I HAVE RELATIVES!!!

Growing up without relatives always makes me absolutely amazed when i meet people I'm related to. This spring break, i got to go back and see the Castillo side of the family, Mom's family. It was really really cool, and I LOVED seeing my cousins...they aren't little anymore! it was sooo cool, and Ilene and I got to share the gospel and share why we were in the Philippines with them...such neat opportunities.

Ok, this is my mom's school when she was in highschool. a Catholic private school.

This is my uncle, my mom's youngest bro.

this is my Lola, My grandma...she's absolutely adorable

I brought my cousins an american football...they were THRILLEd.

This is me and Alexis...he's 9. He's a cutie pie, isn't he?! he looks alot like ilene.

these are all the girls in the family, minus one other cousin, ashley, and my mom and Lola

pic in some random neighbor's yard

the youngest 2 in the family, Kendrick and Alexis

at the Palenke, the market...buying peanuts.

the whole family!:) except mom and dad;( oh...and plus Ryan. haha.

ilene and i with my mom's sisters, Auntie Virgie, the youngest and also a twin, and Auntie Zeny, the second oldest

Chris and my cousin, Angel

Some of the team and my aunts and cousins, pamela and camille

the team eating lunch at my fam's house...they cooked a TON of foo.d

cousins with desserts, leche flan.  yum yum.

(Kendrick, Angel, me, Camille, Iet, and Vernaliza. they are 12-14 years old.)

diggin in. phil and ryan at the front of the line:)

us with our two aunts and Lola!

First time seeing my Lola.

us after intense games of baseball (taught them) Basketball, and american football (taught them that too.)

Jeff (17?) and Kenneth( 18), the two oldest boys.

Oh, and this is us breaking out of Mom's elementary school. the gate was locked.

and this is the "bonsou" the youngest of the family, Alexis:) He's ilene's godchild.

Lil friends...

I am really really thankful for my Lil Friends.

I love them to death and I love spending time with them.

These two are Clark and Lily.

They are part of my favorite chicago family. 

Check out her beautiful blue eyes.

Clarkster and i have fun playing pretend camping, fishing, polar expressing, and building.

Lily and I just have cuddle time and have fun getting to know each other when she sings and i talk. hehe.

and this is Kristian. his parents aren't believers, but this lil guy is so smart and we've had some good conversations on how God made things. He's learning how to pray before meals and thank God for his food, mom, and dad:) He's spent the day with me a few times the past couple weeks. We've mainly been playing Wii and football...with a spoof soccerball.:) The dude has an AMAZING arm and INCREDIBLE hand/eye coordination.

Ryan and I figured out this might be how our kid looks. His mom is a red head and his dad is asian. :) when ryan played  with him, Kristian was so thrilled.:) 

I'm praying for more opportunities to share Jesus with him.

Starting our life together...

Ryan and I registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Wowzer...it was fun! it was really cool envisioning what our home will like in the future, what we'll entertain guests with, and playing with the scanner gun!! (btw, don't buy the potty seat that I registered for...)

We had a really great consultant. she was really helpful and informant. she was so pleasant and equipped us for the long hours ahead of us with yummy rolos and reeses peanut butter cups and water bottles:) we're both pretty excited about what we registered for and we're heading to Target after spring break to register for other stuff. we had to come back a second time because after four hours the first day, we had only hit half the store! :)

this is us celebrating our registering...

we're excited!!!