Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Well,today is Halloween and it also means that I'm one year OLDER...yep,one year older...

We actually celebrated my birthday yesterday because Adam has to go to a church meeting tonight. Adam bought my favorite chocolate cake with hazelnuts on the top. The cake tastes sooooo delicious and yummy! Oh,so much better than those super sugary frosting cakes you buy at Wal-Mart and Albertsons...hee : )

If I can have as many wishes as I want,I'd probably only need one...
that is,"I wish all my dreams come true!"...hahaha! : )
I love my little family : )

Rainny is growing fast!

It still amazes me how fast babies grow and how fast they learn. A month and a half ago when we moved to Taiwan,Rainny could barely sit up by herself and now she's crawling everywhere! And now she can even pull herself up to a standing position while holding onto the furniture!

Sometimes we'd put her in her crib and let her play with her toys,but she seems more interested in checking to see what's going on outside the crib. Adam and I like to watch her standing inside her crib with her little head looking out...we think that's so cute. : )

Adam bought this wig for Halloween.But when I first saw it,I thought it was a skunk.Haha! Adam decided to try it on Rainny and see what Rainny would react.The white hair is supposed to be in the front,but we both felt it looked weird that way.So we turned the wig...

There you go...Rainny with a big afro!!!
HAHAHAHAHA!!!...we both burst into laughter when we saw this picture.The look on Rainny's face is way too FUNNY! : )

Saturday Family Fun

Saturday we went out to lunch at Skylark,one of our favorite restaurants in Taiwan. An average US$12 meal includes: appetizer(salad),soup,main entree, desert and drinks! And what's better? Tax is included and you don't need to give tips,too!! That's probably not something you can have for that price in American restaurants.

After lunch,we went to the Holiday Market and Adam was very excited to see this pirated DVD vender. We walked over there but couldn't find the person who sells the DVDs.We didn't realize it was self-service until we saw this jar in the middle with a couple hundred dollar bills.

Later we found out that there was actually a guy there but he didn't want people to know he was selling these DVDs(Well,as you know he'd be put to jail if he gets caught.)He acts like one of the customers and also to make sure that nobody takes DVD and run without paying...haha...that's clever!

We bought "Chuck & Larry","Shrek The Third","Rush Hour 3" and "Bourne Ultimacy"...but the picture quality of the first two aren't that good.Oh well,they are cheap... : )

As we walked around the market,we saw this guy wearing his "one-of-the-kind lobster" helmet.It's a real lobster! A dead one of course...hee.I can't help but to give him a thumbs-up for his creativity and courage to wear this helmet...hahaha : )

We bought Rainny a balloon and she loves it!!!

Cooking is not in my gene...

Pictures of the restaurant...










I love cooking,but just never got good at it. My mom is a very good cook,but somehow I didn't get that from her...hee.People would always assume that I must be good at cooking since my family owns a restaurant,but they're wrong...haha :p

I haven't cooked once after we moved here.My mom cooks for us most of the time.Sometimes if she doesn't feel like cooking,we'll either eat in our restaurant or eat out.

Running a restaurant in Taiwan is not easy because there are so many competitions(so many restaurants everywhere you go) and Taiwanese people are very picky about what that eat. My dad just fired the whole staff of chefs in September and they'd only worked in our restaurant for one month. I guess they were doing kind of bad and our restaurant had fewer customers coming to eat. Later,he hired new chefs and they're really good at what they do. You can easily lose your customers but so difficult to bring them back.

Our restaurant sells Dim Sum (Hong Kong appetizers) now. They are all made fresh every day!!! The chef is a Taiwanese but he makes very authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. Yummy!

This is my lunch yesterday in our cafe. My favorite spaghetti with calamari(a little bit spicy but so yummy...) : )

In Loving Memory of Grandma Baugh...

Grandma Baugh, we miss you and will always remember your smile.

This morning Adam made a phone call to his Dad in Logan,wanting to know how everybody is doing there and then he told Adam that Grandma Baugh had just passed away today...

I was watching TV when Adam was on the phone with his Dad.After he hung up the phone,he lay down on the bed being extremely quiet, so I thought maybe he wasn't feeling well. I asked him "Honey,is everything okay?" He just kept silent for a few seconds,and then he told me with tears in his eyes that Grandma Baugh passed away. I was sad to hear that...

We miss Grandma Baugh a lot,but I know that she's in a better place with Heavenly Father now.
We're very glad that we took some pictures of Grandma Baugh and Rainny together when we went to see her in July. Rainny was very happy to meet her great grandma. Rainny probably couldn't remember meeting great Grandma Baugh,but when she grows up,she'll have these pictures to remember her by... : )

Saturday BBQ

Amanda and Benson invited us over to her friend's house for BBQ on Saturday in Chupei(竹北). And since her friend lives on the 8th floor(the highest floor in that apartment building), we get to have our BBQ on the rooftop,which is cool. It feels good overlooking the city and watching the view at night from the top of the building.

We had some fun that night, but Rainny didn't seem to like it as much as we did, so we had to leave early. :p

<-- Here is a picture of Adam enjoying his Popsicle.(Amanda and Benson got these super yummy Popsicles from Costco in Taipei.They taste really good!) Rainny got to taste a little bit,too!...yum... : )

Thank you Amanda and Benson for inviting us over and for your friendship! We want to wish Benson all the best luck with his military service. Hope everything works out for him well there.

Rainny is wearing a Halloween theme bib,a gift Amanda and Benson bought from the Disneyland in Tokyo. The bib looks funny on Rainny. : )
We want to take Rainny to Disneyland someday...I think it'll be much funner for her to go there when she can walk and talk. Ha!

Rainny's favorite time of the day-"Tubby Time!"

Rainny loves BATH!!! I don't know why,but she's been a big fan of it ever since she was tiny. She always gets so excited whenever she hears the running water that her eyes would just light up and she'd start kicking her legs,wanting to get in the tub. She loves it
even more now that she can sit up and doesn't need Mom and Dad to hold her. She loves playing with the water and making BIG splashes! : )

Rainny never cries during the bath except when we take her out of her tub...haha...(she'd cry if we didn't let her play long enough.)

"It's singing time,dancing time,laughing time and playing time. Now it's Rainny's favorite time. Tubby time! It's tubby time with Rainny and ducky! It's tubby time with Rainny and ducky! Come and play!..."







This is the song Adam and I will sing to Rainny before or when we give her a bath...the original song is from the Signing Time DVD (Rainny loves that song!). We just changed the lyrics a little bit...hee

Shopping at WuFenPu(五分舖).

We took a train to Taipei to shop at WuFenPu on Wednesday. It was Rainny's first time being on the train and she loved it! WuFenPu(五分舖) is a place where all the clothing wholesalers are. There are probably hundreds of shops there! We were hoping we could find some cheap funny T-shirts for Adam but didn't have much luck in finding one.Oh well, maybe next time...haha! : )

I sold the very first baby headband I made! Yeah!

Buying baby headbands in baby boutiques can be pretty expensive. One simple baby headband in the store can cost from US$7.50 ~US$13.00. I guess hand-made stuff is always expensive in America. I bought 3 baby headbands for Rainny before and each of them cost about US$8.50. And since I like to dress up Rainny and match her outfit with different headbands, I decided to try to make them myself. It saves money,too!!!...heehee

Making baby headbands is a lot of fun (for me) and you can be very creative with it! I've been making some baby headbands whenever I have time. Adam actually helped me put some pictures of Rainny wearing the headbands I made on Taiwan Yahoo Auction.We made the starting bidding price at NT$1 and it turned out that there were quite a lot of people bidding. A couple days ago, we sold our very first headband on Yahoo Auction for the final bidding price of NT$51. It wasn't too bad I guess, considering we were just kinda doing it for fun and wanted to see how many people are interested in buying. : )

Rainny is such a good model! : )

Having a baby changes everything (2)

Before I have Rainny, I like to wear high heels.
And now, flip flops become my favorite everyday shoes to go to plcaes...

I used to carry different bags every time I go out, depending on my mood and my outfit.
And now, the diaper bag becomes my everyday bag wherever I go...

I used to sit in the passenger's seat next to Adam whenever we drove.
And now, the back seat becomes my regular seat whenever we drive...

I used to like to read fashion magazines.
And now, American Baby and Babytalk become my must-read magazines...

I used to always go to those women's clothing store in the Mall shopping for my own clothes.
And now, I only go to babyGap, Children's Place, Old Navy-baby girl, Carter's etc, shopping for Rainny's clothes whenever I go to the Mall...

Adam and I used to take a lot of pictures of ourselves.
And now, we take tons of pictures of Rainny everyday...

Adam and I used to watch TV when we eat.
And now, we watch our little Rainny when we eat...

Hahaha...I guess having a baby really changes everything

It's funny how the smallest one in our family needs the most stuff when we travel--
Car seat, stroller, snuggly, diapers, Desitine, blankets, small towels,wipes, formula, tissues, extra baby clothes, toys, baby food, no-spill cup, bottle and bottles of water, changing pad...and a lot lot more! : )

But we LOVE having Rainny around! : )

Rainny at 4 month ------>

Having a baby changes everything (1)

Before I became a mother, I never knew how exhausting it would be to take care of a little baby. And now that I'm a mother, I can finally understand how difficult and tiring it was for my mother to raise the four of us. Being a mother makes me appreciate my mom more for all the hard works and sacrifices she gave to this family, and I am so grateful for her for all of the things she's done for us. Thank you,Mom! : )

Rainny is such a handful! She keeps us busy all the time. I'm actually pretty amazed by how much energy the little babies can have. I always feel like I can't keep up with Rainny's energy...ha! This afternoon after I gave her a bottle, she started looking tired and sleepy, so I put her down in her crib,thinking that she might fall asleep pretty soon. But I was wrong... :p

After I put her down,she started tossing and turning and rolling over. You can tell that she's really tired,but somehow she wouldn't sleep.15 to 20 minutes later, she was still awake and then she started whining.So, I picked her up and lay her on my chest and she fell asleep!...within few minutes! Haha!

Rainny has lots of toys to play with,but she'd usually get sick of playing with them pretty soon. Recently she's been showing a LOT of interests in TV remote and the cell phone. She can play with them for a long time! I guess TV remote and cell phone have become her everyday toys now...hahaha! : )

See the BIG SMILE on her face? She looks like she's having lots of fun playing with the cell phone. What a funny baby! : )

One wisdom tooth out, three more to go

This morning I had my first wisdom tooth taken out...finally!
To be honest, I never liked going to see the dentist that much.
I had to go today because recently one of my wisdom teeth started aching and I can't really eat like normal which bugs me. Well, I like eating...hahaha :p

The surgery took about an hour, which wasn't too bad. The dentist had to take a little break from it because it turned out that my wisdom tooth was pretty B-I-G. After he took it out, the dentist assistant showed me the tooth and asked me if I wanted to take it home as a souvenir. My first reaction was " ? "...didn't know what to say...

I ended up taking it home,but will probably throw it away pretty soon.

This experience reminds me of a gift I got for my birthday in college. Guess what it is?
It's a Wisdom Tooth from a guy in my class.
He put his wisdom tooth in a little jar and gave it to me,saying it's for my birthday.
That was very nice of him to remember my birthday and everything,and I know it's the thoughts that count. But it's definitely the weirdest birthday gift I've ever received! : )