It has been too long...

Trust us when we say we are still here....Life has been a bit crazy in Wisconsin. Kelli is now a full-time stay at home mom. She says she "retired" but I think she is working way harder now than she ever did. (I know she is. She was sick a few weekends ago and I had all three kids all weekend. Even with her in the house not functional it was way too hard. She has them by herself alone!) I love her for that! Meredith is learning how to read every day with mommy. She is really getting good and is expanding her reading skills daily. She loves to ask mommy and daddy about words she doesn't know the meaning to. She is very inquisitive. She is not going to preschool at our church this year. However, we did sign her up for classes at the YMCA. She starts art class on Monday morning! Gabrielle works very hard at trying our patience. She is learning to say certain consonants that she still struggles with, such as F, K, R, etc. She always finds a way to make us want to scream, cry and laugh at the same time for the same thing. It was cool today and she had to wear actual shoes instead of sandles today. She came running out of her bedroom and into the dining room to tell me, "Look at my running shoes daddy! Now you have running shoes and I have running shoes!" There may be a future there... Micah is HUGE! He is currently in 9 mo. clothes and is eating a ton. He hasn't slept through the night since we got back from South Dakota in August, but he usually only wakes up once to eat. His hand-eye coordination is getting better. He grabs all sorts of stuff and tries to get it to his mouth. Every once in a while I will hear one of the girls yell that he has their hair! He is showing signs of wanting to sit up. If we sit him up he can hold it for a couple seconds before flopping over. I think we need to work on some core strength for him... I am three weeks into the new school year. I have the same old music classes but am now teaching two new classes called "Praise and Worship" and another called "Christian Ethics" with another teacher 50/50. It is an adventure trying to get the planning down with another teacher when you are used to being by yourself. It is a good challenge for me. My top choir was chosen as one of four choirs in the state of Wisconsin to sing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra again this year! It is so cool that our small school of 145 has been chosen 3 times in the last 6 years! What a blessing! This year's tour will be to see Big Brother Michael in Texas. I am very excited but dealing with airlines and two coach bus companies is a bit of a headache. Cross Country is in full swing and I think my girls have a decent shot at the state title. My boys have been very strong lately as well. We are poised to win the conference if I have anything to say about it. So, that about wraps it up. Sorry, no pictures. I am too lazy to go upstairs and find the camera. I will have to work on that another day. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this little "letter". We love you all! Aaron, Kelli, Meredith, Gabrielle and Micah

Monkey and a hula girl

I think the pics say it all...

Grandpa and Grandma came!

Grandpa and Grandma Staub came from Indian to see us. Here are some pictures from their visit.

When Grandma showed up, she and Gabby matched!

Mom and Gabby coloring.

Grandma feeding yet another Staub boy.

3 generations of Staub men!

Grandma and Grandpa and all their grandchildren.

Quick trip to SD

In June, Aaron received a "call" to serve as an administrator for a new Lutheran school in the Black Hills (he declined it). After receiving it initially, we were forced to do a quick 1800-mile, 4-day trip to SD. Dropped the girls off at Meema and Papas. Here's some highlights:

Meema & Papa with the girls & Kadyn.

Meredith & Gabrielle got to spend lots of time with their cousin Kadyn and his pet toad, "George".

We were very fortunate to get to spend an evening at our niece's birthday party. Micah got to meet his great-grandpa Wilbur. My "Papa", as I've called him, didn't get married until he was 36. He got married in later in life and only had two sons, yet has 8 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren!

Daddy had to spend Father's Day driving.

The girls travel well. :)

What "The Boy" looks like

Micah sometimes looks like he's from Aaron's family: (he's directing)

He sometimes looks like he's from Kelli's family:

And it looks as though he's decided on a baseball team. He will surely die defending the title-less Cubs like his father:

The kids...

Kelli snapped this picture a couple nights ago while we were reading the Bible before bed.

Our "little" man...

Here are the latest pictures of our litle guy. He is turing out to be pretty cute!