Justin at the camera

In the last month Justin and I were at home one cold Saturday morning while Derek was golfing with Shane. We had some fun messing around with the camera. I wanted to try out this rug where "Jeff" from the Wiggles "fell asleep".

Had the camera on a tripod and tried to get Justin to do a trick. Not so much.

Then I was going to try a trick from my flash class. "Me-do-it" little boy wanted to take Mommy's picture. Here's me with the flashlight after our morning walk.

Trying to get Justin to be creative with the light on a slow shutter speed.

Justin's attempt of taking my photo while moving the entire camera and tripod at the same time.

Next time I'll try this with another subject. If nothing else it was a post with very out-of-focus subjects! But we had fun...

Sleep over with Henry

We had a visitor last week when my buddy Heather went into labor 4 weeks early. Since she was a scheduled C-section at the end of the month, things moved pretty quickly. Riley Thomas Braniff came out a big "preemie" baby (apparently any baby before 37 weeks is considered preemie) and seemed fine at first. They then noticed he had a lot of fluid in his lungs and was breathing too quickly. He is supposed to get out of the NICU on Wednesday, so we've all been praying for this sweet family. The day Riley was born big brother Henry came over to spend the night. Justin had a blast with his buddy.

Big cheesers

Having a ball in the tub

Best buds. Henry is only 4 months older but is so much taller. And Justin ain't no shorty either.

We enjoyed getting some face time with Henry. Looking forward to meeting his baby brother when he gets home from the hospital!

Justin's Hand Project

We've been laying low this week after naps, and it's been so refreshing. Just hanging at the house, visiting with the neighbors, and trying out random art projects as well. I pulled out some paint and black construction paper and there was no looking back.

My eager beaver art guru

Very meticulous with keeping the paint evenly on his hand. Cannot tell you how many times I heard, "No, mommy, I do it!"

Surprisingly enough the paint stayed only on his hand and the paper. Here is the proud hand.

I showed him how to press hard and then leave it there for a bit.

My favorite one - mommy's hand and Justin's hand on the same paper.

Hey, it enabled me to get dinner together as well as occupied an hour of our afternoon. My kind of project!

Projects with Birdie

As I said in the past post, my parents came in town a few weekends ago. My mom had a candy recipe for her and Justin to try - peppermint candy hearts. So they went outside with a mallet and beat the peppermint sticks to bits.

Justin, in very fashionable attire, kept beating the sticks with a rhythmic beat. Looks like all that rhyming music that mommy sings to him is paying off. Anytime we listen to a song in the kitchen I tap the beat of the drums on his back, telling him to feel the beat.

Putting the mix in the heart candy mold.

Such the smiling little boy.

My mom then made a pulley out of a top of an old bucket and tied it to a long rope. We have it arranged on a tree limb for baseball batting practice.

This has provided hours of entertainment. Who cares that is it total white trash?

Way to swing, buddy. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a great stay and lots of fun times!

Rice Basketball game

Derek got season tickets this year to the Rice basketball games. I'm happy that he is supporting his alma mater, but it was time for Justin to go to his daddy's old school. The games are either late on a weekday night or right in the middle of his nap or during a birthday party. So my parents came in town and we all went to visit the newly redone stadium. The old basketball stadium looked like an old high school gym - I'm not kidding. Apparently the locker rooms are unbelievable (we obviously didn't see those this visit), they have a new VIP room for special ticket holders to go eat and drink in, and there are new seats where an old curtain used to hang. Let's just say it looks more collegiate now.

Here's our little Rice Owl fan with his hat on.


I'm sad that his old Rice shirt is too small. The store at the game didn't have his size, so we will need to find a new shirt that fits Justin.

Justin's favorite thing at the game - the Owl mascot. He was waving at him the entire time.

Here he is giving him a high five. Side story - the Owl went to the new bleacher/student section to sit in a penalty box. Justin really wanted to go say hi again. So my mom takes him all the way up to see the Owl. At that very moment the Owl busts out of the box, part of some skit they were doing. He then runs down the bleachers and falls down the remainder in the process. It was a total wipeout. There were only about 250 fans there, so everyone saw the poor mascot fall. Justin was still shocked form the Owl breaking the box he was in, and then was extremely concerned that, "The Owl fell down." Can't tell you how many times we heard that the rest of the game.


My dad making the Owl sign. Derek sits on the floor on the first row from the court. We were able to borrow another ex-basketball player's tickets, so we all got to sit in the prime time seating.

The Michaelis boys saying cheese.

Justin clapping after the team scored.

Justin had an absolute blast at the basketball game. He still talks about the Owl falling down....

Emily's 30th

Emily turned the big 30 last month, and we had a blast celebrating the start of the next decade of her life. I met Emily at swim lessons with the boys 2 summers ago. She invited me to Stroller Fit, which brought on a bunch of new fun friendships as well. YMCA, Beth Moore, tons of playdates, a trip to Myrtle Beach with the hubbies, and a handful of biblestudies later, she has become one of my very best friends. It's been fun to blend all our friends together over the years to make one big happy family. Emily would do anything for me, and I am so thankful for her friendship. Here's a big collage of photos of all the buddies that helped say goodbye to the 20s...







Looking forward to many more memories, Emily!

Heather's Baby Shower

Heather is having baby #2 in 4 weeks, another boy named Riley. So we went to Dolce Vita to celebrate the upcoming arrival of the latest Braniff baby. Love that place - the cheeses with honey, the pizza (margarita pizza is my fave), the laid back atmosphere.

Instead of your usual baby shower gifts, Heather really just wanted the one thing she has been unable to have for 9 months - a nice glass of Chardonnay. So we all brought bottle of Chardonnay for mommy after her next C-section. A few others brought some personalized gifts as well.


Some of the crew from the dinner. Heather is not into all the typical shower flair, so it was was pretty much the easiest shower yet. My cup of tea these days.



Lucy, Ann, Bibbin, me, Heather, Melissa, & Brandy (minus Sophie & Emily who had already left before the group photo op)

Heather got a new Canon Rebel camera and was using it in conjunction with mine. I used my new flash in a very low light environment, and even all the rest of the girls could tell a difference in the soft lighting my flash gave off versus the regular flash (aka junky flash) on Heather's camera. It was nice to have a comparison and yet again make me feel like it was a good purchase.

Music Man

Justin and I took the Snellers a meal two weeks ago. We somehow came back with two musical toys, both unwanted by the family. Or more like Jenny (mommy) didn't want Megan (daughter) to play with them during naptime. Justin is thrilled to borrow these toys for awhile, little music man that he is.

I think he looks like a snake charmer here.

And he plays the guitar left handed.

Thanks, Jenny, for the musical fun!

Playing at Allison's House

We played at Allison Hibbets' house on Friday. The Hibbets are in our Sunday school class and we finally quit telling each other that we would get together and finally just did it. We were having a grand ole time and then Elizabeth asked if the kids would like to do some art projects. My little artist (according to the MDO teachers Justin is so intent when they paint their art projects) had a blast making his creation. We put smocks on both of them and let them go to town. The lighting was a little off on both photos (still trying to find a good balance with the flash when there is a bright sun in the background) so I used some of my new actions from Pioneer Woman that I have loved playing with. I downloaded both set I & II and have had fun with them. In combo with the Touch of Lightness/Touch of Darkness from MCP Actions, also a freebie. So if any of you have Photoshop Cs2 or higher, go get those free actions. Anyways, I played a little too much with Justin's face and now it looks like he has makeup on. Oh well - I was tired of it by then and decided to call it quits.

Loving the art project


Allison enjoying her art as well


Looks like I may have to get Justin an art easel someday. Add that the ridiculous list of things that we all think our kids "need" these days, right?

Kids at Memorial Park

Right before the cold front blew in last Tuesday we went to Memorial Park with some moms. We are all YMCA junkies, so our kids get to play in the nursery together as well while their mothers are off sweating in another room.

Ava, Isabel, Justin, Lucy, & Chance


Kind of flipped on smiles - Justin is the only smiley in the previous photo and everyone looks cheerful in this one.


We played with another little boy and his ball for a bit.

And just as we were leaving, Justin spotted some 5th grade girls and a jump rope. For the most part they were great sports about letting a toddler attempt to jump. One little girl kept bossing him around saying, 'Little boy, you are just too small to do this.' I asked politely if I could just take a quick photo and then we would let them get on their merry way. Justin was entranced with the whole thing. He actually made it over one time.