Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. We have had a pretty good week and a great Valentine's weekend/day
: ) Last weekend we had our new friends Maria Elaina, John, & Isabella over for dinner. They just arrived in the Philippines a week and a half ago so we have been bonding with them as they are getting accustomed like us. They were our first dinner guests so we were nervous because the food is different here and we weren't sure how it would turn out. But it went off without a hitch and the food was delicious! Andrew made a whole chicken and I made potatoes and green beans. Saturday was Sam's birthday so we gave him the day off and we had him on Sunday instead, which was nice because we usually take a taxi to church which can be pretty sketchy. We had a nice surprise at church on Sunday, they had all the married couples renew their vows at church and then the pastor gave us a rose after we were finished. The Pastor also sang a love song to all of the married couples. It must have been a love song that is popular here because all the Filipinos were singing with him, but we didn't recognize the song. And while I'm talking about singing I just thought I would mention a difference in culture here. It is not uncommon to be in the grocery store, mall, or even in the park and for someone to break out loudly into song. Filipinos enjoy karaoke and they carry this into their every day life by breaking out into song pretty much everywhere. I don't think many Americans would break into song loudly while grocery shopping and not be looked at as strange. The first time this happened I started laughing out loud. Luckily no one heard me and we kept walking. So, I need to watch myself and not bat an eyelash when I see people break out in song on a regular basis.

The other great news from this weekend is that we found a crib! S&R had a Graco crib which was $400 USD. We were told to buy it right away because they might not be there when we came back. We believe that, because we have been here for 4 weeks and we have been at S&R 4 or 5 times and this was the first time we saw cribs. We were so happy, but when we got home Andrew looked it up and the same crib sells for $150 in the US. But hey, we will take $400 over $1800 any day. This is common for pretty much anything imported from the US. If you want it you better buy it when you see it because it probably won't be there when you come back.

Hooray for American Cribs!!

For Valentine's day Liam and I hung out at home, and then we went to my first Scrapbooking party. My friend Rachel invited me to go, and I was very excited to give it a try. This was great because Liam was a very good boy and played on the floor while I got a page of his baby book done. It was also great to meet some more women. Then for the evening Andrew and I were able to go out for dinner at a place called Chocolate fire. Our apartment offers babysitting services so we had someone come and watch Liam while we went to dinner. Luckily with Liam's 6pm bedtime he slept the whole time and the babysitter didn't have to do too much besides listen. At chocolate fire Andrew tried their signature treat Chili chocolate. Which was milk chocolate mixed with red chili seeds. He loved it, a mix of spicy and sweet! This was a much needed night out alone, and since it went well I think we might be having a few more. All in all, we had a great Valentine's day full of love : ) We hope everyone else also had a great day. Love you all and have a great week.

 With our rose from church

 Liam looking like a big boy over the weekend

 My favorite, pink roses : )

 Yay date night!