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

Past due zoo

Awww, how did I miss these? We've been organizing and reorganizing our electronic devices, routers, drives, files, blah and blah and in all these past weeks and months of computer limbo, I forgot about these photos. How could I? It was my birthday after all. 

Our trip to the zoo was a special event because it was our last "hoorah" before summer ended, before  KINDERGARTEN started. It really was meant to be one of our last "fun free" days we would have before the daily routine of school. What a great way to spend my birthday - not at work and with my girls!

It rained the entire drive down to the zoo, but once we pulled in luckily the rain stopped. Unfortunately the storm left behind heavy humidity and no breeze; thankfully the sun was not out to add to the heat. Next time we will remember to bring a wagon for all of the girls, as well as we hope to see the polar bears next time too. If it was too hot for us, I'm sure it was too hot for them.

 Enjoying some dip'n dots to help us keep cool

 The Penguinarium House

Checking out the zebras 

(Funny thing about this photo I noticed afterwards... the "keep off the fence" sign... haha! Oops!)

Keeping cool, or trying 

 The polar bear exhibit was cool, and cold!

And, goodnight.

 My birthday presents from (all three!) girls

Fall

Crafts in the morning, with Dad

Crafts in the afternoon, with Mom

Khloe and neighborhood friend Sotria making leaf prints

 Decoupage leaf craft

Discoveries

The setting: Kayla and I are the first ones downstairs in the kitchen in the morning. Kayla is sitting in the leather recliner in the living room, I am getting breakfast ready.

Kayla: Mom, have you heard of Justin Beiber?
Me: (Long pause. I'm too busy trying to hide my smile, not laugh out loud all while shaking my head). Yes I have. How do you know about him?
Kayla: I don't know. (Her standard response when she wants to protect the innocent)
Me: Did you hear about him from a friend at school?
Kayla: Yes. My friend Olivia has a Justin Bieber folder. (Thankful our daughter has a Cinderella folder! Who buys their 5 year old a JB folder??)
Another long period of silence.
Kayla: Am I allowed to say his name?
Me: (Again, hiding my smile) Yes honey. He's a musician. He writes songs and then people can listen to his songs and music on the radio.
Here we go, I'm thinking, this is just the beginning of her introduction to pop culture by a class of other 5 year olds! I had a friend just a few weeks ago ask if Kayla knew about JB yet and I laughed and blew it off. Of course she doesn't! My friend warned me... just you wait, she said! Well, she was right. That didn't take long.
~~~~~~~~~~~

Not only did Kayla discover Justin, we discovered that Khloe can climb the foyer stairs all by herself - on the outside of the rail. Yes, that tiny little ledge on the outside of the step. Not cool. Kayla screamed loudly for us to come and there was our little monkey ALL THE WAY AT THE TOP of the stairs hanging onto the rails on the outside little ledge. Khloe was happy and proud. We were not. Oh my. Heart attacks for all of us.

(I had to share this email I received from my Grandma. She sent this to me after she read this story of Khloe. I love hearing stories like this! I think it's so important for Kayla and Khloe to know these stories. These sorts of stories are priceless and tell our family's history long after many of us are gone. Even I hadn't heard these two stories before. Thank you for telling these stories Grandma! Here you go!  Sheri,  I think I know where Khloe gets her climbing genes?  They are from your mother.  I don't know how young Lorraine was when we were in the barn with some company (that's not usually where we entertain company!)  and not paying attention to the children, I guess.  We found Lorraine up on a ladder that slanted up to the haymow....the kind of ladder you can fall through.  She would not have been able to get into the haymow ( I never could hardly make that move....however, I never could hardly get three feet off the ground!) and I am sure she would not have known how to get down.  Thank goodness, Grandpa was there to do the rescue.  He remembers it, too.

I won't go into telling you about Lorraine and Diann starting up the road to see Grandma when they were so little.  Yes, I guess I will.  I was hanging up clothes in the back yard and I heard a car horn.  Talk about a heart attack.  They were on the road walking up towards my folks.  The car had stopped.  Hope Khloe will not get that idea!

Love you all.  Grandma

~~~~~~~~~~~

The setting: Kayla and I were in the car driving home from gymnastics having a conversation about Kristi's upcoming birthday party at our house.
Me: Kristi's party is going to be in our basement, in Bar Faust.
Kayla: Oh? Is that because we have more puzzles downstairs? Does Kristi want to be where there's more puzzles, because we don't have very many puzzles upstairs.
Me: Yes, probably.
Kayla: So does Kristi get to pick all the games we're going to play? Or is she just going to tell us what games to play?
Me: She'll probably want to hear about which games you want to play too.
Kayla: How many other kids are going to be there?

Just get here! We're read for your party Aunt Keekee!