Trip to see Daddy

Daddy is living in Falls Church, VA which is just minutes from DC. So we wanted to take the opportunity while he is there for the kids to get to see all the sites and museums. The museums & almost all sites are free, so we couldn't miss out on this chance! The kids (and Tommy and I, too) got to do so many "firsts" on this trip. The first of which for the kids was riding a bus! Ha! We took an airport shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal in Tulsa and Tag was so excited to ride a bus for the first time! :) We rode the metro in DC, which was a first for all of us, and just lots of other things. There are just so many big and little things to experience in the world and I love getting to show a little of it to the kids! The kids went to school that Thursday and I picked them up and we headed straight to the airport for our flight. I must say, it was the sweetest thing to see how excited they were to be so close to seeing Daddy!


This was around midnight when we finally arrived at Daddy's house.

Tommy is one of the most thoughtful people I know and he loves more than anything to make the kids happy. He had them both little surprises to occupy them while he was at work the next day. One of Bella's surprises were these press on Princess fingernails. She thought she was something else! So cute!

While Daddy was at the hospital, the kids and I went walking around behind the house. It was just beautiful and peaceful there. There are running/bike trails and a few small playgrounds. This was a pretty stream behind the house.

DC is known for their cherry blossoms and I was hoping we'd get to see the trees blooming. We missed most of them but this one was in the park. Beautiful!

A cherry blossom.

Cuties sitting in the blossoms. When the wind blows they fall from the tree like snow.

Pretty girl!

Having fun!

That night we went to the mall. It was 3 stories and the biggest mall I've ever been to. Tag is really into Legos right now and they had the coolest Lego store!

We had just gotten off the metro and were heading to the The Mall (Smithsonian) when we spotted the streetside hot dog stand. :)

The Museum of Natural History

Huge T Rex head! It was amazing to see all the dinosary bones!

The Hope Diamond

The Rotunda in the Museum of Natural History

The White House!

Mommy's turn...wish we had gotten a family pic here. AND wish people wouldn't just sit there in front of it so they aren't in the background.

View of White House from the south side

Bella Rose has become a huge fan of Wizard of Oz and could not wait to see Dorothy's slippers at the Museum of American History!

Inside Union Station

Union Station - just beautiful!

1st trip on the open top tour bus! And it was quite cold.

National Cathedral - so beautiful!

Arlington Cemetary, very emotional and humbling experience to see

JFK's gravesite with the eternal flame

The Beautiful Amphitheater at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetary

Soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier. This is the most amazing thing to see how much detail goes into showing respect and honor. You can hear a pin drop because of the silence and it just will give you tears and chills. Awesome! I am uploading videos that I will post later.

Changing of the Guard

Our tiny kids sitting in the huge Amphitheater! ;)

The flowers were beautiful at Arlington Cemetary

Riding the open top tour bus!

He makes me the happiest girl!

Our last stop was the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

So much bigger than I would have ever imagined! Awesome to see!!

As you can see we saw packed lots of things into this short visit and had a great time! Tommy will finish up in Virginia on May 7th and starts his OB rotation in Orlando on the May 10th. I'm not sure when we will see him again because we are waiting to see what his schedule is in Orlando before we make plans for the kids and I to join him. Of course we want to be with him as soon as the kids finish the school year (last day is May 24th), but I also don't want to be stuck in a hotel room with the kids while he's working long hours if he has a bad schedule that rotation. So for now we have a countdown of 20 days left of school!! And then we will go to WM and from there we will eventually travel to Orlando. Tommy will finish in Orlando on June 18 and we will come back to WM, then Tommy and I will come back to Tulsa to move out of our apt before the end of June! And then another chapter of our journey will be closed!

Catching up...

We've not had too much going on lately. It's just cold and we've been stuck inside most of the time. Tag has 2 more basketball games left and their little team is looking better and better...they're starting to get the idea of the game. He still goes to wrestling practice and really enjoys it, but we aren't doing any of the matches. As his daddy says, it's a weekly outlet for him to get out some of that wrestling energy that he has so much of! ;) Bella Rose is doing great and growing like a weed...they both are growing too fast. She has gotten into her baby dolls again and loves being a mommy to them. In fact, when we went to see Santa and he asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up, she said "a mommy"! Awwwweee! I don't know if this started after being with Bently or what, but I love it...especially since I'm sure it won't be long and she won't want a thing to do with baby dolls.

Not much going on with me. I am trying to sub as much as possible...but those jobs are hard to get in this system! I do have 2 jobs already for later this week and next week. I am looking into doing the alternative certification program to become a teacher when we get back in LA. I would love to be able to start teaching next Fall....so I'm about to be studying for that dreaded PRAXIS. :( I honestly can't imagine taking any kind of test and I'm really anxious about it!

Tommy finished his Internal Medicine rotation a week ago. To brag on him a bit...he once again got a near perfect evaluation from his attending, as he has with each of his rotations so far. He has patients telling his doctors what a great bedside manner he has and how thorough he is and good at explaining their diagnosis. I'm just really proud of him. He does have this magnetic personality and has this really caring side to him that comes out when he's with a patient. I was always certain he would have a great bedside manner. He started his 12 week surgery rotation yesterday and although he had heard negative things about this doctor from other students, he hit it off well with him. The dr. had on an Alabama hat so it helped to break the ice by bringing up Alabama's Coach Saban that Tommy played under at LSU. :) We are still uncertain about how long we will be able to stay in Tulsa...or how long Tommy will. As of now, Tommy is scheduled to go to Virginia for a 6 week rotation at the end of March. We have said that we will not do such a long distance apart thing again, but looks like it'll be happening soon. And it wouldn't be so bad if we were closer to family... There is a possibility they will allow the Tulsa site to stay open and some students are drafting a letter in hopes of persuading them. So this is what I'm praying for and would love your prayers also! We have been through so much (that many of you prayed us through!) since he got in medical school that has grown us in so many ways...so I'm not going to let this worry me! Ultimately, we will survive whatever we have to and it will all be worth it in the end once he's finished and he has a satisfying and fulfilling career!! Weeeeell, I guess I had alot on my mind this morning! ;)

Here are some random pics from the last week or 2...

Here's our precious Santa pic! This was the best Santa we've seen through the years. It's funny because last year Tag wasn't in our Santa pic....he was too scared to go near him! ha! He couldn't believe he was that scared when we told him that the other day!

I went in to check on the kids before bed the other night and found Bella laying like this. =)

These next pics are blackmail pics! Tag put on my Uggs and stuffed his sleeves with paper. hahaha!

Rosie all bundled up for school...she looks like little Cindy Lou Who!

Hope you have a great week!

What we've been up to...

So, I had planned to post this over the weekend, but then my computer completely died on me. :( Don't know what happened, but I'm hoping we can at least get my pictures and videos extracted from it. I vow to learn my lesson this time and keep our family pictures backed up! But I'm using Tommy's laptop in the meantime...

We had a nice weekend. Tag had a game Saturday. We aren't sure if they won since they don't keep score, but we think they may have tied. ;) But I do know that Tag pulled 3 flags! He was proud proud and each time he runs straight to coach to let them know he got the flag...as if they hadn't seen! Moments like that make you realize how much sports or other extracurricular activities help build self confidence. Bella is still loving dancing. Our weeks are starting to be somewhat full and I know they will only get busier as the kids grow. On Mondays we have dance, Tuesday - football, Wednesday - Jefferson Milers (a running club Tag has joined after school that promotes exercise and running for the kids, and for each mile they run they get a "foot" charm to add to a bracelet), Thursday - football practice or game, Saturday - football game. But we're loving it all!

Tommy is doing great in his Internal Medicine rotation. We're enjoying his schedule of 7 days on and 7 days off. His 7 days on are long and tiring some days, but it's nice having that week off. He's making rounds at the hospital, writing orders and admitting patients from the ER. It's a big responsibility and he's doing fantastic! He's starting his 4th week this week, so just 8 more. We have gotten some tough news recently.....we may be having to move from Tulsa sooner than we thought because St. Francis Hospital is cancelling their contract with St. Matthews (Tommy's school) for some reason. It's so frustrating and I'm praying this will not be the case. We really really love it here and with kids in school, it's not so easy to just pick up and move during the school year. And as always, it's nothing we can plan ahead for, making it all SO much harder to deal with. Please pray that this situation will work out with as little stress on our family as possible. So many issues are running through my mind ranging from the financial stress of moving once again, down to my sweet Bella's plans for being in her dance recital here in May. But I will not give in to the worries because we've been through so much already and keep coming out on top! I'm certain that if we do have to move, we'll soon find out it was for the better. Just please keep us in your prayers!

I went to substitute teacher training this past week and in a couple weeks should be in the system to get started. I only signed up for subbing at the kids' school becuase I'll need to be able to pick them up after school. I am already volunteering on Wednesday mornings helping out Bella's teacher with any copying, cutting, laminating, etc, and have signed up to work the Book Fair after Fall Break. I enjoy being up at the school volunteering and making relationships with the teachers. I guess this is in my blood since my mom was the same way when we were young...and it meant alot to know she was around! In the rest of my free time, I've been exercising regularly and I'm trying not to get discouraged since I'm not seeing results as quickly as I'm wanting. UGGGGGHHHH! I've made so many changes, but I guess I have to realize it took me 7 years and 2 kiddos to get my body in the shape it's in currently, so it's just going to take some time! ;) I'm completely impatient with it though!



I went to the fabric store over the weekend and got some things for my next sewing projects! I actually made Tag some warm fleece pj pants on Saturday and I'm quite proud at how much he's loving wearing them! I didn't have a pattern to follow for these...just looked at some other pj pants he has...therefore I was busy, busy undoing and redoing seams that I kept doing backwards. Ugh! So it looks like for me, following a pattern or not, it's going to be work! It definitely tried my patience, but I learned lots, once again! I got a pattern off of Etsy for some cute ruffle pants for Bella and I'm itching to get started on them!

Bella and I went to the Taylor Swift concert last night (you guessed it, that'll be another post!)! I do believe this made Bella the happiest girl in Tulsa last night! I will never forget how tightly she squeezed my hands when Taylor first stepped out and how wide her smile was, or how sweet it was to watch her singing her heart out to the songs! Sweet, sweet memories and I'm grateful that I have such an awesome husband that went out of his way to surprise us with the tickets!

I think this catches you up with what's going on in our daily lives! Thanks for reading! =)