Dearest Castillo Children,
Yeah... remember when I didn't write at all on the blog over the summer? I totally do. It all started because I got super sick. I mean SUPER sick. We had this horrible stomach flu bug thing for two weeks straight. Annalise would throw up...then Nora would throw up.... then I would throw up... then Annalise would throw up. I even started calling it the Flu that would never end and replaced all the lyrics to the This is the Song that Doesn't End pertaining to our flu. It was bad, kids. When we all FINALLY recovered it had left in its wake a trashed house and one tired momma. I think I am barely recovered from it now, several months later.
The month of July was a blur... I remember the 4th. We spent that at your Grammy and Pop-pop's house. We swam and ate BBQ chicken. Nora got to use a sparkler for the first time and we watched a bunch of fireworks thanks to your Great Uncle Dave. I also remember that we did a lot of fun summer activites like summer movies, swimming, library story time and playing with friends. In July was also my birthday. My Home Teacher and his wife came over and painted my bathroom while I went to an audition for a musical. Sadly I didn't get it, (not too sad since I realized it wasn't the show I thought it was until AFTER the audition, oh well.) but that night your sweet dad threw me a surprise mock-tail party with fondue! I had no clue and he had called all the ladies over to join me. It was so super sweet and made my birthday so wonderful.
Then there was the month of August. OH, MAN! That was a crazy month! Quick re-cap then I'll blog about each of them. August: Trip to Utah with just me and the girls, Nora's 3rd Birthday party, Camping Trip with Castillo Family, Nora started PreSchool and Swim lessons. We were traveling a lot and spent a lot of time with family. I am happy to say that I got to see both sides of my family (Todd's and mine) this last month and that was such a joy. However, traveling with a 1 year old and a 3 year old is EXHAUSTING! I love my girls but being out of their element was SO difficult. I am glad that summer is over for now. We're trying to get back into a normal routine and I'm struggling with the new joys of a 3 year old. I love 3 and I kinda hate 3. I love that Nora singing songs, has this great imagination and can do a lot of things for herself now. I hate that she feels like she can back-talk, order her little sister around and pouts like you would not believe. I'm trying to figure out how to parent a 3 year old. I think 2 was way easier.
I might keep it short for tonight and try to blog about each of the events for August over the course of this next week. We'll see.
With much love!
Your Mother
Letters to my children as they grow.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Big Owies = Cookies, apparently
Dearest Castillo Children,
Hi, my sweeties! So I just wanted to share a quick story with you. So I was doing a project for Nora's Big girl/ Princess room. I decided to frame some paper dolls that I had. There paper dolls were actually mine from when I was a girl. They are from 1981 so they are as old as me! I wanted to keep them since they are gorgeous but I didn't want Nora to play with them and rip them up. So I decided to frame them and put them up in her room as decoration. I had the all laid out on the guest bed and with glass out of the frame. Nora jumps up there to see what I am doing and they said the had an owie. Now, Nora likes to over exaggerate her stage of "owies" a lot so I usually tell her she's find and ignore her. I felt bad when I looked over and she had blood running down her arm. PANIC!! My baby is bleeding! I washed it, put pressure on it and bandaged her up as best I could. I called Grammy just to make sure they were nothing more I could do. I felt SO horrible about it. First, because it was my project that she got hurt on and I should have moved the glass far away from the bed, or at least waited until they were in bed to do the project! And second, because I didn't believe her until I saw blood running down her arm. I felt so bad that I even let her watch Megamind and made her cookies instead of doing her chores with me. Oh, the mommy guilt! Why do we do this to ourselves. Nora is fine. Grammy said we did about as good as we could considering the cut but I still felt bad. Nora is going to have a big scar on the side of her wrist and hopefully it'll be smaller than I think since she is so young and she has a lot more growing to so. I keep trying to keep her from getting scars but I guess there are worst things.
This past weekend Grammy and Pop Pop came to visit while I was off doing a lot of different activities. Nora and Annalise both love their Grammy and Pop Pop and it is always nice to see them. Since they usually come and help with some sort of project. ;)
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Hi, my sweeties! So I just wanted to share a quick story with you. So I was doing a project for Nora's Big girl/ Princess room. I decided to frame some paper dolls that I had. There paper dolls were actually mine from when I was a girl. They are from 1981 so they are as old as me! I wanted to keep them since they are gorgeous but I didn't want Nora to play with them and rip them up. So I decided to frame them and put them up in her room as decoration. I had the all laid out on the guest bed and with glass out of the frame. Nora jumps up there to see what I am doing and they said the had an owie. Now, Nora likes to over exaggerate her stage of "owies" a lot so I usually tell her she's find and ignore her. I felt bad when I looked over and she had blood running down her arm. PANIC!! My baby is bleeding! I washed it, put pressure on it and bandaged her up as best I could. I called Grammy just to make sure they were nothing more I could do. I felt SO horrible about it. First, because it was my project that she got hurt on and I should have moved the glass far away from the bed, or at least waited until they were in bed to do the project! And second, because I didn't believe her until I saw blood running down her arm. I felt so bad that I even let her watch Megamind and made her cookies instead of doing her chores with me. Oh, the mommy guilt! Why do we do this to ourselves. Nora is fine. Grammy said we did about as good as we could considering the cut but I still felt bad. Nora is going to have a big scar on the side of her wrist and hopefully it'll be smaller than I think since she is so young and she has a lot more growing to so. I keep trying to keep her from getting scars but I guess there are worst things.
This past weekend Grammy and Pop Pop came to visit while I was off doing a lot of different activities. Nora and Annalise both love their Grammy and Pop Pop and it is always nice to see them. Since they usually come and help with some sort of project. ;)
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Two LONG Weekends
Dearest Castillo Children,
Hello, my lovelies! You are sick currently. It's so hard to hear your little coughs. It doesn't seem to slow either of you down, but enough to be hacking up stuff. Yuck! So we had to stay home from church because of your illness. Even though I subbed in Nursery last week and I know what kid we got the cough from; we decided not to keep spreading the "love". *WARNING: I'm tired from this weekend so my post might be extra grumpy/complaining* I really HATE it when people bring their sick kids to church. Come on people! I know you don't want to hang out with your two year old either but then MY two year old gets sick. I am so glad I didn't get it though since I had two big events this past weekend. Nora was sad to miss church, she LOVES church. She gets to see her friends and play in Nursery. Too bad she can be kind of a terror in Nursery but I don't think it's because she dislikes it. It's hard that church is at 2 so Nursery is right in the middle of her nap time. I thought that 7:30am church was bad but 2 is really testing me. I can't wait for our new building to be done! The newspaper said that it will be complete in October! YAY! A few months earlier than last I heard. It probably means new ward boundaries and I'll miss some of my ward friends since I am like 70% sure we're going to be put into another ward, but I can't wait to have a normal time for church. Now to see if they'll finally let me have a calling other than music...
Since I have two weeks to fill in I'll start with last week. Last week I went to Ross and found these really cute blue curtains for my family room. I decided to redo the colors in my family room to yellow, blue, orange and green. Really cute and happy colors. Oh! That reminds me! I started another blog called Grumpy Hubby Designs! I thought that since I am already doing so many thing around my house lately I might as well blog about it. That way I have a place to show off all my cute projects. The reason I named it Grumpy Hubby Designs is because EVERYTIME (<--- might be an exaggeration...) I want to do something to the house my hubby gives me a looks that says, "over my dead body" and then we argue about how my design is super cute! Okay, maybe I just keep pestering him until he finally lets me do what I want. :) I thought that the arguments would be funny to include in the blog since they make me laugh. ANYWAY - I found these curtains and I loved them but I needed one more set for all the windows I have in the family room. So on Saturday we went to three different Ross Stores looking for my windows and your dad was SO sweet and kept trying to fine them. The best part of the day was the beautiful weather! It was the end of May but the breeze and day was gorgeous. It was in the low 80s - especially nice since we were in the 100s only a few days prior. We decided to get some In-N-Out for lunch and we to Reid Park to eat. We ate lunch, walked around the lake and even feed some ground squirrels some french fries. Nora would walk up to them very carefully and try to place the fry as close as she could. They, of course, would dart back into their holes but I was impressed how slow and careful Nora was when she walked towards them. So cute. We ended up feeding most of the fries to the squirrels. We have decided that we are not fans of In-N-Out's fries. Actually, most fries I am not a fan of anymore. We had to leave the park a little earlier than planned since some youth decided to smoke illegal substances near my babies. In the middle of the day. In a crowded park. If their was an officer near by I would have tattled that you would not have believed! I think cigarettes are bad enough - do NOT smoke junk near my kids. Oh, Tucson. Why do you have to be so ghetto sometimes? (I guess it could have happened anywhere but Tucson and I are in a fight right now) Anyway! At the third Ross we went to the curtains were there and I was so pleased! It really was a wonderful day out with the family.
On Sunday we had Todd's old roommate Greg over with his new wife Annie. They are expecting their first child in about 4 months. We're really excited for them. They are such a neat couple. Greg was super cute with the girls and since they are having a girls Annie got to see a preview. Todd was just to happy to have Greg over since they are basically the same person.
Monday was Memorial Day and Daddy got to stay home from work. YAY! I love that we get to have some holidays with Daddy. I read something my mom wrote about my Great Grandma Nora (That's who you are named after Nora) that I thought was so cute. She use to call Memorial Day "Decoration Day" and would go to her garden and cut a bunch of flowers and take them to the grave of the soldiers. I love that! We spent the day as a family. I wanted to buy some paint since they had a sale on it at Home Depot. I got two gallons of paint to paint my bedroom and bathroom. (More details to come on that on my other blog) While we were in the parking lot and backing up someone hit us. We were all the way in the parking lot and an old man backed into us. Todd got out to look to see if there was any damage. He said there was just a scratch so it wasn't enough to worry about. However, when we went over to JC Penneys he saw that actually he hit the side of our car and there is a nice soft ball sided dent in it. :( I felt so sick about it! We are hoping (okay - just me, really) to get a minivan in a year or so and our car we'll need to sell has a dent in it. I don't know how much it'll cost us to fix and if it is worth going through our insurance. Probably not. Then Todd leaves me at the store and goes with the girls to Best Buy. He forgot his phone at home so we planned to meet up at Best Buy when I was done. He comes to my store however so I think he is now in my store and when I am done I search everywhere for him. I page him twice like he's a 4 year old. I go to Best Buy to page him. I can't find him anywhere! I look for over 30 minutes and I'm starving at this time. Finally I ask I guy to check the bathrooms for me and after he says no one was in there he tells me he saw a man matching my description going into Best Buy. Sure enough it was Todd and my girls. He hadn't heard the page I made and I found him coming to find me. I could have killed him! It was so unlike him to be inconsiderate. SO not like him. After I ate and was able to calm down (already upset about the car and search for someone for 30 minutes <--- not an exaggeration) I realized how grateful I am for the qualities I have in my husband. He really is considerate and observant and I don't appreciate it as much as I should.
The rest of the week was crazy! We feed the missionaries on Tuesday since they didn't have anyone to feed them and they actually called us to let us know. Good missionaries. It was kind of last minute so we made waffles. I accidentally dropped a waffle on the ground and I felt so bad about it! One of the Elders was so nice that he said it was the 5 second rule and that was the one he wanted. Sure enough, when it came time to eat he made sure he had that one. It strangely did make me feel better. We made two packages of bacon for them since every man I know LOVES bacon. Who am I kidding!? Everyone loves bacon!
Wednesday Nora to got experience going to a movie theatre for the first time! It was so fun! Annalise was left with a family friend (I watch her little boy on Tuesday so she could go to the movies) and it was just Nora and Mommy special time! Nora even saw her friend Audrey there and got to sit next to her. We bought popcorn (it was free!) and watch Happy Feet 2, which was awful. But the actually experience was fun. Good thing we only paid .50 each for the movie! Nora was ready to go home before it was done but we decided to stick it out. The worst part about the experience was they played this tweetie bird cartoon. It was the first time Nora has seen cartoon violence and I was not happy about it. The worst part was the cat was being sucked up into a vacuum and Nora screamed. I mean, screamed loud. She has a fear of the vacuum and seeing the kittie being sucked up was horrifying. Luckily the kittie was fine so she was okay. But it was still sad...and I little funny.
Thursday was library day and we learned about spiders. Nora didn't want to dance or sing any of the songs but Annalise LOVED it. She was in the middle of everything. I have decided that large crowds make Nora a little nervous but Annalise loves them. She wanted to stand in the middle of everything and clap. Annalise has been making me laugh so much lately. I have to say that 16 months is the best age. She can communicate and play by herself but she is still super cuddly without having tantrums. So cute! She has started to say prayers with us where we say the prayer and she repeats. But she is getting to know the flow of a pray so she'll skip things. Like when we say "thank thee" she skips to what she is thankful for, which happily is usually Mommy. She hears "In the name of Jesus Christ" and immediately starts saying "amen!" so we have to work hard to get her to say Jesus Christ. She still just says "Jesus, Amen!" So cute! So funny. I can't help but giggle. I have to say one of my favorite images is having Annalise kneeling in front of her Daddy with his arms wrapped around her as she learns to pray.
I can't speak much about Friday since I wasn't with you guys much doing that day. I left for the day to help out with the Youth Trek for church. I had to dress up as a pioneer and make a little Pioneer Village for everyone on the Trek to go to. I was in charge of making lemonade for people. We had them make ice cream and butter and they got to wash their hair (which was popular with the girls). They took family pictures, shot bb guns and even had a trading post where they could get candies. It was really fun. It was a beast of a day though. It was about 107 or 110, I can't remember the final degree. Bah! We drank water and stayed in the shade. I have to admit that I didn't feel that hot. As weird as it seems having long sleeves and a bonnet was perfect for the weather. I felt fine. I was tried because they asked the women to help the Young Women push their carts up a hill while the men were "called away to war". I hope it was an amazing experience for the youth. My trek changed my faith and was a very important turning point for my life. I hope they allowed for it to be something special for them, too.
On Saturday morning and I a wonderful opportunity to go to a Republican brunch where I got meet people running for office. I got to see my mom's crush, Jeff Flake. He is Congressman running for the Senate for Arizona. My mom loves him because he is so against over spending in Washington. It doesn't hurt that he is also Mormon. ;) But I got to sing the National Anthem. The mike they gave me cut out in the middle of the song so I had to belt it out as loud as I could. I didn't hit my high F, which made me sad, but it's hard to hit it when you have to belt. Oh, well, it happens. I spent several nights over the last two weeks working on the National Anthem and a special American medley called Of Thee I Sing, America. Sadly, during that song they didn't listen since the MC said it was a break so everyone talked to their neighbor. Crazy. I worked really hard on that one. Maybe I should have worked harder on the National Anthem. Oh, well, right? It was a really neat experience regardless. However, two early morning and a lot of running around made me SO exhausted. I was kind of glad to stay home with my two sick babies.
Well, we're up to date now. It has been a crazy couple of days and I'm looking forward to a fun June. While I was on the trek I was talking to a bunch of people and I realized there was so much I want to share with my children, especially my girls. The importance of picking the right man to marry, the balance of fun and freedom to responsibility and consequences. I know you are going to be wonderful, beautiful and intelligent Young Women someday. I am excited to see that day when it comes.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Hello, my lovelies! You are sick currently. It's so hard to hear your little coughs. It doesn't seem to slow either of you down, but enough to be hacking up stuff. Yuck! So we had to stay home from church because of your illness. Even though I subbed in Nursery last week and I know what kid we got the cough from; we decided not to keep spreading the "love". *WARNING: I'm tired from this weekend so my post might be extra grumpy/complaining* I really HATE it when people bring their sick kids to church. Come on people! I know you don't want to hang out with your two year old either but then MY two year old gets sick. I am so glad I didn't get it though since I had two big events this past weekend. Nora was sad to miss church, she LOVES church. She gets to see her friends and play in Nursery. Too bad she can be kind of a terror in Nursery but I don't think it's because she dislikes it. It's hard that church is at 2 so Nursery is right in the middle of her nap time. I thought that 7:30am church was bad but 2 is really testing me. I can't wait for our new building to be done! The newspaper said that it will be complete in October! YAY! A few months earlier than last I heard. It probably means new ward boundaries and I'll miss some of my ward friends since I am like 70% sure we're going to be put into another ward, but I can't wait to have a normal time for church. Now to see if they'll finally let me have a calling other than music...
Since I have two weeks to fill in I'll start with last week. Last week I went to Ross and found these really cute blue curtains for my family room. I decided to redo the colors in my family room to yellow, blue, orange and green. Really cute and happy colors. Oh! That reminds me! I started another blog called Grumpy Hubby Designs! I thought that since I am already doing so many thing around my house lately I might as well blog about it. That way I have a place to show off all my cute projects. The reason I named it Grumpy Hubby Designs is because EVERYTIME (<--- might be an exaggeration...) I want to do something to the house my hubby gives me a looks that says, "over my dead body" and then we argue about how my design is super cute! Okay, maybe I just keep pestering him until he finally lets me do what I want. :) I thought that the arguments would be funny to include in the blog since they make me laugh. ANYWAY - I found these curtains and I loved them but I needed one more set for all the windows I have in the family room. So on Saturday we went to three different Ross Stores looking for my windows and your dad was SO sweet and kept trying to fine them. The best part of the day was the beautiful weather! It was the end of May but the breeze and day was gorgeous. It was in the low 80s - especially nice since we were in the 100s only a few days prior. We decided to get some In-N-Out for lunch and we to Reid Park to eat. We ate lunch, walked around the lake and even feed some ground squirrels some french fries. Nora would walk up to them very carefully and try to place the fry as close as she could. They, of course, would dart back into their holes but I was impressed how slow and careful Nora was when she walked towards them. So cute. We ended up feeding most of the fries to the squirrels. We have decided that we are not fans of In-N-Out's fries. Actually, most fries I am not a fan of anymore. We had to leave the park a little earlier than planned since some youth decided to smoke illegal substances near my babies. In the middle of the day. In a crowded park. If their was an officer near by I would have tattled that you would not have believed! I think cigarettes are bad enough - do NOT smoke junk near my kids. Oh, Tucson. Why do you have to be so ghetto sometimes? (I guess it could have happened anywhere but Tucson and I are in a fight right now) Anyway! At the third Ross we went to the curtains were there and I was so pleased! It really was a wonderful day out with the family.
On Sunday we had Todd's old roommate Greg over with his new wife Annie. They are expecting their first child in about 4 months. We're really excited for them. They are such a neat couple. Greg was super cute with the girls and since they are having a girls Annie got to see a preview. Todd was just to happy to have Greg over since they are basically the same person.
Monday was Memorial Day and Daddy got to stay home from work. YAY! I love that we get to have some holidays with Daddy. I read something my mom wrote about my Great Grandma Nora (That's who you are named after Nora) that I thought was so cute. She use to call Memorial Day "Decoration Day" and would go to her garden and cut a bunch of flowers and take them to the grave of the soldiers. I love that! We spent the day as a family. I wanted to buy some paint since they had a sale on it at Home Depot. I got two gallons of paint to paint my bedroom and bathroom. (More details to come on that on my other blog) While we were in the parking lot and backing up someone hit us. We were all the way in the parking lot and an old man backed into us. Todd got out to look to see if there was any damage. He said there was just a scratch so it wasn't enough to worry about. However, when we went over to JC Penneys he saw that actually he hit the side of our car and there is a nice soft ball sided dent in it. :( I felt so sick about it! We are hoping (okay - just me, really) to get a minivan in a year or so and our car we'll need to sell has a dent in it. I don't know how much it'll cost us to fix and if it is worth going through our insurance. Probably not. Then Todd leaves me at the store and goes with the girls to Best Buy. He forgot his phone at home so we planned to meet up at Best Buy when I was done. He comes to my store however so I think he is now in my store and when I am done I search everywhere for him. I page him twice like he's a 4 year old. I go to Best Buy to page him. I can't find him anywhere! I look for over 30 minutes and I'm starving at this time. Finally I ask I guy to check the bathrooms for me and after he says no one was in there he tells me he saw a man matching my description going into Best Buy. Sure enough it was Todd and my girls. He hadn't heard the page I made and I found him coming to find me. I could have killed him! It was so unlike him to be inconsiderate. SO not like him. After I ate and was able to calm down (already upset about the car and search for someone for 30 minutes <--- not an exaggeration) I realized how grateful I am for the qualities I have in my husband. He really is considerate and observant and I don't appreciate it as much as I should.
The rest of the week was crazy! We feed the missionaries on Tuesday since they didn't have anyone to feed them and they actually called us to let us know. Good missionaries. It was kind of last minute so we made waffles. I accidentally dropped a waffle on the ground and I felt so bad about it! One of the Elders was so nice that he said it was the 5 second rule and that was the one he wanted. Sure enough, when it came time to eat he made sure he had that one. It strangely did make me feel better. We made two packages of bacon for them since every man I know LOVES bacon. Who am I kidding!? Everyone loves bacon!
Wednesday Nora to got experience going to a movie theatre for the first time! It was so fun! Annalise was left with a family friend (I watch her little boy on Tuesday so she could go to the movies) and it was just Nora and Mommy special time! Nora even saw her friend Audrey there and got to sit next to her. We bought popcorn (it was free!) and watch Happy Feet 2, which was awful. But the actually experience was fun. Good thing we only paid .50 each for the movie! Nora was ready to go home before it was done but we decided to stick it out. The worst part about the experience was they played this tweetie bird cartoon. It was the first time Nora has seen cartoon violence and I was not happy about it. The worst part was the cat was being sucked up into a vacuum and Nora screamed. I mean, screamed loud. She has a fear of the vacuum and seeing the kittie being sucked up was horrifying. Luckily the kittie was fine so she was okay. But it was still sad...and I little funny.
Thursday was library day and we learned about spiders. Nora didn't want to dance or sing any of the songs but Annalise LOVED it. She was in the middle of everything. I have decided that large crowds make Nora a little nervous but Annalise loves them. She wanted to stand in the middle of everything and clap. Annalise has been making me laugh so much lately. I have to say that 16 months is the best age. She can communicate and play by herself but she is still super cuddly without having tantrums. So cute! She has started to say prayers with us where we say the prayer and she repeats. But she is getting to know the flow of a pray so she'll skip things. Like when we say "thank thee" she skips to what she is thankful for, which happily is usually Mommy. She hears "In the name of Jesus Christ" and immediately starts saying "amen!" so we have to work hard to get her to say Jesus Christ. She still just says "Jesus, Amen!" So cute! So funny. I can't help but giggle. I have to say one of my favorite images is having Annalise kneeling in front of her Daddy with his arms wrapped around her as she learns to pray.
I can't speak much about Friday since I wasn't with you guys much doing that day. I left for the day to help out with the Youth Trek for church. I had to dress up as a pioneer and make a little Pioneer Village for everyone on the Trek to go to. I was in charge of making lemonade for people. We had them make ice cream and butter and they got to wash their hair (which was popular with the girls). They took family pictures, shot bb guns and even had a trading post where they could get candies. It was really fun. It was a beast of a day though. It was about 107 or 110, I can't remember the final degree. Bah! We drank water and stayed in the shade. I have to admit that I didn't feel that hot. As weird as it seems having long sleeves and a bonnet was perfect for the weather. I felt fine. I was tried because they asked the women to help the Young Women push their carts up a hill while the men were "called away to war". I hope it was an amazing experience for the youth. My trek changed my faith and was a very important turning point for my life. I hope they allowed for it to be something special for them, too.
On Saturday morning and I a wonderful opportunity to go to a Republican brunch where I got meet people running for office. I got to see my mom's crush, Jeff Flake. He is Congressman running for the Senate for Arizona. My mom loves him because he is so against over spending in Washington. It doesn't hurt that he is also Mormon. ;) But I got to sing the National Anthem. The mike they gave me cut out in the middle of the song so I had to belt it out as loud as I could. I didn't hit my high F, which made me sad, but it's hard to hit it when you have to belt. Oh, well, it happens. I spent several nights over the last two weeks working on the National Anthem and a special American medley called Of Thee I Sing, America. Sadly, during that song they didn't listen since the MC said it was a break so everyone talked to their neighbor. Crazy. I worked really hard on that one. Maybe I should have worked harder on the National Anthem. Oh, well, right? It was a really neat experience regardless. However, two early morning and a lot of running around made me SO exhausted. I was kind of glad to stay home with my two sick babies.
Well, we're up to date now. It has been a crazy couple of days and I'm looking forward to a fun June. While I was on the trek I was talking to a bunch of people and I realized there was so much I want to share with my children, especially my girls. The importance of picking the right man to marry, the balance of fun and freedom to responsibility and consequences. I know you are going to be wonderful, beautiful and intelligent Young Women someday. I am excited to see that day when it comes.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Chairs and a Taste of Summer Fun
Dearest Castillo Children,
Hello, my lovelies! This week we had the opportunity to experiment with our Summer Schedule, which I am super excited about. On Tuesday we swam in the pool at the clubhouse, Wednesday went to Pilate's class and Thursday went to Story Time at the library. I am really excited to try all these awesome activities with my sweet girls. Now that Annalise is starting to get old enough to drop her morning nap we can actually go out and do some fun thing together! Our Summer Schedule will goes as follow:
Monday - Summer movies with Tylee with popcorn (For Nora only)
Tuesday - Work day (do chores...laundry...) & Swimming
Wednesday - Pilate's
Thursday - Story Time at the Library & Swimming
Friday - Swimming or time with Daddy on off Fridays
So the best part of our week had to be the giggling that I hear everyday. Annalise and Nora are really starting to get along and play together. They were playing with the toy strollers and running around chasing each other and ramming into one another. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time.
We also got to do our first swim of the year. It takes forever to get two little people ready to go swimming! Getting the floaties together, getting towels, snacks and juice, putting on sun screen and swim suits. However, Nora was so excited to go swimming. I had told her on Monday evening that the next day we would go swimming. Man, sure enough, the first words out of her mouth were: "Is it time to go swimming!?" Then came the hour of "let's swim!". I told her she had to eat all of her breakfast and then clean up the playroom before we could go anywhere. She hasn't been eating much lately unless it is something she really likes. She ate all the breakfast AND cleaned up the playroom all by herself. Wow. We might be swimming a lot this summer for that reason alone!
At the pool the girls were so happy! Annalise and Nora both have a floatie they sit in and I push them around the pool. Annalise especially was so delighted by they water. She kept giggling and saying "weeee!". She liked it when I would pick her up on her floatie and then drop her in the pool. The floatie would make her bounce in the water and she'd get a little splash. Loved it! Nora wanted to wear sunglasses like Mommy so she got her own pair to wear. I wish both of my girls would wear glasses and hats but they keep them on for a second so I don't even bother most of the time. We were so exhausted after the pool that I decided to just go get some food from Burger King, which I never do. Mostly because it's such a drive for any fast food that I'd rather just make something at home since it'll take the same amount of time. I took dinner to a friend that night who's husband has been out of town and she really seemed to appreciate it. I'm glad that I am able to help serve my friends.
Wednesday we went to Pilate's and my girls got to play with some friends while Mommy exercised. It is so nice to get a chance to exercise! Now that it is getting hot it is getting harder and harder to go for walks! I started waking up earlier so I can go for a walk with Tebow with the girls. It makes my day go SO much better. Wish I had done this last summer. Plus I have gained a few pounds thanks to my baked goods obsession (grr...Cake Boss) so I REALLY need to walk in the mornings. Tra, la, la...
Thursday we went to library but we went a little too early for story time. Oops. So I took you to the Retirement Community to get some paperwork for our HOA. Man, everyone loves my little girls! Everywhere we go there is someone who stops us to let me know that my babies are beautiful. Yeah...they're also brats sometimes. It's a good thing they are cute! :) We did story time and Nora loved that. We'll have to try to do it again next week. I also had a church activity about being a better woman and how to improve in different aspects. It is just nice to be around other women.
Friday Daddy had off of work so we went swimming as a family. It was kind of cold because the wind was blowing like crazy. Daddy couldn't find his swim suit anywhere so we had to drive to Wal-Mart to buy him a new one. How did he lose his suit? We have no idea. Ahhh...just wanted to go swimming up had to go find a suit instead. It worked out fine since we went to get some lunch from Taco Bell while Daddy bought his suit. We had a great time at the pool. We ate lunch there before we went swimming. The 30 minute rule is a lie, by the way. Don't believe people when they tell you that. The wind was blowing so hard that the last bite of my lunch got blown away. Oh, well, I guess it was a special treat for some birds. Nora was so happy in the water and even though she was shaking and super cold she kept asking to stay in the water. Finally I had to call it and we went home. We were all exhausted and took a really good nap.
Saturday your Dad was so nice! He finished covering my chairs for me and then we spent the afternoon grouting the glass tile that we put up over the Easter weekend. Now we just need to seal it and it is done! So happy to get that checked off my to do list. I feel a little bad since my projects meant he couldn't work on finishing restoring the piano. It was be beautiful when it is all done. Someday. Finish the night off with babysitting a friend's kids and you got yourself a tired Momma.
Today, Sunday, was super busy. I woke to make cupcakes for choir practice, had choir practice, drove to another practice for Stake Conference, got ready for church, prepped the Temple Prep Lesson, went to church, came home to make dinner, had friends (Jeffe and Mary) over for dinner, had Home Teachers over and now blogging. That's pretty typical though. We like to be busy on our day of rest. :) For the month of June I'll be singing I Need Thee Every Hour twice...is the Lord trying to tell me something? Hmmm...
I am so tired from our week that I am going to sign off and maybe next week I can share more thoughts a feelings. I can barely keep my eyes open. :) I hope you know that I love you and you are my first priority. Our Home Teacher tonight said if we put the Lord first, family second and career third we'll lead a happy life. My family means the world to me and I am grateful that my career also happens to be my family.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Hello, my lovelies! This week we had the opportunity to experiment with our Summer Schedule, which I am super excited about. On Tuesday we swam in the pool at the clubhouse, Wednesday went to Pilate's class and Thursday went to Story Time at the library. I am really excited to try all these awesome activities with my sweet girls. Now that Annalise is starting to get old enough to drop her morning nap we can actually go out and do some fun thing together! Our Summer Schedule will goes as follow:
Monday - Summer movies with Tylee with popcorn (For Nora only)
Tuesday - Work day (do chores...laundry...) & Swimming
Wednesday - Pilate's
Thursday - Story Time at the Library & Swimming
Friday - Swimming or time with Daddy on off Fridays
So the best part of our week had to be the giggling that I hear everyday. Annalise and Nora are really starting to get along and play together. They were playing with the toy strollers and running around chasing each other and ramming into one another. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time.
We also got to do our first swim of the year. It takes forever to get two little people ready to go swimming! Getting the floaties together, getting towels, snacks and juice, putting on sun screen and swim suits. However, Nora was so excited to go swimming. I had told her on Monday evening that the next day we would go swimming. Man, sure enough, the first words out of her mouth were: "Is it time to go swimming!?" Then came the hour of "let's swim!". I told her she had to eat all of her breakfast and then clean up the playroom before we could go anywhere. She hasn't been eating much lately unless it is something she really likes. She ate all the breakfast AND cleaned up the playroom all by herself. Wow. We might be swimming a lot this summer for that reason alone!
At the pool the girls were so happy! Annalise and Nora both have a floatie they sit in and I push them around the pool. Annalise especially was so delighted by they water. She kept giggling and saying "weeee!". She liked it when I would pick her up on her floatie and then drop her in the pool. The floatie would make her bounce in the water and she'd get a little splash. Loved it! Nora wanted to wear sunglasses like Mommy so she got her own pair to wear. I wish both of my girls would wear glasses and hats but they keep them on for a second so I don't even bother most of the time. We were so exhausted after the pool that I decided to just go get some food from Burger King, which I never do. Mostly because it's such a drive for any fast food that I'd rather just make something at home since it'll take the same amount of time. I took dinner to a friend that night who's husband has been out of town and she really seemed to appreciate it. I'm glad that I am able to help serve my friends.
Wednesday we went to Pilate's and my girls got to play with some friends while Mommy exercised. It is so nice to get a chance to exercise! Now that it is getting hot it is getting harder and harder to go for walks! I started waking up earlier so I can go for a walk with Tebow with the girls. It makes my day go SO much better. Wish I had done this last summer. Plus I have gained a few pounds thanks to my baked goods obsession (grr...Cake Boss) so I REALLY need to walk in the mornings. Tra, la, la...
Thursday we went to library but we went a little too early for story time. Oops. So I took you to the Retirement Community to get some paperwork for our HOA. Man, everyone loves my little girls! Everywhere we go there is someone who stops us to let me know that my babies are beautiful. Yeah...they're also brats sometimes. It's a good thing they are cute! :) We did story time and Nora loved that. We'll have to try to do it again next week. I also had a church activity about being a better woman and how to improve in different aspects. It is just nice to be around other women.
Friday Daddy had off of work so we went swimming as a family. It was kind of cold because the wind was blowing like crazy. Daddy couldn't find his swim suit anywhere so we had to drive to Wal-Mart to buy him a new one. How did he lose his suit? We have no idea. Ahhh...just wanted to go swimming up had to go find a suit instead. It worked out fine since we went to get some lunch from Taco Bell while Daddy bought his suit. We had a great time at the pool. We ate lunch there before we went swimming. The 30 minute rule is a lie, by the way. Don't believe people when they tell you that. The wind was blowing so hard that the last bite of my lunch got blown away. Oh, well, I guess it was a special treat for some birds. Nora was so happy in the water and even though she was shaking and super cold she kept asking to stay in the water. Finally I had to call it and we went home. We were all exhausted and took a really good nap.
Saturday your Dad was so nice! He finished covering my chairs for me and then we spent the afternoon grouting the glass tile that we put up over the Easter weekend. Now we just need to seal it and it is done! So happy to get that checked off my to do list. I feel a little bad since my projects meant he couldn't work on finishing restoring the piano. It was be beautiful when it is all done. Someday. Finish the night off with babysitting a friend's kids and you got yourself a tired Momma.
Today, Sunday, was super busy. I woke to make cupcakes for choir practice, had choir practice, drove to another practice for Stake Conference, got ready for church, prepped the Temple Prep Lesson, went to church, came home to make dinner, had friends (Jeffe and Mary) over for dinner, had Home Teachers over and now blogging. That's pretty typical though. We like to be busy on our day of rest. :) For the month of June I'll be singing I Need Thee Every Hour twice...is the Lord trying to tell me something? Hmmm...
I am so tired from our week that I am going to sign off and maybe next week I can share more thoughts a feelings. I can barely keep my eyes open. :) I hope you know that I love you and you are my first priority. Our Home Teacher tonight said if we put the Lord first, family second and career third we'll lead a happy life. My family means the world to me and I am grateful that my career also happens to be my family.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Mother's Day Reflections
Dear Castillo Children,
Today was Mother's Day! The best part of today was, by far, getting to sleep in and having my two beautiful girls come in to wake me up. Nora was carrying a balloon that says: "Happy Mother's Day" and in her most cheerful voice she announced to me: Happy Birthday! My sweet husband had made me chocolate crepes and got the girls all ready to see me. After breakfast we sat down and I got a present! A home-made card from my girls (adorable!) and a present wrapped in home-made wrapping paper. Todd took some paper and had the girls paint on it with some water colors and then wrapped the present. The card was very sweet. He drew his hand and each of the girl's hands on the same paper. I know I will cherish it forever. The present was a Kindle Fire! I have been thinking about getting one instead of going the smart phone route. I'm starting to think I don't even need a cell phone since I am home about 90% of the time. I have decided to take a step back from phones. I just want a little pay-as-you-go phone for emergency's and a home phone. Home phones work off of your Internet now so I feel no real need to have a phone service that isn't one of those one time cost phone sets. Anyway - the Kindle will works as my entertainment/book for when I am stuck places and it has wi-fi so I can surf at home. I am so excited for it!
Today at church I gave a talk. Since it was Mother's Day I spoke about mothers. I was originally suppose to speak in church in March about temples. I SO would have preferred to talk about temples than to discuss Motherhood. I had SUCH a hard week with my girls and felt so alone. Nora has decided to embrace the Terrible Twos. I thought I had escaped them but they showed up and they are TERRIBLE. She yells, says no to everything, gets mad and pushes her sister and throws fits. FITS! AHHH! Today in nursery she got put in time out for hitting another kid over the head with a puzzle. Who does she think she is!? A member of the WWE? Crazy baby.
Anyway, in my talk at church I explained that on bad days with my girls I make cookies. I like to make cookies and just eat them after they go to sleep. I make them and we enjoy making them and eating cookie dough together. This week I made cookies 3 times. It was a bad week. I don't know how much of it was my hormones and how much of it was Nora being 2. It was most likely a combo of the two. I had a hard time talking to my mom on the phone since Nora decides that it is a perfect time to take whatever Annalise is playing with, causing screams that would make you think that Nora actually stole her arm from her. <sigh>
I know these are hard days. I felt really down on Friday since I had the realization that I didn't have any deep friendships with the women in the city I live in. I love the women here, I think they are some of the neatest women I have met, but I struggle to have a friendship that is deeper. I have realized it is because I am too exhausted and emotionally drained to make the effort to make friends and to invest and cultivate a friendship in order for it to grow. Not my season, I guess. I wish we could just jump into the "we're best friends that tell each other everything" moment without having to make the emotional commitment. I can see how women get obsessed with Soap Opera because without friends you need to invest in someones life other than your own. Soap Opera take no more emotional investment than turning on the TV at the correct time.
However, at the end of it all, I am so grateful that I am a mother. I am especially glad I get to be a stay at home mother. I have friends that would love to be able to do that for their children but because of finances cannot do it. It takes sacrifices. It really does. But I feel at the end of the day my children are worth any sacrifice. We don't get to travel like I want to because of our small children and financial sacrifices. We don't have a lot of "stuff" some of my friends have but I have the knowledge that I gave all to my children and that's what brings me joy and peace. Some days I want to hand them off to the nearest person but I am at the end of the day so grateful for them. As I spoke in my talk today - they are both my greatest blessing and my biggest trial.
I love you dearly, my children. I was watching a nature show with your dad about lionesses protecting their cubs and how much they are willing to sacrifice so much for them. I hope at the end of the day you know how much I am willing to protect and sacrifice for you. That I love you to the ends of the earth and back.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Today was Mother's Day! The best part of today was, by far, getting to sleep in and having my two beautiful girls come in to wake me up. Nora was carrying a balloon that says: "Happy Mother's Day" and in her most cheerful voice she announced to me: Happy Birthday! My sweet husband had made me chocolate crepes and got the girls all ready to see me. After breakfast we sat down and I got a present! A home-made card from my girls (adorable!) and a present wrapped in home-made wrapping paper. Todd took some paper and had the girls paint on it with some water colors and then wrapped the present. The card was very sweet. He drew his hand and each of the girl's hands on the same paper. I know I will cherish it forever. The present was a Kindle Fire! I have been thinking about getting one instead of going the smart phone route. I'm starting to think I don't even need a cell phone since I am home about 90% of the time. I have decided to take a step back from phones. I just want a little pay-as-you-go phone for emergency's and a home phone. Home phones work off of your Internet now so I feel no real need to have a phone service that isn't one of those one time cost phone sets. Anyway - the Kindle will works as my entertainment/book for when I am stuck places and it has wi-fi so I can surf at home. I am so excited for it!
Today at church I gave a talk. Since it was Mother's Day I spoke about mothers. I was originally suppose to speak in church in March about temples. I SO would have preferred to talk about temples than to discuss Motherhood. I had SUCH a hard week with my girls and felt so alone. Nora has decided to embrace the Terrible Twos. I thought I had escaped them but they showed up and they are TERRIBLE. She yells, says no to everything, gets mad and pushes her sister and throws fits. FITS! AHHH! Today in nursery she got put in time out for hitting another kid over the head with a puzzle. Who does she think she is!? A member of the WWE? Crazy baby.
Anyway, in my talk at church I explained that on bad days with my girls I make cookies. I like to make cookies and just eat them after they go to sleep. I make them and we enjoy making them and eating cookie dough together. This week I made cookies 3 times. It was a bad week. I don't know how much of it was my hormones and how much of it was Nora being 2. It was most likely a combo of the two. I had a hard time talking to my mom on the phone since Nora decides that it is a perfect time to take whatever Annalise is playing with, causing screams that would make you think that Nora actually stole her arm from her. <sigh>
I know these are hard days. I felt really down on Friday since I had the realization that I didn't have any deep friendships with the women in the city I live in. I love the women here, I think they are some of the neatest women I have met, but I struggle to have a friendship that is deeper. I have realized it is because I am too exhausted and emotionally drained to make the effort to make friends and to invest and cultivate a friendship in order for it to grow. Not my season, I guess. I wish we could just jump into the "we're best friends that tell each other everything" moment without having to make the emotional commitment. I can see how women get obsessed with Soap Opera because without friends you need to invest in someones life other than your own. Soap Opera take no more emotional investment than turning on the TV at the correct time.
However, at the end of it all, I am so grateful that I am a mother. I am especially glad I get to be a stay at home mother. I have friends that would love to be able to do that for their children but because of finances cannot do it. It takes sacrifices. It really does. But I feel at the end of the day my children are worth any sacrifice. We don't get to travel like I want to because of our small children and financial sacrifices. We don't have a lot of "stuff" some of my friends have but I have the knowledge that I gave all to my children and that's what brings me joy and peace. Some days I want to hand them off to the nearest person but I am at the end of the day so grateful for them. As I spoke in my talk today - they are both my greatest blessing and my biggest trial.
I love you dearly, my children. I was watching a nature show with your dad about lionesses protecting their cubs and how much they are willing to sacrifice so much for them. I hope at the end of the day you know how much I am willing to protect and sacrifice for you. That I love you to the ends of the earth and back.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Monday, May 7, 2012
Oops...April kind of disappeared...
Dearest Castillo Children,
I know, I know. I said I would be better. And I am really trying! Once again we ALL got sick. And I almost had another sinus infection. And Annalise had an ear infection. Yay. But once again we are all healthy and it is time to prepare for the wonderful summer we have planned together!
Since I last wrote your dad and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary. Like my cute, retired neighbors across the street (Don and Noreen) said: "You deserve a medal for that!" It was four years ago that we were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. What an amazing day. I hope that you all choose to be sealed in the temple. This is no place on this earth as lovely or special as the House of the Lord. How grateful I am that I was able to be married there and know that you are all sealed to me for eternity.
In April we went to the Zoo and that was wonderful! It was a really cool experience since we got to do a behind the scenes tour of the Zoo. We got to touch animals and see what they ate. It was really wonderful to get to look around the zoo and see the elephants! There were 3 adults and this little cute, baby elephant. Nora, silly enough, was in love with the ducks. The ducks! The one animal we can see almost anywhere and she wants to see the ducks. We also tried to feed the giraffes. Nora was, once again, scared to feed them. This Zoo lets you feed them carrots and Nora took one look at the long, black tongue and threw the carrot at the giraffe. HA! Whereas, Annalise, while in her stroller, kept reaching out to touch them. I should have let her feed one. Maybe next time we go. It still made me laugh.
Annalise went to her 15 month check up appointment with her doctor. She was in the 50th percent for weight (which has been really consistent) and then they said the 70th for height. What?!? Annalise is SO tall. I think she got the Castillo's side height gene. So they re-measured her and she came up with the 97th %, which it has been for her last few appointments. Other than the ear infection she's health and growing beautiful. I asked the Doctor about Nora's scar on her nose. She had a little fight with her friend Dryden and now she has a little scar on the bridge of her nose. I sure hope it hope it doesn't scar permenantly. It's in the worse spot. I think I need to get some stuff to put on it. I don't want Nora mad about a scar that stuck around.
Your dad and I have been on a home improvement kick! Your dad took a few days off of work and dedicated three to four days to re-finishing our piano. We love our piano. We bought it when Nora was really little. We bought it off of Craigslist for $250 and it's from about 1929. (According to Todd's research of the piano brand and style) It was cracking and a little beat up. There was one place where it was a little more protected and it was shiny and beautiful. Todd said he thought he could bring it back to that again. Wow...it's not done yet but it's going to be BEAUTIFUL. A family heirloom for sure. I can't wait to see it finally done. I, however, brought new curtains, made a stand to put signs on for the front door, and am currently working on re-finish some chairs for the front porch. I love doing projects! Makes me feel so satisfied.
Nora has started to use her imagination! One morning, when I went to room to get her up, she yells that there is a witch and starts to "chase" after her. Nora LOVES Halloween. Anything Halloween related she gets to excited about it. Nora also told me while we were eating lunch that there was a caterpillar under the table. She then reached down under the table and told me that she was tickling the caterpillar. I thought I was going to die from all the cuteness!
Well, my beautiful little babies, I hope this month will be full of better health and wonderful learning moments. I love you so much.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
I know, I know. I said I would be better. And I am really trying! Once again we ALL got sick. And I almost had another sinus infection. And Annalise had an ear infection. Yay. But once again we are all healthy and it is time to prepare for the wonderful summer we have planned together!
Since I last wrote your dad and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary. Like my cute, retired neighbors across the street (Don and Noreen) said: "You deserve a medal for that!" It was four years ago that we were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. What an amazing day. I hope that you all choose to be sealed in the temple. This is no place on this earth as lovely or special as the House of the Lord. How grateful I am that I was able to be married there and know that you are all sealed to me for eternity.
In April we went to the Zoo and that was wonderful! It was a really cool experience since we got to do a behind the scenes tour of the Zoo. We got to touch animals and see what they ate. It was really wonderful to get to look around the zoo and see the elephants! There were 3 adults and this little cute, baby elephant. Nora, silly enough, was in love with the ducks. The ducks! The one animal we can see almost anywhere and she wants to see the ducks. We also tried to feed the giraffes. Nora was, once again, scared to feed them. This Zoo lets you feed them carrots and Nora took one look at the long, black tongue and threw the carrot at the giraffe. HA! Whereas, Annalise, while in her stroller, kept reaching out to touch them. I should have let her feed one. Maybe next time we go. It still made me laugh.
Annalise went to her 15 month check up appointment with her doctor. She was in the 50th percent for weight (which has been really consistent) and then they said the 70th for height. What?!? Annalise is SO tall. I think she got the Castillo's side height gene. So they re-measured her and she came up with the 97th %, which it has been for her last few appointments. Other than the ear infection she's health and growing beautiful. I asked the Doctor about Nora's scar on her nose. She had a little fight with her friend Dryden and now she has a little scar on the bridge of her nose. I sure hope it hope it doesn't scar permenantly. It's in the worse spot. I think I need to get some stuff to put on it. I don't want Nora mad about a scar that stuck around.
Your dad and I have been on a home improvement kick! Your dad took a few days off of work and dedicated three to four days to re-finishing our piano. We love our piano. We bought it when Nora was really little. We bought it off of Craigslist for $250 and it's from about 1929. (According to Todd's research of the piano brand and style) It was cracking and a little beat up. There was one place where it was a little more protected and it was shiny and beautiful. Todd said he thought he could bring it back to that again. Wow...it's not done yet but it's going to be BEAUTIFUL. A family heirloom for sure. I can't wait to see it finally done. I, however, brought new curtains, made a stand to put signs on for the front door, and am currently working on re-finish some chairs for the front porch. I love doing projects! Makes me feel so satisfied.
Nora has started to use her imagination! One morning, when I went to room to get her up, she yells that there is a witch and starts to "chase" after her. Nora LOVES Halloween. Anything Halloween related she gets to excited about it. Nora also told me while we were eating lunch that there was a caterpillar under the table. She then reached down under the table and told me that she was tickling the caterpillar. I thought I was going to die from all the cuteness!
Well, my beautiful little babies, I hope this month will be full of better health and wonderful learning moments. I love you so much.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
Monday, April 9, 2012
English Shows, English Film Adaptations and English Muffins
Dearest Castillo Children,
Sadly, I got sick again and then got out of the habit of writing in the blog. :( So we have a huge gap in the blog. Sorry about that. I hate that I missed so much of all the super cute things you guys do. Really, it's everyday that you do something that just melts my heart. Then you do something that makes me want to pull my hair out. About 50/50, really. :) I have been occupying myself with my latest obsessions: Downton Abbey (PBS show), Jane Austin Film Adapations, Bronte sister novels and English muffins. I think I am telling myself I need to go to London. ;)
This last weekend was Easter. Your Aunt Dianna flew in from New York and she was kind enough to drive down with Grandma and Grandpa. I was so happy that they came because I couldn't go up to Phx to visit for Easter since I am in charge of the choir and we were singing on Easter Sunday. They drove down and brought their old patio table so we can have dinners outside. I am so excited for it! It needs some new paint and a little TLC but I think it will be an awesome thing for our family. We got it 3 days ago and have already used it twice. Of course, this is the perfect time of year to eat outside. The first night we ate outside Nora did the sweetest thing. After we ate your dad had put both of you girls in the little swings we have on the porch. While swinging Nora looks over at me and says, without anyone prompting her - mind you, Thank you Mommy for a wonderful dinner and day. What!? I seriously almost cried. I'm glad Todd was there to witness it because it was pure sweet, awesome baby goodness.
My dad also helped my put up my glass tile back splash. It was funny since I was helping my dad and we kept joking that I could tell people that I put up the back splash and Todd didn't help at all. Of course, your dad did end up helping, so I can't say that now. Neither your dad or I have ever laid tile before so it was a fun experience. It's always fun to try something new. We both were pretty good at it. Well, my dad watched Todd do a line and said; "he's a natural". He then watched me and said; "let me fix this...". That's okay. We both got pretty good at it. I LOVE the way it turned out. Makes my cheap kitchen look more expensive. Now to talk my husband into letting me paint or replace the cabinets...
It was great having my sister here. I only get to see her once or twice a year so it meant a lot to me that she was willing to come down and visit me. We did some Easter activities while they were here. We went to a little Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood. It was really simple. They had an area roped off for little kids to gather 10 eggs. So Nora and Annalise went in and we took pictures. The best part was that Annalise picked up 2 eggs, one in each hand, and then tried to get more and kept dropping the ones she had. The whole, put the eggs in the basket thing was a little difficult to grasp. Nora, on the other hand, loved picking up eggs and went well over her limit of 10. It was okay, Grandpa stood there to make sure that she only got 10. He'd throw some out of the basket when she looked away. Nora also got a Snow White temporary tattoo on her arm. It hasn't come off yet. She went to church with this big Snow White on her arm. Pretty funny.
We ate out a lot with my family and just enjoyed hanging out. I wish I could see them more often. Nora was so sad after they left. She kept asking for them. My girls are really lucky since they have two great sets of Grandparents. I was telling someone that usually there is the normal side and the crazy side of your family but with Todd and me both sides are loud, crazy people. There is no normal for my poor children. But the Castillo-awesomeness will continue!
Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny left Nora and Annalise some candy, one pink (Nora's) bunny stuff animal, one purple (Annalise's) bunny stuff animal and two Disney Princess toy dolls. They are really small and come with a silicon dresses. Anyway, when Nora saw the baskets she went immediately to the princesses and had me open the packaging. Annalise only wanted to candy. I tried to show her the stuff animal but she kept pushing it aside to get to the Peeps. Once Nora played with her princesses she was all about the candy. Man, craziness! I had to separate her from the candy. Both of my girls have a sugar tooth! I do, too. They had learned the day before about the eggs hiding candy. Anytime Annalise saw an egg the whole day she cried for it. Momma didn't raise no fool.
The weekend before was General Conference and Todd took you girls up to Phx for Saturday afternoon until the following Sunday. I have learned being alone on a Sunday is horrible. You can't run errands, you can't watch tv, you can't even do projects around the house. I missed my babies terribly that day! Sunday is all about family for me. Being alone was so sad! I was so happy to have my little ones back in my home. Oh, and I missed your dad, too. :)
It was actually a year ago to the day (March 31) that I hit my lowest of my Post Partum Depression. It's difficult to think about now. I hope you two know all about it and are prepared for the possibility of going through it. I'm in such a good place now. I love life, I love my children and I'm happy to have more days on this beautiful earth. Those things were sadly not true a year ago. How glad I am for all the angels (both alive and those from across the veil) that helped me through it. We really can be angels in each other lives. I hope you learn that in this life. We are sent here to help each other through this difficult time away from our Father.
I also got to go to the temple with some sister in my ward in this last month. That was a great experience. I was starting to think I would have to cut back on my temple attendance since the journey with two small children is SO draining. But then some women in my ward organized a trip and I was able to go and had a WONDERFUL time. I love going to the temple.
Well, I know I forgot a ton of cute stories and happy moments. Hopefully you'll know that you are both so loved. I'm glad I get to be your guide through this time in your life. We really are sisters, but I have the special privilege to be your mother. Thank you for that chance and please be forgiving. I am learning, too.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sadly, I got sick again and then got out of the habit of writing in the blog. :( So we have a huge gap in the blog. Sorry about that. I hate that I missed so much of all the super cute things you guys do. Really, it's everyday that you do something that just melts my heart. Then you do something that makes me want to pull my hair out. About 50/50, really. :) I have been occupying myself with my latest obsessions: Downton Abbey (PBS show), Jane Austin Film Adapations, Bronte sister novels and English muffins. I think I am telling myself I need to go to London. ;)
This last weekend was Easter. Your Aunt Dianna flew in from New York and she was kind enough to drive down with Grandma and Grandpa. I was so happy that they came because I couldn't go up to Phx to visit for Easter since I am in charge of the choir and we were singing on Easter Sunday. They drove down and brought their old patio table so we can have dinners outside. I am so excited for it! It needs some new paint and a little TLC but I think it will be an awesome thing for our family. We got it 3 days ago and have already used it twice. Of course, this is the perfect time of year to eat outside. The first night we ate outside Nora did the sweetest thing. After we ate your dad had put both of you girls in the little swings we have on the porch. While swinging Nora looks over at me and says, without anyone prompting her - mind you, Thank you Mommy for a wonderful dinner and day. What!? I seriously almost cried. I'm glad Todd was there to witness it because it was pure sweet, awesome baby goodness.
My dad also helped my put up my glass tile back splash. It was funny since I was helping my dad and we kept joking that I could tell people that I put up the back splash and Todd didn't help at all. Of course, your dad did end up helping, so I can't say that now. Neither your dad or I have ever laid tile before so it was a fun experience. It's always fun to try something new. We both were pretty good at it. Well, my dad watched Todd do a line and said; "he's a natural". He then watched me and said; "let me fix this...". That's okay. We both got pretty good at it. I LOVE the way it turned out. Makes my cheap kitchen look more expensive. Now to talk my husband into letting me paint or replace the cabinets...
It was great having my sister here. I only get to see her once or twice a year so it meant a lot to me that she was willing to come down and visit me. We did some Easter activities while they were here. We went to a little Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood. It was really simple. They had an area roped off for little kids to gather 10 eggs. So Nora and Annalise went in and we took pictures. The best part was that Annalise picked up 2 eggs, one in each hand, and then tried to get more and kept dropping the ones she had. The whole, put the eggs in the basket thing was a little difficult to grasp. Nora, on the other hand, loved picking up eggs and went well over her limit of 10. It was okay, Grandpa stood there to make sure that she only got 10. He'd throw some out of the basket when she looked away. Nora also got a Snow White temporary tattoo on her arm. It hasn't come off yet. She went to church with this big Snow White on her arm. Pretty funny.
We ate out a lot with my family and just enjoyed hanging out. I wish I could see them more often. Nora was so sad after they left. She kept asking for them. My girls are really lucky since they have two great sets of Grandparents. I was telling someone that usually there is the normal side and the crazy side of your family but with Todd and me both sides are loud, crazy people. There is no normal for my poor children. But the Castillo-awesomeness will continue!
Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny left Nora and Annalise some candy, one pink (Nora's) bunny stuff animal, one purple (Annalise's) bunny stuff animal and two Disney Princess toy dolls. They are really small and come with a silicon dresses. Anyway, when Nora saw the baskets she went immediately to the princesses and had me open the packaging. Annalise only wanted to candy. I tried to show her the stuff animal but she kept pushing it aside to get to the Peeps. Once Nora played with her princesses she was all about the candy. Man, craziness! I had to separate her from the candy. Both of my girls have a sugar tooth! I do, too. They had learned the day before about the eggs hiding candy. Anytime Annalise saw an egg the whole day she cried for it. Momma didn't raise no fool.
The weekend before was General Conference and Todd took you girls up to Phx for Saturday afternoon until the following Sunday. I have learned being alone on a Sunday is horrible. You can't run errands, you can't watch tv, you can't even do projects around the house. I missed my babies terribly that day! Sunday is all about family for me. Being alone was so sad! I was so happy to have my little ones back in my home. Oh, and I missed your dad, too. :)
It was actually a year ago to the day (March 31) that I hit my lowest of my Post Partum Depression. It's difficult to think about now. I hope you two know all about it and are prepared for the possibility of going through it. I'm in such a good place now. I love life, I love my children and I'm happy to have more days on this beautiful earth. Those things were sadly not true a year ago. How glad I am for all the angels (both alive and those from across the veil) that helped me through it. We really can be angels in each other lives. I hope you learn that in this life. We are sent here to help each other through this difficult time away from our Father.
I also got to go to the temple with some sister in my ward in this last month. That was a great experience. I was starting to think I would have to cut back on my temple attendance since the journey with two small children is SO draining. But then some women in my ward organized a trip and I was able to go and had a WONDERFUL time. I love going to the temple.
Well, I know I forgot a ton of cute stories and happy moments. Hopefully you'll know that you are both so loved. I'm glad I get to be your guide through this time in your life. We really are sisters, but I have the special privilege to be your mother. Thank you for that chance and please be forgiving. I am learning, too.
With Love,
Your Mother
Monday, March 12, 2012
To Sing a Song of Christ
Dearest Castillo Children,
We had kind of a rough week in the old Castillo household. We struggled a lot with illness this week. I've been thinking about it: between illness and super cold, windy weather we haven't played outside in weeks. I think that is just wrong to have kids cooped up that long. We need to all get healthy so we can enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather before it gets too hot to do anything. Luckily, I have an awesome summer planned for us. Nora and I will go watch a movie every Monday while Annalise is with a friend. Tuesdays we'll go play at the pool. Wednesday needs to be our clean house and maybe go see friends days. Thursday we'll go to reading time at the library. Fridays maybe we'll swim again or get a membership to the Children's Museum. It might change or evolve but right now that's what I'm thinking. Annalise will be old enough to not need a morning nap so we can actually do stuff together! YAY!
This week mostly consisted of me getting a song ready to sing for a Relief Society activity. I was asked to prepare a song with about a week's notice. Unfortunately, I didn't know the song and the accompaniment for the song didn't really have my notes in it. My piano teacher, Amber, was the one to help me with the song. She basically had to write another part to the accompaniment so I could stay on key. I went over to her house everyday this last week to prepare. Her little girl Reese just loved to have Nora over to visit. It was so cute to watch the two of them together. Sadly, Annalise was a little bit of a grump and didn't want to play to nice with her little boy Carter. She's been teething and running a fever for most of the week.
I really loved the words of the song I got to sing. There was one line that was my favorite, which also happened to have a high F in it to make it even more impressive. It was: "And I know the Lord is there to guide me, for He hears my prayers and knows my name". I felt the spirit just sing with me at that line. So true! Before I left to go to sing I told Nora to say: Break a leg! She looked at me like I said the meanest thing in the whole world. It was a look of horror. I guess she didn't want me to break a leg. That's good. When I sang on Thursday my voice was finally healed from the swollen throat and sinus infections. Then came the vomiting...but that comes later.
Todd volunteered to help out in the nursery during our Relief Society activity. Of course, the nursery is just a pit of disease. The next day Annalise was whinny and crazy. After dinner, in which Todd forced Annalise to eat her dinner, she threw up all over me and the kitchen floor. We thought it was just because she was teething and maybe just feeling a little down because of it. Then Nora threw up all over her bedroom the next morning. Yep. The stomach bug descended on the our little household. What makes it worse - Todd and I were suppose to talk in church about the Temple. I had to cancel Choir practice and we asked if it would be okay for me to talk on another day. Nora threw up again on Sunday morning and I felt horrible with some bad sinus stuff. Fun. On the plus side I got to read my new book all day and it was really good. It was called Divergent. This morning I woke up and was sick. Yay. Thanks whoever brought their sick kid to nursery. I figure if they needed to get out of the house so badly that they needed to bring their sick kids with them, then I can handle a little illness. That's what being a mom of small kids is all about, right?
Nora has started this really cute new thing. Whenever she likes something she says that it is her favorite. I was vacuuming the floors and Nora ran up to the vacuum and said it was her favorite vacuum. I'm sure all the other vacuums will be jealous. Annalise continues to learn words at an alarming rate. She isn't 14 months yet and she can say a number of things. Her new favorite is "I want that". She says it all like it is one word. She must have gotten it from Nora. Annalise really does seem to have a talent for hearing language. A part of me wonders if I should try to teach her how to speak other languages. I think she'd be really good at them. She'll repeat words and I can completely understand her. It's kind of amazing.
Tonight we had Family Home Evening and we made Carmel Corn as our treat. It cooled while the girls took their baths so they got to eat some when they were all done. I asked Nora if she had a nice bath. She said she did. She said, "You wash your face. You wash your feet. You wash your Annalise. And you eat some popcorn!" Our activity for tonight was putting both girls in a laundry basket and pushing them around while they giggled. Man, the simple things in life are always the best.
I love you my little beauties. I just love being with your sweet faces.
With Love,
Your Mother
We had kind of a rough week in the old Castillo household. We struggled a lot with illness this week. I've been thinking about it: between illness and super cold, windy weather we haven't played outside in weeks. I think that is just wrong to have kids cooped up that long. We need to all get healthy so we can enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather before it gets too hot to do anything. Luckily, I have an awesome summer planned for us. Nora and I will go watch a movie every Monday while Annalise is with a friend. Tuesdays we'll go play at the pool. Wednesday needs to be our clean house and maybe go see friends days. Thursday we'll go to reading time at the library. Fridays maybe we'll swim again or get a membership to the Children's Museum. It might change or evolve but right now that's what I'm thinking. Annalise will be old enough to not need a morning nap so we can actually do stuff together! YAY!
This week mostly consisted of me getting a song ready to sing for a Relief Society activity. I was asked to prepare a song with about a week's notice. Unfortunately, I didn't know the song and the accompaniment for the song didn't really have my notes in it. My piano teacher, Amber, was the one to help me with the song. She basically had to write another part to the accompaniment so I could stay on key. I went over to her house everyday this last week to prepare. Her little girl Reese just loved to have Nora over to visit. It was so cute to watch the two of them together. Sadly, Annalise was a little bit of a grump and didn't want to play to nice with her little boy Carter. She's been teething and running a fever for most of the week.
I really loved the words of the song I got to sing. There was one line that was my favorite, which also happened to have a high F in it to make it even more impressive. It was: "And I know the Lord is there to guide me, for He hears my prayers and knows my name". I felt the spirit just sing with me at that line. So true! Before I left to go to sing I told Nora to say: Break a leg! She looked at me like I said the meanest thing in the whole world. It was a look of horror. I guess she didn't want me to break a leg. That's good. When I sang on Thursday my voice was finally healed from the swollen throat and sinus infections. Then came the vomiting...but that comes later.
Todd volunteered to help out in the nursery during our Relief Society activity. Of course, the nursery is just a pit of disease. The next day Annalise was whinny and crazy. After dinner, in which Todd forced Annalise to eat her dinner, she threw up all over me and the kitchen floor. We thought it was just because she was teething and maybe just feeling a little down because of it. Then Nora threw up all over her bedroom the next morning. Yep. The stomach bug descended on the our little household. What makes it worse - Todd and I were suppose to talk in church about the Temple. I had to cancel Choir practice and we asked if it would be okay for me to talk on another day. Nora threw up again on Sunday morning and I felt horrible with some bad sinus stuff. Fun. On the plus side I got to read my new book all day and it was really good. It was called Divergent. This morning I woke up and was sick. Yay. Thanks whoever brought their sick kid to nursery. I figure if they needed to get out of the house so badly that they needed to bring their sick kids with them, then I can handle a little illness. That's what being a mom of small kids is all about, right?
Nora has started this really cute new thing. Whenever she likes something she says that it is her favorite. I was vacuuming the floors and Nora ran up to the vacuum and said it was her favorite vacuum. I'm sure all the other vacuums will be jealous. Annalise continues to learn words at an alarming rate. She isn't 14 months yet and she can say a number of things. Her new favorite is "I want that". She says it all like it is one word. She must have gotten it from Nora. Annalise really does seem to have a talent for hearing language. A part of me wonders if I should try to teach her how to speak other languages. I think she'd be really good at them. She'll repeat words and I can completely understand her. It's kind of amazing.
Tonight we had Family Home Evening and we made Carmel Corn as our treat. It cooled while the girls took their baths so they got to eat some when they were all done. I asked Nora if she had a nice bath. She said she did. She said, "You wash your face. You wash your feet. You wash your Annalise. And you eat some popcorn!" Our activity for tonight was putting both girls in a laundry basket and pushing them around while they giggled. Man, the simple things in life are always the best.
I love you my little beauties. I just love being with your sweet faces.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Throw Up Baby
Dearest Castillo Children,
Hello, my sweethearts. This week we didn't do much since I was playing catch up from being sick all the week before. It is amazing how gross your house can become when you haven't been able to clean it for two weeks. Sadly, I still didn't do all the cleaning so it is still really gross. The bathrooms are in a desperate need of a scrub and the kitchen floor needs to be mopped in the worse way. Hopefully I'll get to those things soon!
Wednesday was Leap Day! We got to have an extra day this year to do whatever we want! I didn't really take advantage of Leap Day this year. I'm hoping for the next Leap Day to do something really fun and different. Maybe take the girls somewhere or do something kinda crazy. Nora will be 6 1/2 and Annalise 5, so I'll look into some kind of experience for us to do that is age appropriate. A lot of TV shows talked about how we have an extra day and we should really live it up!
Sadly, my Leap Day meant I needed to get my ovaries checked again since my lovely cyst bursting in January. I'm still waiting to hear about my test results. I'm really hoping it was a freak thing and that the rest of my ovaries are just fine. I would hate to add difficulty getting pregnant to my long list of complications in having children. I'll have to wait to hear back from the doctor. At least Todd came home early from work so I could go to my appointment. After, we ended up going up to Tucson to shop at Burlington Coat Factory to buy Annalise's a new front ward facing car seat. I was so excited to get her in a new seat since she got so car sick the other week. Sadly, it didn't seem to help. On the bright side we got to eat at Chipotle, which is always delicious. I then had a piano lesson that night. I was asked early in the day to do a solo for a church Relief Society activity with my piano teacher, Amber, playing along with me. So we did our lesson and then worked on the song. I really wish it was an easier song - or that I had more time to prepare. Oh well, I'll try my best. That's all I can really do. We were also asked to speak in church next Sunday about the temple. I'm afraid everyone is going to get sick of seeing me. Or maybe it will remind them to come to choir. Either way.
I decided to drive up to Surprise to visit some family and to celebrate with my dear friend Janeal (one of the reasons we gave Annalise the middle name of Geniel - my friend and Todd' grandmother). Janeal just turned 30 and the week before I was suppose to go up there to celebrate with her, but I was too sick to drive. So I made the almost 3 hour drive up to see her and show her how much I love her. Seriously, only for family or close friends am I willing to make that drive. ESPECIALLY with little ones. Annalise got car sick about half an hour away from my parent's house. Eww. She ate a bunch of goldfish crackers and they ended up all over her shirt and her brand new car seat. I had to make the parent decision of: do I stop and try to clean her up, or do I just keep going? I decided that stopping at a gas station to clean her up would be really difficult with Nora there. So she sat for an half an hour in her throw up until we got to the house. Luckily, it wasn't horrible smelling or I would have cried.
That night I decided to leave the car seat mess until I could get to it the next day. I went out to dinner with Janeal and our good friend Erin. I only get to see those girls once or twice a year so it meant a great deal to me to get to to see them. While I was out having a fabulous time Nora and Annalise got to play with my parents. Wow, they got spoiled! Candy? Yes. Stay up late? Yes. I can see why my daughter always asks to go see one or both sets of grandparents. But it is their right as grandparents to do that, so I don't mind. Nora just LOVES my mom. My mom had to leave Saturday morning to go to a church thing and Nora just cried and cried. And when it came time for her to lay down for a nap she didn't want Mommy to snuggle her - she wanted Grandma. The girls both really enjoyed getting to play outside and be with my parents. I just wish we lived closer so we could see them more often.
My friends Janeal and Erin are friends that where we would not see each other for years, but when we see each other again it is like no time has gone by. Sure, we've had kids and have matured (sort of...) and been married and all that jazz, but we still seem to just get each other. I miss having friends like that. I really love the people where I live but sometimes I miss having that best friend. That person who just totally gets you and when you're being a dork they have no problem acting like one too. That laugh loudly at your jokes, just as you laugh loudly at their jokes. I miss being that close to someone who gets me. It's hard making friends as an adult, I have decided. You don't have a lot of time to invest in friendships but they are so vital.
On Saturday I finally tackled the mess that was the car seat. Since it was new I had NO clue how to take it a part to clean it. Man, I pulled and pushed and screamed trying to get the stupid thing a part. Believe me, I had the booklet of instructions. Those things are so horrible it might as well be in another language. It took me all morning to take it a part, wash and then dry all the pieces, and finally, finally reassemble the chair. I didn't get to go to the temple, see Kristine or visit Ikea like I wanted. I'm the Momma, and I have to take care of the sick babies. I know that is just something that is a part of the job description. I just sort of wished Todd was there to clean it up for me. :)
Today at church I got to wear my pretty, new, white, $10 dress. Love it! I realized half way through church I was very brave to wear white with two small children. Nora insisted on wearing her red sparkle shoes to church with her puffy pink dress. Ahh, fashion choices of a 2 year old. I should be happy that she doesn't completely insist on going in her pajamas. She loves her PJs and refuses to take them off everyday. I basically have to peal them off of her. We also had some friends over for dinner tonight. Todd made some amazing steaks with savory butter. What's that? Awesome? Yes, it was. I ate way too much. While were we cleaning up my friend asked me if I planned to stay in Sahuarita. I said no for the first time. I would really love to move up to Mesa. I think I would be happy with Tucson (eventhough I hate the city...) if there way a temple here. The drive up to Mesa is so long and hard on me and my very little girls. If I could move to Mesa tomorrow I would be packing up my bags tonight. Only the Lord can take something like that happen, however.
Well, my little beauties, I'm off to bed. We didn't sleep at all at Grandma and Grandpa's this weekend and we are so exhausted. Nora even cried and asked to be put back to bed around noon. But we had church at 2 so she didn't even get a real nap. Here's to hoping she's not a monster tomorrow. (Oh, who am I kidding! Here's to hoping I'M not a monster tomorrow. )
With Love,
Your Mother
Hello, my sweethearts. This week we didn't do much since I was playing catch up from being sick all the week before. It is amazing how gross your house can become when you haven't been able to clean it for two weeks. Sadly, I still didn't do all the cleaning so it is still really gross. The bathrooms are in a desperate need of a scrub and the kitchen floor needs to be mopped in the worse way. Hopefully I'll get to those things soon!
Wednesday was Leap Day! We got to have an extra day this year to do whatever we want! I didn't really take advantage of Leap Day this year. I'm hoping for the next Leap Day to do something really fun and different. Maybe take the girls somewhere or do something kinda crazy. Nora will be 6 1/2 and Annalise 5, so I'll look into some kind of experience for us to do that is age appropriate. A lot of TV shows talked about how we have an extra day and we should really live it up!
Sadly, my Leap Day meant I needed to get my ovaries checked again since my lovely cyst bursting in January. I'm still waiting to hear about my test results. I'm really hoping it was a freak thing and that the rest of my ovaries are just fine. I would hate to add difficulty getting pregnant to my long list of complications in having children. I'll have to wait to hear back from the doctor. At least Todd came home early from work so I could go to my appointment. After, we ended up going up to Tucson to shop at Burlington Coat Factory to buy Annalise's a new front ward facing car seat. I was so excited to get her in a new seat since she got so car sick the other week. Sadly, it didn't seem to help. On the bright side we got to eat at Chipotle, which is always delicious. I then had a piano lesson that night. I was asked early in the day to do a solo for a church Relief Society activity with my piano teacher, Amber, playing along with me. So we did our lesson and then worked on the song. I really wish it was an easier song - or that I had more time to prepare. Oh well, I'll try my best. That's all I can really do. We were also asked to speak in church next Sunday about the temple. I'm afraid everyone is going to get sick of seeing me. Or maybe it will remind them to come to choir. Either way.
I decided to drive up to Surprise to visit some family and to celebrate with my dear friend Janeal (one of the reasons we gave Annalise the middle name of Geniel - my friend and Todd' grandmother). Janeal just turned 30 and the week before I was suppose to go up there to celebrate with her, but I was too sick to drive. So I made the almost 3 hour drive up to see her and show her how much I love her. Seriously, only for family or close friends am I willing to make that drive. ESPECIALLY with little ones. Annalise got car sick about half an hour away from my parent's house. Eww. She ate a bunch of goldfish crackers and they ended up all over her shirt and her brand new car seat. I had to make the parent decision of: do I stop and try to clean her up, or do I just keep going? I decided that stopping at a gas station to clean her up would be really difficult with Nora there. So she sat for an half an hour in her throw up until we got to the house. Luckily, it wasn't horrible smelling or I would have cried.
That night I decided to leave the car seat mess until I could get to it the next day. I went out to dinner with Janeal and our good friend Erin. I only get to see those girls once or twice a year so it meant a great deal to me to get to to see them. While I was out having a fabulous time Nora and Annalise got to play with my parents. Wow, they got spoiled! Candy? Yes. Stay up late? Yes. I can see why my daughter always asks to go see one or both sets of grandparents. But it is their right as grandparents to do that, so I don't mind. Nora just LOVES my mom. My mom had to leave Saturday morning to go to a church thing and Nora just cried and cried. And when it came time for her to lay down for a nap she didn't want Mommy to snuggle her - she wanted Grandma. The girls both really enjoyed getting to play outside and be with my parents. I just wish we lived closer so we could see them more often.
My friends Janeal and Erin are friends that where we would not see each other for years, but when we see each other again it is like no time has gone by. Sure, we've had kids and have matured (sort of...) and been married and all that jazz, but we still seem to just get each other. I miss having friends like that. I really love the people where I live but sometimes I miss having that best friend. That person who just totally gets you and when you're being a dork they have no problem acting like one too. That laugh loudly at your jokes, just as you laugh loudly at their jokes. I miss being that close to someone who gets me. It's hard making friends as an adult, I have decided. You don't have a lot of time to invest in friendships but they are so vital.
On Saturday I finally tackled the mess that was the car seat. Since it was new I had NO clue how to take it a part to clean it. Man, I pulled and pushed and screamed trying to get the stupid thing a part. Believe me, I had the booklet of instructions. Those things are so horrible it might as well be in another language. It took me all morning to take it a part, wash and then dry all the pieces, and finally, finally reassemble the chair. I didn't get to go to the temple, see Kristine or visit Ikea like I wanted. I'm the Momma, and I have to take care of the sick babies. I know that is just something that is a part of the job description. I just sort of wished Todd was there to clean it up for me. :)
Today at church I got to wear my pretty, new, white, $10 dress. Love it! I realized half way through church I was very brave to wear white with two small children. Nora insisted on wearing her red sparkle shoes to church with her puffy pink dress. Ahh, fashion choices of a 2 year old. I should be happy that she doesn't completely insist on going in her pajamas. She loves her PJs and refuses to take them off everyday. I basically have to peal them off of her. We also had some friends over for dinner tonight. Todd made some amazing steaks with savory butter. What's that? Awesome? Yes, it was. I ate way too much. While were we cleaning up my friend asked me if I planned to stay in Sahuarita. I said no for the first time. I would really love to move up to Mesa. I think I would be happy with Tucson (eventhough I hate the city...) if there way a temple here. The drive up to Mesa is so long and hard on me and my very little girls. If I could move to Mesa tomorrow I would be packing up my bags tonight. Only the Lord can take something like that happen, however.
Well, my little beauties, I'm off to bed. We didn't sleep at all at Grandma and Grandpa's this weekend and we are so exhausted. Nora even cried and asked to be put back to bed around noon. But we had church at 2 so she didn't even get a real nap. Here's to hoping she's not a monster tomorrow. (Oh, who am I kidding! Here's to hoping I'M not a monster tomorrow. )
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, February 26, 2012
The Illness Almost Won
Dearest Castillo Children,
Sadly, I have no letter for you for last week. I became horribly ill on Sunday afternoon. My throat swelled up and I couldn't eat. I ended up only being able to drink water and some egg drop soup that I made. Sadly also, you two were sick and we didn't do much. The week before it had been raining a lot. The weather decided to take a turn for the worse for about a week. It was like the weather wanted one more "I'm winter!" moment before it finally gave way to spring. We'll see if that lasts or not. Since this week was mostly us being sick, I'll focus more on the week before. That is if I can remember it....
The most fun activity of the week before was Valentine's Day. I decided to go with an Asian theme for our meal that night. I went and bought some paper lanterns from a party supply store and we got some take out from our favorite all you can eat Chinese place. (I don't really understand WHY I am obsessed with it lately) I also decided to buy 4 large heart balloons at the dollar store for you girls to play with for a few days. Those balloons are still full of air a full 2 weeks later. Thank you dollar store. I dressed Annalise up in her little Asian outfit from Chinatown in New York and I put on my Chinese dress that I have. (I think the real reason I went with an Asian theme is because I could fit into that dress again.) Nora wore a shirt with Anime characters on it that I got at a garage sale. Not as cool, I admit; sorry Nora. :) When Todd came home we ate and then did presents. Nora and Annalise got little princess dolls with changing plastic outfits and Todd got a video game of Destroy All Humans. I got a gift from Daddy that is between just him and me. When we got up that morning Todd had already left for work and he left little gifts for the girls to enjoy. A small bear and a little box of chocolates. Man, you guys loved them. Especially the chocolate. I was funny to watch how differently you ate them. Annalise would just pop the whole thing into her mouth, while Nora would slowly lick hers. It's not very often you get to have a whole piece of chocolate to yourself.
February 14 is also Arizona's birthday! Arizona turned 100 years this year and it was wonderful to be here for it. I love Arizona. I have to admit I didn't always care for it. I wanted to be other places. However, the more I travel and the more I think about it Arizona is the perfect place for me. I never want to live in snow or humidity. Basically my only choice is the Southwest.
I got to do some Visiting Teaching and you guys were watched by my companion's daughters. You guys had so much fun with them. Playing on swings, playing princesses and blowing bubbles. We'll have to have them babysit for real sometime soon.
Last Sunday I started the ward choir. I really have been doing a lot of research, trying to learn as much as I can about vocal technique. I realized a lot of the stuff I covered is the really basic things - breathing correctly and how to stand properly when singing. We worked on some music and hopefully people liked it enough that they want to come back and do more. I have to take a moment to vent though - just a moment, I promise. I HATE when people are like: "We should have a choir" and "why don't we have a choir? Man, I wish we did". Yeah, those people don't show up for choir. Those people suck. The reason I did NOT want this calling is because I'm really at the mercy of others showing up. Any other calling it is built into church time but this one it is all volunteer at a time that isn't always the most convenient. There is no time that works for everyone. At least I have Todd there to help me. Doing this alone is even worse. At least I feel I am getting a lot out of it by learning and then teaching what I am learning. I think in a few years, when I am better at piano, I would like to teach vocal technique privately. I might look into doing that since I really enjoy that aspect of the calling so far.
The rest of the week of illness was a blur of stacked dishes and over flowing laundry baskets. Just when I thought we all beat the sore throat/runny noses I got a sinus infection. On Friday at 4pm. I basically would have had to wait the whole weekend before I could see a Doc. Luckily something worked out that SO helped and I was able to get some medicine. So, so, so grateful. I'm feeling pretty good on my meds that I got and am doing so much better.
There is a cute story about Nora that I'll share real fast. Nora isn't the typical 2 year old I have to admit. She is very careful with things and considerate. I didn't do anything to make that happen - she just came that way. An example of that is she got a hold of my red nail polish and painted her nails with it. With most 2 year olds you would imagine a horrible mess. Not with my Nora. She painted her nails and nothing else. She even replaced the cap and put the nail polish away. Yeah - two year olds don't really do that. Anyway, the other story is from today. Nora and Annalise were playing with a pink bouncy ball. I didn't see the whole thing but I heard a scuffle and then I saw Nora push Annalise down. No. Not happening. Time out. So Nora did her time out and is usually great and willing to do it. Afterward, when we had hugged and kissed and she new that pushing was wrong, Nora said that Annalise hit her on the head with the ball and that's why she pushed her. I told Nora that what Annalise did was wrong and she'll also need to go to time out for it. Nora looked up at me and said "No time out for Anna." I was surprised. Didn't she want her sister to pay for what she had done to her? I told her we had time outs for a reason and if Annalise did something wrong or "not nice" then she needs to go to time out. Nora insisted again that Annalise not go to time out. I was really moved how eventhough she was wronged too she didn't want her sister to suffer through a time out. I think things like that are why the Savior askes us to be like little children.
Well, here is to a better week for all of us! Love you, my most precious gifts.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sadly, I have no letter for you for last week. I became horribly ill on Sunday afternoon. My throat swelled up and I couldn't eat. I ended up only being able to drink water and some egg drop soup that I made. Sadly also, you two were sick and we didn't do much. The week before it had been raining a lot. The weather decided to take a turn for the worse for about a week. It was like the weather wanted one more "I'm winter!" moment before it finally gave way to spring. We'll see if that lasts or not. Since this week was mostly us being sick, I'll focus more on the week before. That is if I can remember it....
The most fun activity of the week before was Valentine's Day. I decided to go with an Asian theme for our meal that night. I went and bought some paper lanterns from a party supply store and we got some take out from our favorite all you can eat Chinese place. (I don't really understand WHY I am obsessed with it lately) I also decided to buy 4 large heart balloons at the dollar store for you girls to play with for a few days. Those balloons are still full of air a full 2 weeks later. Thank you dollar store. I dressed Annalise up in her little Asian outfit from Chinatown in New York and I put on my Chinese dress that I have. (I think the real reason I went with an Asian theme is because I could fit into that dress again.) Nora wore a shirt with Anime characters on it that I got at a garage sale. Not as cool, I admit; sorry Nora. :) When Todd came home we ate and then did presents. Nora and Annalise got little princess dolls with changing plastic outfits and Todd got a video game of Destroy All Humans. I got a gift from Daddy that is between just him and me. When we got up that morning Todd had already left for work and he left little gifts for the girls to enjoy. A small bear and a little box of chocolates. Man, you guys loved them. Especially the chocolate. I was funny to watch how differently you ate them. Annalise would just pop the whole thing into her mouth, while Nora would slowly lick hers. It's not very often you get to have a whole piece of chocolate to yourself.
February 14 is also Arizona's birthday! Arizona turned 100 years this year and it was wonderful to be here for it. I love Arizona. I have to admit I didn't always care for it. I wanted to be other places. However, the more I travel and the more I think about it Arizona is the perfect place for me. I never want to live in snow or humidity. Basically my only choice is the Southwest.
I got to do some Visiting Teaching and you guys were watched by my companion's daughters. You guys had so much fun with them. Playing on swings, playing princesses and blowing bubbles. We'll have to have them babysit for real sometime soon.
Last Sunday I started the ward choir. I really have been doing a lot of research, trying to learn as much as I can about vocal technique. I realized a lot of the stuff I covered is the really basic things - breathing correctly and how to stand properly when singing. We worked on some music and hopefully people liked it enough that they want to come back and do more. I have to take a moment to vent though - just a moment, I promise. I HATE when people are like: "We should have a choir" and "why don't we have a choir? Man, I wish we did". Yeah, those people don't show up for choir. Those people suck. The reason I did NOT want this calling is because I'm really at the mercy of others showing up. Any other calling it is built into church time but this one it is all volunteer at a time that isn't always the most convenient. There is no time that works for everyone. At least I have Todd there to help me. Doing this alone is even worse. At least I feel I am getting a lot out of it by learning and then teaching what I am learning. I think in a few years, when I am better at piano, I would like to teach vocal technique privately. I might look into doing that since I really enjoy that aspect of the calling so far.
The rest of the week of illness was a blur of stacked dishes and over flowing laundry baskets. Just when I thought we all beat the sore throat/runny noses I got a sinus infection. On Friday at 4pm. I basically would have had to wait the whole weekend before I could see a Doc. Luckily something worked out that SO helped and I was able to get some medicine. So, so, so grateful. I'm feeling pretty good on my meds that I got and am doing so much better.
There is a cute story about Nora that I'll share real fast. Nora isn't the typical 2 year old I have to admit. She is very careful with things and considerate. I didn't do anything to make that happen - she just came that way. An example of that is she got a hold of my red nail polish and painted her nails with it. With most 2 year olds you would imagine a horrible mess. Not with my Nora. She painted her nails and nothing else. She even replaced the cap and put the nail polish away. Yeah - two year olds don't really do that. Anyway, the other story is from today. Nora and Annalise were playing with a pink bouncy ball. I didn't see the whole thing but I heard a scuffle and then I saw Nora push Annalise down. No. Not happening. Time out. So Nora did her time out and is usually great and willing to do it. Afterward, when we had hugged and kissed and she new that pushing was wrong, Nora said that Annalise hit her on the head with the ball and that's why she pushed her. I told Nora that what Annalise did was wrong and she'll also need to go to time out for it. Nora looked up at me and said "No time out for Anna." I was surprised. Didn't she want her sister to pay for what she had done to her? I told her we had time outs for a reason and if Annalise did something wrong or "not nice" then she needs to go to time out. Nora insisted again that Annalise not go to time out. I was really moved how eventhough she was wronged too she didn't want her sister to suffer through a time out. I think things like that are why the Savior askes us to be like little children.
Well, here is to a better week for all of us! Love you, my most precious gifts.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Car Sick Baby
Dearest Castillo Children,
Another week my lovelies! Oh, and what it a week it was... On Monday we went out to do some shopping. I found these gorgeous glass tiles on clearance at Lowe's. They are usually 5 or 6 dollars for a 12x12 sheet but at Lowe's they were only 1.59 each. What!?! I had to convince your dad to let me buy them and to do a back splash in our kitchen with them. Love, love, LOVE. So I called the Lowe's on Monday morning to ask them how many they had. They told me that they only had a box left of them - about 21. I decided I needed more than that to do my projects so I started to call around to the other Lowe's in Tucson. Of course all the close ones were out of them but I found 12 more in a store far out on the east side of Tucson. Debating whether or not to drive that way I decided that if I didn't have enough of them there was no point in having any at all. So on the other side of Tucson (a 30 to 40 min. drive, by the way) Annalise starts to cough and then THROWS UP all over the back seat. We stop in the Lowe's parking lot and she does it again! What?! My poor baby! I keep some stuff in the car for emergencies - wipes, a spare outfit, diapers, bibs - and I was able to wipe her down and change her outfit. I wasn't, however, really able to clean up all the throw up. Especially since it was all over the baby seat and the car seat. Bah. I bought my tiles and decided that I already was out and I might as well finish up my errand. I usually do a ton of stuff on that side of town if I'm going to drive all the way out there. So instead I drive back toward Sahuarita to stop and get the last of the tiles from the Lowe's closest to us. I discover there that they had an whole second box of tiles. That basically I drove out there for nothing. AGH! Oh, well. I ended up buying both boxes and now I have no fear about not having enough. Any extras I plan to use in my laundry room. Excellent. I had to spend the rest of the day clean up throw up off of car seats (yes...Nora's seat also) and the car. Luckily we have leather so it was super easy to clean up...but it was still gross. It took a lot of work to get that smell out of the car.
While we were driving back from the super far away Lowe's (the car smelling of throw up the whole way...) I saw two interesting events that I feel really define Tucson for me. The first, an old lady pulling up next to me on the right said. Why is that significant? I was in the far right lane. Maybe she's turning? No. She decided the Bus Lane was a lane she could drive in and did so for about two miles before she finally turned right. Otherwise, I don't know how long she would have stayed in that lane. The second, as I was about to turn onto the freeway there were about 10 homeless people walking together in a group. What made this special was that it was almost like a homeless, hippie parade. They had their guitars and dogs with them. Oh, Tucson.
The rest of the week blurred together. I was really off of my game this week since I lost a day cleaning out my car. We went to Pilate's, and to the park. We had a picnic with some people from church and we played outside. Daddy put up a new plastic swing since Nora and Annalise fought over the other one. :) I got it online for a great price. So happy I found that! Daddy took the girls to the store on Friday so I could have some alone time and fixed the roof on Saturday. You're Dad is awesome girls. I sure hope you know that. I hope you understand exactly why I love him so much. He serves and serves. He loves the two of you without limits.
On Saturday night we decided to have a little date night to celebrate Valentine's Day. We went to this dance/dinner fund raiser and it was great! Babysitting was included and so we dropped you girlies off at the play area and we went to eat dinner. We got to dance for a few hours (which I love. Did you know that the first time I knew that I was completely in love with your father was while we were dancing?) and then picked our lovely babies up and went home.
Later that night your Aunt Geneva, Aunt Alicia, Uncle Eric and cousin Ellie showed up to stay the night. The came down to celebrate a dear friend that had passed away - your Uncle Jamie. You see, Jamie wasn't blood related but he was very much a part your dad's family. He died two years ago in a motorcycle accident. It was so sad - he left behind an amazing wife, your Aunt Jessie. I'm sure we'll show you pictures of him since he is in a lot of family pictures from when we were married in the temple. He is still deeply missed, but Heavenly Father had another plan for him. I know he is doing amazing work in heaven.
It's always nice to see family - I'm glad Ellie and Nora got to play a little before everyone headed home. I keep telling Todd that he should find a job in Mesa so we can go live there so you can be closer to your cousins. They are all just such amazing people.
The funniest thing that happened tonight was when Nora went to get the Book of Mormon for our scripture study. We started doing it so she could get use to the language of the scriptures. She has started to pull the Book of Mormon out and pretend to read it. Mostly she just says, "and it came to pass". So funny! We sing Scripture Power before we do our prayer for scripture study and Nora was making all these explosion noises while we were singing it. Todd and I couldn't help but laugh. Adorable.
Love You,
Always and Forever,
Your Mother
Another week my lovelies! Oh, and what it a week it was... On Monday we went out to do some shopping. I found these gorgeous glass tiles on clearance at Lowe's. They are usually 5 or 6 dollars for a 12x12 sheet but at Lowe's they were only 1.59 each. What!?! I had to convince your dad to let me buy them and to do a back splash in our kitchen with them. Love, love, LOVE. So I called the Lowe's on Monday morning to ask them how many they had. They told me that they only had a box left of them - about 21. I decided I needed more than that to do my projects so I started to call around to the other Lowe's in Tucson. Of course all the close ones were out of them but I found 12 more in a store far out on the east side of Tucson. Debating whether or not to drive that way I decided that if I didn't have enough of them there was no point in having any at all. So on the other side of Tucson (a 30 to 40 min. drive, by the way) Annalise starts to cough and then THROWS UP all over the back seat. We stop in the Lowe's parking lot and she does it again! What?! My poor baby! I keep some stuff in the car for emergencies - wipes, a spare outfit, diapers, bibs - and I was able to wipe her down and change her outfit. I wasn't, however, really able to clean up all the throw up. Especially since it was all over the baby seat and the car seat. Bah. I bought my tiles and decided that I already was out and I might as well finish up my errand. I usually do a ton of stuff on that side of town if I'm going to drive all the way out there. So instead I drive back toward Sahuarita to stop and get the last of the tiles from the Lowe's closest to us. I discover there that they had an whole second box of tiles. That basically I drove out there for nothing. AGH! Oh, well. I ended up buying both boxes and now I have no fear about not having enough. Any extras I plan to use in my laundry room. Excellent. I had to spend the rest of the day clean up throw up off of car seats (yes...Nora's seat also) and the car. Luckily we have leather so it was super easy to clean up...but it was still gross. It took a lot of work to get that smell out of the car.
While we were driving back from the super far away Lowe's (the car smelling of throw up the whole way...) I saw two interesting events that I feel really define Tucson for me. The first, an old lady pulling up next to me on the right said. Why is that significant? I was in the far right lane. Maybe she's turning? No. She decided the Bus Lane was a lane she could drive in and did so for about two miles before she finally turned right. Otherwise, I don't know how long she would have stayed in that lane. The second, as I was about to turn onto the freeway there were about 10 homeless people walking together in a group. What made this special was that it was almost like a homeless, hippie parade. They had their guitars and dogs with them. Oh, Tucson.
The rest of the week blurred together. I was really off of my game this week since I lost a day cleaning out my car. We went to Pilate's, and to the park. We had a picnic with some people from church and we played outside. Daddy put up a new plastic swing since Nora and Annalise fought over the other one. :) I got it online for a great price. So happy I found that! Daddy took the girls to the store on Friday so I could have some alone time and fixed the roof on Saturday. You're Dad is awesome girls. I sure hope you know that. I hope you understand exactly why I love him so much. He serves and serves. He loves the two of you without limits.
On Saturday night we decided to have a little date night to celebrate Valentine's Day. We went to this dance/dinner fund raiser and it was great! Babysitting was included and so we dropped you girlies off at the play area and we went to eat dinner. We got to dance for a few hours (which I love. Did you know that the first time I knew that I was completely in love with your father was while we were dancing?) and then picked our lovely babies up and went home.
Later that night your Aunt Geneva, Aunt Alicia, Uncle Eric and cousin Ellie showed up to stay the night. The came down to celebrate a dear friend that had passed away - your Uncle Jamie. You see, Jamie wasn't blood related but he was very much a part your dad's family. He died two years ago in a motorcycle accident. It was so sad - he left behind an amazing wife, your Aunt Jessie. I'm sure we'll show you pictures of him since he is in a lot of family pictures from when we were married in the temple. He is still deeply missed, but Heavenly Father had another plan for him. I know he is doing amazing work in heaven.
It's always nice to see family - I'm glad Ellie and Nora got to play a little before everyone headed home. I keep telling Todd that he should find a job in Mesa so we can go live there so you can be closer to your cousins. They are all just such amazing people.
The funniest thing that happened tonight was when Nora went to get the Book of Mormon for our scripture study. We started doing it so she could get use to the language of the scriptures. She has started to pull the Book of Mormon out and pretend to read it. Mostly she just says, "and it came to pass". So funny! We sing Scripture Power before we do our prayer for scripture study and Nora was making all these explosion noises while we were singing it. Todd and I couldn't help but laugh. Adorable.
Love You,
Always and Forever,
Your Mother
Sunday, February 5, 2012
SINGLE GRAPE!
Dearest Castillo Children,
Oh, my, my - how silly you are my dear little ones. You crack me up! Annalise has started to "say" more things. I have to put say in quotes because they don't sound like real words but I know what they are based on there tone and pitch. Weird, right? Like "clean up" and "all done". Clean up sounds like the Clean Up song and all done sounds like "AHHHLL DUH!" She has also started saying things like "uh, oh" which is so stickin' cute. I have no idea where she learned it from but it totally makes me smile.
The best thing that happened this week was on Tuesday I was complaining about my cooking to my husband as he came home from work. I've been really off as of lately in my cooking abilities and I am getting frustrated with it! Anyway... Todd suggested we go to Texas Road House and WOW was it good. So nice to go out to eat on a Tuesday! Look at us being so fancy! The girls were, of course, adored since they can't help but charm all the people around them. However, when the table next to ours had their order some Annalise tried to reach to grab their steak. Daddy doesn't raise a fool. Luckily she didn't touch the food or else we might have had to pay for a steak for someone else.
We went to Fry's grocery store after we ate dinner to grab a few things and we bought some grapes. Nora saw the grapes and wanted them right then. We told her she had to wait and she was fine with it...for the moment. When daddy went to put the groceries in the car one of the grapes came loss and fell on the ground in the parking lot. Nora really wanted that grape but daddy told her it was yucky. He said something about how she didn't want to eat that single grape, which lead for pleas asking for "single grape". "Mommy, single grape! Single grape!" Nora kept asking for "single grape" - which made it ten times more funny because of the word single. Daddy even sang songs to her about her one and only, single grape. I kept me laughing all the way home.
On Wednesday morning my sweet husband did all my dishes from the night before...because I was lazy... and since he did that I had time to make it to my Pilate's class! It's a free class someone from church teaches and it's awesome. The girls get to run around with other kids while I work my abs. I was SORE the next day. We also went to the park and got to eat lunch there later in the afternoon. We had hoped to meet other people from church there but we were the only ones to show up. Bah. But we met a boy who told me he was Peter Pan and thus I was Captain Hook. Then Nora was turned into Wendy and the part of Tinkerbell was played by Annalise. I love make believe.
I also washed our dog Tebow on Wednesday and he, of course, wasn't to happy about it. I saw it was on my husband's list of TO DO's so I thought I would help him out. I also washed the car on Monday since that was also on his list.
On Saturday I went to do my normal shopping and it was crazy busy at Wal-Mart. However, I did find these super cute Disney Princess dolls on clearance! YAY! The dolls are usually $22 alone ,but these had little toys that came with them and they were only $16 each! Score! I got Nora a Cinderella doll and a Tiana doll. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have gotten the Tiana normally, not because she's black (don't be racist) but because I didn't really care for the movie she was in. The voodoo in that movie was disturbing and Nora hasn't seen it yet. However, at Christmas she got a chance to pick a toy from her Great Aunt Cheryl's toy collection and she picked Tiana over Sleeping Beauty. And she LOVES Sleeping Beauty. I think Nora just thinks Tiana is pretty (which she is) and wanted to play with her.
We also went out to eat (what!? Twice in one week!? Did we hit the lottery!?!) on Saturday at our favorite all you can eat Chinese buffet. Love it. I ate WAY too much. Once again my little Annalise charmed the people around her and I heard the whole row of people in booths laugh as Annalise shoved a HUGE piece of jello in her mouth. First time she had jello and she wasn't going to mess around. We also went to Lowe's and found the glass tiles I've been eyeing forever on clearance!! Maybe we can get a really nice kitchen back splash in for less than $50. We'll see.
Trying to get things together for my new calling as Ward Choir person. Bah, not excited but I'm hoping I'll get excited about it soon. I think we'll have fun. I hope we have fun? WE BETTER HAVE FUN! I think leaning to play piano will help a lot. My teacher, Amber, says I'm doing really well. I can already play a bunch of scales and I'm working on 3 different songs. Two are coming together nicely and the third...the third one is hard. :)
Love you my sweet babies; you're wonderful to me.
With Love,
Your Mother
Oh, my, my - how silly you are my dear little ones. You crack me up! Annalise has started to "say" more things. I have to put say in quotes because they don't sound like real words but I know what they are based on there tone and pitch. Weird, right? Like "clean up" and "all done". Clean up sounds like the Clean Up song and all done sounds like "AHHHLL DUH!" She has also started saying things like "uh, oh" which is so stickin' cute. I have no idea where she learned it from but it totally makes me smile.
The best thing that happened this week was on Tuesday I was complaining about my cooking to my husband as he came home from work. I've been really off as of lately in my cooking abilities and I am getting frustrated with it! Anyway... Todd suggested we go to Texas Road House and WOW was it good. So nice to go out to eat on a Tuesday! Look at us being so fancy! The girls were, of course, adored since they can't help but charm all the people around them. However, when the table next to ours had their order some Annalise tried to reach to grab their steak. Daddy doesn't raise a fool. Luckily she didn't touch the food or else we might have had to pay for a steak for someone else.
We went to Fry's grocery store after we ate dinner to grab a few things and we bought some grapes. Nora saw the grapes and wanted them right then. We told her she had to wait and she was fine with it...for the moment. When daddy went to put the groceries in the car one of the grapes came loss and fell on the ground in the parking lot. Nora really wanted that grape but daddy told her it was yucky. He said something about how she didn't want to eat that single grape, which lead for pleas asking for "single grape". "Mommy, single grape! Single grape!" Nora kept asking for "single grape" - which made it ten times more funny because of the word single. Daddy even sang songs to her about her one and only, single grape. I kept me laughing all the way home.
On Wednesday morning my sweet husband did all my dishes from the night before...because I was lazy... and since he did that I had time to make it to my Pilate's class! It's a free class someone from church teaches and it's awesome. The girls get to run around with other kids while I work my abs. I was SORE the next day. We also went to the park and got to eat lunch there later in the afternoon. We had hoped to meet other people from church there but we were the only ones to show up. Bah. But we met a boy who told me he was Peter Pan and thus I was Captain Hook. Then Nora was turned into Wendy and the part of Tinkerbell was played by Annalise. I love make believe.
I also washed our dog Tebow on Wednesday and he, of course, wasn't to happy about it. I saw it was on my husband's list of TO DO's so I thought I would help him out. I also washed the car on Monday since that was also on his list.
On Saturday I went to do my normal shopping and it was crazy busy at Wal-Mart. However, I did find these super cute Disney Princess dolls on clearance! YAY! The dolls are usually $22 alone ,but these had little toys that came with them and they were only $16 each! Score! I got Nora a Cinderella doll and a Tiana doll. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have gotten the Tiana normally, not because she's black (don't be racist) but because I didn't really care for the movie she was in. The voodoo in that movie was disturbing and Nora hasn't seen it yet. However, at Christmas she got a chance to pick a toy from her Great Aunt Cheryl's toy collection and she picked Tiana over Sleeping Beauty. And she LOVES Sleeping Beauty. I think Nora just thinks Tiana is pretty (which she is) and wanted to play with her.
We also went out to eat (what!? Twice in one week!? Did we hit the lottery!?!) on Saturday at our favorite all you can eat Chinese buffet. Love it. I ate WAY too much. Once again my little Annalise charmed the people around her and I heard the whole row of people in booths laugh as Annalise shoved a HUGE piece of jello in her mouth. First time she had jello and she wasn't going to mess around. We also went to Lowe's and found the glass tiles I've been eyeing forever on clearance!! Maybe we can get a really nice kitchen back splash in for less than $50. We'll see.
Trying to get things together for my new calling as Ward Choir person. Bah, not excited but I'm hoping I'll get excited about it soon. I think we'll have fun. I hope we have fun? WE BETTER HAVE FUN! I think leaning to play piano will help a lot. My teacher, Amber, says I'm doing really well. I can already play a bunch of scales and I'm working on 3 different songs. Two are coming together nicely and the third...the third one is hard. :)
Love you my sweet babies; you're wonderful to me.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Mildred...wherefore art thou Mildred?
Dearest Castillo Children,
Hello, my sweeties! What a fun week we had! I always have fun with you, even when you scream at me because I forgot to start dinner earlier. (Okay, fun isn't the word, but at least you DO get feed... eventually.)
On Tuesday Annalise had her 1 year check up with her doctor, Dr. Sifontes. Annalise is very tall for her age. The first time they measured her, she was off the charts. They re-measured and she came out to be in the 90% for height. (I secretly think she was a little conservative on her measurements so I really think she is somewhere in between that). She is in the 50% for weight, so she's average weight and tall. Her height to weight ratio is low but I keep thinking of Todd's tall and thin sisters so I'm not super worried about it. She'll be like Nora, tall and thin. There are definitely worse things in this world.
That reminds me of something my sister Kristine said to me when I was worried about Nora. Nora was really under weight and they were worried about her. And just when I thought everything was fine with Nora they were worried about her having little breast already as a 1 year old. I was freaking out - "why do they keep finding new problems for her!" When I shared that with Kristine she said the best thing to calm me down. "Well, then she'll be tall and skinny with big boobs. There are worse things to deal with." Thanks Kristine, I needed that perspective. So I apply it to a lot of things. IS this situation REALLY all that bad? Usually, the answer is no.
While at the doctors I asked her if they could tell the final height of a child and she said at the age of two they can calculate it out. So I asked her how tall Nora would end up being and the calculations were 5'7 to 5'9, so about my height at 5'8. I can't imagine my little Nora as tall as me! I'm happy if that's the height she gets though. Tall enough to be considered tall but not intimidating. But I also think tall is beautiful - if Annalise wants to reach for 6'0 like her auntie that she is sorta named after, Alicia, then by all means. However, her other auntie Dianna, whom she was also named after, is only 5'4. We'll see.
Annalise is sure starting to show her stubborn side. We are trying to teach her sign language like we did with Nora, however she knows the sign but refuses to do it. I know she knows the sign because sometimes she'll do it. But if we ask her to do the sign she'll stare at us like, "whatcha gonna do about it". Many a night she has been left in her high chair simply because she won't do the "all done" sign. However, she'll say the words. She also likes to say "clean up" like from the Clean Up Song. Weird. She wants to talk and is really stubborn about when she'll use signs. It's funny because Nora was SO willing to use signs and caught on really fast. She figured out if she did the "please" sign Mommy would give her a bite of cookie or whatever she wanted. Annalise just cries at me. Must be more consistent...
On Thursday I had to go return some clothes to the store, which meant a trip to the mall with my two babies. Fear? Horror? A little of both was felt but I really wanted to go and finish up my errand for the week. I brought my double jogging stroller along and I have to confess again that I LOVE my double jogging stroller. It's not like other strollers, it isn't a side by side one but one with a back seat and a front seat. Why do I love this? I can fit into doorways and elevators. At one point I had to take the girls to the bathroom. We barely made it into the bathroom and then into a stall with my stroller. I would have had to leave it outside of the bathroom if I was in a big double one. Made going through the mall so easy. Too bad I live too far from a mall and I don't plan return anytime soon, but it's nice to know that it works so well.
We stopped by See's Candy (drool...) and the ladies were so nice in there! They gave me a candy and one for each of my girls. I let them have the white chocolate so they wouldn't make a huge mess. That's one way to have happy kids at the mall: candy.
I went to my new favorite store Christopher and Banks in the mall. I got some really cute things online from them for $10 each but some of the pieces didn't fit. Boo. They were too big. YAY! I much rather have things be too big than too small. Makes my ego a little happier. ANYWAY, while I was in there I noticed the sales ladies where older ladies. Very nice and fashionable, but older none the less. As I looked for something else I noticed all the clients were also in their 60s or so. Hmm...was I too young for this store? The best was when a 60 year old lady came in with her 80 year old mother in a wheel chair. Yeah, that place was happening. However, I found this GORGEOUS grey sweater with big ruffles on it that I exchanged my items to purchase. I don't mind buying from an old lady store as long as I look cute when I leave.
What else happened this week? Your dad and I sat down and worked on a budget. We argued about where some of the surplus funds should be spent - still didn't come to a conclusion. (Yes, we argue about stuff sometimes, but we try to listen to each other's side without getting grumpy. Arguments happen in any relationship. We actually talked about this at church today.)
Yesterday I was stuck at Walmart for about 3 and a half hours waiting to get new tires for the car. Bah. I went to Ross though and bought a cute dress for $5.99 on clearance and I wore it to church today. It's blue with little flowers around the neckline. Almost made up for the horribly long wait...almost. :)
Today after church Nora kept saying "Mildred" over and over again. I was like: "Is that someone in Nursery?" and "Who's Mildred's mommy?" Only to have it pointed out to me that she was actually saying Gnomeo and Juliet - a movie she likes to watch in the afternoon after her nap time. WHAT!? I totally didn't get that. She is normally so good at saying things but this time I was at such a total loss. So it's like this (the capitolized letters are the sounds she makes) gnoMEO anD juliET. Craziness.
My piano lessons are going well. YAY! My teach says I'm moving along faster than a 7 year old, which actually really made me happy. I was worried that being older would mean I wouldn't pick it up as quickly. But then again, I do actually enjoy practicing and making it something that's just for me. I'm so glad I'm doing this. Also, my health stuff has seemed to have slowed for now. Starting to feel better again. And tomorrow I get to use my B-12 patch and that always makes me have more energy. YAY, vitamins!
Daddy is starting a new weight loss program with his work tomorrow. Let's all wish him luck!
With Love,
Your Mother
Hello, my sweeties! What a fun week we had! I always have fun with you, even when you scream at me because I forgot to start dinner earlier. (Okay, fun isn't the word, but at least you DO get feed... eventually.)
On Tuesday Annalise had her 1 year check up with her doctor, Dr. Sifontes. Annalise is very tall for her age. The first time they measured her, she was off the charts. They re-measured and she came out to be in the 90% for height. (I secretly think she was a little conservative on her measurements so I really think she is somewhere in between that). She is in the 50% for weight, so she's average weight and tall. Her height to weight ratio is low but I keep thinking of Todd's tall and thin sisters so I'm not super worried about it. She'll be like Nora, tall and thin. There are definitely worse things in this world.
That reminds me of something my sister Kristine said to me when I was worried about Nora. Nora was really under weight and they were worried about her. And just when I thought everything was fine with Nora they were worried about her having little breast already as a 1 year old. I was freaking out - "why do they keep finding new problems for her!" When I shared that with Kristine she said the best thing to calm me down. "Well, then she'll be tall and skinny with big boobs. There are worse things to deal with." Thanks Kristine, I needed that perspective. So I apply it to a lot of things. IS this situation REALLY all that bad? Usually, the answer is no.
While at the doctors I asked her if they could tell the final height of a child and she said at the age of two they can calculate it out. So I asked her how tall Nora would end up being and the calculations were 5'7 to 5'9, so about my height at 5'8. I can't imagine my little Nora as tall as me! I'm happy if that's the height she gets though. Tall enough to be considered tall but not intimidating. But I also think tall is beautiful - if Annalise wants to reach for 6'0 like her auntie that she is sorta named after, Alicia, then by all means. However, her other auntie Dianna, whom she was also named after, is only 5'4. We'll see.
Annalise is sure starting to show her stubborn side. We are trying to teach her sign language like we did with Nora, however she knows the sign but refuses to do it. I know she knows the sign because sometimes she'll do it. But if we ask her to do the sign she'll stare at us like, "whatcha gonna do about it". Many a night she has been left in her high chair simply because she won't do the "all done" sign. However, she'll say the words. She also likes to say "clean up" like from the Clean Up Song. Weird. She wants to talk and is really stubborn about when she'll use signs. It's funny because Nora was SO willing to use signs and caught on really fast. She figured out if she did the "please" sign Mommy would give her a bite of cookie or whatever she wanted. Annalise just cries at me. Must be more consistent...
On Thursday I had to go return some clothes to the store, which meant a trip to the mall with my two babies. Fear? Horror? A little of both was felt but I really wanted to go and finish up my errand for the week. I brought my double jogging stroller along and I have to confess again that I LOVE my double jogging stroller. It's not like other strollers, it isn't a side by side one but one with a back seat and a front seat. Why do I love this? I can fit into doorways and elevators. At one point I had to take the girls to the bathroom. We barely made it into the bathroom and then into a stall with my stroller. I would have had to leave it outside of the bathroom if I was in a big double one. Made going through the mall so easy. Too bad I live too far from a mall and I don't plan return anytime soon, but it's nice to know that it works so well.
We stopped by See's Candy (drool...) and the ladies were so nice in there! They gave me a candy and one for each of my girls. I let them have the white chocolate so they wouldn't make a huge mess. That's one way to have happy kids at the mall: candy.
I went to my new favorite store Christopher and Banks in the mall. I got some really cute things online from them for $10 each but some of the pieces didn't fit. Boo. They were too big. YAY! I much rather have things be too big than too small. Makes my ego a little happier. ANYWAY, while I was in there I noticed the sales ladies where older ladies. Very nice and fashionable, but older none the less. As I looked for something else I noticed all the clients were also in their 60s or so. Hmm...was I too young for this store? The best was when a 60 year old lady came in with her 80 year old mother in a wheel chair. Yeah, that place was happening. However, I found this GORGEOUS grey sweater with big ruffles on it that I exchanged my items to purchase. I don't mind buying from an old lady store as long as I look cute when I leave.
What else happened this week? Your dad and I sat down and worked on a budget. We argued about where some of the surplus funds should be spent - still didn't come to a conclusion. (Yes, we argue about stuff sometimes, but we try to listen to each other's side without getting grumpy. Arguments happen in any relationship. We actually talked about this at church today.)
Yesterday I was stuck at Walmart for about 3 and a half hours waiting to get new tires for the car. Bah. I went to Ross though and bought a cute dress for $5.99 on clearance and I wore it to church today. It's blue with little flowers around the neckline. Almost made up for the horribly long wait...almost. :)
Today after church Nora kept saying "Mildred" over and over again. I was like: "Is that someone in Nursery?" and "Who's Mildred's mommy?" Only to have it pointed out to me that she was actually saying Gnomeo and Juliet - a movie she likes to watch in the afternoon after her nap time. WHAT!? I totally didn't get that. She is normally so good at saying things but this time I was at such a total loss. So it's like this (the capitolized letters are the sounds she makes) gnoMEO anD juliET. Craziness.
My piano lessons are going well. YAY! My teach says I'm moving along faster than a 7 year old, which actually really made me happy. I was worried that being older would mean I wouldn't pick it up as quickly. But then again, I do actually enjoy practicing and making it something that's just for me. I'm so glad I'm doing this. Also, my health stuff has seemed to have slowed for now. Starting to feel better again. And tomorrow I get to use my B-12 patch and that always makes me have more energy. YAY, vitamins!
Daddy is starting a new weight loss program with his work tomorrow. Let's all wish him luck!
With Love,
Your Mother
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Happy Birthday my beautiful Annalise!!
Dear Castillo Children,
Hello, my beauties! I hope you will always remember that I find both of your breath-takingly beautiful. I love waking you up and giving your cute little cheeks kisses. You're wonderful and so kind. You make me laugh with your antics and make me smile with your gentle hugs and kisses.
This week the most exciting thing we did was go to Mesa on Saturday to celebrate Annalise turning one! We went to Grammy and PopPop's house and had a big bbq! Your aunts, uncles and both sets of grandparents were there. Even Great-Grandma Geniel came, she's the one that you got your middle name from, Annalise. It was so fun to eat hamburgers and steak (your dad really likes steak) and your Grammy made you a panda cake since you're our Anna-Panda. One fun thing we did was do a Chinese tradition. Your Aunt Dianna gave you this little Chinese outfit from Chinatown in New York and we dressed you up in it. On their first birthday there is a tradition where you place 4 objects in front of the baby and allow them to pick one. There is a book - to symbolize that you'll seek after knowledge, money - that you'll seek after finances, a toy - that you'll seek after entertainment and a pen - that you'll seek after self expression. You went straight to the pen. I can't wait to see if you'll be an artist like so many of us in the family. It's in the blood. You also went for my big, fabulous sun glasses so you might also seek to be fabulous. :)
Earlier in the week we had the Missionaries over for some cookies. Elder Boyd and Elder Grigg stopped by and we've seen them a lot. They were so nice that they even brought a pineapple because they liked the way your dad cooks pineapples. He likes to roast them with a little bit of cinnamon. That's how they do it Brasil, where he served his mission. Nora was in LOVE with the pineapple. She wanted to smell it, then wanted me to smell and finally she wanted Miss Mable (her special little doll) smell it. Oh, Nora, Nora, Nora. Your relationship with the elders is SO funny. On Sunday we had them over for dinner and while Elder Grigg was washing his hands in our powder room you went in there, announced that you were going to go pee pee and started to pull down your pants. Elder Grigg RAN out with his hands still wet. We all had a good laugh about it. Until after dinner when you went to the potty and came running back out without any pants on. Oh, how we traumatized the poor elders. Good thing they love us and our (correction: your dad's) cooking.
This week was hard for me personally though. I found out that I had a cyst on my ovary that burst and caused me a lot of pain and bleeding. I hate having to do medical exams and taking medicine. I hate having something wrong with my body again after the year I just got done with. All I wanted was a year without having to go the doctor's office- with exception of check up visits. It's only January and I already broke that goal. Oh, well. Chinese New Year Resolution? Year of the Dragon?
I was also given a new calling at church that I have to admit that I am NOT excited about. They asked me to be the Ward Chorister. Bah!? I had no desire to do this calling, especially since I was in charge of music before and doing a choir is hard. At least this time around I can just focus on a choir without doing all the other music stuff. Todd is in charge of that. :) So, to make it more fun for me, I decided to focus more are vocal technique and actually teach music to the choir. I think I'll break down my choir time like we did when I was in school. Half technical, half rehearsal. I'm hoping it'll work and be fun for me and them. I'm trying to make the best out of something that isn't my most desired position. Here's to hoping.
Love you, my babies. We have magical moments together, and some painfully annoying moments. I hope we both remember the magic more.
With Love,
Your Mother
Hello, my beauties! I hope you will always remember that I find both of your breath-takingly beautiful. I love waking you up and giving your cute little cheeks kisses. You're wonderful and so kind. You make me laugh with your antics and make me smile with your gentle hugs and kisses.
This week the most exciting thing we did was go to Mesa on Saturday to celebrate Annalise turning one! We went to Grammy and PopPop's house and had a big bbq! Your aunts, uncles and both sets of grandparents were there. Even Great-Grandma Geniel came, she's the one that you got your middle name from, Annalise. It was so fun to eat hamburgers and steak (your dad really likes steak) and your Grammy made you a panda cake since you're our Anna-Panda. One fun thing we did was do a Chinese tradition. Your Aunt Dianna gave you this little Chinese outfit from Chinatown in New York and we dressed you up in it. On their first birthday there is a tradition where you place 4 objects in front of the baby and allow them to pick one. There is a book - to symbolize that you'll seek after knowledge, money - that you'll seek after finances, a toy - that you'll seek after entertainment and a pen - that you'll seek after self expression. You went straight to the pen. I can't wait to see if you'll be an artist like so many of us in the family. It's in the blood. You also went for my big, fabulous sun glasses so you might also seek to be fabulous. :)
Earlier in the week we had the Missionaries over for some cookies. Elder Boyd and Elder Grigg stopped by and we've seen them a lot. They were so nice that they even brought a pineapple because they liked the way your dad cooks pineapples. He likes to roast them with a little bit of cinnamon. That's how they do it Brasil, where he served his mission. Nora was in LOVE with the pineapple. She wanted to smell it, then wanted me to smell and finally she wanted Miss Mable (her special little doll) smell it. Oh, Nora, Nora, Nora. Your relationship with the elders is SO funny. On Sunday we had them over for dinner and while Elder Grigg was washing his hands in our powder room you went in there, announced that you were going to go pee pee and started to pull down your pants. Elder Grigg RAN out with his hands still wet. We all had a good laugh about it. Until after dinner when you went to the potty and came running back out without any pants on. Oh, how we traumatized the poor elders. Good thing they love us and our (correction: your dad's) cooking.
This week was hard for me personally though. I found out that I had a cyst on my ovary that burst and caused me a lot of pain and bleeding. I hate having to do medical exams and taking medicine. I hate having something wrong with my body again after the year I just got done with. All I wanted was a year without having to go the doctor's office- with exception of check up visits. It's only January and I already broke that goal. Oh, well. Chinese New Year Resolution? Year of the Dragon?
I was also given a new calling at church that I have to admit that I am NOT excited about. They asked me to be the Ward Chorister. Bah!? I had no desire to do this calling, especially since I was in charge of music before and doing a choir is hard. At least this time around I can just focus on a choir without doing all the other music stuff. Todd is in charge of that. :) So, to make it more fun for me, I decided to focus more are vocal technique and actually teach music to the choir. I think I'll break down my choir time like we did when I was in school. Half technical, half rehearsal. I'm hoping it'll work and be fun for me and them. I'm trying to make the best out of something that isn't my most desired position. Here's to hoping.
Love you, my babies. We have magical moments together, and some painfully annoying moments. I hope we both remember the magic more.
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Foot steps, oh little ones
Dearest Castillo Children,
Here we are at the beginning of another week and we need to recap all the crazy activities from the week previous. Well, Nora has been having some difficulties with her potty training. She's totally trained, goes on her own and doesn't really have accidents. However, as of late, everytime she is in Nursery at church she has ANOTHER accident. She peed today in her panties and then pooped in the diaper we put on her because she peed in her big girl pants. It's only in Nursery and it has happened the last three weeks. Is this normal? Everywhere else we don't have a problem. I wonder if it is because she's confined to a space and can't leave to go on her own to the bathroom. That is what she does at home. I can't tell what the problem is and we really have no way to fix it. She still did it while I was subbing in there last Sunday. Bah.
Other than that, and a few moments of brattiness, Nora is a joy to have around. She laughs and plays with me. I feel bad sometimes that all she has is me to play with. I'm fun but I can't always be her little playmate. Her little playgroup that we did weekly has disbanded and now I'm going to have to find others for her to play with. I have mixed feels about the end of the playgroup. On one hand it's nice not to have the obligation of it but on the other hand it was nice to have somewhere to go. I think I'm more on the first hand though. We haven't done it at all this month and I don't really miss it.
Nora also got to go on a daddy date. They usually just run errands with each other (Todd likes to take her to Harbor Freight). She loves going in his truck and I got to have some special one on one time with my sweetie Annalise. We have decided to call her Anna-Panda since we watched Kung Fu Panda 2. There is one part in the movie where the mommy panda has to leave her baby panda and the baby panda looks so much like Annalise at this age! Big eyes and big cheeks. Too cute! Everytime we call Annalise that Nora says that's Nora-Panda, eventhough we call her Nora-Bear (like Polar Bear), I guess they can both be pandas. :)
Annalise is finally getting the hang of walking! She took her first steps the day after Christmas but since then she'd take a few steps then resort to "walking" on her knees. She's finally getting how to move and she'll cross a room to get to either daddy or me. It's so cute to watch her walk. It's also bitter sweet since I know that soon she'll be moving into her toddler years. She is also starting to get her top front tooth, but it is taking it's time to come in. She already has her two bottom teeth.
This week we played in the park (the swings are the girls' favorite), walked the dog, went to the library (where there is a statue of a little boy about Nora's height. I want to take pictures by it so she can see herself grow) and generally played around.
I got to do a childhood wish and I started piano lessons. Soooo excited! I found this awesome lady in my ward that teaches me once a week for $25 dollars a month. That's a screaming deal to me. I have loved practicing and I can't wait to get good enough to start to actually learn how to play songs. My dream is to someday be good enough to play in the primary. I also got to go on a shopping spree to Ross and bought 3 shirts, 3 pairs of heels and then went to Kohl's to buy a belt and necklace. Plus the money I spent online on this amazing deal. It feels nice to be able to buy clothes again.
Also I have some fun new medical issues that came up this week. And by fun, I mean annoying and terrible. I won't know anything until after Monday when I speak with my doc. Here's to hoping all is well, huh?
With Love,
Your Mother
Here we are at the beginning of another week and we need to recap all the crazy activities from the week previous. Well, Nora has been having some difficulties with her potty training. She's totally trained, goes on her own and doesn't really have accidents. However, as of late, everytime she is in Nursery at church she has ANOTHER accident. She peed today in her panties and then pooped in the diaper we put on her because she peed in her big girl pants. It's only in Nursery and it has happened the last three weeks. Is this normal? Everywhere else we don't have a problem. I wonder if it is because she's confined to a space and can't leave to go on her own to the bathroom. That is what she does at home. I can't tell what the problem is and we really have no way to fix it. She still did it while I was subbing in there last Sunday. Bah.
Other than that, and a few moments of brattiness, Nora is a joy to have around. She laughs and plays with me. I feel bad sometimes that all she has is me to play with. I'm fun but I can't always be her little playmate. Her little playgroup that we did weekly has disbanded and now I'm going to have to find others for her to play with. I have mixed feels about the end of the playgroup. On one hand it's nice not to have the obligation of it but on the other hand it was nice to have somewhere to go. I think I'm more on the first hand though. We haven't done it at all this month and I don't really miss it.
Nora also got to go on a daddy date. They usually just run errands with each other (Todd likes to take her to Harbor Freight). She loves going in his truck and I got to have some special one on one time with my sweetie Annalise. We have decided to call her Anna-Panda since we watched Kung Fu Panda 2. There is one part in the movie where the mommy panda has to leave her baby panda and the baby panda looks so much like Annalise at this age! Big eyes and big cheeks. Too cute! Everytime we call Annalise that Nora says that's Nora-Panda, eventhough we call her Nora-Bear (like Polar Bear), I guess they can both be pandas. :)
Annalise is finally getting the hang of walking! She took her first steps the day after Christmas but since then she'd take a few steps then resort to "walking" on her knees. She's finally getting how to move and she'll cross a room to get to either daddy or me. It's so cute to watch her walk. It's also bitter sweet since I know that soon she'll be moving into her toddler years. She is also starting to get her top front tooth, but it is taking it's time to come in. She already has her two bottom teeth.
This week we played in the park (the swings are the girls' favorite), walked the dog, went to the library (where there is a statue of a little boy about Nora's height. I want to take pictures by it so she can see herself grow) and generally played around.
I got to do a childhood wish and I started piano lessons. Soooo excited! I found this awesome lady in my ward that teaches me once a week for $25 dollars a month. That's a screaming deal to me. I have loved practicing and I can't wait to get good enough to start to actually learn how to play songs. My dream is to someday be good enough to play in the primary. I also got to go on a shopping spree to Ross and bought 3 shirts, 3 pairs of heels and then went to Kohl's to buy a belt and necklace. Plus the money I spent online on this amazing deal. It feels nice to be able to buy clothes again.
Also I have some fun new medical issues that came up this week. And by fun, I mean annoying and terrible. I won't know anything until after Monday when I speak with my doc. Here's to hoping all is well, huh?
With Love,
Your Mother
Sunday, January 8, 2012
I want to Blog...no, really
Dearest Castillo Children,
Wow. I am horrible at blogging. I want to be better at it, I promise. I really want to have this blog that is full of pictures and enjoyable moments captured that so easily can be disregarded through the hubbub of daily life. My biggest question is: do I write about the last couple of months or only focus on this last week? Since this last week both of you were sick and unbelievable whinny. (I'm looking at you Nora.) I will instead talk about the Christmas season.
What a special Christmas season this was for me. Especially getting to see my two girls just amazed by the lights and music of the season. It was a time of service also for me, which always brings in the Christmas Spirit. Always remember that the spirit of Christmas is the love of Christ. And that pure love is charity- giving service to all around us. My favorite thing I got to be a part of was a huge garage sale for my friend who lost her 16 month old son very unexpectately. It was so heart-wrenching but there has been so much peace that I can't help but feel like his little life accomplished more than most people who live to be 80. With a sudden lose of a child there are financial costs that are difficult on top of an emotional one. I couldn't help her with the pain and loss, only our Savior is really capable of helping with that, but I could help with the funeral costs and medical bills. We asked people to donate items to sell at a garage sale and it was HUGE. We had 3 garages full of stuff, plus my front room. We had to turn people away because we had SO much stuff. We filled three driveways and yards with the amount of stuff we had. I had to ask my neighbors if we could use their driveways, too. It was hard work and I asked people in the ward to help run it and it ran so smoothly. I feel so humbled by how well it ran. I was worried there won't be enough people to set up - there was a small army there to help. I was worried about not having people there to run the sell - when people had to leave others showed up to help. When it came time to clean up there were people there to clean and trailers there to take things away. It was beautiful. It's what I imagine Zion to be like. Everytime during the week when I would look at how messy and crazy everything in my house was I would start to have anxiety. I felt like a crazy hoarder! But then a feeling of peace would just wash over me and I knew it would be fine. We were able to raise about $4,000 that day and an extra $1,000. That is HUGE. I'm so happy we were able to do that for the Hunt Family. They have always been an example of service to me and I'm grateful I was able to serve them, even just a little bit.
Christmas was fun this year. We decided to have Christmas morning in our own home before heading up to Phx to spend time with family. Since it was Sunday we went to church first before opening up presents. 7:30am church is pretty brutal. At least we all look cute in our Christmas morning pictures. :) We spent time with my family and Todd's. We went to the Zoo with my family and had the Castillo lunch with his side. The girls got lots of princess toys and Annalise didn't seem to understand what was going on. Nora really like Santa and enjoyed his image on toys and in person - but she still didn't seem to understand what the whole point of him way just yet. Oh, next year that'll change I'm sure.
As I said, I'm hoping to be better about blogging. I want to be able tp print this blog out as a record of my family. I think that is such a beautiful way to journal about the everyday happening. Because, before I know it my girls will be grown and gone and I'll have are my words and pictures of there short, precious years. How I love my girls!
With Love,
Your Mother
Wow. I am horrible at blogging. I want to be better at it, I promise. I really want to have this blog that is full of pictures and enjoyable moments captured that so easily can be disregarded through the hubbub of daily life. My biggest question is: do I write about the last couple of months or only focus on this last week? Since this last week both of you were sick and unbelievable whinny. (I'm looking at you Nora.) I will instead talk about the Christmas season.
What a special Christmas season this was for me. Especially getting to see my two girls just amazed by the lights and music of the season. It was a time of service also for me, which always brings in the Christmas Spirit. Always remember that the spirit of Christmas is the love of Christ. And that pure love is charity- giving service to all around us. My favorite thing I got to be a part of was a huge garage sale for my friend who lost her 16 month old son very unexpectately. It was so heart-wrenching but there has been so much peace that I can't help but feel like his little life accomplished more than most people who live to be 80. With a sudden lose of a child there are financial costs that are difficult on top of an emotional one. I couldn't help her with the pain and loss, only our Savior is really capable of helping with that, but I could help with the funeral costs and medical bills. We asked people to donate items to sell at a garage sale and it was HUGE. We had 3 garages full of stuff, plus my front room. We had to turn people away because we had SO much stuff. We filled three driveways and yards with the amount of stuff we had. I had to ask my neighbors if we could use their driveways, too. It was hard work and I asked people in the ward to help run it and it ran so smoothly. I feel so humbled by how well it ran. I was worried there won't be enough people to set up - there was a small army there to help. I was worried about not having people there to run the sell - when people had to leave others showed up to help. When it came time to clean up there were people there to clean and trailers there to take things away. It was beautiful. It's what I imagine Zion to be like. Everytime during the week when I would look at how messy and crazy everything in my house was I would start to have anxiety. I felt like a crazy hoarder! But then a feeling of peace would just wash over me and I knew it would be fine. We were able to raise about $4,000 that day and an extra $1,000. That is HUGE. I'm so happy we were able to do that for the Hunt Family. They have always been an example of service to me and I'm grateful I was able to serve them, even just a little bit.
Christmas was fun this year. We decided to have Christmas morning in our own home before heading up to Phx to spend time with family. Since it was Sunday we went to church first before opening up presents. 7:30am church is pretty brutal. At least we all look cute in our Christmas morning pictures. :) We spent time with my family and Todd's. We went to the Zoo with my family and had the Castillo lunch with his side. The girls got lots of princess toys and Annalise didn't seem to understand what was going on. Nora really like Santa and enjoyed his image on toys and in person - but she still didn't seem to understand what the whole point of him way just yet. Oh, next year that'll change I'm sure.
As I said, I'm hoping to be better about blogging. I want to be able tp print this blog out as a record of my family. I think that is such a beautiful way to journal about the everyday happening. Because, before I know it my girls will be grown and gone and I'll have are my words and pictures of there short, precious years. How I love my girls!
With Love,
Your Mother
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