Birthday weekend continued...

A long over due visit with Grandma, Aunty Linda, Lisa and Shawna. Such a great day at the beach and lots of fun surprises like the amazing sea shells :) We got to have Grandma stay with us in the front unit for a few nights and loved every minute!!!! Everyday since Macy and Remy refer to the front unit as "Grandmas Place", too cute!!!

Playhouse Finished!

Papa had it finished just before the girls party. He was putting down sod a day before with Uncle Bruce. Wow, it looks amazing!!! Thanks Papa and Uncle Bruce for pulling off a miracle :)

Macy & Remy turn 3!

It was an amazing weekend filled with friends and family. Thanks everyone for making the girls 3rd birthday celebration so memorable. We truly are blessed in so many ways :)

Cabo 2010

OMG, what an amazing vacation and we owe it all to Grandma Kay and Grandpa :) We missed you guys so much and were so happy too get a few days pool side with you :)

Pictures are always the true tail on how your vacation went and as you can see we had a blast!

We were able to take our good friend Jesse with us this year to help out with the girls and it was a BIG help! Despite the girls giving her a hard time and only wanting mama Jesse was a true sport and such a pleasure to have with us :) Thanks Jesse!!!!

Papa Bear was a true social butterfly, he met several couples to hang with and had such a pleasure to hang with Jeff and family....can't wait for next year :)

Tadpoles

The girls had a great time learning to swim.

Macy was all smiles but was impossible to get her to put her head under water.

Remy was a natural in the water with a little help from papa.

Check out LA Surf and Swim, really great staff!

lasurfandswim.com

Great Visit!!!!

Another great visit with Marty and his son Hershel. The girls had so much fun....we had some great laughs and can't wait to another visit!!!!!

Lunch

The first lunch in the playhouse. The perfect lighting for a Sunday lunch :) 

Nice Moves Macy

Macy is loving her dance class and has some new, great moves! 

Lets Eat Cake

Papa woke up to the girls having breakfast, cake.

Macy always knows where the cake is and they got themselves 

all set up while I was at work and papa was sleeping :) 

Luv'n early morning visits from Grandpa...

Garden Planted

Nothing gets you in the summer spirit like a garden! All planted now I just need to remember to water it :) 

Thanks Papa for getting me all ready to plant...again you made my job easy!!!! 

Occupational Hazards!

You guessed it Mike was bit by a pit bull showing a house. 14 stitches later and a little bit shy of dogs his ego recovered and so did his leg. The unfortunate thing in all this is the owner of the dog never called to see how Mike was doing. Who does that!!!!!

Sorry Papa :( But we are so happy that is all that happened!

The Playhouse

As you can see Papa and Grandpa put a lot of muscle in this playhouse! My part was easy :)

We were able to use some windows Papa found in the ally for the skylights and we used all left over paint I had collected over the years with my mural work. Some of our neighbors had some given us some used 2x4's from a commercial shoot.  The chandelier was bought at Ikea for $20 and after a few additions thanks to Grandma we have an amazing center piece! Even though we saved by using some recycled materials we might have been better off buying a pre-fabricated house....but what fun is that!!!!! A labor of love and worth every minute of it to see Macy and Remy's faces light up the closer we get to being finished.

Great job Papa and thanks Pops for all your hard work...the first few days of construction Pops had a really, really bad cold but it didn't slow him down. You rock Pops!!!!

Stay tuned for more updates and just a little side note about the doors. See the picture of Remy with her hand on the door...well that was minutes after she had pulled the whole door frame down. Papa is not sure exactly how she did it but knowing Remy she was probably swinging/hanging off it :) Papa made sure that door is never going anywhere again!!! 

Easter Weekend

I love Easter weekend...lot's of friends and family, we needed one more day this year to celebrate with everyone :)

Friday Mike and I kept the girls in school so we could do some work on the playhouse and get the garden planted. I have about ten varieties of tomatoes. We also planted zucinni, peppers, onions, cilantro...i will be ready for salsa!

Saturday we headed to Woodland Hills for a BBQ at Lucas and Ryder's house. Mike and I got "space" jealous! Remy had so much fun running from one side of the yard to the other...no matter what her mission she ran it :) Macy loved all the toys and was happy hanging out doing what she loves the best..reading and eating :)

Sunday we headed to Pop's and Nana's house for their traditional feast! It was so much fun getting all the cousins together, everyone is growing so fast!!!!

silly girls!

Macy, loves comfort!

Remy, loves the spotlight!

Hanging with BFF's

While Mike was in Vancouver for the Olympics I took advantage of some much needed visits with friends and family. Donna went with us to Disneyland and we also made a trip up North to visit Jenn, Grandma and Grandpa...we also got a surprise visit from the newest member of the family, Gunner...so cute!!!! Such a great weekend :)

2010 Winter Olympics

Mike and his best friend Andrew had a great time checking out all the sights at this years Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It was cold and rainy but that didn't stop them from having an amazing adventure :)

In good company...

We always look forward to our yearly visit with Uncle Jim and Aunt Judy. The bonus is extra time with grandma and grandpa and the 80+ weather we had today! wow, it was beautiful!!!!

Its a start...

Despite colds grandpa and papa got a good start on the girls new playhouse. We are so excited for them to have their very own special place to entertain their friends. Check back for updates :)

ART

Having fun with Papa

It is always a challenge to get a great picture of Macy and Remy together. But during some of those moments I sometimes get a really, really great picture of Papa and the girls!!!! This one melts my heart :)

and those dresses and hats from nana are just too darn cute!!!!

What better way to spend a sick day...

A quick run to the fabric store and we had enough fabric for three tutu's. The girls had fun picking their own colors and flowers. Remy was feeling better than Macy and was able to give me some cute shots of her new tutu :) We are ready for Spring....Super sweet!

Another Sick Weekend :(

Poor little Macy has it bad. The worst cough we have had in a long time :( 

From the Belly Archives...

After seeing all the belly pics of Octo-mom in the new Star magazine  I could not resist posting my BIG'O belly for all the see. I can't remember being that big! OUCH :)

New Favorite Place...The Skirball Museum

Papa is a brave man! He loves his solo adventures with Macy and Remy. He took them to the Skirball and had lots of fun. This was the girls second time there and they just can't get enough!

Such a cool place!

Wonder Twins!

Super cute T-shirts by my friend Mandy. She designed them with our girls in mind!

Check out her stuff online @ www.cafepress.com/mooja

Time with family

Mikes God Mother was in town for a visit and he had the perfect opportunity to visit. I unfortunately was not able to make it but by the looks of the pictures everyone had a great time!

Spending time with friends...

2010 is going to be a year that we make more time for our friends. It seems to have been a bad pattern in 2009, because nobody seemed to have time for much of anything but everyone wanted to find time. I am so excited to have more days like this one. I had my best friend over in the am and some of my other close friends over for the afternoon! A perfectly spent day :)

Bubbles!

I can remember doing this as a child, couldn't get mad at them for exploring their world and getting clean :) they were having too much fun!

Happy New Year!

As we say goodbye to 2009, one of the hardest years to date for us as a family. We are excited about moving forward to 2010. The things we would like to put behind us: diapers, sippy cups, tantrums, sleepless nights, long work days, short weekends and bad habits. The things we are looking forward to: better careers, more vacations, finished inventions, a cleaner house and the best of all...summer!

We wish you all the best in the New Year and can't wait to snap a lot of pictures of you, us and them. This blog has been a great source of enjoyment for us and to look back at the last few years is always a good laugh :)

We love everyone so much!!!!

xoxoxox - The Castillo's

an early morning pre showing of the Rose Parade floats, so amazing!!!!!!

Jingle Bells :)

Macy and Remy had their first school performance this year. Remy was much more interested in being the class clown and Macy wanted to sit on papa's lap. For the few minutes they were on stage it was priceless!!!!

Christmas 2009

There is nothing better than spending time with family and enjoying the holidays. Thanks everyone for making this year so special for us and the girls. They were so into it this year and can't wait to see Santa again next year :)

Just Cute!

Story Time with Marty

We had a great visit with the Cohen family over the weekend and the girls got a real special treat, books and a reading by Marty. The girls were really into it and just love their new books.

Thanks for the great lunch and and even better the great company :)

Ginger Bread House's

During a little shopping spree at Target I came across these really cute and simple Ginger Bread Houses. I am always up for a little art fair and with papa game we got busy helping the girls with their very first candy houses. The hardest part was the frosting. It was melting and the houses were sliding apart...it was hilarious! But with a little help from the fridge they survived and will be nibbled at throughout the week :) Great memories and great job girls and papa you are so creative!

Wrapping Paper

Our first rainy day and we got crafty. I had this idea for the girls last year but never got a chance to do it. I thought it would be super fun and cute to have the girls customize their own holiday wrapping paper. Remy was a good little worker bee but Macy had her own idea for her production line....one! It was great to see the girls express themselves through art that can be shared on Christmas. Hope you enjoy it!

Cookies

Our little friend Henry got into the holiday spirit with some cookie baking. Henry did a great job decorating his cookie. Macy and Remy always seem to have a hard time getting the frosting to the cookie :)

The Four Seasons, SB

OMG...this place was amazing. Aunty Beth was able to once again get us an amazing deal on a room at the Four Seasons. We were lucky enough to have some super great cousins and aunty Lori to watch the girls so we could have a night off in luxury in Santa Barbara :) Mike picked the girls up early on Sunday morning so we could let the girls go wild on the beautiful grounds, it was amazing! Thanks everyone!!!!

San Louis Obispo Parade

We took a last minute trip up North to see the San Louis Obispo Christmas Parade. Mike and I stumbled upon this parade years ago and always talked about how fun it would be to take our children. The girls had a blast and wore us out! The following morning we took a walk through town and ran into Santa Claus. The girls enjoyed meeting him and were all smiles! Looking forward to next year :)

Cheese anyone?

Thanksgiving Dinner

This was the first year of many that we did not split the day up between the Castillo's and the Ostermann's. We sure did miss Nana and Pops and the entire gang! We did however have an amazing dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends. I did not get enough pictures this year and the ones I did get were fuzzy!!! The girls kept me super busy while papa enjoyed a much needed break. We came home stuffed and I came home with a super caffeine buzz, yikes!!!! Thank you to Grandma Kay that put in so much hard work...everything was wonderful!

Try, try again!!!

Out first attempt at Christmas Card photos this year. Maybe we will try again next weekend :)

The BIG move!!!!

Grandma Suzanne made a big change in her life and moved to Palm Springs, something she has wanted to do for many years. She was recently let go from her job and a beautiful and super affordable home became available and she could not pass it up. We are all so happy for her but the only problem is she hurt her back a few weeks ago and landed herself in the hospital and was not able to move herself. Thankfully Bruce has been working in town and was able to get mom packed up and moved with no problems. Macy and I made  a trip down on moving day to help get mom settled in and all the basics taken care of so she could rest and recover. She is going to have to take one day at a time and know that she will get herself set up just the way she likes it even if it is one box a week :) Good luck mom with your new home and new life! The best move you could have ever made and thanks Macy for being such a big helper!!!!

Just Silly!

Happy Birthday Kay and Brad!

Thanks to Lori for putting together a super fun Birthday celebration for Kay and Brad. The dinner she cooked was super delicious and those coasters were super fun!!!! Not too sure we will let the girls eat caffeinated cake agian...they were freaking out the entire ride home and fell asleep just as we were pulling into our driveway, eeeek! Happy Birthday Kay and Brad :)

Halloween Night!

Our Halloween festivities just don't seem to end. Halloween morning we were invited to yet another pumpkin patch with our friends Val, Stu and Johnny. The girls had a blast in the gigantic jumper and Macy loved getting a little creative with the sand art :) Johnny was super cute in his penguin costume!

After the pumpkin patch we headed over to the new mall for some bath toys and ended up going Trick-or-Treating throughout the mall. It was so perfect. After a total sugar rush we landed in Target and spent a small fortune on new toys for the girls. Like they need anything more, YIKES!

Halloween night we dressed the girls wagon with lights and music. Amanda, Randy and London joined us for more Trick-or-Treating on Rialto. The girls were a big hit and Remy was hilarious. Every time she would receive a treat she would blow kisses, SO CUTE!!!!! Macy was not too sure about all the spooky houses but with a little help from Papa she managed to fill her bag with treats.

Not sure what happened to Remy but Sunday morning she woke up with a horrible rash all over her body. We are pretty sure it was sugar over load. Remy ate more candy Halloween night than she has eaten in her entire life. OOPS! But we had a great time and all is well. Can't wait for next year but happy to end the Halloween festivities for this year :)

School Party and Lunch

It was so cute seeing all of Macy and Remy's school friends dressed up. There are some pretty creative people among us :) LUV it! Remy of course had to be up front and center...she loves the attention :)

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is not complete without Pumpkin carving. The girls loved pulling out all the goop :)