The Beginning of September

Dearest Castillo Children,

The month of September started out well for our family. We had a Brazilian BBQ on Labor Day, thanks to your Dad. He loved to cook up ALL kinds of meat. We especially like to invite people who served their missions in Brasil as well. He cooks his meat over an open flame - which just makes it taste better. I had been sick with the pregnancy and most food sounded unappealing, expect your Dad's BBQ!

 

How he cooks the meat!

 

 

Giant thing of Mango drink!

 

 

Only SOME of the meat he cooked

 

 We had a small showing of people to the BBQ - I think Todd needs to learn to invite people to something like that more than a few days before. People with large families tend to make plans weeks in advance. But at least we had a TON of left overs. The worst part of the BBQ was the fly situation. For some reason this year we had SO many flies! Our area usually had a lot but man, we did everything we could took keep them from the food but we basically had to finally give up and take the food inside the house. Geesh!

Nora also started her second year of pre-school, or Pre-K as everyone seems to like to call it. I am still doing a co-op preschool group this year. I read this interesting article that gave me a lot of reassurance about preschool. It said that if you're reading this article right now, then your child probably doesn't need preschool. Preschool is huge for people who don't get a lot of support in the home, particularly low income homes. However, I am home with me children, I teach them numbers, letters, basic reading and how to get a long in the world. I still like Nora being a part of a preschool, but that is more so she has an opportunity to get out of the house and play with other kids. She's in a preschool with 4 other kids, all boys. I'm a little bummed about that - but Nora can hold her own with any boy.

 

First day of Pre-K!

 

She was so excited for school to start - I can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten next year!

 

 

Of course Annalise wanted to get in on the photo action. :)

 

 

That weekend we had a good friend of ours take family photos for us. I really wanted to get them done before I got too huge in my pregnancy. We got up early that morning and I asked Nora if she wanted me to do curlers in her hair and she LOVED the idea.



 

Nora in curlers

 

 

Annalise getting ready for pictures, too.

 

 

We drove up to the Madera Canyon that is about 45 minutes away from us. I love it up there, it's a lot cooler and really beautiful. Can't beat a 30 - 45 minute car ride to get to a completely different environment. We met Melony Hall up at the top of the mountain and we got to finally have some family pictures done.

 

Here are a few:

 



 

Our family likes to have fun

 

 

Probably my favorite from our session

(Annalise is 2.. it's hard to get a good pic from 2 year olds...)

 

Family laughing again - I think Daddy was tickling someone

 

 

Love this because you can see how little my girls are - because someday they'll probably be taller than me.

 

 

Me and my sweetie

 

 

I love our little family - and I love that it's about to get bigger!

 

 

My most "pregnant shot" I would do. :)

 

 

One more for the road.

 

 

I love you so much, my little ones. I know that some days are hard being a stay at home mom, but I do feel like it is worth it. I hope to be able to say someday that I have no regrets dedicating this time in my life for my family.

 

One more cute picture of us in our everyday way

 

 

With All My Love,

 

Your Mother