Prisoner!

This is what I saw when I got Grace up from her nap the other day. I just thought she looked so cute with her legs sticking out like a prisoner stuck behind bars.

P.S. She has been doing much better in her bed at night! 4 nights in a row without any problems now! I do have to threaten to take away the bear if she gets out, and last night she lost him, but she hasn't been waking up in the middle of the night crying. She still takes some naps in her crib just because some days she is too distracted by all the toys and wants to play. But she's improving!

Apples

Grace loves Apples. It's become one of her favorite snacks here. The other day she didn't want me to cut her apple up and this is what I found. Her apple was on the floor and when she wanted some more she'd bend over and take a bite, then go play some more. I thought it was hilarious.

Little India

Grace and I went with our friend Tania to Little India this week. We walked around and then met some ladies from the ward for lunch at Jaggi's North Indian Cuisine. The food was surprisingly delicious. Ben hasn't taken me to an Indian restaurant because he doesn't like curries and hasn't tasted any Indian food that he's liked. The stuff I ate was great though it did look a bit like vomit.

This is one of the many Indian Temples in Singapore.

I will say that I did not love Little India and wouldn't be sad if I never went back. One hour of walking around was enough for me. It was fun to see all the beautiful Saris for sale and some of the intricate Gold Jewelry, but it was stinky and there were dead cockroaches and nobody wears deoderant. Even Grace was plugging her nose. It's probably the dirtiest place in Singapore I've seen. The highlight? We saw the Elders! Tania gave them money for lunch and they were so grateful. We love the Elders serving in our area!

Food

Grocery Shopping has been quite the experience here. They have very selected items depending on where you shop, and a lot of things are very pricey. I have been able to find just about everything I've wanted and have learned just to pay for the luxuries of food I'm used to. I do have to say that since Singapore doesn't produce hardly any food, most of the prices are pretty reasonable. And the Produce here is fabulous! So delicious.

I've listed the price in US$ since it's easier to compare than in Singapre $.

Milk is sold in 2 liter cartons. Do the conversion to gallons and you're paying about $6.55 for a gallon of milk. And it doesn't even taste as good as US milk. A lot of people here buy boxed milk that's radiated so it has a long shelf life and is a ton cheaper. Many people like it but I think it's disgusting!

This carton of OJ was $5.74
The Strawberries $6.10

Frosted Mini Wheats $5.49- but a box of Cheerios is $7.18

The bread was $2.15 but it's about half the size of a loaf in the US. They do have a Banana Walnut Loaf that is SOOO GOOD as toast! I will definately miss that.

The eggs were $1.50 for 10. They don't sell them in dozens here, and they are all brown, unless you want to pay $4.95 for white ones. (Brown taste the same if not better) Also all the eggs have been radiated so they just sit on the shelf until you buy them. I thought that was a bit strange at first.

Jello is $2.15 a box

Meat is quite expensive. 1 pound of chicken would cost $7.29. They sell all meat here in 100gm portions. 1lb=450gms

The other bad part for me is that I go to the grocery store 3-4 times a week since it's just downstairs. So I'm probably buying more than I would if I went just once a week. But that's how the Asians do it. They buy in small portions and shop a few times a week if not everyday.

Asleep

Grace and I went swimming with our friend Tania this morning and then out to lunch for some yummy Thai food! (I seriously almost burnt my mouth off it was so hot, but so good!) Well, we must have worn Grace right out becaue she almost fell asleep in the taxi on the way home and then I laid her down in her bed and my Visiting Teacher came. Well I thought I had heard her up so I checked on her 15 minuted later and this is what I found.

Asleep behind the rocking chair.

Grace has been struggling with the big girl bed lately. At first she loved it and always wanted to sleep in it. Then she started getting up and playing instead of sleeping, so we would put her back in her crib if she did this. So she was 50% bed, 50% crib. Well, the past few times she's actually slept in the bed she has woken up crying and when we go in there she won't let us leave. She just wants us to lay there with her. Well, that's not a habit we want to make so I've been trying not to do that. So last night I was putting her to bed and gave her the choice big bed or crib, and she chose the crib! I was a little shocked because she always chooses the big bed even if she doesn't always end up sleeping there. So I don't know if she's become scared of the big bed or what but she slept safe and soundly in the crib. I was hoping to have her moved over to the big bed exclusively by the time we got home. Any suggestions?

Easter

I didn't take a ton of pictures this Easter but I thougth I'd share a few. Our Easter Bunny came Friday night so we woke up first thing Saturday morning to find our baskets. The Easter Bunny was really nice to Grace and made and Egg Hunt for her. She was pretty excited about the first egg and all the Candy it contained. (All our Easter Candy was courtesy of my Dad. Thanks Dad!) So after a little persuasion, and a piece of candy, we got Grace to put the egg in the basket and continue looking. That's how it went for all 7 eggs she found. I taped in on the camcorder, but since she took so long I decided not to post it. Her reactions to each egg was cute. The Easter Bunny hid Ben's and mine baskets. It was surprisingly difficult to find our baskets in such a small apartment. We both needed a clue, but I found mine first!

Here we are enjoying some chocolate M&M's for breakfast. Don't we look lovely first thing in the morning? (this is Grace's Surprise face)
Saturday night I decided to attempt dying some eggs. I wasn't sure how they would turn out since the eggs here are brown. But I bought a kit anyway and here they are. The colors are actually quite vibrant, except for the orange color-it didn't really take. So I was happy with how they turn out, they're just really hard to peel.
I made a nice Roast for dinner today. Ben's family back home was telling us about their nice Easter dinner they were going to have and I just couldn't sit here on Easter and eat stir-fry or something. So I bought a Roast (not a cheap thing here) and rolls (I would usually homemake these but I don't have yeast and there's no way I'm kneading the bread by hand) and even tried to buy Jello to make a Jello salad, but they only had cherry and orange. Yuck. So I gave up on the Jello and made a fruit salad. All in all it turned out to be a pretty lovely Easter dinner.

On this note I just would like to say how grateful I am for Easter and the meaning of it. What a glorious thing it is to know that yes, our Savior died for us, but he also rose again! He lives and wants us to be with him forever. I'm so grateful for this life and that I can try with all my might to live up to his blessing and have my family for eternity. What wonderful knowledge I am blessed with. Today in our RS lesson we talked about Elder Eyering's talk, "O Remember, Remeber". It was a good call to me that I need to think/write down/talk about all the ways the Lord blesses me everyday. Because he does in small ways show his love for me and blesses me incredibly everyday. Ben and I are going to try to share the ways we've felt the Lord in our lives that day each night as we go to bed. I think this will help us to Remember the Lord better in all things and acknowledge him and better thank him for these blessings. Anyway, today I truly do feel blessed to have the gospel and my beautiful little family, and a very supportive family back home.

What would you like to drink?

"Oh, Anything".... is this a common response? Well apparantly it is here in Singapore and some brilliant soft drink company decided to make it an actual drink. You can buy an Anything or a Whatever. The Whatever is more of a Cola drink, and the Anything is fruity, but you never know what fruity flavor you're going to get. The first time Ben got one he loved the flavor and hasn't gotten the same one in the last 3 or 4 tries. So be careful the next time you say "Whatever" because that's just what you may get.

Cars

There are cars of all shapes and sizes here, well not all sizes. I've yet to see a large truck or a Semi. Almost all cars here are new and really nice and it is REALLY expensive to own one. A bunch of our friends have "minivans". This here is a Honda Odyssey. I know it looks more like a station wagon wannabe, but that's about as good as it gets for a large family around here.

Ben is constantly pointing out all the nice cars. There is one street by the Outback Steakhouse that consistently has 4-5 Ferrari parked there.
There are also Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborgini, Mercedes and a few other high end car dealerships close to our flat. Ben's favorite thing to spot on his way to work is this orange Lamborgini just down the street from us. Since it's so safe out side here, the owner just parks it right on the side of the street!

I've never seen so many nice cars in one city, especially not Utah. But all this car talk sure makes me miss my car! I can't wait to walk out to the garage and drive wherever I want to go, and have all my stuff already in it, and be able to load up Grace and my bags and not need to rely on strangers to help me on and off the bus.

Our Indonesian Weekend

Since it was Ben's birthday last week and our Anniversary we decided we needed a weekend away to celebrate! We went to a little resort island that is part of Indonesia called Bintan Island. So we headed off Friday afternoon and took the Ferry to Bintan, about 55 minutes away. It was a LONG 55 minutes! About halfway through the trip I saw Ben get up and run down the aisle to the back, apparantly he was feeling queasy and was about to lose it. It's not as quite of a bumpy ride in the back. I would have joined him if I hadn't been holding a sleeping Grace. I just kept praying over and over that I would make it and I did. Once we got there a bus from the hotel picked us up at took us to the Bintan Lagoon Resort. It was a beautiful place. They greet every new arrival with a song and dance. Literally...here they are, the drummers are hiding against the wall. They also gave us a refreshing drink while we checked in.

After we made it to our room and fully recovered from the ferry ride we explored the resort. Here is a view from the beach. It really was a beautiful place. It had two golf courses and 11 restaurant/bars on the property. We even saw monkeys playing golf! (there really were a bunch of monkeys hanging out on the green as we drove by one time)
We ate at two of the yummy restaurants. They were so good! Saturday we were walking to the restuarant when a huge storm came in. We ran, but here we are soaked.
Saturday we went on a Mangrove Tour. Here is Ben in his manly life jacket ready to board the little boat.
We took a boat ride down the river. This is a fishing hut that the local fisherman still use. They only use it as shelter during the day because it doesn't have electricity. We even passed a tiny (only 3 families live there) fishing village and saw one of the men rowing a boat down the river with his little son to check on some traps. Such simple lives these people lead! I was amazed.
We saw a few snakes and lizard above our heads in the trees. Here's a Mangrove snake. They sleep during the day and swim and hunt at night.
Here is my cute husband with a good example of some Mangrove trees beside him. They grow in the water and protect the land from erosion by the river. It was pretty interesting to learn about the river and the trees and how they work together. Another cool thing we saw was an apple tree with real poisonous apples on it. Snow White wasn't making things up. These apples can cause blindness and even death if eaten. I feel bad for the poor soul who figured that out.
Grace enjoyed the boatride for the most part. She kept looking for fishies, but the river was to dark to see any. She stole this hat from the tour director. She thought she was pretty funny.
Peekaboo!
Wouldn't it be great to have a real body like this? Ben and I couldn't help ourselves and just had to take this picture.
Then of course Grace had to join in the fun.
I'm just relaxing a bit here.
We played at the beach on Saturday morning, but Grace was scared of the water this trip, so the beach play didn't last long. We did go exploring on Sunday before the ferry left though. It was so beautiful, they had these white sandy beaches and then this rock outcropping. We hiked to the end of it.
I love this picture of Ben.
What a cheeser!
Our favorite part of the resort, besides the yummy food was the kids pool! It was perfect for Grace, she could walk around at least 1/4 of it without any floaties. They also had two fun little water slides. Grace loved these and we did them again and again. She got brave enough that she didn't want any help going down at the end, but we did have to catch her.
I mostly love to sit in the sun and watch Ben and Grace play. Grace loves to swim with her Daddy and is fearless with him.
And one of the most excited parts of our swimming trip.....
On Sunday we were about ready to leave the pool so I was sunbathing on the edge of the pool while Grace and Ben played for a few more minutes. I was trying to sunburn the white lines on my back left from my swimsuit the day before. So there I am minding my own business when I look in the water and see a baby alligator swimming toward me! It climbed out of the water about two feet away from my feet and walked into the vegetation next to the pool. Well, by that time I realized it wasn't really an alligator, but a huge lizard. Another lady that saw it said it was a Goanna Lizard. It was big, about 2&1/2 feet long. I called for Ben and Grace to come over. This is what it looked like...
It didn't even care that we were around so it walked through the bushes onto the sidewalk and up the pathway. Ben and Grace followed it for a little while and I just sat in shock at this huge reptile that swam in the pool right next to me. I'm glad I didn't have my toes in the water, they might have got eaten!
So we had a wonderful weekend. We survived the ferry ride home and I am happy to say that I have three countries stamped in my passport now! Next up... Malaysia.

5 Years of Bliss

I can't believe it's been 5 years since we got married! Time sure goes fast and I am amazed at what we have done in five years. We have moved 7 times, bought 2 houses, attended 3 different colleges, graduated, got a great job, had a baby and learned to love each other more through it all! I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and it has been an amazing five years. We have had happy times and sad times. I'm grateful that I've had Ben there to support me through it all, and I am grateful to know he will always be there. From Here to Eternity, Babe!

I love you!

Ben's Birthday

Since Ben's birthday was in the middle of the week we couldn't do an awesome trip for him like we did for me. So he decided he wanted to go on the Singapore Flyer, a brand new HUGE Ferris Wheel that opened 2 weeks ago. It is currently the tallest in the world. Here is a picture of it from far away. (don't mind me, I know I look awful...wind and my hair don't go well together)

So after a long day of work, Ben got off a smidge early and we went for our ride. It was raining the whole time which was a bummer, but Ben thought it made it more romantic. Here's the view from the top going down.
This is our family at the top.
This is halfway down. It was a pretty amazing view. We could see our apartment from the top and on a clear day we hear you can even see into Malaysia.
How romantic can you get when you've got this to deal with.... This is Grace mad about something. She was having a blast which meant a lot of running around and screaming. It just about ruined everyone's ears in the ride so this is probably her mad about us telling her to be quiet.
After the ride we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was a nice dinner and we had a fun time relaxing and eating yummy food after a long day. When we got home we had birthday cake given to us by our apartment building. They even provided the candle. I'm glad they did because I forgot about making a cake, and we had to use the gas stove to light the candle.
So overall I think he had a great birthday. Happy 27th Ben!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! To my Wonderful Husband!

You are such a wonderful husband and I am so grateful for you and all you do! Thank you for taking such good care of your little family and supporting us in all the crazy things we do. We would never be having so many wonderful experiences if you weren't such a hard worker. You really try your hardest to make life great and it is! Thank you for being such a fun Daddy. Grace loves playing with you. And thank you for loving me! I am so lucky I found such a great guy! I hope you have a wonderful day and I love you so much!

(ps I know this is cheesy.... This picture was taken at Halloween, but I really hope you feel like you're King for the day!)

A Visit From my Dad

We were lucky enough to have a visit from my Dad for the last two days. He was in the region on a Recruiting Trip and arranged to spend to days with us on his way home. We had such a fun time. Sunday afternoon we took him the Botanic Gardens. We saw the fishies, which Grace loves.

They also have a Bonsai Tree collection. These are Ben's favorites. (We've had 2 but killed them both) Here's Ben in front of his favorite at the Gardens.
We also saw a few really huge Spiders. Gross!!!! Ben's finger is pointing up to the spider in the corner of the picture. I know it's hard to see, but look in the empty space with lots of sky around it. That's a big spider hanging between the leaves. I was a little creeped out after that.
Here's the four of us behind this pretty waterfall. We had a great time walking around. We saw a Ginger Garden and learned that the Banana Tree is part of the Ginger family. And we saw an outdoor stage with a Youth Symphony performing. At about that point we got rained on and ran to the visitors center and headed home.On Monday Ben went off to work and Dad, Grace and I went to Sentosa. This was so fun! We decided to go to the Aquarium first. Grace just loves fishies and she has been especially obsessed with Nemo lately. So as we're walking through the aquarium we come up tons of different fish tanks. Grace looks through each of them and says, "No Nemo, No Nemo". After about 5 or 6 tanks she was getting pretty upset. "Nemo, Nemo, Nemo" she kept saying. We were getting worried that we wouldn't find a Nemo. Here she is, I can't decide if she's excited about seeing the fish, or mad that they're not Nemo.
Well, we FINALLY found Nemo! Grace was so excited. Grace is pointing to Nemo in this picture, but you can't really see him. We also saw Dori. She loved them so much we spent 5 minutes at this tank and when we tried to move on she got mad.After we found Nemo we went through and Aquarium Tunnel. This was my favorite part. You were surrounded by fish and could watch the sharks and sting rays swim over you. Here's one of the sharks I saw above my head.

After the tunnel we made another visit to Nemo and then headed out through the gift shop. Well, what does Grace find? A stuffed Nemo. So my Dad, being the great Grandpa he is had to buy it for her. She loves that thing and give it kisses! (she's clutching it in her little hands here)
After the Aquarium we went to the Beach. Unfortunately it wasn't very sunny so we just changed Grace into her swimsuit and my Dad and I just waded in the water. Grace mostly enjoyed playing in the sand and squishing any tower my Dad built with the bucket or other sand toy.
After we got rained on at the beach we decided to have some lunch and then went to the Dolphin show. This was really fun for me as I have never been to Sea World. They have "pink Dolphins" here you can see it in the water. I loved watching them do their tricks and Grace was so fun to watch and got surprised everytime they jumped out of the water.
About this time Grace was ready to have a break down so we headed home for naptime. After she woke up we went to China Town to see the Temples they have and do a little souvenier shopping. Both the Indian Temple and the Bhuddist Temple had ceremonies in process while we were there and is was really neat to see. Here' Dad inside the Bhuddist Temple
After Chinatown Ben came home from work and we went to dinner at Clark Quay. Dad chose a mexican restaurant, Cafe Iguana which was yummy! We had a wonderful time talking that night and then he left bright and early at 3:00 this morning.

Though his visit was short I am glad he came! It has been a long time since we've had a chance to talk this much and spend so much time together. Thanks for the wonderful visit Dad!

Another Trip to the Doctor

This time for an Ultrasound! That's right I know you've all been expecting it to happen so here's the official announcement. We're having a baby! I'm due Sept. 22. We are really excited and can't wait to welcome a new little one to our family. My trip to the Dr yesterday has been my third one for the pregnancy. The Doctors here are very interesting, quite different from the US. They have done an ultrasound each time and it has been so comforting to see the baby grow each time. The heart beat was strong and the baby looked good. Since I'm to that 12 week "safe" point I wanted to share the news. I still get a little paranoid until I can actually feel the baby moving, but I'm trusting that it will be okay. I've felt great, no sicknesses at all until this morning when my track record of two pregnancies and no throw up went down the drain. Hopefully it was just a fluke though. We're excited to be home in May and I'm relieved I don't actually have to deliver a baby here! I know this picture's not the best, but it's fun to post anyway. The actual ultrasound was really clear and I could see it's little arms flailing about. So cute!

TV Detox

So after all the sickness last week, and all the TV watching I decided that we needed a major break from TV. Mostly because by Sunday afternoon I wanted to throw Grace out the window because she was being so naughty. And I was sick of her begging for Nemo (one of her new favorite words). So we turned the TV off, closed the doors and put away the remote and we haven't watched a single show since. (Well, actually Grace hasn't, Ben and I have still watched American Idol and Myth Busters).

So here are a few of the fun things we've done this week instead of Television. We painted our toenails. Grace loves doing this and doesn't even touch them until they're dry now. I found these little nail stickers at the store and thought we'd make our nails fancy. Grace loves showing off her pretty toes to Daddy.

I finally got Grace to understand the concept of "Cheese". Well, kind of. She usually tries to play with the camera instead of posing for it, but on Monday she finally got it. She kept saying "again, again" (which is another of her favorite words especially when we're reading books). So I have about 20 pictures with this same looks. "Cheese" We're not quite there yet with the smile.
We went to the Botanic Gardens with our friend Sylvia. Her kids here are Bailey and Gavin. We had so much fun just walking around and exploring the little Gazebos and statues and even saw a Frog. I poked it with a stick, but it was frozen in fear. Not even a blink!
Grace is sitting on a root of a really huge tree at the Botanic Gardens. It was a beautiful tree and I thougth it was amazing the web of roots it put out to support itself. Plus it makes a very nice bench.
My adorable husband brought me some beautiful flowers this week, just because. They are starting to open a little bit and I just love them! (I didn't take a picture with the vase becuase we don't have one. They're soaking in a little plastic pitcher I found. Don't worry they've tipped over twice already but I'm not about to spend a fortune on a glass vase)

We also went to the Chinses Gardens (see post below), went out to lunch, did a little shopping and played in indoor playground they have here. It's especially hard to stay busy when it's rainy all the time. But I think I see some sun out today and we may make it swimming. Hooray! 7 days of rain straight is not good for me (but at least I don't have snow!)