Thomas Mead family

Christmas 2011!

2011-12-30T12:20:00.001-08:00

These pictures are not in order. Grandma and Grandpa Mead came to Little Rock around the 13th and we all headed to Branson, MO together and had such a great trip! Branson is only 3 hours away and we went to the Dixie Stampede show which is owned by Dolly Parton. It was a Christmas show and absolutely amazing! There was a live nativity scene with a manger scene that came down from the roof, live animals including three camels for the wise men, etc. Austin and Axel were entertained the entire time which tells how amazing it was! We ate the yummy food with our hands.

Here is a picture of Grandma Mead with Tom and Austin at Silver Dollar City. It was SO freezing and we were grateful grandma had packed her Ukraine supplies to help keep us all warm. This was right before the Christmas parade came by.

Here is Grandpa Mead with Axel, Austin and Tom at the entrance of Silver Dollar City.

There are these cool tunnels for kids to climb up and down at Silver Dollar City. You can't really see Austin very well because he was going too fast to get a good picture!

Silver Dollar City has this huge area of balls where the kids can shoot the balls up 5 stories and it is complete chaos of fun!

Tom and Axel on the boat ride where we shoot the "bad guys". Austin could not get enough of this ride!

Axel and Austin with Santa at our playgroup activity. Our neighbor came as Santa and the older kids loved it and Axel well....he wasn't so appreciative. But Axel did eat 4 candy canes from Santa!

Axel is obsessed with lollipops! If he is ever grumpy, a lollipop will always cheer him right up. He was not happy that he didn't get to go with dad and Austin on this ride but the lollipop made it all good. For Christmas we could have given him 20 lollipops and been done. He literally had a lollipop in his mouth for 4 hours on Christmas. He had every color of saliva dripping down his arms.

The boys made a gingerbread house with grandma and grandpa!

Here's the fam on a the train at Silver Dollar City.

Austin went in for the first bite on the gingerbread house. Those cookies can break a window! I bought a kit and was worried the cookies might have broken....the only thing I needed to worry about was Austin's teeth breaking when trying to take a bite!

We went to a really cheesy dinosaur museum in Branson that was super overpriced and the kids were too young to be interested. Austin had found some quarters that grandpa left in the hotel room and wanted to use them in the video games in the lobby. He kept putting it in the "claw" machine and Austin kept winning 3 pairs of fake teeth and was thrilled that we left with about 15 sets of these fake teeth!

Here is our Christmas tree with all of the gifts. Austin is pretty good on the bike with training wheels! Austin keeps trying to have us give Axel's 3 wheel scooter to him...however, Axel is very well aware that is his and will not be giving that to his brother anytime soon!

We have SO many leaves in our backyard! Luckily we just hired our neighbor to clean them up. It would have taken about 12 hours to clean up!

The boys didn't want to take turns in the ladybug at Silver Dollar City!

Here's Axel with grandma and grandpa in our backyard.

Axel loves to dig in this pot of dirt on our back deck. Caught him in the act! He loves being filthy.

Here is Tom and Austn wrestling at Silver Dollar City!

Family pics 2011 in Arkansas!

2011-11-16T10:20:00.001-08:00

We took our family pictures at The Old Mill in North Little Rock. Gone with the Wind had its opening scene filmed here. Absolutely gorgeous spot!

October 2011!

2011-10-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished writing my 59 page thesis for my Master's degree. A sense of relief has been felt in our house since I have been able to get more sleep and have not been doing homework for 2-3 hours every single night after the boys have gone to bed. Tom is on a campout tonight with the scouts.

Each Tuesday morning, our ward has a playgroup that meets together and does different fun activities. This has been the best thing to help me get to know so many cool women in our ward and their cute kids. Usually Jessica DeGroot organizes these activities but I am filling in for 3 months since she just had a baby. I am not naturally crafty and was so proud of myself for putting this together as a "cookies and costumes" party. Such a fun group and turnout! The donuts have eyeballs and the oreos are spiders. Here is a picture of our crew. Austin is a fireman and we were glad to see the safety reflector tape on his costume works well! He pretty much outshined everyone else haha. Axel is a doggie and he loves that suit but gets too hot for the dog face that sits on his head. I have a wig on-that is not my natural hair thank goodness.

Earlier in the month, the boys helps me poke these faces in our pumpkins. Austin wanted to take a picture with his face being "sad". He was very proud of his sad face (whatever makes you happy right?). Axel and Austin both kept ripping the pieces out of the pumpkin so we took a picture fast while the pieces were in the pumpkins and still working:)

Austin's face cannot contain any more excitement about this pumpkin! Glad he decided to have a "happy" picture.

As a mother, you just have to laugh sometimes at the impossible odds of actually cooking dinner without your kids destroying something while you turn your back for one minute. Austin found the wax paper and found it amusing to throw it out in front of him and watch it fly. When Axel saw what Austin was doing, he joined in the fun. I knew I would laugh about it one day so I took a picture! I'm already laughing about it!

Axel catch up

2011-10-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here is our sweet little guy who a few months ago would crumble into tears when Austin would come up to him and scream in his face for fun. That's what older brothers are for right? To make you tough! Austin got his joys out of making Axel cry so we kept telling Axel that he needed to be tough and not cry so easy. After a few weeks he started trying so hard not to cry. Sometimes he would buckle but other times he was able to hold a poker face. Now Axel has mastered the art of screaming for fun. This is his favorite hobby! These two guys get each other screaming for fun and it's hard to believe it used to make Axel cry. He loves making a "t" sound and flapping his lips with a little bit of spit. He is highly attached to his daddy. He follows Tom everywhere. If Tom isn't home then he follows mommy. He loves to grab onto our legs to make sure we can't do anything! He is a great sleeper. He smiles so easily. He has a lot of enthusiasm and loves to get excited about anything and everything. We went to the pumpking patch yesterday so he has been trying to pick up the pumpkins!

Burns Park and Elder Mead!

2011-10-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Tom now teaches primary and loved that the singing leader had this competition of the kids buttoning up a shirt, putting on a tie, putting on big shoes, and holding scriptures by the time the primary sang, "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission". So we did it for Family Home Evening. We were all cracking up hysterically as I played the keyboard and Tom helped Austin get the clothes on. Austin thought it was great! He knew the song by heart after we did this activity a few times.

The Wonder Place

2011-10-03T16:20:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Mead gave the boys a little birthday money so we headed to The Wonder Place. The Wonder Place has so many fantastic things for kids to explore and helped keep us busy while daddy was at an 8 hour boy scout training on a Saturday:( The boys have put pieces of material over wind holes. They are watching the material hit the ceiling and waiting for it to fall back down! The boys were playing at the indoor sand table. Axel wanted to make sure the whole room had some sand so he was sharing freely! Austin wanted to see if he could cover his whole head with sand and came out with "sandy brown" hair.

They have so many blocks and older kids usually kick Austin out of their projects since he likes to knock them over:) An 8 year old boy let Austin help and Austin was thrilled!

Axel is playing in the water. They have baby seats and he splashes so crazy and is dodging his splash in this picture!

They have an area for the kids to "treat" the animals. Axel just gave this dog a shot. I hope the dog is ready to wrestle Axel! Dogpile takes on a new meaning.

They have a stage and tons of puppets and costumes. This place is amazing. I don't even have pictures of every activity there!

This was Austin's expression when I asked him to smile for the camera!

Peabody Park for Austin's Birthday!

2011-08-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

For Austin's birthday we headed to downtown Little Rock to enjoy Peabody Park. The splashpads are so fun and we walked the bridge.

Austin went into the heart of the water storm! Axel was up for a good time too. Axel is usually cautious but not today. He just went for it!

Looks like he is going to fall over......

but he didn't! We picked up McDonald's and Austin fell asleep in the car. We woke him up when we got home to eat. We sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed his gifts and Baskin Robbins cake.

Cali for 17 days!

2011-08-02T11:34:00.001-07:00

In April, my sister Cynthia called and asked if my boys and I would fly to California for a couple of weeks and stay at her home if she flew us out. Easy answer of YES!!! Such a tender mercy given to us. With my mother on the other side of the veil, I feel so incredibly blessed to have a wonderful sister to fill in for mom and give us a summer getaway filled with help. True help! Here is Laura who was the lead babysitter the entire time. She was such a HUGE help!

Emilee and Austin. They each found their match of endless energy. I do have to note that Austin even made Emilee tired....we are in trouble aren't we?!

While visiting, Axel had his first birthday on July 19th. Aunt Keri threw an awesome party! She made dinner and some yummy chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter/chocolate frosting. Axel cried for almost a complete hour (which he doesn't usually do) right before dinner and luckily calmed down when he ate an entire container of Keri's homemade applesauce. Thank you Keri!

This picture was taken right before Axel grabbed the plate that dropped the cupcake. Luckily the candle did not light Keri's place on fire. And amazingly stayed lit when the plate was picked up:) Austin helped blow out the candle.

Do you think Axel liked the cupcake? Aunt Jenny gave him a bath in Keri's sink when he was done.

The crew headed out to Mormon Night at Dodger stadium. We had the all you can eat tickets:) All the Dodger Dogs and nachos my heart has ever dreamed of. Axel stayed awake until 11:30 that night so he didn't miss anything. Austin fell asleep on me around 10pm. Ran into a couple of Long Beach friends which was fun. We made it on the Jumbo Tron!! I think Tera did that with her crazy dancing!! Funnest Dodger game ever-even if they lost:)

The day after the Dodger game we headed to Newport Beach where Emilee taught Austin how to boogy board. The smile says it all! He LOVED the waves this year!

Emilee and her friend Lin held Austin's hands while jumping waves. Laura is next to them. Austin was screaming and squealing like a little girl having a blast!

Axel loved the sand. Not sure how much he ate that day. This was taken right after he threw his face directly in the sand and moved side to side. I've never seen a little kid love sand like that! Zack Hancock promised he will never bring his baby to the beach after seeing that. It grossed him out. Maybe when it is his child, he will experience joy instead of grossing out:)

Emilee kept burying Austin's legs and Austin liked kicking through the sand and rediscovering his legs every time. We miss everyone so much! Can't wait to do it again next summer!

10 days visiting Texas family!

2011-07-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

The 10 day adventure began in Dallas, TX. We went to The Great Wolf Lodge with Alisa and her family! Such a fun place. They had a lot of pool areas that were only 18 inches deep for Austin and Axel. Austin went down the slides that he was tall enough for. Daddy and Austin kept running around the mushroom of water cracking up!

Here are the boys with their cousins and aunt and uncle!

Then we headed to San Antonio, TX where Tom's parents just moved to be close to Gena and her family. We all headed to the Alamo!

Austin and Axel had fun with their cousins Jenna and Ben Calta.

In San Antonio, TX there is a park especially designed for handicapped children. The boys had a great time playing with Gregory Calta! We were invited back the next day for free for CBS to interview the Calta family. It airs on Thursday morning on the Early Show! Austin LOVED fishing at this park and enjoyed all of the sensory light interactive games. Most of all, loved chasing his cousins.

Here are the brothers in their stroller!

While at the Hancocks house, Braden got the hose out for Austin to play with. Does he look excited to be soaking someone?! Who is he soaking? Let's see.....

Jenna and Braden Hancock!! Suckers!! Gave him the hose and he's gettin' them good. He LOVES playing with his cousins! We feel so blessed to have so many great cousins for our little guys to be spoiled by and played with! We headed to Houston for one day at the end to visit Tom's mission. We attended the chinese branch and had an incredible meal afterwards at the Jong's house. The next morning we met up with my missionary companion Trecia Childress and her family for breakfast. What a fabulous trip!! Can't wait for aunt Tera to arrive in Little Rock soon!

Here was the morning attempt at family pics

2011-06-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

This was our best attempt this morning at family pics at the old town area in Dallas by the train before Austin totally lost it!

Here is Austin and Axel with their train hats from Silver Dollar City.

Here is Axel! Can't believe he will be one in a couple of weeks.

Look at Axel's gorgeous blue eyes!

Axel and momma. Axel smiles so easily!

Axel with daddy!

Alisa's first photography gig. She knows how to either make them laugh or cry! Austin chose the crying route.

Here was the one picture Austin didn't throw a complete fit. Please note the boogars streaming from his nose:-)

New family pic

2011-06-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

We are in Dallas and Alisa and Jenna helped us and took some pics of the fam today. I will post some later of Austin pouting every picture....okay-posting those soon because they were so funny! He was not feeling it this morning;)

Grandpa Eliason came to town!

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Grandpa introduced my kids to Krispy Kreme! Do you think Austin likes Krispy Kreme?! New secret weapon to keep in quiet in sacrament meeting:-)

Here is grandpa with both of the boys. He has teased them so much and we are going to be sad when he leaves town tomorrow!

Tom walked for his second Master's degree on Saturday. Does Axel look just like his daddy or what?! The star spangled banner was performed by three African-American sisters. What an experience! Dad didn't care for it but Tom and I loved it. Lots of soul! Tom actually sat in on auditions and I have to mention the 36 year old guy that was so nervous he wet his pants....then he said he wanted to do sign language while he sang....only at the parts he knew how. There would be sign language for one line and then nothing for a couple of lines and then the sign language would come back...funnier to hear Tom tell it and act it out! The graduation felt like we attended church with a lot of "amens", "oh sweet Jesus", and "uh-huh, that's right" being said by fellow crowd members. We lost Austin for 2 minutes and that was stressful. He ran up a dark stairwell. Sometimes I wish he was scared of something! He thought it was a game!

Discover of Branson, Missouri

2011-06-04T11:16:00.001-07:00

We took our first official family trip with just the four of us. A 3 hour drive to Branson, MO. We decided to go to Silver Dollar City which is an amusement park and ended up buying season passes. We stayed at Westgate Branson Woods resort. So much fun! A huge advantage of the south is that everything is FAMILY oriented....traditional family oriented, father, mother, and kids! At Silver Dollar City if you are dressed inappropriately, you cannot get in. This was the one ride Axel was allowed to go on!

Mommy and Axel. We are showing off our matching double chins and blue eyes:-) He loved watching everyone. We heard the Bluegrass family band competition which was crazy cool and Axel was kicking his legs and swinging his arms and squealing the whole time! Loved music! These bands made me think of Grandma Ann with her family Arnoldus band and what they may have sounded like. We LOVED this part more than we thought we would!

We got both of the boys train engineer hats and Austin has been wearing it ever since. There was a toy Thomas the trainset in a store and he threw a massive fit when we left! During the bluegrass festival, after one song, he turned to me and said, "Mom-mom, let's go have some fun!" After he said that 3 times, I left with him to catch more rides. He was not scared of any ride! He and I giggled so hard on the teacups. I took the spinning rides and Tom took the rides with higher heights.

Axel is waving to the camera! We had digital camera issues so these were taken on a disposable camera. Wow-that was a jump back in time. Some actually turned out!

There was a huge tower with about 6 levels and you can shoot these balls all the way to the top. Austin had so much fun loading the guns and shooting like crazy. We are hoping to head back there 2-3 more times this year. It was so wonderful to have 3 full days of just us as a family and no work or school!

Grandma and Grandpa Mead came to town!!

2011-05-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Axel and grandpa Mead laughing with each other.

The train fuel pump pooped out on the short ride at the Little Rock zoo. We were happy they made it in safely. Axel makes funny face expressions. The boys are wearing their Waxtap (shocktar) Ukraine sports team shirts from Mead grandparents mission!

Grandma Mead caught an action shot of Austin trying to get all of the bubbles at The Little Gym. We got each Wednesday morning to a one hour class of exercise and fun. Austin has no problem being social.

Austin piled on 3 Huggies swim diapers and Grandpa Gene's Ukraine hat. What more does Superman need?

Austin kept cracking up at mom tickling him. He calls me "mommom". So cute!

At the end of the Little Gym class, all of the kids run up to Ms. Erin to get a stamp. They all lift up their shirts to get a smiley face:-) Only downside is that if he doesn't bathe that night....the stamps are still there haha!

Austin sleeps in a big boy bed!

2011-04-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Monday and Tuesday nights, Austin woke up around 2am screaming and demanding us to get him. This is very unlike him. Both nights we put him in the bed with us and he went back to sleep. We both were not okay with the idea of him sleeping with us every night. Well on Wednesday I put Austin down for a nap and then I heard noise back in my bedroom and he had figured how to crawl out of the crib finally-what a sad day:( Trecia Childress-one of my missionary companions happened to call me about 5 minutes later to tell me she is having a boy-yeah! I was consumed in my own troubles of Austin's sleeping issues. She basically said, "Gayla be the parent!" and it was exactly what I needed to hear. She suggest that I just throw a mattress on the floor and be super strict and he will learn to fall asleep quickly on the mattress. It took an hour and fifteen minutes of "being a parent" for him to fall asleep. When he woke up, he was thrilled he slept on a bed! That night, we did our normal night routine and he laid down, no problem. We took him shopping for sheets and he picked out Thomas the Train and he has a matching pillow and blanket. The mattress is now up on the trendle bed frame and he loves being a big boy! I had been stressing about moving him to a bed for nothing. So easy when he was ready!

The plan is to move Axel into the crib tonight and have both boys sleep in the same room. It should be an easy transition (we are hoping) since they love to play together and Austin is used to his big bed now. I had to include the picture of Austin in the laundry basket. He thinks it's hilarious to jump in the basket when I'm throwing clothes in and then dumps them all out when I fill the basket up with clothes. It makes for a long laundry process but if he's having fun, I'm having fun!

Here are pics of Tom with each of the boys. He is the best dad ever! Austin runs to daddy every day when he comes home and just starts laughing because he knows daddy is going to play with him. They wrestle sometimes daddy takes him out to do an errand and Austin is beaming when they come through the door! Axel loves to crawl and follow us both all around the house. It's nice he can entertain himself more now.

Quick pic of momma and the boys!

2011-04-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a picture of the boys with me on my birthday last week. We went out to eat at Cozymel's which is a mexican restaurant. The boys were soooo good! Austin loves refried beans, quesadillas and of course chips. I think mexican is the way to go if taking little ones out to eat! The next night we went to Texas Roadhouse for Tom's birthday. They were pretty good....but Austin doesn't like steak as much as quesadillas:)

March in Arkansas-Hancocks came to visit!

2011-03-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Hancock family came up from Dallas to visit! It was sooo much fun! Braden and Jenna spoiled Austin and I hardly saw Austin all weekend!

Braden and Austin are so serious in this picture-like it was hard for both of them to outweigh Jenna on the other side haha.

I have proof that I got a little crafty! I made rainbow pudding cups for St. Patty's day with Corn Pops on top for the "gold".

Isn't Axel the cutest?! Sorry for the shadow-I'm not the best picture taker but he is sooo adorable and smiley. You don't have to work hard at all to get big smiles out of this little guy!

Austin loves to take the camera and snap pictures so I told him to point the camera at his brother. This one didn't turn out bad! Axel is now eating sweet potatoes and bananas. Yeah-I have hope that he will eat food one day!

Austin's addiction

2011-03-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Austin loves a good ol' pacifier! We are trying to cut back to one at a time haha. He will randomly feel a strong passion of love for the binkies and put two in at a time-glad we finally got a picture of it! I feel like I have discovered You Tube lately. It is seriously fun and addicting. We discovered nursery rhymes on YouTube to help Austin have a turn on the computer. We have created a monster as he wants to watch Wheels on the Bus frequently. It is almost scary how much our kids watch us and want to do everything that we do. Neither one of us can get on a computer without Austin having a turn.

We found the charger cord to our digital camera!

2011-03-09T13:09:00.001-08:00

We finally found a charger cord for one of our cameras. Of course it is our old camera but it still works. It just takes about 15 seconds to actually capture a picture so you never get a picture of what you wanted:) Austin was cracking up at holding his little brother! The boys are growing like crazy! We went to The Little Gym this morning. Austin is like a wound up toy that gets released as soon as the door opens. He runs the entire hour and is the only kid to leave with sweaty hair. Well worth every penny we pay that place! He runs for every activity to get on before the next kid gets on. Luckily the other kids don't mind....at least don't mind yet. We tried to go to storytime at the library yesterday and Austin wouldn't let go of the bells and it wasn't time to play with them yet so we ended up leaving. Austin won...I believe he knows exactly what he is doing when he does that kind of thing. Boys truly just love to run wild and the sitting still thing doesn't interest him yet.

Tom has had fun at his new job. He got to discipline two guys last week that got into a fight after class at 10pm. One is an ex-marine and got suspended, probably will be expelled. The employees at the campus starting calling Tom Principal Mead. It seems fitting as he had to kick a guy out of the learning lab last week too. Tom has stories for a lifetime and we have only been here 7 weeks. He's great at his job and learning the operations side too.

We all drove out to Dallas a couple of weeks ago and had fun with the Hancocks! When Braden went to school, Austin would walk around their house saying "Braden, where are you?!" Very cute. Braden impressed Austin with his ability to blow bubbles from his hand with dishsoap and water. Braden could do no wrong in Austin's eyes. Jenna spoiled Austin too and I now realize why people have a child and wait 5 years. The older child entertains the 2 year old all day!

Axel is adorable and starting to crawl. He can definitely get what he wants. Austin was slipping him some Ritz crackers the other day and he ate them just fine so now Austin shares goldfish too. Axel won't eat baby food but he eats crackers and chips-my kind of kid!

Snowing in Little Rock!

2011-02-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

Tom has been really excited to have some snow and he got it! I took Austin in the backyard to attempt a snowman-please share your snowman making secrets! He kept calling it Frosty the snowman. He was ticked off when I made him come inside so I can feed Axel. Tom just got home from work and I'm not sure who is more excited to play in the snow-Austin or Tom! All of the grade schools canceled school today so Tom got to come home early since a lot of students and faculty called out due to weather. It is kind of funny since it is just powder and not too much. When I went to high school in Utah, school NEVER got canceled. Kind of fun to have some weather! Warmest shoes we have for Austin are his cowboy boots and you will notice he is using socks as gloves-welcome to my white trash childhood Austin!! For the record, we will buy him gloves, the socks are just temporary!

We now live in Little Rock, Arkansas!

2011-01-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

When we decided to leave our home in Queen Creek, AZ it was for the purpose of creating the freedom to move for Tom to move up with the University of Phoenix. In November, our landlord for our Ahwatukee house let us know he would be moving back in and needed us out of the house for by end of March but sooner if we were able to figure out another plan. He is super nice guy and it was generous he basically gave us a four month window. We decided that it was a sign that major changes were coming quickly. We began dejunking immediately and Tom started looking for a new position at University of Phoenix in December.

University of Phoenix just laid off 700 people in November. We haven't been worried about Tom's job but knew that they weren't growing and if people quit, it was questionable if positions would be filled. Tom applied for the position of Director of Student Services in Little Rock, AR and got it! We feel so blessed that we are able to proceed with his career plan and path as we had desired within the same time frame. He got a 21% salary increase and a wonderful relocation package that paid all moving fees. So here we are!

Katie and Gene (Tom's parents) came out for the last 10 days of our stay in Phoenix. Thank goodness they are home from their mission! They tended the kids for 3 days while we drove out to Arkansas and left one of our cars with the Lanes (family Tom knew in Chino that live here now) and found a house to rent that is only 1.1 mile from Tom's work! Then we hurried home and Gayla quit her job at RLG on Wednesday morning. I was going to work through Friday before my boss sent the most manipulative emails to me-that helped that gig end earlier while giving me a chance to share my true thoughts on that job situation-therapeutic, you know the kinds of things you would never be completely honest about if you still wanted your job:). A main water pipe in Phoenix decided to spring a leak on the day we were moving so we had 4 City of Phoenix trucks and a backhoe digging up dirt and rocks to fix the pipe while we had movers loading our house in the truck. Then a tow truck came to pick up our van to deliver to Arkansas while we flew out here. I'm wondering why we bought Austin dvds with tractors and trucks. We could have filmed our front yard on Friday and made our own movie to sell!

We stayed in a hotel on Friday and Saturday nights in Phoenix with Katie and Gene. We partied with the Hedelius clan on Saturday night to celebrate Rick's birthday. We went to Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa one last time and swam in the hotel pool. We already miss the Hedelius clan!!

Merry Christmas 2010!

2010-12-29T14:19:00.001-08:00

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!!

2010-12-18T20:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-04T05:13:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-10-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-08-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-31T09:41:00.000-07:00

Austin turns 2!

2010-07-31T09:28:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-07-25T06:41:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-10T11:14:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-06T11:44:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-04-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

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

Summer is here!

2010-04-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Or at least it feels like it. Here is the summer swimming outfit of the year. We purchased season passes to Wet N Wild and went for the first time yesterday. Not sure who had more fun-Austin or Tom! It took a while for Austin to warm up-literally...the water was pretty cold there. He really liked the wave pool and watched other kids run around for a while and then got brave enough to run on his own and had a blast running up to people and smiling until they smiled back at him:) We are heading to Hawaii in 9 days and hoping he will enjoy the beach and pool at the hotel. We sent him down a couple of water slides. He seemed to kind of like the one that was pretty short but didn't like the one with a closed tunnel at the very top-he'll have to work up to that one. Gayla is 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow-countdown is on!

Thank goodness for Grandpa!

2010-04-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for dad! He came to town and Austin became his permanent shadow and was super excited to "help" with every little project. We bought the Costco playground and should have organized the millions of pieces before dad arrived. It took him four days to put it together so I took a picture each day. Austin enjoyed himself as soon as the slide was up and it is heaven to have this in the backyard. Yesterday we were out there and the neighbors behind us introduced themselves over the fence and said they wanted to get to know us since we have the best playground! They have a one and three year girl and another baby coming in October so I think it will be fun to get to know them and have our kids hang out. Austin goes up the rockwall already-we spot him a little but he is such a strong dude. He loves his bucket swing and dad lifted the bottom of the slide to make the decline less rapid so Austin wouldn't fly like a frisbee at the end of the slide each time! Thank you dad!!

Went camping at end of March!

2010-04-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

We went camping at Lake Pleasant. Fun times. I told Tom that people make so many memories camping because they are awake pretty much every minute they are camping! We brought an air mattress which is a huge step up from a sleeping bag on hard ground. However, Austin is used to his crib so he slept in between us....we all slept a little...I think. He loved being outside all day with the Hedelius kids. Rick and Eileen made KILLER food which made it a fun trip:) I think our next camping trip will be when the youngest is at least four and we will camp in the backyard.

Went to the Zoo!

2010-03-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

On Wednesay I met up with Danielle and her kids and headed to the Phoenix Zoo! I almost gave up hope of finding a parking place since I drove around for 30 minutes with 50 other cars and had no luck in finding a spot. Danielle arrived and we gave it another go around found 2 spots only one space away from each other-Danielle was the good luck charm! It is Spring Break and there were more people at the Phoenix Zoo than Disneyland last month! We pet the stingrays and Austin liked to splash his hand in the water and put it to his mouth-disgusting....but glad he is a healthy normal little boy:) He climbed the tree house platform by the giraffes and wanted to run everywhere quickly. Every time I take the camera out, he puts his face as close as he can to the camera with cheesy smiles. He's funny. I guess we won't really have many other poses in his pictures since he runs right up to the camera.

Tom felt the baby move in my stomach on Monday for the first time and that was fun. I feel the baby move all day and it makes it more real that we are about to have two fun little boys around here. Life is good. We are camping this weekend and that will be Austin's first camping experience. I'm sure he will love being out in the sunshine all day with dirt, bugs, sticks and other kids. We are meeting up with Rick and Eileen and their four kids that spoil Austin-can't wait!!

Austin goes to Nursery now!

2010-03-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Austin officially goes to Nursery on Sundays and LOVES it! We snapped a quick picture yesterday after church. We drop him off at nursery and he doesn't even look back-runs to the toys and the kids. Our ward has a lot of little boys. I guess we are raising the next Helaman's army here in Phoenix! I will take a belly picture and post soon. It's amazing how big my belly is getting....seriously.....and I know it will get much larger!

We are having a....

2010-02-27T05:35:00.000-08:00

BOY! Our ultrasound was on Monday. The ultrasound was an hour long and we saw every bone of our little guy. They burned a cd and dvd of the ultrasound for us. When we got there we asked Austin again if it was a brother or sister and when we said sister he nodded no. He and this little guy are close buds already and he wanted to make sure we understood it was not a sister this round! We are really leaning towards the name of Axel Gene Mead. My middle name is Jean and Tom's dad is Eugene. Both rocker names and this little guy is guaranteed to be as cool as ATM (Austin). I wasn't sure Gene was a cool rocker name but my friend Renee reminded me of Gene Simmons from the rockband Kiss so we are covered. Even though Gene may sound like an old school name, it can be found as a rocker name still-lol! I can feel Axel moving around, especially at night. I swear when I wake up in the night to shift around I feel like my belly is ridiculously huge! I feel like during the night it is all trying to expand.

We are excited to be halfway through this pregnancy and it is wonderful to have another boy since we have so many clothes already. We were going to buy a double stroller but Austin likes to walk more than ride in a stroller so why buy a double stroller when Austin will still be walking with one of us, holding our hand? Austin is ready to take on some big hikes. We have seriously taken him hiking and ditched the stroller since he wanted to walk with us the entire time! It is going to be so much fun to have two boys around this place, three if you include Tom!

DISNEYLAND 2010!!!

2010-02-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

We made a quick trip to California and went to Disneyland! Aunt Jenny met up with us and saved the day with her endless supply of rain jackets. We were not prepared for it to rain ALL day while we were there. Downside=rain, upside=absolutely no lines. We were on the rides as fast as we were able to run to the front of the line. We hit every ride we wanted to! Austin loved everything except for Dumbo-really didn't like that ride. Saturday he hung out with cousins out at Jenny's house and loved being the spoiled little guy in the crowd. Tom and his sister Gena were able to speed walk a half marathon in honor of Gregory (Gena's son) and had a great time! We are proud of them for holding a 14-15 minute pace the entire 13.1 miles. We are home again and back to the grind. Excited for the Olympics to start on Friday!

Last week Gayla had a doctor check up and the assistant was looking for the heartbeat of the baby. Austin was up on my lap and the assistant said, "it must be a little sister since girls are hard to find," and Austin kept nodding his head no until she said, "maybe it is a little brother!" We will find out in 3 weeks if Austin is right!

Merry Christmas 2009!

2009-12-27T16:46:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-20T11:28:00.001-08:00

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!!

2009-11-04T04:56:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-04T04:44:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T13:30:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-09-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

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:)

2009-09-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

Beach trip with the fam!

2009-09-07T14:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-12T16:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

Superman and Batman

2009-04-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

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

Mesa Temple Pageant

2009-04-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-01T16:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas gifts being used!

2009-02-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Santa came to Queen Creek on the Polar Express

2008-12-29T10:49:00.001-08:00

Santa made a special visit on Christmas Eve to pass out bells from the Polar Express! Austin wasn't sure what to think but he liked grabbing the beard. He really enjoyed grandma Katie telling the Polar Express story and watching the train scene on the big screen. He is rolling all over the place and it looks like crawling will be happening really soon. Right now it looks like he is swimming in the air. Once that belly lifts up, the crawl is on!

Merry Christmas from Austin!

2008-12-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

Here is Santa's helper preparing Christmas. There are actually wrapped presents under the tree now haha! It's funny how when you are the adult Christmas comes too fast without enough time to do as much as you want to. He loves the sound of ripping paper so he is going to have a blast on Thursday! We are hoping everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and gets to enjoy their family. We are so lucky to have Tom's parents join us for Christmas and we are having a special Polar Express party with Tom's cousin and their kids!

Swimming on Thanksgiving

2008-12-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

We had the Bickmore family reunion at our house for Thanksgiving which included about 50 visitors. We kept the pool heated and everyone swam on Thanksgiving-can't beat that. The kids kept wanting to put their face in Austin's floating Duck and were making him laugh. It was cute. All three of us ended up with a cold after everyone left. Lots of nose blowing but we are all almost over the cold. We lost our camera cord which is why we haven't posted pictures in over a month. We are back in business:-)

Austin and Gregory

2008-12-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Austin was named after his cousin Gregory Austin. Gregory just turned 14 and was smiling and cooing with Austin on him to take a picture! Austin is still sleeping 11 hours each night. He takes 3 naps on top of that. The naps aren't always super long but he gives us sleep at night and we all couldn't be happier about it. He still loves eating his hands and sucking his thumb occassionally. He is now able to scoot around in his Elmo chair with wheels and loves his exersaucer. The exersaucer also bounces and he is really getting into bouncing. He had his 4 month check up and is just barely shy of 19 pounds and is 26 inches long.

If We Could Talk to the Animals

2008-11-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

Austin loves to stare down this giraffe and talk to it. Not sure if it is the bright colors, someone smaller than him or what but he giggles and talks to this giraffe during his "tummy time".

He officially sucks his thumb! He goes back and forth between the pacifier and his thumb but it is nice he can comfort himself now. Sometimes he prefers to eat three fingers at a time but usually just his thumb. It seems that babies are doomed to mess up their teeth either with the pacifier or with their thumb. Braces seem to be a guaranteed business!

Trunk R Treat

2008-11-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

Our ward had a Trunk R Treat. Tom got to wear his emporer outfit from China with the hat and braided tail. Gayla is a tye dye dress and wig-whatever you want to call the costume....hippy or clown were most common answers. The wig was in our toy box and Gayla made the tye dye dress on her mission in Oregon and never gets to wear it. Austin had so much fun he fell asleep:-) Willy is our tongan brother that LOVES to hold Austin. Austin just curled up and fell asleep with Willy-so cute!

World's Cutest Baby

2008-11-03T06:03:00.000-08:00

Announcing the World's Cutest Baby in case you were wondering who it was....Austin loves to chill in the Boppy while we cook or do dishes. Tom was making him laugh and we caught a picture. Could he be any cuter?! His two dimples show every time he cracks up!

Austin brings so much joy!

2008-10-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

How can you look at this picture and not smile? He is showing off his dimples and is such a happy little guy. This was on our way to the fair. He is very social and loves being around big groups of people. Probably because everyone fusses over him and he looks back at them and shows off his dimples! He is still sleeping about 10-11 hours per night. He knows his routine and lays down easily in his crib each night when it's bedtime. He is such a great baby and brings so much joy! Since it is still 90 degrees in Phoenix, we bring him in the pool around 4pm since the pool is heated to 92 degrees. He loves it and kicks his legs and laughs.

Austin's reaction at the fair

2008-10-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair last Saturday. Everyone around us was laughing because he was so happy and then we sat him on the bull and he screamed. He looks so cute when he gets mad! Cuter when he is happy but it is cute when he gets mad too. He was cracking up at the cardboard picture when he got to stick his face in. He looks like a cowboy in that picture but when it came to the real thing on the bull, he figured it wasn't his thing!

Halloween coming!

2008-10-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! "I Am Your Baby" is what Tom keeps saying instead of "I Am Your Father". He loves his costume! He sneezed and the hat fell forward covering his face and then he put his head back and we took the hat off and he was cracking up. We are excited for him to get candy and we get to eat it:-) Our ward is having a trunk or treat activity on the 28th and we are excited to show him off in his costume. He is laughing so much more and smiling really big. At his two month doctor appointment, he weighed in at 14 pounds and 13 ounces and is 24 inches long. Tom jokes that Austin will be asking to wear his clothes soon!

Catch a Wave!

2008-09-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is sideways....Thank you Anne Jones for request of temperment and sleeping patterns...Gayla's boss pays for this lady we call "The Baby Whisperer" and she comes and teaches your baby to sleep. We had her out when Austin was 4 weeks old and by the second night, he was sleeping 8 hours through the night! We faithfully feed him every 4 hours-not while he is sleeping. He is up to 10-11 hours right now and shifting up to a 12 hour night! He is a chill little guy. He is smiling a lot more and even chuckles sometimes.We have been blessed with a happy baby! Last night we went to the movie theater with him and saw "Forever Strong"-super good rugby movie at select theaters...anyways he was big eyed at the beginning of the movie and then fell asleep for the rest of the movie-what a champ! We had a fun "family date night"! Hoping to go to the zoo next Saturday!

Austin is chillin'

2008-09-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

He looked way too cute in his converse and diaper! Isn't the "King of the Beach" rash guard so crazy cute? He is growing so fast that his belly squishes the tummy part! He LOVES the pool!

Austin is getting big

2008-09-21T12:26:00.001-07:00

Austin likes his tummy time mat! Sometimes it is fun on his back and every once in a while, he even rolls onto his tummy! His head is so strong!

Austin's baby shower

2008-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Austin's baby shower was so cool! There was more stuff than our wedding reception! Some men in our ward made the coolest bookshelf that looks like an airplane since Austin's room has a theme of WW2 airplanes. Amy Scott made such a delicious cake with cookies spelling his name and showing off his cool initials. Brandi Tilini made favors with Austin's picture on it. So many other people did wonderful nice things that it's hard to include all! Thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts!

2008-09-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

We took professional pictures when Austin was 2 weeks old. Here is a family picture. We just had a HUGE baby shower on Saturday. We are so overwhelmed and grateful for everyone's enthusiasm and support for our family! Tom's parents came into town for a few days and snuggled with Austin. We got our first date night while they were here. We were going to a

Austin's cousins came!

2008-09-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

Austin's cousins came for Labor Day weekend and he loved the noise! He barely fit in the kitchen sink for a bath since he is so big! He's ready for a full size tub!

ATV rider

2008-09-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Tom took Austin's cousins out for rides on the ATV and Austin got to hop on at the end!

First time swimming!

2008-09-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

He was a champ in the water! I guess it is warm enough when the water is 90 degrees and outside it was 105 degrees. He loved it! We bought him a rash guard today to completely protect him from the sun.

Karate Kid

2008-09-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

We are in Arizona

2008-08-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

It feels great to be home! We broke up the drive over two days and spent a night in Vegas. Since Austin was taking about a 6 hour nap each day, it worked out well. He just slept the whole drive and only woke up to eat and get a new diaper. We took him to the doctor on Monday and he is back to his birth weight and grew a little. The first picture is at the doctor's office-he loves to be naked all of the sudden! He is now 22 inches. His cord is still hanging on by a thread but should fall off any time! On Wednesday this week, Brandi Tillini came over and tooke pictures of Austin. The Rookie picture is on our kitchen table with blankets all around him. Baby model anyone??!

More Utah news

2008-08-23T13:25:00.001-07:00

A few months ago, Tom found the FBI onesie that says "Fat, Bald and Innocent" so we had to put him in it. He comfortably fills up the 0-3 month clothes already. He has such big lips and is a handsome boy-do we sound like proud parents or what?! Our nephew Quin is on a mission in Spain and owns the ridiculous bling bling hat and jacket. We had to put Austin in since his initials are ATM. He wasn't too happy about it all!

We stayed in Utah for 2 weeks

2008-08-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

In order to leave the state with Austin, we had to be cleared through ICPS. This is basically the two states of Utah and Arizona communicating to approve us leaving Utah with Austin. This took about two weeks since public workers in Utah now only work 4 days a week and are closed on Friday-that's why Gayla is majoring in Public Administration!

We stayed with Gayla's sister, Tera and her dad. Tera gave us her master bedroom which was nice with all of our TONS of luggage! He loves to sleep on our chest so we are spoiling him here at the beginning and all bonding in the process.

Our little one is home!

2008-08-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

We got to visit our birth mother and Austin at the hospital on August 3rd and take our first family picture. We have all been waiting for this day but can feel how difficult it will be for our birth mother. Such a strange situation where it is crazy happy for us and extremely sad for her. The placement happened on August 5th and was really emotional. Our birth mother made a scrapbook for Austin with all of our emails that we sent back and forth since February and pictures of her family. She put pictures of her for every grade of school so Austin can see if he looks like her. She made him three blankets-she is way more talented than either of us:-)

Our baby has arrived!!

2008-08-03T05:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning our birth mom called at 6am and said, "Gayla I'm dialated to a 9 1/2 and he should be born within 30 minutes to an hour!" She sounded so calm that I was taken off guard. I told her we would pack up the car and start driving! Her mom called us around 10am and let us know she would have to have a c section since he was face up instead of face down and too large to come down the birth canal. He was born at 11:30am Arizona time and came out 10 pounds and 6 ounces. No wonder he came in the form of a c section! He is 21.75 inches long and has black hair. We get to see him and birth mom today! The placement will be tomorrow and we can only imagine how emotional it will all be. Thank for you all of your love and support and enthusiasm for ATM!

Tom and Gayla are going to have a baby!!

2008-07-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

We are trying to join the blogging world! Our baby is due today and should be arriving any minute. His name will be Austin Thomas Mead. If you break down the initials you will notice an abbreviation we all love, ATM! His nickname will be cash and we are quickly learning he is the withdrawl on the ATM for now:-) We could not be more excited and thank everyone for their enthusiasm and love and support.