First Birthday!

Gideon turned one on January 14th. We decided to postpone the birthday party for a week so I could get all caught up from the trip to Cali and school. We spent the whole day with him, though and took him to IHOP for some chicken strips and fries.

After IHOP we picked up some cupcakes and blew out a candle. Oddly enough, Gideon doesn't really like sweet things so we had to prod him a bit to eat it.

He does, however, like the feel of frosting.

My dad and Gideon both have their birthdays in January. Gideon got a whole new outfit, including his first tie.

Gideon got a lot of presents, but the one with the best story was definitely these Air Jordan sneakers. My cousin Nate bought them for Gideon while he was at the store buying his own. The day they came out. They're the ones that Jordan had the year he retired and on the bottom it lists all of his accomplishments in basketball.

Snow Day

There was quite a bit of snowfall the first week of January so we bought Gideon some snowpants. Nate took these pictures while I was in my last all-day residency at Westminster College. That means I graduate in May! That's beside the point, though. Here's Giddy playing in the best snow on Earth.

San Diego Zoo

While we were in California, we got to visit San Diego Zoo with Wendy and her boys. I have a lot of good memories there and I was excited to take Gideon. Unfortunately, you can't cover as much ground with three little kids so we weren't able to see everything, but everything was still interesting.

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Newport Beach

The week between Christmas and New Years I don't have to work. Luckily my friend Kristen didn't have to work, either, so we went to her family's beach house in Newport, CA.

This is Gideon with his first box of animal crackers from his Christmas stocking at the beach house.

This is Gideon's first time at the beach. He loved the sand.

Going to meet the ocean for the very first time.

I took this picture to show how much sand he got in his mouth. He kept trying to clear it out with his hand, which was also covered in sand.

This is Kristen (my mission trainer) who went with me and Wendy (one of my mission companions). Wendy is holding her little boy Benj who we also got to meet for the first time.

This is Gideon first thing in the morning. I've decided I want a pair of pajamas just like his.

First Christmas!

Gideon's first Christmas was so much fun! Here he is helping us put up Christmas decorations the week before Christmas. (Don't worry, we kept them up until his birthday so we had enough time to enjoy them).

This is when he got exhausted from all the work.

Christmas Eve my family came to our house to open family presents and have pizza. This is Gideon with my Grandparents Hansen.

This time last year I was taking my 9 month pregnancy picture. It's so nice to have him out of my belly and ready to play.

This is a Christmas tree we borrowed from one of my friends last year and never returned. Hopefully we'll be able to get our own this next year and give this one back to them.

Gideon's Haul.

And this is Christmas morning when he was exhausted from all the blinking lights and sounds and just wanted to rest his head in my lap.

High School Flashback... in the weirdest way

I was invited to an Social Commerce Exchange event tonight on campus about professional blogging. Not that I have any plans to become a professional blogger, I'm just a networking junkie. Anyway, I was sitting there listening to a presentation on blogging trends when a few rows down from me I saw a man get up and walk out. A man with one leg. The man with one leg who broke my heart in high school and the last time I had contact with him was a month after he moved to Washington when he told me over MSN messenger that it was all my fault he had no friends.

I'll admit it, my heart started racing. I had the sudden urge to follow him out into the hall and ask him what the heck his problem was 10 years ago when he decided that he was going to make me feel worthless when I was nothing but a completely devoted friend. The 17-year-old me that took months to heal wanted answers, gosh darnit! But 27-year old me kept in my seat, calmed down and went back to taking notes. Then she thought about how lucky she was to be going home to an adorable 1-year-old and handsome husband. And then 27-year-old me let it go.

Food for thought...

I have been obsessed with the results of the PIPA and SOPA bills today since popular websites like google and wikipedia have dedicated their websites to stop them. I, even, for the second time in my life contacted my state representatives about the issue (especially since I suspected one of them was going to support it). And then I saw this post from one of my facebook friends:

Its nice that people are making noise about SOPA/PIPA, but where was everyone when NDAA was going down?! I would also like to know how many people would even know about anything that's going on in our Congress if Google and Wikipedia didn't slap it right in front of your eyes. Why is that what it takes to bring awareness to the masses? This has been going on for months! Just food for thought.

Well, that did cause me to have some food for thought. Like, the fact the SOPA and PIPA could stop her from posting that message in the first place.