arizona

Well, we got into Arizona yesterday. The girls were great little travelers. We woke them up at about 5:15am, put them in the car, and off we went, that is until we realized (about a 1/2 mile down the road) that we forgot to bring Ellie's little kitty that Flavio had said she could bring. So we were in the car at 5:20 and then officially off at 5:26am. We arrived at about 12. . . I think. And crashed at about 7:30. I was beat!!! I can't imagine how Flavio felt. Anyways, we had a great day - we went to Build-a-Bear - the girls were given gift cards from the bride and groom (did I mention that we are here for friends' wedding, which they are the flower girls?). We have never done the Build-a-bear thing - it was really cute (I'll post pics when I get home). They picked out their animal - Ellie chose a pink bear and Lily a little chick - stuffed them, "washed" them, and picked an outfit out. Ellie's bear, named Ariel, got an Ariel outfit - really a mermaid Ariel outfit, complete with red wig! Lily chose a pink princess fairy type outfit.

Ok, I am off to bed - I will tell you more about the home we are staying in - tiny little thing (and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you!).

Thanks for the birthday wishes for my precious Lily!!!

almost two!

Two years ago today I was anxiously awaiting the birth of our second child. We didn't know whether we would be having another little girl or welcoming a little boy . . . either way we couldn't wait to meet this new little person. I was pretty convinced that it was a boy, not sure why, and Flavio was pretty sure it was a girl!

We had to be at the hospital at midnight to be induced - our little one was 10 days overdue!!! We dropped Ellie off with Uncle Jeff and Auntie Beth for a slumber party with Ethan and off we went to gather our bags for the hospital. Long story short at 9:21am on February 28th, 2006 we welcomed our precious Lilian "Lily" Joy into the world! Our lives have never been the same and only bettered because of her!

It doesn't seem possible that that was one day shy of two years ago - in some ways it feels like yesterday and in others I can't imagine that there was ever a time without her!

Lily,
I love you so much and am so thankful that God brought you to us two years ago! You are a bright little flower - bold and strong and beautiful! I pray that you will come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that He will be your strength. You are a precious little girl! I love watching you grow and learn. I love hearing you sing and watching you dance. You are discovering the world around you and I am so thankful that I am able to watch each new discovery and see your face light up as you experience something for the very first time!

How do I love thee, let me count the ways . . .

• you are tender and sweet
• and rough and tumble
• you love your sissy and want to do what she is doing, but you ARE your own person
• you are loud and funny and silly!
• you love to give hugs and kisses
• you still love to be held (all the time if I could do it!)
• you love your shoes
• you love to talk! I love hearing you put your words together- you are really getting the hang of talking!!
• you have the sweetest laugh! I could listen to it for hours!
• you love to sing
• you love to discover
  
• you love your sissy, daddy, and mommy!

just to name a few!

Happy 2nd Birthday!
I love you little girl!

Love, Mama

I know I'm a day early, but we won't be home tomorrow, so I will celebrate her birthday here today!!!

uncle dan at tmk

Today Ellie's Uncle Dan came to TMK!!! It was a special day because not only is he her funny uncle (as she has said, much to Uncle Peter's dismay), but he is also a police officer! It was really fun to see my brother in his uniform with all the kiddos - oh, and Drake's daddy. They came and showed the kids all of their equipment and then took them to the police car - each child got to sit in the car and push the buttons, if they wanted to.

Thanks Dan for making Ellie's day! I know it wasn't fun wearing all of your paraphernalia, but your niece and sister appreciate it!

I'm having trouble with photobucket again so click here for pics.

valentine's day pics

I just posted pictures from our Valentine's Day activities - check them out here
http://grace-and-joy.blogspot.com/2008/02/happy-valentines-day.html

let me clarify

Ok, I just want to clarify my comments from yesterday - I know that there are many moms out there who would love, more than anything, to be home with their kiddos, but for many reasons, are unable to do so. I completely understand that! I know that there are mommies who can't stand that they have to get up and take their babies to day care at the crack of dawn so that they can get to work and put food on the table - YOU ARE NOT THE MOMMIES I WROTE ABOUT YESTERDAY!

I just didn't want anyone to get the idea that I think all working mommies don't want to be with their babies - I hope this makes sense!

Ok, just had to get that off my chest!

registered

Ellie is officially registered for kindergarten! Boo Hoo!!!!!

As I sat there waiting for the registration to begin I was talking to a couple of the moms and listening to their conversations. A couple of them were talking about day care and making sure that they got their little ones signed up and the whole preschool conversation came up (I kept my mouth shut - hard for me to do), anyways, they were talking about how much day care/preschool costs each year - about $10k!!!! I was shocked and said something to that effect. One of the mom's proceeded to say how she just wouldn't be able to stay home with her kids - she was home with them this weekend (hubby was working or something) and she was ready to kill them - they were driving her crazy!!! I was so saddened!!! Yeah, staying home is no walk in the park, but I couldn't imagine leaving my girls with anyone all day, everyday!!!! (yes, I understand that there are mommies out there that don't have a choice - you are NOT who I am talking about!!)

I was so thankful for my mom and that she instilled in us how much she loved us and loved being home with us - because of her I wanted to do the same thing! I don't think I can match her in any way - she was and is a phenomenal mom - but she gave me a great goal to strive for. My mom was always so happy for vacations and so sad when we had to go back to school I always felt that my mom wanted us around - she NEVER was the one jumping up and down when summer was over - she was the one crying that we had to go back to school and the fun was over. All that to say, I am so thankful that I get to be home with my adorable, silly, crazy, loud, loving, funny little girls and I wouldn't trade one little moment with them!

Thanks Flav!!! :o)

birthday party!!!

Saturday was the BIG DAY ~ we had a birthday party for the girls (their birthdays are just 13 days apart with leap year). We did a family party - which is a crazy group in and of itself - I mean as far as numbers go, and well, if you know them, they are a crazy group and so much fun! Anyways here are a few pics!

We decorated cookies, Flavio took the kids down to the park for a bit, we ate pizza (love costco!!!), hit the pinata, ate cake, and opened presents! It was a great day!

I asked Ellie what the best part of the day was - thinking she'd tell me the cake or hitting the pinata or decorating cookies - nope - she said the best part was having all her family there! I thought that was so sweet!

"felf"

So, Lily will be two next thursday and her newest thing to say is "felf"!! Meaning, she wants to do it "herself". What am I thinking? She is nearly two - of course she can do everything on her own! I mean she is almost two! If you have ever had a two year old you know full well this new age of independence! I really love two!!! I don't and have never bought into the "terrible twos" (thanks in huge part to my parents) - I think it is a fun time of discovery and a lot of discipline!

I know this is short, but I've gotta get ready for a birthday party this weekend - more blogging later.

:o)

happy valentine's day

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We did!!!

Flavio surprised us with a date! He told me he had the day off and that he had planned a date with his girls - ahhh, so cute! It was a real treat to actually have him off and then to get to do some fun things.

I will post some pictures in a little bit - that's for Karla! :o)

The day started with Flavio taking Ellie Grace with him to get his hair cut - a fun thing he enjoys doing with Ellie - they usually get a donut, but we had just had breakfast.

Lily and I got ready and packed a lunch for our adventure - I thought we were going to Disneyland - that would've been a shock - seeing as Flavio doesn't like Disneyland (that is putting it nicely). Anyways, we loaded up the car - not sure where we were going I grabbed a few extra things - jammies and jackets. We ended up at this cute little park in Beverly Hills - Holmby Park. It kinda reminded me of an extremely small Central Park (the real one, not the one in Santa Clarita) - we could see a few skyscrapers, but felt totally tucked away. The girls had a blast - mostly because there daddy was with them at the park! It was so cute to see them want him to push them on the swings and go on the slides and just run around with. Attached to the park is a small golf course - I mean small - just a fun little place to practice - we walked around this little course. There were dogs everywhere, much to Ellie and Lily's delight. We ate our lunch and then headed off to our next point of interest - Sprinkles!

Ellie and I waited in line for an hour, yes, you read that right - 60 minutes - for cupcakes! I have to be honest - their cupcakes are good, but I think I like mine better :o) and I don't have to wait in a long line for mine, but it was fun and something that Flavio knew I would want to do!

We did have to squeeze a little work into our day, but that was fine cause it took us to Malibu. We spent a little time by the beach - the girls loved running around on this little bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean - we saw about 4 or 5 dolphins swimming - such a beautiful sight! Amazing to see the beauty that God has created!

After Malibu it was back to the santa clarita valley for the castros. It was a fun day! What better way to spend Valentine's Day then with the people I love the most!
Thanks babe for a wonderful day!

dad's day

I have been looking forward to doing Master's Kids with Ellie since she was born and I would get more and more excited with each new detail I would hear. I was soooooo excited to hear about a day for the dad's to come, so from the beginning of this TMK year I have been telling Flavio about it and that he has to make sure to have the day off - which he happily did!

Ellie and her daddy had so much fun. I am pretty sure it would be a tie as to who had the most fun! It was so cute to see all of the dads going through the class and participating with their little ones. They were all made "Special Child" for the day and Ellie got to introduce her daddy. She told everyone how she and her daddy like to play "go fish" - which they do. They put her snack together (an airplane), did the crafts together, sang songs, and finally had paper airplane races - to which she was quite sad that they didn't win a prize, but it was a good opportunity for daddy to tell her that you don't always win (something that was hard for him to say, I am sure!).

Well, here are a few pics from our fun day of wonderful memories! I got to be there because I am a coordinator - one of the perks - I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Nothing warms my heart more than watching Flavio with his girls and vice versa!

not sure what is going on with photobucket - but check the pics out HERE.

on the phone

Ok, is this not too cute???

Ellie's nails were in need of a re-do, so she had a mani/pedi this afternoon after her nap - gotta be ready for Dad's Day tomorrow, anyways she was talking on the phone - doesn't she just look like one of the ladies you'd see at the nail salon chattin' away on the phone with her best girlfriend?

week of fun!

Ok, well, just about every week is fun, but this week I made a bit of an effort to do fun things out of the norm. Ellie loves to paint so we painted one day - Lily LOVED it as you will see and then yesterday (and today) we went to the new park that opened up down the street. I like this park because they actually have swings! The girls LOVE the swings. Lily tells me faster, faster, higher. She is my little daredevil - in fact she did a magnificent flip off of the swing today - landed face first in the sand! Other than eating sand she was totally fine and ready for more. They had a blast! I mean what kid wouldn't!!! They get so excited when we go to the park - the other day we rode bikes down to our little park and Lily just kept yelling "palk, palk" as if she had never been and saying "hi palk" at the top of her lungs.

So here are some pics of our fun week.

Enjoy your weekend. We have dad's day tomorrow with Master's Kids so I will put our pics up as soon as possible - should be fun! Ellie can't wait to show her daddy what she does at TMK.

If you aren't able to see the slideshow - it doesn't seem to be working on my computer - just click HERE.

building memories

I love the time after I have put Lily to bed and before Ellie goes to bed. We usually come downstairs, she gets a little treat, I pick up the kitchen, and then we read or play a game or just sit on the couch together.

Well, tonight she wanted to play Go Fish. I love this game, because it is something that she can play without help. As we were playing cross-legged on the couch I kept looking at her and thinking what a beautiful little girl she is. I love her smile that lights up her precious little face. I love how her eyes sparkle when she has gotten the match she was looking for or when she is able to get the card she was looking for from me. Or the little mischevious grin she gets when she knows she has gotten a card that I have and is just waiting her turn.

Growing up we used to say we were "building memories" - usually when we wanted to do something and my dad was a bit reluctant - well, tonight, as I sat there, I just thought about the wonderful memory I was building with my little girl.

BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN!!!

On Thursday, Ellie and I headed down to Disneyland - she was invited to a birthday party there! Gotta love having a pass!!! (as a side note - need a birthday idea for Ellie - she would love to get her pass renewed - so Disney Dollars would be great!) So, off we went to the Mouse House! It was a party from the get go - we picked up her bestest little friend Sydney and her mama. The girls watched The Little Mermaid all the way down, Jodi and I talked, it was great! We met up with all of the other girls and went on all of our favorite rides - dumbo (ok, not my fave, but I didn't have to go on it Yea!), storybook ride, casey jr, tea cups, and as we got off the tea cups one of the girls decided that she wanted to go on Matterhorn - so Ellie decided that she did too!! I was really surprised, but I figured we should jump at the chance since my dear little girl is a bit timid when it comes to bigger rides. Unfortunately, Matterhorn was closed - I actually think it is closed more than it is opened. Well, I figured that this is my opportunity to see about getting her on some bigger rides.

Most everyone left at 3pm - but there were six of us who stayed on - three little girls and their mamas. We had a BLAST!!! We went over to California Adventure - saw the Aladdin show - really well done, went on Flavio's favorite ride - Soarin' over California (again, not my fave, but I did it for my girl), then back to Disneyland we went. We all decided to go on the train ride (aka Big Thunder Mountain) - I thought the name might scare Ellie a bit so we just called it the train ride - she asked if it was like Thomas the Train - I said sorta! I didn't want her to see how fast the train went for fear she'd chicken out - fortunately it was dark so she couldn't see. We got on the train and she had the time of her life! She put her hands in the air and screamed for joy! It was the cutest thing! The girls all loved it so much we went on it again!!! I am so proud of my little girl! I think she will be surprised when we go on it during the day next time - it is a big roller coaster.

We thought about going to Space Mountain next, but . . . didn't want to scar the girls for life - that one is a serious ride and in the dark the entire time - maybe we will do that one next year!