"Your description, although factual (we will take your word for it! ;) ) seems a bit sterile. Creating life is not the same as making peanut butter cookies."
Of course it's not. Who'd eat such peanut butter cookies? Mammalian reproduction, however, isn't all that difficult. Mice do it. People do it. It works the same way, exactly, in all mammals.
I believe there may be a difference between the process itself and the thought behind the process. Lower animals (e.g. goats, sheep, etc.) must conform to these processes every day (unless ill of course) - ruminating, eliminative behavior, etc. In certain times of the year, there is the process to reproduce, is a process which like the others, is instinctive.
Humans have a degree of reasoning and senescence that is more advanced. This ability to reason means that humans can have sexual relations "just because" and also because they desire to procreate. In both cases, the process of "sex" is the same - the reasons behind the act are different.