Summer FUN 2011

This summer has been so much fun. We have had plenty of sunshine, smiles, and our favorite - BOATING and camping trips.
















Juan and I took our trip to Las Vegas with family and friends and had so much fun in the sun! It was hot down there and our time was well spent eating FABULOUS food (recommended by HOLLY!!) and boy, was there plenty of food to go around. WOW. Not to mention the drinks - which were endless all weekend. I can tell I'm getting older - tired by 2am and the rest of the crew continued on - well on, like 7am on. LOL. Enjoyed the time away but as always, was awesome to come home to the kids and my best friend, Eboni who stayed with the kids and watched over them like the angel she is. She's been keeping the kids for us every year so we can have a weekend full of no responsibilities. She's so awesome and we're so blessed to have a friend/sister that's there for ALL of us. She never knew the family would grow to four kids when she initially said she'd be our "babysitter for life"... LOL!!! All of our kids love, love her. She's truly the best!! THANKS, EB :)

We celebrated 2 birthdays this summer. Cameron turned 6 in June and we went to Chuck E Cheese, had pizza and lots of cake and fun! Keira turned 4 in July and her Aunt Cheli made the CUTEST cake for her. Pinkalicious. BBQ'd in the park and took the boat out for some water fun. Still can't believe my baby went from 4lbs at birth to 4 years old just like that! Crazy how fast it really does go.

We've also been quite busy with Bryce's little league (went undefeated ALL season and took the championship in June and since then has been participated in his tournament team. The 9U Pasco Sluggers are doing great and in their most recent tournament, they went undefeated and took 1st place out of 16 teams! Very exciting times for Bryce and all of his teammates. Thinking there's going to be a lot of baseball in our future with Cameron on the sidelines playing catch and yelling, "Bryce is up to bat!" as he runs to the fence to watch his big brother play.

Here are some of the pictures we've taken along the way this spring/summer! Amazing how fast the fun times fly by. Can't believe we're now half way thru 2011. WOW.

School starts up soon and we'll be doing school shopping very soon. oh my!!

Brandon's in 6th grade;

Bryce in 4th;

Cameron's in 1st; and

Keira's in Montessori

...........PHEW!

Hoping our House will Sell.....

We have once again decided it's time for us to move to a home with a larger lot and more room to move about! So excited to finally get this house ready to put on the market. We started the process in early January and what a whirlwind it's been ever since! We've spent countless hours with lots of friends and family who have gone above/beyond to help us get the house ready to sell - painting, cleaning, organizing, and the list goes on... THANK YOU to all of you guys for your support and help in getting it ready to sell. We appreciate it very much :) The For Sale sign is hanging out front with beautiful flyers inside... Now let's just all pray it sells :) LOL

FINGERS CROSSED it sells quickly! So excited for what's to come this year. Considering so many things that have already changed for the better, I'm hopeful that our house will sell and we can begin the next chapter in the Castillo family on a lot that we have reserved to build our new home with plenty of room both inside & out!!

Will keep you posted...........

Happy Holidays!!

We had such a fun time this year for the holidays. The house is finally back in order after 2 months of chaos after a toilet overflow, drywall replaced, flooring downstairs replaced, and new carpets upstairs... And just in time for Christmas, it was put back together and we were able to relax and celebrate together - comfortably! Very happy and thankful. The kids opened all their gifts and enjoyed their gifts and time spent with the families. Wonderful way to end the 2010 year!! Full of family, great memories, and fun times. And we celebrated many birthdays this month.. more pictures to follow.

Looking forward to another year filled with kids, laughter, and family!

Happy Halloween!

The kids had a great time celebrating Halloween this year. Mom took Brandon and Bryce out shopping to help decide what they wanted to be because they weren't really wanting to dress up. Thanks to mom, they decided that yes they did want to dress up and it was still "cool" to do it. LOL~ Brandon was a whoopie cushion (farting sounds here).. Bryce was a muscle-man/skeleton combo.. Cameron was a green skeleton... and Keira was a fairy princess (thanks to the help of Aunt Holly who put the costume together because I was too tired and wanted to leave the store by then.. glad we stayed!)... I've been a little preoccupied with the house mess and I appreciate both mom and Holly for helping keep me with the kiddies.. THANK YOU.... :)

Happy Halloween!!

BANDITS 2010

FOOTBALL GAME TONIGHT!!!!

Bryce has his last football game tonight at 5:30pm at the PYF fields. We are all so excited to watch them play!!!!! ....If you can come out to support - look for the most-awesome undefeated PURPLE team (Bandits)!!!!!!

They've all worked so hard and grown so much this year. They are again undefeated this season!! We hope to keep the winning-streak going through tonight to make it to the Superbowl this Saturday... details to follow!!!

The weather has changed and so we are going to have our gloves, hats, coats, and boots out for tonight's game. At last night’s practice, I ended up wearing my gloves and sat with Keira in the car for the last 30 minutes. As soon as the sun goes down, it’s down-right COLD now. I think I'll even bring down a thermas of HOT CHOCOLATE to sip on while we cheer them on.

GO BANDITS!

My friend, Eboni said she's coming and bringing cow-bells to cheer them on.. Can't wait to see the look on their faces when those LOUD cow-bells get going. It's hilarious. She's used them for a long time with her own son's football games.

Hope we see you guys there cheering them on.

BANDIT-PRIDE!!!

My how fast the summer has gone! We have had a very busy one for 2010. Started out our summer with the Grace cousins all meeting up in Las Vegas to hang out and have some fun. Boy, did we! We probably had too much to drink and way too much sun, but in the end was worth every penny to go. We loved our time down there and are already gearing up to go again next July. Can't wait!

We took the family camping to Lake Chelan. Our first time going and we're sure we're going back next year. What a beautiful lake! The Zaragoza family, our neice and nephew, and Joe Robles & his boys joined us and all the kids had a blast. Riding bikes, camp fires, smores, swimming, boating/tubing... awesome. Our brand new tent was falling apart ~ literally. We had a bad zipper on the main "door" and the side "door".. both wouldn't zip up or down! So the guys used rubberbands & duct tape to close it up. Both were blowin' in the breeze come morning.. sure was nice and cool in our tent that night.. LOL! Keira's birthday landed smack in the middle of our camping trip, so we brought her presents and cupcakes to celebrate her big #3.. She loved, loved her pink blowdryer, brush, and straight iron set!! Great memories with great friends.

Two weeks after camping we took the kids to California to visit family and go to Disneyland!! What a fun trip that was. So glad we were able to take the kids on their first plane ride and what better place to land then LA... Had fun visiting our relatives (thanks for showing us such a good time, Rick, Monet, Aunt Linda/Rex, Randy, Bob/Pat, Tracy & Kids.. Very happy we all got to hang out and catch up.

And with all that fun, all 4 kiddos started school this year. Brandon's in 5th grade; Bryce in 3rd; Cameron's in all day Kindergarten; and Keira started her first year of Montessori. WOW. Time won't slow down for us to catch up to all the years that have gone by. Wanting to push pause on life right now and enjoy them all at their ages for a couple more years. Yes, they're chaotic and wild, but they are all awesome kids.

What a blessing it is to be their mommy and daddy!!