Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I know I know it has been WAY to long since I last really blogged. We have just been so busy first getting ready for Christmas and then playing with family that I am now totally wiped out and haven't gotten anything done!

We finally made a Christmas Card this year and sent it out. For those of you who might not have gotten one I am sorry, we could only afford to send a few out. But here is the picture and newsletter we sent out. So its basically the same thing. :)


Dear Friends and Family,
What a fun and busy year we have had. 2009 has been a year filled with firsts! Probably the biggest first of all is the purchase of our FIRST HOME! We moved in during August and have been enjoying making it our own ever since.
Michael has had his first year of participating in the before and after school programs. That includes bowling with kids, teaching guitar lessons, playing with thousands of dollars worth of legos, and pelting kids with balls during dodgeball. I personally think that dodgeball has proven to be very therapeutic for him. :)
Lilly has had so many firsts I can’t even think of them all! She took her first steps at the dinner we had the night before my younger sister Kara got married. The dinner was held at Rexburg’s airport. I think both of her grandpas would be very proud of her motivation to take those steps. A helicopter would prepare to take off and she was trying her very hardest to reach it, taking over five steps in a row to do so. She apparently didn’t have sufficient motivation for a few months afterwards and really got the whole walking thing down at around 16 months.
Other firsts have included her first word, which was Dog (no surprise there. Her first laugh, and sign were also due to the dog). She has really started to talk lately and enjoys telling us all about her books, kitty, silky, and anything else she can think of to talk about. She also enjoys decorating the Christmas tree with anything she can find. This has included anything from toilet paper rolls to tennis balls.
I have been very busy trying to keep our new home clean, keep up with Lilly, and work on my small business selling baby leg warmers, hair bows, and fabric baby carriers. It seems like this year has gone by in a whirlwind and I can’t wait to see what fun things will fly by in 2010.
Please feel free to see in more detail what the McCullough clan is up to on our blog at http://www.lovecatandcaterpillargirl.blogspot.com/
We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Holiday season.
Love,
Michael, Jennifer, Lilly, and Trek

Christmas eve was a very special night. We went to dinner at my parents with our whole family and opened presents from my Grandma and my father. They gave us this beautiful quilt that was hand quilted by one of my ancestors and matches Little E's room. She was really excited about the butterflies.
I also gave Grandma our present, it was a potted violet that I crochet. It was really cute. She looked so beautiful in her black outfit and was so fun to visit with. I really need to go and visit her more often. Little E really enjoys playing in her little apartment and bringing her every stuffed animal she owns from off the couch.

Christmas was really fun! We were like little kids and couldn't wait for Little E to open her gifts from Santa so we woke her up (We let her sleep in until almost 9:30 and needed to go to breakfast at my parents anyways so its not like we got her up at the crack of dawn.)
Little E got some really fun presents for Christmas. Santa gave her a little couch that folds out to sleep on. Its just her size and she immediately started rolling around on it and jumping up and down on it.
We gave her a set of baby doll items including a crib, stroller, and highchair. She has taken to being a little mommy so well. :) The other day I found her feeding her baby doll in the high chair (one of her new favorite passtimes) and she began to imitate me when I try to feed her. I was rolling with laughter as she would hold out her spoon to the baby and say "Some?" (I ask her all the time "do you want some?" when I'm trying to get her to eat) then she replies for the baby "NO!" (just like she says to me.) She went on for 5 minutes, "Some?, NO! Some? NO!" One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Probably my favorite gift was the note that Daddy helped Little E to make for on the gift he gave me (a larger griddle so I can make more than three pancakes at a time). It was so sweet I cried a little.

Here is a really fun picture of Little E after her aunt K did her hair to look like Cindy Loo Who. I can't beleive how much hair she has now! It surprises me every time I do it.
For New Years we had Grandma and Grandpa M come up for a visit. We had a lot of fun running through the streets blowing our horns and throwing poppers and generally making pains of ourselves as the clock struck midnight. I am sure that our neighbors wanted throw rotting fruit out the windows at us, but luckily it was too cold to open their windows. ;)


We really enjoyed all of the snow (half a foot in two days!) and went cross country skiing across the street and the school and down at the lake. Little E enjoyed her new sled, although half the time she looked dead as she dragged one of her arms in the snow behind her wouldn't move. I had to continually uncover her eyes because she couldn't see through the slid in her had.

That's as much as I can do tonight but I have some very cute videos from Christmas that I will try to put up as soon as possible. I will try my best this year to blog more frequently and in smaller sections so you don't get overwhelmed with my usual drought and flood technique. :)
Happy New Year!

I Won!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have been looking for a high chair for about a week now because Little E is so tall that her travel high chair is no longer comfortable. Her little legs can't rest on the chair when you put her tray on unless she has them all slanted. I really wanted to get a high chair like my Moms that folds up so I could keep it around for visitors without it being a huge inconvenience to store. I looked all over on Craigslist and found one that I liked in Boise. But the bum sold it to someone else after telling me I could have it. Grrr

Then I looked online and found a new one I really liked but it was $89 and i just couldn't justify that price when I could buy a used High chair for $15. So I kept searching and found an ebay bidding on the same kind of high chair, just an in-box returned one. I just WON IT! I only paid $40 including shipping and I couldn't be happier! :) Isn't if funny how getting something for less money can make you feel like such a super hero?
So here is a picture of my new purchase. I can't wait for it to get here!

Happy Halloween and a Cool New Toy!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We had a great time this year going out trick or treating as a family. We decided to do a family costume of the Fairy Tale Little Red Riding Hood. Michael dressed up in his hunting gear and became the woodsman, I made a pair of ears and wore my coat inside out and became the Big Bad Wolf, and Little E... well, her costume took a little bit more effort. I found a really cute pattern at walmart for a Little Red Riding Hood costume and decided it didn't look too hard. Time passed and I suddenly realized I only had a week left to get started on her outfit! I asked my Mom to save me and help me figure out how to sew the thing. It literally took me an entire week of sewing all day long to get everything done, but in the end I am happy that I did it! The dress is so cute and the hood is reversible and they both will fit for a long time to come. So they will be fun dress up clothes. But next time I am going to give myself at least a month to finish a sewing project so that I can avoid the tears. :)

The white on her arms are just some leg warmers I put there to keep her warm. Its not actually part of her dress.

Little E really liked trick or treating this year. She was so cute with her little Wicker basket. I would put her down to walk up to a door and she would giggle and run for the door. Knock on it (I had to knock louder so they would actually know we were there) and then take as much candy as the person (or mommy) would let her and put each piece carefully into her basket! It was so cute to watch her get this whole concept. At first she didn't understand at all, but it really didn't take long for her to figure it out. Knock on door, grab candy. Pretty easy stuff right? :)


There was one house where they had a spooky ghost on the front door, when the door opened its eyes lit up and it would scream. She didn't like it... She just kept staring at it, on the verge of tears, and didn't even notice the candy the neighbor was trying to give her. But once we left she quickly became her giggling, sugar filled self again.


Another really fun thing that she figured out is how to slide all by herself! We bought a slide from someone in Nampa, ID. My sister picked it up for us and my Mom and Dad brought it back on their trailer after visiting her. (Thanks so much Amber! I know that was not fun! And thanks Mom and Dad for bringing it to us).

We set it up the next evening right before bed, and Little E got SOOO excited! She just kept running around it saying "Side! Side!" and signing slide too. It took her a few minutes to figure out how to climb up the thing, but she quickly got it down and started trying to slide in all kinds of crazy ways. Head first, on her side... lets just say she has way too much of her daddy in her! So far she hasn't really hurt herself on it. So I think it was a really good purchase. :) She will play on it for 15 whole minutes without even realizing that I am not paying attention and am actually getting something done. What a blessing!

Her first time down the slide.


Cut to five minutes later...


Here are some photos of additional proof that Little E is a lot like her daddy! Can anyone say Lightsaber?

Here is a little Video just to make you smile. Little E really likes dancing now. She has even figured out how to twirl and thinks it is the greatest. She is such a little Girl! :)

Old McDonald had a Farm! Eee I Eee I Ohhhh!

We have had so much fun in the past month that I just haven't had time to post about it. :)

I have been working very hard on my small business this month making leg warmers, tutus, and hair bows.
Little E has been my model for all of my Halloween costumes this year. I have had so much fun taking pictures of her in all these different outfits and knowing that I don't have to keep/store them all. :) Here is a sampling of the adorableness that is my little model.

I thought this outfit was appropriate since I had a devil of a time taking the picture. Especially since she wouldn't stop trying to grab the camera. lol


Little buzzy bee.

Cute as a pumpkin, no? The really funny thing about this outfit is that the onsie is supposed to fit up to 9 months... Little E is 16 months in this picture. I think Walmart has its sizing wrong!

We were so excited this month to go down to my sisters house for our nephews birthday! He had the coolest party ever! It was at a farm with cows, pigs, Clydesdale horses, goats, chickens, turkeys, and even a trout pond! What more could any little kid ask for?

Little E really enjoyed the horses. She knows how to sign horse and recently started clicking her tongue when she see's them because that is the sound I make to get the neighbors horses to come at grandma's house. Its really cute. :)

She wasn't quite so sure about the turkey or chicken. We had to make her touch them to show her that they were soft or "Sahh" as she says. See, just look at that face. Doesn't it just say "I don't know about this thing..."
Here is a picture of my other nephew and the chicken that he CAUGHT ALL BY HIMSELF! He was amazing! Those little buggers are fast!
Little E did like the goats, but liked their saltine crackers better. She kept taking them like she was going to feed the goats with them, and then quickly stuffing them into her mouth before we could stop her.

After the tour of the farm the kids got to take turns on the pony. Both of my nephews really enjoyed this part and Little E really liked getting to sit on the horse, even if she didn't really ride it anywhere. Here are some pictures of the little cowboys and cowgirl gideeing it up!

Birthday Boy

My Brothers youngest enjoying his first pony ride.

Little E sitting on the pony.

Here are a couple of random pictures that show how much fun Little E is having with her food now. The first is of her after she got to eat pudding with a spoon all by herself. As you can tell from the grin, she liked it!... and she ended up right in the tub afterward. The second is of her new favorite food/pastime: Black olives! She can't get enough of them and insists on having them on her fingers before she will eat them. I can't beleive how good she has gotten at putting them on. :)

This last week Little E and I got to go help at a primary activity for Halloween. Daddy and I just got called to be the 6 year old's teachers in primary so I really enjoyed getting to know all the kids. Little E went to the activity as a "princess" and I was "the wicked witch that won't let her do anything she wants to." When we got home we took some pictures of her in her costume in the backyard.

Sudafed?

Just wanted to share a quick funny story with you all. Last night my dear husband started to feel sick and had a very bad headache. I figured he must be getting a head cold and told him to take a sudafed. At about this time Little E got a poopy diaper and I asked him to come help me get her into the tub because we have really been fighting some diaper rash. So he hurried to find the sudifed, took it, and came to help me get her to bed.

About twenty minutes later he came out and collapsed on the couch. I figured he was finally getting hit by the sudafed and would feel better in about an hour. I went downstairs to make a phone call and work on some things for my business (leg warmers and wraps).

Finally I heard some bumpings upstairs and came up to find him and see if he wanted to watch an episode of something. He wasn't on the couch, he was in bed now... out like a light. I woke him up and asked if he just wanted to sleep through the night because if not he needed to get up for awhile or he would be up really late. He just kind of grunted at me and I left him to sleep in peice.

I ended up awake until 12:30 freezing strawberries that were all about to go bad (they had been on a great sale an I ran out of time the day before).

Finally I got into bed to find him still asleep, wearing his clothes. I made him change into pjs and then we both went to bed.

He just called me from the car on the way to work. He said while he felt great he thinks he knows what happened. Instead of taking sudafed like I had told him he mistakenly took Sleep Aid. :)
But since he feels better maybe sleep really is the best medicine?

Lesson of the day: Maybe husbands, like children, need supervision when they medicate themselves. Lol

Buisy as... Hornets?

Well, we certainly have been busy little bees, or maybe I should say hornets. That would be more fitting I think. Our little family got to spend the last week of summer break up with our family in Kennewick Wa. It was so much fun to hang out with my husbands sisters and all of Little E's cousins. We even got to tear down a hornet infested swing set while we were there. How can you beat that? First we had to burn it from the inside out using (to my pyromaniac of a husbands delight) lighter fluid. He got to climb on top of the monkey bars and spray the fluid into the center of the logs, then moments later have columns of flames spewing from the tops of all four surrounding logs. He had a total blast!

Yes, that is my sister in law with an ax. And yes, she is "Freakishly Strong" just ask her husband.

Little E had a great time trying to hang out with all the "big" kids and learning all kinds of things from her little cousin who is only a month older than her. They taught each other all kinds of neat things. Little E taught her cousin how to sign baby (they lay on the floor looking at each other signing baby over and over again as fast as they could. Thats why they were laying on the floor, they signed it so excitedly they fell over).
Then her cousin taught her to say cracker or "Kwahkah" and to sign both please and thank you. (Way to teach politeness little cuz!)

We also got to go to the park by the river with her older cousins. They are all growing up so fast. Don't beleive me? Here's some proof!


That's right! Those guns are lethal you better beleive it!


We all had a great time, Little E really enjoyed terorizing a nearby puppy. He couldn't stop and rest for more than 10 seconds without her trying to give him all kinds of loves. It was pretty cute.

We really had fun up in Kennewick and can't wait to go visit at Thanksgiving. Three day's is just not enough time to spend with such a fun family!


Since My loving husband has gone back to work he has really enjoyed putting Little E to bed. I really enjoy being surprised by some other funny thing he has done during the bedtime routine. The other night I came in to kiss her goodnight to find he had don't her hair in a different manner than usual...

Well, that prooves it! She really is a little rascal! :)

Well, I have to go. The rascal has woken up from her nap and she sounds kinda cranky. I have a couple of videos to post later tonight, so done forget to come back and check them out. They include her first ever cookie dough! How cool is that? :) She is mama's little girl.

Our new home! Has it really taken us a month to do all this stuff?

Hi there world! Guess what? We are still alive!!!

We have been moving into our new home and it has taken all of our effort and attention for the past month to get everything done and not to go crazy and kill any of the family off in the process.
We already miss living out in the woods but are happy to have a home to call our own and being within bike riding distance to the library and grocery store.


We spent a long time getting the home painted and ready for us to live in. There is one wall in particular that took up way too much time to finish. We decided that we didn't like the wall paper on one wall of the living room. So we got some Downy mixed with water, a scraper, and a wall paper puncturing tool and went to work one night. Little E was supposed to sleep in the play pen while we happily worked the night away. Three hours later we packed up and went home with only 1/8th of the wall finished. Little E woke up every hour and freaked out that she wasn't at home. (not that the picture was taken before we had all the freak outs. I am still smiling.)



We also figured out very quickly that the wall was a bigger job than we bargined for. It was actually two layers of wall paper with a layer of paint in between them. We ended up using the real wall paper remover chemical (I highly recomend it!) and got the rest of the wall cleared off with the help of some neighbor kids and our neices and nephews. Once it was clear we saw the real job that was ahead of us. There was a huge hole that needed patching because a door knob had gone through it, and about 1/4 of the wall was just mud and nothing else. We had to add texture, patch the hole, prime, and then finally paint the wall. But now it looks beautiful!

Ok enough of the negitives, time for the positives! Thats right Rasberries and a Trampoline!
We have had more rasberries than we know what to do with. Tomarrow I plan on makeing rasberrie peach freezer jam. Mmmmm. We have used the excess rasberries to bribe our neighbors to be our friends. :) And one of our neighbors helped me make homemade applesauce yesterday with her apples that she had in her yard.


Little E really likes the rasberries. When we go out into the backyard she points at the bushes, tries to leap from my arms, and sighns, "More! Eat!" all at the same time. She has had very interesting diapers lately. (Think fermenting fruit smell) At the same time Trek runs to the rasberrie bushes and begins harvesting the lower berries with relish. (But hey, I don't want those anyways. He is a boy dog after all. You never can tell whats on the low ones.)

She also really likes the trampoline. She crawls around and around in circles and her hair is so fine that it sticks strait up into the air. She giggles the whole time. The other night she woke up after going to bed and refused to go back to sleep until she had a good romp on the trampoline, squealing at the top of her lungs and throwing herself down like a crazy person. It was halarious.


Well, its late and I need to get some sleep so that my eye will stop twitching. (It won't stop! Its been going on for a week now!) But here is one last tid bit about what we have been up to. I just sold my first international order for my baby wraps. A girl from Canada contacted me and got a yellow one. How cool is that?