Story City, here we come

We made our grand appearance in Story City! It was our first trip to Kurt and Sarah's new hometown in the heart of the Midwest since their family moved there 13 months ago. We couldn't wait to see what their new life in Iowa was like, their home, their church, their friends, their favorite places and spaces. We don't know where the last 13 months went but it was nice to finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together and experience in person what it is that they love so much about Iowa. They spoiled us with wonderful meals and were great tour guides. Thankfully we had use of the church van to haul all eight of us around! (I should've gotten a picture of that!) The most fun was watching Kayla and Cassidy play together... er, actually, not watching them... they entertained themselves in all corners and floors of the house all weekend. Kayla said her favorite things from the weekend were playing dress up (they were in princess dress-up clothes 75% of the time), going on the balcony, and playing hide-n-seek. Unfortunately Khloe was under-the-weather and not feeling herself while we were there so she took awhile to warm up to her Aunt and Uncle, but she had lots of hugs and friendly "hello!" waves for her cousins. We're thankful for our wonderful visit!

 First and foremost, our trips always revolve around this - Sarah's custom elaborate menu. 

We seriously gained 25lbs while we were there, or at least it feels like it, but it was all worth it.

One of our meals - "Sarah's Grilled Cheese" - to die for!

 Two peas in a pod with their matching headphones watching movies on the iPad together...

Kayla and Daddy on one side of the aisle...

 ...and Mommy and Khloe on the other. 

Kayla and Khloe both did great on the plane!

 Khloe even wanted to sit on Kayla's lap for awhile too, 

it was very cute and Kayla just ate it up!

Flying over Lake Michigan

The flight on our small 40-seater plane was quite bumpy as we flew into Superstorm Sandy. Each time the plane was bounced and the wings dipped from side to side Kayla squealed with delight, "Weeeeeeeee!" and "Ooooooh that tickles my tummy!" We're sure she was the only one on the plane thrilled with the turbulence  Ahhh, to be five. When we safely landed she said she wanted more. For Khloe, on the other hand, the turbulence rocked her to sleep.

 Home Sweet Home

 On our walking tour of Story City

Kayla's Room

She had her own special room with her own special bed. She loved it! What made the room even more special in her eyes was that this room had a balcony! She loved it so much that our first night there she asked if she could put herself to bed, she didn't want our help or for us to tuck her in. Well, that's a shock, but... okay! Her own special room must've made her feel big and important.

 Matching Halloween (and birthday present) pajamas!
We were able to celebrate Travis's 2nd birthday and Cassidy's 4th birthday by bringing them their presents. 

(Travis wanted no part of this photo opp, so I had to catch him in the next photo below)

Every night the four kids piled in Kayla's room on the bed to watch a movie. 

Ah ha! I caught a photo of Travis in his matching Halloween pajamas!

 One afternoon Kayla and Cassidy made Halloween treats.

Of course this sort of activity could only be accomplished in princess outfits.

Oh little Jovie. What a sweet cat. If we were in the market for a new cat, or even if we weren't, we would still adopt Jovie. The girls loved her, Khloe especially loved chasing Jovie all over the house yelling "Meowmeowmeow" at her all day. Jovie was very patient. Kayla said she was going to miss Jovie so we took a picture of them together to print off and hang in her room. This way she can always remember Jovie!

Somehow five days came and went too fast! 

Fun with friends

Seventy-five degrees in mid-October? Yes please and thank you! Living the extraordinary, having fun with friends!

 Bike ride to the fountain with neighborhood friends Gabriella, Asia and Lexi

Taking a break from playing spy with walkie-talkies to have a Capri Sun

We invited Molly for a sleep over, Molly's first! Kayla and Molly have been planning this sleepover since Sporties this summer. We decided to have Molly over to help give her mommy and daddy a break since there is a new 4 week old sister, Britton, at home. 

I asked the girls the following morning what their favorite part of the sleep over was and they said giggling in the night. And they did giggle all night! They laughed and talked for an hour at bedtime at 10pm and then I heard giggling again at 6:50 a.m.. Thankfully they fell back asleep until they got up at 7:45. 

We made a chain of links to countdown Halloween...
11 days to go!

Playtime in (wet, dirty) leaves.  Whoa, it's a lot of leaves on the ground. 

This is what happens when you have lots of playtime combined with short naps...
a late afternoon catnap.

Sneak Peak

This is for you Grandma and Grandpa G! Two little peacocks in your honor!

Khloe's peacock costume has been hanging in her closet for a year now from post-Halloween sales last year, but Kayla has been undecided about hers. Every fall we receive a halloween costume catalog in the mail from Chasing Fireflies, beautiful extravagant costumes for no less than $100. Kayla finally decided on the Ice Princess, just the dress alone cost $88, and that didn't include the dozen accessories all sold seperately. She wanted it so bad (she didn't have a Plan B) that I imagined every way possible to re-create it by hand for half the price, but I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Why doesn't Kayla ever want to be a simple noun, like a cat? Or pumpkin? Or flower? Oh no, it always has to be some Rainbow Sparkle Twinkle Fairy Ice Twirl Queen Princess.

Where do we turn when we need to fine an item for a great deal? Ebay! We searched for her Ice Princess costume and in our search stumbled across The Best Costume Idea Ever.

Kayla's peacock Halloween costume arrived today. She immediately put it on. She also ran upstairs to get Khloe's costume out of the closet so "we can both have them on together!" Sisters in matching peacock costumes for Halloween?? Great idea Kayla! No, actually, brilliant idea. I'm so excited that Kayla chose a costume to match Khloe's. How many times in their life is this going to happen!? This Halloween is going to be so fun!

So, I have this attraction (obsession, really) to anything peacock. My fascination of peacocks is from when I was young and spent time on my grandparents farm in Ohio. They had peacocks - lots of them. They sure were pretty to look at, and fun to chase, but they weren't the nicest of birds or "pets" to have around. Grandma always warned us to stay away from them because, if they felt like it, they'd charge us and bite us. (We were charged, but never bitten). So Amy and I tiptoed around them, mostly taunting them, and always collecting their feathers. Did you know that peacocks like to hang out on hoods of cars? Did you know that they make the most eerie, loud cry? Try listening to that at 4:00 in the morning. Peacocks are a piece of my childhood and bring back great memories from the farm. What a way to live out those memories!

There's a few more details to pull together to finalize these two costumes, but I couldn't resist sharing this sneak peak!

Aaaaapplalllll

This girl loves apples. Hand her a whole apple and she's happy. Don't even try and cut it. Not in half. And definitely not in slices. This little girl can eat an entire apple. The whole thing. That big thing ends up in her tiny tummy! Aaron said tonight, "Don't be surprised if she wakes up in the morning with an apple tree growing out of her tummy". Why? Well Daddy, you probably shouldn't let her eat the core, and the seeds, but it didn't slow Khloe down or phase her one bit. Exactly how does eating an apple core affect a 17-month old's digestive system?

 Aaaaaaappllal!!!

 You're going to eat that whole thing? 

That apple is as big as you Khloe!

 Getting started

 So happy with her own apple

(And I think she neglected the big apple for a smaller, easier to hold apple)

 "Cheese"

 "Mmmmmmmmmm"

What's left. Wow. Impressed?! Speechless?!

Playing catch-up

Speaking of digital limbo (as I did in my Past Due Zoo post), we're trying to play catch-up here with all of our digital media, hence after a four month hiatus we've posted a few of our most recent favorite videos at www.youtube.com/faustfamily. We hear that there might be problems with accessing our Youtube channel webpage... we hope that these clips work!

Extraordinary Living

Sisters

Thanks for sharing this thought, Dad! It's good to remind ourselves of this. It's what I needed to hear!

Sometimes we think, "Nothing exciting is happening. My life is so routine. I just wake up and do the same things again and again." But we should be thankful for routine everyday life. There's nothing ordinary about getting up and going to work. There is nothing ordinary about being able to see, having friends, or having a family. Those are gifts from God that could be lost in the blink of an eye. Too often we don't realize how great we have it until something is taken away. Enjoy your routine day. It represents extraordinary living.

Here's some of our routine living.

Just sisters being sisters. What one does, the other has to do.

Drawing pictures

Eating a peanut butter snack.
Just a bowl, a spoon and peanut butter.

Cuddling together with some iPad fun

That's extraordinary living!

Pickin' pumpkins

Today was the day to go pick out our pumpkins!

Now our scarecrow isn't lonely anymore!

We have been enjoying the beauty of fall around here the last two weeks. We've had such sunny warm weather and have enjoyed every minute of every afternoon outside. We know too soon that we'll be wanting to be stay indoors where it's warm so we must be outside as long as possible! Even today was no-coat weather, or as Aaron called it 'wacky weather'.  Soon our "peak colors" will be done and the bleakness and cold of late fall will set in.

This is the scenery we've been enjoying for weeks - beautiful fall colored leaves set against a backdrop of bright blue skies

Mommy and Kayla shadows

This warm weather has afforded Kayla the opportunity to practice her bike riding skills, so every single day the past two weeks we have gone for bike rides. A favorite destination that somehow makes it into every route is the "black sign". A few times we've gotten all dressed up and packed up to go on a bike ride and all Kayla wants to do is ride five houses down to the "black sign". It makes me smile that the black sign is such a favorite hangout to her because at five years old the trip to the sign must feel like such a big deal and the sign must seem so big! We hang out for awhile and then I suggest we keep riding just to make it all worth our while! Then our route includes the fountain, sometimes "the circle", and always every friend's home to see who might be home or outside and ready to play. It's the simple pleasures in life!

The black sign - 

Has provided lots of entertainment

The circle

Getting up close and personal with a dead bug, and of course, safety first