Recuerdame--Halloween 2018

Another fun Halloween in the books! And another almost family costume. When Victor found out he would be gone the week of Halloween, I didn't bother to make him a costume. Not worth the effort and money ha. So it was just the three of us: Miguel, Mama Coco, and Dante!

 We had a fun time at Victor's work party, and the boys won for their costumes! They were so proud of their exchange gift cards they won...and used to buy hot wheels of course.

And we opted out of our ward trunk or treat this year since my family was flying in that night and wanted to do stuff in San Diego. I was ok with that, because that face painting on a 4 year old is a pain! I had to do it three times already.

 For actual Halloween night we went to Katelyn's neighborhood again and had a fun potluck and movie on the lawn, as well as trick or treating. We missed Victor, but I'm glad the boys had a great time and were easy on me ha.

 ^^I got festive with my appetizer^^

Annual photo with a pretty sunset. 

Happy Halloween! Until next year. I never know if this will be the last year of the family costume. We will see!

Christmas Card Season: Help me choose!

Ok, now that Halloween is over, I can start to think about one of my favorite part of the holidays: Christmas cards! Although I would be lying if I said I haven't already been looking at several websites trying to find the designs I like best. I've looked through hundreds of styles, but hadn't found any I was completely sold on that were in my budget. And then I heard about Purple Trail in the knick of time.

I love the selection of Christmas cards and holiday cards that they have, especially since I was looking for a more specific card, which I feel is different every year for me. This year, I've been looking everywhere for more a more religious greeting ie more specific than "Merry Christmas" but I also found a lot of other "themes" on Purple Trail that I love to do so I'll show you those too ;)

So for real, which do you like best out of these? Having a hard time choosing! (showing you the stock photos since I don't want to "reveal" our picture yet ha!)

^^I love the nativity, and you can change the Bible verse to anything you want. I would probably choose a KJV verse, since that's the translation I read^^

I always love Year in Review cards: such a cute new way to update people instead of a typed up insert haha. Here's some I loved on Purple Trail. Another reason I love the year in review theme is that you can use regular photos you've taken throughout the year ie you have a husband like mine who would die if I made him get family portraits every year!

I'm also loving all the unique cutouts for cards that Purple Trail had. I think those would pop out on a fridge full of cards!

Ok, I may have gotten carried away with showing designs, but like I said, I love Christmas cards and look forward to them every year. So thanks to Purple Trail for reaching out and giving me lots of good choices!

Our Easter Sunday

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

We had a great Easter this year, which was nice because last year with these little toddlers was rough. An Easter I want to forget yikes. Maybe a lot had to do with the fact that we had general conference so there wasn't the pressure to have a special time at church, because if you put those expectations on your kids, you are usually disappointed. Anyway, I digress. 

Victor got home from overnight duty on Sunday morning, so the Easter Bunny didn't come until after the morning session of conference. The boys were very pleased and very surprised. And pretty dang cute. 

 


So for Easter dinner this year, we had our own Jerusalem dinner on the floor in our living room. We were invited to one by friends in Okinawa, and it was such a neat experience. I inherited some wood dishes from my grandma this summer, so it was a perfect time to use them, which was also nice to have good memories of her.

We based our dinner out of the book called "A Christ Centered Easter"--the title pretty much sums it up. It's great and kid friendly. It has recipes and other recipe/ingredient suggestions of foods that were around in the time of Christ. We started the meal by sampling and explaining each of the symbolic Passover/Last supper foods, and then we ate the rest of the meal. The boys were also excited to do the Romanian tradition of hitting hard boiled eggs together and saying "Christ Resurrected!"

 I really am still on a high remembering what a special Easter it was. I love it when Easter falls on general conference. The wonderful talks helped so much in the spirit of the day. And now that J is understanding the history of things, it was especially meaningful to be the person to explain the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to him.  I can't wait to keep up this tradition with the boys and teach them even more.

Hope you had a great Easter. Hristos a Inviat!

Halloween with the Von Castros

 Guten tag! Hope you had a good Halloween last week. It's safe to say we had a much better Halloween than last year. J was so into it. I asked him about a month before what he wanted to be and he replied "the Muffin Man!" (not from Shrek. From the actual nursery song haha) Anyway Victor bought these adorable liederhosen for the boys in Austria this summer, so I may have told him that's how a muffin man dresses. Good thing he loved it too.

And since I can't resist it seems, I made it a family affair with my Captain. We have the sons and the gazebo...just are missing the 4 daughters ha. Oh well! Our backyard is alive, with the Sound of Music!

I got my skirt from Germany last summer, and I made this vest. For Victor's costume, I got the jacket from goodwill and pinned some Soviet pins I had. Shhhh don't say anything ha. His hat is just from amazon. The only way I will keep doing family costumes is if it's easy and cheap. 

 ^^the Captain trying to keep them in line with his whistle^^

 There were sooo many Halloween festivities this year. Too much candy. First the ward trunk or treat. J and Lucy here look like their costume is Hansel and Gretel. So cute.

 Then we had a trunk or treat for Victor's work. That was pretty fun. And then of course, actual Halloween trick or treating with our friends, which started with such a gorgeous sunset. There have been a lot of them lately!

 Happy Halloween! So long, farewell, auf wiedersen, good night!

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Merry Christmas! We just got back from our winter break that we spent in Utah, and it feels good to be home. But as I look back at these pictures from our Christmas with my family, it's bringing back happy feelings.

On Christmas Eve we got to video chat with my baby brother Will who is serving his mission in Colombia. That was fun. After that, my mom made such a beautiful meal. It was so lovely. My contribution was homemade Lion House Rolls ha.

That night it snowed all night long and we woke up Christmas morning to the most beautiful snowfall! That sure was magical. I had forgotten about the beauty of snow. 

After church on Sunday, we got all geared up to play in the snow in the backyard. It was the first time for J and he loved it so much! My mom made us hot chocolate, and it just brought back so many repressed memories about snow days and coming inside to cozy and warm hot chocolate. I say repressed because I have been more than happy living in no-snow climates for the past 5 years now ha! But it was so nice. Besides being cold!

Ended the day with a beautiful winter sunset. Hope you all had a beautiful Christmas!!

Things I'm Loving Lately: Holiday Edition

Now Christmas time is here! So here a collection of things I am loving so far.

1. Milano peppermint slices! My new favorite. They are harder to find, so if you see them, buy them! I think walmart is the most reliable? Anyway, so yummy.

2. Matching family pjs! Yes, I have been wanting to jump on this bandwagon for a while. You know how I love to match. These ones are the Burts Bees brand from Target and I bought a set of different patterns but I love them all and they are decently priced. Other brands I was looking at were like $200 for my family of four. Got these ones for less than a hundred for four.

3. New Christmas cds! I always look forward to seeing which of my favorite artists are coming out with Christmas cds. These two are great. I had been looking forward to the She and Him for a while. And Leslie Odom Jr. is great. Both are jazzy, relaxing type of cds.

4. Yummy drinks! This one from Trader Joes is so yummy. Raspberry Cranberry Spritzer. Very Christmasy.

5. Netflix binging! It's not exactly about Christmas, but there are some good new releases. Our favorite is "The Crown." Even if you don't watch everything about the royal family like I do, you will like this show. It's really good. Victor likes it too.

So there you go. Anyway holiday things you're loving that I should love too?? Let me know!