Tamara Shannon

Our family, recently took our first, real (aka really long) road trip.  We went to Kansas City, MO to visit family and attend the Liberty, MO temple open house.   I was so excited about the trip, but also feeling a bit overwhelmed and anxious.  My OCD in organization and list making was on high alert the weeks before.  I had three coolers, varying in sizes, each had different items and were strategically placed in the vehicle depending on their contents.  I had her toys in several different containers, the DVD player set up with (several) DVDs in close reach.  We divided the 13 hours in the car into 3~ hour increments, so we would stop in a few major cities to get out, play, potty, eat etc.  This meant I had to figure out where in each city we should stop...find playgrounds, parks etc.  Oh, and the whole time I'm trying to plan this I'm also cleaning, organizing, painting, caulking, mowing and staging my house to put it on the market (which went live on MLS the day we left fo

Brynlynn loves to be outside.  We were playing outside one afternoon when she noticed the water hose.  I showed her what it was and explained its purpose, but it's much more fun to  show  what it does!  Initially, we were just letting it run while she splashed in the water/mud, but this is what I found when I returned (after a quick minute) with the camera.  Talking... ...still talking... She was fearless! I was worried she'd be afraid of it spraying in her face. Nope. Took it like a Champ.

This Easter weekend was AWESOME!  Lots of time with family, lots of food-lots of food, mostly the sugary goodness kind! :) First egg hunt!  (we love to egg hunt, so we had a few this weekend...) Dad's ready to hunt! With his custom "basket." ***BUBBLES!!*** ............................................. Easter Sunday. ...story of my life: chasing Brynlynn. Playing with her Great-Grandma Jung. .................................................. Egg Hunt #2: (*disclaimer: she had on a cute skirt, but we didn't want to limit her egg hunting abilities so we lost it!) We would clap when she put them in her basket..."we" including Brynlynn.  :) Egg Hunt#3: The Men vs. the "Hard to Find Eggs" Mom bought some eggs that were actually called "hard to find eggs." They were natural colors (i.e. green, brown etc.) and textured like grass/rocks and they were hard to find! ...meanwhile...enjoying the sp

We started the Easter Festivities much earlier in the week with our FHE (Family Home Evening).   Of course, Easter is MUCH more than colored eggs, and bunny tales.  Though lil b is very young, we want to teach her about Christ and His infinite sacrifice-which we did (tried) and will continue to.  We also wanted to teach Brynlynn some fundamentals in egg hunting in preparation for the upcoming weekend.  So...we had a Spiritual Egg Hunt!  She was able to hunt eggs (for the first time ever in her life) and inside each egg was something for us to do as a family (i.e. sing a song, read a scripture, look at a picture of Christ etc...I did throw some yogurt puffs in there as well-'cause I'm crazy like that).    Overall, she did really well!  She needed to be reminded to keep going, because she would stop and start to unload her basket.  She even carried her basket (which is still a bit too big)!