Millie Janalee is getting the hang of these gamedays as a toddler!  She loves to do her best cheer fist pump and yell, "Goooo State!"  I love it!  Our second home game wasn't a wet one.  But, BOY, was it HOTTTT!  Millie Janalee and I rode with my parents, so we were the first ones there for setup.  I'm not much help these days unless I leave Millie Janalee sitting in the car while I help set up the tents.  I assisted where I could while Millie Janalee sat comfortably in her little tailgate chair.

Once the tents were up, I was able to spread the quilt for Miss Priss to play.  I took her shoes off because I knew that would slow her down once she stepped on the grass.  Ha!  Such a girly girl.  We spent the rest of the morning setting up the television, food tables, chairs, and fans.  While Millie Janalee had a tea party with her friends...

The rest of our crew arrived in shifts.  The cousins played.  Actually it's more like Millie Janalee tortured the baby by hugging and kissing him.  Lol!

The game began mid-late afternoon.  In the heat of the day.  I lathered Millie Janalee in sunscreen and loaded up the handheld fans.  Kristin did the same with Hughes adding a cute bucket hat to protect his fair complexion.

It was seriously the hottest game we had ever been to.  Thankfully, Millie Janalee fell asleep shortly after we arrived.  I was able to just keep a fan on her and not have to worry about her being hot and unhappy.  The girl can sleep anywhere!  Dustin had a friend who offered Kristin and Lee seats in the shade with the baby.  So they took him up on it.  We didn't see them again until the second half when the clouds blocked the hot sun.

Notice my carefully positioned fan down my shirt.  Ha!

During halftime, Mama and I took a bathroom break to change a wet and sweaty diaper.  We had to laugh when we got under the stadium.  Every single flat surface was covered with sweaty Bulldogs trying to cool off.  Just sitting there in the shade.  Too funny!

Overall it was a great game.  With a happy ending!  Another win for the Bulldogs!  And Hughes's first full game day.

My favorite ballgame buddy!

Hughes's first game!

We arrived home with plenty of time for everyone to shower and eat before crawling into bed.  Early game days are good for moms with babies and toddlers.  But not necessary of course.

BFIAR - The Big Green Pocketbook

Millie Janalee and I are still moving right along through our books.  We are working on our third book now and enjoying it very much.  The last book we worked through from Before Five in a Row was The Big Green Pocketbook.  Millie Janalee is already obsessed with purses, so it didn't take much work at all to convince her this was a good book.  Ha!  The book is about a little girl who takes her green purse with her everywhere she and her mother go.  She fills the purse with all sorts of things from their day, but at the end of the day her purse is missing.  It was Millie Janalee to "found" the purse in the pictures at the very end.  She found it before I did and yelled, "OOOOOOHHH!  Puwse!"  She was so happy the little girl finally found her purse.  It was pretty cute.

We did a few activities throughout the week besides her taking her own purse everywhere we went.  We focused on the color green and circles.  Millie Janalee loves finding colors and shapes around us.  I pulled out the Do a Dot marker and the page for the letter A.  She spent some time dotting in the circles making a big "A" and little "a."

I'm biased, but I think she did a pretty good job for a 2 year old!

Green A

We also added our lower case "a" to the alphabet tree.  It took some time to make a decision on where she would place it.  And, in typical girl fashion...she did change her mind.  I helped give her a boost so she could reach her favorite spot. Right next to the big "A."  Quite opinionated, this girl.

Another day, after reading our book, we did some painting.  Ever since our "apple painting", Millie Janalee has been obsessed with paint.  So we took some yellow paint and blue paint, and I let Millie Janalee make green paint.

She was super focused and loved watching the colors mix.  She kept saying "GWEEN!  GWEEN!" as she mixed the two colors together.  Besides finding a few drops of green paint on our blinds later in the week, we made it out without much mess.  Ha!

Another day, we focused on circles.  Millie Janalee found all the circles in her little book we found at the Target $1 bin.  I thought I'd give it a shot letting her make her own circles.

Plus, I knew I would love looking back at her 2 year old attempt at tracing circles one day.  I've gotta say, she understood the circle-y concept.  Just not necessarily the tracing.  She loves to color in loops and circles now.

If you look closely, there are a couple circles that actually appear to be semi-traced.  :)

I pulled out the green Play Doh and showed her how to make circles.  It was a hit!

And before we finished for the day, I pulled out another Target $1 bin find.  Foam shapes.  I let Millie Janalee find all the circles. She piled them up. Then we found all the green stars.  We spent some time building all kinds of things with the blocks.  The most fun part is obviously knocking all the buildings down.  Ha!

You may remember that every day is not a big project day.  Some days we simply read the book.  Others we may count things or find objects in the pictures.  In this book, we found other people wearing glasses like Millie Janalee.  We found numbers written on price tags and addresses.  We counted flowers.  And, of course, we solved the mystery!  The purse was found.  But, I won't tell you where.  You'll just have to read it yourself to find out!  Hehe!

Another book, another memory for my baby and me.

First Cardinals Game

Millie Janalee and I returned from our weekend trip back home Monday evening.  Russ was happy to see us of course...and we were happy to see him too!  Tuesday, Russ's radiology group had bought out some suites at the Cardinals game and offered tickets at lower prices.  Russ and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to go to our first Cardinals game.  Millie Janalee has a slight obsession with "bawwgames" right now, so she was very excited the whole ride to the stadium.

We enjoyed complimentary dinner and drinks as we met some of Russ's coworkers.  Even within the group, it's difficult for everyone to know each other.  The group is huge for one thing.  And the schedule takes a master's degree to read!  They are basically rotating to different locations throughout the hospital every single day.  I met some of the attendings and residents he works with, and we finally got to visit with one of the fellows from Russ's residency in Memphis.  Always good to see a familiar face.

Did you know there is a Build-A-Bear inside the stadium?!  Yep, she found it.

Our little family of three enjoyed a fun night out together.  Eating hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and Cracker Jacks.  You can't "take me out to the ballgame" without peanuts or Cracker Jacks!  Ha!

All part of our St. Louis memory box.  I love it!

MSU vs USM

In case you didn't know, it's football season.  That means Millie Janalee and I have had a few travel days making our way back down South to cheer on our favorite team!  I knew how busy our families get in the fall, so we saved up our trips home for football season.  Starting with the first game day against Southern Miss.

For those of you counting, these gray glasses were on loan.  So these don't count!  Ha!

I'm not one for looking at weather forecasts.  Oops.  It turns out that the entire Saturday of the game was a high percentage of rain.  Ha!  A little rain never hurt anyone!  That's what ponchos are for right?  So we went anyway.  Actually, my mom, dad, Millie Janalee, and I drove down to Columbus to visit my brother in his new home on Friday.  We ate supper together and spent the night with him...saving ourselves from a very early morning traveling.  We had lots of fun!

Kristin and Lee drove down with Hughes Saturday morning, and these Bully babies enjoyed their first game day together.  Millie Janalee loved playing with her real live baby doll cousin.  It took quite a bit of supervision to make sure she didn't pick him up or sit on him.  Ha!

Aunt Megan enjoyed her baby time too...

Just as the Weather Channel predicted, the bottom fell out a few times during the day.  The guys spent lots of time standing and pushing water out of the pooled pockets on the tents so they wouldn't collapse.  They did a superior job supervising water control!

The girls were in charge of the children.  Actually, I just enjoyed my food and drink since Millie Janalee much preferred sitting with Hughes and Kay Kay.  So I took in the sound of rain and quality time with my people.  Hehe!

I decided that Millie Janalee hasn't been a child until she's played in the rain.  And this was the perfect opportunity.  So I stripped her down and showed her how to catch rain drops.  I'm pretty sure it was her favorite tailgate to date.  She taught herself how to catch rain with her tongue too.  Happy wet baby girl!

And there is nothing better than a good, long nap after playing in the water.  Even Susus need good naps in the rain...

The rain came and went throughout the day, but it had slowed to a sprinkle by game time.  Kristin and Lee decided not to take the 4 month old into a rainy game, so they drove on back home.  I used some wire cutters to "hem" an extra adult poncho for Millie Janalee, and we were GAME READY!  Complete with the white beads.  Perfect for the "white out" game.

The game was relatively dry with lots of touchdowns.  A great way to start the season!  Millie Janalee rang her cowbell and learned how to yell, "Gooooo State!"  She's a huge ballgame fan.

We wrapped that 49-0 game in MAROON AND WHITE!

Surprise Belated Birthday Party!

As soon as we arrived in town from our rough day, Russ's family gathered for a special dinner and celebration.  A belated birthday celebration for the baby of the family.  Jeff grilled pork chops, and Jenny and her mom cooked a few other delicious sides.  We sang "Happy Birthday" and everyone helped blow out her candles.  She was too disappointed that the song was over to blow them out by herself.  Ha!

Loving being the center of attention!

Making a wish

She asked for a fork but had a difficult time tackling the cupcake and the liner with her big fork.  So Aunt Jenny gave her a little assistance.  Yummy lemon cupcake!

Russ's parents had Millie Janalee's birthday gifts displayed on the living room coffee table, and Millie Janalee knew exactly where to find them.  Grace helped her open her gifts one by one and she was so excited about each one!  Gasps and "OOHHH!"s all the way around.

Our evening continued with the musical stylings of Miss Millie Janalee.  Have I mentioned how much she adores being surrounded by an audience.  Playing the "nannos" and singing "Jesus Loves Me" was her performance for the night.  And lots of big smiles to her audience as she sang.  Over and over.  Such a ham!

Eventually we all had to say our goodbyes.  Millie Janalee loves her family, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual!  Hugs and kisses all around.

It was such a pleasant ending to a long and difficult day.  Thankful for family and birthdays and hugs!