MORE Christmas Fun!

 

Dearest Castillo Children,

 

 

Hello, my sweeties! There was more Christmas fun to share! Here are a few more of our awesome adventures during the Holiday Season.



 

 

Daddy got a Sonic Screwdriver/ pen, just like Dr. Who

 

 

She was really good at using it

 

 

 

Todd doing his best David Tennant impression (so cute!)

 

 

We started to wrap gifts and they became the best toy in the house. They would stack them, count them, move them around and hid them. We had to make rules about playing with the presents.

 

 

Nora and Annalise got to play together everyday without preschool or play groups getting in the way.

(that's a good thing most days...)

 

 

 

For FHE we built a gingerbread house

 

 

Daddy got really into it and used melted peppermints to make stain glass windows

 

 

Annalise kept trying to eat the candy

 

 

They both got really into sticking the candy on Daddy's designs

 

 

Annalise kept putting the biggest candies in the spots that they'd most likely fall off and then got mad about it.

 

 

Our finished Gingerbread House! (That got slowly eaten over the next several days)

 

 

The girls enjoying hot chocolate after a morning walk with Daddy

 

 

Helping Mommy make sugar cookies

 

 

Decorating the sugar cookies

 

 

This year we went to Great Aunt Cheryl's for the Castillo Family dinner. Actually we had dinner at Golden Corral first and THEN went to Cheryl's for family time and a nativity

 

 

Annalise and Nora we angels this year

 

 

I told Annalise that she got to hold the star if Nora got the angel wings. (there was another star, but that's okay!)

 

 

My angel Nora

 

 

Annalise angel

 

 

I told Annalise before the play began that she needed to listen to her director, which made everybody laugh. But seriously, ALWAYS listen to your director!

 

 

The chaos that was the awesome play

 

 

Matt thought he could pull off an angel costume...I agree :)

 

 

Todd got to play ping pong

 

 

Cheryl the Great and Scott the Great out did themselves again with presents for ALL the kids there.

Nora got this AWESOME Sofia the First play set and figures (better than what Mommy and Daddy got her...) ;)

 

 

Annalise got this Frozen doll of Princess Anna and a dress up dress. Anna now sleeps in Annalise's bed.

 

 

The girls and Julie climbed under the table to talk about how awesome their new toys were.

 

 

We, of course, left super late that night but it was so fun to go. Once again, the drive just kills me. We have to plan so much and work around so many things, especially because we have to stop so much for Annalise saying she's going to be sick. Car sick kid = SLOW drive to Phx. One of these days we'll hopefully get to live up there again. Our van was giving us A LOT of problems, shaking horrible so we went up in the truck. Todd planned to use his Christmas vacation time to fix the problems with the van.

 

 

The next post should be about the BIG day of Christmas. My belly is getting bigger everyday and I was exhausted because of being almost 9 months pregnant, but I still love doing all the family stuff for the Holidays.

 

 

With All My Love,

 

 

Your Mother

 

Christmas Parade and Holiday Cheer

 

 

Dearest Castillo Children,

 

 

The month of December had the usual decorating, Christmas tree shopping and treat eating, but we also got to do a few fun things. We went to our town of Sahuarita's Christmas Celebration this year. There was a small parade that was adorable. After that we got to ride on ponies (yay!) and pet animals (yay!) and see Santa (YAY!). After that we went home, ate lunch, bought some new tires for the van (boo!) and went to see the movie Frozen (YAY!) I love this time of year!

 

 

 

Getting ready to head out to the parade.

 

 

The girls got so many candy canes that morning.

 

 

Daddy and Nora watching the parade

 

 

Annalise on her pony (we waited like 30 minutes to ride the ponies)

 

 

Nora ridding her pony

 

 

Annalise had a lot of fun at first and then seemed done the 3rd time they went in a circle.

 

 

Her hat kept falling into her eyes

 

 

Nora's hat fit a little better

 

 

 

Nora's expression for most of the ride

 

 

There was a petting zoo with sheep

 

 

...and chickens...

 

 

...a llama...

 

And this duck that Nora LOVED! Some boy helped her catch it so she could hold it.

 

 

And then they got to meet the Big Guy!

 

 

Nora asked for a Sofia the First doll and Annalise asked for Mickey Mouse

 

 

They both forgot to ask Santa for a trampoline and were SO sad. But then Nora said she'd tell Jesus and He'd let Santa know. Such a sweet girl!

 

 

Daddy spinning the girls around on the way back to the car.

 

 

We had to go get tires for our new van that afternoon. Our van started to have really bad problems after we had it for about 2 months. When we would go at higher speeds it would start to shake. The tires on the van were good BUT they all were different. We figured we'd get a new set of tires and see if that fixed the problem. So while we had new tires put on we took the girls to see the new movie, Frozen. It was hilarious when I suggested to Nora and Annalise that we'd take Dad with us to see the movie. Todd, being the brat he is, teased that he didn't want to see it. Nora started to try to convince him. She let him know that it wasn't just princesses in it, but there were boys too. I love when she tries to reason. She made a pretty good argument. The girls LOVED Frozen. I loved that it was about two sisters and that was the main love story. It didn't hurt that the younger sister happened to be named Anna. :) So Nora calls herself Elsa and Annalise is Anna. After the movie I gave each girl a little toy princess. Nora got the little Elsa and Annalise got the little Anna. They loved them and played with them A LOT. We then went home and watched all the trailers and songs we could find on You Tube.

 

The van got the new, expensive tires placed on it, but it was still shaking as we drove. Boo. Todd figured he's research and hopefully find time over the two weeks he takes off for Christmas. Which is the beginning of our van troubles.

 

Well, that's it for tonight my beauties. I need to rest. Little sister should be here in just a matter of weeks and my energy is very low. I have found it hard to find foods that sound good to me. I HATE chicken (threw it up at the Chinese restaurant even) The only things I like consistently are, homemade salsa with chips, eggnog, homemade empanadas, ham and sometimes spinach dip. Makes eating a HUGE hassle. I sure hope my taste buds go back to normal once little sister gets here...

 

With All My Love,

 

Your Mother

Christmas Time is Here Again

 

Dearest Castillo Children,

 

 

It's that special time of year again! Christmas! All the fun of the months before seem to all come together in this joyous final month of the year! There's candy, presents, lights, music, decorations and of course, Santa. But my favorite part of the year is the fact that we can hear songs about Christ, speak openly about being Christians and knowing the real reason for the season. I love that people are a little more friendly and kind. That everyone, even those who don't celebrate Christmas, is a little happier. I LOVE this time of year. I hate, however, that we got sick the first week of December. Boo! Nora and Annalise got a stomach bug thing and I got a pretty bad cold. Todd got a little cough, but that was about it. Weird. We were going to go to Zoo Lights this year at the Reid Park Zoo, since we're members there, but we were too sick to go. That's okay. It didn't damper my little Christmas Spirit Machines, Nora and Annalise. Nora saw that her friends' houses were decorated for Christmas so she bugged me for a full week to decorate our house. Honestly, with how hard my pregnancy has been, without these two little cuties I probably would have been happy with a little tree and a bow on the door. But we did the FULL decorating - lights outside, lights inside, tree, garland, bows, the whole 9 yards. Here are some pictures of the girls helping. 

 

 

 

 

Annalise in her new favorite clothing item - her red skirt. It use to be her cousin Violet's but now it's the item she begs to wear everyday. I'm a mean Mom and tell her no.

 

 

This little Christmas bear because Annalise's friend and she named him Barry.

 

 

Nora found our Christmas books

 

 

And she found our little nativity set

 

 

Annalise dancing with Barry while we tried to decorate around her

 

 

Nora made a circle around her of all the Christmas decorations stuff animals

 

 

The following week we went to pick out our Christmas tree

 

 

Nora really wanted this tree but it was dry and we had to convince her to fall in love with another one

 

 

This is the tree we finally settled on. It was full, soft and smelled great. Nora wasn't thrilled (see picture) BUT we told her she got to name the tree. That made her happy again and she named the tree Star, since apparently it was a girl tree.

 

 

Pulling out all the lights and ornaments to decorate Star

 

 

Nora was really excited to do the Star on top of Star :)

 

 

Daddy had technical difficulties with some of the lights for the tree. So while he was a good daddy and fixed it, we drank eggnog, ate cookies and listened to carols.

 

 

Enjoying her eggnog - because eggnog is awesome

 

 

And we had red velvet cake cookies - which were surprisingly good

 

 

Each girl got to hang up their own special ornament from the year they were born

 

 

Annalise got a turn putting on the star

 

 

And so did Nora - both girls got to help

 

 

YAY for decorations! Without Nora I also wouldn't have sent out my Christmas cards this year. I didn't send out all of them - but MOST of them I did. Honestly, I'm glad Nora insisted on helping me stuff envelops and put on stamps or else I wouldn't have done it. I just enjoy doing Christmas stuff with a 4 and almost 3 year old. EVERYTHING is so exciting and fun. I thought last year at Christmas was awesome but it only seems to get better every year.

 

 

With All My Love,

 

 

Your Mother