He has Arrived

........well to my blog anyways! Eight months late can you believe it? Cooper Alejandro Tidwell was born January 15, 2010, at clinica Montesur Lima Peru. He weighed 3.760kgs., 8.3 lbs. and was 51 cm. long. He made quite an entrance to say the least, and we are so glad he is a part of our family. Not to bore you all with the bloody details, both of us are lucky to be here today. Which is why it has taken so very long for me to post. It has been a crazy eight months. I had a emergency c-section, without an epidural, very fun but don't recomend it. Cooper was purple and scored a 1 on the apgar scale, so not off to a good start. But long story short we are all healthy and happy now, it was very scary but we had wonderful doctors and a great hospital. Cooper is such a joy and please keep checking in the blogathon starts today!!!!!

Sad but I do not have any pictures of when he was just born because he was rushed to the ICU and I was not in good condition, so here some day after shots.

The new crew, the boys are so excited for their new brother!

The smallest Tidwell, but two weeks early!

Dia De Abuelitos 2

It is about time right! Long time no post, like 8 months too long. I am now in the process of organizing the last eight months of craziness that has been our life to post and catch up. So be patient and please check back in, Cooper will be making his big apperance!!!

Yesterday was grandparents day at Z's school and so I thought I would share this with his abuelitos first. Sorry my camera stopped working right when it started to get good, oh well. We love you all, and he was so sad that he had no appearances from his grandparents. Such is the life of living abroad right?

Ward Christmas Party!

Our family at our ward Christmas party, and yes Santa is you know who. Brock is such a smart little cookie that he relised it was his dad by the ring on his finger. What four year old notices such a thing?

That is one tall Santa, don't ask me how he got roped into doing this for the second year in a row.

Zander getting ready for the primary program part of the party, what a cute little burro!

Of course I can't forget my king. Brock picked this costume right off, he loved being the rey for the program.

Graduation!

The 15 of December Brock graduated from preschool and is now moving on to his big boy school, collegio, in March. The Nido, preschool, that they both go to had a real graduation with cap and gown and the whole nine yards. It was very cute and I have to admitt made me a little emotional that Brock is not my baby anymore.

Brock and his teacher Miss Lilliana. He actually had her for two years straight so it was sad to say goodbye, but then again Z is still there so I will still see all our favorite people for some time to come.

Brock walking the line, he is so handsome!

Holiday Season!

It has turned into a yearly tradition here that I bake a ton of sweets to give as gifts to all our friends here in Peru. It is not a common thing here to have someone make baked goods so the people here think it is amazing. I made lemon bars, no bake cookies, rice krispy treats, magic cookie bars, zucchini bread, and mint chocolate brownies. The best part of it all is that I bake and someone else cleans up the mess, yahooo!
Loved this picture of Zander after a birthday party a couple weeks ago. He thinks it is so fun to get his face painted.
One thing that I really love about living here is the fact that I can take my boys to the theatre for next to nothing, less then the movies in the states. They have about a dozen of different theatres in our area that always have some childrens production going all throughout the year. We went and saw one of the boys favorites, Chimoc the Navidad version. Here is Z shaking hands with one of the characters after the show.
My lil men after thier holiday show at school. We are so proud of them and all they have accomplished this year.
Zander's class had a Christmas party at one of his classmates house, and even Santa came. I have never lived anywhere where they love Santa as much as they do here. We went to over a dozen activities where Santa was there. He even roamed the isles of our local grocery store everyday. Man that Santa is amazing! Here is Z with some buds from class, Santi and Christina.

You want to know why we love living here? ... there is nothing quite like a good latina "Nochebuena" and yes that is from the roof on our house. Dont worry I still have all 9 fingers!

X-Mas Show

Zander is our Dancer!!! it run is is blood what can we say?

He can be a little sheepish at times but he is our little boy.

Ward Outing!

Last Saturday our ward went to a club in Chosica, which is about 30 min away, to have a big activity. In Peru it is very popular to go to these clubs that have pools, games, horses, toys and much more. People usually head out to these clubs on the weekends to get out of Lima. The boys had a blast despite the fact that there was no sunand a little chilly! We ate Choripan, and enjoyed spending the day relaxing and spending time together.

Zander and Chris going for a ride! Brock was so excited because he got to ride all by himself, he did not want to get off.

They even went horseback riding, both boys got to ride solo this time.

My little fish. Brock thought the water was too cold, but Zander did not care how cold it was, nothing was going to keep him out of the water.

The whole ward, playing, cooking and having a great time.

Another Awards Ceremony!

International Business Managememt Awards 2009! Yep he won another award, and we are so proud of him! But let me tell you these awards ceremonies are soooo long and sooo boring that they are lucky they serve you a nice dinner or else I do not think I could make it through another one. Chris really deserves the award for all his hard work and long days. He has really made amazing progress here in Peru and it is so nice to be recognized for his hard work!

These ceremonies are actually quite different from anything I have ever been too. How you may ask? Well every company that is present at the ceremony has a display of their coorporation and hires girls to pass out fliers and samples etc. The crazy thing is that the price of your girl depends on their height, skin color, body type etc. When Chris told me about this the first time I thought it was crazy, but how the culture here does things. So here is a picture with Chris and his rented girls and some distributors, sounds funny no matter how you phrase it!

Chris recieving his award!

Ultimo!

In the resort where we were staying they have huge aquariums with sharks, sting rays, and all sorts of other fish and a model of what Atlantis looks like. Here are the boys in the underground aquarium.

Mommy and Brock standing on the balcony of our hotel room. Look at how beautiful the water is, oh how I miss the carribean.

Pirates were a huge thing in the carribean back in the day, so one day we ventured into town to go to the pirate museum thay they have in Nassau. Of course all we heard the rest of the day was arrrrrrrg!

Mom and the boys after dinner one night. They were so good the whole trip, it makes me want to stay on vacation even forever.

Z playing on the water jungle gym. I just love his smile.

More Bahamas!

The thing that excited my kids the most about our trip besides the pools was the opportunity they had to touch and swim with dolphins. They put on their wet suits and hoped right in the water and the dolphins swam right up to them, They got to hug, kiss, feed and dance with them. Talk about an experience. Z loved putting fish in their mouths, and Brock thought they were just the coolest things in the world.

Dad dancing with the dolphins!

Z giving his dolphin a big hug!

Now it is Brock's turn to give the lil guy a hug. He was a little timid at first, but after a few minutes you could not keep him away.

Bahamas

We are definately living up to our blog name crazy Tidwells, because we decided last minute that we needed to take a family vacation before baby boy #3 arrives so mom was on the hunt for something fun for the whole family. We wanted to take a cruise, but our hopes were soon crushed to find that you can not cruise after 24 weeks and at this point I was 29 so that was out. So back to the internet I went and we found a great deal to go to a resort in the Bahamas so 7 days later we were off.
After 3 flights, Lima-Panama, Panama-Florida, Florida-Bahamas we made it to paradise. At first sight I realized how much I miss living in the Carribean. The first day of the trip was awful, and I was praying that it was not a sign of how the week was going to unfold.
When we arrived at the resort I had packed all of our bathing suits in our carry on since I knew we would not be able to check in right away and we would want to hit the beach. Well to my surprise I pulled out everyone's suit to find that the bottom half of my suit never made it into my suitcase! Now where am I going to find a maternity store in a resort. So we were then on the hunt to try and find a bottom for my suit. While in one of the stores Zander tells me he has to go poopy, but before I get him out of the store he drops a load on the floor by the register. Chris and I are mortified, gotta love boardshorts, things just seem to fall right out if you know what I mean. Luckily the lady in the store was very cool about it and said not to worry about it, she has six kids herself. Still mortified I lean down to try and clean up the mess, while Chris is outside cleaning Zander with the 2 wipes that I have left. So all this in the first hour that we are supposed to be in paradise. Luckily after that we had the time of our lives for the rest of the week.

The boys were in paradise with all the 15 different pools that they had to choose from and the millions of kids to play with. They had one pool that had a giant playground with water slides and fountains that the boys spent most of their time on. Here is Brock going down one of the many slides. I have to say it was nice because chris and I coould sit and relax in a beach chair and the kids could just play with out the fear of someone drowning. We spent every moment we had in the water, and on the beach. i was in heaven.

Zander loved practicing his swim skills with his kickboard, or as he calls it his surf board. He is a great little swimmer.

The boys on one of the balconies of the resort. Gorgeous water, blue skies, and perfect weather.

The boys and I after dinner one night. I always feel so much better seeing that I don't look as gigantic at 30 weeks as I feel. My boys are so silly, always making faces. I have to say that the boys were on their best behavior the whole time, why can't they be this way at home?

Halloween!

Better late then never, I am finally gettong Halloween pictures up on my blog. It seems as though with each passing week there is something else that keeps me from keeping this blog updated, but I guess that is just life right?
Anyhow, here is my nemo and buzzlightyear! Unfortunately, they really do not celebrate Halloween here in Peru so my boys did not go trick-o-treating this year, but they did have a party at school and one at church. They loved getting dressed up, and I sure did not miss two boys hoped up on sugar.

Brock decided he did not want to wear the same costume twice, so he had to be batman for his party at school.

Posing for the photographer at their school. I just love Zander's smile.

Before school, the day before Halloween.

Blue and Gold!

This is Mila my wonderful cocinera, cook, that makes my life oh so much easier. She is a fantastic cook, and so when Chris decided to have a dinner party at our house before our stakes blue and gold dance she prepared everything. Easiest party we have ever thrown.

Here are some of our friends from our ward enjoying the meal Mila prepared before going to dance it all off at the stake center later.

Here is a picture of the starters she made, yummy huh! She also prepared a vegetable lasagna and a meat lasagna, with a tres leches for dessert. It was a fun night with friends, food, and dancing.

Bomberos!

Last week Zander's class took a field trip to the fire station which I was able to tag along to take some pics of the kiddos. It was a little crazy, but Zander loved climbing up into the truck and playing with the dog that they had. But all in all he just wanted to run around crazy with his lil buddy Santi.

Here is Z and his bud Santi. These two are the best buds, they play so well together it is so cute.

Zander and his class sitting listening to the fire chief talk about fire safety.