Easter Visitors

The reality of having three children has hit me as I have sat down to try to write this blog post since Monday morning and still have not found the time to actually complete it.  I have to confess as well that I have had my mom here to help this week so if there is ever going to be extra time, it would have been this week.  Oh well, life goes on and we figure out how to make things work.

Last Sunday was Easter and the kids were dressed in their best.  We took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot.

 Henley may look big in the basket but she is still very tiny just in a tiny basket.  The Easter bunny paid a visit bringing the big kids some treats.

Shortly after the kids found their Easter baskets we had a very special Easter surprise.  A vist from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Steph, and Connor.

 The kids (and parents too) were super excited to have such special visitors and Chase and Leah loved hanging out with Connor.  Henley also enjoyed getting to meet her cousin for the first time.

They hung out on the play mat for a very long time and seemed to enjoy each other's company.  To break things up we noticed that the Easter bunny had left some treats out in the yard for the big kids to find.

 It didn't take them very long to find an insane amount of eggs and now they have an insane amount of candy.  Good thing mom and dad like candy as well!

Before our visitors had to head home the next morning we tried to get a picture of all the kids together.  Both Henley and Conner were asleep and we didn't want to disturb their peacefulness, so this was the best we could get.

We really enjoyed our visit with Ryan, Steph, and Conner.  It was a much different kind of visit than the last time they were down before Conner was born but a good different.  Thank you to them for taking the time to travel all the way down to meet Henley and visit with us!

End of the year for Leah

Leah's birthday is September 13th which is going to make her one of the oldest kids in her class for entire school life.  The cut off for schools in SC is September 1st, so if she would have gone to preschool this year she would have been in a 2 year old class even though she would be 3 shortly after the school year began.  Since there is such a development difference in a child who is just turing 2 to a child who is turing 3, we decided to wait an extra year before we placed Leah in preschool.  With that in mind however we felt that she was ready for some sort of structure/classroom type learning.  Luckily for me I have some good friends that have decided to homeschool their children and started a preschool homeschool co-op.  Starting last September Leah had the privilege to go to school one day a week with a class of her peers.  This way she was experiencing the structure of a classroom while we were able to work on basic skills at home.  Overall it was a great experience and Leah loved her teacher and her class.  I can assure you that God has not equipped me at this time to homeschool my children but I did cherish the time we had together.  

This past week was her last week of school and to end the year the kids put on a program for the parents/families called "He is Risen" following in the theme of Easter.  

We are so proud of our big girl, she did an excellent job singing!  

After getting her certificate of completion from her teacher she got to join us in the audience. 

I love my sweet pea Leah!  She is growing up so fast.  Henley was a trooper though the whole program. 

Being a cooperative school my responsibility for the program was to organize the food.

The cupcakes and the pretzels rods were fun to make.  Luckily my dear friend Jennifer came over to help earlier in the week so I didn't have to wear myself out baking. Thank you Jennifer!  It was a fun morning and a joy to see how our little one has grown and flourished over the past year.  Thank you to everyone for their hard work and dedication to Alph Omega Cooperative Preschool.  Next year Leah will be attending the same school Chase will be attending, which will logistically be easier but bitter sweet to be leaving such a great community of Mothers.  

Henley's Room

We thought long and hard about what our new living spaces would look like when Henley came along.  We toyed with the idea of putting Chase and Leah in the same room or putting Henley and Leah in the same room. In the end we thought it would be in the best interest of everyone's sleep habits if everyone just got their own rooms.  Luckily in our house we do have the space to allow that. What we were using as the "playroom" became Henley's room.

 Her room is kind of long and skinny but is a good sized room.  Kevin decided he wanted a "girly" color and Leah already claimed pink and green so Henley got purple and green.

 Kevin bought the letters for her name and painted them to match her room.

 I picked out a purple and green bedding for Henley that had an owl on the blanket and decided that I liked the owl theme for her room.  Grammie found this owl print fabric online and ordered it for us.  Kevin took some wood and made a wall hanging.

 My dear friend Lesley made a bow holder for Henley.  If she is like her sister she won't need bows for a couple of years.

 Grammie found another pretty chevron print fabric and stenciled some cute owls onto the fabric.  There were four owls but Kevin lost one in making the frame, sorry Grammie.

 We know she won't be sliding for a few months but knew she would be the next McMahan to benefit from our slide.

Grammie to the rescue again who got her owl decor for her bathroom and this cute tree wall hanging that she converted into a bow holder.  We are not sure if we are going to keep it in the bathroom as of yet, but I like the idea of it being in there because I know with Leah that is where we do her hair and it is annoying to have to go in her room to retrieve bows.  It would be nice to have some right there to grab.  We will see...  Well now you see that our sweet Henley is already spoiled rotten.  We love her so much!

Welcome Henley

Henley Faith McMahan was born on April 11th at 5:08 pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 12 ozs and was 20 1/2 inches long.  She was induced and we were hoping she would make her appearance earlier in the day but came when she was ready. 

We are overjoyed that she is finally here.  After some skin to skin snuggles we were moved to our room where the Grandparents and kiddos got to meet Henley for the first time. 

The kids are so excited to have a little sister and loved snuggling with her.  Later that night she got her first bath and yawned though it.

We think she is going to be a thumb sucker like her Daddy was.  We stayed two nights in the hospital and enjoyed visits from friends and time with our new princess. 

I have had the same feeling with each of my children and this one was no different.  As we loaded her in the car I could not believe they were letting me leave the hospital with this new little being. 

Welcome Home Henley! We love you!