Welcome

Since there is always so much going on, I decided that there needed to be a place for family to go, to keep updated with the Kuhlest Family around!!!! This will be that place. I usually send out long emails about once every six months to let you know whats been going on, and what there is to come, but I thought this might be a more fun and interesting way to keep up. And maybe, just maybe, I will update more than once every six months!!!!! Hahahahahaha!! I will still probably send emails to let you know when I update, but feel free to drop by anytime! We love you guys!

Friday, June 26, 2009

You know you're slacking...


...when it has been almost a year since your last update!

We are halfway through the year 2009, and so much as happened since the last time I wrote. Justin is now home from Iraq. In April, we packed up our house in Omaha, Nebraska to meet him here in Fort Drum, New York where we are now living in a wonderful 4 bedroom house on post. It has been a lovely summer so far, barely hitting the 80's. In fact, it is excellent weather for camping! With so many beautiful places to go, it is hard to decide where to go. So far we have camped in the Catskill Mountain area, and the Thousand Island area. The Thousand Island area is home to the Boldt Castle, a stunning castle on an island in the middle of the seaway to Lake Ontario.

Jonah has just completed an extremely long 1st grade school year, as he started on August 18, 2008 in Omaha and finished here at Fort Drum on June 24, 2009. He has had an excellent year excelling in reading, math and science. His favorite subjects reading and science. He is very interested in the environment, animals, learning how things work. He is very excited to visit Washington DC in a couple weeks on our family vacation. It couldn't be a better time to visit as the movie "Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian" has just come out! We will be spending two weeks there with the Lawson Family and then driving back to Nebraska for another two weeks to visit friends and more family! The top of his list of at home activities is......video games! His favorite is Spiderman; Web of Shadows. He also loves bowling, whether at the bowling alley or on the Wii at home. And he is pretty good at it...he kicks all of our butts anyway!

Avalyn will be turning four in a few weeks! She is getting ready for the possibility of preschool and hopefully some dance classes. She is learning so much these days. She recognized her numbers and a few letters, knows her basic shapes, and colors beautiful pictures! She absolutely loves to color and paint. Big brother also tries to teach her things he has learned in school as well as the video games he loves. They also suit up in costumes daily and sometimes hourly, running around the house, fighting and shooting bad guys.

All of our kids enjoy music, but I don't think Zella could go a day without it. When a beat comes on that she likes, she immediately jumps up and dances. It has become a daily ritual for her to sit with Daddy and watch music videos. A good song could change her mood from completely grumpy to the happiest two year old on the planet. She turned two on April 23, and is getting bigger everyday. We now have to lock every door that we don't want her to get into. She is in her very own BIG girl bed, and has been working very hard at using the BIG girl potty. Though it is sometimes hard to understand her, she is speaking fairly well. Two of my favorites are "pillow" which means blanket, and "milky" which means drink.

One of the things that the kids and I are enjoying this year is a garden. We planted a bunch of veggies in our side yard and a flower bed in the front. The kids have had a blast watering and watching it grow before their very eyes. One plant in particular is a Sunflower which has grown tremendously since we planted it. We actually got this Sunflower from our housing community who gave them out to our neighborhood to have a Sunflower growing contest. Judging by the size of ours compared to our immediate neighbors, we might just have a chance! :)

Justin has been having a great time as a Broadcast Journalist for the Army. He enjoys it very much. This is something that we are both very grateful for. He has had the opportunity to shoot footage for "One tank trips," which are stories about things to do and places to visit on one tank of gas. So far he has gone fishing, the Utica Brewing Company tour, and the Howe Caverns tour. He goes on these outings and others to shoot video footage and the comes back to the studio to edit and put it into a story that is featured on a local television station. His Utica Brewing Company story is featured under the May 29th episode link on this page: http://www.drum.army.mil/sites/installation/pao/DrumTv/

We look forward to seeing friends and family the last two weeks in July, so keep your calendars open and invite us over for dinner! ;) Miss you all! Take Care!

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