How can you not love this!?!?!

Trick or Treat

At the Pumpkin Farm!

It's best that Aaron and Meredith are out of the house on Monday afternoons when I teach three hours straight of piano lessons. They always look for something interesting to do (eg, look at the fish at PetSmart, pull all the children's books off the shelves at the library, shop for groceries, etc). A few weeks ago, they went to a pumpkin farm!
All of these "monkeys"! (She gets her consanants confused and often calls pumpkins, "monkeys".)

Apparently at the farm there were more than pumpkins that Mer was interested in.

Meeeeemah! Paaaapah!

Meema: Thank you for the dresses. Here's my favorite one!
Papa: I'm sorry the Twins lost to the Yankees. Maybe the Vikings will make it to the SuperBowl. My daddy says that they will probably play the Colts in February.

Love, Meredith

One of the best things to see...

I think Aaron would agree that among the many, many times that our daughter melts our hearts everyday by saying/doing special things, this ranks around #1. When we go to the basement to do laundry or grab something from the freezer, she stands at the top of the stairs on her tiptoes, yelling, "Mommy, where are you?!" or "Daddy, c'mere!" Who wouldn't want to rush up the stairs to this?

A FLOWER GIRL!

Here's Aunt Holly, Uncle Tim and Meredith last month when they showed up at our house with flowers for Meredith, asking her to be a flower girl in their March 6th wedding! Tim is Mer's godfather and we've always just called him "Uncle Tim". We named his girlfriend "Aunt Holly" as soon as they started dating (which was when Meredith was born) because we knew someday they'd end up married.

Visitors from South Dakota!

FOUR GENERATIONS--All with the same name! Back in early August, we were blessed to have my parents and my grandma visit. Pictured here are four generations of women: Donna Marie, Julie Marie, Kelli Marie, and Meredith Marie. My great-grandma, Ruth Marie, passed away while I was pregnant with Meredith. And, before Ruth Marie was Mable Marie. (I always knew God would bless me with a daughter... he'd have to for me to keep the Marie thing going.)

In September, my mom, sister, and niece came for a weekend of tomato canning. Pictured here are Meredith and Grace (5 months apart).

Jill and I peeled around 150 pounds of tomatoes!

After we peeled the tomatoes, Meema canned them in my hot kitchen. We made probably around 50-60 quarts of stewed tomatoes, salsa, and chili soup mix.

And while we worked, the girls played.

Ready to be a Big Sister!

Meredtih is starting to practice her big sister duties...

We're blog-lazy.

Reasons why Kelli hasn't updated the blog for a month:

1.) She's a teacher and school started August 24.
2.) Meredith has been sick a lot.
3.) She typically eats supper then goes to bed.
4.) She is pregnant and doesn't feel like doing anything. (baby coming March 21st-ish)

Reasons why Aaron hasn't updated the blog for a month:

1.) He's a teacher and school started August 24.
2.) He coaches boys and girls cross country.
3.) The Chicago Cubs are still playing (but not for long).
4.) NFL season started.
5.) His living room recliner is much more comfortable than the computer desk chair.
6.) He has to cook, bake, and do the dishes because Kelli won't [currently].

She likes chocolate!

I made some brownies a few weeks ago while Meredith was finishing up eating a meal. Whenever I stand at the kitchen counter and prepare food, she says "Ooooooo," which means in her language: "Ooooo, Mommy, I want some of that food." She said it while I was making the brownies so I thought, why not give her the spoon? She like it!

Day trip to Chicago!

Last Wednesday we took our first day trip to Chicago. Aaron, Meredith and I parked downtown and spent the afternoon at Navy Pier before meeting up with the rest of Aaron's family at a restaurant downtown. We had a great time and are hoping to do it again soon.

Aaron and Meredith standing at the entrance of Navy Pier. Even though the pier is right on Lake Michigan, there was little breeze and it was SO HOT! We stopped about halfway down the pier so Meredith and Aaron could have ice cream.

Here's Meredith and I with part of the downtown Chicago skyline in the background.

The whole Staub family! Aaron's brother Michael and his wife Clare (from Houston) are on the left. Aaron's parents Arlys and Scott in the middle. That's Uncle Jeremy in front. This day was the very first time that we were all together since Meredith had been born.

Aaron taught Meredith how to "pound it" last week. She's doing it here with Uncle Jer. We met in Chicago really to surprise Jeremy--he flew into OHare that day from Venice. He had been traveling in Spain, Austria and Italy for choir tour for college. We wanted to also meet him to say goodbye--he flew to Hawaii yesterday because he got a teaching job in Maui!

Uncle Michael and Aunt Clare again with Meredith. We miss them a lot and even though they live all the way in Houston, hopefully we'll get to see them soon.

A Trip West...

We traveled to Western South Dakota over the Fourth of July (typically we spend a good part of the summer in Eastern South Dakota). Here's some highlights of our trip:
Aaron, Meredith & I several thousand feet up in the Black Hills at a look-out point on Needles Highway. If you look in the background, you can almost see an 11-acre chunk of land that my dad purchased a couple of years ago. You'll see in pictures below that this chunk of land, or "Dad's Ranch" will be a popular destination for the whole Gehrels family in the future.

My grandpa, his sons and their kids and families all vacationed in the Black Hills together. My "Grandpa Wilbur" is 86 years old and hadn't visited this spot since he was 17.
Here's all of us on the Fourth of July hiking around Lake Sylvan.

Well, the cabin's not there yet but this camper suits us just fine! Most of the crew stayed overnight at a rented cabin near Custer, South Dakota but Aaron, Meredith and Grandpa Wilbur and I got to stay in the camper at "Dad's Ranch".

While we were there, the men/boys helped Dad finish a shed. It's a wonder they got it done because it rained a lot. :(

Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa came!

In late June, Aaron's parents escorted his grandparents here from Nebraska. Aaron's Grandma Lorene has lots of family in Wisconsin and they stopped here on their adventure around the state.

Half of our kitchen is now...

Although we have very little counter-space, we've been blessed with a big open kitchen. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to turn half of it into "Meredith's Kitchen." I found some great deals on Craigslist and we bought her lots of new things to play with. I wish I could say that these new toys have stopped her from emptying Mommy's cupboards, but they haven't. Oh well, I figure that the more we let her play in the kitchen, the sooner she'll be able to cook/bake for us someday!

Our toddler wants to do what Mommy and Daddy do!

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Back in April we found a nearby park right off of our bike trail that has some swings for toddlers. Meredith loves it! We take her there just about everyday and upon first glimpse of the park she says, "Weeeeeeeeeee!" That's what she calls a swing. A few weeks ago, our neighbors put up this swing for her on their swingset. Here's some pics of her "Weeeeeeeeee-ing."

Who does she look like?

It is humorous when people come up to us at school, in South Dakota, at graduation parties, at church, etc and say, "Oh she looks just like you!" Or, "She looks just like her Daddy." Without a doubt, 50% say she looks like me and 50% say she looks like Aaron. Well, it has taken 14 months but it is now easy to determine that Meredith has Kelli's hair, Aaron's eyes, both of our long limbs, big hands, and feet, and other than that, she's just a mixture? What do you think?

Uncle Jonny's Graduation

My youngest brother, Jonathan, graduated from high school in the middle of May. We flew home to attend his graduation. We are very proud of him! He is planning on attending college in the fall, hoping to earn an Agricultural Business degree.

My brother Jon and I. There's eight years difference between us. Notice the colored wall in the background. I felt uneasy at first when returning to my parents home which had a remodeled bathroom, new furniture, different colored walls, etc. I don't like it when they make changes to the house I grew up in. I want that house to stay the same forever! Oh well. I guess it isn't 1990 anymore. Must move on. Sigh.

Here's Jon and his nieces Grace and Meredith.

The original four... plus their offspring. My brother Kasey holding his son Kadyn. My sister Jill holding her daughter Grace. Jon. And then Meredith and I. Our family is multiplying fast! Meema recently told us she'd like eight grandkids. My sister and I told her that by the time we're all done having children, mostly likely she'll have lots more than that!

Meredith's First Day of School!

Back in early May, the high school had a walk-a-thon to raise money for student scholarships. We took Meredith that day and because she still can't walk, she got pulled in her new wagon.

Look closely and you'll find Meredith in the middle of this picture of my first period chemistry class. What a group.

Here's Meredith outside with her Daddy.

Meredith's buddy Wesley came to school too that day! Wesley's daddy is the business teacher. Wesley and Meredith were born on the same day. Hopefully they'll go to school together someday.

She was only at school for about three hours and she got exhausted!

She only went to school for one day and she can already read! ;)