Kiara Charlisse's Baby Dedication - July 11th

What a memorable day! Our baby Kiara was dedicated at the Visalia SDA Church at three months old in the presence of both sets of grandparents and most of our closest friends. Ampee started off the dedication by reading beautiful quotes from EGW regarding child guidance.

Pastor Chad had a beautiful meditation on Jocabeth and Moses and some throughts of his own regarding parenting. Just priceless!

Pastor Carron also had some beautiful words for us and the congregation.

After the dedication prayer, Kiara woke up and was presented to the congregation. It was an amazing moment! Immediately following the dedication, we all watched a slideshow of Kiara's first months. Thank you Pastor Carron!

We feel incredibly blessed by all our Pastors, family and friends. Thank you all for being part of our lives. We love you tons!

Life with Abus in the house (Part II)

Abu Nino took over Mommy's worship duty every morning. The girls loved hearing Bible Stories and even acting some of them out. Brianna's favorite was Queen Esther's story.

Making play-dough animals. Look at the blue octopus below!

Kiara is bouncing at 3 months. She loves the stimulation of lights and sounds in the "dashboard"!

Chunking up!

Life with Abus in the house (Part I)

Ivon (Bibi's Mom) used to be an Elementary School Teacher and is now an Elementary School Academic Secretary at Alta Gracia Adventist School in Argentina. She brought the best books and crafts for Brianna. She even designed a widely acclaimed curriculum for Adventist Elementary Schools in Argentina last year and brought it here so that Bibi can implement it at home at the Preschool level with Brianna

Private swimming lessons for our little fish during the months of June and July with Teacher Amy (this is Tia Roxanna's backyard pool)

Kiara, happy as can be in Abu Ivon's arms. After swimming, we all had a delicious lunch every week. Tia Roxanna is a great hostess!

Abu Nino had a very special bond with Kiara. They loved being together!

Fourth of July Celebrations

Bibi's parents first lunch at our home. They'd never seen our house and they LOVED it (especially playing in the pool with Brianna). They also enjoyed fresh summer salads, yummy pasta dishes and cool desserts. Bibi also put her Mom to "work" and she made some of Bibi's favorite childhood dishes

Kiara didn't get to enjoy any new and innovative cuisine from around the world ... just the same old milk from Mommy. =)

Kiara all dressed up for her FIRST 4th of July Fireworks Extravaganza in Downtown Visalia

Bri & Daddy playing with "fire"
We had a blast with Uncle Dave and his family. What about VIP seating to the side of the Public High School lawn on Main St? A nice treat!

Happy Birthday, USA!!!!

We're back!!!!!

After a very long hiatus from blogging we're back for good. July was our busiest month EVER, chock full of adventures, party planning, commitments, work, fun, and everything in between. So now we're playing catch up ... it'll take a while but we're ready to share this amazing month with all of you. For starters, Bibi's parents stayed with us for a whole three weeks and here are the pictures of their arrival at LAX with Brianna. We all had such a great time together starting on July 3rd ...

Abu Ivon meeting Kiara for the first time at 3 months old and LOVING it!

Ready to open gift bags

Enjoying vegan food and AMAZING vegan ice-cream at Elaine's in Bakersfield

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIO KEN!!!!

Tio Ken is turning 36! Happy, Happy Birthday to our favorite Iron Man Uncle in the whole world!

Love you lots! Can't wait to see you in 3 weeks,
Bri & Kiara

This is (for now) our gift to you:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2009

Two weeks ago we attended VBS at our church for a whole week. It was tons of fun for the little ones! They learned all about Moses in Egypt, the plagues, Israel's deliverance and the crossing of the Red Sea. Here we see Kiara and Aidan (9 days apart) "socializing" for a few minutes.

Story time with Teacher Belinda

One of the activities: the crossing of the Red Sea

All Preschoolers going to the Fellowship Hall to finish off the day with songs of praise

Croatian Extravaganza in Sacramento

Our closest friends invited us to attend the 27th Annual Croatian Extravaganza in Sacramento this year. Suzana is from Croatia and it was a real treat to get more acquainted with her culture and people. Here is Brianna all excited about the trip and dressed up with her Croatian shirt and socks. Suzana, in turn, is wearing the Argentine soccer team shirt.

Here is a pic of the program

A view of the Croatian Cultural Center lawn and garden where the festivities were held. We arrived in the afternoon, ate delicious traditional food, met new friends and waited for the evening program to start

By the time we sat down for a late lunch, all the tables were full. Croatian people are very friendly and lively. Bibi couldn't walk two steps without someone commenting on how beautiful Kiara was. Lea and Brianna played together wonderfully and listened to Croatian music.

Here is a video of the fun time we had... of course, Brianna hit the dance floor at the first opportunity...

Our YouTube Channel

We have posted a link to our family YouTube Channel on the RIGHT for those of you who have missed some of our family videos. Check out all of the videos as Brianna & Kiara grow up...

Also, farther down the page on the RIGHT side, we have put a list of our categories so it's easier to look at past posts.

Enjoy and visit often!

Recent Videos

Brianna had a quick message to Abu Ivon & Abu Daniel... "We'll see you in a few weeks!"



We recently went down to see the Amanecer Vocal Group sing at the Crystal Cathedral. It was a great weekend and the group sang wonderfully! Here's a video of their tribute on Memorial Day weekend. (Sorry the sound quality is not very good. This was videoed on our little camera)