3 months later and...

well, it's been 3 months since we've blogged. i didn't realize how little i would be able to get done around the holidays with a new born and 2 year old!

Nora at 1 week old

in all the craziness, though, we are enjoying life right now. Nora Amelia is just precious. she was born on October 29th at 2:42 pm, and was a big new born at 8lb, 11oz. and 21 inches long! she is gaining about 2 lbs a month, and is long too--she fills 3-6 month clothes now! we love her brown hair and blue eyes that haven't changed yet, and she loves to talk and smile--just a perfect, precious baby!

a recent photo: this didn't last long, but i thought it was super cute!

Everly is doing well-no crazy outbursts but you can sense that she is a little attention hungry, but then again, she has always loved getting attention, especially when friends come over! she's also getting more used to Nora and likes giving her kisses from time to time, or watching tv together ;) and, the BIG news is that Everly is potty trained!!!! we started again just two weeks ago and she knew exactly what to do! i'm so glad that all my hard work from last summer was not lost! yay! :)

What a big girl! cutting coupons after dance with mommy

I just got back from a little retreat with the ladies in our community. there were 20 of us, with a few from different circles outside of the gathering, so it was a lot of fun! we looked at the Hebrew word Selah-which means to stop, listen and measure. it was also very refreshing- no kids and I got to take some walks in nature! ahhh... :)

i should probably give an update on aaron, though i feel like he could do that better! he is still focused on finishing the building. some returning volunteers just got here today. he has seen some awesome ways that the Lord continues to provide for that-including donated heating and air units, and someone challenging our community to provide the rest of the plumbing $ with a match of half. Aaron also started playing in a new basketball league in the Parish. he plays with one of our neighbors and some of his and aaron's friends. and, he is a great friend to me. we are always working on something and i feel like he tries to be so understanding for the most part. i am very blessed :)

well, the girls just got quiet-love nap time! now i must finish unpacking and start packing for thursday-we are heading up North to see our grandparents and supporters, and also stopping in MS and IL to see friends-woo hoo! our trip will be broken up, but our longest drive will probably by 11 hours with stops- so please pray for us that day if you think about it-this Friday! :)

thanks friends!

due date...

welp, it's here- tomorrow- October 27th. our "due date." so much pressure is put on this date and only 10% of women actually deliver on it. hmm... wonder if we'll fall into that category! so, Everly was 3 days earlier than her due date, and this little one is holding out... we saw the Dr. today and she said we could induce if we wanted but she knew that we were wanting to hold out and let my body do it's job. so, we're waiting some more-this baby has to come sometime... soon really!

gary and leah (Aaron's parents) are here until Friday, my sis gets in Friday. should be an interesting next week. we'll update/text/make calls when we know more! :)

shauna

oh, and if you want to pray- please pray for stress-free time, good labor, and healthy baby! thanks :)

August, September, October...

at the end of August I started a new post and never finished it... now it's October and every time I come to check blog updates I feel guilty of our lack of them and a little overwhelmed with writing one. So, here goes, while Everly is still taking her nap! (oh, and if you get our monthly newsletters then you are caught up on most of this! and if you want to receive them, just let us know!)

Some highlights:

Everly started attending a little pre-school here. It's at the Lutheran church and 2 year olds go Tuesday and Thursday morning for 3 hours. I kept her home today as she has been battling a cold for a while and I wasn't feeling well either... it was sad to hear her say "Mommy, I want to go to school"... she has so much fun there!

Ev on her first day of school

Aaron and I were able to getaway for an overnight in a nice hotel in the French Quarter. Aaron knew a man who worked at this hotel, so he blessed us with the room- a balcony and all!

A view from our room during our getaway

All has been well with the pregnancy. I have weekly check-ups now with less than 3 weeks until our due date! I am enjoying the last weeks of intimacy--being the only one to feel this baby moving around all the time :) I had started getting anxious about the delivery and not feeling as prepared this time (I had read sooooo much and gone to lots of classes including lamaze last time) but the Lord has calmed those fears as I have been praying! Our Dr. is great and each week she says something about our faith. She is grateful for the peace we have in our belief of a "Higher Power" to take care of things. I have started to pray for God to do something to reveal Himself to her through the delivery. With Everly, when my Dr. started pressuring me to be induced, I told her that I was praying for God to bring the baby by Friday- that was Wednesday, we had Everly on Thursday. I really wanted to have the baby soon because my parents were on their way to visit, but I hope this was a testimony of our God to this Dr!

at 36 weeks along!

In Ministry-

Aaron's one focus right now is the community center. Today we passed another inspection for our plumbing! Next week we are pouring concrete, and the week after a group from our home church is here (including Aaron's dad) to put some walls up on that new slab! so, pretty exciting, and challenging. this is teaching us lots about depending on God; aaron and I are growing in our faith together as we talk over his stresses, pray, and see God providing encouragement, His Word, and the means to make this all come together!

Aaron with Dave and a volunteer from Xavier on a recent workday

our church family is growing well too. We learned about Rosh Hashanah this last month and were challenged to really seek God for the ten days that the Israelites would have during this festival. then we came together to break bread, eat a meal together, and have a burning of sins that God had revealed to us during those days. it was pretty neat- Matt even read the prayers of blessings in Hebrew that they would have read.

We have also had work days at the community center and lunch in our homes afterward. We had a young couple just get married, so a bunch of us were cleaning and preparing their apartment while they were on their honeymoon. And of course, we're getting ready to celebrate a new baby (ours!)- so lots of family excitement.

speaking of family, most all of ours is going to be visiting us in the next few months! Aaron's mom is flying down the on the 25th to join his dad who arrives the 18th. They leave on the 30th right after my sister arrives from CA who will be here until Nov. 3rd. My mom (and other sibs/niece?) is coming around Thanksgiving, my dad is coming before and through Christmas, and Aaron's entire family will be here from Dec. 27th-Jan 2. So, we have a full schedule of visitors! And through all of this Aaron will be busy with the community center. Oh, and a new baby. I think we'll need a small vacation soon! :) But we are excited. Lots of blessings, challenges, and an awesome God to lean on!

Please be praying for us- your prayers mean so much to us! hopefully it won't be as long before we post again- maybe some baby pictures soon, huh?!

aaron's birthday and more

i'm trying to de-clutter the desktop. i put some favorite pics on there that i wanted to remember to share with you, so here goes... 10:50 and I really want to go to bed but know that if I don't do it now it may never get done! :) and aaron's not home from bible study, so...

a few from before our trip--Everly fell asleep on the guest bed all by herself and we were working out a disagreement in our bedroom. she hasn't ever done this, not since she was a sleepy newborn! :)

we were having a drought so I prayed for rain one night at bedtime with Everly. the next day it rained and I reminded Everly of how we prayed. she loves to play in the rain and repeated my excitement: "Jesus made it rain!" now every time it rains she tells us that Jesus makes it rain. 

a new favorite of Everly's: dominos.

Aaron's 27th birthday was the day after we got back- a little crazy to celebrate it! but we did, with a few presents here- Everly got him a balloon and aaron said it was his first balloon anyone ever gave him so it was special. :)

we had friends over that night, too (phew- still exhausted thinking about that day!) and had peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter and chocolate ice cream- there was a theme ;)

the guys- gavin, matt, brandon, matt and aaron- enjoying coffee

liz and adrianne, ron and becky in the backround

Everly making me chicken and cookies for lunch. :)

Around the Midwest in 12 days...

8 airplane rides (2 up, 2 to and back from Iowa, and 2 more home!) and three states later (not including our layovers)- phew! What a good trip! It was almost all planned out, but we had some good surprises and randomness, too.  Here's a summary of our trip in pictures :)

 

On our first full day we went to a lake in Indy to swim and cookout with my (Shauna's) family. It was Everly's first time to swim in a body of water like that and she had a lot of fun. 

She also enjoyed smashing watermelon all over her face!

That night, we took Everly to our friends' home to stay for the weekend while we traveled to Iowa to visit with a supporting church, East Side Christian Church in Council Bluffs. Here's Aaron helping fix their 'A' that had come loose--with duct tape. What a great idea...

We had a lot of fun getting to know the East Side family who took care of us very well while we were there. Aaron got to speak for both of their Sunday services and we both talked to the kids that night at VBS about the ministry in St. Bernard. It was our first time to be VBS missionaries, and they were doing the Crocodile Dock/bayou theme so it was perfect!

A neat thing while we were in Iowa was that my college roommate happened to be visiting her parents who live 45 minutes away, so she got to come spend the morning/afternoon with us. Here we are standing in front of the entry way that ESCC had painted for VBS, which actually had a cool story. They hired a guy who did this for a living- painting window fronts for stores- and as he talked with the minister he opened up a little about his own life and problems, having no work, family stuff, etc. When he finished, he decided to donate his services- very cool! 

Another random thing from our trip was that Aaron had been to Council Bluffs a couple different times as a kid to help at the Deaf Ministry there. So, Sarah drove us to their headquarters to see the building and whether or not it was still tan and blue- and yes, it was! But they had built on and two ladies who worked there happened to be there and gave us a tour. As we talked, one lady told us that she was a prayer warrior for Team Expansion missionaries and had just prayed for us in New Orleans- how cool is that!

Back in Indy, we got to hangout more with my family.

We had a short visit with my grandparents--here's my grandpa who calls Everly his girl because they are born on the same day! We were listening to some music and showing Everly what a record and cassette tape is!

Hanging out in New Palestine, we hit up Frosty Boys (a must) and went to my elementary school to play. It was fun to tell Everly that this was where I had gone to school when I was little and to see her run and play where I once did. They had built this school when I was in 2nd grade, and the original playground pieces are still there, quite old and faded!

This used to be orange and we used to have so much fun playing on it! 

We also got to see my cousins, have our teeth (thank you Dr. Harty!!!!) and my wedding rings cleaned and polished, and spent two hours at the Sprint store when my three-year-old phone finally broke. Then it was off to Michigan to visit with Aaron's extended family up there for the Fourth. On our way up we got to stop and have dinner with dear college friends and to meet their two boys for the first time! Crazy good, short stops, which we love!

Well, Aaron's family lives in Muskegon which is on Lake Michigan. Here is Everly and our cousin Donna wading in the Lake- I'm sure it wasn't the warmest but Everly had a lot of fun and was soaked afterward! We had a lot of fun staying with Donna too- she's our age and Everly bonded with her well, possibly a blonde thing :) She even painted her toes one night- it was the cutest thing!

For the Fourth of July we drove an hour north to Aaron's uncle's lake house. The house had been in his Aunt Nina's family since the 50's, and Aaron has lots of childhood memories of spending time here, so it was really special to be back. I don't think it broke 80 that day, so it was a little cool for swimming- not that that stopped the kiddos! Everly and Aaron got in a little, but she wasn't too thrilled about the cold water. 

Nor did she like this "funny man"--she is so funny about the things she says these days. Full sentences that are just so bright! "I don't like that funny man!" She'll tell us. I don't know where she gets all these things!

We enjoyed throwing the balls around in the sunshine though. It was kinda funny because there were aunt hills all over and I had to keep telling myself that it was okay because they don't bite. Funny how living some where very different changes you; I even caught myself wanting some Tony's (local seasoning) for some fish once! 

Everly and her cupcake- I took the star decoration out and licked it when I gave it to her, but she wanted the star back and then proceeded to eat all the icing with the end of the star stick. so funny. 

Well, there are lots of pictures on Facebook of more family if you want to see more. Here's a final one in MI of Everly playing the piano at Donna's house. Sometimes I really wish we could live near our family so that Everly could grow up getting to know them, so that Donna could be the one to teach her the piano that's been in the family for so long, etc. When we first arrived that night, Aaron's cousin Eric exclaimed, "Look at that blonde hair! She's definitely a Johnson!" I hope Everly will get to know her Swedish heritage and family who lives so far away.

Well, to finish our trip, we enjoyed a quick stop in Wabash to see Aaron's grandparents at their church's annual 4th of July picnic, and then some celebrating of my brother and Aaron's birthdays with some ice cream at Cold Stone. Everly really did well on the plane rides being 2 and not wanting to sit still too long. Flying, however, will probably not be in our future for a while with #2 coming! This was actually our only trip North that we are planning, as of now, for this year. We are hoping that both of our families will be able to make trips to see us this winter. So maybe next spring we will make the 12 hour car ride up with babies in tow. 

What an adventure this life is. I think there's a saying about going 'home'--it definitely is nice to be in places that are so familiar to you, to see people who are so loving and encouraging. And yet to be so excited to return to this home that the Lord has given us. Thank you for journeying with us!

our little talker

i feel like all our blogs are about Everly and i apologize for that! she's just changing and growing all the time and it's so much fun to write about her :) so, over the last few weeks she has really taken off with putting sentences together! One of her favorite things to say right now is, "My birthday is coming up, on next week. on Saturday." we tell her to say next year, but she never remembers to! I guess because there's always a birthday to celebrate she's learning that she wants hers to come!

And now when we look through pictures she says that everyone is her cousin. So funny. And whenever she sees anyone who looks like Jesus she thinks they are. :) She loves to look through pictures-online, in photo albums, in magazines. She's a people person. 

potty training update

I think we're on the right path with this. Everly is doing very well with "holding it" only she doesn't tell us she needs to go potty, just gets a little spastic and does the pee-pee dance... hehehe :). I'm learning to spot when she needs to go and can convince her most of the time. Also, she has been very proud of going pee-pee in the grass when we've been out and about, ie. at the park or ball field where there were no close-by toilets (and there weren't very many people around!). We always have a pull-up when we're out, but I realized that it probably wasn't the best training for me to tell her to just go in her underwear, hmmm.... This is quite the interesting process! 

i started to blog about other things but i am still in the process of uploading photos, so that will have to wait! thanks for journeying with us! :)

just a little somethin', somethin'

So, I have this grand ol' plan for my second trimester which officially starts tomorrow (15 weeks along, yea!). We are hoping (& praying!) that Everly will jump right into potty training.... not going so well yet--any advice from some moms out there? I've been reading the books and we got some essentials today so I'm excited to really plug away at this. Everly seems excited about her step stool and the toilet seat, but she wants to flush the toilet when she doesn't really go, and wash her hands forever when she doesn't need to. How do you teach a 2 year old not to waste water?! oh my....

My other hope for the second part of this trimester is to re-arrange the bedrooms. Everly is going to get the top of the bunk beds we got from some friends while the baby is going to share the guest room-- he or she won't need that much room, right? :) And we're going to paint Everly's room. It's been a pretty light blue since she was a baby and I'm just ready for a little more girly! I'm pretty excited about setting up the crib again and pulling out our bedding- I never got to do this with Everly because we didn't move into our house until we came home from the hospital, so friends did it for us while we were there. I'm excited to have it ready waaaaaay before then! ...even if my plan to have this all done before third trimester doesn't work out! ;)

some pictures...

Here's some recent pictures of Everly

Her 2nd Birthday Party--all Elmo :)

Enjoying marshmallows on her first camping trip

Aaron's parents are here visiting right now and building a swing set for Everly, and our kids to follow! Everly says the slide is "too fast"--we decided to go bigger than smaller for growing room. hopefully she will play on it when it's done!

We have our 2nd appointment with our OBGYN this Friday- excited about that! we're 12 weeks along now. And on Sunday we take off for FL- We are going to a church planting conference in Orlando with the staff. Our friends in Gainesville are going to watch Everly while we're there, and then hopefully we'll get some time to play, too! yea for semi-vacations :)

Everly's first camping trip

So, I thought I would make a list of the lessons we learned from taking Everly camping for the first time. Some have to do with her, others don't.

Top Ten Lessons (In order that they were learned)

1. Don't take the Causeway bridge at rush hour, unless you want to jump off it! 

2. Do have your dinner ready when you arrive, get the fire started and get cooking fast! That way you can feed your toddler while you set up the tent.

3. Do use your truck lights to see as you set your tent up in the dark (grr.... traffic!).

4. Don't forget the pack-n-play!!! Then you'll have a toddler sharing the air mattress with you.

5. Two year-olds don't know how to sleep in sleeping bags, no matter how cute it is (or is it just our child??).

6. 50's in the evenings means long pants.

7. Do bring a bag of sticks and some newspaper to get the fire started; Don't forget some logs to keep it going!

8. When you're pregnant, try to sleep as close to the bathroom as you can. 

9. Warning: When you camp right next to the playground, your toddler will not understand the need to set-up, cook, tear-down--they will just want to go play, all the time!

10. Camping with kids is a lot more work, but it's worth it to see them experience what you love. 

We have tons of pictures on our camera that I need to download--from before Everly's birthday! I'll try to do that soon. Thanks for reading :)

I thought this was cute...

I wasn't feeling very good so I told Everly that I wanted to lay down and that she could either play or rub my back. I showed her how and she did it, but then went running to the back of the house I thought to play in her room. She came back quickly with our back massager knuckles that she found once and we showed her what they were, and continued to rub my back. Ahhhh, what a nice little girl, and sooooo smart!

Childhood

I love these recent pictures of Everly. They tell so much about her life and I decided to label them what I thought they said about her. enjoy! :)

sweet.

serious.

tender.

innocence.

joy.

exciting.

contemplative.

Everly's little bedroom makeover

Hi! This is Everly- welcome to my newly decorated room. Let me show you around.

My door has a new sign on it to replace the piggy one.

We also replaced "Oink" with my name, the pig picture with this one my mom's had since she was little, and put up a pretty piggy bank- I have so many to choose from! :)

Here's my new bed- I just love it! Today I got in it all by myself at 11:30 for a nap!

Daddy is silly!

This is my new table that I love to sit and color at. Mommy put these pretty "flies" (as she calls butterflies!) up on my wall.

Daddy showed me how to get in my bookshelf- it was lots of fun!

Mommy and I watched the TV all morning yesterday about the new President...

And here's my mommy's new herb garden that she got for Christmas- she is very excited how fast they are growing!


Thanks for looking at my room with me!

First haircut & big girl bed!

Finally, this Saturday we went to get Everly's first haircut! The lady did it soooo quickly which I'm guessing is best for squirmy toddlers, but I was sad that it didn't last longer! Everly did pretty well too- she had to keep looking down at a toy so the lady could cut it and she is just the best little girl!
Before...

hehehe... during!

Trying to keep her looking down at the toy...

And, after! Ain't she cute? :)



We also found a used and free toddler bed for Everly and set that up last weekend. Every one warned me about this process, but Everly hasn't been difficult going to bed at all! She even crawls into her bed all by herself and sometimes during the day pretends to go "Night night!" :) She loves it, and we had a Disney Princess blanket and table/chair to match it already. Our baby is growing up!!! (I'll get some pics soon!)

...I know it's been months since we've posted--now that life is getting back to normal after Christmas I will try to keep up a little better! thanks to all of you who post and share your lives with us! :)