What a Night!

I felt like I was getting ready for prom night all over again this past Saturday as we got ready for our first big social event here in Peru. Our good friends were celebrating their marriage and we were so honored to be invited to this special event. If you have ever lived in Latin America you know that an event like this is a big deal, so we were so excited to check it out. I even had the freak out to find the right dress since I was only a week post opp and still very swollen and uncomfortable. Just what I wanted to do, go looking for a fancy dress. Long story short I found something and even had the chance to get my hair done by a famous hairdresser here in Peru. I have to say it was a blast to get pampered and all dressed up. It was nice to remember that a girl can clean up rather nicely, and get out of mommy mode!
Let me just tell you that this party was nothing like I have ever seen, breath taking. The flowers, the set up, the food, it was like being in a movie but better. There was dancing, music and even a show complete with stilt walkers and fireworks. People in Latin America really now how to party. Things just got started around mid-night, and kept on rolling even after we left around 3am. I must be getting old, I just cant do those kind of nights anymore. Not to mention Z was up and ready for the day an hour or so after I fell asleep. We had such a wonderful time though, we danced like crazy, made lots of new friends, and to this day are still trying to catch up on sleep.

Here is a glimpse of what the party looked like. It is hard to tell, but the lighting and decorations were so elegant.

We were the first ones to arrive in our section, but it was nice to have some time to check things out and sneak some pics.

Catching Up!

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a great turkey day, complete with the tummy ache afterward. We went to another American families house along with a few other lonely soles without family here in Peru. We even had a bounce house for the kids, a Peru thing, so it was nice to have them entertained. It is so nice to know that where ever you are through out the world there is family, maybe not blood related but family none the less. We have been truly blessed this year and we are so grateful for all the adventures that life has brought us. I hope that everyone had a great holiday, and we love you!

Check out this bounce house! I have to say that the adults had just as much fun in it as the kids.

Every week at Brock's school they have theater class and music class, but as the year is coming to end all the parents were invited to come and see what they have been learning all year. Let me just say it was so much fun. This pic is of the music class, complete with the teacher playing live music on the guitar. She has been teaching the kids the scales with nesting dolls, so creative, that is what they are doing in this picture. I am so proud of my lil man.

Here is Brock in his theater class having a blast can you tell? Their teacher is awesome, he also had live music for the kids to act to, so fun. At the end of the class we all made a giant spider web of yarn, and the kids loved it. It was especially fun this day because Grandma and Grandpa Tidwell came to class. Man what a well rounded kid he is growing up to be.

Grandparents Visit!

Machu Pichu baby! Yeah I am not at all jealous, my turn is coming next though. Chris took Brock to Machu Pichu for the weekend with his parents and they had a blast. It gives new meaning to a father and sons outing right! Brock still talks about he and his dad are Machu Pichu buddies, it is really cute. I am so glad they had a few days to bond, but man was I lonely with just Z and me.

Isn't it beautiful? Chris said Brock was great the whole trip, which was a relief, because this trip was not exactly geared for kids.

Grandpa and Brock checking out the llama. Man are they soft lil guys. Look at how tiny this lil lady is!

I love this pic of Grandma and Brock at the beach by our house. We had so much fun looking for pretty rocks, and Brock loved trying to find the biggest one he could find and throwing it into the ocean. It was such a relaxing afternoon.

Grandma and Brock playing at the park. Poor Grandma had to try all the toys at the park by Brock's request, including the giant dragon slide. How fun, she was such a good sport.

Long time no post!

I am so behind on all my posts so this week is the week to try and catch up hopefully! We have had a few hiccups the last week, but things are looking up. As some of you know I was in the hospital this week having a very unexpected surgery, so that is my excuse for lack of blogging.

I have been feeling a little under the weather for a couple of weeks now, Ill spare you the details, and thought I had a nasty bug. Well the day after Thanksgiving I hit rock bottom throwing up the whole enchilada, yuck! On Monday Chris finally forced me to go to the doctors and 5 min after we arrived the doctor said he needed to schedule me for surgery, and my reaction was"WHAT?' He then proceeded to tell me I needed to have me appendix taken out as soon as possible before it burst. My immediate reaction was I burst into tears, which is not like me, and then I regained control, and got clarity and realized this was not an option. I dont know maybe it had something to do with having a major surgery done in a different country? Well long story short I am home now despite a few complications and healing slowly. It was such a blessing to have the help that we have in our home with the boys, it made it a lot less stressful for me. So watch out, I have a lot of posting to do, so stay posted. We had a lot of things happen the last few weeks, so I will have to back track so bare with me. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Besos!

Daddy son trip!

Chris's parents got into town on Friday and I can't tell you how excited the boys are to have guests in the house. So they were here for one short day and then it was off to Machu Pichu, with Brock and Chris. Yep so it is just Z and I hanging out at home. I have to say I was terribly afraid to send Brock when Chris first brought up the idea, but then we decided it would be a really good father son bonding moment(brock has been struggling with dad never being around lately). So Saturday morning they were off, and I am sure they are tired of me calling to check on them. What can I say, I am overprotective. Chris says Brock has been awesome and they are having a great time. This morning they head out for a 3 hour train ride up to Machu Pichu, Brock is soooo excited, he loves trains. Anyhow, Zander and I had fun yesterday just the two of us, and then I had to go and get sick. Today is not looking so hot as far as fun goes, poor lil guy. He keeps asking where everone is, so sad. It is so cute every time I talk to Brock he asks to talk to Z, or as he says "his baby." It is so nice to see they really do love each other. I do feel wierd though just having one of them here with me it is so quiet, I miss Brock, and cant wait for him to come home tomorrow.

Tagged!

So my friend Melissa tagged me a few weeks back and I have been really lame at following through, better late then never right. So here is the 4th picture of my blog. Thankfully it is one of my favorites ever, thanks Lilly. Man I cant get over how big Z is getting.

I tag Emily J, Kelsey and Lilly, Luv ya. Oopps forgot to tell ya what to do, go to your archive and re post your fourth picture, good luck.

Phase 2

Yesterday was the last day of soccer, Yeah! Brock had a great time this season and learned a ton, but I have to say I dont think it is his thing. So I am on the hunt for his THING!

All of us, the moms all pitched in money to do something nice for the profe on the last day, so here it is. It was so sweet, he actually had tears in his eyes when we gave it to him and told us how much he loved all our kids. It was such a sweet moment.

So now soccer is over, so we are going to give swimming a try. Another plus to living abroad all these activities are super chea, so you can have your go at all of them. For example I was paying $50 soles a month for soccer three times a week for one hour, which is about $17. Cheap huh! So hopefully swimming will be a good experience for Brock, fingers crossed. So far so good see the giant smile on his face!

Again!

The competition is already starting for battle wounds! Yesterday we took brock to the hospital for stitches, 4 to be exact. I had just gotten home from a luncheon and Chris had picked Brock up from school for me, and he was so excited to show me his new karate uniform. He put it on and was showing me his new moves, by the way he is starting karate. We were having such a good time when he went to jump on the bean bag chair we have in the corner of our room, and over estimated his power and his head landed on the bottom ledge of our window. In a matter of seconds the floor was covered in blood and his head was just squirting, so i am a mess. It actually was probably a pretty funny sight because I am a mess Chris is putting pressure on his head, both our empleadas were trying to get his clothes off and cleaned up, it was chaos. We then went to the hospital to see what the damage was. Luckily he just needed 4 stitches. He thought it was cool because Zander only had 2 and he has 4, way to be positive right! Anyways, luckily Chris was home, and we live right by a great hospital wheeeeew. I will be happy if we do not have to go back to the hospital anytime soon. I guess this being our first incident with Brock in almost 4 years those are pretty good odds, hopefully it will be at least another 4 years!!!

China Festival

Last weekend we went to check out the China festival that they were having in a nearby park, and it was pretty cool. They had this dragon show that the boys just loved, in fact they have asked to watch this little clip i took about a million times, so I thought I would share it with you. It never ceases to amaze me how much culture there is here in Peru, it is wonderful. There is always something going on here, if only we could see it all!

Singing Time

Brock has turned into our little singer. His all time favorite song is I love to see the temple. I hear him singing it all the time, school, shopping, and at home. Every night we have to sing it before he goes to bed. Ever since he could talk he has been in love with the temple, and talks about when he is going to the temple. I think it is so cute how obsessed he is with the temple. He even knows who he is going to marry already, his girlfriend Sara from PR. He tells me all the time that he is going to marry her in the temple. If they could only stay like this forever!

Saturday Morning

Yeah, Chris is finally home! The kids were so excited. Brock has been having such a hard time with Chris being gone so much, so they had some good playtime this morning of course before Chris went back to work. Nothing like a good game of basketball in the house to make mom crazy. This is such a cute pic of Z giving poppy a kiss.

Brock thinks doing anything he shouldn't do in the house is so much fun, but mom let it slide this morning. It was so fun to see the kids so happy to spend a little time with their poppy. Nothing got broken so that was nice.

Zander is my hat boy. He loves putting on his poppy's hats, and he looks so cute in them too.

Painting!

I attempted painting with the kids today, which surprisingly turned out to be a great experience. By the end of our session Brock had paint all the way up to his elbows. He started off painting with his fingers, then with his hands and yeah well he just kept on going from there. Who knows what would have happened if I was not watching. Zander on the other hand had not a single drop of paint on his body. They both had a great time, and all the walls are still clean!

Team work all the way! As time goes by the boys seem to be getting better friends and get this even sharing! Whew thank heavens!

A night out!

Last week I had a night out all by myself, well not entirely, but without kids and unfortunately without Chris(he was in Thailand). My spanish tutor organized a trip with all his other students to go to Brisas Titicaca, a dinner show. It was very cool, they have tables surrounding a huge stage where they have dancers perform dances from all the regions in Peru. It is very interesting how they add so much depth and drama to their traditional dances. If any of you ever decide to come visit you will surely enjoy it. Chris and I have been to a similar restaurant here, but this one is on a much larger scale.

Here is one of the dancers, elaborate costumes huh! They did quite a few dances with scary looking guys like this that were supposed to represent the Spaniards.

Here are a couple of the other students and me and Mauricio my ever patient tutor!

Halloween!

Look its superman, and he truly is that's for sure. He totally had this trick or treating thing down pat. He even remembered to say gracias after he made sure they put the candy in his pumpkin, which of course they all thought was adorable. Zander had so much fun, he did not want to stop.

Yeah, so Halloween is not as big here as it is in the states, poor guy look at his candy. He was so excited to get home and count his candy, a whole 11 pieces, well maybe 14 he ate a few on the way home. I guess I should be grateful, less sugar right!

Here is Superman flying with our door man Ricardo. My boys LOVE Ricardo, he plays with them and I think he like them as much as they do. We always go down to the garage so the boys can ride bikes or get fresh air and he always plays with them, it is really cute. Brock always has to bring him treats too, which i am sure he does not mind.

Brock, Zander, and Santiago on our way to go trick or treating. I had to force Brock to put his mask on.

Brock, Liam, Facundo at school all dressed up for their Halloween party. Yeah, he was something different for every halloween event that we went to. He started off as sportacus for his friends party last week, then went to spiderman for school, and batman for Halloween night. Luckily poppy found some cheap costumes while he was in Thailand.

Today the boys had a Halloween party at a friends house, and man were they excited. Brock could not wait to put on his sportacus costume. This picture is just so Brock, he is always wherever the ladies are. As you can see there are no boys around. I have yet to figure out whether he migrates to them or if they migrate to him? Nonetheless, he is quite the ladies man at the ripe ole age of 3.

Mommy and Brock, man did I have to work hard for this picture. Getting him to come and take a picture with me was almost impossible.

Brock pretending to be Sportacus. Man you should see him do a one handed push up, what a guy!

Isn't this costume so adorable? My friend was kind enough to lend it to me, and I just thought he looks so cute. Expect more pics on Halloween, this is just a preview!

Always!

I have come to realize that every time Chris is out of town something major has to occur. Well this time I thought I was in the clear because he has already been gone for 5 days and so far so good, but today was the magical day!
We left for soccer this afternoon as usual, and afterwards went to pick up Brock's costume from the store. Well we have another lady that comes to our house on Wednesdays to help Zaida, so she stayed at the house. When we arrived home I found all the doors to the house locked and I did not have a key! Yep, we were locked out, no husband, no keys, language barriers, freezing cold and two hungry whinny kids. So it is 6pm and I am trying not to be mad, because after all she was being very responsible and locking all the doors, but still I am locked out of my own house, and on the 5th floor.
So my poor door man offered to try to climb out the window from the 4th floor to our floor, 5th, but I am looking at the window going, does he have a death wish? So I graciously say thanks but I would like him to live to see another day. So we then turn to plan B, call the owner of the building to see if he has a spare key, but no one had his number. Sounds fun so far huh! Well we finally find someone that thinks they have a spare and he will be on his way soon. Yeah anyone that has ever lived in Latin America knows what that means. So we try to and buy some time and walk down the street to the bakery to get something to eat, and something for the poor doorman that was so willing to climb a building for me. Oh yeah and the best part was he thought I was 25!!!! He is my new best friend Jk. Anyhow long story short we got into our apartment 2 hrs later, despite language barriers and hungry kids. We all survived and you bet my keys will be glued to my bag from now on. Hopefully we will not have any more surprises while Chris is away.

Exhibition day!

Yesterday was Brock's first exhibition, and first soccer uniform. A big day of firsts, and of course i was in rush to get out of the house and forgot my camera. So luckily on of the moms on his team took some pics for me.
He had a blast, and thought his uniform was way cool. He had a goal of making ten goals, so he was bummed when at the end of the game he had only made two.
We are so proud of Brock and how much fun he is. If you look closely at his face in the pics he has the biggest smile!
The uniforms they ordered were like 2 sizes two big, but he still looks so handsome doesn't he. His socks go all the way up to his waist. Go Brock!!!!

Ta Da!

Last weekend Chris had a huge conference with all the leaders and distributors in Latin America, not to mention his boss and his boss's boss from Malaysia. So yep, I have not had a husband for quite some time(Ashley if you are reading this I am thinking of you!). He has been working 20 hr days, with no rest in site. Before his conference he was trying to get his new office building ready as well. This building has been his lil baby for the last few months. He stops by at least once a day, and they just had their grand opening last week! I am excited because it is a lot closer to our house.
The boys playing with a distributor at the conference. Yes I took both kids, crazy! I came fully loaded with toys and snacks, in hopes that they would be well behaved. It was a long day for them, but they did awesome. I about dropped my jaw when Chris said he wanted us to sit on stage with him during the conference. My first words were " are you crazy." I was brave and tried, we graciously made our exit when the boys started brake dancing on the floor. Yeah not so cute.
Ok so here is the finished product. If you could only see what it looked like before. This is a really old historical building here in Miraflores where we live. The thing is massive. It has like 5 maids quarters. The inside is gorgeous, and I think it turned out nice. I am glad it is done so Chris might be able to sleep more than 2 hrs a night. I would say spend some more time with us, but he leaves for Thailand and Malaysia on Sunday for 10 days. So maybe when he gets back, or maybe that is wishful thinking!

Trip to the Hospital!

Sorry for the graphic picture, but this was our fun night last night. Around midnight I heard Zander crying in his room so I went to check on him and some how he had fallen off the foot of the bed, which I still have not figured out how. I reached down to pick him up and put my hand in a pool of blood, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I soon found the gusher on the back of his head. Oh and did I mention Chris was not home, yup he was at the office of course. So I had no car and no husband, so what does a girl do. I called Chris and told him we needed to go the emergency room, so he rushed home and we were off. It is so handy having Zaida here so we did not have to get Brock out of bed. So a few stitches and a few ex-rays later we were back at home. Let me just say it was awful holding him down to the table as he screamed while they were putting the stitches in, he just kept saying, "no mommy oucheeeee." It just broke my heart. So here is his pretty head, and a pic of his big brother giving him a hug the next morning, trying to check out his head. It is always quite an experience having emergencies like this while you are living out of the country, luckily all went well.