Lights at Naples

We spent Sunday evening with some good friends from church, Jeff and Michelle Ton.  They were married only two weeks after us and live exactly two miles down to road.  We went down to Naples and walked along the canal admiring all the Christmas lights and came back to our house for Hot Milo and Christmas Mince Pies.  Yummy!

Christmas Tea

Several years ago I, (Cindy) began a Christmas tradition with two of my best friends, Christy Slack and Heidi Herchelroath.  We spend a fantastic Saturday a the St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Bay at their Christmas Tea. 

 We spend all year looking forward to spending a whole afternoon together, getting dressed up, drooling over the yummy treats, and relaxing with a really good cup of tea.


This year was superb, as always, and we had such a special time chatting and catching up.  We've seen a lot of changes over the years of our friendship and it's fun to mark those changes by what was happening at the time of our "traditional tea."  Thank you Lord for special friends who love You and who have encouraged me to love You more over the years.  

Our First Christmas Tree

There is something so special about your first Christmas together as husband and wife.  It's a chance to set up your own family traditions, to have fun decorating and shopping, laughing and whispering secrets, and to have your best friend share in all the joy Christ's birth brings us. 

We bought our first Christmas Tree last weekend, and after spending the afternoon shopping for presents (and a quick stop at Mom and Dad Stuck's for Chowder and hot muffins) we spent the evening setting it up.  Tony made yummy hot Milo (Kiwi hot coco), and Cindy pulled out all the boxes of decorations and found the Christmas Music Channel.  


We set the tree up in the front window and were so excited we kept running outside (in 40 degree weather) to see how it looked from the sidewalk.  It was such a special evening, and the tree turned out absolutely gorgeous.  Thank you Lord for special family memories. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite the fact that Tony isn't used to celebrating Thanksgiving (as it is an American-only Holiday) we managed to have a fantastic time in Fallbrook this year eating load's of B-B-Q Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potato's, Cranberry Relish, Pumpkin, Peach, and Apple Pie, and of course, Dad Stuck's Creamed Corn.

Mike and Kate had just welcomed Baby Dylan into the Family only a few days before we drove down to celebrate at Kate's parents, Mike and Mary Brewer.  They invited a lovely family from their church who had recently moved from Hawaii.  Oddly enough, the mother was originally a Kiwi who just became an American citizen.   


We have so much to be thankful for this year- our marriage, the safe arrival of Baby Dylan, the special joining of the Kuypers and Stuck Family this summer, but we are most especially thankful for Norm's decision to trust in Jesus as his Lord and Saviour before he passed away.  This is our hope and prayer for all our family and friends this Holiday Season. 

Much Love,

Tony and Cindy

Welcome Nephew

We have a lot of nieces - Tony's brother, Wayne, has three girls and Cindy's brother, Mike, has a girl as well.  We love our nieces, but we were very excited to welcome a Nephew!

 Dylan Michael Stuck was born Monday, November 23rd to Cindy's brother, Mike, and his wife Kate.  Thank you Lord for the safe arrival of our newest (male) member of the family!


Check out more pictures:
Dylan Michael's Arrival

It Finally Happened!!!!!

  

Mom Stuck gave us a Bird Feeder for our Garden (at the amazing Garden Shower Carol Watt threw for me) and we put it up hoping to get some non-human noises waking us in the morning.  It took almost three months, but it finally happened.  Birds woke us up as they hopped and chirped and ate from the bird feeder...and made an incredible MESS of our garden.  Oops! 

After Tony cleaned up the mess for the eight or ninth time he looked at me and said "I'm sorry, but we're not filling up the bird feeder after it's empty." 

So much for our bird experiment. 

Tony's Birthday

We had a quiet night for Tony's Birthday on November 3rd, but somehow he ended up with a ton of presents still.  We ate Salmon and Carrot Cake (not at the same time) and remembered Dad.  

It was not the way I thought we'd be spending our "honeymoon phase" holiday's, but nonetheless, the difficult times we've shared have drawn us closer to the Lord, and consequently each other.  


Thank You Lord for my wonderful husband. 

It's a Pirate Party!

Mom, Katie and I wanted to throw Kate a Baby Shower- we needed a theme and as I was talking to Kate on the phone trying to decide what to do Mike yells "Make it a Pirate Party."  


Of course, Katie and I thought that would be the greatest thing in the world, and Kate, bless her heart, cheerfully went along with it. 


Though it was not exactly the most orthodox of Baby Showers it was, nonetheless, very fun. 

   

Even Claire got into it.  She dressed up in the cutest little Pirate Costume that Mary, Kate's Mom, had made.  With Pirate Ale, Gold Doubloon Cake, and lot's of laugh's (and babies) it was a Pirate's Dream!

Check out more pictures:

Dylan's Pirate Shower

Not that different after all...

   

It's so much fun being married to someone from another country.  I love the unique things we bring to our marriage -different world views, cute accents, amazing food...

However, it can make communication a bit tricky.  We both speak English, but there are so many times where one of us will say something and the other has no idea what they are talking about - whinge? chook? 

When it comes to the most important thing in life, our relationship with our Heavenly Father, there is no doubt that we are on the same page.  Last night we spent an extended time reading the Bible and praying together.  What a blessing it was!  Even when it feels like we're coming from different planets, let along different countries, it is so encouraging to know that we can open God's word, or come before Him, and speak the same language to our Saviour. 

Praise the Lord for the body of Christ!

Kuypers Family Pet (sort of)

Chase Bank had an online coupon a few weeks ago for a free Betta Fish.  I went and got him during my lunch hour.  He is the "Kuypers Classroom Pet" but during vacations he will be the "Kuypers Family Pet"  and live with us in Long Beach.  Tony's actually never met him. Hope they like each other...


I asked the children to suggest names; Shadow, Blue Lightning, Bubbles and Chimichanga (?) were the class favorites, but I like people names for pets.  So, in a burst of creativity, I named him after the coupon that got him, Chase.

Autumn is Here

Happy Autumn!


The weather has cooled (a bit) and the days are getting shorter.  I made chicken soup and muffins for dinner last night and two miniature pumpkins are snuggled together under the leaves of the orchid on our coffee table.   Fall is officially here.


Tony still finds it strange that Autumn is this time of year.  In New Zealand the seasons are opposite, so the time leading up to Christmas has always been Spring for him.  It must be strange to have things done backwards from how you grew up. I try to imagine Autumn leading into a cold rainy Winter without Christmas to brighten the season... I would think that Winter would seem very long.


We've been eating from our garden almost daily.

The beans are really crisp and the lettuce makes the best salad.  Our peppers should be done soon.   It's hard to wait!   Tony cultivated some tomatoes from seed and they are growing out of control.  Since we traveled so much this summer we had to start our garden really late, and we were a bit worried that things wouldn't grow well.  However, it's California.  The weather is always nice and things seem to grow crazy all year round.  Yeah!

Our Garden

Both Tony and I love to garden. We have a tiny little side yard that runs along our house, so we decided to put vegetables on one side, and flowers on the other.

  Mom came and helped me dig up the veggie side.

We made yummy bruschetta from our Basil plant the other night :-)

Our Honeymoon

Cruise to Mexico...

We took a 7 day Carnival Cruise to Mexico for our honeymoon and had the BEST time. Tony is really into ships and knew so much about the vessel we were traveling on. He was always sharing some interesting tidbit or fact about sailing and boats and how they function. I got to pass on a bit of knowledge to him as well. Growing up in New Zealand doesn't lead to many encounters with people who know Spanish so our excursions became a time of laughing at his cute Kiwi-Spanish accent.

In Cabo we visited a Cactus Nursery- there were some amazing plants. Cactus blooms are some of the most ornate blossoms you will ever see.

The first thing you saw when you walked in, however, was...

We had a wonderful time, and were thankful that the Lord provided us such a refreshing and relaxing time amidst all the chaos of our lives this summer.

Tony and Cindy

We're the Kuypers Family

(USA version)

and we welcome you to our Blog!

-Tony and Cindy

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8