Bluebonnets

It was Good Friday and very quickly overcast. When I say we jumped in the car to go do this, I mean it. Look at how excited Derek was to do this last minute change in the schedule for the day:



I had just come home with this shirt, and Justin immediately fell in love with it and demanded he wear this for his photos.


You can't blame him, he is three after all. I brought along a chair and tried different poses. Some were pretty awkward.


Justin was just too high above the flowers with the chair, so we quickly ditched it.


Ah, much better. I fell in love with the out-of-focus flowers in these photos. I know the point is to showcase the state flower, but I felt like these photos gave this aura around the focus point in the middle, Mr-Work-the-Camera.


I tried to get in on the action. The glare of the sun was starting back in.


We were literally in the middle of a median by Memorial Park off Wescott, so we had roads, apartments, cars, etc. that we had to avoid in the photos.


My boys, and they both somehow coordinate. Derek had done this on accident though it makes me smile. Is that kid holding a stray bluebonnet? Isn't that against the law?


Another attempt by the newest Michaelis photographer. This boy needs a lighter camera - he nearly dropped it on this photo.


The final artistic shot by JT.


See you next year, lovely bluebonnets!

Kelly's Baby Shower

The day after my birthday we had a laidback sip 'n see for Kelly, a buddy from Sunday School. We had tried to shower this sweet momma before her little boy came, but the Lord had other plans. The weekend we all went to Galveston Kelly was supposed to have joined in on the fun with us. Instead she was driving herself to the emergency room and only 25 weeks pregnant. Through a miracle and lots of prayer, she made it through the weekend without having to deliver the baby. She stayed on bedrest at the hospital until she delivered Daniel, full-term! What a huge blessing for that sweet family.

We congregated at La Madeline in Town and Country once again to celebrate. I reused some decor from the last shower and we were off.


One of the reasons we like La Madeline is because they have petite desserts that are easy to serve on a Sunday afternoon after church.


Some of the ladies









And the precious miracle boy. Daniel was such a doll - he kept smiling at his momma when she was tearfully telling us the story from the last few months of being in the hospital. I think that smile tells us all that he was worth it.


So thankful to be surrounded by such a believing and encouraging group of women!

32 and counting....

Ah, turning another year older, and blogging about it almost a month later. Story of my life. My birthday happened to fall during a weekend, much less a week, where there wasn't much time left to celebrate ole Shani. Which was fine by me - I was wanting more of a low key celebration this go around. Trying to tone down the activities these days.

I went to lunch at Ashland House earlier in the week with these three ladies. Emily, Leslie, & Sophie all kept on me about celebrating the bday, so I finally relented and let us four get together for lunch. I am so thankful for these three ladies and their friendship in my life.


The weekend surrounding my birthday was filled with the Sweet Sixteen and Baylor being in town. On my actual birthday, I was last minute going to a funeral for one of my dear friend's brother who quickly had passed away earlier in the week. So we rearranged the day and fit in breakfast with just the three of us. But not before some quick shots of the green cuties.


Justin was trying his hardest not to be still.


He has as of late been wanting to take our photo. I know some of your kids do this (and take some fantastic photos), but they have not tried it with my extremely heavy camera that I now take with me. Justin had to prop it on this chair to get his first attempt.


Derek gave him a hand on the next one. I can't blame the poor little man - most adults do the same thing when I give it over to them.


After going to the funeral, Kaki and I sped off to Roundtop for a mere 2 hours. I came back victorious, with a bookshelf I have been looking for for 3 years to complete the study area in my bedroom. Photos of that at a later date (I have to take them first!). We came home to a dinner prepared by my sweet hubby, along with this ginormous balloon! Which has since been untied by a certain three year old and hangs out currently on my ceiling, too far within reach of anyone in this household.


My parents, Coy, & Kaki were over for dinner. Derek had slaved away in the kitchen with ribs, new potatoes, a fruit salad, and Chinese coleslaw. And he had my favorite wine and some appetizers waiting for us when we walked in the door from our quickieRoundtop trip. My man rocks!


Teacher Aunt Kaki helping Justin color.


Derek ordered me a must - cookie cake. What he didn't know was that our mall has two of them, and he ordered from the opposite side of the mall when he called it in on the phone. He said the trip to pick up the cookie cake took about an hour, setting him back in his kitchen prep time for the meal. I kid you not, this was one of the yummiest cookie cakes I have had in a long time!


Justin fits in well with this family and our love of the cake.


And look, Big D made me a "Shannon arrangement", as he called it. He said it was no sweat since he has seen me make one dozens of times for different events. And ah, my favorite color of purple....


The day has come and gone, but 32 has started out a lot calmer then 31 did. Looking forward to living my life to the fullest this next year!

Baylor Basketball and the Sweet 16

A few weeks ago the Baylor Bears' basketball team made its way to Houston for the Sweet 16. Derek had tickets to the entire weekend for months, and then all of a sudden the Smith family and the rest of Waco decided to hone in on the fun. Coy Blevins flew in to celebrate both the Bears and Purdue. My dad had these Adidas shirts made for the whole fam last fall, in anticipation of the football team doing well. So we can proudly sport them for another sport.

My dad had these huge head shots printed of the whole team at the start of the playoffs. People were going nuts for them, and he eventually has handed them to all to various Baylor fans.



My family had gotten to the game early to tailgate. We were on the main walkway and ran into everyone. I kept thinking that this is what all the other schools always feel like - everyone wearing the school colors and celebrations everywhere. It was so dang exciting!


I got to see Jenise...


and her Baylor beau.


Evans newlyweds


My dad had been sporting this on his car


My birthday was on the following day, so we had a mini celebration in the parking lot. The brownies had been hard, so mom softened them up by putting them on a piece of bread. Problem solved, just makes for a funny presentation.


Reliant Stadium is definitely a much better venue for a football game vs. a basketball game. But everyone there was in a sea of green and gold. In all my years of being a Baylor fan, I have never had a rush like this.


Look at Shane's school fever


The game almost got boring - check out the score


When the game was over, with everyone's hand in the air for the good ole Baylor Line...


...some sporting their BU rings on their hands...


...and others making funny faces.


Coy, being a grandfather now 3 times over, was quite the sport playing Chutes and Ladders with JT in the early hours of the morn.


The last night of Coy's stay, he bunked with us so we could taxi him to the airport the next morning. He stayed in our guest bedroom, which has a Jack and Jill bathroom with Justin's room. The next morning Coy got in the bathroom to take a shower. He locked the door so that Justin wouldn't accidentally walk in on him. Apparently one 3 year old boy had to get in a the bathroom to go potty and was quite disappointed that his door handle didn't budge. As Coy was leaving to go to the airport, Justin told Coy that the next time he came in town with Papa & Birdie that he shouldn't lock his door, OK? Coy quickly apologized, wanting to always have an open offer to stay at the Michaelis B&B.

We have all laughed over this experience. Justin seems to hold a grudge over people that lock his door. My brother Shane has done the same thing and Justin always brings it up that he shouldn't lock his door. So if you come and stay with us, don't get lock happy on us...

Alto & Lufkin

The second half of our Spring Break was in shared between Alto and Lukfin. My cousin has lived in Alto for years, but we have never officially stopped at her place to hang out. She lives in the middle of nowhere, which I say because it is a paradise for little kids! She has so much land, which plenty of room for kids and dogs alike to run free.

Justin hadn't seen his older cousins in over a year. Even though it was raining outside, they had the best time finding stuff to do inside. Livia is the oldest great-grandchild on my dad's side of the family. Justin is one of 10 great grandkids - just wish they all lived closer to us!


Connor and Livia were so sweet with Justin.


They were cracking me up with the photos. They were asking if they could pose in different ways, which I always am game for.


One of their new puppies was a hound dog named Copper. Justin has both the book and the movie (which we only watch parts of because he thinks it is "scary") of the Fox and the Hound. We laughed saying we call our dog Foxy Roxy because she looks like a fox. So here's your made-for-movie of the two stars of the show, Todd and Copper.


Papaw got to meet us at Jennifer's house. He loved seeing the great-grandkids, as well as eat a fine feast that Jennifer had prepared for us.


I say this every time, but I am so thankful that Justin can have a relationship with his great-grandparents, all 3 of them.


Bryan got home early from work and took the kids out on the four-wheeler. Not only was it raining, but he let Justin think he was driving all of them. When I was out watching and laughing, I noticed a small brown object in the fields behind Bryan in this photo. I realized it was Roxy, running at full speed, at the cows in the pasture. I guess she wants to be a cow-herding dog, but after being yelled at by her momma, she decided to come back away from the dairy machines.


Justin and I then drove to Lufkin to see Papaw's new apartment. He is always trying to invent something, so here is Papaw showing us his latest thought on how to improve the oil pump. I am so proud of my grandfather for keeping his mind alert and for being so creative. His just a memoir of his life after my Mamaw passed away. I never have had so much respect for this man until after reading about the hardships of growing up in a bare bones life and becoming successful in spite of it. And then giving the Lord all the glory for it!


We enjoy all our East Texas family and hope to see them soon.

Tyler again

For most of our spring break, Justin and I romped around in East Texas. We stopped off first in Tyler at GiGi and G-pa's house. The weather was so pleasant this time around!

GiGi and Justin had balls velcroed to their arms and Roxy loved chasing the balls.


Justin had an absolute blast with his cousins. What I love about this is that they too enjoy playing him. I am the oldest grandchild on this side of the fam, and I always had a blast with my younger cousins. So it means so much to me that the tables of turned.

I show these 3 photos in a row to show an example of how I just barely changed the way I was positioned to get a totally different photo. Thanks to Valerie, Dawson, & Clay for being troupers during the camera shoot.


I showed a video on my last Tyler post, and Justin was watching it on Valerie's camera. I love how sweet these older kids are with my three year old. I sat down on the ground to get a better background on this photo.


This angle is my total favorite. I was laying on my back on the ground getting this shot with the sky in the background. Makes for a much more pleasing to the eye photo, all with me just getting lower to the ground and putting my subject, the cousins, that much farther away from their background, which is now the sky, versus the trees just a few yards away.


G-pa and Justin got branches and sticks together to make a fire in the fire pit.


The two old men just sat in their thoughts after finishing the task.


That evening we got to see their hard work in action.


We even roasted some marshmallows. Justin loves to roast them, but then doesn't like the black on them, thus discarding them after the process.


We went to the Tyler Zoo one day. I have never seen that many people at the zoo. When we left the line was out to the parking lot! Justin is sporting the jersey he is constantly obsessed with wearing each week.


I couldn't resist getting a photo with the matching flowers.


Little Miss Roxy got her own photo shoot. I have recently put some new frames in my study are in our bedroom, and I needed a new photo of Roxy. Unfortunately, the grass was still pretty dead thanks to the cold winter. Even with me pulling in more greens in the photo, the grass is still pretty sparse.


I couldn't ever tell if she was looking at me or the squirrels in the other yard.


So funny thinking how anti-dog I was growing up, and now I am posting three photos of my canine in this post.


So thankful to have grandparents that are as active as most people's parents. Justin has an absolute blast being with them, and the cousins living in town is definitely an added bonus. Thanks for a fun time in Tyler!