Why I Have Not Posted!

This 5 month old Toshiba notebook I thought was top of the line notebook, but at the moment it is being repair due to a defect on the cooling system. What a hassle and very aggravating! Hope to get it back next week!

What You Can Do With An iPhone – Part 3

I love this app ColorSplash from iTunes App Store for the iPhone. I can convert any photos to black and white while keeping chosen details in color. Normally you would do things like this using Photoshop, but now you can do it on your iPhone in a much simpler way. Let me know what you think!

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Customers In Training

Whole Foods Market* is a great place to shop for your groceries not only because of the organic products, fresh vegetables, fruits, etc. but because they have these children size shopping carts which the girls love to push around the store. Just imagine, in a couple of years we will have four girls pushing these carts around the store. * This is not an advertisement for Whole Foods Market!

Beautiful Moment With Christiana

Of course, you can’t really capture photo like this on your own. Coby took this photo one morning and I edited (using the iPhone) to make it look like a professional image!

Happy St. Valentine’s To My Beautiful Girls!

Another Thumb Sucker

Today is a big day, well… at least the girls think so. Christiana for the first time, suck her thumb! We have another thumb sucker in our family! First it was Abigail, then Rebecca (didn’t start until after Abigail was born), and now… Christiana!

Who’s Putting Who to Sleep?

 

Gabriela has been such a good BIG sister to Christiana and big helper taking care of her little sister. She would change her diapers, sit with her, walk with her or putting her to sleep, and while she is at it, she would put herself to sleep too!

What You Can Do With An iPhone – Part 2

This is a photo of Abigail which I converted using a combination of two applications within the iPhone; Photogene ($2.99 to download the app from iTunes) and Photonasis (Free app from iTunes).

Many Faces Of Our Little Princess

We don’t need to explain . . . just enjoy looking at the photos!

The Baptism of Christiana Mary

Christiana was baptized today by Fr. Miguel Marie and he used the extraordinary form of baptismal rite. The baptism ceremony was beautiful and holy! Below are some excerpts from the extraordinary form of baptismal rite.

“Almighty and eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look with favor upon this Thy handmaid, Christiana, whom Thou hast called to take her first steps in the Faith. Take from her from the snares of Satan which until now have held her. Open to her, Lord, the gate of Thy mercy.”

“Christiana, I baptize thee In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”

Christiana was consecrated to Our Blessed Virgin Mary on the altar after Mass.

Thank you Fr Miguel for baptizing Christiana! Thank you to everyone who participated in this beautiful ceremony. May God Bless you!

Life is Beautiful!

	LIFE
LIFE		LIFE
	LIFE

Today marks the anniversary of one of the saddest days in our nation’s history. 36 years ago the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that women have the constitutional right to end the lives of their unborn children. This was a victory for abortion extremists and other enemies of life. Let’s pray that the end of abortion will end soon – God Help Us!

The Black Hole . . . Greed!

You have to see this . . . greed . . . greed . . . greed . . . Originally I saw it at Patrick Madrid’s blog (Thanks Pat for finding it!) Really funny!

Christiana In Training

I just think this is so cute! Christiana’s big sisters are training her to hold a doll already. Maybe I will show her how the iPhone works.

What You Can Do With An iPhone

I'm still amazed with the iPhone! All the things you can do with it when you download the right program, it's not only just a phone! For example, the photo above was edited using the iPhone (I call this image "Christiana My Little Apple") It's like having a photoshop right on your fingertips! For those of you who are interested, I downloaded this (free) app from the app store called Ezimba You can edit and transform your photos.

Homeschooling Begins At 3 Days Old

Gabriela was reading a book to Christiana this morning and she was paying attention as a three days old baby would. It's never too early to teach your children! Okay, all joking aside, we thought this is a cute picture!

Christiana Is Home

Christiana and Coby came home today after 48 hours in the hospital. We are all so happy and excited to have them at home. We gave Christiana a little tour of our home, she slept most of the tour, but she likes her new home!
We would like to thank everyone for your prayers during the pregnancy until now, but please still keep us in your prayers during this transition. We also would like to thank Robin Duke and family for watching the girls when we went to the hospital on Monday. Thank you also to Jennifer Rodriguez and family for watching the girls the day after Christiana was born.
Thank you also for all the emails and phone calls of congratulations you have sent to us. Lastly, thank you to Michael's parents (Christiana's grandparents) and Fr. Miguel Marie for visiting at the hospital. We are so grateful with all the kindness!

Praying Before Coming Home (We Think . . .)

I just wanted to share this picture with you before we pick up Christiana and Coby to come home. We like to think she is praying before she is coming home, we need your prayers that we will have a smooth transition with four girls. And thank you for all your prayers this far. God Bless!

SHE IS HERE, CHRISTIANA IS HERE!

Exactly twelve hours ago at 11:12 am, our baby was born! Thanks be to God! Both Coby and the baby are fine and they will be coming home on Wednesday.

Christiana Mary

January 12, 2009 at 11:12 am

8 lbs and 4 oz

20 1/2 inches long

We thank all of you for your prayers and for those who participated on selecting the names for our 4th baby girl. We chose the name Christiana Mary! We know this name was not part of the selection, but the name just fit her!

The delivery was really fast and Coby did very well. She started the contraction around 4 am and by 6 am it got really strong (this is what she told me, because she didn't even wake me up at 4 am) When I was getting ready to go to work, she said, "you are not going anywhere!"

The time line goes something like this:

4:00 am - Contraction started (although, she has been having contraction for the past 3 weeks)

6:00 am - Contraction got really strong (10 to 12 minutes apart)

7:30 am - Coby had breakfast

9:30 am - Doctors Office

10:00 am - Doctor checked her and she was 9+ cm dilated

10:20 am - Nurse wheeled her to the labor and delivery

11:12 am - Christiana was born

By 2:30 pm, I picked up the girls and brought them to the hospital to see their new sister and Mommy. They are so happy, joyfull and couldn't take their hands and eyes off their new baby sister!

Christiana with Abigail

Christiana with Rebecca

Christiana with Gabriela

In a short time, we will try to take better pictures of Christiana and also with her Mommy and Daddy.

Getting Ready . . .

Still no baby yet . . . I know I had mentioned on the earlier blog that the next time I blog would be about the new baby, but the baby is still not here and I cannot not blog this whole time. We are all getting ready for the baby to come, the room is ready, the tiny "cute" diapers are purchased, and the car seat is down from the attic.

In the pictures you can see, all the girls are getting ready, they are practicing to be like their Mommy carrying their baby dolls in the wrap. A moby-style wrap, which they made today.

Flashback to before 1999 - It's Alright To Be Different

Still no baby yet . . . but, I had forgotten about this little true story I had written in the Envoy magazine sometime in 1999 or even before 1999. A Full-Court Press is a true story that happened to me and my friends while playing basketball one day and through our examples we attracted a guy to play with us . . . well, you can read the rest of the story here: A Full-Court Press