All Eyes Are Still Fixed On The Baby Jesus

Our Parish has a beautiful Nativity set outside the Church and it always attracts little children including ours. Our girls never get tired of looking at the Baby Jesus. I think we should all learn from our children how to adore the Baby Jesus, in a simple and most loving way!

Christmas Octave with The Friars

We had a fun day with the Franciscan Friars bowling yesterday. Most of the Brothers and Priests were there and even my Mom bowled too. Father Miguel was the winner from our group. I guess he's still got it!

After that my parents and Fr. Miguel came over to our house for dinner and we opened our gifts. Thank you Papa and Mama for the Christmas gifts for all of us. The girls love their dresses (Abigail didn't want to be in this picture with her sisters). Thank you Fr. Miguel for the goody basket.

Father Miguel and I just had to do something silly for this picture.

Wishing You and Your Family the Joy of God's Miracles This Christmas!

From all of us in Alabama,
Michael and Coby + Baby,
Gabriela, Rebecca and Abigail

Gifts From Troy, Michigan

Merry Christmas to Tom, Barb, Amanda and Rob and thank you for all the gifts for us, especially for the girls. They love it! Your buckets must be full by now. Love the Merry Mochacino! Thank you and we miss y'all.

Thank You Albert & Ira for the "Warm" Gift

Merry Christmas to all in California! Thank you for the throw blanket, we need it more during this winter - freezing days!

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa

We went to visit grandma and grandpa on Tuesday to deliver their Christmas gift (they are sitting on it in the picture above). We also helped them plant their little trees in the front yard. The girls were a big help for Daddy, especially Abigail! She wanted to do everything Daddy was doing, from shovelling to pouring the dirt.

Therese and Her Family Paper Dolls

Rebecca received a great Christmas gift from her godparents, Monica and Marius; "Therese and Her Family Paper Dolls". They were busy the rest of the day cutting the paper dolls, dressing them up, lining them up and listening to the story of St. Therese and her family. You can check it out here if you'd like to purchase Therese and Her Family Paper Dolls
Thank you very much to Monica and Marius! This is more than paper dolls, a great gift and a great teaching tool!

First Confession for Gabriela

Today was a big day for Gabriela, she had her first confession. She chose to have her uncle, Fr. Miguel to hear her first confession. She also chose to do it now rather than later (sometime in March before her First Communion), because she wanted to give Jesus this gift for Christmas.

Afterward we let her choose to have lunch at a place where she wants to celebrate this big day, and she picked to have lunch at Chuck E Cheese. Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for coming out to celebrate this big day with us and thank you to Fr. Miguel too.

Poinsettia and Abigail

A very nice combination!

God's Covenant

This beautiful rainbow was over our house a couple of weeks ago. Just a thought . . . with all the doom-and-gloom happening in this world, we know that God is not going to destroy the earth with the flood again.

(Genesis 9:12-17) 12 God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: 13 I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. 16 As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth." 17 God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."

Maryland Blue Crabs from Publix!

We got really excited when we came across some blue crabs at Publix's seafood department... So we bought them all, cleaned them out (okay, it wasn't a bushel, maybe 16 pieces)! Took them home, heat them up and picked some crabs. It wasn't as good as the one we've gotten in Maryland, but enough to enjoy and to remember the good old days when we used to live in Maryland and picked crabs for hours and hours with our close friends.

Flashback to Weekend of Thanksgiving 2007

I was thinking about what happened last year on Thanksgiving weekend at our house. We were sitting around having a relaxing weekend, no shopping mall crowds, no traffic, no airport crowds, just our family. The girls were doing their own things somewhere in our bedroom. Coby was on the phone. Shortly after, I noticed Abigail was chewing on something in her mouth. And I asked what she was eating and she opened her mouth and saw a "watch" type battery (another name: button battery). I took the one battery out off her mouth and very proudly I showed Coby what I had found from her mouth.

We were both wondering where she found this battery from, until we noticed it was from a book light in our bedroom. However this book light uses "three" of these button batteries... so, "where are the other two batteries?", asked Coby. We look and look everywhere, under the bed, under the dressers, in the garbage cans, under the sofa, under the chairs... the two batteries were no where to be found.

To make a long story short, we ended up spending the rest of the day in the emergency room, because we had heard horror stories, (click here) or (here) about a child from Atlanta swallowing a watch battery and it exploded in the stomach and died. After the x-ray, sure thing, the two batteries were in Abigail's stomach. Abigail was given a laxative and had to have several more x-rays to make sure the batteries were moving accordingly through her stomach and intestines and eventually she passed it the day after.

Talk about nerve racking! The picture above is her x-ray and you can see the two white dots were the batteries located in her body. When I told the colleagues at my work, they were saying how she is a "gloworm", so I came up with the picture below.

27 More Minutes On the Laundry

These girls are so cute, they are waiting for their favorites dresses to be done from washing. It's probably the longest 27 minutes they've ever waited.

Hooray to our Bishops . . . Catholic Bishops Will fight Obama on Abortion

Must read this article - Catholic bishops will fight Obama on abortion A lot of great and strong quotes, we are very proud of our Bishops!

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said, "They cannot call themselves Catholic when they violate such a core belief as the dignity of the unborn,"

Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton in Pa said, "I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he's learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church,"

Visit United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website

It's A Sad Day In America . . . But We Are Not Doomed!

Mark this day on the calendar! This should make you smile a little.

I wanted to express my feelings and reaction from last night's election results. Yes, I'm sad our Pro-Life Candidates didn't win. I'm worried what kind of changes we will face in the next four years. What's going to happen to America?

After all is said and done, what is important to me? I have my faith, I have God! I have my beautiful wife that loves me and that I love very much! I have my children, my girls! I have family. And I have my job! These are what's important to me and these are what will get me through my life.

There are a lot of good people in America still, that thought gives me hope, as a matter of fact there are over 55 million good people. We are not alone! We survived Carter, we survived Bill Clinton and we will survive Barack Hussein Obama!

I read this on the internet today, "the media creates the culture and the culture elects the politicians!"

Lord Have Mercy On Us!

"1.20.13 Obama's Last Day" is courtesy of
1.20.13.com

All Saints on Halloween Night

We almost forgot to mention about halloween night, they are all about saints and candies.

Gabriela was St. Gabriel the Archangel, Rebecca was St. Bernadette, and Abigail was Our Lady-Mary. Of course trying to explain who they are around the neighborhood was a story in itself. One lady was trying to guess, "oh, how cute, you must be an angel, and an old lady and another old lady" She was refering to Rebecca and Abigail's head covering that makes them old ladies.

Mary in her modern donkey

with children from our neighborhood

How Fast They Grow

Since it was such a nice day, we went to the Arboretum in Tuscaloosa today. We like to visit this place every now and then for a hike and enjoying nature. Three years ago we took a couple of photos of Gabriela and Rebecca sitting on a white patio chair and today we took the same type of photos while they were sitting on the same chairs, and we were amazed to see how much they have grown since then.

Gabriela in 2005

Rebecca in 2005

Abigail has been recruited to sit in the chair for the photo op and we will compare it three years from now.

Is America going to make a mistake and be punished with Barack 0bama?

A quote from Obama on this YouTube, “I got two daughters, 9 years old and 6 years old. I’m going to teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punish with a baby!”

From Jack-O-Lanterns to Saint-O-Lanterns

(left to right) Saint Joan of Arc's Shield, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Marian

We started this tradition at our home a year ago for Halloween. We carved pumpkins with heavenly themes. This year Gabriela chose a “Marian” theme, Rebecca chose “Sacred Heart of Jesus”, and Abigail chose “Saint Joan of Arc’s shield”. Carving Saint-O-Lantern is fun and more meaningful than just a typical scary looking jack-o-lantern! The idea was taken from "A Year with God, Celebrating the Liturgical Year - Little Way Press" Distributed by Catholic Heritage Curricula

One Dollar for Nuts

This is how our girls will solve the financial crisis in America.
Well . . . it's a start!

Chicago trip with Gabriela.

Congratulations to Jamie and Mary Hill on their wedding! Gabriela and I had the pleasure to attend their wedding in Chicago last weekend. It was a very quick and tiring trip for the two of us but we had such a wonderful time in Chicago. It was a beautiful father and daughter weekend.

Jamie and Mary Hill

The Hill's Children
(back row) John, Andrew, Peter, Madeline, Mary, Abby

(front row) Matthew, Julie

Between the wedding Mass and reception, we went to Legoland. The photo below you will see in front of Legoland they have a BIG size giraffe made of legos. And the man where Gabriela sitting next too is also made of legos (check out the hole on his sock).

Financial Crisis in America

Inlight of what's happening in the financial sector in America, President Bush signed an unprecedented "bail out" and will be issuing a new one dollar bill to commemorate the confusion in the wall street. We have the first look (complimentary of Steve Sutanto) at what the new one dollar bill will look like.

October 2nd - The Feast of the Guardian Angels - Happy Anniversary To My Dear Wife!

Today is the feast of the Guardian Angels and our 9th wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary Coby and I love you! Thank you for being such an "everything" wife and a great mother. What can I say except, I love you, I love you and I love you!

I still remember the day, 9 years ago, together we said "yes I do!" Such small words made such big impact in our life. I love you my dear Cobs, thank you for the gift of your love!

A special thanks to those whose always keeping us in your prayers for our marriage, children and family!

PrayForSarahPalin.com

Someone had sent us a link to this website: PrayForSarahPalin.com - Follow the link and, pledge and pray (if you are in the computer world, you understand plug and play, but this one is Pledge and Pray) The "praying" part is very crucial and much needed!

On a lighter side . . . Family of Origin

This is funny, we got this from Coby's friend in Canada . . . enjoy!

A little girl asked her mother:
'How did the human race appear?'
The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve;

they had children;

and so was all mankind made.'

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question.
The father answered,
'Many years ago there were monkeys from
which the human race evolved.'

The confused girl returned to her mother and said,
'Mum, how is it possible that you told me the
human race was created by God,
and dad said they developed from monkeys?'

The mother answered,
'Well, Dear, it is very simple.
I told you about my side of the family,

and your father told you about his.'

Camping at Lake Guntersville

It was for the weekend only, we arrived on Friday night and came back Sunday afternoon. It was quick and to the point and we had so much fun. The girls wished we could've stayed longer, but nevertheless they were happy. We played in the playground, we swam in the lake, we went biking, we went fishing. Rebecca caught a fish again, she was the only one that caught a fish this time. Daddy was too busy un-tangling the fishing lines, hooking the worm, re-hooking the worm and hooking the worm. Gabriela was convinced that it was because her worm wasn't wiggling, why she wasn't catching any fish.

We saw a lot of deer around the camping area and they come right up to you and not afraid of us at all. I think they feel safe being around the camp ground, because no one will shoot at them.

We've camped at Lake Guntersville twice now and we really enjoy coming here! Looks like this is going to be an annual event on Gabriela's birthday.