Where's the man of the house gone?

Back in the beginning of May, Justin stepped on a plane heading from Fort Drum New York to the hot sandbox once again. And just a day later, his three kids and wife stepped onto their red Dodge Caravan and loaded uhaul trailer driving to good ole Nebraska once again.

We have since then, found a wonderful rental house in midtown Omaha to call our very own. It is a beautiful 5 bedroom house which is good for cleaning up toys (again and again), 2 car garage which is great for all that crap we don't use, finished basement (our drinking and game night headquarters), and complete with a fenced in yard for mowing and mowing and mowing. We decided that we couldn't do all that work on our own, so we invited my sister, Ashley to live with us!

We have been doing plenty of things to keep busy. We went camping to Okoboji for 10 days with the Lawson family and the Loftis family, and have gone swimming a few times at the Fremont Lake and other pools, gone bowling, to the zoo, celebrated Avalyn's 3rd birthday and Jonah's 6th birthday, and gone on walks (we actually discovered that we live only a few blocks away from a castle!) We are also going to Lifelight, a christian music festival in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This will be the third time we have gone.

Jonah lost his FIRST tooth on his FIRST day of school of FIRST Grade. He is attending Dundee elementary, and loves it...so far.

Ava has learned to use the potty, well, most of the time! HOORAY! Of course, as I was trying to get her enthused, I kind of mentioned that she couldn't go to school till she was a BIG girl and pottied in the BIG potty chair. hmmmmm, where can a three year old go to school???? We are going to put her in Dance School, think that will work? haha!

Zella, well, she is busy throwing tantrums. She may not have red hair, but she is my redhead! She also communicates very well, in another language. I'm not quite sure which one exactly, but she speaks it very well. We will have to work on her English as she only knows a few words like hi, bye, and no.

Well, now that I have given you a look into the Kuhlest world at the moment, I am off to get that cleaning and mowing done! Hope everyone had a great summer!

the BIG apple

Three days, three kids, and one BIG city! I'm sure New York City can be overwhelming to just about anyone, but add three kids, walking....everywhere, early mornings and late nights in a city that just about never sleeps, and you get three zombies that will suck the life right out of you!

But we had an amazing time despite the cranky "I want my lollipop!" at the top of the Empire State building. If you think that being 1250 feet high on the 102nd floor would make a kid speechless,you are totally wrong. Come on kids!!!! Look at all the HUGE buildings and tiny cars that stretch as far as the eye can see!!!! Isn't that cool!!??? I mean, who else can say they went to see New York City at age 5/2/1?

You know what caught their eyes tho? The huge LED signs and billboards that lit up Times Square! Now that plus the hustle and bustle of the city made the whole trip worth it. I am so happy we ended up getting a hotel on Times Square, despite the contemplation of getting a cheaper one in Queens or Newark. Even if it was $380 a night!

And the runner up is.....drumroll......the 3 level TOYS-R-US store!!!!! Who would have thought? With a giant 60 ft indoor Ferris wheel, a two-story Barbie doll house, LEGO Empire State building, LEGO Statue of Liberty, and a 20 ft. high T-Rex dinosaur. Of course there was the Candy Land store too! Yum!

One of the most anticipated things to see was the Statue of Liberty. The kids, at least the older two, have been talking about it nonstop since they found out we were going to NYC. Of course, it was the one thing we did not see (close up anyway). They ended up closing the tours early the day we wanted to go. So we got the Battery Park view.

Going to Mars made it all okay though. What!?! You say? Mars? Yes! We went to Mars! We had to ride a spaceship to get there of course! The restaurant Mars 2112 was an awesome place to take the kids. As you walk in a flight attendant shows you to your seat in the space ship and you get ready for take off. It was quite a bumpy ride getting there,but well worth the trip to Mars. Red Rock, aliens, and of course other humans were there to greet you upon arrival. Unfortunately we had to get back to Earth shortly after our meal, but we did manage to play some arcade games before we went back.

The big hit with mom and dad...the Double Decker bus tour! A break from carrying kids all over NYC! A kind of relaxing way to enjoy the sights and listen to the history of biggest city in the US.

All in all, it was an amazing place to visit, and I can't wait to go again. Although, I think it will be without kids the next time! Any volunteers for babysitting??!!

Miss Z is walking

Today is the day for walking! She has taken many steps here and there, but mostly one or two at a time, until today! She took off walking across the room! She is so adorable. When she starts to get wobbly she runs!

Miss Z will be turning 1 on the 23rd this month!

Interesting Watertown History

This will be a short post, but as I was looking at the history of this town, I came about something fun and interesting. Mr Frank W Woolworth, founder of the "Five and Dime" opened his first store in Watertown, NY. Here is a picture of his store in Watertown, NY in 1905:

the beautiful state of New York

We have arrived in the wonderful state in which we will be living for the next couple months.....New York. We will also move back here when Justin gets back from Iraq in August of 2009. That is, of course, only a guesstimate of how long his tour in Iraq is supposed to last. As for New York, we are living in the town of water. Watertown, NY. I guess you could say this town sees a lot of water, in the frozen form of course. Snow......and lots of it.

So we have converted from a life of warm, to a life of cold, from one of the southern most states, to one of the northern most....especially since we live in northern New York. In fact, we live less than an hour away from Canada. We expected to come here and hate it, when in fact, we have decided that we actually like it. Very small town feeling, but with over 27,000 people. There is also so many places to drive to that are very close. A drive to the Great Lake of Ontario is less than 15 minutes away. The Adirondack Mountains are about an hours drive, Niagara Falls are about 3 1/2 hours away, and New York, New York is about 5 1/2 hours away.

Last week we visited Madison Barracks, an old army post with barracks from the early 1800's. It was definitely a sight to see, some of the buildings were built into beautiful apartments. We considered living there, but they are just far enough away from Fort Drum that we decided to stay in Watertown. Go to http://www.geocities.com/lakeforts/Madison_Historic.html to see old pictures of the historic post, and to http://www.geocities.com/lakeforts/Madison_Barracks.html to see the modern day pictures.

The kids seem to like it here. I can't blame them. I'd love all the snow too. We went to go see the Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay, NY and Avalyn fell in love. Now she can't stop talking about "her" Cinderella castles. She has been such a girli girl lately. She loves dresses, pink and anything princess-like. She even thinks that there is a castle right across the street from where we are living....it is a huge old church....hahahahaha! She is in heaven! We live in part of an old house here. It is absolutely gorgeous. It has wood floors, huge windows, 12 ft ceilings, the old radiator heating systems, and beautiful woodworking.

Well, this old house could use some cleaning, so I guess I will stop for now. Just thought I'd let everyone know that we are having a blast up here in New York! Take care!

Justin is Home......for now

We are excited to say that Daddy is home!!!!! He just finished his Broadcast Journalism Course for the Army and is ready to start his new job. First thing first, is packing up here at Fort Hood, Tx. We will be saying goodbye to Fort Hood for good! We will be passing through Nebraska sometime in the beginning of February. And then off to Fort Drum in upstate New York. We will let you know as soon as we know. For now, we have a ton of work to do!

The year of 2007

Sadly we didn't get to send out Christmas cards this year, so we didn't have the opportunity to share what has happened with us this year. So here it goes:

I guess the biggest news of 2007 was the birth of Zella Muriel Kuhl on April 23. She has come a long way since then and is already sitting, crawling, and standing (with help). And she definitely already has attitude. She loves new toys, Mommy holding her, food, naps, and going places. She hates old toys, being put down, naps, and anything that confines her. Yes, naps are a love/hate thing.

The birth of Zella led to a need of a bigger house, so in July we moved into another house here in Fort Hood, Tx. I think that we have averaged a move a year! We absolutely love our new home. Unfortunately we will be moving again soon.

Another big thing that has happened in 2007, is our reenlistment in the Army. Yes, after careful considering our family's needs, we have decided to stay another 3-4 years. One of the best things that will hopefully come out of this is job training and experience in a career that Justin enjoys. He has been in Maryland going through that training since the end of September, and will graduate January 15. He will be a Broadcast Journalist for the US Army. Along with the experience, we are to receive a bonus that will help us out financially. We are most grateful for this opportunity.

Of course with opportunity comes responsibility, and sadly that is not great news for us. Justin is to leave for Iraq in April of 2008 for 15 months. Although this is a hard thing for us to do, it is inevitable with reenlistment of the Army. We just ask for your support and prayers to get us through. As also prayer for our Country and it's leadership, especially at such a crucial time.

With that in mind, those of you in Nebraska will probably be seeing a lot more of the Kuhlest Family, minus Justin, as we plan on moving to the Blair/Omaha area shortly after he deploys. But just before all of that happens, we have a lot of things to do and places to be. Justin will be returning to Texas in about a week, and then we have to pack up our house, and move it into storage in Nebraska. From there we will head up to Fort Drum, New York to be with Justin until he deploys. This is where we are stationed next, although we plan on living in Nebraska while he is gone, we will return there as soon as he returns from Iraq.