Samantha & Benjamin are married!

We went to Waco last weekend for my baby sister's wedding.  The whole weekend was beautiful, awesome weather, great rehersal dinner and such a perfect wedding day.  These two are so sweet together and I am so happy for them.  We have loved Benjamin from the day we met him.  He has such an amazing family as well! 

Laila was the flower girl, and since she has the attention span of, well a 20 month old, she was escorted down the aisle by two handsome ring-bearers.  They did so good! It was precious!
                                                               This was at the rehearsal.

Mom and her girls

Sisters before the wedding

Sweet Flower Girl

Playing with bubbles

Laila and her new friend Sweetie (Benjamin's sister)

They had a photo booth at the reception. It was so cool! You get a print to take home and one to put in their scrap book with a note.  Such a cute idea and a great keepsake!

After the wedding we went and had dinner.  Laila was loving on her Aunt Suzanne.  She just kept hugging and squeezing her so much! This went on for at least 5 mintues. It was so funny we were in tears.

This video was towards the end of her 5 minute hug session

After a wonderful long day, my love.

my beautiful sister

These two are next! August 4th!!



Trampoline

 We got a trampoline a few months ago and Laila loves it! Cousin Hunter came over

to play a few weeks ago and they had so much fun running around in the water.

Laila is a little LOUD when she is having fun!

A Year In Pictures

So much happened in 2011.  I was able to take off work for 10 months with Laila.  It was such a blessed time to get to spend with her and watch her grow.  They change so much so fast!  I truly cherish every moment, good and bad.  Some days are hectic now that I am back at work, but everyone is healthy and happy!  I was trying to think of an easy way to document 2011, since I missed it here on the blog, so here is a year in pictures.
                                                      September 2010

June 2011

Summer 2011

July 2011 

August 2011 

September 2011- Laila turned 1!

October 2011 

October 2011 

November 2011- I turned 30 & Laila got her first tooth!

              December 2011- We had such a fun Christmas with all our family.  My baby

                    sister Samantha, graduated from college, UMHB!! So proud of her!

January 2012- Happy New Year! Laila got another tooth and D.J.

and I ran our 1st Half Marathon!

February 2012

March 2012-D.J. and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!

I got a new Prius :) I love it! Laila got some curls, getting more hair,

She learned how to open the pantry door and gets food all the time!

We took some Bluebonnet pictures with cousin Hunter

Cousin Adalyn turned 2!! and we had 2 showers for Samantha

Who is getting married!! We've also started potty training

April 2012- I finished my 2nd longest race, a 10 mile in Austin, Laila

is learning to feed herself, we had a beautiful Easter, Laila had her 1st

pony tail spout, She loves her daddy, loves going for walks, and

loves playing in bubbles.  She repeats just about anything you say

and has learned how to say please and thank you in the right context!

I think this catches me up to today.  I will try to keep a more frequent log of our adventures going forward! Enjoy :)

~Elizabeth

Update

All our home renovations are basically done!  We had a crazy first week home with Laila last year with visitors, family, new baby, oh yeah and wood floors being put in!  All the hard work D.J. put in has really paid off. I love our home!! Here are a few of the "finished" pictures.

Labor Day

I last left of at 39 weeks pregnant.  Yes Laila was born!  I still remember that day as if it were yesterday.  What an experience it was bringing her into this world.  It's a little late, but here is our birth story.  This is kind of a long post so if you don't want to read through it all you wont hurt my feelings. Just jump to the next post :)
Labor Day


Friday September 3, 2010 I went to the doctor for my weekly check up.

I was still 1 cm dilated, but the doctor said she “made sure” I was 1 cm now. It was a little painful and by that night I started having mild contractions. Since they were about 5 minutes apart I called my doctor and she told me to go to the hospital to get check out. Well we got there and I was only 1 cm still so we walked for about an hour and they sent us home. At the time I didn’t think the contractions were so mild but I soon learned they would get worse. So Saturday mom and Samantha came over and we walked the mall for about 2 to 3 hours and by that night the contractions were worse. D.J. took me in to the hospital again at about 1:00 am and we got sent home again. I was really getting discouraged and couldn’t believe this could go on for days!

Well by Sunday afternoon I was on the phone with mom and Samantha timing the contractions and over about an hours time they went from 6 minutes to 4 minutes apart. I couldn’t talk through them anymore or move for that matter. I was seriously in pain. So I called the doctor and told her what was going on. Since the hospital wont schedule to induce people on the weekends, my doctor went ahead and called the hospital and had them admit me. By the time we got there the contractions were about 2 minutes apart. I was walking in and started having one and could not move… so a man and a nurse ran over and helped me into a wheel chair. D.J. was parking. We get admitted into a room and I lay there for what seemed like eternity waiting for my epidural. Everyone down the hall could hear me yelling through each contraction. FINALLY the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. Talk about bliss! Oh man I felt so much better but realized how exhausted I really was. I hadn't slept in three days. Doctor Johnson came in a little while later and broke my water and gave me pitocin. By the time she broke my water I was 3 cm dilated. This was probably about 3:00 pm on Sunday September 5th. By about 10 pm I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing.

Think we are almost there?? Nope, remember she wasnt born until MONDAY!!!

So all of the sudden the nurse says she isn’t getting a heart beat reading on the baby. As it turns out Laila flipped over face up! UGH! What does that mean I ask. Well nurse says she can be delivered that way but it’s harder and takes longer. So we start pushing…. They try to turn her to no avail. We keep pushing and pushing and pushing for 4 hours!! Finally doctor comes in to decide if we can keep going or if I will have to have a C-section. I definitely didn’t want that if we didn’t have to. Doctor says baby is right there. So if I still had the energy we can give it a try. So over the next hour with the help of the doctor, about 5 nurses and my sweet husband, she was finally born! I really felt like my head was about to pop off from all the pushing. My eyes were bloodshot and my face was so swollen after all that. But it was entirely worth it. I’ve never seen such a beautiful baby. She was perfectly healthy. The umbilical cord was around her neck but luckily not very tight and it didn’t affect her in anyway. She had quite a cone head but it quickly went down.

Laila Madeline Arsenault was born on Labor Day September 6, 2010 at 2:32 am. She weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long. She is absolutely adorable and so beautiful. We are so happy she is finally here and completely in love with her.

Long time no see!

I created this blog when I started keeping a journal of my pregnancy with Laila.  I basically turned my journal into a blog.  When Laila was born, I stopped journaling except for in her baby book, a monthly scrap book calendar, and on Facebook. 

As she turns 18 months old, I realize that I want to better document what goes on in our lives.  This last year has gone by so fast and I am so afraid of forgetting the little things, the wonderful little moments we share and experience as a family.  I mean, look have fast Laila has grown!

I like the idea of having something to look back on.  I just read through all my old entries from the pregnant days and it makes me really appreciate where we are now (especially with our house! Goodness I don't know how we lived through all that) So that being said, here we go again!  I hope you enjoy keeping up with our life and our little adventures!

September 1, 2010 - 39 weeks

Last weekend we got a lot accomplished at the house. Saturday, we got new carpet in all the bedrooms!!! YAY!! Also, Margaret and Billy came over and helped us put together the baby furniture. That stuff was literally in pieces and we had to put EVERYTHING together. It was great getting to spend time with them though and the furniture looks great!

Grandma & Daddy putting crib together

I supervised :)

Hard at work putting furniture together

 My mom (Grammy) came over on Sunday and worked her booty off helping us de-dust the house! What a difference it makes! I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and our house is really starting to come together. Mom also helped me decorate the baby’s room and put all her things away.

Here is Laila's Room

Some pictures of our other completed rooms

Bedroom with new carpet, paint, baseboards, doors, and blinds

We also extended our bedroom 7 feet bigger

Master closet extended 7 feet too

Gues room with new carpet, paint, doors and blinds

We also extended the guest room where the laundry room used to be

I don’t think I have included any updated pictures of our new half bathroom and laundry room although those have been done for awhile.

New doors throughout the house

Now we are ready to have the wood floors put in this weekend and our house will just about be complete…. for now :)