24th Weekend

Wow being a mom is so THE BEST that's all I have to say! :) Every day just get's better and better and it's a lot of fun. I just feel so blessed to have such a great baby and I feel so lucky to be where we are right now. It's funny how already I can't even imagine not having a baby. I thought it would be a huge adjustment (and of course it is a little...now that she's my new schedule!) but it really just feels normal and I feel like I've been a mom for a while!
We had our first little "get away", which I was kinda nervous about (ya know just being away from home and I didn't know how Lyla would do) But she did GREAT! We had such a fun weekend and I actually took pictures! I was so proud of myself. :) My old roommate, Jenny got married on thursday so we went up and stayed with Josh and Amanda in Bountiful. Amanda watched baby Lyla for us while we went to the temple in the morning and she got a taste of what it's like to have twins! ha She has a 4 month old baby, so she was so nice to take Lyla for us. I was so nervous to leave her, luckily she was good and she slept most of the time. Yay Thanks Amanda, you're the Best! Then we went back to get her for the luncheon. She's such a good baby!



We went to the FAMOUS Bountiful 24th of July Parade! Well, we were told that it was one of the best parades...after waiting 10 mintues between each float...we beg to differ! ha Just kidding Josh and Amanda! I was just giving them a hard time at the parade because we really were waiting a while between each float. But later we found out it was because someone in the parade got ran over!! ya, I felt really bad after that! Luckily she is ok, but I guess she did break her leg though..how sad huh!

Lyla's first parade and loved it! :) (if you can't tell...) We laughed at how big baby Jude looks next to Lyla...ha THEY GROW SO FAST!


Our BIG fireworks show to end the night! The boys gave us quite the show...they were CRAZY!!


We had such a blast with everyone! Thanks to Amanda and Josh for showing us a great time and for letting us crash on their couch for a few days, sure love you guys! Oh and Michelle took some of the sweetest pics of baby Lyla...soon to come! (Hey Michelle...send them to me when you get a chance!)

SO PRECIOUS!

My sister Jakelle took the cutest pictures of Baby Lyla! Here are just a couple...more to come later! We went to Jess's store and took pics, but Lyla was having a hard night and did not want to go to sleep :( So we're going to try again next week when Jakelle comes.
Isn't she the prettiest baby! I can say that because I'm the proud mom :)

SHE'S HERE!

LYLA LUEKENGA
July 10, 2009 @ 5:50 p.m.
7 lbs 14 oz. 20 1/2 in long



Wow, we are so happy she's finally here! The last couple of days have been pretty crazy, sorry about the late update... but she's SO MUCH FUN! So here's the whole story...

We had our last doctor's appointment on thursday (my due date) and she said I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced, so everything looked great! Our doctor is amazing by the way, we love her! She said she doesn't like to induce first time mom's, but luckily she said I was an exception! Everything was looking good and my body seemed to be preparing and doing the right things. We couldn't wait to meet her of course so we were like, well can do it tomorrow?! ha She called the hospital to see and they gave the OK. So, they told us they'd call us in the morning to tell us when to come. Our doctor told us it could be 6, 7, or 9 am so be ready! Ya, I was like THANKS for telling us they could call at 6...first off of course I didn't sleep well...6 hit and I was awake and couldn't go back to sleep! ha Well, we got the call at 8:30 a.m. and they said to be there at 9:45! It was really nice to get everything ready and I didn't feel rushed at all, but WOW it was the craziest feeling of just thinking, "Oh we're just going in to have a BABY! :) That's all, no big deal ya know!" ha

I'll try and make this not so LONG...sorry. So they started me on pitocin at 11:35 a.m. I wasn't really feeling any contractions yet, BUT then all a sudden I SURE DID!! I swear they came all a sudden and they came good! I was alright for a while and I was trying to be strong...then the pain started going in my back and I WAS DONE! I then asked for the epidural and all I have to say is THE EPIDURAL IS THE BEST THING EVER! ha I'm serious though, I don't know how people can go natural. I guess I just don't understand why you'd want to make it a horrible experience when it could actually be a great one! ;) (sorry if I affend anyone) They broke my water and from then on it went WAY fast. I was so happy bc it could have gone really slow, but I was lucky and dilated quick. I had to push for an hour and a half though! ya, she had one big head! ha Everyone was betting on her weight earlier and saying she'd be around 6-7 lbs, but then when they saw her head...they were all, I think she's bigger than we all thought! It was pretty funny cause one nurse said she'd buy us dinner if she was more than 8 lbs. I couldn't believe she was even that close! Thanks to Jake's genes, I had a bigger baby! (oh sorry if this is a bit too detailed for some! ha) She was born at 5:50 p.m.

When I first heard her cry...there are no words to describe the feeling. She actually didn't cry that loud and they wanted her to belt it louder cause she had a lot of mucous in her that they were worried about. (that of course didn't last long, we know she has a good set of lungs for sure now!) It's just an amazing feeling when they put her on my chest right when she came out...aw it's just an incredible thing that she was just inside me. I just love her so much and I can't believe she's mine! She's perfect in every way and I feel so blessed to have her in our lives. I'm so grateful that everything went well, that she's healthy and I'm healthy as well. We're the luckiest parents that's for sure!

BRAND NEW!





The new LUEKENGA FAMILY





We had to see how Lyla liked her new crib when we got home! Doesn't she look so little in that BIG bed!


Lyla went on her first picnic to the park! She was such a good baby (we live right across from the part so we thought it'd be fun)


We all like to sleep with Baby Lyla! :) I love the one with my mom! I took it this morning, I just thought it looked so funny with them both in that twin bed :)


First KISS by daddy! This is my favorite, how sweet is that! Jake is the cutest dad and there's nothing like watching daddy with his sweet baby girl.

She's still COOKIN!

Yes I only have one day left and she still has NOT come!! I get the feeling she doesn't want to meet us or something, :( but we sure want to meet her! I hope she decides to come SOON! So, since I haven't been working for like 2 weeks, I'm done with school, the nursery is ready, the house is clean, seriously what else is left!! :) Well I got the urge to be crafty! I know I know, this doesn't happen very often if you know me well, but I thought what the heck I'll try it out. When I was in Richfield, one of Jake's brother's friends just had the cutest baby girl (they named her Ruby...isn't that the sweetest!) and she made herself one of those "Hooter Hiders". I thought I could do that, it seemed simple enough...well I DID IT! I'm so proud of myself, and it turned out great. Well I can't take full credit because my friend Cedar helped me sew! I don't have a sewing machine and I can't remember the last time I used one. So luckily she's extremely nice and helped me out! So here's the final project, it was so fun! Thanks Cedar, you're the BEST!



I was going to wait to put the pictures of the nursery up when we had pics of the baby to put in the frames and stuff, but I thought oh well! It's been so much fun getting it all ready and I have the most amazing husband that helped like crazy! And I can't forget to give a lot of credit to Jesi, Jake's sister who's an interior designer who helped us design it all! You're awesome! It says 'GIRL' all over it, it's so FUN!

So we painted the room of course, and we pained the mirrored dresser, which we pretty much made into a "changing table". DOWNEAST is the BEST! There's just no lamp shade there if you can't tell! ha


Those large pic frames on the floor still need to be hung as well...but we need a BABY to take pictures of!


We recovered the glider! (thanks to Grandma Polly!) KSL is also one of our best friends!




Aren't those the sweetest little ballet slippers! AW :) (the one's by the pink flower)The other cute white shoes are from Nana (grandma Poulson) for her baby blessing. SO SWEET!


I was excited about this mirror...only 2 bucks! (we were at this guy's house buying the lamp and this was just sitting there and I was like hey, this is cool and he said 2 dollars and it's yours! How could I resist!!)


Aren't those just PRECIOUS! All from the two BEST GRANDMA'S in the world! (except those sweet ballet shoes were from Coll and Jesi!) Oh and the hooks were from my sweet husband for mother's day :) THANKS EVERYONE!


This is where baby Lyla will be sleeping the first little while...Right next to mommy and daddy :) (This bassinet has gone through all of Jake's family, so now it's our turn!)


Can't wait for Lyla to see it! Every time I go in there, I am amazed how blessed we are to have such great friends and family.Thanks everyone, we are so SPOILED!!

3 MORE DAYS!

AH I can't believe we only have 3 more days until we get to meet our sweet little baby Lyla! I am so excited and a little nervous at the same time. I just can't stop thinking about who she's going to look like, me or Jake.. or I guess someone else?! It's so crazy that it's already here and everyday we're just like, well it could be TODAY! I only wish there was a way to find out when you were going to go into labor...wouldn't that be great! It's so funny because every contraction I have I'm like this could be it! But so far nothing has happened :( I seriously thought I was going to have her yesterday, I was having some pretty intense contractions at church...but nope nothing! I don't know if I'm just a wuss or what, but the contractions I've been getting lately don't feel so good so it makes me think that I may go early. But we've made it this far, so I have NO IDEA! jake's so funny, yesterday he was just saying, "I'm just going to take you to the hospital and make them start YOU!" I think he's getting really excited for this baby! ha

We debated forever if we were going to go to Richfield for the 4th of July since it was so close to our due date...well WE WENT! I'm so happy now that we went, since we haven't had her! We had so much fun with family! Jake did a lot of golfing...and I mean A LOT! :) We played with family and of course ran into everyone we know. It's Richfield, what do you expect! It was pretty funny though, just the suspense of maybe having this baby any day! We thought, well the worse thing that could happen is that we have the baby in Richfield...(which would be perfect bc everyone was there!) or we'd speed home and make it in time to deliver in Provo. I just really like our doctor, so I wanted to be back in Provo so she can deliver. No more worrying now though, we made it all weekend! Now I feel like I can try all the tricks to see if it'll make me go into labor! ha WE'LL SEE...!

Here are some pics from the 4th! (I finally figured out how to do the collages! I'm so happy now! thanks to cami:)




I also found more pics from the baby shower at Jesi's!

We had another FUN BABY SHOWER! My amazing sister-in-laws threw a shower for baby lyla and I on Saturday at Jesi's house here in Provo. I took forever to post this because I was going to wait until I found more pictures from someone, but I don't know who has all the pics! So sorry I don't have very many and I only have pics of my family. If I find more, I'll post them.
The FOOD was amazing, like always when you're with the Luekenga's! We played this really FUN GAME where everyone had to make a baby out of playdough and I had to judge the best one. ha It was hilarious! I was seriously amazed at people's creativity...the winner had the baby with the umbilical chord hooked to the placenta...WHO CAN BEAT THAT! Isn't that awesome! :) I just wish I had pictures dang it. Baby lyla is set for life that's for sure, she got spoiled again with so many great GIFTS! Thank you so much everyone who came, you are seriously the best! Every time I go into the nursery I can't help but just feel so blessed. We have the best family and everyone is so good to us. BIG THANKS to Amanda and Jesi for throwing the shower, you are the BEST! And Michelle made the cutest invitations, she's extremely talented! I'm the LUCKIEST, Love you guys!!






Wednesday night we had a SLUMBER PARTY at our house! Kate and Lauren slept at our house. Kate is Jesi's (Jake's sis) daughter and Lauren is Rich's (jake's brother) daughter. They were so funny! We went and rented a movie and of course they got a scary one! I was thinking Oh great now they're not going to sleep and have nightmares all night ha. Luckily Kate had already seen it and of coures it was a kid's movie so it wasn't bad, but we just tried to laugh at the parts that were really scary. :) We went and got ice cream and Jake made his FAMOUS MILK SHAKES! They were delicious. After the movie, both girls wanted another shake and I was like dang these girls are partiers! But then we realized they hadn't had dinner! ha We are the best aunt and uncle ever! So we ate dinner at like 11 p.m. and they finally went to sleep after that...I think! Funny story...when we were saying goodnight, Lauren says she thinks she better sleep far away from Kate. We're like why? She then says, "I can't sleep because Kate talks to me forever!" :) We made kate promise us that she'd try not to talk to Lauren so she could sleep and Kate says she can't because she usually talks to Jimmy (their dog who sleeps in her room) at night while she falls asleep! She's so cute!
We also found out how much DRAMA there is with two 8 year old GIRLS! WOW did Jake find that out that's for sure! HA It was hilarious because jake likes to tease... I think he found out when he goes a little too far...or just with two really sensitive girls! He had both of them crying by the time we got in the car after the grocery store. Poor little lauren was missing her parents and she told me that Jake reminded her of her dad :( It was pretty sweet though. Those girls are the cutest, it was so much fun!