Backyard Butterflies

Today was a beautiful morning to work in the yard and play outside!  

The butterflies were in full force in our backyard, so Reid took a container and would catch and release all the amazing butterflies!

The butterflies were really attracted to this tree in our back yard and I could not believe how many there were!!

Again, Maren is in the Monkey see, Monkey do stage and she just follows her big brother around and does whatever he does!

Impromptu Painting

This afternoon, my friend Christina texted and said that her husband, her and a couple friend had signed up for the Texas Flag painting class at How Great Thou Art, and that everyone was pulling out due to sickness and asked if I would fill in!! HECK YEA!! I love the painting classes and had been wanting to paint the Texas Flag!! We had such a great time and even ran into some other friends!

My Texas Flag!

Christina and My Texas Flags!

This class was so much fun! At the end, we got to splatter paint over the picture! That by far was my favorite part! It was fun and added some bright color to the painting!

PlayDate at the Park

My friend Valarie, who has started staying home as well, Has been asking me to join her church's mom group for a while and today Maren and I decided to join! I have been looking for more things to do here in Burk, traveling to Wichita for all the mom's groups gets hard...

We all met up at the park and let the kids run and play and brought lunch to eat there! Maren had a blast playing and when Reid was done with school, he met us up there as well and met some new friends!

 Maren and Whitney (our friend we know from Musikgarten) It was great to run into familiar faces!

Maren loves to Slide! 

Break Time

Some of the older kids were walking on this like a balance beam, and of course Monkey see, monkey do for this little girl!

A big dirt pile is the favorite spot

April and Today!!

YAY!! I am to TODAY!!!! April is already flying by and I have been at home for 3 months!! I am busier now than I ever was working!! Our friends Claire and Emma had a backyard barnyard for their 5th birthdays and we had a blast riding ponies and feeding the animals! This morning when Maren and I took Reid to school, Maren climbed right up in a chair and was ready to work - but no baby your not ready yet!! When we got home, she started working at her table in the Sunroom and she was so intent on working, she is ready for school!!

Serious Student! (notice how well she holds the pencil!)

Maren's first trip in the car at the grocery store - She loved it!

Reid was a pro at the sack races at the birthday party!

Maren and Cate feeding the baby goats - they were so cute!

I'm cool

Sweet bunnies

Pony rides!

March at the Lake!

The lake levels at Possum Kingdom lake have finally been rising after our drought the past few years and all of the firs last year, so we were finally able to go to the lake and get away for the weekend - It also happened to be St. Patrick's day weekend, pardon all the green!!

Please notice how alike these 2 look!!! It is so much more noticeable when they are sleeping!!

Lake Girl!! Never complains about the life jacket and gets excited to put it on!

This boys asks every chance he gets if we can go to the lake and I surprised him by not telling him where we were going until he recognized the roads we were on!!

Trying to sit still at the cabin!

Holidays

Ok, I apologize for the length of this post, but I am desperately trying to catch up on my posts and get you up to speed!! I think after this one, I am going to try to visit a few times a week (I cannot promise anything!) I have wrapped all the holidays into one post - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter!!

Halloween 2011

Maren the Watermelon

The Green Lantern!

My Crazy Children!

Thanksgiving 2011

Me trying to get a cute picture of my babies..

My sweet family

Christmas 2011

Santa came to visit our house!!

Christmas Eve, ready for church

Ready for bed!!

Such a great big brother!

Loves her baby doll

Daddy got Maren "hair" for Christmas!!!

Easter 2012

Cha Cha and her Texas grandkids

Funny Bunny Reid

Maren Kate

You would have thought this girl hunts eggs for a living!! She was running around the yard snatching up all the eggs!!

Birthday 5 and 1

Ok, since I have TOTALLY SLACKED in the blog o sphere, I will catch up and then TRY (key word there) and stay current!

News - As of January 13, 2012 I am a Stay at Home Mommy!! I am cherishing my time with Reid who only has a few more months until Kindergarten!! and I am LOVING being here for all of Maren's milestones and watching her grow!

I am also going back to school (a 3rd time - what is wrong with me?!?) to get my Masters in Special Education and become a Diagnostician. Whew - what hard work!

Oh and I have become yes, I will admit it, a Runner!! I have now run 2 official 1/2 marathons and 3 unofficial and am keeping up the training....more on that in future posts, I promise!

Ok, so here will come a few posts in a row to catch you up on life in the Viavattene household!

October 2011

Pirate themed 5th birthday! What a great idea to have Reid's birthday at the indoor swimming aquatic center in town!! It ended up raining on his party day and I thought great, we have a closed in venue that will be prefect! WRONG! Since it was lightning out and showed no signs of stopping, we couldn't swim, so we have cupcakes and ice cream and then opened presents and went home..boo but Reid still had a fabulous time!!

Reid turns 5!!!

I am getting pretty crafty and made his cupcake toppers and made all the goodie bags!

November 2011

Maren Kate turns 1!!! We had a small party here at the house for Maren's first birthday! We had a Birthday Brunch and served donuts, etc...Everyone had a great time!

My little Baby Girl is ONE!!

Again with the crafting and that dang Pinterest!! I saw a picture of a cute cake and said "Hey, I can do this!!" Hahah several hours later, I am happy with my finished product but now know why I am not a baker!

Happy Birthday my sweet baby girl, I am thankful for this precious year and the many more to come!