Brian's Birthday Weekend!

brian celebrated his 33rd birthday on august 23rd! we celebrated with dinner at rancho grande and he requested a special cake...double chocolate (new recipe that was delicious!) i had lilian deliver his gifts that morning along with a card she made for him. we got him a new polo (shocker for anyone who knows brian) and a new mizzou t-shirt (another shocker!) we sang to daddy and let him blow out his candle too! we are trying to teach lilian to associate blowing out the candles with birthdays so maybe she'll attempt it this year! happy birthday to the best husband and father around. we are truly the luckiest girls on earth to be able to call you ours. we love you!

make a wish!

daddy's girl

someone approved of the cake!

the birthday fun continued into the weekend! friday night we went to drew and colleen's for a game night...always one of our favorite ways to spend a night! we played taboo and scene it together. lilian enjoyed a slumber party at aunt alison, uncle bryan, and curtis's house. they had a ball playing together! alison sent me the cutest picture of them snuggled up in curtis's bed together too. they slept in there the whole night and woke up around 8 the next day! we met them at curtis's karate class the next morning to check out his new moves. it was quite entertaining as you can imagine! afterwards, we took the kids out to lunch. i love watching them interact...they are so sweet together!

curtis in action

giving hugs after class. great job, curtie!

after lunch with the lutes we met jill and mike at the independence center. lilian was excited to see baby micah again. we had been telling lilian all week that her reward for doing well at the drop offs to the babysitter (no tears, hooray!) would be a carousel ride at the mall (one of her all time favorite things to do). the deal was that much sweeter when jill told us they would be out this way on saturday. lilian kept asking if baby micah would be able to ride the carousel with her. it was micah's first time and who better than to show her the ropes than lilian!? days later, lilian would say, "baby micah hold onto the reigns!" she loved having a friend to ride with! thanks for coming out, simpsons!

teaching them early to enjoy shopping with their mommies!

we ended the weekend with my family on sunday taking brian to his choice for his birthday meal....he picked minksy's. yummy! happy birthday, babe!

congrats, morrisons!

well, brian and i survived our first week back at school! sigh! it was definitely a tough transition going back to work after spending every single day with lilian. we were fearful going back to the babysitter would bring lots of tears too (something we struggled with last year). happily, i can report we only had one morning this first week back with tears! i'll take it. :) we enjoyed our evenings playing with lilian outside this week and taking our nightly walks at the trail when the weather wasn't too hot!

playing with bubbles out back while daddy grilled dinner

that smile just melts my heart

one of our summer projects was having the deck stained (and fence) so i took a few pictures!

you can tell how hot it has been with the drought by the looks of our backyard!

after our first week of school we went to st. louis for my friend from college, natalie's, wedding to brad morrison. we road tripped with jill and mike and shared a room with them. we had a great time gabbing in the car on the way down and even stopped in columbia on the way back on sunday and got to show the boys our old stomping grounds and make a stop at the mizzou bookstore! it was such a fun trip celebrating natalie and brad! we are so thrilled for them as they begin their journey as husband and wife. we know they have a wonderful future ahead! it was truly a college reunion for us. we usually do a girls lake trip in june and it didn't work out this summer....so natalie's wedding became our lake weekend! it was so much fun to see everyone and catch up!

the wedding was at 2:00 so we had drinks in the hotel lobby before the reception began with everyone

the stunning bride, natalie

emily and maggie

all the dg girls!

veronica, dee, me, sara, em and maggie

always love time with my mags!

dance floor! missy, mags, me, em, nat and tara

end of the night hugs...so much fun!

Goodbye, Summer!

dear summer,
oh, what fun we had with you this year! lilian is growing so fast and we were able to do so many fun field trips with her this summer! we loved our days at the pool, strolling around the kc zoo, riding the carousel at the mall on those super hot days, visits to iowa to visit the family, play dates with friends, and lazy days spent in our pajamas watching madagascar and cinderella! you are our favorite time of year because it means a couple of uninterrupted months with our precious girl. we hate to see you go because we know it means back to work for us and less time staying home and spending every little moment with lilian. however, we know you'll be back and we are excited for what is in store for us this next year as lilian grows older and our family continues to make more memories together. thank you for a wonderful few months! til next year!
love,
the hartstacks

our last saturday of summer we celebrated by taking lilian to the midwest balloon festival in olathe. 

snow cone break. another one of our favorite summer past times!

daddy and lilian at the balloon fest

this was lilian's favorite!

once the sun went down they had a balloon glow, it was our favorite part! 

Cousin Camp

timothy lutheran's pre-school was on summer vacation last week so we had the pleasure of entertaining curtis all week! lilian was so excited to have her little buddy around all week. we kept them busy and tried to go on a field trip each day. they were quite the pair! of course, anything curtis did lilian had to do as well....we had pete and repeat all week. ha ha!
monday my mom took off work and the four of us (brian had a meeting) went to powell gardens. it was my first time there and we will definitely be back! it was super hot so we got out there when it opened at 9. we checked out all the forts and went to the butterfly exhibit after having a picnic lunch. there was a quite a bit of walking so they were tuckered out by noon!

cinnamon rolls for breakfast and someone will no longer sit in their high chair! perfect example of having to do everything like her big cousin! i was hoping this would rub off and get us back to going on the potty, but no luck!

climbing on the bunny

our first fort!

this was by far their favorite fort...a pirate ship! curtis was doing his best pirate voice in this picture!

fairy curtis

fairy lilian couldn't quite reach the hole but refused to have help...miss independent at work!

you could draw with sidewalk chalk on this fort!

not sure what the arm motions are! :)

cute pink fort!

cheese with grammy!

one of the moths in the butterfly exhibit, they were HUGE!

always have to take time to smell the flowers!

they insisted on nap time together in lilian's big girl bed...who could resist these too cuties napping! i wanted to crawl in there!

tuesday our friend from work heather hosted a play date with our school friends at her house. they have a great backyard with a swingset, water table, play house, roller coaster toy, etc. rebecca brought her two boys, brody and kogan, who are 3 and almost 5 so curtis had some fun friends to play with! he was loving every minute playing with the boys! lilian had fun with her girls, amelia and sophia, and the boys too!

love that boy!

the roller coaster ride!

daddy and daughter time! drew and amelia and brian and lilian

all those toys and their favorite thing was eating my sonic ice!

swimming with the boys

after heather's house we headed to mcdonald's and then to grammy and pop's pool to cool off before nap time!

wednesday morning we caught a break from the heat so brian, me and the kids headed to the zoo right when it opened. it was the perfect morning for the zoo! it was not crowded at all and was cloudy and had a nice breeze! hooray for nice weather finally! the kids loved the train ride, the polar bear, riding the carousel, and the kangaroos.

zoo time!

we got so close to the polar bear! they loved the big splashes she made!

so sweet!

lilian's favorite!

squeezes on the train ride

watching the kangaroos

curtis was not scared at all, lilian was a different story!

thursday morning brian had another meeting (can you tell school is starting soon, boo!) so my mom and i took the kids on a walk on the trail, to the mall to pick out a gift for nannie, and then we went to visit nannie for her birthday (it is on friday). she requested chick-fil-a for lunch which was perfect for the kids! we enjoyed lunch with her and ross and homemade cookies from nannie. lilian and curtis loved playing in the backyard and helping ross pick up sticks from the yard. they played hide and seek all through the house and entertained themselves quite well!

happy birthday, nannie!

friday was an unbelievably gorgeous day! i had a meeting in the morning so brian took the kids to burr oaks woods nature center and to the park. he texted me during my meeting and said to meet them at the park for a lunch date! it was perfect. we went to pink hill park and had a picnic outside and then let the kids play for the afternoon. curtis is adorable and introduces himself to every single kid he sees. he would go up to them and say, "hi, my name is curtis, i am 4 and this is my cousin, lilian!" it was so funny! by the end of the week lilian was starting to not be so shy around new people which i loved! we are working on now trying to introduce ourselves to people and be like curtis! i love his little personality and how outgoing he is.

slide!

always a fan of the swings!

curtis is getting so big!

someone used to be a little scared of slides...after watching curtis a few rounds she was going on her stomach! i love it! 

hugs for aunt kari!

cousin love!