Summer 2012

We have a water table and kiddy pool on our back deck that the kids love! They can stay out there for hours. We are lucky to have a lot of mature trees offering a lot of shade. I go out as long as I can stand the heat. Here is Axel playing in the water table.

 Here are the boys in the pool. Austin has this parachute guy that he liked to load with water and whip around in the air to soak Axel and myself. Axel and I were good sports the first 50 times and then we had to "hide" the parachute man to get a break!

 The other morning Austin let me know we needed to head to the park. He doesn't care that it is 90 degrees and humid. It is so fun to see the boys go down the slide together and try to wrestle each other on the way down and roll over each other at the bottom. The crazy life of boys!! Sorry for the 10 posts today-I was so far behind since I've been so tired!! Excited for our summer trip of California, Utah, and Idaho to begin this weekend with a solid 24 hour drive (if we don't make any stops). Memories in the making!

June 2012

Mommy finished her Master's degree!! I can't believe it is finally done. These last few months have been a blur, finishing classes in March, going to Europe in April (because of wonderful in-laws who came into town to be with the kids while Tom was at work!), sister's weekend in California on the way back home and being pregnant (which has including major sickness and exhaustion this round-so glad first trimester is almost over!). I will be Professor Mead somewhere, someday when my kids don't need me around as much. They are plenty needy right now!

 Tom was out of town the week before Father's Day for a training at work. It was perfect. It allowed us to prepare some fun for when he got back! We bought a bunch of candy bars and a motorcycle (Austin's choice to add that) and made a candy bar poster. It was 2 posterboards long and we all became sick from eating so much junk! Tom loved it! We made him a Happy Father's Day poster and gave him a jar of hershey's kisses too. The kids had so much fun preparing a surprise for dad!

Church friends

Austin's primary teacher sent this picture to me. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in Primary to watch Austin in there! He is such a ham!

 We went to Peabody Park with some friends for playgroup. Here is Austin with Avery Graham (whom he adores!) and the Meyers girls. He will follow Avery anywhere, it is so cute to watch. She is a year older than him and loves to have a number one fan.

 Axel finally caught on that Austin was with the ladies:-)

Close to Home

Daddy had this fun idea to head to the store to buy super hero outfits. The boys love them!

 One day Austin let me know we were going to make cookies and there needed to be one shaped like a Christmas Tree! Sounds like a perfect thing to do in May.

 We like to head out to Lake Willastein in Maumelle and the ducks were coming right up to us this day. It probably helped that Axel kept dropping Cheez-its. He wasn't sure if he liked the ducks or if they freaked him out.

 Austin and I took an idea from Pinterest to make homemade noodles. Why not do a lot of work for something you buy for about a dollar at the store? He loves to help me cook!

Strawberry Picking

The boys helped me pick strawberries for about 1 minute and then made a friend with the farm's grandson-Caleb and then our friend Max Madsen joined the boys in playing with sticks.

 Here's proof that Austin did actually pick a strawberry-even if it was a white one.

 Axel found some "safe sharp sticks" to play with:)

 Axel looks like a natural farm boy!

Around the house stuff

We both realized the boys had been quiet....what were they doing? Axel climbed onto the desk and was carefully plucking the keys off of daddy's keyboard. Relieved it wasn't mine:-) Funny to see Tom try to type stuff on his computer!

 Sometimes the kids can grab my attention into an out loud chuckle! Austin put Tom's socks on his hands and put on my headband and said, "Look mom, I'm exercising!" He looks special:)

 We were having a fun playgroup activity where we made homemade strawberry jam at Rachel Graham's house. We were all chatting and the conversation stopped as Austin came running in the room. The question was....is there underwear under that shirt? Yes there was! Whew! He was so happy to squeeze in his boots that are too small that day.

 Here are the boys in their tub of cars. They love to dump this upside down and make the biggest mess!

Toadsuck Daze-Conway, Arkansas

You know you are in the deep south when......you attend an event called Toadsuck Daze! They actually have toad races with a huge line and we didn't feel like waiting with a 1 and 3 year old so we went to the back and they let us hold the toads that were racing. Far better than waiting in a 2 hour line! Austin loved it!!

 The boys hopped on a train ride that went in the same circle 5 times. They thought it was cool.

 Austin is spraying the toad to keep it cool in the hot, humid summer. I put my hand up so it didn't get away. I wish I recorded the mc for the toad races-never heard so many toad jokes!

 Here are the boys in their soccer uniforms from England. They are getting so big! They are best buds and it is fun to see them get excited about everything.

 Austin sat so still for his dragon tattoo-he took his ink experience seriously.

We are pregnant!

The good thing about being behind on the blog is that we know how many babies are in my belly! One baby! Tom kept commenting that it wasn't like me to only take one pregnancy test since I took one every day for a week last time we did ivf. I told him that I have no doubts this time since I have been extremely sick and exhausted. We are thrilled to have one healthy baby! The baby is measuring 5 days ahead of schedule moving the due date from 1/6/13 up to 1/1/13. Tom wants to be on the news for having the first baby of the year and I'm hoping we get a tax break for 2012. We will see when this precious one arrives!

Europe 2012-Gayla, Tera, Keri, and Alisa

Our family decided it was time for another round of ivf to add to our family. Tom has been so busy with work that he insisted I head to Europe with one or more sisters. Tera made the committment and we picked dates and were excited to add Keri and Alisa to our trip! In 12 days we traveled to London, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Germany, and France. It was a whirlwind of fun and exhaustion!!

Keri and Gayla in London!

Gayla and Alisa on the red bus tour!



Gayla eating AWESOME authentic food at La Famiglia in Rome, Italy



Tera, Gayla, and Keri about to catch our flight into London from LAX

Sound of Music tour in Austria

Vatican in Rome, Italy