*My London Trip*

My sister and her hubby/kids live in London for her husband's job. She has been bugging me ever since she started living there to come visit. I made promises every year to come but it always fell through. Well I was determined to not miss the birth of her second child, and therefore started planning this trip about a year in advance talking to Josh and the kids constantly about the fact that I WAS going to London and making all the necessary preparations for my absence. Let me say that preparing people to take over your life for a few weeks is no easy task lol, and I realized quickly that as a mother I do a lot of things and it's hard to pass it over to others.

Another reason this trip was possible is because Jaden's best friend Matt, his dad is a pilot for US Airways and gave me a buddy pass so my ticket was half the cost of a normal one, and the fact that I was staying with my sister and eating her food, this trip was super cheap. So I left on Tuesday at 3:30 in the morning to make my 5am flight to Charlotte, North Carolina where I had about a 5.5 hour layover till my flight out to London. Flying International is so awesome! I had an entire row to myself, watched movies, and ate yummy food. Seriously a 7 hour flight felt like nothing when I could just sit there not interrupted by kids and watch as many movies as I wanted. I arrived in London on Wednesday (or like 1:00am AZ time) and my sister was late picking me up, which my cell phone didn't work so I was thinking she went into labor and I was going to have to find my way to her on my own (very scary). Luckily she came to get me and we made the one hour tube ride (subway ride) back to her flat (apartment).

I was so freaking tired but forced myself to stay up so that I could get adjusted to the eight hour time difference. I was also very happy that I had not missed my sister having the baby, but also a little worried she wasn't going to have him while I was there. On Thursday we did all of our sight seeing since she was due on Friday. 

Houses of Parliament

 "BIG BEN"

 When I was there the Royal Baby was also due, and happened to be born the day after my sister had hers! Apparently if they were born on the same day my sister would of gotten a special coin, so too bad they were off by ONE MINUTE! Anyways, this picture is in front of Buckingham Palace, and it happened to be crazy town when we went because I guess they do a special ceremony when they change the guards, so not the best picture.

 Seriously greatest crapes ever, Nutella and Strawberry enough said!

 Of course I had to take a picture in front of the red phone booths and a double decker bus, cause that's just what you do when you go to London lol.

West Minster Abby where the royal couple got married :)

I think this is called the tower bridge castle hahha not sure.

Tower Bridge

After sight seeing my sister decided to take caster oil to just get things maybe moving along faster. In the middle of the night she did go to the hospital with contractions, but then ended up coming home Friday morning not dilated at all and contractions stopped. Later that day she was scheduled to get her membranes stripped, so we rode the tube over to the nearest station and then walked the rest of the way to the hospital. On the way she started having some pretty intense contractions, and when we got there and into the room her doctor came in to check her and do the membrane strip. By that point she had dilated to a 3cm and contraction continually getting stronger. Her doctor said your going to have this baby sometime tonight or early in the morning so she was going to have to stay at the hospital. So she packed me and Hudson up in a cab, and we went back to her flat where I awaited the arrival of my second sweet baby nephew. Luka James Meise was born on Friday, May 1, 2015 at 11:59am weighing 8lbs and 21 inches long with a ALL NATURAL birth!! The rest of the time was just spend cuddling with my two sweet nephews!

Seriously my sweet baby Luka is just the best baby ever! I soaked in every minute I had with him and got lots of sweet new born snuggles. I also loved spending time with my sweet nephew Hudson who is such a naughty little pistol but we wouldn't have him any other way. I won't lie I missed my kids an insane amount, and was super ready to get home to them and my hubby. The plane ride back was smooth sailing and I totally cried when I saw all three of my boys again!! I didn't cry leaving my sister only because she is coming out to visit Arizona in July so super excited about that!

*My 29th Birthday*

Yeah to say I'm behind in blogging is a MAJOR understatement. Life has been crazy, and knowing how much I have to catch up on, I just was not wanting to actually sit down and do this but here we go.

 My father in-laws company sponsors the race for his employees, so this was a group shot of all the co-workers who ran with us.

So my birthday was like two months ago hahah I turned 29, and for my birthday we did a little over 5K run called "Pat's Run". My in-laws started doing it last year, and since I'm back in the fitness game I wanted to do it! I ran the whole way, not fast at all but never stopped, so I was super proud of myself for that, then afterward went out for breakfast and stuffed our faces full of yummy carby breakfast food!! Sadly I don't have any pictures of blowing out the candles on my cake or any with my kids, oh well. My real birthday present was about to come a few days later when I hopped on a plane to London, which is my next post so keep reading!

*Easter outfit picture.... Finally*

So I forgot Easter weekend was General Conference, then I was out of town for the next Sunday. However, I had to get a picture of the boys in their cute matching Easter outfits w/ haircuts...FINALLY!!! Better late than never right!?!

*Easter 2015*

Easter so far...

Yesterday Josh's family had a Easter egg hunt, we ate yummy smoked hot dogs, and the kids just played for hours with their cousin in my in laws big beautiful backyard.

This morning Jaden and Eli found their baskets and had a little egg hunt around our house. Later this afternoon we are going to my parent's house for dinner and another egg hunt for the kids. So of course more pictures to come...

*Falcon Field Days*

Right next to Josh's work there is a small airport for private planes and small commercial jets. Every year they have big set up of fun things to do there, so this year we decided to go. We had lots of fun walking around looking at the Apache Helicopter that Josh actually works on, looking at different airplanes and Josh even took a 15 minute ride on a helicopter for a early birthday present.

This is what my man goes to work everyday to work on! He mostly works on the blades up top that make the helicopter fly (lots of complicated stuff that I know nothing about).

*Josh turns the dirty 30*

Josh is the first one of us to turn the big 30 (this was back in March)!!! He actually kind of had a hard time excepting it at first, but of course he got over it pretty quickly. I really wanted to do something big and exciting for him, but because we just went on a big ski vacation, we didn't really want to spend a ton more money, and take more time off since we have lots of vacations coming up this summer. So it was pretty laid back, my parents came over and watched the boys while we went out to dinner and did some shopping afterwards. It was actually a lot of fun just talking, laughing, and joking just the two of us.

On Josh's actual birthday we went over to his parent's house and had a delicious dinner and yummy dessert. Josh's parents got him these gauges for his truck and I made him a totally awesome candy bar card (which he is still enjoying), and my parent's got him some new computer speakers.

The awesome card I made for him!! I'm pretty sure it was his favorite present giving that he is a chocoholic!!

  Josh had lots of help blowing out his candles on his birthday cake.

Of course we had to do the traditional birthday kiss on the cheek. Josh could not be happier where he his at for being 30 years old and here is to another amazing year honey!!! Maybe for his 31st birthday we will do something crazy haha.

*Utah Ski Trip*

I'm having to play MAJOR blog catch up today. I have been so bad about blogging and am so behind, so lets just get right into it.

In February we went on an awesome ski trip to Utah. We put the kids in the resort daycare for half days and just skied to our hearts content!! This picture was taken on Valentine's Day, which was seriously the best Valentine's ever spending the day skiing this beautiful mountain with my sweetheart! It was such a warm day that we didn't have to wear jackets for most of it, and some girls were even skiing in sports bras hahaha brave.

One of the days Jaden tried skiing for the very first time and he did awesome. He was such a natural (which he gets from my side of the family) and absolutely loved it.

Once he got the hang of it, he did not want any help and was speeding down the hill like a champ!

 My little future Olympian skier hahah. This kid is growing up so fast and is always so wiling to try new things.

We skied at Brighton, which is a super kid friendly ski resort. They have this little moving ramp that takes the little kids up a small hill then you can ski down. I would help Jaden up then he would eventually just go by himself.

 I'm pretty sure Eli could not be any cuter in his snowsuit and mohawk hat.  I go the hat for him a year ago and luckily it still fit him. He had so much fun playing in the snow, still too little to ski but we will try to get him on the slopes next year.

 While in Utah we stayed at the Ophir Cabin, which is always a blast and we did a little exploring on the 4 wheelers with the kids.

This trip was an absolute blast, I literally could of stayed for days more, but of course we had to get back to daily life. Can't wait to go back again next year!!

*Eli's 2nd Birthday*

My little bubba Eli is TWO years old!!!! It really just seems like yesterday we brought him home from the hospital, and now two years have flown by. It seems they are only babies for a day and then you wake up and they are walking, talking, and all grown up, it just isn't fair. Well here are some stats for Eli at Two years old:

Weight: 25lbs (10%)

Height: 32 inches (10%)

Head: Lol BIG

Sleep: AWESOME as always

Likes: Airplanes, helicopters, and basically anything that flies in the air, daddy's boy 100%, and loves his blanky.

Dislikes: When his brother is mean or teasing him and loud noises.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Binky: NOPE, 2.5 weeks strong and his speech has already improved by a ton. It was actually unintentional getting him off, basically he lost all of them and I was not about to go out and by more late one night, so I just decided to throw in the towel with the binky.  My cut off with a binky is two years old, so he was close enough and so far he has not cared at all so all is well!!

This year I was determined to give Eli an amazing birthday,because his first birthday was to say the least just down right sad. My Grandma passed away five days before his birthday, then we had the funeral on his birthday, so was not feeling up to celebrating anything. I felt so bad though because you only have first birthday once, and he totally got the shaft. However, I think I did a good job making up for it this time around. We of course had a Disney "Planes" themed birthday and had all of our family there. Eli doesn't understand the whole birthday concept yet, but I still think he loved all the presents and attention.

 I'm very proud of Eli's invitation because I made it myself!! Usually I buy the JPEG file from Etsy.com, but since we got a new computer, and I took a whole semester in college on design I figured I could just do it myself. It was so much fun to make and can't wait to make Jaden's for his birthday.

                                      

 Josh smoked an amazing brisket for Eli's birthday dinner and it was delicious! Seriously I think our Treager Smoker was one of the best things we ever bought, I wasn't a fan at first but I seriously use it every day and LOVE it.

Of course we had to do the traditional birthday cheek kiss! For presents we got Eli a Disney "Planes" Plane that shoots out these little balls and talks. My parent's got him a little fishing pole, a "Planes" rolling luggage/backpack, and the cutest "Jack in the Box" which makes him jump every time the Jack pops out haha. Josh's parents got him a "Planes" flying race track and an actual teeter totter airplane that's massive so it has to stay at their house (so more of a present for all the grand-kids to enjoy at grandma and papa's house). Josh has all the pictures on his phone from present opening since of course my camera battery died, so those pics will come later.

HAPPY HAPPY 2nd birthday to my sweet Eli!! We love you more than words could ever express and thank Heavenly Father everyday for blessing us with such a sweet and tender spirit.

P.S. Now I'm sure some of you are wondering when baby #3 is coming since Eli is now two years old. It's funny when your child turns a certain age (usually around 18 months) people start bugging you about having another one lol. Well, sorry to disappoint another baby is NOT coming any time soon. Josh and I are both very happy where we are at in life and content with the two little ones we have. I'm going crazy half the time trying to keep up with two boys to possibly even think about adding another one to the mix. I think anyone that knows me, knows I want a little girl more than anything else in the world, however I'm not guaranteed to have one and to be honest it FREAKS me out to get pregnant again knowing I could not get my baby girl. Don't get me wrong we will have another baby and if it's a boy I will of course love him with all my heart, but I can't lie that I will be devastated at first. Anyways, Josh and I do plan on maybe trying at the end of this year, so that Jaden will be in Kindergarten and Eli will be almost four. I truly am against having three kids at home hahah (I know some of you have perfect children) so three for you would be nothing, but I don't and I just couldn't handle it.  So there you have it, I'll get off my soap box now, just thought I wold clear up any wondering minds about the subject.