Angels Of The Family

WARNING: LOTS OF KID'S PHOTOS...

I told some friends about the new additions of my family back home so might as well share their photos here. These are my nephews and nieces that I met for the first time during my vacation back home... Jomac, LJ, Jude and Lian. They're all kids of my 3 younger brothers... yes, younger brothers ranges from 21 to 31.

MEET JUDE AND LIAN: Kids of my brother whom I attended his church wedding in the Philippines on 2006... the civil wedding though was on 2005, so don't be surprise that the first baby was born on 2006.:) Jude is now 3 years old, while Lian will be 2 years old on January. DH laughed when he saw a series of this first photo. I took photos of them while they're waiting for their bottled milk until they both finished. It was like a contest who'll gonna finish first. I was actually surprised Jude beat Lian, as in previous days, Lian always finish first.

The siblings both love peanut butter sandwich, which I have to admit is not one of my favorite food. While I was back home, I made sure the kids' favorite foods are always available in our household - including chips, pancit canton, hotdogs, pancakes, etc. Here's a couple pics of them enjoying their sandwiches. Never mind the mess, I bet you know how toddlers are.

MEET LJ: She was born September this year and is the daughter of my youngest brother. She's such a hyper baby. DH laughed when he saw her photos with mittens... he said they look like boxing gloves. LJ was over couple weeks old on the following 2 photos.

Here's LJ and her Tita (Aunt) Lody holding each other for the first time. She was exactly 2 weeks old then... and sleeps most of the time.

I (literally) took hundreds of photos in a day specially prior to LJ's christening to be use on her invitation, give-away, (tarpoline) banner, etc. We had to change her clothes numerous times on a particular day to take a good shot... and given the chance, we also tried to put a matching hair accessory as she was always mistaken a boy!

We got lucky indeed, and here are the pics I used on her photo invitation and give-aways.

Here are the final products... BTW, I just bought raw materials for the give-aways in Manila then assembled it ourselves in Pampanga... 100 pieces of them! As for her invitations, instead of envelope, I used regular tracing paper - tied with pink ribbon for enclosure.

MEET JOMAC: The youngest among the new addition! Jomac's dad is the eldest among my 3 brothers. SIL was admitted at the hospital around 4PM and was supposed to have a normal delivery but once she got into the delivery room, her BP fluctuated. By 8PM, her doctor informed us that SIL had to undergo a C/S operation. Jomac was born on November 4th at 9:25PM, weighs 3.85 kgs (8.47 lbs), and measures 51 cm long. I was there at the hospital from day one, as well as my parents and Jomac's maternal grammy.

This photo was taken at the operating room... I wasn't inside the OR, but I managed to convince SIL's doctor to take few pictures before cutting the embellical cord for my brother to see his baby right out from mommy's womb. The people at the OR were kind enough to take more photos... starting when SIL's tummy was cut (which I"m sure you don't want to see) till the baby was all cleaned up. BTW, the doctor assigned one of the nurses to take the photos. I was sure glad they had an extra pair of hands to do my request.

By Friday (November 6th), Jomac was released from the nursery to be with his mommy and us. The bonding began right away of course. I was the one who picked him up at the nursery and put him in our assigned private room. I was told that he's the biggest as well as the only baby in there who can finish 3 oz of milk. He'll gonna a 6-footer someday like my brothers, that's for sure. This photo was taken around 3PM, November 6th.

Here he is at exactly one week old. I also used this same photo on his invitations and give-away tags... unfortunately, I didn't able to do any of the give-aways while I was there as my younger sister will do them after I leave. Oh, and we're pretty sure that Jomac will be whiter than LJ.

I thought it would be nice to incorporate snapshots of his various body parts on the invitation so I did!... snapshots are: belly button, ear, hair, hand and foot!

MEET ELLA: Here's Ella, my only niece the last time I went home on 2006. She just turned 7 years old last June and is a second grader. Every Monday, she gets to wear her Girl's Scout uniform in school.

At times, I get to convince her to have her hair french-braid by me... I managed to do it a few times. I wish I took a photo of her hair when the braid was circular. Hay...!

More photos of the kids... just because...
Another photo of the kids at the new "Eat All You Can" restaurant at a nearby town. The two healthy (not fat... LOL) boys are my cousins, ages 6 and 10. They are brothers, obviously... their mom is my mom's younger sister (who's only a few years older than me). I try to take them with me when me and the kids are going at a mall or Jollibee (counterpart of Mc Donalds) - kids fave fast food chain back home. Mat & Louie has another brother in between, but won't go with us unless their mom go too... Yeah, he's a Mama's boy! When I got there on our way home from the airport, I was immediately advised that Lian seldom go out... In fact, she's never been to the mall and Jollibee prior my arrival. So I made it sure that I take her with me wherever I go. As a result, whenever I get dress (a going-out dress) she would hold my hand and won't leave me... coz she knows she'll be left out if she'll let me go.

What better souvenir can we have from our trips than pictures and videos? Since I got back, I've been busy sorting photos and editing family videos I took while I was back home, which are mostly of my nephews and nieces. I can't wait to get the videos done so I can start mailing them to my siblings abroad (particularly my 2 brothers who are working overseas), my sister in CA, and relatives from different states.

More photos and stories about my trip soon!