Weeks 31, 32 and 33. Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!

It's been awhile!!  The last couple weeks have flown by!
Week 31 was filled with holiday parties, flights, family and fun.  Our friends Sara and Zane hosted a really fun holiday party on Sunday.  We flew back to MN late on Friday night, did a little last minute xmas shopping and then headed down to St. Peter to visit my family.  So great to be home.  Lots of good food and laughs.


Gettin big!

My mom and I drove to Rochester on Saturday night for the Lorie Line concert.  A family tradition since I was a teenager.

Raquel was the only sibling that wasn't able to make it home from Baltimore. 

Week 32
My family celebrated Christmas on Sunday the 23rd.  We had ham for dinner and opened gifts.  My grandparents and great Aunt were able to make it as well which was really great.  We had a quick breakfast on the 24th, opened stockings and then made the long 3.5 hour drive up to the May family cabin in northern Wisconsin.  Thankfully the weather cooperated and the drive was uneventful. 

Merry Christmas from the ladies!

The entire Steve May family made it up to the cabin for xmas this year.  We had a fabulous Prime Rib dinner on the 24th and a lot of Crown Royal.  It was great to be able to be home and celebrate with everyone.  It was really cold so we did a lot of relaxing inside with the little kiddo's.  Andy and I did take a walk on the lake but outside winter clothes did not make the trip so it was pretty short.  The lake was groaning and popping away which was a little unnerving but still fun. 

We got to spend some quality time with the niece and nephew, Owen and Avery.  We can only hope Mayhem is as happy and easy as Avery.  Owen is a ball of fire and constantly surprises us with his vocab, imagination and stories. 

Merry Christmas from Cali!

We flew back to UT on the Wednesday the 26th.  Utah was in a snow storm so getting home took awhile.  Our flight was only delayed 30 mins but we had to drive all the way home to get the Rav to go up to Park City to pick up Cali.  So 2.5 hours later we finally made it home all safe and sound.  Andy took a snow day and skied Alta on Thursday where they had waist deep snow.  Pretty horrible day :)  I enjoyed relaxing at home as my xmas vacation continued into the weekend. 

Baby May's room is pretty much ready!  We had a bunch of stuff still in their boxes so I unpacked a lot of things and got them set up.  Did another load of baby laundry, painted our side table and sewed Mayhem a little critter blanket.  Very motivated weekend.

So excited about my little critter blanket.  It is so soft and so cute.  Hopefully Mayhem loves it!

Can not believe it's already Baby May's birth year!  February 2013 sounded sooo far away at the start of all this.  He will be here in 7 or less weeks!  Still feeling pretty good.  I slipped in the snow when we were picking up Cali so my lower back has been really hurting the last couple days, so hopefully that can heal up quick.  Kind of tough though with a weakened core and 4.5 lbs of baby throwing everything off.  I'm really trying to walk on the treadmill everyday to keep the weight in check and keep the muscles working.  Baby is definitely moving around like crazy.  Trying not to get too anxious about his arrival since we do still have 1.5 months left but it's hard!  I'm not uncomfortable yet but definitely ready to be done with this pregnancy journey.  I'm very ready to meet the little guy, find out what his personality is like, get back to my normal wardrobe, enjoy Jimmy John's and an alcoholic beverage!  I've been off work since the 22nd so although I know maternity leave will not be nearly as relaxing and low key I'm really looking forward to it.  At least I'm going back to a short week :)

We are home now for quite awhile so hopefully I can keep up on the posts!

Till next week.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Lexi and Andy



Week 30

10 weeks left!  Crazy.  I don't know why but week 30 has been a milestone I've really been looking forward to.  Maybe it seems like the end is within reach even though I know the hard and uncomfortable part is yet to come.  Mr. Baby is getting big quick and so am I.  Every day it seems like I am bigger.  Still feeling really good so I'm very happy about that.  Still sleeping really well and not feeling uncomfortable yet except when I have to bend over.  Hopefully I don't jinx it, but the heartburn has been downgraded to rare occurrences and my energy level is still pretty normal so I'm hoping both those continue! His movements definitely feel more like rolling around rather than hard kicks.  He's getting big enough so I can almost tell which bumps are head and butt.  He's taking advantage of every inch of space so his feet are now finding their way under my ribs every now and again.  Not the best feeling but it's usually short lived as he's moving around quite a bit. 

Not much else to report from SLC.  Andy and I are both super busy at work.  Andy's always busy at work and the holidays are always a busy time for DUI arrests.  My lab is in the process of getting accredited and we have our big audit right before I go on maternity leave so I've been busy making sure all our training records and documents are in order and I'm also trying to get our 2 newest employees up and trained before I leave.  We finally got some snow again so we're both much more excited about the holidays.  Andy resort skied at Snowbird on Saturday.  They got a lot of snow but it was cold and windy.  I'm missing being able to ski but then again I'm a big wimp when it comes to cold so I know when Andy says its cold and windy I wouldn't have had any fun on the mountain anyways :)  Hoping baby comes a couple weeks early so I can get a day or 2 in late March or April.  If I had to bet (based on absolutely nothing) I'd guess baby will be induced on February 24th (1 week overdue).  Guess we wait to find out!

Thanks everyone for checking in!
Till next week!
Love,
Lexi and Andy

San Francisco Trip!

Monday marked our 2 year wedding anniversary!  Time sure has flown by.  On a whim we decided to take a little weekend trip to celebrate.  Neither of us had been to San Francisco before, and flights were reasonable, so we went!  I won't be able to fly soon after the new year so this will be our last vacation besides Xmas until Baby May is born.  We had a great trip despite the constant rain :)

 

We took an early morning flight on Friday and landed about 9:30.  We rented a car and drove a little bit north to Stinson Beach, in Marin County.  The road was super hilly and curvy but the coast was beautiful!

Pacific Coast

Crazy road to Stinson Beach

Andy got creative.  Happy Anniversary!

We also stopped at the Muir Beach overlook.  It cleared up for 15 minutes.  Just long enough to get an amazing view!

 

 

Next up was Muir Woods National Monument.  The coastal giant redwoods were really pretty.  The forest was so beautiful and peaceful.  Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

On our way back to the city we stopped and checked out the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is amazingly beautiful.  The sheer size of the thing is mind bottling. 

For our first night in the city we decided to go big and booked a room at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown San Francisco.  Of course it was located on top of the biggest hill I've ever seen which made for a fun walk up in the rain.  They upgraded our room and sent us up a complimentary bottle of champagne for our Anniversary.  Would have been perfect if this also wasn't a Babymoon :)  For dinner we decided to head down to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner at the Franciscan Crab House.  I had their famed clam chowder and crab alfredo and Andy had to get the Dungeness crab. You can't beat fresh seafood.

The next morning we took a ferry across the bay to tour Alcatraz.

We went on the audio tour which was really fun.  We definitely felt like we needed to watch The Rock again now that we'd been to "The Rock".

We had lunch at Pier 39 and then went and watched the sea lions.  Loved the sea lions.  So funny.  I think we probably could have spent hours there.  Some were cute, others were really ugly, all were stinky.  So funny that they all just layed on top of each other and had so much personality.  We found ourselves talking for them just like we do with Cali.

 

 

We stopped by Ghiradelli Square and had a world famous sundae...amazing.

We drove down Lombard Street.  Crazy curvy road. 

We met up with friends Kristi and Francis at their apartment and had a great quiet evening.  Badger game, pizza and a super comfy couch.  So great to see them!  We didn't fly out till late Sunday night so we slept in, lounged around and then took a tour of the Golden Gate Park.  I think the closest in comparison would be Central Park.  This park was a little oasis in the middle of the busy city.  It is actually really large and has Japanese Gardens, museums, buffalo (ok, they're bison), disc golf courses and it ends right at the beach.  So much to do!

 



The sun came out just in time for us to leave.  We did get to see the beach and ocean with a little sun which was really nice.  Still pretty chilly though!

Overall a really fun, jam packed, celebratory weekend!

Love,
Lexi and Andy



Week 29

Week 29 started out rough but ended great!  Sunday and Monday I literally felt like I was going to explode.  I still have 11 weeks left and have no idea how my body is going to be able to get any bigger.  Luckily that lovely feeling only lasted a couple days.  I'm totally fine with it as long as it's short lived.  Wishful thinking right?

We also had our last study appointment this week. We got to see Baby May again, and in 3D!  He's right on track!  He already weighs 2 pounds and 7 ounces and is 14 inches long.  Amazing that he is going to almost triple his weight in the next 2.5 months.  Lord help me...
It was crazy how much more of the screen he took up!  He always seems to have his hands right in front of his face so the 3D ultrasound was a little more difficult but we still got a couple decent pictures.  We got to see his little face and feet.  Apparently he has really long toes.  He is definitely still a boy as well :)

Cute little nose and face :)

Little feet.  He's got them crossed in the left bottom corner.

It was also baby Christmas at our house this week!  We put in a order for the big necessities and are feeling much better and ready for baby May.  He now can come home from the hospital and has a mattress to sleep on.  Mom and Dad also built their bed (aka glider/rocker) and rearranged the room.  Besides decorating the walls we are pretty much ready!

We also celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this past weekend.  Look for another post soon!

Love,
Lexi and Andy

4 Day Weekend and Week 28!

Lots of good, and a little bad in the past week; bad news first.  My Grandpa Jim passed away this past weekend.  He had been battling Parkinson's like symptoms, and overall degeneration of his mental and physical faculties for some time.  I am happy that he is no longer suffering, but sad that I wasn't able to get back to MN to say goodbye and be with family.  I'll miss you Grandpa Jim!

Despite the loss of a loved one, we still have an incredible amount of things to be thankful for!  We ran a Turkey Day 5k for the third year in a row, and celebrated Thanksgiving with our good friends.  Zane, Brendan, Alden and I ran, and Lexi and Alyssa "trotted" together.  We had great weather for the run, and also for the hot tubbin' afterwards!

I also took advantage of the warmer than average temps and got out for some good late season mountain biking!  Zane and I got a great ride in on Friday morning, and then got another solid group ride in on Sunday with Dan, Jesse, and Zane.  The trails could be under 5 feet of snow any day now, so it was great to get out a few last times.

Thanksgiving also brought the arrival of week 28!

 



I had my 28 week appointment this week along with the lovely gestational diabetes test.  It wasn't as bad as I expected but still not fun.  I also found out I've only gained 15 pounds so far which I'm very happy about!  Right on track although I may have indulged a little with all that fabulous Thanksgiving food.  I also get to start going in every 2 weeks for appointments...it will be nice to hear his heartbeat more often but work makes it tough.  Gotta do what ya gotta do! 

Other highlights of the awesome long weekend include hiking with Cali, a nice dinner and the new Bond movie and putting up the X-mas tree and lights on the house. 

Decided to get rid of the table this year.  Tree is a little smaller when it's not shoved in the corner :)

Looking forward to our 3D ultrasound on Wednesday and our 2 year anniversary trip to San Francisco this weekend!

Till next week!
Love,
Andy and Lexi

Weeks 26, 27 and much more!

Week 26 brings us to double digits, my SLC baby shower and our first massive snow storm!

Less than 100 days to go!

My wonderful friends here in SLC were so nice and threw me a baby shower!  So fun!  Had some friends, co-workers and neighbors brave the storm for a brunch get together.  Mayhem was once again spoiled beyond belief.  We're so lucky to have such great people in our lives. 





Cassie came from Ft. Collins, CO for the shower!

November snow storm.  I think we ended up with almost 2 feet!



Week 27 was also really busy!  I finally kicked my cold and felt like a normal human again which was awesome.  Andy was down in St. George all week for work so I had plenty of time to organize and craft.  I was off on Monday for Veteran's Day and I spent it in the baby room unpacking boxes, cutting those annoying plastic connector things off clothes, doing inventory and baby laundry so I didn't lost my mind.  I know we still have 3 months left but the room was in disarray and I really needed to get an idea of what we had and what we need.  So I feel much better about life now :)  You get a little glimpse of the organization in the week 27 photo. 

So excited to be starting the 3rd trimester!

I also made some burp cloths while Andy was down in St. George.  They are made with a cloth diaper and cute flannel.  Hope they work!

I hosted the girls for book club on Friday which was really fun as usual.  We all work full time and work in a scientific field so the only requirement is that we read books that have been made into movies, since we are all busy, and drink wine.  Lots of pharmacists, Dr's, PA's, optometrists, etc.  Most everyone is a transplant to Utah, we're all around 30 and everyone is just starting to have kids, so it's a great group and we really enjoy getting together every 6-8 weeks.

 

Saturday we went to our all day baby class...I felt it was something we should do.  It was 9-5.  LONG day.  It was ok, but I think if I could go back in time I would skip it.  It just made me feel anxious, nervous and panicky.  I think if we weren't already pregnant we would seriously be reconsidering having children! :)

 

We got rain this weekend which washed away all our snow from last week which is nice.  Rain in the valley equals snow in the mountains so Andy went out and skied for the first time.  He also plays hockey on Sunday's so along with Sunday football we have a big sports day. 

 

Really looking forward to the short week and Thanksgiving holiday!  I have my 28 week appointment tomorrow thanks to the Thursday holiday so I'm excited to hear Baby May's heartbeat and see where I am for weight!  Mayhem must have shifted a little lower and got some more room b/c I haven't had heartburn all week!  Still feeling and sleeping great.  I feel completely like myself and I'm pretty used to the constant tummy movement that I sometimes forget I'm preggers until I have to put on those dreaded maternity jeans or bend over to put socks on :)  The new feeling of the week is the alien flip flops.  He's still kicking but now I can feel and see him rolling around which is a weird sensation. 

 

Hope everyone is well!

Till next week!

Love,

Lexi and Andy

 





Week 25

I'm a little behind...we're almost to 26 weeks and I'm just now getting around to posting for 25.  Sorry!

It's been a busy couple weeks for both Andy and I.  Andy's been working a lot of late nights and it's been a crazy busy full moon kind of week for both of us.  And we have a lovely cold making it's way through the house so don't mind the pictures this week :)

I found this cute iron on at Hobby Lobby and made myself a shirt.  Turned out really cute but Andy says I need to fill it out a little bit more.  I feel big already so I'll try and take my time filling it out.

Speaking of kicking...the little guy has been busy lately!  So crazy that I can see my stomach moving.
Definitely starting to get big fast!  I'd been wearing my normal pants and extending them with a little hair elastic trick I learned.  That still works and it's so much more comfortable than maternity jeans but it just looks a little funny now that I'm bigger and the zipper is struggling.  So now I own 2 pairs of leggings, skinny jeans that are more like leggings and 2 pairs of boots.  New territory for this girl.  Did I mention that I hate maternity jeans?

Still feeling good pregnancy wise and looking forward to getting over this cold for this weekend!  My amazing friends are throwing me a baby shower here in SLC this weekend. 
Looking forward to the end of the 2nd trimester!

Till next week!
Love,
Andy and Lexi