To Thanksgiving...and Beyond!!!

So these pictures downloaded in a weird order, but we'll just go with it. This first drunkenish picture was taken just a few moments ago to commemorate that he is officially 11 months now!! Let's look back at the past months and re-live the awesome moments.

 This was Gideon's first Thanksgiving! He had a shirt that said "GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE" on it and a turkey on his bum that Ama Sokia gave him (by the way, he's started calling my mom "Ama" instead of grandma so we're just going to go with it).

 This is Gideon keeping a lookout for all of our Thanksgiving guests. I cook for my family every year and I use the opportunity to try out some new recipes and clean my house once a year.

 We have a weird a wall that we can't really hang pictures on because the railing and the chandelier make everything look wonky. Until I figure out a way to fix that, I've been cutting out and taping seasonal decorations to it. For Halloween I cut out over a hundred bats and it looked awesome! But I forgot to get a picture of it. Instead, I will show you the leaves we cut out and put some of the things we are thankful for, like, The Atonement, Naptime, and Phineas and Ferb.

 On Fridays, I telecommute from home and sometimes Gideon helps me answer e-mails. He's so thoughtful.

And finally, this was last week. I think bath time is my favorite part of the day because we get to splash, sing, and laugh together every single time. He's only been grumpy in the bath once and that was when he had an earache...right after he had the flu...but before he had a cold. Luckily, he made it through all of the sickness and is back to his happy smiley self. One more month and we've officially made it through a year. Wahoo!!

A Perfect Ten...almost

Today is Gideon's 10 month mark!! I can't believe it is only two months until the big oh-one. Unfortunately, Gideon and Nate are celebrating today with bad cases of the stomach flu :( Poor kiddies. Oddly enough, I've gotten more work done today than I normally do on a Monday. I went to Wal-mart to get gatorade and immodium this morning and ran into one of my friends from the ward that is a stay-at-home mom and realized two things: 1) I rarely go to Wal-Mart in the middle of the day and it was a little strange to see normal people there and 2) being a stay-at-home mom would rock. =Sigh= Someday. Here's some pictures from yesterday when Gideon was not covered in puke.

Gideon like to sleep on his tummy with his legs crouched underneath him and his head up against the edge of his crib. It looks incredibly uncomfortable. He also stands really well now and likes to walk with some assistance. He made a lap around the entire stake center yesterday and loved it. Happy 10th, Bubzilla!

Gideon's First Halloween!

Gideon's first Halloween went fairly well. I had to go to St. George for work over the actual holiday so I got to celebrate it with my family the Saturday before at my friend Adrian's party.

However, I locked the bear headpiece in my car before I left so Nate had to improvise with a lion beanie that I bought on Etsy to add to Gideon's growing beanie collection. Nate and my mom took Gideon to three houses before he started getting grumpy.

I'm glad they didn't have too much fun because that means that I will be able to enjoy it with them next year when he can walk door-to-door himself. Of course, I'm excited for this holiday season so that we can see and play with lots of family.

Did I Hear a Niner?

Gideon Tokailagi Gordon

23 lbs. 2 oz.

29.27 inches

Gideon is nine months old now!! And can I tell you that the past month has been the funnest yet? On September 1st Gideon finally got the crawling thing down. Then Nate's parents came to visit on October 24th and they motivated Gideon into pulling himself into a standing position. And then last week he was able to stand still by himself for 3 minutes. He hasn't quite repeated that feat, but it was exciting to know that he can do it.

Gideon also talks a lot more nowadays. Mostly da-da-da-da-dahs and na-na-na-na-nahs. I swear he says, "Habla" sometimes. But he still manages to express himself and we have enjoyed our pseudo conversations with him.

To celebrate his nine month mark we took him to a nearby park and he learned how to slide and jumped around the bridge. Then we went on a little hike and pulled leaves off trees and played with bugs. It was pretty much a perfect day.

Happy 100th post to me!

Now enjoy this really really ridiculously good-looking family.

(Picture taken by Jessi Leda of Hiya Papaya)

It's been six months already??

Well, well, well, I am just not good at this blog thing, am I? My excuse is that about a month ago I started a poetry blog and I've been working on that one and neglected this one. It was all inspired by an event I attended by Creative Collaborative in which local artists meet and chat and network and inspire one another. When they asked what kind of artist I was, I replied, "PowerPoint?" It was really depressing. So I'm trying to allow some time for my creative side, but it may have to wait until I finish school in a SEMESTER AND A HALF!!! I will be so grateful when it is all said and done. Of course, work has been so crazy that I'm taking the next three days off so I can get caught up. But the craziness has been a good thing. I've been part of a team that is updating and creating classes for SLCC's Electric Power Technology Certificate. I organized an open house last Thursday that was featured in the Salt Lake Tribune and Fox 13 News came and shot some footage but I haven't seen it air yet, nor am I sure if they will. Hopefully it will, but if not we've got some video that we are going to post on our youtube channel and I can share that with you. It was all very cool.

Now for the real reason to even have a blog:

Gideon laughing at 4 months.

Gideon laughing at 5 months

Gideon laughing at 6 months

His 6 month check-up is next Monday so I'll have all of his stats by then. He is now rolling all over the place and he has eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, squash, carrots, and bananas. The only one he didn't like was the rice cereal and who could blame him. Gideon's got these great chunky arms and legs that everyone likes to squeeze. His favorite things to do are laugh and discover his hands and feet. We are so very blessed to have such a good baby.

Anyway, there are tons of things we have coming up that should keep this blog interesting for at least a couple of more weeks. Until then, feel free to watch Gideon laughing as much as you want. Au revoir!

Four Month Check-up

Okay, so the numbers are:

Weight: 15.79 lbs (68th percentile)

Height: 25.79 inches (80th percentile)

Head: 16.1 inches (18th percentile)

So our little Gideon is growing, growing, growing!!! His favorite things to do are swing and blow bubbles. In fact, after he got his four month immunizations, he only wanted to stay in his swing and fall asleep rather than be held and cuddled.The doctor also told us that we should start him on some solid foods like rice cereal soon so we are looking forward to that next step. He's so big he can't splash in his little tub anymore because he takes up the whole space. We'll be excited when he can sit up on his own and it will make the whole process simpler. We also had a long road trip this weekend and he was an absolute angel that slept almost the whole time. It was really hard to wake him up and stretch him out every once and a while because we were afraid he would start crying again, but he sure showed us how great he can be. His biggest milestone is that he can put himself to sleep now without us having to walk and rock him into slumber. Yay!!!

My Mom

A short tribute to my mom...

It will not include a picture because she would not want one posted.

At church today the speakers were sharing their favorite stories of their wives and mothers. I wanted to do the same in some small way and so I am doing it here.

My mother has done and still does a lot for me. She watches Gideon while Nate and I are at work three days a week. She can't work when she does that even though sometimes she would like the extra money, but I really appreciate it because it saves us so much money in child care costs and keeps Gideon away from other people's children who may be sick or unkind.

When I think of my favorite mom moments, they are all the ones that make me laugh but she is embarrassed to have me tell them. From her funny commentary while watching a show, to misread signs at the zoo, to dancing in the car, she has taught me how to have fun even when life is tough. It is the number one trait I have loved having as I have become a mother myself.

Even though my mother wasn't the typical mom, I think the evidence of what her children have become demonstrates that "typical" mommying isn't the only way to do things. She shared even her greatest fears and insecurities with me and still was able to go forth every day of her life with a strong, independent spirit and didn't allow the small stuff to overcome her view.

I gave my mother some gifts today, but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the million and one things she has done for me in the past year, much less the course of my life.

I love you, mom!!

Pre-4-month check-up update(?)

Giddy's done a lot of growing this last month as he draws closer to 4 months. He's sooooo big! He's laughing and shrieking now, especially when he's swinging or bouncing. He's started gripping onto toys really tightly and loves looking at himself in the mirror (and who could blame him?). He's put on a lot of weight which is good and healthy, but now he has to re-learn how to roll. He stands really well, though with just a little bit of help with balance. AND he loves to dance to hip-hop. I've tried country and classical, but he really responds to a little bit of Jason DeRulo.

The day before Easter we went to my grandparents' house and celebrated mine and grandma's birthday and the holiday all at once. Giddy had a really cute outfit that said, "Somebunny Love Me" that my mom bought him.

This is Giddy's first Easter basket. There wasn't any candy, but there are some bright, grippable toys that he's had a lot of fun with. A couple make noises and have flashing lights, but he really liked the mirror with handles that are just his size.

This next picture shows my favorite part of the outfit. Ha ha ha. I love how they are putting fun pictures on baby bottoms nowadays.
I finally got Giddy into a BYU outfit!! The next step is to get him into the football pads...

This picture was taken back at the beginning of April. Since we had some spotty snowstorms, we were able to put this cute little number on Gideon. The added bonus was that he was so warm and cozy it would put him right to sleep. It's like the miracle outfit!

Speaking of sleeping, Gideon is sleeping eight hours through the night in his own crib in the room next to ours. It made me kind of sad to put him so far away, but now Nate gets up with him all the time because he's too far away to wake me up as easily. I am thoroughly enjoying the extra sleep. Next time I post I'll be able to give you his new measurements and weight. YAY!

To Gid

I didn't believe you were real

until I heard you cry

and my heart melted

and my soul grew

You became my little guy

My thumb caressed your forehead

The first touch from your mom

And though my body shook

from shock

My spirit was truly calmed

Our first night together

I held you on my chest

We breathed and

slept together

Your cuddles were the best

And now you're getting bigger

along with my capacity to care

I know that always

and forever

You will be my Gummy Bear

Two-Month Check-up

Weight: 11.02 lbs (34th percentile)

Length: 23 inches (54 percentile)

Head: 18th percentile

So, Tiny Head had his two-month checkup today. The doctor was impressed with how much chunk we've been able to get on him considering how skinny he has been. Unfortunately that is probably because he spend most of the weekend in the car seat while we drove around. Odds are, he's gotten his daddy's metabolism and as soon as he starts walking, its all going away. He's holding his head up very well and the doctor was impressed that he's been rolling over for weeks now. But again, that is because his tiny head doesn't weight him down very much. He has at least one period of the day where he laughs and smiles constantly. It is just about the cutest thing in the world. He still loves playing in his bath water and now he has a bouncer that he falls asleep in. All in all, he's pretty much the greatest baby in the world!!!

Giddy As Ever

I just have so many pictures to use for an update I copied the 12 of 12 format to make it more efficient.

1.I went back to work the first week of March. This was a picture I took one of my last days of Maternity Leave. I'm so grateful for where I work though because they actually let me work 2 days from home so my mom gets a break and I still get to see Giddy.
2. These are the lilies that Nate got me for Valentine's Day. He surprised me with stargazer lilies our first Valentine's when we were dating and they have been my favorite flower ever since.
3&4. My brother's family finally got the opportunity to come out and meet Gideon and I even got to spend a couple of evenings with my beautiful nieces and their beautiful mom. It was heaven.
5&9. Nate's birthday was on February 23rd and we went to dinner at Tucano's at the Gateway while my besties, Talisha and Kristin, watched Gideon. I have been a huge fan of date night ever since. Nate's parents gave him a picture of a great-grandmother named Zelma Mae which has inspired me to do an heirloom theme for our guest room when I finally get around to it.
6-8. Kristin and Talisha threw a baby shower for me so the ladies from the ward I grew up in could come and see my baby. The cupcakes were beautiful, the presents were bountiful, and almost every Young Women's leader that I had came to it. I felt very loved.
10. Gideon's first day at my mom's house he got to meet Hiagi and Susan Wesley and they gave him a Whinnie the Pooh outfit that he looked adorable so I couldn't help but take pictures.
11. I saw this Giraffe at the new Carter's at Fashion Place mall. That place is completely different now. I also got Nate some new zipper ties so he can have some variety on Sundays.
12.We had Gideon's blessing on March 6th. He wore the same booties that Nate wore when he was blessed. The open house was pretty chaotic and I'm still shocked that we had space and food for the people that showed up, but it was nice to have so much family around.
13&14. A few days later I got Gid dressed up in his blessing outfit with the afghan that Nate's Grandma Chamberlain made and we did a photo shoot. You can see it was a very emotional event for him.
15. A few days before the blessing we finally finished our art projects for Gid's room. This is one of the pictures I mod podged onto some canvas to hang up.
16. And finally, last night I actually started doing some homework, but I first had to distract myself by creating a new desktop for my computer with new pictures of my family.

And that is what we've been doing around here. :)

It's been a month already?

This is the look that Gideon always gives Nate. Like he's up to something...

As of Valentine's Day, Giddy is a month old. Holy cow!! That means I only have two more weeks of maternity leave, goshdangit. It's sad, but someone has to pay the birth day bills, right? And this little boy is worth every penny!!!

It took me a little while, but I finally got the kid on a schedule so I can do some homework during his downtime without him waking up every fifteen minutes. My favoritest thing in the whole wide world is watching him smile and laugh in his sleep. I don't know what he's dreaming about but it sounds marvelous.

We received so many hand-me-downs and gifts that the only thing we've had had to buy is tons and tons of formula. Even with my noble attempts to breast feed, this kid drinks enough formula to feed a "small" army, hahaha. But it is all going to his height and it needs to go to his skinny arms and legs that he's always flailing about. I blame Nate. My two skinny boys that eat and eat and just get better and better looking because of it.

I took this picture today while we were starting tummy time on the beautiful blanket that my friend, Kristen, made for Giddy.

Hush-a-bye Mountain

I'm going to try to keep this short and non-gory but here is the story of Gideon's birth.

On the morning of the 13th, I went to Intermountain Medical Center for my weekly appointment where I realized I had come a day early, so they put me through anyway. My blood pressure had been rising the past couple of weeks so they were watching me pretty close for preeclampsia, and my doctor checked the Labor and Delivery schedule and decided that we should induce that day. So instead of going to work, I went over to Rubio's across the street, at my final meal before being admitted to have a baby (Steak tacos, gourmet style, and a vanilla coke). I called Nate and he met me at the hospital. They pumped me full of oxytocin and waited for the contractions to begin. For the majority of the time I had this nurse that wouldn't let me move from laying on my left side because it would move the monitors and they'd lose the baby's heartbeat. My hips hurt so bad. I haven't laid on my left side since then because of how traumatic that was. I wasn't progressing very much and around midnight they gave me an epidural in case the medicine suddenly started working or I needed to get a c-section. To make a long story short, after 33 hours of labor it was decided that I would get a c-section and five minutes later I was in the operating room.

Having the c-section was really scary for both Nate and I. I had never had major surgery before and I was already loopy from the drugs that had been given me before they decided to do the surgery. Nate was scared of something going wrong and potentially losing both his wife and his first child, but he was really brave for me. I started shaking and getting nauseous from the anesthesia about halfway through and I kept saying how cold I was. I could barely talk. I was really worried but Nate started singing Hush-a-bye Mountain to me over and over. He learned the words so he could sing to our first child back when we were first engaged. It was a magic moment that I will always remember. He just kept singing to me and it calmed me down emotionally if not physically. And when we heard our baby's first cry, we both started smiling and bawling. I remember thinking, "Wow. There really was a child in there." After the surgery I went into shock and the shaking got worse and remained so for two hours, but with the help of the nurse I was able to hold my baby and breastfeed him for the first time.

We then were moved upstairs to the maternity ward where Gideon and I were poked, prodded, measured, and questioned every hour for the next four days. They tell you to get some rest, but then they bug you every hour between 5:30am to midnight so it's impossible to get some.

Gideon's jaundice count was borderline worrisome so he spent some time in the billi bed getting blasted with UV rays. They put hat, goggles, and a binky in his mouth that made him look like a muppet baby. I couldn't help but laugh. But it was really sad not being able to hold him whenever I wanted for two days. But on Sunday, we got to have him with us in our room and we spent the whole day listening to music and writing messages to Gideon in a journal and some people came by and even gave us the sacrament. It was the most perfect Sunday of my life.
Lots of family and friends came to visit and bring gifts. It was nice having all the support in the hospital (not to mention someone bringing me all of my meals) but I am uber grateful to be home again. It has taken Gid and I a couple of days to establish a sleep schedule that doesn't require us to be woken up every hour. But I have almost completely recovered from my c-section and Gideon is getting over his jaundice. We've had to go to a few doctor's appointments throughout the week, but things are settling down. I am excited to have Nate home with Gid and I tomorrow since he had to get back to work the next day after we were released. Life is pretty perfect right now and I couldn't be any happier.

Gideon finally arrived on Friday!!! We are literally just sitting here in the hospital reflecting on how happy and blessed we are to have this beautiful baby boy in our life with us now. FAMILIES ROCK!!!

Re-counting Christmas

The end of December was soooo much fun I didn't have time to write about it all. So let's see if I can't get this updated without too much fanfare...

My LDS sorority from the U had a baby shower for me. It was perfect. We went to IHOP, we chatted about nonsense, laughed a lot, got a few cute presents and I got to eat the best chocolate chip pancakes in the world!

After discovering that my parents had thrown away my Christmas tree, my friend Tyler and his wife Shelli let us borrow a tree they had that was too big for their apartment. We got some generic decorations from Wal-mart, but then Nate put up all the ones his parents have given him over the years and I went and got my favorites from my grandparents old ornaments. It has brought back so many fun memories that I still haven't had the heart to take it down.

We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert with David Archuleta and it was beautiful! I had to rest a lot the following day with all of the walking and waiting in line that we had to do, but the music was more than worth it.

The following day, Nate's parents came down to Salt Lake and took us to dinner at Chili's. It was fun to show them our new place, but the best part of the night was the great conversation. I couldn't stop laughing. This visit also gave me a chance to go shoe shopping with my mother-in-law which was the first time I have ever seen her thinking about herself and not one of her many children or grandchildren or husband, and in the end she still didn't get the shoes because she was worried that she was taking up too much of my time. It really made me appreciate what awesome in-laws I have. They raised my perfect husband, are inspiring examples, and they buy us food. What more could a girl ask for.

December also presented Nate and I many opportunities to help out my grandparents which is the number one thing I love about our new address. I helped grandma put out her nativities and do her Christmas cards, and Nate was able to help grandpa put up his globe lights in the dining room windows. We spent quite a bit of time up there this last month and I loved every minute of it.

Christmas Eve was dinner at the grandparents house and opening family presents. I got Nate a hardcover copy of his favorite book since he's practically read his paperback version into shreds and one of the many perpetual motion machines he plays with whenever we go to the planetarium. He got me a David McCullough book (he's my favorite author) and THE PLAYBOOK from "How I Met Your Mother" (a show we both love to watch). We got some fun baby stuff from my family for my little Gideon and Kini made all of the families a cute craft block decoration that says, "Christ, Let Him In." My favorite part is always seeing how much people like the presents that I picked out for them and every single present got a big smile.

Christmas morning I woke Nate up at 8am to open his and Gideon's stockings. Nate got pistachios, Ritz crackers, cheese, and Mountain Dew. I had him open Gideon's because I had found some newborn shirts that looked like Jedi padawan tops except that they had mittens on the arms which Nate just loves on baby shirts. The rest of the day was spent at my parents' house and Auntie Beta's hanging out with family and eating food. Poor Nate had to learn how to eat shrimp that still has its legs attached, Ha Ha Ha.

On the 27th we did Christmas with Nate's family and it was amazing! His parents told the Christmas story using pictures of a Nativity re-enactment that his family had done in 1981. It was fun and adorable. After which they announced that they had scanned all of their slides into digital files and were giving all the kids flash drives with all 2,300+ pictures all categorized for their own use. I was floored. First of all, the amount of time it takes to scan them took one of their uncles 2 weeks and then to actually go through and categorize pictures that spanned at least ten years? Wow. Just wow. I only dream of doing that with my family's photos someday. AND they included pictures from Nate's dad's mission and his parent's wedding that he hadn't seen before. It is so nice to have those now for the family that we are starting. We also walked away with more awesome gifts for ourselves and our impending offspring.

The rest of the week until New Year's Eve, Nate and I spent ALL of our time together shopping for and putting together the nursery. Have I mentioned I have the best husband ever? He's currently putting together some homemade artwork for the room that I can't wait to see completed. It's exciting for the baby to actually have some space that is his when he comes.

New Year's Eve we went to my friend Kristin's house and had pizza and played games until midnight. It was a small group, but it was made up of some of my favorite people so it was perfect. New Year's Day was spent with Nate's sister, Erin, and her family and involved more food and games. It's becoming tradition to go down there and play Rock Band with them for New Year's and I hope it continues.

And now we are back at work and start school this week. I'm proud to say that we spend our vacation well, though. We got some stuff day, but there were at least three days where I just rested the whole time, which is a hard thing for me to do. It's tough to be back at work and not spending every minute with Nate, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Next stop: BABY-DOM!!!