Next in line

Never a dull moment here...we had a week to get into Josh's school routine (i.e. figure out how to get out of the house by 8am - yikes) before Brielle started VPK.  She's attending Community Presbyterian Church 5 days a week from 8:30-11:45am.  We were sad to say goodbye to Christ United Methodist Preschool, which had been a great little school for us the past two years, but the schedule at CPPK was going to work out better for the family in the long run.  (i.e. Mama keeps her sanity because Coco can still squeeze in a nap before elementary school pick-up!)

We've always heard great things about CPPK, and so far it's lived up to it's reputation.  Brielle has been in a great mood after school every day and her teacher seems really sweet.  This past Friday was Show and Tell for the Letter A.  Brielle decided to bring apples.  On her own, she thought it would be a good idea to give them to Ms. Papke and Ms. Stanford for a gift - she must have somehow known apples are a teacher thing!

Other highlights of school so far seem to be snack time, puzzles, new friends, and the class guinea pig, Charlie.  CPPK wears uniforms...here's a peak at our cute little school girl on her first day of class!

 For a back to school treat, Brielle and McKenna got to go get pedicures for the first time!  They enjoyed their trip to the beauty shop and the frozen yogurt treats afterwards!

The beauties with their toes - Brielle picked pink and McKenna picked red, both with sparkles, of course!

The start of a new era

Whew...it's been a long time, too long, but I'm BAAAACK!  This blog has been such a great way to journal our family adventures, that I just can't let it go!  Time will tell whether I catch up from the missing years or just go on from here, but for now I'm posting about this past week - it was a big one! 

Our big news this week...Josh started kindergarten!  After much prayer and conversation, we decided to enroll him at Seaside Community Charter School.  This school just opened it's doors in Jacksonville Beach, and Josh has the opportunity to be part of the first graduating class to complete all of elementary school there.  It's loosely based on Waldorf educational principles and will involve (we hope) a lot of hands-on learning.

Once Josh heard that this school took weekly trips to the beach, he was sold.  His biggest concerns about heading to school had to do with being gone all day (I don't like that part either!) and getting lost.  He was worried he might lose his teacher during recess and not find his classroom or that they'd give him to the wrong mommy at the end of the day!  I assured him there was no way I was letting that happen!

As the ultimate extrovert, he's been counting down the days until he got to go to kindergarten and woke up Monday morning chanting, "I get to go to school today!  I get to go to school today!" Once we got to the school, he had just the right amount of hesitation...excited and happy, but wanting to hold my hand until he found his class.  He bravely walked in line with his new teacher, Miss Hohman, and came home all smiles.  His first words when he got home were, "I had fun at kindergarten today."  Music to my ears!  He's been eager to go back each day, but is TIRED!  It's a little emotional around our house from 3-8pm!  I'm sure it will even out a little bit as we all adjust to our new schedule...I just hope it doesn't take too long!

About to say good-bye and walk bravely to his classroom

The girls and I baked some cookies for an after school snack

Enjoying life after a successful first day

Christmas Letter 2011

    Merry Christmas!   2011 has been a FULL year to say the least!  Most importantly, we welcomed Corinne Nicole into our family at 2:47am on May 4^th.  Daniel got the unexpected opportunity to deliver his first baby!  My labor came on very fast, and we ended up having an unplanned home birth – oops!  Amazingly, Josh and Brielle slept through the whole event!  What an experience!  Corinne is seven months now and such a gift to our family. She is able to sit up, “army” crawl, and can’t get enough of her baby food!  She is quick to smile, very active, and loves attention from her siblings.

    Speaking of the other two rugrats…Joshua turned four this fall and started going to preschool twice a week.  He is doing great in school and loves all things BOY!  Right now he is really into fighting bad guys, swinging, and riding his big boy bicycle.  Joshua ADORES Corinne and is the king of giving her zerberts (raspberries).  Brielle is almost three and likes having “school at her green house” with Mommy as her teacher!  (I still can’t believe she bought into it!)  She loves letters, dancing, being upside down, and twirly dresses!  But, she can also hang with Joshy in the muddy banana tree fort!   They have started playing pretend games together and having their own conversations, which are so fun to eavesdrop on!

    Not too much has changed for Daniel and me.  Daniel continues to enjoy working in the ER, and I’m beyond busy at home!  In the coming year, we are hoping to get into a regular exercise routine, get some special time away together, and continue in the discipleship program at our church.  We are overwhelmed by God’s goodness in our lives!  We wish you all the best for 2012 and much love, joy, and peace in Jesus this Christmas.

With love,

 The Kuders

4 years old

Joshua has been literally anticipating his birthday everyday for the past year.  He woke up the day after he turned three asking how long it was until his birthday!  Despite his anxiousness, the year has still flown by.  It's so hard to believe he's 4-years-old already.

He has recently moved on from "why?" to "when?" as his favorite question - When can I go ride my bike?  When can I play with Ezekiel? When can I drive a car?...I was fun to finally be able to tell him that "today" was the answer to "when" it would be his birthday.

We got to take cookies in to celebrate with his preschool classmates

Testing out his scooter from Tata and Papa

Submarine cake (by request)

Remote control Lightning McQueen from Papa and Gigi

Party People

Speedy Gonzales on his big boy bike from mom and dad

What to say to summarize this past year in Josh's life...as far as big events go, he became a big brother for a second time and started school.  Josh continues to be a chatterbox, LOVES the beach, is very curious, likes to tell jokes, loves to swing, and is NOT a homebody.  Joshua's brain and mouth work quickly, sometimes faster than I can keep up with...he can talk circles around me and Dan.  All in all, Josh is a great little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family!

Studly Stached Surfer

November was quite a month for Daniel - not only did he participate in Movember and grow a mustache all month (much to my chagrin)...

That's about as close as I like to get to those whiskers...

...he also achieved a long time goal - he got on THE SURF REPORT!  There's a few websites that give daily reports on what the surf conditions are like, including pictures of the local surf hotspots, so that surfers can see the actual waves before deciding whether to head out.  Daniel checks the site (or calls the telephone surf report) daily (if not more)...even on days he knows it's impossible for him to surf (some form of self torture, I think).  He also usually checks the report afterwards to check and see if he MADE the surf report, and after years of looking, he did - multiple times in November...pretty fun pics of my man!  (In other surfing news, Daniel also purchased a short board this fall and surprised himself by actually being able to stand up on it.  Apparently "old guys" can't really learn to short board and should just stick to long boarding - but, they didn't know his level of studly-ness, I guess!)

Crafts

Josh, Brielle and I have been into crafts this fall/winter.  The kids really enjoy creating and getting their hands dirty, and thanks to Pinterest, I've found new inspiration and determination to let my creativity flow as well...here's a few of the things we've created the past few months...

Monster toast was a hit and kept them entertained a long while - they covered the entire piece of bread w/ milk paint one dot at a time!

Dollar Store Hurricane Lamps

Fall wreath on a Sunday Morning

You bit the mini marshmallows in half, then stick them to the drawing to make a shape.

Crafting is such hard work!

Finished products

Brielle decided to eat her marshmallows instead of crafting

Our version of Disneyworld

We've found that Orlando makes a nice destination for a family getaway...it's less than 3 hours away, has lots of hotels with fun, kid-friendly pools, and yummy restaurants.  We took our second mini-vacay there with my parents in November.

We stayed at the Nickelodeon hotel...Josh and Brielle loved it because they had their own room, with bunk beds, their own TV including (most importantly) a remote, and they had access non-stop Nick Jr.! 

We visited Downtown Disney and ate at the T. Rex Cafe, dug some dino bones, looked at the cool Lego sculptures, and took a free pontoon ride around the lake.  The kids think that Mickey Mouse lives at Downtown Disney (FREE admission!!!) and we're gonna keep it that way as long as possible! 

We also took Joshua and Brielle to their first character breakfast.  It was Nickelodeon characters, which they aren't too familiar with, but they surprised us by REALLY getting into it.  It was so fun to see them nuzzle up to all the characters and get so excited to go and say, "Hi."!

 

This duck doesn't know the risk of tickling Joshua!

Duck's reaction after we explained Josh was about to have a "Wee Pee"!

Brielle's in LOVE!

 The hotel also had a cool pool with a beach-style entry and fun water slides.  The weather was a little chilly, but we still braved the pool for some fun splashing around.

We got a park!

In November we told the kids we had a surprise for them when they woke up from naps, and this is what they found in the backyard!

 They are so excited that they now have a "park" in their backyard.  Much fun has been had on this swingset!

 Here's a few pics from when we invited our friends over to test out the swings!

The babies had their own play area!

Candy Day!

The church had a Trunk or Treat festival on Halloween that we took part in. This was the kids' first time dressing up or trick or treating and they thought "Candy Day", as we called it, was a pretty good deal! Daniel had the idea of dressing them up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 (extra appropriate since they run around like Energizer Bunnies making messes all day), and they were super cute!

Our lil Chinese watermelon

Joshua REALLY enjoyed having blue hair

Checking out her stash

The look on Joshua's face after his first trip down the GIANT bouncy slide - pure joy and pride!