In Your SELF Interest: February Little Things

We split up with the kids one Saturday in February, feeling like we all needed a little one on one time to connect more fully with the kids. Darin and Belen did an out-of-house date and Shae and I did an in-house date. Darin and Belen went to...a mall! Surprise surprise. Darin got his hair cut, haha, and then they went to Burger King, then did grocery shopping, then ice cream. Sounds like they had a great time, and some of the best moments were the simple things, like taking the elevator and taxi with just her.

I didn't think to take any pictures of me and Shae, but we had a really nice time together too. We went outside and played ball for a bit, then after we were drenched in sweat (after like, 10 minutes) we grabbed some popsicles from the little market in our apartment complex. We came back inside and played cards and then finished off the date with a few episodes of the Ninjango Lego show.

Love this picture of these two playing dolls together after searching for some shade outside.

It started pouring rain one day out of the blue while we were at the pool.

We tried Bakso for the first time. Its basically an Indonesian meatball made out of a meat paste, sometimes filled. The one below is filled with mozarella cheese, none of us really liked that one. We were bigger fans of the fried Bakso. Give us anything fried and we are bound to like it.

Some Roti'o to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

When she falls asleep in quiet time...aka...most adorable thing in the world.

Finally tried out an Indonesian massage. At $12 for an hour, I had to try it! I gifted Darin a massage for his Valentine's day gift, but couldn't convince him to take a picture of himself in his robe...

When we play scuba diver at the pool, it is important to have flippers on your hands and your feet.

Helping me make an Oreo crust for Shae's birthday cake.

Last day with our 5 year old.

The bean bag chair "mysteriously" unzipped and there were little white balls over the kids room one day after quiet time.

We have made friends with some amazing people in our ward. They invite us over weekly to play and it has been such a blessing for us.

She loves dressing up in the older girl's dresses.

Making cake with her friends. They are so sweet with her.

"Mom! My hair is finally getting long! Take a picture."

Swimming with our sweet Iranian friend.

Although this one often prefers playing "house" on her special rock.

That pillow barricade didn't help as much as we had hoped.

This girl has become quite the swimmer. She didn't have any desire to put her head in the water when we arrived back in November and now she's jumping and swimming all by herself in the deep end.

We went to a baptism for two little girls in our ward a couple weeks back. The day after the baptism I found the kids baptizing each other in the pool. Hilarious to watch them shove each other under the water after their little prayer is done.

Shae's baptism prayer: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Please help me to be able to make a bouncy block on toca blocks. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

Feeling rather sheepish about our little toaster oven after realizing (after 3 months) that the highest temp is 250 CELSIUS! Not Fahrenheit. I mean, it's still itty bitty so not the most convenient for baking and ingredients here are either strange or expensive...but still! Now that I at least know that it gets a little hotter I'm much more excited about experimenting...just a little.

I usually take the kids to one of the mall play areas (every single mall has multiple kid zones) once or twice a month. I hate that I have to pay to do pretty much anything here, but it has been worth it to get us out and explore something new. This last kid area we went to was really really fun. They had a little pretend town that Belen just LOVED. It was so fun to play pretend with her. She could have stayed there all day long.