Thanksgiving weekend

This weekend was quite different from our first 2 Thanksgivings together. We usually are driving and seeing lots of family, which is great but it was nice to stay home and have some good rest as a family. We had our meal with our church family--we brought the pies, one regular pumpkin, one gourmet pumpkin that Leah always makes, and one new apple-cranberry walnut that I (Shauna) read about in a book I read recently (pie making has been something I have gotten into a little).


Everly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. She had a chair at the big people table! Next year I'm sure she'll be sitting with the kiddos and running around and playing with them... wow--running, that's a whole new level to think about! Here she is playing with the boys' trucks in her dress.

On Saturday we decided we would go see Santa. They had been advertising it on the TV that at 7pm it would snow there, so we made our plan to get to the mall early and leave right after the snow fell so Everly could get her sleep still. Before we got to Santa we searched many stores for a red bow for Everly because someone had already called her a boy. We had no luck, and decided she was cute enough without. Everly didn't cry when she saw Santa which was surprising since she hadn't taken her earlier nap in the drive as we had hoped. And we even got a good smiling picture!

We had some time to kill before the big snow fall, so we walked around (the Disney store is always fun), took some pictures and had some eggnog icecream.

Everly did watch the snow falling, though we're hoping for a better experience up North this Christmas!

The rest of the weekend we spent decorating the house for Christmas, watching Home Alone (actually we fell asleep not far into it!), drinking hot cocoa, and enjoying dressing Everly up in her Christmas attire.


It's exciting to be sharing the holidays with her, though I know she won't understand it for a couple years. Still, it's a lot of fun for us! :) Hope your weekend was as wonderful as ours!

time for some pictures!

Here are some photos from last week...

Aaron and Lucas with a minister from OH cut down our neighbors dead tree.


Here are Everly's first two teeth that are getting bigger every day!


And I thought this was cute- Everly playing with Daddy. :)


Yea! Winter clothes from Nana.


Everly after she eats a baby cookie!


A big oops! I accidently left the laundry room sink on while I went about doing other chores. Water leaked through to the living room but luckily our neighbor had a wet vac and blower (I don't know what else to call it?) we could borrow.


The living room finally back together after the blower was on for 48 hours! Ev thinks she can help me with my crossword.

The best week ever!

Aaron said last night that he is having the best week since we've been down here. That's pretty exciting. Why? He said there's been many volunteers say he's doing a great job. There were times when we worked with CrossRoads that would get a lot of negative feedback, some that would challenge us and help us grow, but others that would just tear us down. So it's good to see that we've grown, or just to have volunteers who are positive and encouraging! Another reason it's been a good week is that Aaron has been going in early and getting a lot done, which forces me to also get up early and get things done. So, I agree. It has been a good schedule this week, although I do like to stay in bed for a little longer while he takes care of Everly! And, another reason is probably our team. Yesterday we had an open house at the gutted bowling alley. It was primarily to let people know about the counseling program which will start in January at another location. I got to make a brochure about the Gathering, and it was good to contribute directly to the ministry. While there weren't a lot of people that came by, there were some important contacts made. One was an architect who said he would sign off on our floor plans (made by contractors in Indy) for free, which Aaron says is a very expensive thing usually. So, that's a blessing! And we have had Todd down who is going to be the director of the community center. He has been working on their house--please pray with us that their home in Phoenix will sell soon so that he and his family can move down here! I believe that the group of men coming from Indian Creek in December are going to do a bunch of work on their house here, so that will be good. And we've had Ron down for the last week. He's our counseling genius, :), and is also working on his house. Right now he stays at the middle school and will move December 27th with his wife following after school gets out (she'll be retiring from teaching).
Well, this is a lot of text that is kinda unorganized, but pretty exciting stuff. Oh yes, one more reason Aaron said this has been the best week--God providing for us through faithful supporters just at the right time. That gets Aaron choked up. We're both really appreciative when people sacrifice to take care of us, to know that the believe in what we're doing, and to see that God is caring for us, too! I feel like God will take care of us if he wants us in this ministry, and we've never been without. Thank you, all.

birthday at Navarre Beach!

This past weekend we got to see our good friends, Jen and Joel Searby, and their 10 week old baby Evan for my 25th birthday. The Searbys live in Gainesville and we were blessed with a condo halfway between us and them at Navarre Beach. It was so much fun hanging out, playing with the kiddos, and just being on the beach! Here are some pictures.


This is definitely one of my favorites--Ev is so cute in her bikini!


We are now 1/2 way to 50 and 1/4 way to 100!


On the board walk with Jen and Evan.


Hanging out in the beach tent.


Evan is only a few inches shorter than Everly! Aren't they cute?!

There are more photos on the Searbys blog if you're interested: www.thesearbys.blogspot.com.

Happy Halloween!

Here's a treat for you!


Here we are as pirates and our award winning pirate ship at the town's trick-or-trunk. This is our core group, minus Mike, from left to right: Adrianne, Abbey, Amanda, Matt, Lucas, Everly, Shauna, Aaron, and Andrea.


Handing out candy--Lucas (in the ship) did a great job talking to the kids like a pirate as they walked by.


We also helped with the pumpkin decorating--what a cute little Dorothy with red curls!


Everly was a fairy princess and got so many oohs and ahhs. A grandma next to us held her most of the time. :)


Here's the family afterward, a little tired from the day.


Halloween morning--we started this tradition when we got married, making a special breakfast for each holiday. Today it was jack-o-lanturn pancakes with pumpkin, orange coloring, and chocolate chip faces. :)


Here's Evelry in her bee costume from our friend Jayme that she'll wear tonight, maybe minus the crown Aaron says.


Hope you have a fun day!

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Trick-or-treating Fun!

Ready to go!


Rrick-or-treating Chalmette style! Everyone is outside and set up for the kids with lots of fun stuff.


Someone had a popcorn and cotton candy machine. Ev liked tasting the cotton candy!


We ran into the Woodwards and their Buzz Lightyears!


And here's our stash.

rebuilding

aaron and i are reading Nehemiah right now. it's interesting to read about Jerusalem being rebuilt as New Orleans, specifically Chalmette for us, is being rebuilt. after the wall around the city was rebuilt, the homes still needed rebuilding. hmm... well, our town and parish doesn't have a wall, but we do have a sheriff force unlike any other i've seen and only a few ways into our parish. there has only been one murder in st. bernard parish since hurricane katrina. it's the safest parish in the metro area. but, there is still destruction everywhere! homes still sitting empty, some still not gutted, waiting to be demolished most likely.

anyway, the israelites gathered to worship God after the wall was complete. it is a different group of people than those who grumbled after being freed from captivity. they read the Torah and wept at its words. they recognized how Yahwah had performed a miracle--protecting them and equipping them to rebuild the walls of jerusalem in only 52 days while other nations plotted against them! their lives were being changed.

after we had helped families with their home, gutting or rebuilding it, they too recognized God's hand blessing them. the city in general has recognized that it is the Church that has helped the most after Katrina. but will they turn to worship God? i realize that we have a great responsibility and privelage to teach them God's word now. God doesn't only want to rebuild their homes, but their lives. God has rebuilt all our lives through the power of Christ! i think about how my life is different. in my sin, in the darkest of times, i turn to Christ and their is life, hope. i want for the people of Chalmette, for New Orleans, for all the world, to know Christ.

shrimp, Scrabble, sippee

Last night we enjoyed our first shrimp broil with our church community and a church from Minnesota. They are here working with Journey Christian Church and want to help support a church plant here. It was a lot of fun. A local man and his wife from Journey came to broil the shrimp, and while that was happening I got to play Scrabble with his wife and a couple other really smart ladies. I knew they were going to be good so I said I would just watch but they would have none of that. So, I played and got a very lucky move--I used all my Scrabble letters to make the word BEETLES, hit three double word scores forming two words, and scored 104 points! I told them I had never done that before, but they joked about it the rest of the evening. It looks like I'll have to play them again in the future. I'm sure I'll lose! :)

Well, we prayed for no rain that night and God blessed us with that! But it got dark quick and Aaron and others scattered for lights. There were over 70 of us all together in the Woodward's (our lead pastor) yard! It was a good time fellowshipping with people--some of them had come down last November and worked with us at CrossRoads, so that was neat. It was also amazing that the food lasted--each of us in our group prepared a side dish and dessert, but I was sure we were going to run out. I think Matt mentioned that in his closing prayer, that it was almost like God multiplied the food like when Jesus fed the 5,000!

Another neat thing was that our friend, and the Woodward's neighbor, Walter came over. It's always good to catch up with him. We mostly talked politics. He's a Sheriff's deputy and we have a huge election race going on right now. I have seen about three debates on TV- for our Parish president and for governor. It's crazy how big of a deal this is here! Well, preliminary voting is Saturday. It's going to be a big deal--I'm not sure how to pray for it. Well, now that I said that I'm sure I'll update you with how it turns out (Adam- I'm sure you'd like to know).

So, that was our fun evening. Everly stayed up late- til almost 9:30. She's asleep now and Aaron is on the road. He and the rest of the staff and our intern are going up to Cincy and Louisville to talk to a few churches who are supporting us. So, pray that that goes well. I'm sure it will cause these are great people of God. As a final note, a high for me today was seeing Everly figure out how to drink from her sippee cup! We tried to teach her a couple weeks ago before we went to Indy and today I got it back out. I was so excited and could tell that she was, too. She even held it a little and got some in by herself. ...she's growing up too quick! :(

here's a cute picture from today to end on...