Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great time with the Miller family this year. AJ's parents were on a 3 week cruise so they graciously let us host Thanksgiving at their house this year. My parent's came and stayed with us and Andy and Ruth and kids in tow came over for the afternoon. My brother took some pictures of our afternoon together.

Grandpa and Grandma Miller and Porter.

Currently, one of Porter's favorite things to do.

My parents with all their grandkids. Can you tell which one isn't like the others? Yes, I do have red hair, just not like my brother or sister, therefore, my child's hair is not like his cousins. Still a super cutie though!!!

Grandpa loves to play with his grandkids and they love to wear Grandpa out!

Ellie was always on the lookout for any food that was dropped. Yummy, turkey!

Beautiful flowers that Al and Lori sent to us. Such a nice centerpiece.

Zoey wasn't to happy when her Dad took something away from her; made for a great photo op.

Some random shots of cute Porter

Porter loves his Aunt Jana and Uncle JJ

Silly Uncle JJ trying to teach Porter how to say JJ!

"I know my shirt says 'Smile' but I don't think I want to."



Such a big boy in his Jeep.


Little Monkey Porter in a basket on Halloween

I love to chew on anything, even car door windows!

Hokey Pokey Elmo

My BFF Jen gave Porter some of her kid's old toys that they had outgrown. One of them was a Elmo who sings the Hokey Pokey and shakes his thing. It is pretty cute. The first time Porter ever saw it he laughed and giggled. So on about the 3rd time, I caught it on video. Even Ellie wonders what is up with Elmo and his singing! At the very end Porter knocks over Elmo and is very proud of himself. So cute! (Make sure your volume is on as that is the best part is his laugh.)

Roloff Farm Pumpkin Patch 2009

Today AJ and I took Porter to Roloff Farms in Hillsboro and had a lot of fun despite the rain. I was a little starstruck as I watch their show and love it. AJ had to keep reminding me the reason we came was for Porter and not me. :) We went to the little petting zoo, saw a baby lion, walked around in the rain and then went on their tractor tour through the "western town" they have built on their farm. Our wonderful tractor driver was Jeremy Roloff himself and Zach was driving the "scenic" tour tractor. Matt came out from the house on his mule and was being followed by the camera crew. As we were driving past the house on the tractor tour, Amy was walking down to the pumpkin patch for the day! It was so cool to see all of them.

Here are a few pictures from the morning. Little Porter didn't seem to care too much about the rain, but he had just had his 6 month shot and a flu shot a few hours prior and we had woken him up from a little nap when we got to the farm, so we didn't stay too long. We will go to another local pumpkin patch maybe next weekend for pictures with pumpkins and the apple cider donuts!

(Sorry some of the pictures are slightly blurry. Riding in a tractor and being starstruck are not a good combination for good pictures for me.)

Welcome to the Farm! Even with cloudy skies and rain, there was a line at 10am!

Little Baby Lion

Zach Roloff

Jeremy Roloff, our driver

Mommy and Porter

Daddy and Porter in the rain

Grandpa and Grandma Roloff (Matt's parents), Jeremy, Porter and I

Cute blue eyed baby boy blowing raspberries

Happy Baby, ready to take a little nap on the way home!

My life is just a little too crazy right now.

Chaos seems to be abounding on my plate right now. Between work, sickness, 6 month old baby, laundry, bills, remodeling and the rest of life that seems to keeps on going on; I am just a little overwhelmed.

Why can't we hibernate like the bears do? See ya in 9 months when the sun and longer days come back around.

No new pictures tonight as my camera battery is dead and my charger is buried in the corner somewhere. I can't wait to get a little more organized once we finish moving in. I thought it would all be better once we moved our stuff out of the storage unit, but I think it made it worse. Someday, all our stuff and us will be in the same place! Till then, may be a while before I put up new pictures!

Just the cutest baby ever!

Here is Porter at 4 months old. He just gets cuter and cuter. Notice in the second picture he is wearing his little Converse shoes!

Our New Home

We signed and closed on our home yesterday. It was a fun new experience of signing a million and one documents! We are super excited and blessed that God opened the door for us to be able to move in the direction of buying a home this summer.

We started looking in the end of June and looked at quite a few each week but we just never felt like any of them were "the one." We continued to look and our real estate agent was great and kept shooting us more and more MLS listings to look at. Then one day, he shot us the listing for this home and we said, "Sure, let's go look at it." We weren't all that excited about it but it looked pretty cute from the pictures. We decided we would at least take a look at it.

Needless to say, once we walked through the home, we both looked at each other and it felt like "the one." What a strange feeling because I didn't think we would ever find that, but God knew! So here we are getting the keys to our home on the 3rd of August! Our lives have just gotten much more hectic now that we own a home as we have a fence to build, interior to paint, electrical to rewire, yard to maintain and a huge storage unit to move and empty! All before AJ goes back to work/school at the end of August! But we are excited and God is good!

At some point down the road, I will do a post with more pictures of the inside. Maybe something like a before and after post so you can see how we will transform the home into our home!

Bummer...

AJ and I took Porter on his first official hike ever in the backpack and we forgot our camera. It was quite the historic event as we stopped in Silverton, his birth town, on the way to Silver Creek Falls to change his diaper and he got to swing on the swing with Mom and Dad for the first time ever. Not quite the same as his swing at home, he loved it! No pictures, but imagine a very cute little baby sitting on my lap or AJ's lap and we are holding on to him and pushing the swing with our legs. Then picture Porter with a huge smile on his face and giggling. Priceless, but no camera.

Then we went to Silver Creek Falls and had lunch and let Porter take a 20 minute nap and then put him in the pack and headed out. I carried Porter as AJ had his pack and our supplies as it was really hot so we needed lots of water and he likes carrying his pack as part of his exercise. Off we headed to the South Falls and did a 2.2 mile loop. There were a lot of people hiking and Porter loved being up high in the pack and getting to look around. He actually even fell asleep for about 30 minutes in the pack as well! We had a great time and enjoyed a little creek walking once we got back to the main park. It was a refreshing way to end the day at Silver Creek Falls and look forward to more hikes in the pack!

How did that happen?

For those of you that don't read my sister-in-laws blog (http://www.janaandjj.blogspot.com). Check this out! On our way home from dinner tonight we saw a mini-van that had driven into the front of a Chinese restaurant in Salem. We drove by it and couldn't believe what happened, so we turned around and drove back by so Jana could take a picture. True rubberneckers!

Redding 2009

Every summer the DeBacker family takes a vacation together. This year we all went to Redding for the weekend in July. AJ and I celebrated our 6 years of marriage while we were there. AJ treated me to an afternoon at the spa with Jana and Lori. I had a peaceful 4 hours with a facial, massage and pedicure. It was super nice and my husband is the best!

We spent the weekend playing in the pool, relaxing in our hotel room with the A/C on, going out to dinner with the family and going to a local water park. Al, JJ, AJ and I went to the water park while Jana and Lori watched Porter and did some shopping. It was a lot of fun and for whatever reason, I only took a few pictures.

It was nice to have a vacation and not do too much and get to relax and enjoy each other and family. We are ready to jump into our busy August and get our house that we are buying ready to move in before AJ starts the new school year!<

Here is Grandma hanging out with Porter by the pool.

Our cutie!

Here is Porter in his car seat making some cute faces! He hates his car seat and riding in the car but here are a few shots when he was in rare form in his seat. So sweet!

Jeep Lover

Many of you may know that I am a huge fan of Jeep Wranglers. Never had owned one, but still dream about owning one someday. It isn't the most practical family car or very gas economical, but put a lift on it, get some huge knobby tires and take the top off and I am in car heaven!

Yes, I have gotten to drive a Jeep on various occasion. The best time was while we were on our Caribbean cruise, we landed in Cozumel Mexico and we went on an excursion which was driving Jeeps around the island. It was a perfect day with the wind in our hair and snorkeling. Ahhh the life of vacation! Anyways, no they aren't a luxury ride, but something about their ruggedness and build makes me just love them. This has been a long time obsession, really since high school.

Anyways, needless to say, when we found out we were going to have a baby, regardless of the sex, I went to my favorite website: www.allthingsjeep.com and started looking at any kind of baby Jeep stuff they had. I dreamt of getting our baby a cute Jeep outfit or the Jeep kid books etc. But when I saw the baby Jeep walker, I knew our child would have to have that! I didn't buy it then and I even held off once we found out we were having a boy.

But then now that Porter is 14 pounds and loves to stand on his legs, I figured it would be an appropriate time to get it for him. No, he can't really walk in it but we put him in it last night after Uncle JJ helped me put it together and Porter loved it. He looks around and smiles and laughs. He is the same level as the dogs too which just fascinate him. He also can stand which is really his most favorite position by far. Aunt Jana even commented on how long he lasted in it and never really got fussy.

So maybe someday my little boy will be a Jeep lover like his mom! For now, he looks pretty cute in his little Jeep walker.

Porter, almost 3 months!

My brother has been enjoying learning how to be a better photographer and he offered to take pictures of Porter last night. He got some very cute shots!

Wedding #3-Porter Dancing

This was our 3rd wedding in a matter of two months and AJ and JJ decided to dance a little with Porter. Cute video! I wonder who is enjoying the dancing more, Porter or JJ?

Porter is pretty much a star where ever we take him as he is so cute. People from across parking lots and stores want to see the baby. Very complimentary but sometimes annoying. Oh well, he is the cutest baby ever!

His namesake but not what we named him after...

Jana saw this in the cooler at the place we ate breakfast in Sisters and so we took a picture of it with Porter. This is not what we named him after, no worries!