Tamara Shannon

I cannot believe two years have already come and gone.  I cringe and cry (mostly cry) thinking of how fast the next 2, and 5....and 10 years will fly by.  Reviewing the pictures and movies we've taken over the past year of Brynlynn and our family I'm amazed at how much she has changed and grown in just a period of 12 months.   Brynlynn has a very sweet personality, most of the time (after all, she's only 1/2 me ;) ).   She loves to sing and to dance (and loves to sing about how she loves to sing and dance).  Her favorite songs to sing include: anything from Dora/Diego (& misc. Nick Jr. shows), Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, I Am A Child of God, Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old McDonald.  It is nothing for us to go all around the store(s) while she sings from the cart.  She loves to read books, and can "read" (aka recite from memory) many of her favorite ones.  She counts in English & Spanish (only to about 16 Eng. and ...

While on our family vacation in Katy, we also went to the BlueBell Factory (yum!), the beach and ended it with a great family dinner.  Get ready for picture overload, hopefully you have some time on your hands.   Yup, that's ALL the pictures we have (well, mostly, there are a few , more).  I bet you feel like you were there, huh?  I suggest you visit Laura , my sister-in-law's blog for some additional photos...she did a much better job. 

As I mentioned in my last post, we celebrated 40 years of marriage for my mother and father-in-law this past August.   My mother-in-law, Linda, knew that she was going to Katy, TX to visit her daughter and son-in-law, for a quiet weekend...or so she thought ! We had other  plans for them... Linda's going to LOVE that I posted this. :) That wasn't the only surprise of the weekend...but that's another story, for someone else to tell. 

I'm not going to apologize for the loooong gap between posts, since it's mostly due to a busy schedule filled with family fun! Though, I need to be more diligent in updating these things....oh, the internal conflict! ;) Thanks to my wonderful in-laws, Linda and Clyde, making it to 40 years of marriage, we all had an opportunity to celebrate and have a big family gathering/party!  I think the planning process for the weekend, in Aug., started in Jan. (2012)...maybe March?  I don't even remember at this point, but I know it has been in "discussion" for a LONG time.  We finally had a family wide conference call, about a week before, to settle everything that had been bounced back and forth between mass emails, emails with just the wives etc.   Thus, in about an hour and a half, we had a tentative schedule of events.  Finally! As we tend to do in the Shannon household, go big or go home!  We didn't limit our festivities to just the weekend, but rather ...

I couldn't decide on a dessert for our FHE tonight.  Cookies are always a good backup.  I really can't believe it's taken me this long to involve her in the process of baking cookies.  She did great!  Helped add the sugar, flour (with assistance) and later roll the dough and place them on the cookie sheet.  She also did a great job helping me "clean up"... *Note: the spatula was not used to mix, but to scoop more cookie dough. The "clean up." I was going to take some cookies to the neighbors, but I think we'll wait for the next batch.  While these were made with love, they were also made with a LOT of Brynlynn spit.  :)

Brynlynn has been using the word "potty" a lot lately, I mean A LOT.  She knows how to say the word and sign it.  She follows me to the bathroom, runs to the bathroom if someone else is using it and notifies everyone that it is a "potty" and/or someone is going "potty."   I haven't been taking it too seriously, because I wasn't sure she if knew the verb action associated with potty or just the noun.     But lately (the past month or two) she has been saying potty and it's more like an announcement.  On one of the first instances, she said "potty" then ran to my bathroom and returned with a diaper and the wipes.  Turns out, she needed a diaper change.  We were stunned.  Then, several other times, it was more of an announcement...she'd say "potty" and then well...potty.  This past weekend, she announced "potty" with no reason other than...so I decided to go with it so we ran to the (mini) toilet (equipped with ...

We took some time off from unpacking, organizing, cleaning etc. to make some family fun time at the pool. It was Brynlynn's first pool trip (she's been on on the lake, but not a pool).  She LOVED it! She seems to have little/no fear of the water, though she doesn't really like putting her face in.  She ran through the spraying fountain, dove off the sides, and stairs (to her parents, of course).  I'm not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing...I think it's time to start swim lessons ASAP.