More pictures of Shannon walking. Isn't her hair a mess? She has really bad bed hair in the morning these days, and you can imagine how much she likes having it combed. This outfit was made by Nana.

About a week ago we got Shannon her first pair of shoes. She celebrated by immediately standing by herself in the shoe store, which she had never done before. She then proceeded to walk all over the mall just hanging onto my sleeve. Within a week, she was walking. Yesterday on her birthday she mastered standing up by herself without holding on to anything. Currently she can walk 20-30 feet without falling over and she even tried running today. I'm kind of sad - I will miss the way she just puts her head down and crawls as fast as she can to something interesting. Still, it will be fun going for real walks and playing on more than just the swings at the playground.

So here she is. For some reason she walks better if she is holding something in her hands. Yesterday she carried a saucepan all the way into her room.

A few more birthday pictures. Shannon loved the lasagna and ate 2 huge bowls. Nana made her an apple cake with a dog on it, 2 of her favorite things, but by the time the cake came out she was pretty over-excited and just threw the icing around. The rest of us thought it was pretty tasty.

We had Shannon's first birthday party a little early. Grandpa Penney wasn't feeling well so we missed him and Grandma Penney, but her other grandparents and her Aunt Sarah were there (even though she had to drive all the way from Illinois and back in 1 day!). Here are a few highlights. She didn't get too excited about unwrapping the presents, but she had a great time playing with them!

Tom came home from Germany last weekend. Shannon wore her uniform to go pick him up. Aren't they cute?

One of Shannon's new hobbies is sitting on her airplane and reading a book. Thanks again Grandpa Penney for the great plane!