Everly's 1st birthday!

Here are some pictures from our little party! We were excited to have family and friends from out of town in, and also our neighbors and friends from here over. Everly was excited about mushing her hands in the cake, and eating it too! Though, we waited to do that last, so she was a little tired and not too wild and messy. Her friend Justus tried to help feed her cake with a fork, and she was not excited about me taking the cake away, so she got to work on it for a while! She was curious about the pretty presents, but after opening the first one she just wanted to play with it! I think she got a little overwhelmed with them all, but there were some cute reactions--kissing her cow picture frame, wanting to hold her unicorn, smiling as she played with her blocks. It was a lot of fun!


her little double-stacked cake


our cupcake gamg--our theme was circles and animals to match her invitations


a little too long at the cake!


she just sat with her hands in the cake for a long time!

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justus thought she needed help- too cute!


our friends graham and mary came to visit from IN


our friend and minister's wife, Andrea





birthday blocks from great grandpa!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Everly's first Valentine's day card to Daddy, we decided to do some finger painting!


Mommy got a little out of hand and painted a heart on me!


I thought it was pretty funny.


Look at what we made!


Our family tradition is to always have a special holiday breakfast- I got a piece of bread with applebutter cut in a heart!


Yumm-o!

first day in the office....

Today Aaron stayed home with Everly in the morning and I (Shauna) got to go to the office. We're going to try to do this Tuesdays and Thursdays when we don't have volunteers. I'm going to be taking care of the Gathering's newsletter and other things we need produced, like our right now I'm making brochures for our counseling center, so I have plenty to keep me busy! Aaron has plenty too! He kept Everly up until 10:30 which wasn't so good cause she didn't end up taking a morning nap... and oh, she was very jittery for me! So, she is now waking up from a 2 1/2 hour nap and we got to run to the grocery. What a busy day! Tonight the girls are starting a Bible study and our neighbor is joining us as well as a couple girls Abbey has met. Praying for some good discussion and transformation as we renew our minds! Thanks for praying, too!

newest hair

This is for my mom, and Megan, and anyone else who might care! This is my choppiest haircut yet! Probably the worst one too because the short layers make my hair a fro without some serious work to make it calm down. hehe... Aaron helped me straighten it after my first wash and it took us less than 1/2 an hour!



here it is in a pony tail semi-straight. when it was curly it was much shorter and funnier! but if you know my hair, i don't have a lot! :)

Everly's first Christmas

We had quite the road trip holiday this year! We left for Indy on December 23 and got in around 1 a.m.! But before we left we opened our stocking gifts to each other at home.

One of Everly's favorite thing to do is play with the steering wheel in the car! It was hard to put her back in her seat after being on the road so long!

On Christmas morning we opened gifts at three places--first at my (Shauna) mom's house.
Here is Everly with her cousin Audrina, patiently awaiting gift opening!

Then we went to Aaron's parents where our last gift was a scavenger hunt to the garage where a white truck with a red bow was waiting! This was a gift from a man from our church-a company truck ready to find a new home. He and Aaron had discussed this option for the future as Old Blue is getting a little rougher, so it was a wonderful surprise!

I don't have too many pictures of the rest of Christmas day because we got a small camcorder for Christmas--so hopefully I will get some film on the blog soon! In the evening we went to my grandparents and spent the night there. My grandpa calls Everly his girl because she was born on his birthday, so they were very delighted to see her and us.


On Friday we drove to Louisville to see some friends who hadn't yet met Everly. Here is Everly and Sophia Stewart who are only weeks apart! Evelry just loves being with little ones!

Of course, we had to watch the Colts while we were up there, though the game wasn't too good. Here we are with my brother, Paul, all decked out, well... kinda.

This is Christmas dos with my family- here is my sister Stasia, her husband Ben, and my mom with the girls.

Although it didn't snow on Christmas, we found a pile left over at my grandparents and showed it to Everly. Little did we know we would be driving through a blizzard that night on our way to Bellflower, IL!

That was New Year's Eve and we stayed with our friends Jen and Joel Searby and their son Evan at Jen's parents house. It was so much fun to be with really good friends! The next day we also got to see a couple more friends who live in IL on our way to Branson, MO.


We met Aaron's family in Branson for three whole days. It was the off season, so it wasn't the typical Branson vacation! We went bowling and Everly didn't know what to think of the loud noise!

But she did like the truck ride there! She knew exactly what to do with the steering wheel! :)

We also went to eat at Lamberts where they throw rolls- something Aaron had wanted to do since college. The kids got balloons there and Everly just loved playing with hers. Here she is with Grandma Johnson :)

And we went for a hike--315 steps down and up this hill! Here is Benaiah with hiking stick in hand :) and Grandpa Johnson.
It was great to get outside and to break out our winter coats!

Most of the rest of the time we played Chinese Checkers and Sorry- some of Benaiah's favorites. The kiddos had fun playing together too--Everly especially liked Justin since they are close to the same size.

On our way home we drove through the backhills of Arkansas! and stopped in Jackson, MS to stay the night with our good friends the Viramontes. Isn't this a precious picture of Adam holding Everly? :)


Welp, we're off for a staff retreat today--we're going to be watching the video taped sessions from Catalyst-a leadership conference. Please pray we have good bonding and discussions. Jay Snapp, from Indian Creek, is here too. He is Aaron's intern for the semester, so please be praying for that relationship. Lastly, Aaron and I are going to work out a schedule where he comes home for a few hours three days a week so I can go into the office. While Evelry naps, he can still get work done here, so hopefully it will be good all around! Thanks for checking in with us!!!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, too-isn't the Lord good!

last week...

okay, i've been meaning to get on here and update but we've been so busy! Aaron sent an email about Chris earlier this week, so I hope you got the update on him if you were praying. surgery went well and Chris ended up having insurance which is wonderful! they are flying him and his parents to Indy tomorrow. he'll be having surgery on his wrist, i believe, once he's there. God has blessed this situation greatly, but we still need to pray for his complete healing and also for his parents. PLEASE pray that they will have PEACE, that any strongholds in their minds will by loosed in Jesus name!

The Christmas event Saturday went well. I know Satan was working again to destroy this because some of the families planning to come weren't able to last minute. while we were a little disappointed, we enjoyed getting to know the families there and blessing them in Jesus name. One of the famillies who were expecting a baby girl, ended up going to the hospital instead and delivering while we were there! they called their friend who came to get their gifts after the baby arrived. It was so much fun to be there rejoicing with their friend. I got to purchase a stroller/car seat set at the local thrift store that was all pink and pretty much brand new, and the indian creek ladies loaded it up with some diapers and clothes. how fun! the family has two other kids but lost all their baby stuff from Katrina, so this was a huge blessing--all they had was a bassinet.

well, there are more stories i could share from the week, but it's way past bedtime. we will be getting our last newsletter of the year out this week. Here's a picture to end with, Everly enjoying spaghetti for the first time! enjoy :)

Prayers needed for Chris! (last 2 paragraphs)

okay, i've been meaning to blog on here for a while, but just haven't found the time. last week we had two groups here- one matt's parents and some other men from CCV, and the other three of our friends from ICCC: Shawn- our old youth minister and Abbey's old boss, Bart- aaron's old boss and buddy, and Monty--all who are good friends. This was kinda a reunion trip for the three of them, as well as a chance to see the ministry here and serve. It was good but went pretty fast.

Then, on Saturday a group of about 50 men arrived on a charter bus from the Creek. Actually, Ryan Sarver came earlier in the week--he works for the Creek doing creative things like video taping the sermon here in New Orleans and then sending it over the net so they could play it sunday morning! It was pretty neat, we got to watch it last night for our Gathering service. Aaron, Abbey and Matt all got to do a part in it. It looked at the discouragment that Joseph experienced when he first found out that Mary was pregnant--obviously not his child. But then an angel of the Lord told him that God was behind this and to marry Mary. hehe... Obviously, New Orleans has faced their amount of discouragment over these last couple years with Katrina. But we know that there is hope in the Lord! well, that was the jist of if. God is working--have hope in Him!

So, the guys arrived Saturday and got to work right away! They are working on three different places: the house of our future community center director and his family, Dennis's house (a man we know from the community who is on disability but works hard to help others that he hasn't had time to finish his own home), and the bowling alley. We are blessed to have professionals down who are overseeing the projects, even some roofers replacing the roof on the bowling alley. God is always blessing us, as we witnessed yesterday...

One of the young guys helping with the roof at the bowling alley, Chris Hendricks, stepped on an old patch and fell through the roof. It was about a 20 foot drop to concrete, however he was miraculously saved from the worst! The EMTs said that if Chris would have been a smaller guy that he would have died, and you might expect to find some internal, head or spine injury from such a fall. However, he has broken these things only!: both of his wrists, his pelvic bone and some small vertibrae bones off of that that I guess are not as serious. It truely was a miracle, but of course Chris is going to have a long recovery from this.

I just talked to Gary and they are still unsure of the time of surgery today for the pelvic bone to be set. His parents were able to catch a flight last night and arrived around 2 a.m. to be with him. We are making sure they are taken care of, especially since they may have to be here for a while. Also, Chris did not have health insurance so I know they'll be taking up love offerings, but Gary did find out that it is a Charity hospital where he is at so the costs may not be great? I don't know how those things work, but i know the Church will take care of their family!

So, please pray for Chris and his family. I will update the blog with more details as we find them out. Thank you and praise God with us for saving Chris's life!