the hartstacks: mother's day weekend

we had an eventful mother's day weekend! friday night we went to st. mary's to visit the michalak's new addition, baby girl taelyn! she joins her older sister, kyla (who was in my class this year), her older brothers brayden and westyn (who is 7 weeks older than lilian). their family of 4 is now complete! taelyn weighed the exact same as lilian when she was born. i always say that i cannot remember when lilian was that small, and i truly cannot! i just loved holding her in my arms and starring at her sweet, perfect face. lilian, as usual, was obsessed with the new baby...well, for the first few minutes. after about five minutes of me holding taelyn she started in with the "my mommy" talk! i am glad that our babysitter is going to have another baby at her house next year so lilian can learn to share the attention! congrats, michalaks!

on saturday nannie and ross invited us to attend the pop tab pandemonium for the ronald mcdonald house. my grandparents are big volunteers for the charity. i got james walker, our school, on board by having all the kids collect pop tabs throughout the year. several schools and organizations around the area do the same and then in the spring they bring all the tons of tabs together for a celebration while they total the collection. the tabs raise money for the ronald mcdonald houses on cherry street in kansas city where sick children stay with their families. we were lucky enough to get a tour of the main home, it was incredible! afterwards, we enjoyed a cook out, face painting, a juggler, and lilian got to sit in a big fire truck which she thought was pretty cool! it was a fun morning for us!

she was a little scared of the real "ronald" so she posed next to this one on the bench!

big stuff riding in the fire truck!

small world, one of the firefighters ended up being someone brian knew that lived around his home town!

posing with nannie, the artwork behind them was amazing!

she got brave and gave the real ronald a high five! he gave her a signed picture of himself too!

first time ever getting her face painting...three balloons...she sat so still!

thanks, nannie and ross!

how cool is this HUGE rocking chair inside the ronald mcdonald house!

getting her hand painted with ross

mother's day has taken on a whole new meaning since becoming a mommy. i cherish my own mother and grandmother more and more as i understand the patience and love of motherhood. since i was a little girl i have dreamed of what it would be like to be a mother, it has by far exceeded every expectation! it is who i am and makes me feel like the luckiest person on earth each and every day. i was spoiled by my wonderful family today! after waking up brian had lilian deliver her present to me...a new mouse pad for school with her picture on it (the picture was her coloring on my easel at school so it was perfect!). i loved it! afterwards i went to the laundry room to check on the clothes and could hear lilian telling brian "more presents." he was hoping to span out the gift giving over the day, however, lilian had a different plan! she wanted me to open them all right then and there so that is what we did! :) brian got me perfume, a new pair of sandals, two dresses, and a cute summery top. i felt very loved! the best part, as always, was the heartfelt card. that is always the best part! we had my entire family over that afternoon to celebrate mother's day. brian grilled out and everyone brought a side dish. we had chocolate chip cookies and ice cream cones for dessert. it was a wonderful afternoon with my family.