the empty egg.

this is kind of the story of luke's first easter egg hunt.  that is his camo basket (from a friend, but very appropriate for my manly little boy) and the pink egg 0.7 inches from it.  the pink egg never made it into the basket.  he threw it a few times and kicked it a lot.  i tried to show him how, but gently placing eggs in a basket is for the weak.  he preferred to chuck them across the grassy knoll...  

... and kick them.  we're in asia, he can't help but learn soccer.  though danny and i both agree that he will be a basketball, football and baseball player in the end.  

or open them.

but if i'm honest, this picture best represents his day.  it was a rough one!!!  i like to tell myself it was because he is getting his molars in right now, but not sure if that's really why he was so cranky.  i love him all the same, but man, holding him outside that long made me hot!  this is when i put him down for 12 seconds.  he wanted to be held again, can you tell?

he was totally fine once we got home.  he got a new cup with a straw (just like his big sister's) and he was pretty excited about it.  after this moment was one of the best "photo ops" of my kids together yet.  pictures to come tomorrow, but it was one of those moments that i love.  one of my favorite sounds is hearing them laugh hysterically together.  

mary had a great time at the easter egg hunt... i think she understood the objective a bit more.  :)

 the tomb (and egg) is empty... 

HE IS RISEN! 

the service before the easter egg hunt was wonderful.  my kids were great (thanks to the cheerios that mimi brought from america) and we were really able to reflect on Jesus and the victory over sin and death and destruction that comes with his resurrection.  we are so blessed now and we have something unimaginable to look forward to.  i pray that one day my kids understand what the empty tomb is all about!

mary picks those little flowers by the side of the road almost every day when we go on walks... and she's excited to give them to her daddy every time.  

lastly, our attempt at a family picture.  one day... one day we'll all be smiling.  

and after mary got a basketful of eggs, she got one on her forehead that night too.  poor little girl.  she was playing with a friend on the bed and fell off onto the tile floor.  she was fine a few minutes later, but she's still telling me to be "hati-hati" (careful in indonesian) with her booboo every time i wash her face or put a shirt on her.  

together again.

a family from boston just moved here and we are thrilled they are here! we've been waiting their arrival for months and are so glad they've finally made it across the big ocean. it's fun to have people we're comfortable with and people that know our history and stuff... it was also fun to see that our kids acted like we just were at their house last week.

mary and eli are only 5 weeks apart... here they are at the very beginning.

they have been playing super well together the last few weeks. you know, sharing personal secrets and stuff.

they started school together this week and have enjoyed that... though i must confess, eli is doing much better than mary. mary is getting there. every day she's a little happier and a little easier to drop off. here she is in her little classroom. i wish you could see her outfit... she has this adorable grey dress on and then insisted on wearing this "dress up" purple vest backwards to school. sometimes, you pick your battles with your 2 year old.

anyway, after school today eli came over to play and i took the two of them on a little adventure. we walked down the street and waited for the "angkot," the public transportation here. here they are waiting.

on the "angkot" or as they called it, the blue bus

waiting of our juices. uhh, how funny is the obvious difference between the boy and the girl. mary kept saying she wanted to roll down the hill like eli, she would get all set up and then say "i not want to do that."

and then we got our juices which i didn't take a picture of because eli sucked his down in about .7 seconds. it was hilarious. he kept sucking and his straw was making the slurping noise and these sweet older ladies were laughing at him. meanwhile, mary had about three drinks and was done... and eli wanted to finish it. i drank most of it because i thought two juices would be a bit too much sugar for him. :) and, here they are playing in the water.

celebrate good times.

we've had two celebrations this weekend.  friday mary had her first day of school.  we actually had a first day of school (trial) on monday too, but we didn't love the school so we decided on another one which i think is going to be great.  more about school later... but here we are off to mary's first day of school.  

don't mind my squished cheeks.  my power ranger helmet is tight and safe!

and then on saturday mary went poop in the potty.  yep, we're having some REAL trouble with that.  she's been trained for three months for numer one but we have a long struggle almost every day for two... even if we put her in a pull up.  anyways, we will take the small victory and celebrate.  took her on a motorcycle ride to get "ice cream" (or a fruit bar) and we sat on a curb by these huge letters that she likes.  they're in this big neighborhood and she always talks about the green letters... they aren't even letters, they're just a design but she says that it says "M-A-R-Y".  

this may bore some of you, but i want to remember... our bed time routine.  mary calls daddy to 'get the light', danny runs in and i hold mary and they fight to turn the light off.  i lay beside mary at the end of her bed and we all sing amazing grace.  i throw the blanket towards her pillow and crawls there to win the race.  we say good night mary... and she says "mommy, will you hold me one more time."  i say yes.  "but i want my dad to hold me.  and then after daddy's turn, it's your turn and after your turn it's daddy's turn more-gin."  daddy picks her up, she places her blanket over his shoulder and we sing the last two lines of amazing grace.  i take her and she wants to be held like a baby.  we sing the last two lines again.  she wants us to do "family hug" all through the song.  i lay her down and we say good night.  as i'm walking out the door... "but mommy, i need something."  she usually wants water or socks... because those are the only two things that she'll get.  though sometimes i just want to say, GET IN BED!  danny reminds me to be patient and let her have her little quirks (maybe because he has them too so he understands her mentality more than i do).  i write this because one day i'll forget... she's has so many 'bed time' quirks that we have already forgotten.  i also write this to tell you, if you have a two year old just stop it before it starts!  :)

luke: 16 months

luke. 16 months. i love him.

some of his new tricks:

he loves doing animals noises (on his current repertoire: dog, cat, elephant, gorilla, bees)

he says mama, dada, bubba and ball

he bows his head as he greets people around town (in our country people do a little head bow when greeting others, it has become usual for me and for luke. he just started it and it's hilarious to see him do it do random indonesia people as we walk by).

he tries to do exercises with mary, shoulder presses, jumping jacks, you know the usual 1 year old exercises.

he can kick a ball around the house for a long time! self entertainment.

he loves books!

he loves to 'honk' our noses.

and a few not so fun new tricks....

his little will is in full force. he starting hitting, sitting on the floor and pouting, and just showing his anger. sometimes i have to turn away because his dramatic display of dispair over not getting cornflakes that moment (or something like that) makes me laugh. he's just an emotional little guy.

he could define "pesty little brother." it's hilarious (sometimes). he and mary sit beside each other in the car and he can't keep his hands off of her... just always grabbing at her. he's always into her business. he's pesty and i'm pretty sure he knows it and tries to be.

he usually only wants me. think shower, cooking, exercising, bathroom, all the time! it's not that fun sometimes. but, God is actually using it to refine me (well, at least i hope in the end i have some victory and i can call it refinement)... i ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit so that His fruit will be displayed in me to my children. patience, love, kindness, joy.

a few things we love about him right now...

his "uh oh" face, shown above. he rolls balls under the couch and then looks up at us like, 'how did that happen? oh no!' he has that face a lot and he has a cute little sound to go along with it.

he laughs really hard at and with mary still. they scream together and then die laughing at each other... though i don't love the screaming, i love seeing them have fun together.

his face. it's just so stinking cute sometimes. he's really expressive and says so much with his little faces.

he gets really excited when other people are excited... like if people clap in church he looks at me like, 'can you believe this is really happening?!?! i get to clap with all of these people!!!'

he loves to run to us. if we're on the ground he'll run back and forth, full speed falling into our bodies and hugging us. like, if we weren't there to catch him he would do a total face plant. he trusts us. :)

when he hears a song he looks at us and kind of bobs his head, telling us it's time to sing and dance along. he does the same thing when he gets to the page in his Red Sox book with the words to 'take me out to the ball game.' he will randomly hear a song in the mall and start dancing.

luke daniel pierce, i love you. i'm so thankful that God has given you to us to love, enjoy and ultimately to lead you in following Christ. i pray that your happy heart moments far exceed your pouts on the ground. :)

the wound

 mary woke up right before i walked out the door to go running yesterday.  i told her i was going to go and she lost it... instantly started sobbing.  she wanted to come with me so i got her snack and water and off we went.  i always ran with my kids in america but here is different.  a. i've never seen one person with a jogging stroller here.  i mean, i've seen about 6 runners in my area in 8 months here.  so running with a kid really gets me extra unwanted attention.  b. i have to run uphill the entire time, until i turn around and run home downhill.  it's hard to run alone, let alone push a stroller.  and c. i don't have a real jogging stroller here and the roads are rough.  anyways, i sucked it up and took her.  she wanted to wear her "running outfit" and "tie shoes" too so she could run with me on our street.  i got her changed and came out of her room in her get-up and danny started dying laughing. i'm not sure why.  she looks like a runner to me.  

please forgive my appearance, this was after the difficult run.  while running (almost dying mind you) she asked me why i was making that funny noise.  oh, it was just me panting really loud.  then she asked for her water and her snack.  she was tired from the run too.  :)  

then after the run i took luke and mary on a little walk down the street... something we sometimes do multiple times a day.  well, mary fell over a speed bump and was wounded!  can't you tell?!?!  

this was about 9:30am.  she would not walk at all until about 6:30pm when our friends (and their kids) came over and were jumping on the bed.  she finally walked and said, "look mommy, i can walk!!!" as she was limping terribly.  it was so funny.  she wouldn't do anything all day, didn't even want to go swimming with bubba.  even tonight she said, "mom, you have to be hati-hati because of my boo-boo."  hati-hati means careful.  oh, and did i mention that she adds an "y" to the end of my words, like "beddy" "cuppy" and "booby".  yeah, so she was talking all about her "booby" all day.  

adventures with mimi

my parents have left indonesia but here is a glimpse at one of our funnier moments.  my mom always cracks me up in culturally different situations... whether that's memories of hearing her scream through a cold "bucket bath" in south america, hearing her scream any time she has an ant on her or sees a cockroach (which is often) or this last week, riding on the motorcycle with her.  

it was raining but we wanted to get a massage before they left and they were leaving the next day.  you can get 90 minutes of reflexology for about $6 so if i have visitors we usually go.  :)  i mean, i have to be a good host, you know?  anyways, we head out and i'm thinking the umbrella is going to help, i mean, i've seen indonesians do it.  so off we go and i'm getting SOAKED.  like my entire outfit and i got splashed by passing cars.  i tell my mom so she decides that lowering the umbrella would be a good solution... lowering it so much that i couldn't see the road in front of me.  i was dying laughing.  she's all awkward on the back of the motorcycle, kind of scared, kind of grabbing me, trying to hold the umbrella while steering the bike by squeezing my body with her legs.  back seat drivers are much worse when driving a motorcycle.  we get to the place (which was like 4 minutes away) i'm soaked, she can't get her helmet off so i'm still laughing.  if you know my mom, you'd laugh too.  she's such a good sport here in different coutries!  she goes with the flow and is not afraid to venture out.  but sometimes she makes me laugh in the process.  

it was so fun having them here, we're so blessed to have such supportive parents (both sides) and grandparents who are so helpful and fun for our kids.  we look forward to them coming again!  

and for those who didn't see this on facebook... i present to you the chub. :)  luckily he's only one... if not he would have definitely been made fun of!  i will say, he didn't really walk around like this, papa was carrying him and put him down to see the cat... i just hadn't pulled his pants out of his rolls.  what, you don't have to do that too?

mary, my personal trainer

mary is still into exercising, like really into exercising!  she does it every day and sometimes convinces me to join her.  she has now moved to personal training also.  she knows the words that jillian michaels says and coaches me on going all the way down or not putting my toe over my knee when i do lunges.  she also says things like "gorgeous!" or "hit the floor!"  i'll spare you from some of the exercises (mainly for my own sake) but here she is in action.  :)  this is one of the mornings i was not planning on working out until my trainer woke up early and made me.  

oh, and notice a. her outfit.  she picked it out by herself (obviously).  and b. our weights... i use cans of beans and she uses spices.  usually she wakes up and immediately asks to do her exercises and for me to get her her "spicey weights."  :)