I'm joining in with Joy at The Sowell Life for today's Friday FIVE!

1. {Walking} Since her first steps two weeks ago, Millie Janalee has really taken off.  Yesterday, I'd say she walked just as much as she crawled around.  And I love it!  She breathes very hard with such a determined look, and her little wobbly steps are just the cutest ever!

2. {Playdate} Wednesday, Millie Janalee and I stopped by The Square Cupboard to pick up Jamie.  We all went to visit Hillary and her little Ann Phillips for the afternoon.  Actually, Hillary was having Beaufort Bonnet Company and P.B.J by Jolanta trunk shows.  The little ones had so much fun playing and we had such fun watching that we ended up staying until suppertime!  I may or may not have allowed Hillary to start her DG recruitment 2030.  Haha!  Once I got home and found someone to remind me of my Chi O recruitment song, I got busy singing it to Millie Janalee!  We joke, but OH how just the thought of those recruitment days stress me out already!  It does not matter to me if Millie Janalee goes through rush or not.  It doesn't matter if she chooses a different sorority. I just pray she is happy! (But, she sure does look cute wearing all those owls!)

3. {Chatterbox}  Y'all this little girl of mine is quite the chatterbox!  She just talks and talks and talks to herself all day long!  She's not saying too many words, but she is making complete sentences or paragraphs in her own little language.  She has recently started talking into the telephone.  It all began with a remote control.  I held it to her ear and said, "Hello!" And she just got going.  And hasn't stopped since!  She seriously waits until her play phone is up to her ear before she starts her conversation.  I. Love. It!

 
4. {Mississippi Bloggers} If you are a blogger and you live in Mississippi, we want YOU!  I'm the editor for Mississippi Women Bloggers, and it has been so amazing and FUN meeting all these incredible ladies blogging right in our own state.  If you have not joined yet, please take 20 seconds to register your blog with us.  This allows others to find you and connect with you.  September is upon us, and we have our eyes open for guest bloggers for this month's fun theme!  Come check us out and join the fun!

 
5. {The Common Cold Strikes Again}  It's true.  Millie Janalee is making her way through another cold.  It has been nothing compared to our last bad cold, and it only made for one sleepless night.  Mostly we have a runny nose and nasal congestion.  We are in full vaporizer, Vicks, and honey mode!  Here's to hoping for a weekend of wellness.

What have you been up to this week?  Hop over to The Sowell Life and share!

Relaxing Back Home

Last weekend, Russ and I spent some time relaxing back home.  We had Lee's birthday fiesta Friday night, and the rest of our weekend was filled with relaxing at the in-laws.  Russ's brother was in for the weekend too, so it was nice to catch up with Jimmy and his busy family.  Roan and the kids have been getting Olivia settled at college, and Jimmy got us caught up on all the fun.  Russ's sister also spent most of her time visiting with us on Saturday too.

Millie Janalee is doing all sorts of new tricks for Granmomma and Pop...mainly walking a bit.  Y'all this girl cracks me up with her walking!  It's the most precious thing watching this little person learn to take steps and keep her balance and try to go faster.  Now, she will not.  I repeat, will NOT walk or stand unless it is her idea.  She's got a little "determined" disposition about her.  No surprise here!

It's so nice to just relax during a hometown visit.  We are usually so busy with planned activities or events that we don't really get to just lay on the couch and watch tv with Russ's dad or sit around the kitchen table for hours talking.  We did all those things while Millie Janalee crawled, walked, and played around all over the floor.  All that playing may or may not have resulted in extra baths!  Ha!

Sunday, after church, we ate lunch with my family to celebrate my grandmother's 87th birthday.  I cannot believe I didn't get a single picture!  I was a little preoccupied I guess.  Millie Janalee slept through 3/4 of our lunch, and then I got busy trying to feed her lunch before everyone got ready to leave.  And gathering all our belongings to carry back to the car usually takes all hands on deck.  Ha!  So...I didn't get one.  In fact, I didn't even think about it.  I'm so sad.

After lunch, Russ and I took Millie Janalee to visit Russ's grandmother at the assisted living.  We rarely get to see her, so it was fun to visit.  She always says that Millie Janalee is "Just precious!" and she wants to know how old she is a few times before we leave.  Munu doesn't look a day older than the day I met her 13 years ago!  She looks so young and fit.  I hope I can maintain that way...but it's very doubtful!  Considering I'm already sporting quite a few WHITE hairs!

I stayed for Sunday night church while Russ studied.  (I'll be so glad when the boards are over!)  Our church just dedicated a new youth building, and our Sunday night church service was held there.  It is an awesome facility.  I'm very proud!

A late arrival back home and sleeping in Monday morning is what Millie Janalee ordered!  She's her mama's girl!

FredLee's FIESTA

Today is another family birthday!  My brother-in-law turned 27 today, so we celebrated this weekend with a surprise fiesta.  He and my sister recently accepted new jobs, so I inherited the job of decorations and setup while my mom and brother took food and drink pickup.  My dad helped me hang lanterns and brought in the extension cords and fans.  It was a family affair...in between a toddling one year old at our feet.

Kristin had everything together in one spot, and it turned out not to be very difficult to set up.  I'm sure you have realized by now that she is the party planner, so we were feeling a bit inadequate.  Ha!  It turned out pretty cute if you ask me. 

They came in from their hour and a half drive home from work, and Lee actually had a headache.  Oops!  I'm pretty sure the family yelling whatever Spanish words we knew and blaring Mexican Fiesta music wasn't in his plans for the afternoon.  Bless him!  We got him medicated, and he seemed to turn the corner.  Or at least put on a good face.

Millie Janalee, Auntie Kristin, and Uncie Lee

You know it's not a family party around here without some fun headgear and accessories!

Millie Janalee spit up down the front of her outfit just as Kristin and Lee were pulling in, so she smelled of sour milk.  There's a downside to the whole milk endeavor.  Thankfully, I had a change of clothes for her in the car.  After a wardrobe change and a good swing with Susu, she was ready to party with the rest of us.

We enjoyed a yummy Mexican spread: Taco Bell, Mi Toro, and D-Shy's Tamales with a delicious Heath Bar birthday cake.  Most of us helped ourselves to second and third trips to the food table before the photo booth took flight.  Headgear and accessories go hand in hand with a photo booth in this family!  We pulled out the frame from Millie Janalee's birthday bash and dressed up for our photos.  Things got a little cray cray at this point!

The birthday boy and his Senorita

Dustin and Sheila

"Aunt Nana", Uncie Lee, and Auntie Kristin

Pawpaw and Susu

Pawpaw and Maw Maw

My little Spanish familia!

In full disclosure each of these poses took 20 pictures each trying to get the perfect one.  Ha!  I'm so glad we do this, because then we are able to catch moments like this one below.  Be still my heart!  I cropped myself out of it, and I love how Millie Janalee is looking at her silly daddy!

I told you things got a little out of hand at this point.  The Pandora Fiesta station blared as Pawpaw showed Millie Janalee how to dance around with her maracas.  She watched intently before trying to do her own "Fandango" (I used Wikipedia to come up with a Spanish dance name. Ha!)

After lot of dancing and shaking those maracas, she needed to sit awhile and rest.  I thought this was a great time for her to wear a sombrero.  Perhaps we should've invested in a baby sombrero...

No birthday party is complete without the off-tune family singing of the "Happy Birthday" song!  We rigged up a 27-ish look for the birthday cake, and I stuck a few decorative toothpicks in for good measure.  I think it looked just wonderful...professional even!

26+1

Dustin lighting the candles

Making a wish!

It certainly was another family birthday celebration for the books.  Happy Birthday Uncie Lee!  We hope you have the best birthday yet!

Happy Birthday Susu!

In this family, birthdays are kinda a big deal.  No, we don't all have parties like Little Miss Priss did for her first birthday, and I'm pretty sure her future parties won't be quite as big either.  But we do celebrate.  Together if at all possible.

Every. Single. One.

Today, we celebrated my mom's birthday.  I would tell you how old she is, but I didn't get her permission for that.  So I'll leave you guessing.  To celebrate, we all drove from all over and met in Memphis at Jim's Place.  If you have never eaten there, it was a very nice experience.  Good food.  Good company.  Good times!

Millie Janalee is no stranger to a fancy restaurant, but this was the first time we've been to a "table cloth restaurant" since she started eating table food.  I inconspicuously pulled out the disposable placemat and stuck it to the table before cutting up her yucky turkey sticks.  You may remember me talking about those here.  I added cut up grapes and some puffs to that.  Thankfully, she only threw a few pieces on the floor...and Russ quickly picked them up so we wouldn't completely blow our cover as civilized folks. Ha!

Millie Janalee put on a delightful show, as she usually does when an audience is present.  The rest of us enjoyed appetizers, full meals, AND desserts!  Mama opened one of her gifts from Daddy - another Ronaldo bracelet to add to her collection.  All while Dustin tried to figure out why you need so many bracelets on one arm.  Ha! 

After spending well over two hours eating, visiting, laughing, and eating some more...we headed outside to leave.  Dustin, Kristin, Lee, Russ, and I gave Mama a jewelry armoire.  Since we didn't find it appropriate to bring a piece of furniture into the restaurant, we saved it for the end of the evening.  I think she was pleased.  She's been asking for a jewelry armoire for quite some time now.

We stood around admiring her gifts and soaking in the last minutes together before we all loaded into the four cars it took to get us all to one location.  Millie Janalee spent some one-on-one time with everyone before hugging and kissing everyone goodbye.

I'm assuming everyone made it home safely by now, and my little family is snug in our beds.

Uncie Bucket is SOOOO funny!

It was a proper celebration for the one who brought us into this world and sometimes reminded us that it meant she could take us out of this world too!  Ha!  Happy birthday to the one who taught us how to laugh at ourselves and never take life to seriously, believed everything we said growing up whether it was true or not, chased us around the house with the wooden spoon, laughed before she ever got to the spanking part, did our homework for us when we were sick (even if she did make a 40 on one of my social studies papers), fixed our lunches until we graduated high school, brought us many a forgotten personal belonging no matter how far, still offers a nice head or foot rub when you go home, taught me how to lose my keys, and showed me that family is always the first choice when deciding how to spend your time!

Happy Birthday Susu!  Here's to many many more!

Caroline's Birthday Party

I've mentioned Millie Janalee's first little friend before.  Well, as good of friends as one year olds can be.  But their mamas are working pretty hard on this little class of 2030.  Ha!  Caroline is 12 days younger than Millie Janalee.  Her birthday party was the week after Millie Janalee's.  We were so happy to celebrate this petite little girl's first birthday!

Mary Anne, Caroline's mama, texted us the morning of the party asking to borrow the balls for the ball pit.  Millie Janalee and Caroline had such a good time in the ball pit at our party...and we couldn't wait to get back in there!  Only this time, the girls were practicing their standing skills and tossing balls out of the pool just so they could reach out and pick it back up.  Ha!  Such silly girls!

Caroline's party was apple themed...since she's the "apple of their eye."  So cute!  Her cupcakes looked like apples, there were apple themed cutesy things everywhere in the adorable colors of hot pink and green.  She was a good sport wearing her precious little birthday hat while we stood around and sang "Happy Birthday."

There were also cute little baby Adirondack chairs in the front and back porches for the little bits to enjoy.  You know we couldn't leave until we had our photo shoot.  Annnnd....we learned how much more difficult it is getting to get pictures of these two together.  Ha!

Millie Janalee and I stayed with the family to watch Caroline open her gifts.  It was really more like Millie Janalee opening her gifts while Caroline played.  You should have seen me trying to get Millie Janalee out of all the birthday gift pictures.  I would pour puffs on the floor to get her attention.  Then Caroline crawled over wanting some too.  So, Mary Anne poured some for Caroline and Millie Janalee crawled over to that stash.  No matter what we did, they wanted to eat out of the same pile.  Oh well.  Millie Janalee will be a permanent memory from Caroline's first birthday for the rest of their lives.  Ha!

And, you can see that Millie Janalee also tried to take over all Caroline's toys. 

Happy birthday Caroline!  Thanks for inviting us.

Shark Week Shopping

It's Shark Week.  Sharks are the reason I don't go into the ocean very far.  At all.  In fact, I'm not totally convinced sharks haven't found a way to somehow venture into the lakes...so I don't swim in the water at Pickwick either.  Don't laugh.  If it's not a shark, it would be an alligator.  Ha!  Basically, I'm a scaredy cat of all water where I can't see the bottom.

What I'm not afraid of is a little Shark Week shopping!  You may remember when I had a Kelly's Kids summer party.  Well, now I'm having a Kelly's Kids fall/winter online party!  I'd love for you to join me!

If you are not familiar with Kelly's Kids, it is a family business that started 30 years ago in Louisiana.  Like, Kelly's Kids was around when I was small.  That can mean only one thing.  Quality clothing.  I ordered Millie Janalee several things this summer, and I have loved every single piece!  I had some monogrammed and some not.  We get compliments on them everywhere we go! 

I've taken a look through the catalog, and I most definitely have some favorites!  I mean, did you see that Pumpkin Patch Collection^^?  Oh my! How cute!

I know many of my friends have younger children or babies.  ^^These longalls and ruffle rompers are A-DOR-A-BLE! I plan on picking up a couple myself.  I just have to make the big decision on which ones.  And, I wish I had a little boy to buy for!  These little boy clothes are to die for!  Some find it difficult to find cute little boy clothes, but Kelly's Kids has plenty to offer!  There is also a precious collection of bubbles for the little bitty babies on the site.

I'm not going to share all the collections with you.  I will give you a link to my party at the end of this post, so you can browse the collections yourself.  But, I'll show you a few of my favorites.  Really, I love almost everything.  The great thing about Kelly's Kids is the coordinating collections for the whole family.  Newborn babes to tweens...and everything in between!  LOVE. IT!

And, if you have already started thinking about your family Christmas card picture...look no further!  The Kelly's Kids Christmas collections are just too cute for words!  I love them all, but I think the Country Christmas Collection is my favorite.  Coordinate your kids for a festive holiday photo, Christmas party, or Christmas Eve!

f you would like to browse the Kelly's Kids collections or place an order, please click on the link here.  When placing your order online, remember to place your order under my party #15274!  You'll need to enter that at checkout.  If you'd rather order through emailing me, feel free.  Also, those of you who know me personally can certainly call me to order.

This party closes on August 9!  So, get your shopping in this week!  Shark Week!

Happy shopping!  I hope you find something that's the perfect fit for your little one(s)!