All healthy

As most of you know our kiddo's are almost exactly 2 years apart. That was not planned but we are so blessed by our two precious gifts from God.  Well on Monday we had dual well check up's for the kids. Chase went for his 2 1/2 year check up and Leah had her 6 month check up.  First we will talk about Chase....

My couch potato's!

 At 2 1/2 he weighs 34.4 lbs putting him in the 90th percentile and was 37 3/4 inches long also putting him in the 90th percentile. What a BIG boy. He did excellent with the doctor and didn't even flinch when he looked in his ears (which has been huge problem in the past!) He is growing up so fast wanting to do everything by himself.... riding his bike, getting in the car, going potty (which is quite messy if I leave it up to him :)).  I am so proud of him.  Because Leah is now 6 months old I put together pictures of chase up to 6 months old.  

Our little Leah is already 6 months old. Time is passing way to quickly with her.  At 6 months she is long and lean weighing 15lbs 3 oz putting her in the 40th percentile and she is 26 1/4 inches long putting her in the 70th percentile.  She is such a happy little girl easy to smile and laugh and goes with the flow. Which is good because we are so busy with her big brother.  She loves Chase who makes her giggle and takes good care of her.  She is rolling around everywhere to get to where we are or to what she needs and she is trying to scoot on her belly.  She sleeps from about 8pm to 8am and naps pretty well during the day.  She has been a huge blessing to our family and even though going from 1 to 2 kids is logistically more difficult, she has made the transition easy.  We are so thankful for our children, they teach us so much everyday!  And I have to throw in one more picture because Leah looks like a baby doll in the hat her Grammie made her.  

Homeless

Well it is official we are HOMELESS!  Ok, so maybe I don't need to be so dramatic, we are not homeless we are just officially renters for at least the next 2 years of our lives.  We officially closed on the sale of our house this morning, removing one very large burden from our plates allowing us to take the next steps on our new big adventure!  We will be renting back from the buyers until the 29th of April when we will be leaving for Detroit. 

 

The picture to the left is one of our house before we purchased it a little over 6 years ago. The one to the right was taken recently.   I know you really can't see much of a difference.  Over the years we painted the shutters black and changed landscaping timbers to stone.

 

Again the picture to the left is before we bought our house and the one to the right is following some changes we made. The previous owner had wood beams that ran across both the kitchen and living room cutting off the vaulted ceiling.  While it gave the home a nice country feel we were looking for more of a contemporary feel that was not hard to get once we removed the beams and changed some paint and wallpaper. 

previous owner

1st room re-do

Final

2nd room re-do

And this was one of my favorite changes we made over the years in this home.  The picture to the top left is again how the previous owners kept the room.  Kevin and I painted the room a dark green and I hated it as soon as we finished. Kevin refused to re-paint the room because I picked out the color.  Eventually when he went out of town my friends Christine and Leigh-ann helped me to re-paint the room and put up a chair rail.  It looked so much better.  Of course then as Chase got older we decided to make the room more for him and painted it again! We had so much fun making a transportation room with trucks, tractors, cars, and roads.  He loves his room and I think he will miss it when we move.  

We will really miss this home. It has a lot of our 1st moments and has been very good to us.  It was of course our first home. The place we first came back to after we were married. The home both of our children came home to after they were born.   It is however time to move on and make fun new memories in new places. 

I wanna be a fireman!

 

We had a very fun adventure on Friday. I was supposed to be meeting my friend Kate when my phone rings and she asks if we are up to a detour in our plans.  Her nearly 3 year old, Joey who is Chase's best friend, spotted this firetruck coming out of the Bilo and went crazy.  The firemen who were getting groceries invited them over to the fire station for a tour!  What more could a 2 year old ask for.  We of course could not pass up the opportunity to check out the firetruck and the newest fire station in Anderson County.  When we pulled up Chase was in complete AWE of the firetruck and the enormous garage that they "sleep" in. 

 While the Boys checked out the in's and outs of the firetruck the Girls, Leah and Savannah hung out around the truck. 

Chase thought that it was really cool to sit in the captain's seat.

I love this picture because you can see the awe in Chase's face. Chase LOVES flashlights and the fireman showed them the biggest flashlights that Chase has ever seen.  Speaking of pictures, sorry for the quality of these pictures, I didn't have my camera with me so my camera phone was going to have to do!  It was a very fun detour from our original plans, thanks Kate and Joey!

Happy St. Patrick's day!

 
 A little history on St. Patrick's day.  St. Patrick's is a religious feast day that has been celebrated by the Irish for over a thousand years.  It is celebrated on the 17th of March which marks the anniversary of St. Patrick's death in the 5th century.  It happens to fall in the middle of the Lent season and the day allows those who follow this tradition to lift their restrictions and feast.  I rather enjoy the day of wearing green, parades, green beer, and in Chicago I believe they even dye the Chicago river green.  We are not going to be that far from Chicago when we live in Detroit, so maybe next year we will have to go take a look at this green river and maybe go see a parade or two :). Hope you are wearing green today!

Notice Chase is starting to get annoyed with me. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

A new member of the family

Whoa now... don't get any ideas, I am NOT pregnant again!  I have already told you that we did not get a new puppy and do not intend to (I never say never anymore :)).  So if you know the McMahan's you know the next logical addition to the family would be a new vehicle. Kevin got a new truck! 

Isn't she pretty!

It is a 2007 Toyota Tundra Crewmax limited and it is BIG!  There is so much room in the back seat that on the way home from the dealership I sat back there to feed Leah her cereal and I was sliding back and forth between the kids carseats. I could also barely reach Chase from the front seat.  Now this was a major change from our drive to the dealership as I sat shoved in the dashboard with Chase cramped behind me banging on  my seat with his knees.  Leah was barely squeezed right beside him because her carseat would only fit in the opening to the front seat between the driver and passenger seat. (And to think when we got the truck we said that it would be perfect with kids because they are so small and would be the only people that would ever be comfortable back there. Funny how when you don't have kids you never think about the important details like carseats.) We drove out there that way to remind us why we were getting a bigger truck.  It will also be able to pull our boat to Michigan as well as provide us with the space to travel to all the beautiful lakes in that area up there.  It has a bed cap on it which is growing on both of us.  It will be nice for throwing the dogs in the back for drives or if we decide to take up camping. 

Our old truck next to the new one!  Now I had a hard time saying goodbye to the old truck. When we first got the truck, I can't really remember why but I actually drove it more than Kevin did and became pretty attached to it.  It was a very faithful vehicle treating us well over the years. 

Chase was waving goodbye to the old truck.  I was afraid he was going to flip out when they drove away with it but he was so excited about the new BIG truck he just waved and moved on with life.  Lets just hope he is that versatile when it comes to saying goodbye to his house when we move. 

I have to agree with Leah... all the paperwork and waiting when buying a car is boring!  Well we are excited about the new addition to the family and hope that it is as good to us as the old truck was! 

Surpirse visit!

Wednesday we recieved a phone call from Kevin parents, AKA Grammie and Papaw, asking if they could stop by and hang out for the day on their way to Texas.  We of course said "YES!" We love having visitors (hint, hint everyone!) Chase was super excited when they pulled up because they were pulling their fifth wheel trailer, "Papaw has the BIG Trailer!!"  They parked their trailer in the BiLo parking lot up the street from our house where they spent the night so they could hit the road first thing the next morning.  We had fun hanging out, Chase showed off his new peddling skill on his tractor bike and showed his Papaw how to get his engine started.

Grammie played with Leah while the boys were hard at work....

And somewhere in the trip the Easter bunny (AKA Grammie) secreatly found two little helper bunnies for the upcomming busy season. 

After all the excitement of the afternoon and some good naps, we all went to Chase's favorite resturant, Pizza Buffet for dinner.  We had a fun day, Thank you for stoping by Grammie and Papaw!

PUPPY

Do you think I am CRAZY... OK don't answer that. I have a 2 1/2 year old, 6 month old, and we are about to move 700 miles to Detroit MI.  No we did not get a new puppy. This sweet Bernese mountain dog named Dozer belongs to our dear friends and neighbors the Paese's. 

Look at those paws! This "little" guy is only 8 weeks old... he is going to be BIG.  We are sad that we will not get to see him grow up but can't wait to see how handsome and big he is when we get back.  Both the kids enjoyed meeting their new friend. 

Congratulations Guys, he is a sweet puppy!

It's that time of year again

I am so excited that spring is in the air. I even overlook the stuffy nose and congestion and say the watery eyes are tears of joy for the BEAUTIFUL weather.  I am not the only one who loves this time of year.  Chase is so excited because he is reunited with old friends....

When I pulled the lawn mower out you would have thought Chase was seeing an old friend for the first time in forever.  He said "HI LAWNMOWER, HI... I have missed you!"  Luckily I was able to get her fired up and we got to mow the grass.  Now only if he would keep the same endearment for the lawn mower when he is around 10... when I am ready for him to do it all himself.  I won't hold my breath for that.  Here's to spring time and long lost friends we have missed over the winter.