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
Letters to my children as they grow.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
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
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