Home is. . .

At the beginning of this Army Saga, I looked at this whole experience in two different parts. There was the part that Landon would be gone to training and then the part where we would be moving for a couple of years to some unknown location. At the time, I honestly thought that moving my family to somewhere foreign (whether Germany, as Landon likes to joke, or South Dakota, which after living in Utah County all my life might as well be Germany) was going to be the hard part. Well, I have found out this past week how wrong I was.
I knew that I would miss Landon. I just didn't know how MUCH I would miss him. We had a conversation before he left about the definition of the word home. I told him that I felt like Lehi, or at least Utah, would always be home. That is where we got married, bought our first house, brought 2 of the 3 kids home from the hospital, where both of our families are, etc, etc. Being the sweet and thoughtful guy he is, he said that wherever we were together would be our home. Everybody say it. . . "Ahhhh!" I guess I'm the cold one in the relationship because I respectfully disagreed. That was until this past week when I was being extremely productive on Pinterest and saw this.

In a nut shell, that pretty much explains it. At the end of all this separation, I'm really not going to care where the Army sends us because at least we will be together. We can help the family adjust to a new house, school, ward, state, or whatever. I feel like we can handle anything that is thrown at us as long as we are together. And in the end, that is really all that matters.

Hypothetically speaking. . . .

if I did start blogging again, is there anyone in the blogging world that would notice ? Or are you all on facebook?




BTW, this really is a question and not just a "validate me" post!

Three's a crowd!

I have always been told that going from 2 to 3 children is the hardest tranistion. Well, now I can honestly say that I whole-heartedly agree. While Boston is a darling baby, that now gives lots of smiles, he hasn't had the easiest and calmest termement. I'm sure that his colic, reflux and the fact that he didn't sleep throught the night until he was 3 months contributed to the difficulty of adjusting to 3 children. There have been lots of learning curves for us and we're certainly still learning how to juggle everyday.

Easton is finishing Kingergarten his year and has loved going to school. He loves science and tells me all about the life cycle of a butterfly, the fact that we live on the crust of the earth and the skeletal system of his favorite bugs. He is such a great helper and is my little runner every time I need something. He just turned six and I can hardly believe he will be in first grade next year. I'm not quite sure I want him to be gone all day to school. I'm going to miss him like crazy!

Averie is 2 going on 16. She is our little spit-fire. She is a great big and little sister. She loves to play with Easton and has the cutest belly laugh she heartily shares when she's having a good time. She loves to "help" with Boston and loves to push him around in his bouncer. Thankfully, he really likes it. We tried potty training her before Boston was born, but it didn't go very well. We're on attempt #2 and so far, not that great! She is certainly testing her Mommy's patience in the process though. Someday that stubborness will serve her well, but right now it's just plain annoying! This picture is of her drinking our green smothies. She LOVES them!

My little "Boss-a-Boss" as we call him is getting cuter by the day! You can't tell in this picture, but he's got the most beautiful blue eyes. I'm so excited to finally have a blue-eyed baby! He's been a pretty fussy baby for most of his life and since I am with him 99% of the time, I have learned all of the tricks to get him to settle down. Which is great for when it's just us, but gets a little tiresome when I need a break or just want some help. In fact, even now as we speak, he's screaming at the top of his lungs while Daddy tries to calm him down. As usual, I am on pins and needles resisting the urge to go and rescue both of them.

We rarely have a dull moment at our house. Here are some of the highlights!

Finally. . . presenting Boston Rafael Castillo

My Little "Helpers!"

Still getting used to having three kids! Thankfully, I have lots of extra hands to help!

It really is fun to see Easton and Averie talk and play with Boston. And sometimes they really are helpful. . . . sometimes! :)

Happy '1 Month' Boston!

It's been a month since I had the baby, so I guess it's about time I do a little blogging. I hope I haven't forgotten some of the details of Boston's "story" since this post is mostly for my journaling benefit anyway. So here goes. . .
On Monday afternoon, I took the kids and my ginorm self over to my Mom's house. She had just gotten "Just Dance II" on the wii, so the plan was to do some movin and shakin and dance myself right into labor. (In retrospect, I should have just enjoyed the afternoon and TAKEN A NAP! I suppose that is just the sleep deprivation talking, though.) My sister was over at my Mom's as well, working on some curtains for her kitchen. (2 weeks, 3 different fabrics , and LOTS of un-picking later, she was finally finishing them! That is a post in and of itself.) She and I started talking about our labors, epidurals, membrane striping and the ever famous pitocin contractions. My doctor had offered to strip my membranes the next day, but I was really torn because I wanted to "go on my own" and I felt like that was cheating. I decided to wait it out and just, as my Grandma would say, "let the apple drop when it was ripe."
Fast forward to early the next morning at about 2:30am. I woke up and used the bathroom, and, to spare you the details, I thought my water had broken. I woke Landon up and told him what was going on. He said to me "don't you think you'd know if your water had broken." He must have been delirious from being woken up so early because no man in their right mind would ever say such a thing to a 9 month pregnant woman. He will probably never live it down! I tried to call labor and delivery to ask them what to do, but of course, couldn't get through to anyone. So, I did what any smart, independent woman expecting her 3rd child would do in that situation. . . I called my Mom. She told me it sounded like my water had indeed broken and I should probably go to the hospital and at least get checked out. We texted Landon's sister to come over and stay with the kids and thankfully she made it from PG to Lehi in record time. While we were waiting to leave, I started to have some pretty good contractions, so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get sent home. Off we sped to the hospital. Actually, Landon didn't speed at all and I told him that of any time to speed, it would be then and I'm pretty sure we'd get a pass if we got pulled over. (Call me crazy, but I thought a little police interaction would be a fun addition to the story!)
We got to the hospital and they hooked me up and checked me and said that I was at a 4, but my water had not broken. They said they wanted me to stay because the baby's heart rate was not going in peaks and valleys and so they wanted to monitor him to make sure that it normalized.
They came back a little while later and checked me again and said that I was at a five. The nurse asked me, if it looked like the doctor wanted me to stay, whether or not I would want my epidural now or later. I told her that I would prefer to wait to get it so I could walk around a bit and get things moving a little faster. She told me that with how the baby's heart rate was, they wouldn't let me walk around anyway. So, if that was the case, I was all about getting the epidural ASAP. (I found out later that the doctor basically ordered my epidural before I even said I was ready for one because he wanted to slow the labor down so I could get my strep B antibiotics in before the baby came.)
I got into the delivery room and got my epidural (thank heavens for modern medicine!) and was ready to hurry up and wait. I got into the labor and delivery room at around 3:30 and the nurses REALLY wanted me to get my antibiotics in before I delivered so they were doing everything they could to keep things going slow. My water hadn't even broken at this point. Fast forward to around 8:30 when my doctor got there and said he was going to break my water and then see what happened. After he broke my water, I wasn't really contracting, so I got some pitocin, so my contractions would start being closer together and I could start pushing. The doctor checked me again and all of a sudden was like, "okay, we're going to start pushing." I remember thinking, "what?" we're doing this already. It was totally surreal because 2 pushes later, my sweet baby Boston was here. I told everyone that it wasn't supposed to be that easy. I couldn't believe he was actually here because it was literally, SO easy. (Sorry for the ladies that are reading this and wanting to stab me with hot pokers because you had to push for an insane amount of time. I guess the apple was REALLY ready to drop!) This was, by far, the easiest labor and delivery I’ve had.
I can't believe that it's already been a month since Boston was born. It has gone by SO fast. He really is a good little baby and his brother and sister just adore him. It’s kind of crazy having three, but mostly because it’s so different having a baby again. My life revolves around a 3 hour time frame and I’m always wondering when I might get a little nap in. We have had so much help from family, friends and ward members. It’s been so awesome and we have been so grateful. It’s amazing to look at my baby and realize that just a short time ago, he was with our Heavenly Father. I like to think of the people who are on the other side who got to give him hugs and kisses before he came to get hugs and kisses from all of us. We’re so thankful to have his sweet spirit in our home!

Finally a Christmas post!

I’ve been so busy nesting this last week or two that I haven’t done much of anything else except for organizing and cleaning. I thought I’d take a break and blog about the holidays just for my kicks and giggles.

We had a great Christmas. We had a wonderful time with friends and family and of course, ate way too much and didn’t exercise enough! Here are just some of the highlight pics!

Averie getting in some good practice at being the big sis. So darling!

Landon got roped into being the donkey for the nativity. (Looks like a pretty cushy job, hun.)

Christmas Eve party at G-ma Paxman. We have so many cousins on that side of the family that they had to share a chair. Averie's lovin it, but Easton's not quite sure about the arrangment.

Christmas Morning.

(When did my kids get so big!)

Grandpa being such a good sport! Love the bling, Dad!

Daddy decided that we should have a do-over on the dog thing and surprised all of us with a new black lab. I have to say I was less than excited. I thought we had decided that the only living thing we were going to bring into the family was the little bundle of joy coming this month, but apparently, someone didn’t get the memos. (I will for sure use that oversight to my advantage in the future) Easton and Averie fell in love at first sight, so now, I’m pretty much stuck with the dog. She is cute and I’ve already vowed to be even more hands off than last time, so we’ll see how that goes!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are having a great new year. Stay tuned in the next days . . . or weeks for the updates in the addition to our family. HOPEFULLY, I'll be posting that SOON!