Tamara Shannon

My baby is ONE!  I won't go too much into that subject, because I've already devoted an entire entry to my sweet, little man...who I could just eat because I love him so much!  He has the cutest little expressions and smile.  He melts me. I mean, right?! Soooo CUTE! *Head explodes!!* I really can't stand it sometimes. By the time I'm done with the "baby stage" my teeth will be obsoleet...I will have ground them down to nothing.  This is normal, right? Everyone grinds their teeth when experiencing extreme levels of cuteness, right? I'm sure it's normal...if not, your kids probably aren't as cute as mine. ;) Ok, let's get back on track. Daxtion is ONE! He had a birthday party! All his 1 month - 1 year old friends came (and a few siblings).  The weather was perfect! We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.   Menu: Hot dogs, chips, watermelon, popcorn, carrots w/ranch... Homemade apple cobbler a la mode... Lemo...

See?! I am  trying to update the blog more often! (High five!) My intent for this entry was to document Daxton's 1st birthday party when I realized that I have yet to post anything from Brynlynn's 3rd.  Thus, I'm going to do a little bit of backtracking to even things up a bit, but this may be the only time this happens.  I'm going to try to move forward and just keep things updated as we go. We shall see.  Hopefully, eventually, each entry won't have to begin with an apology/explanation and a new found resolve to do better...hopefully.  I love parties. I do. I also hate them, but I mostly love them.  I usually only hate them because my own type A personality and drive for complete perfection can be stressful-yet productive! Mostly, I love them. I have decided, however, that I need to cut back a little bit and stop throwing as many parties as I have in the past because they do require a lot of my time, energy...money...and there are more important thin...

Remember when I used to "blog?"  No?  I don't blame you...it's been a while.  If this blog were the only updates you had on my life you wouldn't even know that we welcomed Daxton into our family last year! Sorry.  I am really going to try to be more diligent in updating the blog with our life events for those of you that enjoy reading/viewing updates on the grandkids  our family. Also, I am fully aware that the title of my blog, along with the pictures are VERY out-of-date.  I promise they will be updated immediately.  ...ok, by immediately I mean hopefully before next year, buuut... Daxton; I seriously love this kid.  He's known to many as "Mr. Serious", and it's true that not just anyone can get him to smile, or laugh.  With us, however, he's very vocal; he laughs, smiles and talks (even "sings" on his mic) all the time!  He is very tolerant with his big sister and loving towards her (most of the time).  For example: on those ...

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 ...