cullenhouse

Sean...3.10

  

Sean David is fast approaching four and we can't believe it. He started preschool this year at the same school Sydney attended. He loves it! Sean is full of personality and is our resident comedian. He loves to act out what he watches on TV and has a whole rountine where he can act like a puppy dog - sit, stay, roll over, play dead, and give sloppy wet kisses (a big lick on the face,actually!) He LOVES trains! We went on the Polar Express once again this year and he loved it. He will play for hours on the floor with his GeoTrax and his Thomas the Train set. He has a game of battleship in his room which is really just him separating the red and white pegs, but he will do that for an hour and get everything in a specific order by color. It's hilarious!

He loves music and loves the drum set at church. He hums along with everything that he hears. He loves Sydney so much and watching them play together is one of the things we enjoy the most about our kids. He learned to pray this year (with help from his "sissy" as he calls her). We are still working on colors as he loves orange, peach, and yellow, but not clear on what is red or blue yet. We are not sure if he is teasing us when we ask or if REALLY doesn't know the difference! He is addicted to our iPhones (we are looking into treatment :) and loves Angry Birds, the Monkey game, and The Train Conductor.

Sean is so loving and loves to wrestle with Dad. Some of our favorite phrases right now are...

• "Mommy, I'm hungering (i.e. - hungry)"
• "Mommy, where's your pink phone?"
• "Where's Sissy?"
• "Daddy, let's wrestle!"

Sean is a determined little boy, very self-reliant, and loves people. He is such a joy and a delight!

Sydney...age 6.5

 
Sydney has had a full year! She started first grade this fall with Mrs. Norton (who attends our church). We love her! Sydney has learned to write really well this year and her reading has far exceeded any of our expectations. She loves school, but her favorite things are ballet and art class. She loves Mrs. Barrett and enjoyed taking her after school art class this fall.

Sydney is my creative artist. She loves how music integrates into dance into art into design. Her imagination blows us a way. She loves all the arts and being a part of all of them. Not one has really surfaced as her favorite. She has her own sense of style and her own way of expressing her ideas. Whether she is playing dress up, building a store outside her room, creating bedrooms for her babies within her own room, planning a "show" to perform on Christmas that includes costumes, music, and dancing or re-decorating her room - she loves to create.

Hear are some funny things she has said this year...

• "Mom, I don't want to be a cheerleader because you have to talk a lot. I just like to paint and not talk."

• "I think I have another ear confession"(i.e. - infection)

• "Are you kidding me?"

Sydney had her tonsils and adenoids removed in November. She has fully recovered and is sleeping so soundly. She failed part of her hearing test at school this year and we discovered she had a ton of fluid in her ears. She hears so much better now and the TV is no longer at maximum volume when she is watching it!

The highlight for us this year was that Sydney indicated to us that she trusted Jesus to be Her Savior. She received a journal from a friend during her recovery from surgery and she wrote pages and pages of her thoughts. We think some of her thoughts were definitely because of her medication - things like " Fairies are bad.God is good." (Lol!) Anyway, there were some things that were so meaningful like this..."I learned that God made us food and water. He gave us His love to follow Him and He made us and the most important gift that He gave us His Son Jesus."

She wrote a great little Christmas song this year that I was able to capture on my iphone. Here it is...

Sydney's Christmas Song

 

Merry Christmas from the Cullens!

 
It has been a busy November and December at our house. We spent Thanksgiving in Tampa with Todd's family. It was the first time we had all been together in about 2 years, so it was great to just see each other and watch the cousins play together! Todd's sister, Katie, is expecting a little girl in February. We surprised Sydney and Sean with a one-day visit to the Magic Kingdom. You can't drive on I-4 and not stop by and visit THE MOUSE! Sydney has been a few times, but this was Sean's first time. We "pretended" to get "lost" and we ended up at the Magic Kingdom. I think Sydney really thinks that her daddy was lost :) We met up with our friends, the Cunninghams, from Hilton Head who were also "surprising" their kids that day as well. Sean just wanted to ride the train all day. Sydney wanted to do the Barnstormer roller coaster all day as well. It was a little cool so the Spectromagic parade was fun to watch sipping hot chocolate.

December has been so much fun as Sean is really talking. Sydney was not as verbal as Sean at this age so it is SO much fun. He is obsessed with trains...even as I blog, he is watching his morning viewing of "Polar Express." He is singing Christmas carols all the time...I included a little mp3 of him singing here...

Download Sean singing carols-2009

We took the kids to Bryson City, NC on December 10-12 to ride the "Polar Express" on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. It was fabulous! If your kids are into that movie and love trains like mine do, this is a great thing to do as a family. We went to the train museum before our train ride...it was incredible. The ride is a little over an hour which is plenty. The kids wear their pajamas (and some adults which was funny!) We enjoyed hot chocolate(in special mugs we keep!) and special treats and Santa joins us on the ride back and talks to every child. It was the coolest thing we have done as a family of four. We stayed at a lovely cabin in Cruso, NC (Thanks, John and Sandy!) and enjoyed building fires and watching Christmas movies together. It was COLD! We wished for some snow, but it definitely felt like Christmas!

Sydney is loving Kindergarten. She is reading so well and is doing great in math. We love Mrs. McCarter and are so thrilled to be a part of HHCA. Here she is singing with her class at their Christmas concert rehearsal. She announced to us that she wants a baby sister...I told her that mommy and daddy aren't having any more babies (a little hard to explain I would be on complete bedrest for any more pregnancies!) and what if we had a little boy? She said, "No thanks." So, I told her to just pray and ask God if he wants her to have a little sister, that he would send us a little girl that didn't have a mommy and daddy. She was blown away that there were little girls without parents. She told me later that she prayed for God to send us a little girl. We will see! (BTW - Todd is freaking out!)

The Hilton Head Campus is doing great! You can follow us on our blog by CLICKING HERE and you can hear Todd's messages online at our podcast on iTunes or at our blog. God is sending us new people every week and I have been blessed with some new musicians this fall. Our Evening in December was a huge success and has opened the door for us to think of performing more dessert concerts to raise money for community outreach. Our goal in 2010 is to become financially self-sustaining as a Campus and God is already opened the hearts of our people to give to meet that goal even now. We love our people and this community and are SO excited about the future here! We have three Christmas Eve services this year (23rd-and 24th) and are excited about having some time off between Christmas and New Years.

We purchased a home this fall and love being settled. EMAIL ME if you do not have our new address.  We feel so blessed to have the opportunity to buy on the Island. God truly made a way for us and we are so thankful. We are looking forward to making cosmetic upgrades to our home over the next few years. We have a partial woods and a partial golf course view. We love living on the Island and wearing flip-flops year-round! It gets cold enough to feel like a change of season ( it will be in the low 50's on Christmas Day!) but not TOO cold. Yeah, we are spoiled :)

From our home to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! No matter the miles, we feel connected to so many of you through facebook, your e-mails, and your calls. May God's richest blessings fill your hearts during this season as we celebrate the greatest gift of all - His Son, Jesus Christ.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Click to Play

Sydney's sudden interest in playing the piano is so exciting I cannot find words to describe it. She has shown really no interest up to this point. We worked a little last year but, she didn't enjoy it. I am in amazement!!!!

Sydney's 1st Day of K-5

Click to Play

Where did we go?

June was Moving Month around the Cullen house...thus NO blog updates here at Cullenhouse. It was a whirlwind with Sydney (and my) birthday, a trip to Atl, and just getting settled. Check out some pics from this last month by clicking here.  It is now July 4th weekend and we have "officially" hung all the pictures, arranged the furniture, and feel like this is REALLY our home. We took some time this weekend to enjoy the beach, grill out hamburgers, and do sparklers. Todd made a path and cleared some brush and now we can clearly see a green and a hole from our porch! We are so thankful for our new home and are loving our life on the Island.  Here are some highlights these past few weeks:
1. Sean moved into a "big boy" bed. He is now sleeeping VERY well through the night. Now if he gets up, he gets in bed with Sydney, so this is working out very well! He is not a baby anymore - all boy, adn such a sweetheart. He is very active, and loves to wrestle, but still cuddly!
2. Sydney attended her first VBS this summer. She is becoming so responsible with feeding Watson and Lily (the fish), and being such a good sister to Sean. We can't believe she starts K-5 in a few weeks. She is so ready! She has become such a little lady and God has blessed her with some really sweet girlfriends.
3. Todd is preaching most Sundays through the summer at the HHI Campus. We have recently moved from a video teaching format to all live. He is team writing the sermons with Pastor Jeff and really enjoying it. He has started running again and is really enjoying working in his new yard (and putting on the green behind our house!)
4. Cynthia is enjoying the summer with the kids. It has been great to have Emily Wolff, an intern from LU, with her all summer in the Worship Arts Ministry. She actually got a Sunday off! (Click here to read about it!) Cyn is getting ready for an artist showcase in Nashville In August with 3 of her original songs.

That about brings you up to speed with us. We are loving our time with the kids this summer and realy emjoying every moment with them at this age. We feel very blessed to be doing ministry together as a family and are so thankful for LowCountry Community Church. God bless...till next time.

Sydney's Preschool Graduation

You hear me crying in the background! It was an awesome day!

More Easter Egg Hunt Videos

Syd's School Hunt

 

Family Hunt in the backyard

Island Easter Egg Hunt

About 800 people attended Our LowCountry Community Church Easter Egg Hunt on Hilton Head Island...this event always marks another year that we have lived here - now 2 years. I think about the 1st hunt we did here and Sean was 8 weeks old...Sydney was almost 3. They are growing up so fast, but we are having so much fun as they get older and can do more things on their own. Mommy doesn't have to help much anymore on the Easter egg hunts.I was just trying to keep an eye on them in the midst of a swarm of preschoolers! It was a great day.

Tomlin, watch out!

Chris Tomlin, look what you've done! We will forever be grateful. "Sing Sing Sing" is Sean's favorite song. He sings it at the top of his lungs in the car. We love it!