Dedication Day!

We dedicated Luke at church this past Sunday. It was a wonderful service and we had many family and friends there to celebrate. We shared the meaning of Luke's name-"bringer of light"-and read his "life verse": "Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."-Luke 11:36.  Thank you to everyone who came and made it so special!! Here are some pics of the day:

Jesse brought his dorm leaders and incoming freshmen!

Jesse was at Catalina Island the week prior to Luke's dedication and us moving. My parents came down and spent the week with me and Luke. They packed, cooked, cleaned and loved on Luke. It was such a blessing to have them-I don't know how we would have survived the move without them!

We said good-bye to our house on Vermont St. this past week. I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a few tears as I packed up Luke's room. I can't believe just 6 months ago I was decorating his nursery and anticipating his arrival. We are so greatful to have lived in that house this past year. We fell in love with the neighborhood, found a great church nearby, and made some great friendships that will hopefully last a long time.

We are in escrow on a house that is only a few miles from our old neighborhood! We are anxiously waiting for the appraisal this week which will determine whether we get to move forward on closing. For now, we are settling into our friends' house and loving living with them.  This is the view from the roof of their building...not bad, eh? :)

We're Moving....

in with these guys!

Yup, it sounds crazy but we are excited about our new home for the next few months.

How did we decide on moving in with our friends? Well, a few months ago Jesse and I were talking about the future and our desire to own a home one day.  We met with a realtor and loan officer and realized that this could be a dream come true in the near future!  We began the house hunting process and fell in love with one of the first ones we saw.  We looked around some more but have continued to come back to that one. We have officially gone into escrow and are waiting for the appraisal and inspection to happen in order to move forward!  In the meantime, the lease on the house we are renting was coming up to renew and rather then sign again for another year we thought, let's downsize for a few months and save some more money while we wait to close escrow. So...that's what we're doing!

We absolutely love our friends, Steve and Jayna. Steve and I met freshmen year of college and have been friends ever since.  He and Jayna were married 6 months after Jesse and I and we have always lived within 5 minutes of them.  Jayna and I have become close friends; she literally held my hand during my delivery and was one of the first people Luke saw when he came out! We have dinner on a weekly basis, the boys golf together and Jayna and I try cooking new recipes (with her doing most of the cooking and me doing the tasting:).

We are very excited about owning a home soon and feel so grateful for the chance to continue to save in the meantime. This will be a great couple of months living with great friends!