Thanksgiving Weekend Photo Dump

This past weekend we had my family come down for the Holiday weekend and it was SO fun!! I took a ton of pictures and decided to share them here. 

Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot... It was freezing!!! But it was so fun!

Lexi LOVES her grandma!

Thanksgiving Day spread! Sooo tasty.

Selfie provided by Michael's long arms! ;)

Lexi's face when she tried a little bit of mashed potatoes. Hahaha!!!

SO MUCH to be grateful for. 

Crazy story:

We all went to see Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 on Friday. Halfway through the movie we got a notification that our front door was left open. Apparently I had forgotten to lock the front door. We freaked out, left the movie, and rushed home. The door was open halfway and Jagger was standing there, on guard right inside the door. It was so scary! We don't know what exactly happened, whether the wind somehow opened the door or someone tried to break in and Jagger scared them off. Needless to say I was super bugged that I left the door unlocked and that we had to miss the end of the movie!! 

Logan and I ended up going back to see the end of the movie that night by ourselves. It was an amazing end of the series! Love love love! 

Smiles at the park.

Ok for real, how is Lexi 5 months old? 

MY BABY CAN'T BE FIVE MONTHS... I can't believe it!!! It's so true that watching your child grow up is the only time you feel nostalgic for the present... Time is going by way too fast! She is seriously such a happy, smiley baby and her laugh is THE BEST THING EVER!!!! She loves blowing raspberries and pulling hair. No teeth in sight but everything her hands touch meet her mouth. She scoots and rolls all over the place and constantly wants to sit up and see the world. Jagger can always make her giggle! She is happiest in the bath and right when she wakes up. We love you way too much Lexi girl! Slow down time!!

Isn't she to die for?! I could eat her up.

We played games, ate great food, and had a blast laughing and talking together. It was great to see my newlywed sister and her husband. We loved having them come stay with us! 

Update and photo dump

It's been quite some time since I last wrote a blog post! This whole being a mom thing keeps me busy, even if it's just sitting and watching Lexi roll around and play!

Life is SO good!!! 

I got this fun update idea from my friend Sierra's blog. Go check it out- she's awesome! [sierrasview.com]

Currently:

Obsessing over: My daughter. I mean, what else? I can't believe she's 4 and 1/2 months old already. Lexi is Logan's clone, amirite? I love it. She rolls and scoots everywhere- I can't take my eyes off her for a second! Her favorite things are blowing spit bubbles and having me say "bless you" after she sneezes... It's the funniest thing! Also, I LOVE Old Navy baby girl clothes. Her wardrobe is 10X better than mine for sure. Everyone tells you how much you'll love your child, but you really can't fathom what that means until you have one. I love being a mom and I'm so blessed to have a hard-working husband who makes it possible for me to stay at home with this sweet girl!

She is my life. 

Working on: My fitness. I started doing the Alexa Jean fitness program.... Specifically the 'Sore to the Core' program! It's harder to workout with a baby, so I needed something that I could do at home and doesn't require much equipment. So far I like the simplicity of the workouts and can feel them working, but I know that diet is like 70% of getting in shape and that is DEFINITELY something I need to get better at.... I am HORRIBLE at meal planning and I have a serious sugar addiction, haha. Any tips?

Thinking about: life. Love. You know how you grow up watching chick-flicks and in return you build up a totally dramatized definition of love and romance? The HUGE gestures, the grand finales.... I always thought that's what I wanted in my life. And to some degree I did get that! But over the last 5 years, I've realized that real love goes way beyond that. It's in the small things. Date nights to Cafe Rio, playing games and laughing until our cheeks hurt. Cuddling together and talking about our hopes and dreams, fears and triumphs... Random texts throughout the day professing our love and gratitude for each other. Long-lasting hugs. Seeing him take SUCH good care of our daughter (my favorite is bath time). THAT IS LOVE. 

Anticipating: The Holidays! My family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving. It will be the first time I'm hosting and I'll be honest- I'm a little nervous. I've never cooked a turkey. (Insert monkey covering his face emoji.) This holiday season will also be the first that my sister is married for. That's still crazy to me! It will be so fun to have everyone here. 

(The start of my Thanksgiving spread. I've got a long way to go but still... Better than nothing.)

Watching: Lexi sleep... Hehe. 
The Voice, How I Met Your Mother (for like the 3rd time through), Survivor, Scandal... 

Listening to: Harry Potter! I've been listening to the audiobooks for the first time after years of only reading them. Can we just talk about how AWESOME Jim Dale is? Gah I just love him, he is brilliant. Lexi and I are currently on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Side note: I had a little argument with a 10 year old at Activity Days about who is the bigger Harry Potter fan. She insisted that she is. She asked me, "What's Nearly Headless Nick's full name?" Of course I said "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington!" And she said, and I quote, "Touché." Hahaha it was awesome.

Anyway... This was indeed a fun little update to write! Time is going by WAY too fast! Life is good and getting better every. Single. Day.

xo,
Linds

It's Friday!

Lexi's Birth Story

Lexi girl's due date was orginally June 22nd.

Induction date was set for June 30th.

As you can imagine, we counted down the days to June 22nd. Even though due dates are estimates, you can't help it! 

Due to insurance purposes my doctor is in St. George. My mother-in-law lives there so we decided that I would go up a few weeks early just to be safe. Of course this meant that Logan would have to be in Vegas during the week for work and then come on the weekends. This was especially hard on my emotional, pregnant self... (But who am I kidding, I'm always a baby when it comes to being apart from him!!!) 

So the waiting began. I spent my days bouncing on the exercise ball, walking, eating pineapple, swimming, and watching crime shows with grandpa!!

When my due date came and went, we really started getting desperate! On Monday, my due date, I was still only dilated to a stretchy 3. My Dr. was able to strip my membranes. On Thursday night, Logan so sweetly surprised me a day early! He planned to stay all the way until my induction date the next Tuesday. We went in for another appointment on Friday and I had progressed to a 4. She tried again to strip my membranes but baby girl's head was soooo dang low she couldn't reach (TMI I know). Haha!!!

I had Braxton Hicks contractions starting like week 28 and they continued to get more and more uncomfortable as the weeks progressed. I had a few real contractions in the weeks leading up to her birth but nothing close together!

On Sunday night, June 28, we went to sleep at about 11:30pm. An hour later I had a good contraction that woke me up! Then 5 minutes later... Another!!! So I woke Logan up and we timed them. After an hour they were still really regular!! What! It was happening!! We decided to shower and go to the hospital. We got ready, woke up Momma Shellee, ate some food, called my family, and went on our way!

We were so nervous that we would be sent home, especially since I was scheduled to be induced pretty much the next day. 

When we arrived at 4:00am, they checked us in and set me up to be monitored. I was still at a 4 so she said if I dilated to a 5 in the next hour they would admit me and get things going! Longest hour! I still had regular contractions and Logan and Shellee had fun watching the contractions come up on the monitor. It seemed so surreal to be there, things finally happening. 

By 5:00am they came and checked me.. YES! I had progressed to a 5+! They took me to the delivery room, stuck my IV in, and asked when I wanted the epidural.. I said I could wait for a while until I was dilated to a 6. The contractions hurt but I felt like I could handle them. I didn't want the epidural to slow things down too much. 

By this time my family was on their way from Orem, Utah!

By 7:00am they checked me again and I was at a 6! So they sent in the anesthesiologist a few minutes later. I planned on having an epidural from the beginning, but I didn't look too much into what it looks like going in because I didn't want to freak myself out. Honestly, for me getting it put in HURT! A lot of pressure going on.... He had to redirect it a few times so it took longer than I had hoped. It was the worst part so far for me. But I knew I just had to get through this and it would get easier. Seriously like a minute after it took effect, the BIG contractions came. They were so high up on the monitor I was so glad I didn't feel them!!! I felt pretty good with the epidural at this point- happy as a clam! Haha! 

At 7:45am one of the doctors from my health center came in and broke my water. Such a weird feeling NOT feeling it but knowing what was happening. And so weird how hard and small my belly felt once the water was all out.

Things did start to slow down a bit at this point. My mom, dad, and sister showed up at 8:30am! We were so happy they arrived. I asked Logan and my dad for a priesthood blessing which calmed us all down.

Then came the waiting. We slept, talked, my family got food, and we waited some more.

My doctor was unavailable from 10-2 so I really didn't feel any pressure to get any pitocin to speed things up. We were just fine waiting for her to become available again. 

Fast forward to 4:00pm.. I started feeling pressure down there. The nurses (AMAZING NURSES P.S.) came in and we started some pushing to get Lexi's head under my pelvic bone.

We did this for about 50 minutes before my nurse said, "STOP pushing, it's time to get Dr. Winward, you are crowning!!" 10 minutes later she walked in. We started pushing again.

8 minutes later at 5:08pm our beautiful daughter was born. Lexi Klaire Reynolds. She was finally here!!! All 8lbs 4oz and 20 inches of perfection. The moment they laid her on my chest I started bawling... Then I looked up at my amazing husband and the emotions became over-powering. Our family had grown by one perfect little human! We had a daughter! We had been waiting for her for more than 2 years and finally there she was. Nothing can prepare you for the love you feel in that moment.