Sara Belle- Pictures of my Beautiful Princess

Here are some pictures of our beautiful princess on her special day. Ross's mom made this gorgeous dress for her, and we LOVE how it turned out. For some reason, we could not get a picture where we were all looking at the camera. We got Emma that special princess dress so that she wouldn't feel ignored or unimportant with all of the attention on Sara. It seemed to work pretty well- there were no 'Pay Attention to ME' tantrums at all that day.

Sara is winking at one of her many admirers. :)

My mom got these adoreable little shoes. They were too big and kept falling off- but I think they were so so cute and they went perfectly with her dress.

Sara Bear's Blessing

Happy one month Sara Bear!!! We love you!

This weekend has been full of family, friends and blessings- one Priesthood blessing in particular though. Sunday, March 2nd, 2008, Sara Belle Goodman was given a name and a blessing by her wonderful, spiritual, and oh-so-handsome father. Ross's parents came out from California to be here for the special event, and we were really happy to see them. Ross and I both agree we just don't get to see them enough. Hopefully our financial status will continue to change so that we can afford to make it out there more often. . .

Anyway, Saturday night was spent preparing our apartment to accomodate all of Sara's adoring fans. Our little place is not really condusive to entertaining, but we were all family and friends, so we didn't mind getting . . . close :) When I finally got to bed after getting all the food ready and putting Emma and Sara down, I wasn't feeling too good, but I just assumed it was the taxation of the day setting in. We had spent a long and enjoyable day with Grandma and Grandpa Goodman, and all the Russell cousins. We had a great lunch at the Golden Coral, and some good conversation back at Jim and Melissa's house. I am really happy to see how much Emma comes out of her shell now when she plays with her cousins. She is so shy!

By the time we got home, Emma was more than ready for her nap, but convincing her of this was more of a challenge than we were up to. We spent the evening with a grumpy Emma and a hungry Sara- lots of crying. Sara's appetite stayed strong throughout the night, so when I wasn't feeling too hot in the morning, I again assumed it had to do with exhaustion, and I set about getting the kids and Ross ready for church. (No, I don't actually have to dress Ross- but I do have to spend about an hour prodding him to start getting ready. For some reason, he still thinks that it only takes him 10 minutes to get ready even though I have proved to him numerous times that this just isn't the case.) It wasn't until I sat down in the pew at the church that I realized that my under-the-weather symptoms were really the first signs of a bladder infection. As I bent down to get Emma's sippy-cup out of the diaper bag, I felt that stabbing pain in the lower-right abdomen that I have become all too familiar with.

Let me explain. I got my first infection when I was about 12. I told my mom that I thought I had appendicitis and showed her where I was feeling an acute pain. I was really scared and wanted to go to the doctor because I had just read a book about a girl whose appendix ruptured causing a massive infection to spread throughout her body and subsequently kill her. My mom told me that she thought it was just a bladder infection and told me to drink a lot of water for the rest of the day, and promised that if the pain did not go away by the next day, she would take me in. Well- the hydration worked like a charm. I continued to get 2-3 of these little infections a year, and was always able to drown them away with water and cranberry juice- up until I was 19. When I was engaged and working as an EFY counselor, I got a really bad infection. I knew what it was and really tried to make it go away, but I think the lack of sleep that accompanies the posisiton of an EFY counselor made it impossible for me to heal correctly. I ended up with a kidney infection that had to be combatted with some antibiotics. After this, the only other time I was not able to get rid of one on my own was when I was pregnant with Emma. Then I got pregnant with Sara and things changed. I got 5 of them during my pregnancy. 3 of them I drowned away. The 4th landed me in the hospital for 2 nights with a severe infection in both kidneys. When I left the hospital, they put me on a powerful antibiotic called Keflex for a month, and then a less powerful antibiotic called Macrobid for the duration of the pregnancy when the Keflex ran out. One week after switching off the Keflex I got another one (while on the antibiotic!) so they put me on a smaller dosage of the Keflex for the duration. The Keflex ran out last week- so my bosom buddy came running on back.

Well, that was an incredibly long way for me to say that I was in a lot of pain that day, and I knew exactly what it was. After the meeting, I rushed home and took one of the pain pills that I was prescribed for after the C-Section, and tried to muddle through the day as pleasantly as I could. It really was nice to have so many friends and family here- we don't get many visitors, and I have missed being able to chat with adults without having to deal with Emma. Her cousins and Aunt Dana kept her marvelously distracted, and I didn't ever have to hold Sara until she was hungry.

After everyone left, and we cleaned up a bit, we dropped Emma off with Aunt Dana so that we could go to the hospital to get another prescription. My doctor was not too happy with this development. He figured all the infections during this year had been pregnancy related- but as most of you know- I am not pregnant anymore (yay!). He thinks I may have some kind of obstruction that is causing this chronic condition. He wrote out a prescription for Keflex again, and gave me a reccommendation for a Urologist, so we will see what happens.

Kudos to those of you who made it this far on a rambling post with no pictures!! I will have some fun pictures of our weekend as soon as the camera battery charges. I will also add more details of Sara's special day that aren't so me-oriented. Who knew I was so ego-centric? Oh- Ross says he did- anyone else care to join the ranks of people who I am currently scowling at in my mind? :)

One more reason we are not too thrilled with the Nursery experience. . .

Happy Birthday Emma-Roo!!!!

First of all, let me give a big shout-out to Roy, the Comcast Technician of Wonder!!!! Our internet has been down for almost a week, and after trying everything in the book (you know, the little trouble shooting handbook that all the inbound call receivers are supposed to run through before schduling an actual technician- which could possibly have the answers that would help, but wont because the inbound call receivers are either in India, or somewhere in the deep south- neither of whom can speak English (yes, I know the deep south is in America- my statement still stands!) and neither of whom know anything at all about networking problems) we FINALLY got one of these people to schedule a technician to come out to our apartment and fix the problem. Wow- that was quite the sentence! Anyway, Good ole' Roy was not even here for 20 minutes before he had recognized the problem and fixed it. Now our internet is faster than it ever was, and the picture on our cable (which we are still not paying for. . .) is clearer! Thanks Roy- you rock!!

Second- it is time for me to play some blogging catch up. However, I am pretty tired, and this has been a pretty happenin' week here at the Goodman abode, so I will just cover the best part of the week in this already too long post. Emma Rose Goodman celebrated her third birthday (including the day she was born of course!) on February 27th, and has now officially entered the stage in her life that she has been rehearsing for almost 3 months now- the TERRIBLE TWOS!!! *dun dun DUNNNN* :) We had a small party of family and friends complete with pizza, cupcakes and ice cream. I am not sure if Emma really knew what was happening, but she was aware that she was the center of attention, and she really enjoyed that. Ross and I went fairly light on the gifts since we knew her Grandmas and aunts would keep her busy with all their tokens of love. We got her a little tricycle which we were VERY excited about. She has been eyeing the big-wheels of some of the neighborhood kids for a while now. She seemed to really like it too. . .

. . . until Aunt Heather unveiled the stupid giant ball of joy and purpleness.

It TOTALLY trumped our little bike!

We also got her a big bag of giant lego things- which were mostly enjoyed by Carrie and Nate- we pretty much struck out on the present front this year. Oh well! (Actually, Emma has learned to really like the legos since then, and that made me feel much better!)

This is honorary Aunt Carrie enjoying her brief chance to hold Sara- Grandma Jones can get really grabby when it comes to babies- who knew?

When we first brought the cupcakes out, Carrie told Emma to blow them out. She started the urging early, because it usually takes a lot of it to get young kids to blow out their candles. Unfortunately, Emma was more obedient than we anticipated, and the candles were out before the camera was ready. We tried to get her to do it a second time, but gave up when the candles were almost burned down. After cake and presents, Emma spent the rest of the night watching her new puppy movie (Lady and the Tramp) from Grandma with Aunt Dana, while the rest of us enjoyed visiting with each other and playing a rousing game of 'Pass the Baby'. It was a great night and Emma had a lot of fun. We love our little toddler- even if at times she enbodies the term 'Terrible' more than we would like. She brings so much joy to our home. She is such a smart little girl, and she really keeps us on our toes. I love you Emma!! Happy Birthday!