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.