Merry Christmas 2009!

Wow we were spoiled this Christmas! On Christmas Eve we received a couple of packages from Heather, Austin's birthmother and we ALL got spoiled! Austin got some cute overalls and a John Deere construction toy that lights up and makes noise, Gayla received a jewelry watch which I have wanted!, and Tom received a Big Jud's shirt! He wears that t-shirt with pride as he ate a full one pound burger there when we went up to Idaho! Grandpa Eliason sent Austin a cute card with some cash and fake money to play with:) Austin gets more fun every day. You can see Tom and Austin playing HotWheels and not sure who had more fun. Austin still says "Oh Shoot" and it sounds like "Oh Sh**".....funny phase we hope....He has started taking a car or train to bed to sleep with. Whenever we pull in the garage whoever is in the passenger side has to get out (since garage is limited in space) and we take Austin out of his car seat to let him ride on Tom's lap while he pulls the car in. He LOVES it and pushes all of the buttons in the car on that short ride. You never know if lights are going to be turned on, music going to be cranked up loud or cruise control will be set. He is still a chill little guy and sleeps like a champ every night! The day after Christmas we went swimming with Santa at Kiwanis park in Tempe. Austin got a kick out of the wave pool and he let Santa come right up to him and chat about Christmas. He had fun with Rick and Eileen's kids. We went to see the temple lights after and Hunter and Hayden held Austin's hands the whole night and Austin felt like a big kid and loved every minute of it! Gayla is starting to get a little more energy these days which is good. Already 11 weeks along! But who is counting right?!

Real reason of going to Europe

Tom, Austin and I recently went to the Czech Republic to undergo invitro. It was successful and we are pregnant with ONE baby! We are thrilled and one will be a much easier adjustment than multiples. I heard the heartbeat on Wednesday and right now we are between 5-6 weeks along with the due date of 7/19/10. Right in the middle of summer! We should have planned that a little better:) We feel incredibly blessed for the opportunity and that it worked. Austin is so ready to be a big brother already!! They will almost be exactly two years apart which is how we wanted it. Thank you everyone for your support and enthusiasm!

Prague!!

Prague is magical! I kept saying that and continue to say that. It is such a cool place! This bottom picture was Austin eating at a pub with mom and dad. Prague sold a lot of marionettes and we got a kick out of seeing Barack Obama-we always knew he was a puppet! The next picture up is Prague at night. Above that, Tom and Austin are in front of Prague Castle which is the largest midevil castle in the world. It's on about 43 acres. It's on a hill and has breathtaking views. Above that is a picture of a jewish cemetary. These people died before Hitler's invasion but very interesting how close these graves are to each other. It's crazy how many headstones are in the courtyard. The top pictures is all 3 of us on a boat ride passing all of Prague's bridges. Austin had a group of fans on the boat that were from Sweden. He really bonded with them. That day we had about 10 foreigners stop us randomly throughout the day and ask for Austin's picture. We know he is the cutest kid on earth, it was just so funny to have people ask for his picture. What a fabulous trip and wonderful opportunity to be just the 3 of us for 17 days!!

Couple more vacation pics

This bottom picture is in Vienna at Schronbunn-I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong. Had the most incredible grounds and takes 1500 workers to keep the grounds and castle up. A man gave Austin a chunk of bread to feed the ducks and Austin got a kick out of that. After Vienna we headed over to Salzberg, Austria. We took the Sound of Music tour which was crazy fun! I'm standing in front of the actual gazebo used in the movie for the 16 going on 17 song. You can't hear me but I'm yelling "WEEE!" just like Liesel in the movie. The tour used to allow people to go inside this gazebo until a couple of years ago an 83 year old woman tried to jump bench to bench like the movie and fell. She tried to sue-she was probably American. The top picture is Tom holding hands with his Maria! We learned some interesting things on the tour like Liesel was actually a boy in the real Von Trapp family. The Von Trapp family refused to sing for Hitler's birthday party. The Von Trapp family escaped Austria the night before Nazi takeover and first migrated to Italy and onto America. Maria and the captain had 3 children together and one of those children runs a resort in Vermont. Salzberg and Prague were our favorite cities on this trip!

Brno power

Here we are in Brno. We went to a really old church and that is where these pictures are taken. Looking for the name of the church. The stone streets are fun to walk on and Austin has been running up and down the streets. There are a lot of Vietnamese people here. Tom has tried to speak Chinese but no asians understand yet haha. It's freezing here and I'm only in short sleeves since we had just walked up a big hill. Not sure if it is all Europeans but at least here they don't smile. Why is that? Our bodies are still upside down and confused when to sleep. Since Austin is sticking with his schedule in America-we stay up until 3am and wake up around 1pm and enjoy the afternoons. We took him for a couple of walks around 2am but after many dirty looks like we were awful parents, we stopped doing that. We figured it was easier to stop the early morning walks instead of try to explain to everyone that Austin actually thinks it is 5pm. It's funny to be a foreigner when you look like everybody else. We have eaten a lot of chocolate as it is super yummy and creamy! Hopefully we can walk enough to balance it all out.

Happy Fall!

We went to a pumpkin patch last night to get the Fall season started! He was more interested in the wheelbarrows with wheels and keeping a pumpkin rolling like a ball than anything else. A couple of nights ago we almost had our first poopy bath but mom saw the anticipation and was able to catch the surprise in toilet paper! He loves to pat his head and dance. Happy Feet is still his favorite movie and he gets up and taps his feet like Mumbo! He likes the rap music in that movie-my child for sure:) We discovered he likes the Micheal Jackson music video dvd we have. He is MJ's youngest fan! We leave for the Czech Republic on Wednesday-please keep us in your prayers.

Picture around the house

I love this picture! He was cruising around in his Batman pajamas and put on the lei from his toybox and grabbed a carrot that was on my plate. He loves to attempt eating carrots and his dimples look so cute in this picture! He figured out how to lift the feet on the recliner chair and climb up in the recliner and push back so he is reclining-this kid is soooo funny! He keeps us smiling:)

Putting the teeth to work on this apple.

Austin begged Aunt Keri for one of her apples and got some nibbles out of this large apple. He was pretty proud of himself. He dropped it in the sand and would pick it right back up to go for another bite. Tom and I played in the waves for a few hours that day and felt like kids again! Austin enjoyed playing with his cousins and running all around in the sand.

Austin running away from the waves:)

Beach trip with the fam!

Austin is staring down the competition for the Sonic Smash tournament on the beach! Labor Day we joined up with family including cousins. Austin loved the sand and actually started picking up handfuls to eat more sand. He wasn't so sure about the waves. Didn't dislike them, but didn't necessarily like them. He loved having so many people to receive food from!

Happy Birthday Austin

Happy Birthday Austin! Today is his first birthday. Yesterday we had a birthday party and he went to town on his little cake. Tom thought it would be funny to smash the rest of Austin's cake on my face so it turned into a food fight. He loves all of his new cars and clothes! Hot Wheels are the way to a boy (small or grown)!

Look who is turning One next week!

We just got back from a 10 day trip through Utah and Idaho and had a blast! We saw family and friends and got to welcome Quin home from his mission in Spain. Quin brought Austin a full Spain jersey outfit for the Barcelona soccer team. We went through the Okre Mountain temple open house, ate soft serve at Quin's homecoming, went to Bear World, Tom ate a 1 pound burger at Big Jud's and got his picture on the wall, rafted down a freezing river that used to be snow and got see Austin's birth mom and her family. So hard to be back in the ridiculous heat!

Out of Africa

We went to a park called "Out of Africa" near Sedona. Who would have thought Africa was only two and a half hours from Queen Creek? Austin pet the snake and wasn't afraid of it. We got to feed a giraffe but I was too slow with the camera and couldn't catch it. We thought the Lemurs were cute.

Graduation walk

Yesterday Tom walked for his MBA and I walked for my bachelor's degree. It was a cool day to feel proud of accomplishment. Austin hung out with Tom's parents and my dad and had a blast staring at all of the people.

Sister's Weekend

All of my sister's get together once a year and this year we went to Women's Conference at BYU. I'm so glad my crazy parents had 7 girls so we can all enjoy each other! There is nothing like a sister. I love these ladies!

More Texas pictures

Austin and Wilson enjoying each other. Alisa, Jenna and Braden helped us get on the plane.

Superman and Batman

What little boy doesn't dream of being Superman or Batman(especially with Hannah Montana by his side?)!

Mesa Temple Pageant

In April Grandpa Eliason came out for a visit and we all went to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa temple after we went to Organ Stop Pizza-what a fun experience. Austin's eyes were huge trying to see the puppets, flashing lights, bubbles, horns and organ player all while snacking on some pizza crust!

New family picture

I'm such a slacker blogger! Tom's parents got their mission call to the Ukraine and leave at the end of May so we all took family pictures! Austin got his first tooth and took his first couple of steps in the same week of April 15th! He's in a rush to grow up. Gayla and Austin flew to Texas over the weekend to see Alisa's family. Austin doesn't mind the airplane at all and loves the extra attention from multiple people so close! He was working two rows of adults that would have done anything for him since he was flashing his adorable smile and giggle at all of them! He loved Alisa's little dog Wilson. It almost made me want to get a dog.....almost...Life is good! Austin and Gayla will fly up to Utah on Wednesday night for sister's weekend at women's conference and Austin will get to play with uncle Jason and his cousins during the day. Life is good!

Best Valentine's Day-got sealed!

Our family was able to be sealed in the Mesa, AZ temple on February 14, 2009. It was an awesome Valentine's Day! Austin's birth mother and her family came out to share in this special day. They are the neatest family and so glad they came to be with both of our families as well. The weather was perfect. Austin liked his white tux. He is so big we couldn't button it all the way up and it is size 12 months! We arrived to the temple super early and it was so awesome to ponder the importance of beauty of that day. We saw other children go in and out of their sealing rooms and be sealed to their families. It is so neat to see children in the temple. We were so emotional and words can't describe how wonderful the sealing ordinance was and what it means for our little family. The blessings and covenants made inside the temple are so significant and powerful. We blessed him at home after the sealing and had a wonderful lunch afterwards. He loved all of the attention and even ate his first cupcake that day. He is still sleeping like a champ at night and is really enjoying his oatmeal and solid foods every day.

Adoption finalized!

Austin's adoption was finalized on February 9th in Logan, Utah. We had grandpa Eliason drive us up in case it snowed. Thank goodness he drove since it was a blizzard that day. He didn't see a reason to even drive any slower:-) He got us there safely and the finalization was great! At the end the judge stated he had a couple of friends who have adopted and supports the process and believes in many cases it is the best thing for the baby. Our hearing was about 20 minutes. The judge asked how we have bonded with Austin, etc. It was a really neat experience!

Austin's favorite things

Austin loves Tom's left ear, remote controls, feet-including dirty shoes or bare foot, pushing buttons on dvd player and anything else he can reach! He has been crawling for about a month and moves at rapid paces. He enjoyes eating solid foods each night and cracks up when it falls down his belly, when he grabs the spoon from us and tries to feed himself, and loves it when it is on his hand and he gets it up in his hair. He loves to smile and will smile at people until they notice him. He knows how to get attention in a positive manner-we hope that continues:-) He is still sleeping 11 hours a night and wakes up happy. He has discovered his mobile of airplanes and likes it to be wound up each time he lays down for a nap. He still has his two strong dimples. Tom wanted me to mention he finished his MBA and I will be done with my bachelor's degree on April 6th. It's so much more fun to talk about Austin!

Austin is adventurous!

Christmas gifts being used!

Austin loves his jumping horse that he got for Christmas. Austin's wonderful birthmother mailed us all Idaho State shirts. This shirt is 12 months and he fits in it at 6 months! We are getting so excited for the adoption finalization of February 9th and will be sealed in the Mesa, Arizona temple on February 14th. We couldn't have planned it any better if we had tried! Austin's birthmother and some members of her family will be joining us and we are so excited for this wonderful event and bonding time for all of us!