Happy Birthday Shannon!

It was 32 years ago today that my precious little Shannon was born. Her dad and I had picked out only a girl's name. We just couldn't decide on a boy's name. We didn't even have any possibilities picked-out if the baby had been a boy. Shannon's middle name is very special because we used my middle name (Ann) and her dad's middle name (Lou) making her middle name LouAnn. Shannon was a good little baby. Quite content. She slept a lot and loved to suck her left thumb. I thought her sucking her thumb as a baby was so cute. But the cuteness wore off when she was still sucking her thumb in second grade. None of the tried and true methods to stop a child from sucking their thumb worked. We tried them all.

The cutest little thumb sucker.

Her older brother Ryan and older sister Rachael loved having a new little sister and were very helpful in taking care of her. They would both hold her and feed her her bottle. They were all three so cute. There was only three years between the oldest and Shannon. I remember one day when I was in the bathroom combing my hair that Shannon had woken up from a nap and was crying. Ryan was watching me comb my hair so I asked him to go and see what Shannon wanted. The next thing I heard was a loud thump on the floor and loud crying. I quickly ran to the bedroom to see what the problem was, and there was Shannon on the floor crying, and Ryan was in the baby bed. I picked up my little Shannon and tried to comfort her and asked Ryan (age 3) what happened? He told me that when he went to check on Shannon she told him she wanted out. He wanted in, so he climbed in the bed and threw her out.

Then I remember the time that I took Ryan to get a haircut and Rachael was quite intrigued with the process. When we returned home the three children went to play while I fixed lunch. If I had only known that Rachael and Ryan were playing barber shop with Shannon as the "victim". They had Shannon sitting on the bathroom counter and Ryan was holding her so she wouldn't fall. Rachael had borrowed my scissors from my sewing basket to make their play more real. When I called them for lunch, it startled Rachael, and the scissors closed right behind the rubberband on one of Shannon's doggie-ears. That afternoon we made another trip to the beauty shop to try and do something with a little girl with one doggie-ear on one side and no doggie-ear on the other side.

Shannon loved to do cart-wheels, hand-stands, and back-flips which eventually produced a broken arm. There was no question about the arm being broken because you could see the bone sticking out in the wrong place.

Blue Mountain Academy "Aerial Aires"

Shannon,

I am so proud of you.

You are such a joy.

Such a beautiful person

with a full range

of emotions, ideas and goals.

I can see the love in your eyes

and in all the thoughtful deeds

you do for others.

Whatever you do

Wherever you go

I want you to know

that I am here for you

I love you,

Mom

Happy Birthday!

Six weeks old and so adorable!

Flower girl in cousin Denise's wedding.

Shannon's dress was made to look just like the bride's.

A pose for the camera before we head out for the church for Shannon's eighth grade graduation. The eight grade girls picked out the royal blue fabric and each mother made their daughters' dress.

Eighth Grade Graduation - Hamburg, Pennsylvania

Senior 1994 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Service to her country in the Army Reserves.

Beautiful bride.

She married the man of her dreams.

New mommy in "2000"

Three Generations