The Puma!

Ok so it is Zander's turn! His class was in charge of making the Puma for the display, so in his theatre class they pretended to be Puma's. They were so cute!

Zander and his theatre teacher doing improv. I have noticed such a difference in my boys since having the opportunity to do these activities. Such is the life in Peru!

My little Puma, he still to this day pretends to be a Puma at home. In fact I have some sort of animal in my house every day between the two of them. They love to pretend to be animals, and more importantly love to play together.

The puma's attacking their teacher Miss Alyssia.

Catching Up!

So I have been so slow at updating my blog because I have been waiting for my husband who is eternally traveling to download the rest of our summer pictures, but i have now given up and will just have to back later. So here I go backtracking through the last few months!

Brock and Zander's school is awesome. They have a guy who comes every Thursday that goes around to all the classes and teaches them a theatre class, which I love. The teacher is fantastic and i love that my boys get to learn their imagination in different ways. Well, last month the school put together a tour of Peru. They built all the different regions of Peru with the animals that live there, and each class was an animal. So here is Brock being a bird from the Jungle. The teacher has them pretend to do all the things that the bird does in its natural enviornment, it is always so fun to watch my boys learn.

Here is a picture of part of the display they did in front of the school. Each class was in charge of an animal to create for the display. Zander was in charge of the puma, and Brock a bird from the selva, can't remember the name isn't that horrible!

We are just entering into spring here and it is still cold, but I decided to put Brock into swim class to get ready for summer. Well as soon as I did Zander wanted to do it as well, but they dont accept kids until they are 3. So I went in and told them that Brock has brother that is almost 3, not lying right he is closer to 3 than to 2, and if he could try a class to see how he would do. To my surprise they said yes. Well, did I mention that this class is in the big pool, with no shallow end! I was for sure that he would freak out and not eant to do it, but boy was i ever wrong. He is a fish with no fear!

My lil men ready for class. Man how fast they grow!

Summer Continued!

The whole time we were in sacramento we were in the pool, and finally we got Brock to jump off the edge into the deep end wahooo!

The last day we were with my dad he went early in the morning and bought each of the boys a tree to plant in his backyard to come and visit each summer and see how big they are getting. It was such a sweet idea that threw me by surprise. He let the boys do all the work, dig the whole, put the tree in, and water it. They loved it. Here is Z with his tree, an orange tree.

Here is the proud dad of a mandarin orange tree! Look at how proud he is!

Me my sis, he son Jayden and of course the Z man, Brock had already crashed for the night too much fun.

Oh so sad we do not live closer to cousins, they had so much fun wrestling and rough housing.

Off to Sacramento!

So after SD we headed to Sacramento to visit my dad. My heavens was it hot up there, we spent most of our time in the pool in the backyard which the boys loved. They also loved hanging out with their cousin Jayden.

My dad and Z, we went to this really fun restaurant that had rides and games, I thought we would never get the kids out of there.

It was so nice that my grandma Partridge was able to meet us in Sacramento so we did not have to make the trip to Utah. Traveling with two boys and living out of a suitcase gets exhausting after a while. We loved spending time with her.

Another day in the pool, they loved playing with Grandpa Mark!

My sis and Z, they were lil swiming buddies. Thanks for being such a good sport Tara!

Summer Trip 2009!

What a crazy summer it has been, be ready for an overload of pictures as I try and get caught up on my poor blog that has gone unloved for quite some time. Well we tool of for Cali the end of July for a month of fun with family and fun in the sun (it is winter here). We first hit San Diego, which used to be home for us. My boys favorite thing to do beside chill with the fam is Sea World. I think we probably went 6 or 7 times. My kids love the water play area that they have at Sea World and of course Shamu!

Zander is not shy about the water he gets right in head first! He is my lil dare devil with no fear.

Thank heavens for good ole aunt meggie who won the hearts of the boys by sitting in the splash zone, I mean front row, of the Shamu show. It was quite funny though they did not get as wet as expected due to the fact that two of the whales were trying to mate and did not want to cooperate. It made for an interesting show though!

The two buds Z and Jaxie! He and his cousin love to tease each other relentlessly, but love each other just as much.

Aunt Em and Z the two brave soles to get in that cold water. Mom was too much of a pansie, but thanks to auntie Em!

Tagged!

Ya so forgot to keep the fun going and tag people so I tag: Katie Higbee, Emily, Anna, Ashley!!!! I look forward to reading yours!!!

Tagged!

♥What are your middle names? April/Ryan
♥ How long have you been together?6yrs
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Good question! We met when we were 14 but we were just friends and then we went away to college and met back up in 2002.
♥Who asked who out? Chris
♥ How old were each of of you when you started dating? 23
♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most? Chris's my family is all over the place!
♥ Do you have any children together? 2 boys
♥What about pets? Nope.
Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Me having to learn another language and him wanting to help me!
♥ Did you go to the same school? Nope rivals!
♥ Are you from the same home town? More or less we are both from SD
♥ Who is the smartest? Its a tie, but I am alays right!
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Chris
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? La carreta
♥ Who has the worst temper? Hmmmm, maybe me
♥ Who does the cooking? Both of us. Until we moved to Peru and now I have a cook!!
Who's more social? Me
♥ Who is the neat-freak? Me for sure, I love my hubby, but what a slob!
♥ Who is the more stubborn? a tie
♥ Who hogs the bed?Chris
♥ Who wakes up earlier? Me
♥ Where was your first date? Hmmm, we alays went with his best friend Steve so I guess it depends on what you consider a date!
♥ Who has the bigger family? Me, but depends on how you look at it.
♥ Do you get flowers often? Birthdays and anniversaries
♥ How do you spend Christmas? Celebrating the way what ever country we are living in does!
♥ Who is more jealous? Chris
♥ How long did it take to get serious? 4 months
♥ Who eats more? Depends on what it is!
♥ Who does/did the laundry? I do
♥ Who’s better with the computer? Chris
♥Who drives when you are together? Me

Back in Time!

It's been a long time no post, and I can not believe how fast time flies. So now my goal is to get back on the blog train and get caught up. So why then are the pictures in this post so old, well I have been going through all my pictures trying to get organized when I just could not resist a little step back in time. So Emily this is for you, I thought these pics of the kids were so cute, man they are little in these pics.

Uncle Josh, Tameryn, and Brock at Sea World. Brock must have been about 2 yrs, how fast time flies. Uncle Josh had just made the kids day buying them all little shamu's.

Zander is just a lil guy about 6 months or so, on one of our trips back to SD from Puerto Rico. I just thought it was such a sweet picture.

Tidwell family moment, all the grandkids, Chris and Em doing some family cuddling one morning.

Grandpa, Tameryn, and Brock at their favorite place in the whole world Sea World. Look at how lil they are! Where did the time go?

Ok so time to get back on track. Stay posted I will be updating this week. Thanks for letting share some memories.

Camp!

Here are some pice of girls camp. I took over 800 pictures so I'll spare you the boredom and just share a few!

30

As I the time approached for me to turn the big 30, I was feeling a little down about the whole milestone that was about to occur. I sat there thinking "man what do I have to show for the last ten years of my life." All I could focus on were the things I was not doing, like keeping up with my dancing, teaching, doing anything martha stewart like(scrapbooking, any craft). I sat there thinking geez what is there that I am even good at? So I decided I was just going to stay 29 forever. Its possible right?

Thank heavens for a good husband and good friends who were able to point out a few things to me to get me out of my slump. I mean geez I do live in another country with a different language right! I was even about to embark on an adventure I never thought I would do, GIRLS CAMP in SPANISH! Yep, for my birthday I was off to spend three days camping with the young women from our church. Oh did I mention it is all in SPANISH, and with my kids. I mention the spanish thing because it is one thing to learn another language, but to learn church vocabulary is a whole other bag of worms. I do have to say that I am pretty proud of myself. Somehow the words are just there and we all had a great time. I have never seen my kids dirtier, but they love being with the youth from our church.

So I did girls camp for my birthday, in spanish, I have learned another language, I have lived out of the states for 4 years now, yep kiddos no target, and a lot of things you learn to live without. I have two kids that are bilingual, and have had the opportunity to travel a lot. I am in the best sahpe I have been in since my dancing days, and have found a new love for running. So I think it is safe to say that I have accomplished something right? I guess its not time for a mid life crisis yet!

Kids are so funny!

Brock is such a funny kid these days, he has such an imagination, and he thinks that he knows everything. So I thought I would share this funny story with you. (Yeah I know lame still no pics, soon I promise) Ok so here it goes:
Last weekend Chris was really sick(throwing up, and other stuff Ill spare you the details), but if you know Chris you know that he never gets sick, ever. So he stayed home from church on Sunday, and I went with the kids. Well after church I was talking to some ladies and they were asking me if Chris was ok, and if I knew what was wrong. I went on to tell them how strange it was because Chris never gets sick(remember this is all happening in spanish), so I was telling them how Chris has a lead stomach and could eat trash out of the gutter and never get sick.

Later that day the bishop and his counselor came by the house to give Chris a blessing and to see if he was ok, when Brock comes walking in to chat(he loves talking to the Bishop). He was listening to them ask questions about how Chris was feeling when he chimes in, "mi papa esta enfermo porque el comio basura."(my dad is sick because he ate trash) The little stinker had listened to my conversation at church but only heard the part about Chris being able to eat trash and never get sick.
The whole week he kept telling everyone that his poppy is sick because he eats trash, and telling Chris to please not eat trash anymore so he does not get sick again. He kept advising others to be careful and not eat trash as well or they would get sick. It is so funny the way kids interpret what we say. I am so blessed to have two crazy lil monsters, they seem to make me laugh each day. I just need to remember there are ears everywhere in my house that will and do repeat everything I say.

Time Goes By!

Wow have I been horrible at keeping my blog up to date, so sorry. Life has been it's usual craziness, and I say usual because it seems to never be anything else but crazy. Well let me see where to start. Well for starters we moved last week, yep I said it we have moved yet again, still in Lima, but to a bigger place. We had some major problems with our last apartment and so we decided during the time we were living in a hotel because we could not be in our apartment that we would start looking around for something with a bit more space. After looking for a while we found a great house that we fell in love with and so we made an offer and a verbal agreement to sign the contract the next day, so we told our landlord that we would be moving in a week. Well long story short the guy was a creep and so 3 days before moving day he backed out and we were left with a half packed house and no where to live in three days. So yeah I was in freak out mode because now we needed to try and find some place new, but this time I had to do it all by myself since Chris had his boss and 2 people from Malaysia in town, which is always fun to do in another language.

So I set up some appointments with 2 realtor's to take me and show me some places, and everything was junk. I saw about 12 houses in a day and a half with my poor boys and found nothing. That night I was talking with the realtor about what I wanted specifically and she said to me that she has the place for me. Remember I am down to 2 days now, so the next morning she took me to see this place, luckily Chris went with, and sure enough she was right. It is a beautiful house, with plenty of area to entertain, which if any of you know us we love to have parties. So we signed the contract later that night, Thursday, and we moved on Saturday. It all happened so fast, that I really did not have time to change back into moving mode. All went well, just still trying to get situated. We are loving our new place, and I am getting my exercise chasing the boys all around the house.

Besides that Chris has been crazy with work, I don't even know if he lives anymore. Between work and being in the bishopric he is never here. Brock is having a hard time with this right now, so hopefully it gets better. Who am I kidding we have been doing this for 4 yrs. now, one can always hope right! The boys started school, and man does Z love school. I am still taking spanish classes and being in Young Women's again is keeping me busier then ever. We are getting ready to go to girls camp in two weeks on top of everything else. It is a good things my boys love hanging out with the young women. I feel like I have to learn the program all over again but this time in spanish, which complicates things. So far the girls have not laughed at me, at least not to my face, and we all manage to understand one another thankfully. So there is a lil tid bit of why I have not blogged in a while, not to mention no Internet still, but we are all good. I hope to get a ton of pics posted soon. Besos

Phase 2!

On Brock's actual birthday we were trying to figure out what to do, and he requeted going to Parque de Agua, a giant park with water fountains and some for the kids to play in. He is my water baby. We invited some friends to go with us, but this is how I saw Brock the whole time, by himself. Some of the other boys we went with were too scared to go in, but that did not deter Brock from having fun.

My little baby is growing up. He now thinks he can do everything by himself, now that he is 4.

Brock has such a sweet spirit, although he does not show it all the time. When we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday besides go the the water park he said he would like to go to the temple. So we headed to the temple only to arrive and find out that it is closed for repairs. So he wanted to get out and take a picture. He loves to go to the temple, which I think is so sweet.

Next on his list was to go to his very favorite restaurant in the whole world. Some kids like McDonalds, or pizza, but Brock loves Bennihanas. He would go there once a week if he could. Luckily it is a lot cheeper here then in the states. He thinks watching the guy cook is the coolest thing in the whole world.

Sorry I just realized the seqence of events is all disorganized, but you can get the picture right! This is Brock on the morning of his birthday. Zaida made him this chocolate cake just for him, and he was so excited, not so much for the cake, but to blow out the candles. I still can not believe he is 4, I am feeling so old!

Big 4!

He's a ladies man! Yeah that is my boy going in for the kill to say thank you to his GF Lucianna for the cool car she gave him for his Bday.
We threw Brock a little party for him at his school to celebrate the big 4. Actually I wanted to just bring some cookies in, but his teacher insisted that I go home and write up some invitations to give out so the kids will bring presents. I said that that is ok, and I will just bring some cookis, and the next thing I know I am home trying to print out some invitations to take back to the school, well actually Chris did it for me. Man his teacher was convincing! Anyways, it turned out to be a great day for Brock. He loved the fact that we came to his class and brought goodies and cupcakes, and I was relieved that this would be sufficent and so I am now off the hook from throwing a giant peruvian bday party. Yeah! That will come next year.

Brock's class mates singing to him, and do you see the arm around Brock's shoulder hmmmmm.

Brock loves any reason to be the center of attention, and he make sure to put on the BIG act and all.

Here is what we got him for his Bday, and man was he excited. I was even more excited then he was because I got it at 40% discount. I think he loked ot most because of how big it was!

More Las Dunas!

Z and daddy going down the slide, Z is not quite sure what to think about it.

I tell ya my kids have turned into little fish, it is like pulling teeth to get them out of the water. They were in this pool swimming all day and when I say all day I mean all day.

Dad going for a solo run down the slide to show the boys how much fun it is.

Las Dunas!

The first weekend in Feb. we went to this resort called Las Dunas about 3 hours away in a town called Ica. Chris needed to go for work and called me the night before to see if i wanted to go and my answer was you bet. I think I can handle a weekend in the sun! So off we went bright and early the next morning. Let me just tell you that my kids were in heaven.
At the resort they have 3 pools, horse back riding, sand boarding, dune buggies, massages, and the list goes on.
Funny story, see the llama in the picture, well he did not like us getting too close to him so as Chris got closer he startes making this funny noise and spitting at Chris. Man do I wish i had this on video. As Chris gets closer this llama is just spitting all over him as I tell him to get closer so i can get a better picture. I have never seen anything like it, and we have seen a ton of llamas here in Peru. Chris said it smelled horrible, but the kids sure thought it was hillarios, and so did I.

Here is Z and Dominic riding horses. I was sure Z was going to freak out, but he did not, if fact he wanted to do it all by himself.

Brock riding his horse, he thought it was so cool to be up there solito, as he calls it.

As we were waiting for the horses to get sattled up, the boys were feeding the horses some hay when Brock comes walking over and says "mom look what I found." He was so proud of himself for finding some eggs, and I quickly explained why he needed to put them back, and he was so perplexed.(They have tons of animals at this resort, kind of like a petting zoo).

Random

Brock finished his first year of school in December, so as I was going through the house trying to get organized after the holidays I came accross a drawer full of everything he did in school last year. The drawer was full of papers and projects, so I dedided the best way to remember it all is to take a picture and then yes, throw it all away, with a few exceptions. I have to say that putting it in the trash was a very difficult thing for me, afterall he is my first born. I was strong and filled those trash bags full of my lil mans work. So here is a shot of his achievements.

Ok Zander is in love with babies, in particular he loves baby Alia. My friend Megan and her family just moved here, her husband is working with Chris, and she has a 4 month old baby that Z just adores. I never see this kid sit still except for when he is holding baby Alia. When ever he sees her he says "I wanna hold it." He better enjoy her becuase I am not ready to have another one!!!

I am Lame!

I know I said I would not let my blog get out of control again, but here I am with no post for a month. Where does the time go? Things have been crazy to say the least with a quick trip to Puerto Rico, oh how do I miss it there, doctors appointments, oh and the newest a new resonsibility at church. Yeah I am freaking out a lil bit. Last week I was asked to be the president of the Young Womens Program, its a voluntary position to work with the Young Women in our church from age 12-18, which is fun I love working with the youth, but in SPANISH! I think I have had problems breathing since the question was asked, and the panik that runs through my body every time I think about having to speak in front of them is paralizing. I had my first meeting on Thursday, and all I can say is Wow. Just when I had started to feel pretty confident with my spanish this comes along and puts me back in check. Hopefully I will be getting some guidance from up above because I am going to need it.
So anyhow, I am done giving excuses, and I promise to post some pics really soon. Lots of good stuff to post so be on the lookout. Brock turns 4 on Saturday, can you believe it.