Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Nothing too exciting, but it was great to hang out with family. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we had a huge family party with my dad's side of the family. There was delicious food and tons of family. Tyson had so much fun playing with all the other little kids. After that, we went to my parents house and saw my mom in her play. She is in "A Christmas Carol" and she was awesome! She is just the funnest person to watch on stage and it was a great play. For Thanksgiving, we hung out at my parent's house. We played football in the morning with my sister, Rachel, friends, which was tons of fun. Ivan of course was quarterback. I wish I had pictures, but my sister Shauna didn't play so she has them all. Then we went home and all helped mom in the kitchen with dinner. It was pretty crazy, but then, when is family not crazy? And the craziness is one of the things that I love so much. We had a great dinner and then played some volleyball up at the church after. We, like all of you, love this time of the year. It just warms my heart to hear Christmas music playing, see the snow on the mountains, and be with the ones I love. What wonderful blessings we have in this life and what a great time to give thanks for them.
We were also lucky enough to go out that Friday night and get our Christmas Tree! I love this little tradition! It was so fun to take Tyson and start celebrating his first Christmas. We had so much fun showing him all of our ornaments and even telling him some stories about them. He loved the lights, of course. He has been pretty good at leaving the tree alone. I thought it would be a big problem, but apparently it is not as cool as we thought it would be.
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a wonderful Christmas!

My macho boys

Cutting off some branches so it would fit in the base
Tyson checking out the lights
Tyson decided the ornaments were better to eat than put on the tree
The finished product!

Tyson's First Real Haircut!

Yes, I finally broke down and let Ivan cut Tyson's hair. He has been bugging me for months now and I have held strong until lately. Tyson's hair was just getting a little bit out of control. he doesn't have a ton of it, but it was just long and wispy, so Ivan took the clippers to it. It ended up being a little shorter than I was wanting, but it is super cute. As Ivan says "He is a stud!" At first Tyson was scared at first and curious about the clippers, but after a while, he froze every time he felt the clippers on his head. It was so funny. What a sweet little boy we have been blessed with. And extremely handsome, if I may say so myself.

Our little stud!

Look at all the hair!

Just a few fun pics....My two boys showing a little bit of their feminine side! Haha

Tyson in one of my scarves and loving it.

Ivan wearing one of my headbands, he said he likes how it massages is head when he put it on. Oh man, I love this guy.

Ivan wanted to put Tyson in the dryer, so we amused him for a few seconds.
What a wonderful life.

Birthday!

Well, this is a bit embarrassing. My birthday was over a month ago and I am just getting around to blogging about it. It was a very exciting weekend, I am just a tad behind. Well, my mom and my sisters came down on the Friday before my birthday and we had a girls night! It was so fun! We went bowling, where my little sister, Mary Jane, got 7 strikes in a row! Ya, she is amazing! I don't think she meant to be amazing, seeing as how she got less that 100 on her first game, but she dominated all of us on the second game. Go Mary! Then we went to get frozen yogurt and came home to crowd in the bed and watch a movie. It was so fun to have the girls down and party.
Ivan was sweet enough to watch Tyson so we could have some fun. Then, on Monday our dear friends, the Wrights, offered to watch Tyson while Ivan and I went on a date. We went to Color Me Mine, a classic, and made a utensil holder and went out for ice cream. It was a wonderful birthday weekend and I am so lucky to have such amazing family and friends!

Legless is making a run in the playoffs!

So after a completely defeated season of 3 on 3 basketball Team Legless has turned our fortunes around and are on a one game TEAR!!!! Well, we won because the other team forfeited...but who cares! We are on to round two in hunt for the coveted intramural t-shirt! So that is the exciting news in my not too eventful life lately. Since I have no pictures of it...check out my stud muffin son.

Tyson's Fall Pics

We just think this little kid is the cutest thing ever! We are allowed to because we are his parents. Well, we had Mary Anne, who many of you know is just AMAZING, take Tyson's pictures. He is about 7 months in the pictures. I know, kind of a random age, but I wanted to have the leaves in them, as many of us do. We went up Provo Canyon and found a little place with lots of leaves and had a blast taking pictures of this little guy. So, here he is!Don't ask what this face is about. I don't even know! It is so funny though!

He just loves to suck on his bottom lip lately. So funny.

Good Ol' Cali

A couple of weeks ago, we got a chance to go out to Rocklin (where Ivan is from) for his little sister's wedding. We drove out on Wed. night and she got married on Sat. So we had a few days to play around and have some fun. It was awesome. They got married in the Sacramento Temple and it was just beautiful. The wedding turned out great and it was so much fun to be out there with friends and family!

We took a trip up to apple hill with Lindsey, and the Wright family and did some shopping and just enjoyed ourselves. We had to take some pictures of Tyson with the pumpkins. So Cute!
We were over by the apples and look what came out on the rollers! I didn't know Apple Hill produced Teresas and Ivans! I wonder how much they cost?
We went miniature golfing the night before the wedding and played boys vs. girls. This is Hillary, Lindsey (Ivan's sisters), and me after we all got a hole in one!

The happy couple! Yay Hilly and Eric!

Tyson is crawling!

Well, it's official. Tyson is crawling! Just the other day, he took his first few real-boy crawls. Up until this point, he was just army crawling. He started doing that at about 6 months and he is dang fast at it. We have been trying to teach him how to really crawl, and have probably looked ridiculous a couple times down on our hands and knees, but he finally got it! He is still pretty slow at it, and will usually take a few real crawls, then plop on the belly and army crawl (because he is so much faster at that), but he is getting it. He has also started pulling himself up on things. He has been trying for the past little while, but it has been in vain. Just a few days ago though, we were getting ready to take off for California and I turned around and found him like this!

What a stud! He is getting so strong and just growing up too fast! We are so proud of our little man! We love you Ty! We are not excited to further baby proof the house though.

Fall, Fall, Fall

I just have to blog about this because Ivan is sick of hearing me say it. Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite part of the year! There are many reasons, here are a few: the beautiful colors of the leaves (I love it!), this is the time of year that orange season starts (for those who don't know, I am pretty much obsessed with oranges, I could eat them all day, every day), pumpkin time (I love pumpkins! Love the squash, the seeds, and definitely the desserts they yield), Halloween (possibly is my favorite Holiday), the most perfect weather all year round, and my Birthday! Could it get any better than that?! I submit that it cannot! Oh, I love Fall! What a wondrous time. I just had to blog about the many little blessings that fall time brings into my life.

Ives and I took a hike up in the canyon the other day. It was super fun! We went to Stewart Falls. It was a beautiful hike and very enjoyable. The falls were great. We think they were a little low on the water, but they were still very pretty. We didn't get that great of a picture because the camera died. We took Tyson and he had more fun than we did! He was just jabbering the whole time. It was so cute! This kid loves the outdoors and so do we.Picture of the Fam on the way up.

Looking down the canyon. What gorgeous colors!

I thought this hillside was just beautiful.

The falls. Sorry again for the picture! You have to look very close. I didn't realize the battery on the camera was so low!

The Tidwell Crew Rooting the Cougs over Tulane!

BYU has jumped in the rankings up to #7 and the Tidwell Family is pumped. Katie went out this week and made sure that we were all appropriately dressed for the big game this weekend. Tyson woke up and was begging us to put his jersey on and he begged his dad to let him wear his nike headband.

I did have one problem with this picture...I thought to myself, "Self, why are you sitting and watching the game on a red couch?" I replied, "Becuase the red represents the four letter word to the north [UTAH] and just like we sit on a red couch we are going to sit and squash Utah at the end of the year!!!!" It is never to early to dream of whooping up on Utah. BYU laid the boom on Tulane with a 54-3 score. I would like to go ahead and nominate the Cougars for team of the week. (I am not biased at all!)

Here are some cute pictures of BYU's future QB and Heisman candidate!

USA!!!

My sister Shauna and I had the amazing opportunity of going to the USA men's soccer game on Sat. It was AMAZING! They played El Salvador and won 2-1. Altidore scored one and Dempsey scored one also. It really should have been 3-1, but the ref made a really bad offsides call on Altidore. It was a beautiful game and a beautiful experience. It was awesome to look at the stands and see numerous flags and red, white, and blue everwhere. Shauna and I left the game on a patriotic high yelling and screaming that we love the USA and soccer! haha. It was sooo much fun! Funny story, one of the guys from the Real Salt Lake team was playing for the first time and Shauna though his last name was Beckevich, so we were screaming that name during the whole game. Come to find out, his name is really Beckman (I don't know how to spell it for sure, but you get the idea). The people around us probably thought we were crazy. Ya it was pretty embarassing. Oh well, we had a blast and got to cheer for the USA!

USA on El Salvador's side of the field.

Cheering after the game. We are #1!


Kind of hard to see, but this is the scoreboard. It says 2-1 at 90:00! YA!!!

What is he thinking!?

So for the last 5 months or so, I have been cutting Ivan's hair. I have no formal training, but my sister is a hairstylist so I had her teach me how to do it with the clippers. Surprisingly, Ivan lets me. The first time I cut it, it took me about a half an hour because I was so scared, but I have gotten a little faster each time.

If any of you are looking to save a little money, it is worth it. We bought the clippers in April and we paid them off on the 4th haircut. We are now making money each time I cut his hair. haha. We like to tell ourselves that. I haven't messed up yet though. Well, actually, if you have seen Ivan's buzz lately, I accidentally took the 2 to his head and not the 8! haha. Just kidding. He really did want the buzz.

It has been a blast! I have learned how picky Ivan is about his hair though. Just kidding, he is not that bad.

6 months

Well, we just can't even believe how fast this little kid is growing! It is so crazy but so fun at the same time. It's amazing how we just love him more and more everyday. We got back to Utah last Wed. night and a few days before we left, we made a discovery; Tyson has a tooth! His first little tooth was breaking through! It was so cute! He was such a good kid too. We thought he might be teething because he was drooling a lot and chewing on his fingers a lot, but he was not that fussy. What a tough cookie! So then just a few days ago, we discovered another tooth! His two bottom, middle teeth are coming in. What an adventure! ( More for Tyson than for us, but we are enjoying the ride). Tyson also had his 6 month appointment a week ago and the doctor said he is doing great and is right on schedule. He weighs 18lbs. 6oz. which is 75th percentile and he is 27 1/2 in. tall which is 90th percentile. What a stud! Hopefully he will be tall like his Dad! He is not quite crawling yet, but he makes his way all over the floor rolling, scooting, and pushing up. Ivan is glad he is getting bigger so he can wrestle with him a little bit. He is just so much fun and we love him to death!

A couple of weeks ago I went with my family up to our cabin in Montana. We go up there every year and it is my absolute favorite place on earth. I was so excited to go but Ivan couldn't come with us because of work so I took Tyson all by myself on a plane to Utah and then with my family up to the cabin. I was super nervous about the plane ride but Tyson did so well. I couldn't have asked for better so I was happy about that. The cabin was amazing as always. We spent our time on the lake skiing and swimming, in town and in the park. My brother and sister-in-law planned some activities for family olympics and it was so fun! We all loved it and have declared it to be one of our new traditions up there. We also did a triathalon that was way fun. We had some of the little kids out running with us. I got to spend 10 days up at the cabin and they were wonderful. It was definitely sad without Ivan and Tyson did get sick for the first time but it was great to be with the family and at the cabin. Meanwhile, in California, Ivan got to go to Orlando! I know, he is spoiled. The company he is interning for took all the interns out there for a conference and he got to enjoy the beautiful weather and Disney World. So I didn't feel too bad because he got to have some fun too. haha. Life is great as always.

Tyson with Grandma Sheffield on the drive up.

Tyson with cousin Jackson, So cute!

Grandpa and Grandma with all the grandchildren.

All the Sheffield women. SO Precious.


A picture of the Lower Falls in the Park.

Empire Mine

You know why San Francisco 49ers are the San Francisco 49ers? Well, in case you don't know California had a big gold rush in '49. (There was a hint of sarcasm in that introduction.) Anyway, Katie and I had the opportunity to go up to the empire mine up in the Sierra Nevadas. It was a hot day but it was a lot of fun. It was the longest operating gold mine in California. Some of the mine veins go 8,000 ft. down. 8,000 ft!!!! Can you believe that? The cities around the area would literally collapse if there were an earthquake because the mine veins go everywhere!
This guy above who obviously isn't interested in the picture with us is a blacksmith...
Thus the blacksmith attire. He made us a little baby spoon out of a horse shoe nail. It was pretty sweet!

Here us our little family at the mouth of the vein that goes down 8,000 ft. Yes again...8,000 ft. Anyway, I had a fun time. And my wife and son are cute so that is why I posted this blog!

Updating Blog

Per the request of faithful followers I am updating the blog. I have no pictures (Katie has the camera with her on vacation in Montana) and no cool stories (I am interning as an accountant!) and so I have nothing....consider the blog updated! SMILE!

Tyson the "California Dream Boat"

Tyson's trip to California has been life changing. Everything he knew has been turned upside down. He has decided that he is too cool to allow the sun to get in his eyes! I kid you not! Katie and Mom were just cruising the aisles of Tyson's favorite store, Babies 'R' Us, and they passed the sunglass aisle. Tyson jumped up, did a back flip out of the cart, landed on his feet, grabbed some glasses and high jumped back in his car seat. I think he even took this picture of himself. He is a stud. Even with his double chin.

4th of July at Lake Tahoe

We went on a day adventure yesterday! The Rocklin Jubilee, the main fire work show in Rocklin CA was canceled due to budget problems! (Go figure, budget problems in California!) So we loaded up the car in search for a good fireworks show. Grandma and Grandpa, Tyson, Katie and I jumped in the Subaru and took off for the mountains. We figured we would cruise up to Lake Tahoe to see the fireworks up there!

The Sierra Nevadas are awesome. They are one of my favorite places in California! On the way up we got a little side tracked. We pulled off on one exit to do a little exploring near a resort called Rainbow Lodge. A sweet little swim area on the side of the Yuba River!

We hopped back into the car and cruised down to Donner Lake. We drove down along the shore looking at the lake and trying to avoid getting hit by other cars because it was real busy! It was really pretty cool. I guess when the Donner party went through that winter there was 22 feet of snow! There are trees that they have found that the tops had been chopped off for fire wood and it was around 22 feet up! CRAZY...and really sad.

We grabbed some stuff for a picnic and we ended up in Tahoe right on the edge of the lake to watch the fireworks! It was sweet. You could see about three fireworks shows at any given time. There were a couple across the lake. Here is a really bad picture of the show. But the view was awesome live. Notice the almost full moon in the background, the fireworks and the light shining off the water!

IT WAS AWESOME! GO AMERICA!