Christmas Day!

Here are McKay and Makenna with a treasure box that Daddy and Connor made for them. I asked Brett to make this for them and I am amazed at how real it looks. He did an incredible job. That man knows how to build things! The twins absolutely LOVE it and have been playing with it almost non-stop!





McKay with his "Chloe dog". This is McKay's 2nd Chloe dog. He had one for a long time and then lost it. We looked, and looked and looked for months. But no sign of Chloe. We are convinced that she is in that 'black hole' that all lost toys end up in. Anyway, Santa brought a new Chloe for McKay and he couldn't be happier.



Connor with his wand made by Grandpa Bell. He was casting spells all day!



This castle was assembled by McKay with some help from Mommy. McKay received this gift from Makenna and was so happy to have something creative and artsy. He is our artist. McKay loves to color, paint, glue, and create anything. It's fun to have a child that is so into arts and crafts.



This is the gift that everyone was most excited about! My younger brother, Matt, gave the kids his old Game Cube! It took a lot of covincing on my and Brett's part, but we finally relized that this thing could be used for good in our home, and boy, has it already started working! Growing up we never had a Nintendo, but all our friends did. Instead of playing at our house, we'd always be over at the friend's that had the Nintendo. Brett and I have already seen this with Connor. So, we thought if we had the games then we'd be able to control the time spent playing, the games played, etc. Also, it would only be played after jobs were done and if the piano is practiced- with a happy attitude. Since Christmas, Connor has practiced everyday and had hugged me after every time I help him. Funny how that works, isn't it?



I just had to post a picture of our tree. This is a new tree for us this year. The day after Thanksgiving we went to get our Christmas decorations out and realized that we had thrown our tree away last year because it was beyond using. Branches were falling off, about 1/2 the lights didn't work and they were multi-colored. (Sorry for all you who have multi-colored christmas lights. I am a white-light girl--if I can be picky and choosy.) So we went through the debate of buying a new pre-lit, fake tree (at full price, of course) or buying a real tree, the stand and the lights. Brett has always puts the lights on our tree if it wasn't a pre-lit, so I let him decide. We went with the pre-lit fake one and I couldn't be happier. We found this awesome one from Costco. It is 7.5 feet tall and has 1500 white lights. I love it! We had so much fun decorating! Thanks, sweetie for choosing this one!

McKay singing, "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinderella

I just had to post McKay singing this song because it makes my heart happy. McKay has been singing this song for a couple of years now. He competed in a couple of talent shows this year (and won), and sang at Saratoga Days this summer. He has warmed hundreds of people's hearts by singing this sweet song. The thing that is so funny is that he always starts on a super-high pitch, so he ends up really sounding like one of the mice. What a sweetheart he is.

Merry Christmas!

Every year growing up, Brett's family would take pictures of the kids dressed up like scenes from the nativity. Brett and his siblings loved it and Joel and Marla were so creative as to how to dress them. Now, we get to see those pictures every year, and all Brett's siblings as well as our family have started taking our own nativity pictures. Our kids love it too. It was hard to decide who was to be Joseph. Connor was kind and let McKay be Joseph. He thought it appropriate, "since that's his middle name." Connor wasn't too happy to have to be the donkey, but enjoyed being the angel. Here are our pictures from this year.

Minnetonka Caves

We went to the Minnetonka Caves for Labor Day this year. I wanted to post these pictures because the cave is so cool! Minnetonka Cave is a fascinating 9-room cave of stalactites, stalagmites and banded travertine that was originally found by grouse hunters. The hunter shot his prey, and it fell down the side of a cliff. He went down to find it and as he got to where his prey was, he felt a cold breeze coming from the side of the mountain. Thus, the discovery of the cave.


Here we are at the entrance to the cave.


Connor freezing inside the cave




McKay freezing inside the cave-- note the red nose!


The cousins all together: Michelle Castleberry, Connor, Madison Castleberry, Rachel Castleberry, Makenna Rush, McKay Rush


McKay telling us where we've been and where to go next



Brett and McKay by some of the awesome formations in this cave


We were all freezing, so we had to keep eachother warm!


The whole tour is 90 minutes long and you go down 400 steps. At some points, it is very steep and very slippery.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! Our kids were so excited for Halloween this year. McKay and Makenna went back and forth, trying to decide what they would be. Some days they were up for giving the Peanut Butter and Jelly costumes (pictured below) another go this year, but in the end they decided on a Prince and a Bride. As you can tell, Connor decided to be the insanely popular Harry Potter.

Connor casting the "stupefy" spell on his cereal. Our good friends, the Chaney's, let us borrow all their Potter garb for Halloween. Thanks, guys! They even had a 'real' wand made to look just like Harry's made from real holly wood. Through out the day we could hear Connor shouting, "Wingardium leviosa" or "Silencio!" It was hillarious!

Makenna was SUPER excited to be able to wear makeup for her costume. For the past few months, she's been banned from wearing any sort of makeup after she gave the dressers in her room a "make-over." (Imagine bright pink lip stick on every surface.) So, since this was a special occasion, I gave in and she got to wear some of my makeup. She was thrilled, and especially loved wearing mascara! Also, do you notice anything else different? Her hair is STRAIGHT!!! She LOVED this. Having straight hair was probably the highlight of Halloween for Makenna, with the candy coming in a close second. Getting her hair straight is a lot of work! But, she loves it. I think most of all because it looks longer and she can run her fingers through it. Of course, since the straight hair is so different than her curly hair, everyone made a huge deal out of it. She was on cloud 9 all night. Now she wants it straight all the time!!!

The twins in their element-- dressing up and make-believing!

Mickey in his best prince pose. Everyone kept calling him a king, and he was getting so frustrated.

The fabulous 3-some before 2 hours of trick-or-treating. What a fun night and fun time of year! Brett and I both wanted to be out with the kids all night, we just left a big bowl of candy on our porch with a little sign that said, "please take one only". As you could have guessed, it was gone when we got home. We hope everyone got some!