A new experience!

On Saturday Andrew woke up with a dry diaper, so immediately I made him sit on the potty....and he went! That is all it took for Bob and I to get excited, who wouldn't after 5 years of diaper changing. So all day Saturday we made him sit on the toilet until he went the bathroom....at one point I think he sat for 45 minutes, but he went several more times! (We are not awful parents because he has a cushioned Dora seat to sit on.) Then yesterday we were at it again, and he went #2. He was so proud of himself, and we made over him like he had won the Super Bowl. We do have to keep reminding him to point "it" down. I had to clean the floor twice and change my socks twice, but that is a small price to pay for his accomplishment. I decided that pictures were not necessary! ;)

Iowa basketball

We had the chance to take the kids to an Iowa basketball game this afternoon. Kalin got to go to a couple of games last year, but this was Andrew's first game.

Kalin liked the cheerleaders, dance girls, Herky and the ice cream.

Andrew liked the ice cream, Herky, and the basketball players. (He refused to have his picture taken with the dance team and the cheerleaders.)

Dawson visits.

We got the opportunity to babysit Dawson Grady on Friday night. (We learned that he may give Andrew a run for his money in the getting into trouble category!) Dawson was very easy to babysit, but proved to get quite mobile. ;) Anyway he had his blankie, so my kids thought they both needed a blankie.

Andrew strikes again!

I was making dinner when Kalin said, "Uh, Mom I think you should come here." I responded with, "I am trying to make dinner." She said, "I really think you should come." Then I found Andrew in his usual hiding spot (behind the rocking chair) with my new hand lotion smeared everywhere. I had to make an important parenting decision, take his picture or give him a serious lecture....so I took his picture and them gave him a lecture, which may explain why he looks a little confused.

In case you can't tell Andrew drew a picture of his cousin Hannah!

Jumping in the leaves.

Bob raked the leaves so that the kids could jump in them, roll in them, and bury themselves.

Trick-or-Treat

Kalin decided that she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty this year for Halloween. She was so excited because we curled her hair and I let her wear my makeup.

Andrew was a bear, which cracked Bob and I up because we seriously think he is like a bear. He is always getting into things he shouldn't and then taking off and hiding somewhere to play with whatever he snuck away with.

Try getting 8 kids who are dying to get candy all together to take a picture and this is what you get. We had alot of fun trick-or-treating with our friends the Taylors and Gradys.

Our loot. I love the fact that my kids would rather have Smarties than Snickers (leave more for Bob and I!)

Pumpkin Carving

This is really the first year that Andrew got to experience the whole pumpkin carving thing, and I thought that he would love it since he seems to like anything messy. Once we cut the tops off of the pumpkins and he looked inside he started to gag....like I seriously thought that he was going to get sick. Needless to say, Bob and I did the scooping and then I did the carving. Kalin's pumpkin was Sleeping Beauty and Andrew's was Mickey Mouse. Next year we may be painting them instead!

Kalin's pet caterpillars.

Kalin found some caterpillars while we were out trimming the bushes, so we got an old jar poked holes in the top and she had some new pets. After a few days I told her to think about the caterpillars living in the little tiny jar when they are use to having the whole backyard to crawl around in and asked how she thought they felt. She thought a little sad and that they might miss their mom, so we decided to let them go. It was a very sad time for Kalin, but we captured it all via camera. My lesson didn't sink in too deep, because we now have another caterpillar in our jar!

Andrew was brave enough to hold one.

Letting our caterpillars out of the jar.

New hair styles.

Addi came over to our house to play one Sunday afternoon and the girls decided that it would be fun to do each others hair. They had a squirt bottle, some play scissors and a brush....that was all it took and they turned into giggle boxes. Unfortunately Addi had to go home, and so then Andrew got to have his hair done. We had to move the chair in front of the sliding glass doors so he could watch the combine in the field while getting his hair done.

Bloomsbury Farm

In October, we had some special visitors: Aunt Becky, Ben and Nick. We spent the day at the Bloomsbury Farm. The kids got to feed the goats, play in the corn box, ride the tractor train, see pig races, and even to a corn maze! After all of that we had some pretty tired kids and parents.

I thought tag was for 10 year olds!!

Okay, I've been tagged four times since Tuesday....so I am going to make up my own rules and combine my tags.

5 Things I hate to admit about myself:

1. I love Civil War reenactments. Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite movies, and when I was little I secretly wanted to be like Scarlet O'Hara when I grew up.

2. I also like Motown music...I love Aretha Franklin and can sing most of her songs. When I am in the car by myself, I will throw in her greatest hits CD and sing R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

3. My daughter at 5, has memorized more Bible versus than myself. I know a lot of versus just not which books they can be found in. Bob and I have both started working on our memorization skills.

4. I am very bad speller, and am totally spoiled by spell check.

5. I miss not being home with my kids everyday (most days), but at the same time I really like my job. I find it satisfying to know that Iowans are receiving good health care in part by my job.

7 Things you don't know about me:

1. I am left handed.

2. I helped my high school golf team win the State Championship my senior year in high school. In fact, Bob has never beaten me in golf....I secretly love it and I know it drives him crazy.

3. I hate to clean toilets and showers and fold laundry. I have a wonderful husband who usually cleans the toilets and showers for me and folds 75% of our laundry.

4. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I absolutely love fall colors...red, orange, yellow and brown.

5. It drive me crazy that I have white hair, and that they stick straight up when I pull my hair back in a pony tail...so EVERY TIME I pull my hair back I use a tweezers to pull the white hairs out!

6. I am the only one in my house who knows how to fill the dishwasher!

7. Finally, I love being with my entire family. I am very thankful that God gave me such a loving husband, children, parents, sister, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and in-laws. I love playing games with my Grandmas, they crack me up. I secretly get excited when my kids to something bad because I know it will make a good story and put a smile on some one's face.

So I'm not linked to anyone blog. (In fact I usually use everyone else's blog to blog hop!) I barely have time to put pictures up of my family, so no one gets tagged from me. Have a good weekend.

Kent Park

This was a beautiful day in
September, so we decided to take advantage of it. After church we loaded the kids and went to Kent park with the Gradys. We had a picnic lunch and then let the kids throw rocks in the lake. After that we took them to the park. At the time we didn't know that the Gradys would be moving to Waterloo in a few months. I am so thankful for their friendship and the fun times that we have got to spend together while they have been in Iowa City. They will be missed!!

Birthday in Marshalltown

Kalin had her last birthday party in Marshalltown. We got to spend time with family and play a few games. It was a lot of fun!

Kalin's 5th Birthday

Kalin got to choose what she wanted to eat for her special birthday meal. We had Kraft Mac-n-cheese, strawberries and grapes, Doritos, and chocolate milk.
I also made her a giant M&M cookie!
Kalin's birthday present was a John Deere Gator, which she needs to share with her brother.
She also got some tools. Here Kalin is building a house and Andrew is reading the directions.

Kalin and Addison's 5th Birthday

Kalin and Addison celebrated their 5th birthday together this year. For those of you who don't know Kalin and Addison are about 12 hours apart. Her Mom and I were literally next to each other in the delivery room at the hospital, so these two have been best friends since day one.

Bank robber at the Rotzoll house?

Okay....no bank robber was actually in our house, but we had a very interesting afternoon yesterday and I thought you guys might in joy the story.

Anyway here goes....Around 2:30 yesterday afternoon I was checking the local paper internet site for the news and I noticed that there was a bank robbery in North Liberty. I thought it was funny b/c the suspect was a white male, 5'10", and was wearing a blue plaid shirt and brown shoes. Bob totally fit the discription b/c he had on his blue plaid but no brown shoes. At the time I didn't realize that we were going to be in the middle of all the action.

Then around 3:15 Bob comes charging in my office saying that the sheriff was on the phone and that local police dog followed the robber's scent and it lead to our front door! The police had our house surrounded and they needed us to come home right away so they could search our house. (One way to get out of work early). So Bob and I practically run to our car and head home. We get there and the whole street is lined with police cars and unmarked cars and there are police literally walking around our house. In addition to the police cars, two local news stations are there with cameras! So Bob opens the garage door using the key pad thing and I am kind of just standing there and the policeman says, "You may want to step aside" and I look down and he has his weapon drawn! So of course I quickly go over to the empty lot next door. They went through our entire house and found nothing, praise the Lord....but needless to say it was quite exciting.

So we watched the 5:00 news and it was the lead story. They showed the bank and a security picture of the guy and then they were like, "The dogs traced him to this house"...and there was a picture of our house on tv. (Luckily I trimmed the bushes a couple of weeks ago so it was looking pretty good.)

You know how I like to tell stories and make people laugh...this is going to be retold a lot of times!

Little ballerina!

Kalin started dance lessons with Janet Long this year. So far she has showed us first and second position, and how to properly stretch. She loves it!! Although she will not wear her dance outfit out in public because she is afraid people will laugh at her....so if anyone sees her DON'T LAUGH.