The Rottman Family Adventures – Page 3 – The stories of a growing family in AZ

Thanksgiving in Pine

January 28, 2014 by Beth Leave a Comment

We decided to rent a cabin in the mountains for Thanksgiving just to get away as a family. We had a really good time! It was beautiful there and relaxing. It was cold for us but we enjoyed bundling up and having a constant, cozy fire in the cabin. It was great to be outside and let Clara explore the woods. She learned about pine cones and acorns for the first time I think. They are just not very plentiful around Phoenix! We hiked at Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. It was amazing! We went to an outdoor Christmas festival in Payson and even met Santa Claus in the small city hall of Pine after their Christmas parade. We managed to cook a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner in our small cabin after bringing all of our food from home. This was our first family vacation with just the three of us (plus Walcott), and we hope to do it again soon!

Nana and Pops in Tempe

January 28, 2014 by Beth Leave a Comment

My parents visited us in October. I know, we are way behind on the blog. Jeff recently gave it a face lift, and hopefully we will now be up and running. It was so fun to have a visit from family! We enjoyed showing them around and visiting some of our favorite spots (mainly food related). We ate at food trucks, our favorite middle eastern grocery/restaurant, a new vegan place I’ve been wanting to try, and of course, tacos. We went to the zoo and the children’s museum. Clara had a blast with them. She loved to bring them book after book and just to have constant playmates. We love you Nana and Pops!

Walcott and Clara

December 8, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

Since Clara was born, Walcott has appeared on the blog much less frequently. We recently had a scare with Walcott getting out of our yard. He was out most of the day by the time we realized he wasn’t just lounging in one of the far corners of the yard. Thanks to some nice people and Craigslist, we had him back within a few hours from when we found him missing. We were relieved to have him back and really love having Walcott as part of the family. I have been intending to post a little about Walcott and Clara as a duo, but this scenario further spurred this post. They are pretty funny together. Clara loves to try and sit in Walcott’s “lap” but he usually isn’t a big fan of this. They can be found hiding under tables or chairs together or reading books on Walcott’s bed.

Schnepf Farms and Halloween

December 8, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In October, we went with some friends to Schnepf Farms. We were surprised to see how much of an event it was. There were pig races, a dog stunt show, a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, and a lot more. It was a fun time!

We went over to some friends’ house for Halloween and just enjoyed some time hanging out. The kids were super cute in their costumes. Clara wore a cat costume that was given to her by Nana and Pops. As a child, I was a cat every Halloween for several years so my parents thought it was only fitting that Clara dress like a cat as well.

Houston

November 25, 2013 by Beth 2 Comments

We went to Houston in September for the Mississippi State/OSU game. It’s the first State game I have been to since I graduated (which has been a while), and only Jeff’s second. Of course, it was Clara’s first time to see Mississippi State. Sadly, we did not get to see a win but we did get to see several friends that we hadn’t seen in a while.

We spent Thursday evening with Devin, Sally, and Avery and had a great time catching up. Jeff and Devin were roommates during a summer internship with Dow and had a surprising amount in common. This was our first time to meet Sally and Avery, and it turns out that Sally is a speech pathologist too (so even more in common). Clara and Avery are close in age and had a great time together at dinner. Too bad we cannot hang out more often!!

Jeff, Clara, and I went to the zoo on Friday and had a great time. We really like their zoo! They have an awesome children’s area that Clara just couldn’t fully appreciate yet. Maybe we will have to check it out again.

Friday evening we went to Maggie and John’s for a football kick-off party before the game the next day. It was great to see all of the Whites and meet some of their friends from Katy. We are normally all reunited just at Christmas, so this was an added bonus to see them at a less hectic time. Maggie and John were great hosts, and it was fun to get a glimpse into their life in Katy.

We met up with Grant, Allison, and Allison’s family at the game. It was so good to see them after several years! Several years?? Yeah, I think it really has been that long. We were all in each other’s weddings, except for Grant missed ours since he was in South Korea at the time (something I was reminded of when we saw them– I just imagine our wedding with Grant there I guess). Jeff and I both remember one of Grant and Allison’s first dates at their fraternity Christmas party when we all ended up hanging out in Jeff’s room.

On Sunday, we went to an Astros game with Grant and Allison. Although baseball isn’t really our thing, we had a good time just hanging out.

Mt Lemmon

November 24, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In early August, we met Ryan, Yunuen, Matt, and Dana on Mt Lemmon for a long weekend. It was so nice to relax and just enjoy time to hang out with good friends. Of course, we ate some wonderful food and even had pairings of wine for each meal and after dinner cigars for the guys thanks to Matt and Dana.

Clara One Year

November 18, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

So we are very far behind on posting… it’s been a busy last few months and we’ve had some blog issues but hopefully we are back now! Only a few months late… Clara turned one!!

Our favorite photographer, Amber Russell of Amber Lea Russell Photography, came all the way up to Phoenix for Clara’s one year pictures. We love Amber as a person and as a photographer and highly recommend her! We went to downtown Phoenix near Lola Coffee and then headed to Encanto Park. The day was very hot but all of us managed to hang in there long enough to get some great shots. We were pleased with the result! Thank you Amber!!

The green rocking chair was Jeff’s as a child and was recently given a makeover with the green paint. Clara really enjoys it!

We celebrated Clara’s birthday with pictures on the 27th and then lots of family time on her birthday. Hopefully, we can celebrate with friends next year once we are more established in Tempe. A local restaurant chain gives $10 off for birthdays at each of their restaurants, so we took advantage of this and went to Liberty Market for brunch and then Joe’s Real Barbeque for dinner. We brought Clara’s passport along as the proof required by the restaurants. It is still funny to me that such a young child has a passport and that it will be valid until she is 5.

Clara was walking well by this point, clapping (and even began on her own when singing “If You’re Happy and You Know It”), and imitating motions to songs. I should have been better about blogging at the time or writing things down… so I am kind of lost as to what exactly was going on at the time. She was using several signs at this point for “more”, “all done”, “eat”, and “please”. She started saying “dog” and “book” around this time and could tell you what sound a dog makes. She was starting to approximate many other words too. She was (and still is) a huge fan of books and was entertained as long as someone would read. She loved the bath and would lay on her belly and kick as if she was swimming.

Mississippi

November 18, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In July, Clara and I were able to go back to Mississippi to visit family while Jeff went to California for a visit with Steven and work training. Jeff is officially part of the Rotation program now as the rest of his class joined him in training and began work in July. Clara and I spent our first day in Jackson with the Rottmans/Shirleys. Clara and Tucker are only a few months apart and were both so different from the last time they were together.

Mary Frances arrived back in MS after a semester in Spain. It was so much fun to welcome her home! While our parents were off at a high school reunion, Mary Frances, Stephen, Clara, and I headed to Petal to visit the Kolvites who just moved back to MS. Sibling road trip! We haven’t been all together like that in a long time… Clara and I met our newest cousin/niece for the first time. Anna Ruth is a cutie and content just hanging out. It was great to finally meet her. We were even able to celebrate both Clara’s birthday and my birthday.

We spent the rest of our time at Nana and Pop’s just hanging out, picking blueberries, going fishing, and doing other fun things that you do in Mississippi. I was awed by all of the green during this trip. It’s beautiful! I think I miss green even more now after moving to Phoenix. We are mostly back in MS during the winter, so it was really fun to see everything green for a change. Clara was not a huge fan of the grass, but she did enjoy just being outside on the swing or in the pool or slip’n slide.

Thanks to Pops and his fishing wisdom, I caught the biggest fish that I ever have (or at least that I can remember). Since moving from Mississippi over six years ago, the fish in our lake have gotten HUGE. This one was over 5 lbs.

In my mind, Pops knows all about fishing. I still love going out to our land and spending time with him as we fish– even when we aren’t very successful. Our family has some great memories out on our lake! I am excited for Pops to teach Clara and share his love for fishing with her.

All of the kids (minus Jeff- missed you!) cooked an anniversary dinner for Nana and Pops. 35 years!! Love you both!

11 Month Pictures

July 10, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

Wow… 11 months. Did you know that is just one month away from 12 months? Jeff and I feel like Clara has changed so much just in this last month. We are really starting to see her personality. She loves to laugh and interact with us. She is a very happy baby. She seems to really enjoy music and singing and has even started to dance to music. We often go to baby story time at the library, and the songs, interactions, and bubbles are a huge hit. We also frequent the children’s museum just to play and to go to classes about math, Spanish, etc. It’s amazing what is offered! Clara still loves to read, and her current favorite books are the ones where you lift the flap. She is able to do this on her own but we have had several flap casualties already.

Clara has started pointing in the last month and will usually point to the correct item when asked, “where’s your bunny?” or “where’s the fan?” Speaking of fans… she is fascinated by them, and we have several at our house. When she is sitting in her seat for meals, she can see at least three different fans. One day, she pointed to the one in the kitchen, then to the one she could see through the window on the back porch, and then turned around to point to the one in the den. This has now become a fairly regular thing to point to all of the fans that she sees. Can you imagine the fun we have in Home Depot on the fan aisle? If only they kept them running… Clara is now saying “mama” and “dada” regularly for us and approximates other words. She does the sign for “all done.” Although this still is used to mean a lot of things right now, she consistently does the sign when she is finished eating.

You can see 4 teeth now, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom, with another starting to come through on the top. And… Clara is taking several steps at a time now. She has been increasingly walking longer distances between furniture but will now take off on her own and can take up to 5 or 6 steps before stopping. She also enjoys sticking out her tongue these days and touching yours when you stick it out too.

Mississippi State went to the college World Series in Omaha. This was a huge deal for our school. Sadly, we ended up in second place but Clara enjoyed hanging out with her daddy during the games.

Clara’s kicks in this picture were Jeff’s as a baby. Aren’t they cute?

Playing in the cabinet and even crawling all the way in…

And the pointing…

We Miss You Tucson

July 9, 2013 by Beth Leave a Comment

Our blog has been down for a while but we should be back up and running and will hopefully have a new look soon too. We spent a weekend in Tucson in June and were thankful to have some quality time to spend with friends. Our Tucson friends are really like family, and we love to see them. We packed the weekend full of time with friends and thoroughly enjoyed it!

We visited Nick, Betsy, and Silas on Saturday morning. It’s amazing how much Silas and Clara have grown. It was really fun to see them interact and just to catch up!

We also were able to say goodbye to the Evans as they head off to start Christ Church San Antonio. It was wonderful to spend time with them and their kids. Their youngest is only 4 days older than Clara, so it was fun to have them together again too. Luke and Marianne are special people, and I think part of us wishes we could move to San Antonio to be a part of their church.

Sunday, June 16th was Jeff’s birthday and his first Father’s Day. We were happy to celebrate in Tucson with friends. We even had a Dairy Queen ice cream cake courtesy of Ryan and Yunuen and Matt and Dana. If you know Jeff well, you know that this is a favorite! Sunday evening we spent time at the Holleys. Over the last six years, you could find us at their home on Sunday evenings and it feels like home to us.