Wedding Weekend, Parents Visit

We had a great weekend.  I thought it would be pretty awful and exhausting, but it turned out to be okay.  It was exhausting, but it was still good.  Mom is taking Lila for a walk right now so I have a little time to write.

Saturday morning we left for Detroit.  Caty Perkins and Sam Jolley got married there that day.  The way there was fine; we stopped for a quick lunch and Lila fell asleep for a bit.  We were fortunate enough to have some of Sam's cousins watch Lila during the (very short) ceremony, so we both could attend.  It was very sweet to see the two of them dressed in white, kneeling at the alter, so happy, so in love.  Jake and I are big Sam and Caty fans and know that they'll have a very happy life together.  Lila did fine while we were in the ceremony.  We don't usually leave her with strangers, but they distracted her well enough.

Caty had asked me a few months ago to take pictures at the wedding.  So I was surprised when her friend/aunt approached me and said that Caty had also asked her to take some pictures.  Caty apparently wanted me to do the group shots and her aunt to do the pictures of the two of them.  It was all fine with me!  It was a hot day and it was so nice to not have to be out there the whole time, and it will be so nice to not have to edit all those pictures.  So, we had planned on going to Flint for the ring ceremony and reception, but since I wasn't needed to take pictures, we decided to go to IKEA instead :)  I was excited, Jake wasn't, but he's good to me.  We spent a few hours there, I think.  We ate there--Lila loved the meatballs--and bought a dresser.  I also lost Jake and Lila for a while, and that made Jake like Ikea even less. :)  We made it home without stopping, which was nice.  Distracted Lila with Blue's Clues and licorice.

On Sunday, we drove to St. Joe for their ward conference.  Jake had been asking me all week to come, and I wasn't sure about it... knowing that Lila would be tired from the day before and that she'd be cranky and hungry at church.  But, I decided to go anyway to spend time with Jake.  I'm glad that I did, it worked out well, even though we were all so tired by the time we got home.  Lila had a hard time sitting through sacrament meeting, which was a half hour longer than usual.  She was tired.  So we sat in the hall with her most of the time.  And I didn't get to see/hear any of the second half of conference (the part where they talk about marriage and communication; I'd already seen it presented a few times though).  I was in the mother's room with Lila.  Luckily, and I consider this a tender mercy, we had the mother's room to ourselves long enough for her to fall asleep in my arms just like old times.  After she fell asleep, three other moms came in and she slept through all our chatting.  St. Joe has a great ward!  Lots of young families, tons of little kids and babies.  So it was nice to visit.  Lila woke up just as church had ended.  Jake did a quick training with the ward clerk and then we were able to eat lunch together at the potluck.

When we got home, Lila had just fallen asleep in the car, and I wanted Jake to move her inside, but she woke up and never fell back asleep. :\  But I did.  I slept for an hour.  I couldn't move my arms I was so tired.  I woke up still feeling exhausted, but it was 4:00 and we had things to do.  We went with Terie, Steve, Brody and Toby to the neighborhood ice cream social.  It was a lot of fun and nice to meet some more of our neighbors!  Lila had a blast playing in the bounce house (Jake went in there with her) and climbing stairs.  Looks like most of the women/wives/moms in the neighborhoods works; I don't think there are many SAHMs.  But it was great.  I feel so blessed to live in such an awesome neighborhood.

Monday was exhausting.  Lila slept and napped well, but we (Emily and I) were busy getting ready for my parents to arrive.  We assembled the dresser from Ikea.  Usually (ok, always), Jake does stuff like that, but I wanted it done and I thought it couldn't be too bad.  And it wasn't.  There were some scary parts :) but we got it up in a few hours.  It was kind of fun, doing something out of the norm.  Lila sure liked helping us.  She especially liked the hammer.  I was so sore by the end of the day, from all the lifting and chores.  I was definitely feeling pregnant.

After dinner, Mike came over for a while to work on his car.  Jake mowed the lawn.  Terie and her boys came over and played.  She's really nice, I like her.  She didn't have the boys till she was 36 and 37.  She asked if I was in my early 30s.  Hehehe.  She was surprised when I told her I'm only 24 and Jake will be turning 28 next month.

Mom and Dad didn't get here until 8:30, just as I was going to put Lila to bed.  I figured it would work that way.  Lila got really hyper seeing them and Bella the dog.  Jake and I left to go pick up the trailer from Larry Austed (we needed the trailer to move Emily's stuff to Battle Creek).  It was nice getting away.  Didn't get back till around 10:00, at which point Lila was playing outside with my mom, lol.

She didn't get to bed till 10:30.  And then woke up at 11:00 because she had peed through the diaper my mom put on her (Mom must've not done it correctly), and then woke up a few times in the middle of the night not feeling well.  She woke up with a runny nose and cough, so now she's sick.

Tuesday (yesterday) morning, Mom, Dad, and Emily moved her over to Battle Creek.  I stayed home with Lila and Bella.  They got home before Lila woke up from her nap.  We went for a walk to see the horses.  They left to finish packing up Emily's apartment.  Jake got home and the three of us headed over to help.  Lila wasn't feeling well and was pretty cranky.  All she wanted to do was to "go for a walk outside."

Jake, Lila, and I left before they were finished.  Played outside with Toby and Brody for an hour and then went inside to get Lila ready for bed.  She and Jake "wrestled" and she climbed all over him for a while, which was good because it wore her out... we need to start doing that every night!  She went down a little after 9:00, at which time Jake left to return the trailer.  Lila woke up a half hour later, coughing, but went back to bed easily, she was so tired.  She slept great last night.  Jake and I were up till 11:30.  He made us Ollero women Cream of Wheat, and we ate that, and he and I got to visit a while.  He was proud to tell me how much Jen Randall and Tamara Little like him.  They're excited for him to eventually take over the company and deal with a lot of the stuff they have to deal with.  They said they'll both kiss him on the lips, they'll be so happy, lol.  I love that Jake guy too.