are just such an enjoyable family.  so inviting and so sweet to our kids.  we're thankful for friendly neighbors.  oh, and their mom is an english teacher so the oldest child can speak english... that's a plus for mary.  :)  unfortunately i can't find the one picture i have of them... but soon i'll post one.  

and i leave you with some fun pictures of my one year old... whom will be written about soon.  

sometimes when he's naughty he gets put in a laundry basket.  i wish.  

look at those chiclet teeth.  love them!  

what, those don't look like cookies?

mary helped me make cookies last night... she loves to bake with me.  i now let her crack the eggs all by herself (into a different bowl so that i can remove any small shell that might find it's way in) and she loves it!  she saw me rolling the cookies and wanted to help... 

just your normal cookie, right?  i promise, they tasted better than they look (which doesn't say much seeing as though they look like... well, you know).  

she was proud of her little 'cookies' on her own cookie sheet.  

disclaimer... the first picture kind of makes me look like bad mom alert.  her elbow really wasn't that close to the candle... i promise.  she is really secure on the counter.  and, most importantly, the backsplash in our kitchen is white board so it's okay if i write the week's menu on it (and my little brother's phone number... i intend to call you soon, michael!).   :)  

angry boy

oh no!  i can't reach the balloon.  

what do i do, mama?

get me that balloon!!!

don't just take pictures... help me, mama!

luke is generally a smiley, fun little guy but he also knows what he wants.  and when he doesn't get it he has a way of letting us know, as you see above.  sometimes his angry faces crack me up.  he also usually has a 4 second delay before he starts crying about something... which is also a little funny and really cute.  his bottom lip slowly comes out, he looks at me like 'how could you do that to me, mama!??!' and then 1-2-3 WAIL!  like if i take his milk cup away because it's all gone or i take him away from the dirt he is trying to eat.  crazy boy.  i love him.

i love it!

to continue my series on reasons i love indonesia... 

today i'm thankful for the flower market.  we went there for the first time on luke's birthday and it was so nice!  the flowers and plants were abundant and beautiful.  we went on a weekday during the day so it was so quiet and peaceful.  i hope to go more often.  i feel like it's a good place to practice talking to people because no one seemed to be in a rush... and it was peaceful so maybe it will ease my nerves a bit and i won't sweat so much when i try to speak in indonesian.  :)

we also bought one little bunch of flowers and i love them!  they're called 'sedap malam' and they smell so good in the evening (malam).  and, they were less than a dollar!  they're in our bedroom now and i'd like that to be a regular occurrence.  :)  

christmas time!

mary being very proud of her work!  

 mary loved decorating the tree this year.  unfortunately luke was really tired from his long day (we bought and decorated the tree after his birthday celebration) so he went to bed... and oddly enough, has hardly noticed the tree.  i thought it was going to be terrible because we have a ton of red and silver balls on the tree and he LOVES all things round... but he hasn't touched it.  anyways, mary loved it and has touched the tree.  in fact, today she hung a plastic bag on a branch because she so badly wanted to keep hanging ornaments.  it was a really fun night for us because she was so into it.  she put her hand up to stop me and say, "mommy, not help me.  i do it all by myself."  and she did hang most of the ornaments. she did great!  leslie was also here to share in the christmas joy with us.  we're thankful to have leslie around... she is such a special person for us and especially to our kids.  and, she made some amazing home made hot chocolate to add to the christmas experience!  yummy!

the tree seems so small to because i'm used to my parent's huge tree, but i think it's perfect for our little family.  and if we bought a bigger one we couldn't have afforded to buy more ornaments (christmas decorations aren't in high demand here so they aren't so cheap).  :)  we're really thankful to have a tree... even though it's hot and very little else in the city reminds us of christmas, it feels like christmas.  

last week danny preached at the english church service that we attend here... it has been such a good reminder for me this week.  he spoke about Immanuel. before Christmas, one Israelite got to go into the presence of God once a year to atone for the sins of the people.  when Jesus came at Christmas (on December 25th, of course :), he graciously brought his presence to us.  He came to restore His people back to His presence.  now we can have relationship with God and enjoy the presence of God through the Holy Spirit.  and one day, as it says in Revelation 21, God's dwelling place will be among us and we will dwell with Him in fullness.  thank you, Jesus.

Happy Birthday Bubbalu

our little boy is ONE!  

 yesterday we had a fun day of celebrating our little lukey and being together as a family.  it was great!  danny and i took the day off of language school so that we could go to the animal market and out to lunch.  our babysitter and helper (who i will talk about later) came along because they are such a big part of luke's life thus far.  he loves them both so we wanted them to celebrate with us.  

everytime luke looked at an animal he started grunting and 'talking' to it.  i couldn't get many good pictures of his excitement, but he loved it!  it was fun to see him excited.  and, of course, mary loved it too!  

then we went out to this little outdoor restaurant that has a little green patch of grass that the kids could play in before we ate.  it was a great place for our family because the kids didn't have to sit down and wait for their food.  

luke proudly walking in the grass!

luke loved the candle too!  he tried to blow when i did and it was really cute.  he didn't really care about the cupcake though.  we tried to get him to eat it but it was a long day for him and i think he was about done.  he had a few bites but don't have the normal 'baby covered in cake' picture.  :)

we had the english and the indonesian happy birthday song this year!  

and here is luke's gift... that he doesn't care about at all.  he did love the ballons that we gave him at home though!  

and lastly, my three favorite people... 

i'll write more about luke later... just wanted to document our fun day to celebrate him.  

we love you, luke daniel pierce!