Baptism and Father's Day= One Busy Weekend

So this weekend was a very big weekend.  Stephen celebrated his first father's day and Perron was baptized.  Before  we get into the weekend, a small note for Stephen.  His first Father's Day was  a bit overshadowed by Perron's big day and I feel bad.  I want the world to know what an amazing father he is to our son.  My heart melts every time I see them interact.  In the course of one short year, Stephen has gone from never changing a dirty diaper and barely wanting to hold a baby to being one of the most hands on dad's I know.  He can do everything that a mommy can do and does it willingly.  Whether that is building a "tower of doom" with blocks or giving a bath after a particularly dirty diaper.  I am glad that he chose me to share his life with and that he is providing such a good example to our son about what a man, father and husband should be.  He is the best daddy ever and Perron is a very lucky boy!

Okay, now that that has been said...on to the festivities.  We were blessed to have lots of Stephen's family in town for the weekend.  Stephen's parents as well as one of his older brother's came in town with their family to help celebrate the weekend.  We hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was great to have Phillip, Sarah, and the boys there.  David was flying solo for the weekend because Angela was out of town and working, but luckily precious Katelin was with him, so we got to spend quality time with her too!  The weekend started with a Crigler family favorite...Mexican food!

The cousins

Philip, David and Stephen...three of the four Crigler boys

Perron already is performing a Crigler duty...loving Mexican food.

After a big night of Mexican food, Perron was ready for his big day.  He did so great and was so happy the entire time.  He looked absolutely beautiful in his gown.  He learned how to wave over the weekend, so he spent the majority of his time at the altar waving at the congregation and trying to talk over Rev. Wolfe.  It was very special for us to be there on that altar where we got married almost five years ago with the same minister who married us performing the cermony.  I remember praying at that altar the day before our first ultrasound that everything would be alright and I would have a healthy baby.  My prayers were answered and then some!!

The handsome boy on his big day.

Pictures with his proud parents

Mama Crig and Grandaddy came up for the big day

Grammy and Grandpa were the only Spalding representatives to make it, but lucikily they love him enough to represent for the whole family.

The cousins

A very happy baby with him namesake ML Blalock Moody

What you lookin' at?

Hmmm....I wonder what we are having for lunch?

HR

We had everyone over for lunch after the service and had a great time celebrating the two most important men in my life!

11 months

Dearest Perron,

How could it be?  How could it be that 11 months ago you came into our lives in a whirlwind?  We have gone through four seasons together.  What an unbelievable journey it has been.  You have had a VERY busy month.  After two and a half months of working, you have finally begun to crawl.  You started on your ten and a half month birthday.  At first you looked like a little bunny hopping.  You would move your arms forward and then hop your little legs forward at the same time.  It was so cute.  Well, that only lasted two days and on evening I put you down to show daddy your bunny hop and you just took off in a full out crawl.  Now most of our days are spent telling you "no Perron" or be careful or that is not a toy or get out of that.  You are very brave and already are pulling up to standing.  That didn't take you long!  You even will cruise back and forth along your crib.  Since you learned to pull up there is not a morning or a nap time that I do not come in and find you standing up and smiling waiting for me to get you out of bed.  The only time it causes us problems is at bedtime.  You can stand up, but you can't get back down.  You get tired and start crying, but you can't get back to laying down.  I think i had to go in to your room six time tonight.

You are almost completely on table food and you are loving life.  You love turkey, BBQ chicken from Miss Myra's, edamame, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, cheerios, avocados.  Basically anything that we have given you, you have loved.  We are so proud of how well you eat and you look so precious as you are shoveling food in your little mouth.  You are now weighing in at 17lbs 5 ozs.  Such a big boy.  You officially weigh more than your mommy did at one year.  You still can wear anything from 3-6 month clothes all the way to 12 month clothes.  It really just depends.  The majority of your 12 month clothes are too big, but sometimes I just can't resist.

This will be your last month in daycare.  We have hired a fabulous nanny for you.  We know you are going to love Ms Meaghan and are going to be so happy staying with her.   We know you will be so much healthier.  You have started taking Kindermusik and are doing well.  It falls right at naptime, so you are sometimes a little grouchy, but you are still doing great!

You are loving your toys and you have a new found joy of knocking things over.  You love for us to build towers with your stacking cups or blocks for you to knock over.  You get the biggest smile on your face and clap the blocks together.  Right now though, your favorite "toys" are the things that you should not be getting in to....wall grates, shoes, the fireplace, the protective covers that make sure you can't hurt yourself on the fireplace, your baby gate.  Speaking of your baby gate.  You like to crawl over to the step and pull up on the baby gate.  You will pull yourself up and stand at the gate like you are in baby jail.  Very cute!

We love you more than to the moon and back.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Puttin' on the Ritz

Stephen and I got away last weekend for our first trip together since Perron was born.  This trip was much more relaxing than the last trip we took before he was born...when I spent the majority of the vacation in the hospital.  We went to the Ritz Carlton at Reynold's Plantation and it was absolutely fabulous.  Both sets of grandparents tag teamed taking care of Perron and it went really well.  My mom and dad kept him on Thursday night, Friday part of the day, and Sunday.  Linda and John drove up on Friday and kept him Friday and Saturday night.  Perron was supposedly a doll and entertained the grandparents all weekend...would we expect anything less?  :)  It was so nice not having to worry about him at all because I knew he was being taken such good care of.  It was awesome to do nothing but sit at the pool, sleep and eat for three days.  Of course, as soon as i got back I felt like I needed another vacation, but it was so good to get back and see our precious baby.  We had an awesome time and it was just what we needed!

Lounging at the pool...what we spent the majority of the time doing.

The view from our executive suite.  We didn't start in this room, but the second day we were there a family with a little yippy dog checking into the room next door.  That dog barked non-stop from the time that we checked in, so the Ritz moved us.  I asked for an upgrade for our inconvience and we got a lake view suite.  It was AWESOME!

The resort is right on Lake Oconee and they have an infinity pool.  The bottom of the pool is colored so the water matches the lake.  I love how the people look like they are swimming in the lake, but are really just at the edge of the pool.

My view for the majority of the trip.

They have smores out by the fire every night...they were a big hit with the kids...and the Criglers.

Right before a delicious dinner at Georgia's.

Crigler Crawfish Boil

For the record....I would blog a lot more often if it didn't take an hour to upload my images.  I know I could use flicker but I just haven't gotten my sh*t together to set it up.  Okay, glad I got that off my chest.  Now on to the fun stuff.  We had our 3rd Annual Crigler Crawfish Boil one of the last weekend's in May and everyone had an awesome time.  This has become our families signature event and I like to think that it is a fondly looked-forward to event by all of our friends and family.  Luckily the Gulf oil disaster did not affect the crawfish and we had plenty of food and Cajun fun to go around.  We were all laughing because when it is amazing how much the demographics of this party have shifted in three short years.  When we first started there were only one or two families that had kids and the party usually ended with one-handed drunken basketball in the wee hours of the morning.  This year almost everyone in attendance had kids, the party started at 4pm, and was basically cleared out by 8pm.  My how quickly life changes!

Testimony to how much this party has changed.  The bouncy house was the hit of the night.

I love this picture because it's all the daddies hanging out outside the jumper.

The fancy eating set-up.  Add newspapers and you are ready to go.

Aunt Angela and Cousin Katelin playing with Perron before the party gets started.

Perron wowing John Clarke with his physique.

Finally, some clothes.

Katie braving the bounce house with Cassidy and Austin.

Look at these two cuties.

Grammy hanging out with her favorite baby.

Ethan is having a blast!

Getting all three boys to look at the camera at the same time= next to impossible.

My sweet little sister and her best friend drove all the way from Charlotte for the big party.  My even

sweeter assistant Mary Frances entertained them all night.

About 55 lbs of goodness.

Dig in!

Stephen giving everyone crawfish eating instructions.

We ended up having about 50 people there and had a great time.  Mom and dad kept Perron overnight so that Stephen and I could enjoy the party.  IT was very nice and let's just say that Stephen enjoyed it so much that he couldn't get out of bed until 11 the next day!  We can't wait to do it again next year.

I have tons more to post soon...we have a crawler on our hands and Stephen and I just got back from vacation so I will try to get those posts up soon!