Merry Christmas 2010!

Gift of the year is from Heather! She made the Mead sweatpants for each of the boys-how cute is that?! Aunt Jenny will receive the credit of our boys spirituality! She made sacrament meeting distracters for the boys, Living Christ flashcards, 25 days of Christmas, and 7 days of Easter spiritual family stuff! We will use those for years to come-thank you Jenny! Perfect timing since it is getting cold here and raining...who knew it rained in Arizona? I tried to get a cute picture of the boys in their Christmas pajamas but no luck. Austin kept pushing Axel off whenever we would have them touch. Aunt Tera and Uncle Tom bought Axel the cute onesie from New York City from their honeymoon. Aunt Keri bought Austin the cute astronaut shirt from Nasa. Family spoils us nonstop for these two little guys and we love it! Austin loves that slinky. Heather sent that too. I would have never thought to buy a slinky since we are in a one story house. However Austin likes to throw it, wear it as bracelets, bend it, stand up with it, etc. Axel likes to chew on it whenever he gets a chance.

Austin doesn't like us giving Axel toys to play with or chew on. He is sure to take them away as fast as we give them to Axel. Sibling rivalry...here we go;) He will usually relax about the situation if we give him a toy that he is interested in. Every night after family prayers, we put our hands together and yell "sure love ya!" and Austin thinks it is the greatest thing ever so we do it a couple of times. We learned this nightly ritual from Alisa and her family. The other day I found a picture of Tom and I from 2003 (when we were younger and thinner) and I pointed to Tom and asked Austin who it was and he yelled "Jesus!" and was so proud of himself. Too funny! Austin is talking more every day which is fun. He loves his sidewalk chalk and tries to draw on the house-our natural graffiti artist! Both boys still sleep well through the night which we give thanks every day.

California and Disneyland!!

We just got back from an eight day vacation in California! We stayed at Marty and Jennifer's house in Oceanside. Then we stayed at Nathan and Bekah's house in Lake Elsinore and then headed up to Chino on Sunday to hear grandma and grandpa Mead speak in church. So fun to see friends and family. Sunday night we checked into Fairfield Inn in Anaheim close to Disneyland. Monday we met up with Tom's family, Robert and Heather Redding and their son Rex, and Tom's cousin Sandy with her daughter Hope. Super fun day! Randy and Cherrie's kids are in photo above. Austin loved playing with the twins, Mason and Avery. They would take his pacifier out of his mouth and throw it-he was sticking his pacifier out to help them grab it. They wrestled on the bed in their diapers Monday night-so funny!

Tuesday it was just us at Disneyland. On Wednesday morning Natalie Spencer-our tongan sister:) met up with us with her daughter Eleanor. We saw Kevin and Melissa Holloway on Wednesday night with their kids. So fun to see everyone! We headed out to Jenny's house on Thursday and got to see Cynthia and her kids and Keri came out too. Austin had fun putting a toy car on Jenny's train track and would lift the car right before the train was about to run over his car. He enjoyed screaming with his cousins (Cynthia's kids) while doing this! He would copy anything Emilee and Joey did. They enjoyed the fan club and Austin loved feeling like a big kid! Axel is getting teeth and being grumpy every once in a while. Such a FUN week! We have wonderful friends and family!!

Grandpa and Grandma are home from Ukraine mission!

Grandma and Grandpa Mead got home from their mission in the Ukraine right before Thanksgiving and came out to Arizona to visit us! They got here on Monday and Austin ran right up to them and hugged and kissed them both in excitement! We have had so much fun and missed them terribly while they were gone for 18 months. We are getting ready to head to California to hear them speak in church on December 12th and then going to Disneyland for 3 days! We will then head out to Aunt Jenny's house in Canyon Country, California and see Gayla's family. We love our family and are so blessed and grateful for our wonderful families! You can see Axel is admiring Austin and Austin doesn't notice....very common situation in our house:)

Future Farmer of America!

Heather and her parents sent us this cute outfit and John Deere boots! He looked so darn cute-we had to share;)

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Yesterday we had a fun Halloween type of day! We headed to the pumpkin patch in Mesa and went on a hay ride and Austin was super fascinated with the tractor pulling us. He kept saying tractor over and over-it was really cute. He is wearing his overalls from Heather that he fits so well right now! He had on his cowboy boots and looked like a natural farmer. When we passed the animals he said, "cow moo moo, sheep baa baa, pig oink oink". Then he went in a huge bouncy house and thought that was super cool and kept running around in the hay pile. He got to pick out a pumpkin and last night we made dinner in a pumpking with meat, rice and yummy spices. Then we made homemade cookies and we all enjoyed eating a bunch of food and everyone slept hard!

Axel's blessing 10-10-10

The entire month of September Gayla and the boys were up in Utah for Tera's wedding on Labor Day weekend and Quin's wedding on the 25th. Tom was up there for both weddings but came back to hot AZ to work. It was a blast to see everyone but incredibly challenging to be away from home with such tiny kids. Loved it but will never do it again type of thing:) Gayla's family has been together so much lately and it has been so wonderful and tiring. Seven of the nine kids made it to Arizona for Axel's baby blessing on Sunday. Dad came too and is staying until Thursday and the kids are having so much fun with him! Tom is missing from the group picture because he was at the church for meetings and we forgot to take another one that day. Thank you Tom for being faithful to your church callings!

Our family has grown!!

It's hard to believe that last October we headed to Europe with high hopes and now our little Axel James is here and a month old today! We are so grateful both babies have been so big to help them sleep sooner rather than later. My friend Julianne took some pregnancy photos and I love this one of Austin hugging Axel through my belly. Austin is so in love with Axel. He hops on him like a little puppy dog and tries to make him smile. Austin gives Axel lots of kisses all day and runs out of his room each morning looking for Axel! He is anxious for Axel to be big enough to play with him and so are we:) The biggest challenge with a new baby has been finding the energy and time to help our two year old get his energy out so he is happy. Thank goodness for mygym which is a little gym for little kids and they have unlimited classes so we head over there about 3-4 times a week and Austin loves playing with other kids and working out his energy. We made a simple blog to offer information of the clinic we experienced success in the Czech Republic for invitro since so many people inquire for information. That blog is www.wewantchildren.blogspot.com if you are interested or want to pass the information to anyone else. Infertility seems to be the new epidemic of this age!

Austin's birthmother came to visit yesterday and that was so much fun! We got to take a couple of pictures together when I was pregnant with Axel and she looked really happy that it was me that was pregnant this round:) We can never express enough gratitude to her for carrying our son Austin. She is truly a part of our family and gave us the most amazing gift of our first son and made us parents. We are so happy she is doing so well and graduates with her bachelor's degree next June. Austin is so blessed to be so loved by her and her family. We are blessed as well as her family has become our family as well.

Aunt Jenny and uncle Daryl came out last week and it was so fun to see them! We wished they lived closer. Having children really makes us wish we had more family close. Thank goodness a good amount of them live in California which is only a 5 hour drive. So grateful for annual beach parties and family events that keep us all traveling to see each other. So excited for Tera and Quin's weddings in Utah next month! Lots of bonding time:)

Austin two year old pics!

Austin is seriously the most handsome little guy and here are some pics we took to remember when he turned two years old! We still can't believe how big he looks next to his baby brother. We love being his parents. He brings us so much joy every day!

Big Brother gives kisses!

Austin turns 2!

Austin turns 2 on Monday but we decided to have his birthday party a little bit early at Amazing Jake's with his cousins! He wasn't sure what to think of the candle-apparantly he only likes fire on television but not in real life. He was completely overstimulated and loved it! He ate pizza, went on the teacups, the frog dropper ride-he didn't really care for that, train, carasoul and played skee ball (with mom's help so they would actually go in a hole and stop rolling back to us). He got a helium balloon and party pack. He took a solid 3 hour nap when we got home. He loves his new little brother and gives him lots of kisses. He isn't sure how to share the attention and I'm sure we'll get that all figured out in the next couple of weeks. Tom let me sleep a full night last night and I'm lovin' life today! Two is definitely busier than one:)

Axel James Mead has arrived!

On Saturday the 17th, we were making ourselves laugh by trying everything possible to induce labor. I walked the mall for an hour including 40 flights of stairs, accupuncture-where he performed pulse therapy and told us within 1-2 days and he was right!, castor oil was on the list but wasn't brave enough to try that. I had a pedicure the day before, and bowling was scheduled for Saturday but I was too sore and tired from the stairs. On Sunday morning I felt sick and flu-like or like I was having the worst period ever. I talked to a friend that said that meant the baby was coming within 24 hours-she was right too!

Sunday night around 11:40pm, the contractions were going strong and got stronger when I stood up and walked around. That was the last symptom we were waiting on to know that I was in true labor. I timed them for 40 minutes and they were 4-5 minutes apart. I woke up Tom and said, "Get ready, we are leaving!" and he asked if I wanted him to time contractions and I said, "No need, I already have been for 40 minutes and this is the real thing". We got to the hospital around 1am. I was asking for an epidural and the check in nurse was skeptical I was really in labor since this was my first birth. Tom says I was persistent and firm on the epidural haha. He was cracking up. I ended up getting an epidural at 2:30am and that was heaven! Don't know how anyone has a baby without that epidural. My contractions starting slowing down so I got to sleep around 10 hours which was great since I hadn't slept the two previous nights. I started pushing around 2pm and Axel arrived at 2:45 at 9 lbs. and 23 inches long. His conehead was huge! By Friday he was 22.5 inches long which is still so long, it's crazy. He is perfectly healthy and we feel so incredibly blessed to have our two, beautiful healthy boys. Glad to be home and so grateful Aunt Janet has been in town to help us with Austin. She stepped in as my mom has passed away and Tom's mom is serving a mission in the Ukraine and was unable to be with us. Life is great!

Slight change to baby name

We have switched the middle name of Axel from Gene to James. Axel James Mead will be his name. We are down to 18 days before due date. He dropped about 10 days ago and the nurse said he will probably come a little early. We are holding her to that and hope it comes true! We are anxious to see his little face and hold him in our arms. Gayla's work had a baby shower on Tuesday and when Austin saw a co-worker's one year old, he ran up to her and gave her a hug. She then held onto his shirt and was walking with him as he scooted backwards. Then he saw another co-worker's 2 year old boy and got excited and gave him a car to play cars with him and they didn't stop running around the hour and a half we were there. We think Austin is going to LOVE having a brother of his own here at home at all times! Cherishing the nights of full sleep as they are not every night anymore. Axel loves to kick all day and night, which I'm grateful since he lets us know he is healthy but waking up at 2:30 and not being able to go back to sleep can be a bummer. I guess it is getting us ready for his arrival! We will post pics when Axel arrives!

Grandpa's funeral

Grandpa passed away on our ten year anniversary on June 3, 2010. He was 97 years old. I couldn't be happier for him. He has wanted that for the last 9 years since grandma's passing. I was 34 weeks pregnant when we flew up and the funeral happened at the right time so I was able to fly up to Boise, ID. I'm so glad Tom pushed for us to go. I got to see so many relatives that I have not seen in a long time and may not see again. It's sad when all grandparents have passed on and the realization that everyone getting together again may not happen. We were there for 3 days and busy every second! We came home exhausted. Here is a picture of all of the cousins that were there. The picture above is Austin sitting on uncle Shane's lap singing songs by the firepit at the hotel. The top picture is Austin singing the "mommies on the bus go sh, sh, sh". So wonderful to reunite with family. Mom and grandma's presence were so strong and it was such a beautiful funeral.

Axel's baby shower

Axel's baby shower was yesterday and we had so much fun! Auntie Tera was here a week earlier and made the banner. We got our cake at "Nothing Bundt Cakes" and it was a pineapple upside cake with buttercream frosting-one word, YUMMY! One of the games my sister Jenny prepared was for a couple of groups to make up words to familiar tunes about Axel so we can sing those songs to Axel. We were all laughing so hard. The first song is to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell" and it goes:

Dad lived in Chino, dad lived in Chino

Uh Oh, the dairy's there, dad lived in Chino.

Dad picked the wife, dad picked the wife

Woo-hoo, they tied the knot, dad picked the wife.

Austin got here first, Austin got here first

Hi ho big brother came, Austin got here first.

Now Axel's in the house, now Axel's in the house

Yippee our baby's here, Axel's in the house!

Second song was to the tune of Mary had a Little Lamb:

Gayla had a little man, little man, little man

Gayla had a little man

his name was Axel Mead.

Everywhere that Axel went, Axel went, Axel went

Everywhere that Axel went

he followed Austin's lead.

He followed him as he grew up, he grew up, he grew up

He followed him as he grew up

to be just like his bro.

Together they would laugh and play,

laugh and play, laugh and play

Together they would laugh and play

They were always on the go.

Hawaii pics

We are here at Ko'olina in Oahu thanks to Katie and Gene! They hooked us up with their timeshare so we just paid for flights, car and fun. The plane ride let us sit next to a large stinky man-everyone's last hope for a 6 hour flight. Tom was a sport and sat next to the guy, mix of b.o. and poo smell, seriously and there was no way of avoiding the leg touch the entire flight since there was no more room. We checked Austin's diaper about 20 times. We were cracking up all night about it. Glad Tom survived it! We have been playing at the beach and adjusting to the time difference, Austin waking up at 4am each morning and ready for bed around 5pm. Last night we went to the Paradise Cove luau and got our tattoos that you see above. Tom is really bummed it isn't real-hoping this stage of "Gayla I really want a tribal tattoo-a real one!" will pass. I think we lived in Tonga too long-sometimes Tom thinks he is really Tongan, no joke. During the night show, they had couples dance to the Hawaiian wedding song. We went over with Austin and danced. The only other couple that got up were the two gay guys. We could not stop laughing. The family with their two year old and two gay dudes. For dessert we had chocolate, coconut, macadamia nut ice cream from Dave's. Yes-all those flavors in two scoops-AMAZING! I don't remember eating Dave's ice cream last time we came here. We are headed to the Polynesian Culture Center today through the night. So glad Austin is a natural traveler and people love him because he is so chill and knows how to make people smile! Aloha and Mahalo!

28 week belly pictures!

Here are the requested belly pics! Enjoy:) Getting bigger every day.