Tidwell Family

Its been long enough since I posted on here. So here is an update.

Chelsea started the first grade this year, she loves school. She is smart and loves her teacher. She was definitely ready to go back to school.

Elgen is growing fast, and talking all the time. He doesn't make much sense to anyone but himself, and he jabbers random words. We are slowly learning Elgen-ese and finding new ways to communicate with him. It has been nice to have some effective communication with him for a change.

Scott starts school for business management tomorrow, he is taking online classes to begin with. He is excited to go, and I am sure he will do great. :)

As for myself, I have my first month of school under my belt, and will be starting the second month tomorrow. I am going for Graphic Arts. It's pretty exciting. But even more exciting is the fact that I passed my GED and got a certificate in the mail just a couple days ago. Its so funny how a little piece of paper can instill so much pride in a person. I am happy to be part of the 3% that actually go back and test. :)

And that's it for the family.

Here are a couple of updated pictures of the kids. They both show their personalities so much. Chelsea is a huge cheese, she loves to make people laugh and smile. She is very happy and very focused on being happy and making others feel happy. I hope she will always stay true to herself, and always keep her personality intact. She is such a fun little kid to be around, and brightens even the gloomiest days.
Elgen is MR. Fixit. He loves to help Scott with making stuff and fixing things. He has also gotten really "in" to trucks. He has always really loved things with wheels. I swear he is going to be an engineer or something, he loves figuring out how things work. I think he gets that from me. He is a cutie, and a really great baby. He has also figured out how to get whatever he wants by saying "please". Its so fun, and he is learning so much right now.

I don't know how we did it, but Scott and I have both been so blessed to have such wonderful kids. I just hope it stays this way, and that they won't be terrible teenagers. :)

Sorry that it has been so long since the last post. Life has gotten a bit crazier than usual, but nothing we can't handle.

Chelsea took her Kindergarten advancement test on the 12th. She is officially ready for first grade. I am so excited and so proud of her. She did great. Her last day of school will be the 29th. She will have fun this summer, and can hardly wait to start school again cause she will be there all day. Its so funny.
We got he a bathing suit the other day. She has worn it outside everyday she can. She loves to be outside in the water with the other kids from out apartment complex. Its funny. And she is already SO tan, I am jealous. I never tan, ha ha ha ha.

Elgen will be 21 months on the 1st of June. He has hit the terrible 2's already. He just finished a temper tantrum today that consisted of 30 minutes of him crying and telling me no at every thing I attempted to distract him with. I thought perhaps some SpongeBob would cheer him up, but he wanted nothing to do with it. It really isn't too bad yet, it only happens once in a while, and its usually just a little fit. Today was an exception. :)

Scott will graduate the academy in July, and started firearms training and scenarios. He likes it, but is taking the whole thing with a new degree of seriousness (and he was already VERY serious about it!). He has been studying the Utah Criminal Code book nearly every night and working hard to get as much memorized as he can without over-studying. I honestly couldn't possibly be prouder of him, he is going to make one of the best police officers.

We will be going down home this weekend. Scott's mom has arranged for all of "the kids" to come down and put a yard sale together. Its a wonderful thing because I have SO MUCH STUFF!!! So, if anyone is reading this and needs clothing for kids, we have loads. Most of it is still brand new. I even went through my closet and cleared out all the stuff that I don't wear or doesn't fit me anymore. Some of it even still has the tags on it. Kinda funny. I didn't even know I had some of that stuff.

I also went through toys and all kinds of other things. It will be nice to de-junk our closets and get rid of the things we don't use. There is no reason to hang on to it if we don't use it and someone else might.

We got up early with the kids and they went through their easter baskets. Chelsea got a stuffed bunny, The Secret of NIMH (which is like one of my favorite movies EVER), an apple and banana, and a little bit of candy. Elgen got a stuffed frog that he has been carrying around and kissing all day, a book about duckies, an apple and banana and a little bit of candy as well. They both got easter outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Tidwell, that I still have to take a picture of.
We were sitting around after the kids ate their bananas wondering what we should do today, and Scott suggested that we go to the boat harbor and take a look at the lake. So we got in the car and drove down there. Chelsea and Elgen had a lot of fun chasing the ducks around, and there were planes flying overhead from the nearby airport. We also saw some geese and a pelican. Elgen thought they were pretty cool. We were walking around and we went over to the little beach that is near the marina and let the kids play. I will post a whole bunch of pictures I took while we were out there. It was a lot of fun, we were there for a little over an hour. When we got home the kids had lunch and Elgen napped. It was a really fun morning.

Here are the photos, enjoy!

It was nice enough outside today that the kids went outside to play with the chalk. I remember how fun it was, and I am glad that the kids are getting the same experience. :)

Elgen found the bath crayons last night. He had a blast with it. Here is a picture of him coloring on the wall of the tub. He had SO much fun. He managed to get it in his hair. Luckily its just soap and it came right out. He was having fun. We colored all over the place. He is getting really tall too. Funny kid.
We also had this Green bath foam that is basically green colored shaving cream. He couldn't figure out if he should touch it or what. It was funny to watch him try to figure out the whole thing, and even more so when he would splash it and it would dissolve. Funny funny kid.

Jan 14, 2009

Apparently we have a jumping boy now. We picked the kids up from Daycare today and our provider told us that Elgen has been standing on the seat and hanging on to the edge of the picnic table there and bouncing, then he turns and jumps off the seat. He has been dismantling things here at home and likes to try 'jumping' on the banana chairs, but it usually just results in him sliding down the back of the chair on to the seat, and then to the floor. It explains how he could have possibly gotten the bruise on his cheek. Here is a picture. It's just a little purple mark right now. I hope it doesn't get worse. Poor guy, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. I guess I just never really understood how rough and tough little boys are. He has been trying to take his sweat pants off for a better part of the night. I didn't even know he knew how to do that.
This is his other recent development. He likes to cover his ears and grin all big and cheesy. It's hilarious. Tonight he started to clap over his ears. He must think it sounds or feels funny cause he laughs really hard at himself when he does it. It's so cute.

Last night we put up the dresser Scott's parents gave us and he was jumping on our bed (supervised closely by Scott, of course) and laughing. He was rolling all over and just being super silly. He has gotten to be such a ham over the past few weeks. :)

Chelsea forgot her backpack at school yesterday, so we will have to catch up on homework tonight. She loves school, but has a hard time focusing for very long periods of time and likes to talk..... a lot (surprise surprise). Overall she is in the top of her class, and does really well academically. She is a very fast learner, but she lacks patience. She definitely gets that from me. :) I wish I could have given her a better trait than a lack of patience and focus.

Tonight we are making cookies, and once both kids are in bed we are going to try to tidy up the living room a little. Maybe if we wait it won't be such a chore. It does seem somewhat pointless, however. The kids will just tear it apart again tomorrow..... :)

Jan 7, 2009

Yesterday Scott and I decided to stay out and play with the neighborhood kids in the snow. It was kinda cold, but we put Elgen down for a nap and went for it. It was a lot of fun. Scott Built a fort and dug a little hollow spot where one of the kids could hide in the fort, too. I just built a snow wall. It was wimpy. He has built a lot more forts than I have though. :)
Then we (mostly Scott) shoveled a big pile of snow for the kids to take the sleds on. They did that for about an hour, alternating with having snowball fights - of course. I made each of the forts a little flag. The kids had so much fun. The two kids don't really get to do much from what I see, so we invited them to go sledding with us this weekend. We will have to see if they can come or not. I think it would be fun for Chelsea to have some friends go with and I don't know any kid who doesn't like to sled. :)
Tonight we borrowed a baby sled and let Elgen ride a bit. He had SO much fun. His fat little baby face was jiggling and he was laughing. He did it for about half an hour. It was fun. I have a video, but I can't seem to find where I can upload it to this, so I will have to add it later.

That's about it for now, here are some pictures from our last sledding trip that I didn't load. Enjoy!

Jan 4, 2009

This scrap page is from when we went to the park sledding with the kids. Enjoy! :)

Jan 2, 2009

If you are here reading this then you have found our cute little family blog. :)

Here I will be posting family adventures. Those of you who still want to read my personal blog will have to email me and let me know, as I have recently made it private.

Stay close, I will be posting here soon with photos and all kinds of fun things. :)