Grandad's 70th Birthday in St. Pete

For my Grandad's 70th birthday, Ashton and I drove down to St. Pete with Grammie and Papa to help surprise him with a birthday dinner at Carrabba's. Daddy had to go back to Houston for work, but since I was off through the new year, we decided to stay and make the short trek down to St. Pete. We had a wonderful time celebrating with our family and spending the night on the beach.


G-G-Dad, Aunt Joyce, and G-G-Ma

Uncle Chris and the birthday boy

Grammie and Papa at the surprise party...

Taken by Grammie on the way down to St. Pete Surprise! Grandad realizing what is going on...

Grandad and his # 1 and 1/2... He calls me his #1 because I am the oldest grandchild, so he has now coined Ashton his # 1 and 1/2.

Ashton and his great godmother, Aunt Lori, and godsister, Stephany

Aunt Lori and Ashton

Steph and Ashton on the beach
Ashton and his second cousin, (also my godson), Ricky

Another animal hat...

The first post that I ever posted on this blog was about all of the animal hats that I put Ashton in. I'm still doing it...

Christmas

Ashton and Great Grandma

Daddy and Ashton :)

The Jumperoo! (with Papa wearing his FSU Santa hat in the background)

Mommy and Ashton

Ashton and Uncle Harper

Grammie, Papa, and Ashton

Ashton and G-G-Ma

Ashton and G-G-Dad

Ashton and Aunt Mary Liz

Ashton and his cousin, Kayla

Ashton and Papa napping :)

Ashton and Aunt Angie Ashton and Aunt Sarah

Mamaw and all of her grandchildren

Ashton and Great-Great-Aunt Jane

We had the BEST Christmas. John, Ashton, Jackson, Emily and myself made the trek to Tallahassee (via car) on December 21st. We actually made great time for traveling with an infant and a 70 pound lab. We split our time between Grammie and Papa's (my parents) and Mamaw's (John's mom) homes. Ashton received lots of wonderful presents from Santa Claus, including books, developmental toys, clothes, and the best gift of all, the "Jumperoo". We spent Christmas morning at Grammie and Papa's and then headed out to Monticello to see Grandaddy (John's dad), Aunt Ren and Uncle John, cousin Kayla, and Ashton's Great Grandma Kerr. Christmas evening we spent at Aunt KK and Uncle Marty's house with all of Ashton's Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Mamaw. We had such a wonderful time visiting with family and friends and relaxing in our hometown. Above are some totally random pictures from our trip...

Baptism

The "G G's" (gorgeous grandmothers)

Ashton's Fairy Godmother

My (and Ashton's) wonderful Aunt Margaret

Aunt KK and Daddy playing with Ashton

Cousin Suzanne

Aunt Jordan (Ashton's wonderful Godmother) and Mommy

Ashton with Mommy, Daddy, and our Pastor, Jeremy

Ashton and Aunt Tots

Ashton was baptized on December 23rd, 2007. The same Pastor that married us, baptized him. Jeremy is also the Pastor of the church that I partially (4th grade and up) grew up in. Ashton wore his crisp, white romper with embroidery down the front that Grammie got him. It was a wonderful day filled with lots of family and friends. Daddy, Aunt Jordan (Ashton's Godmother) and I took Ashton up to the alter and stood proudly as Ashton cooed and bounced. Ashton did beautifully, just as I promised Pastor Jeremy, until he took him from Aunt Jordan to baptize him. Ashton seemed to literally lean forward into Jeremy's little microphone, which was located on his robe, and wail. He straightened up just in time for Jeremy to hold him up to the congregation for oohs and aahs. After church, everyone went back to the Porter house for a post baptism brunch.

Ten Little Piggies

Ashton has discovered his toes! He is obsessed with them. He is constantly trying to eat them or atleast get them up to his face in order to closely examine them.

Let Them Eat Peas! (and pears...and sometimes prunes)

Ashton started eating solid foods about three weeks ago. (around the 2nd week of December) He LOVES to sit in his high chair at the dinner table and eat. He gets a small jar of organic pears or prunes in the morning and a small jar of organic peas at night, before his bedtime milk. As you can see, we are still ironing out the kinks of how to actually keep the food in his mouth. He is teething big time right now (his top two front teeth), and wants to chew on his hands constantly. So what you are seeing in the pictures is after we have put a spoonful of food into his mouth, he then sticks his hands in his mouth, and proceeds to wipe his hands all over his face, clothes, tray, table, mommy... anything he can reach! Next week we are going to start green beans and applesauce!!!

Ok, so I have some catching up to do...

It has been a while since I blogged, so some of the next few posts may be a little backlogged. (Sorry Ashton)