Washington D.C.

There are many who knew, and many more who did not know that Jason and I went to Washington DC this summer. Jason had the opportunity to go for the month of July to sell pest control for his brother, Kyle. Jason offerred me the chance to go with him for one of those weeks, which I quickly took. Arrangements were made for Walker and Parker to stay with Jason's Aunt Marsha, and Tatum, Jason and I left for DC on the 29th of June.

The flight was smooth sailing (except for the security guy at the Boise airport) He was rather rude to me while asking me about the two water bottles I wanted to take. Has this guy ever seen a mother nurse? Does he know how many calories that burns in a day? Does he know how much water we have to drink in a day to compensate for that? After explaining myself ( that I wasn't a criminal ) his co-worker looked at him and said, "Sounds like it's for the baby to me!" THANK YOU! Finally someone with some common sense. After that it was a much more pleasant experience.

We landed in DC at about 7pm and searched for the rental car company. After dilligently searching for about 40 minutes, we finally found it. As we were loading the car, I realized we left the car seat at baggage claim. I couldn't believe it. Tatum was conveniently hungry, so I fed him while Jason ran back and got it. We were now able to leave with our bright yellow Chevy Aveo that just screamed, "I'm a tourist!" Unfortunately, the traffic on the way to Centreville was so horrible that a 45 minute drive turned into a 2 1/2 hour drive. On the plus side, we had dinner and good company waiting for us.

As I planned out what I wanted to do for this week of blissful freedom, I knew I wanted to take a 'day of rest' for Tatum, so Thursday, Heather and I went to the grocery store and to look for a swimsuit bottom for me. Swimsuit bottom? Yes! In my frantic panic for last minute details in packing and thoughts of missing my two older boys already, I packed the top to my swimsuit, but not the bottoms. To save you all the details, Mission 'Cover the Cinnamon Buns' successful. It was a relief to have a full suit now because the pool was calling my name.

Friday, Heather and I got up and headed in to D.C. Our plan was to do the tour in the Holocaust museum, but we didn't get there early enough to get tickets for a time early enough to get Heather back to work in time. We went around to areas of the museum that we could and sauntered around the Washington Monument and walked back to the car. It might not sound like a lot, but we were parked a good mile or so away.

Saturday was, in a way, Jason's choice. Not to say I went kicking and screaming to the stadium; I was actually excited to go to a Nationals double header....that's baseball for all you unknowing women out there. I was worried about finding a decent parking spot (within a mile and not $20). It turns out we found a 'local' spot to park in an industrial area. When we asked the people behind us if we had to pay to park, they said, "in twenty years we've never had to."

Jason got in line for tickets while I waited with another person from the sales office at the side. While we were waiting, a couple of gals came up to us offering us free tickets.........(what?! free?!) They had purchased a whole bunch of $2 tickets and they couldn't use all of them, so they gave them to us. Our seats were in the blazing hot sun for the first game and then we seat hopped for the second game.

Parking: Free

Baseball game tickets: Free

Tatum's first baseball game: Priceless

Sunday we took a quick trip to church for an hour and then headed off to Mt. Vernon. This is one thing I would recommend for anyone. Our experience included a boat tour of the Potamic River, seeing George Washington's tomb, slave monument, the bowling green, slave quarters, the Mansion (this was my favorite), a nice lunch at the Inn, our traditional purchase of a Christmas ornament, the gristmill and distillery. There was so much to see, and I am a sucker for historical places.

Our day was far from over. Jason and I drove to the Battle of Iwo Jima Monument. The first time we were in DC together , this monument was one of the few things we wanted to see, but didn't get to. On our way to the monument, I heard on the radio, "a severe thunderstorm warning for Montgomery County". I asked Jason where that was. "I dunno." We both shrugged off the warning. We got to the monument and I had to feed Tatum while Jason took pictures. Not 10 minutes later, the wind started picking up. I saw the thunderstorm coming over the skyscrapers and thought, "I think we are in Montgomery County..." I told Jason I would meet him at the car. I had the stroller and Tatum to maneuver through the park. I was about 20 feet from the car when the WALL of rain came through. I was able to get Tatum in the car, but the stroller blew far enough away that I had to go out in the rain to fetch it. About 3 minutes later, Jason showed up....drenched. We were both soaked head to toe! We rode out the storm and enjoyed the monument some more, even discovering the 11th hand! Heather and David, who had caught up with us, mentioned hearing something about an extra foot or limb, so that got me counting. There are five men set in bronze so there should be 10 feet and 10 hands....but there are 11 hands! Mistake? Maybe. My own personal belief is that the artist may have wanted to represent the hand of God in things.

Monday was the 4th of July. What better place to spend the day of National Independence than that of the Nation's Capital? Again, when Jason and I were in DC six years ago, I told Jason not to even try to out do the experience we shared on that 4th of July, knowing it would never be outdone....but I never thought we would ever be there again.

Our day began at the National Air and Space Museum. It's a really cool museum with airplanes, spaceships, spacesuits, and well, just about anything that has left the earth just to come back.

We continued on to the Hirshhorn Art Museum. This place was a little more difficult to keep Tatum quiet in. And I'll be honest, while a lot of the art was pretty neat, a monkey in an ape costume could have produced the other little bit of what was there.....but it's still art.

At this point it was getting later in the day and we knew we had to get our blanket parked somewhere on the grass if we wanted to get a good spot. Jason headed back to the car to get the cooler of food (I'm sorry, I'm not about to pay $7 for a hot dog and $4 for a bottle of water) while I went to a couple other museums.

I wanted to see one of the newer additions to the Smithsonian family: Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz. My Grandma's name was Dorothy and one of her favorite songs was, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Anything Wizard of Oz-ish reminds me of her. I headed into the Museum of Natural History thinking they were there, but I soon realized they were at the Museum of American History. I was already in the 'Gem' area of the Natural History Museum, so I took a picture of the Hope Diamond in its limited edition setting. At the American History Museum, I was able to see the inauguration dresses of all the first ladies, and the Ruby Slippers. Unfortunately, the museum was closing early for the 4th and I had to head out among the crowds to find my Jason among the mass millions. I soon realized the city (district) had barricaded the block surrounding the Washington and Lincoln Monuments and added security checkpoints. After an hour of filing through that, I was finally able to make it over to Jason.

We were in a great spot to see the fireworks over the would-be reflection pool under construction- between the WWII memorial and the Washington Monument with a live Army Band playing at the side of us. The band announced that Jo Dee Messina would be playing. Even if you're not a huge fan, you've got to admit that a free concert is pretty cool. I went up close while Tatum stayed back with Jason, Uncle Kyle, Aunt Heather and Uncle David.

After the A-MAZING fireworks, we headed back to the car. We had to pay $20 for parking, but after not having to pay for the baseball game the night before and not having to look for 2hours for a parking spot and being able to park there all day...it was well worth it!

During my down time at the apartments by myself, I spent some time looking up touristy things to do in the area. Nothing online appealed to me-I had either already seen it, or it was too far away, too much outside time for Tatum, too much money to spend on, or just plain wasn't interested. I grabbed one of Heather's books that she bought while downtown and started thumbing through it. I came across a page for the Ford Theater and the light bulb in my head turned on. Oh yeah! I guess that is in DC! This soon became one of my "have to see" sights. Tuesday, by default became the day to go do this.

The theater is free to see, but you have to have tickets. Jason, Heather, and I went to the 9:30...(I want to say viewing-that morbidly makes me think of a funeral). The theatre itself was pretty interesting. They presented information about how John Wilkes Booth was an actor and that's how he had such easy access to "the box". I also learned that back in 1865, there was no official presidential seal, so they used a picture of George Washington to post where the President would be. The box is still presented the same way as the night President Lincoln was shot.

Due to construction, the Peterson House where President Lincoln died was closed, so I got a nice picture of the front of it : D

After going through the museum, the three of us headed to the Washington Monument. We had split up earlier in the morning to get tickets for both events. While inside waiting for our turn to go up in the elevator, I couldn't help but notice a lot of similarities of architecture and decor between the Monument and the Mansion at Mt. Vernon. The view was stunning and you can even see the DC temple from the north view point. I was a little disappointed with the tour on the way down, however. It felt rushed and I know there was a lot of information that I knew from coming before that wasn't even mentioned....Not to mention that the tour guide might as well have been from Timbuktu with how little of what he said being understood.

Wednesday was my final day in DC. Unfortunately, Jason was working and couldn't spend every waking moment with me before I left. I gave him a kiss as he left out the door for work and did my usual home routine: dishes, laundry, shower. I knew he would be moving into another apartment, so I packed his bags for him as I got my things ready to go. My flight didn't leave until 6:30 that night, but I didn't want to take any chances. Between traffic, construction, and my lack of knowledge of how to get around downtown, I certainly didn't want to miss my flight. I decided to leave the apartment around 2pm. I was thinking an hour for the drive, half hour for getting lost, an hour for walking from the rental car return to check in, (mind you, I had Tatum in his car seat, an umbrella stroller, a large purse, and a suitcase) another half hour to get through security, that would leave me about 40 minutes until boarding. Boy! Was I WRONG! Traffic? What traffic? There was none. Lost? Who me? I've done this drive a few times on the way to downtown...piece of cake. Walking to check in? No, no, not me. The rental company saw that I was a Tatum toting queen and told me to get in...they would drive me to where I needed to go. Security idiocracy? None here. They gladly took my water, tested it, and had it back to me before I even had my shoes back on. They folded up my stroller for me and took care of the left-over bin for me. My Gate? Ten miles away? Not this one. All in all, from apartment door to the gate took and hour and ten minutes....

....You can pick your jaw up off the floor now...

It was a fabulous trip and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to go to such a great place to make even more memories.

A little bit of excitement! Kyle and anyone else squimish should think twice about reading the first part.

A house full of 3 young boys and the word, excitement, go hand in hand. Not a dull moment here. A few weeks ago, while nursing Tatum, I hear a big thud, Walker and Parker arguing and then Walker screaming. Rolling my eyes and thinking, "what can they still argue about that has yet to be argued about today?", I pick up Tatum (still nursing-I'm talented, I know) and go toward the noise. The glass door on the entertainment center had broken in half and came down on Walker. He met me about half way into the kitchen. All I see is blood on his face. He screamed, "Mama". I screamed, "Walker". I put Tatum down and went over to see that Walker's face had a deep gash next to his eye. Quickly, I got some paper towels and made him hold it on his face. I scooped up Tatum, put him in the car, got Walker buckled in the car, and got Parker in the car. I've heard that the most unpleasant sound is that of a child screaming....well how 'bout three? Walker, because of his face, Tatum because he's still hungry, and Parker because I was the one who put him in the car. (Mr. Independent- has to do everything himself). Off to the hospital we went. Jason came to the rescue and met me to pick up the other boys while Walker and I waited things out in the E.R. Four or five stitches later, we were outta there. Walker was unable to play in the water with his little bandages over the cut, so it's a good thing I took the boys to the splash park the day before...

Fee-vah

I should be posting pictures of my kids here, but I, like most people, always feel like the person who 'never wins ANYTHING!' So today, I'm shouting it from the roof top. WE WON SOMETHING!!!

The call from my friend, JaNae, came at an unusual hour: 10:30 PM. Wondering if it was some dire situation she was in and needed my help I asked her what I could do for her. With the 'puppy dog' voice (the one I KNOW I use when I need a last minute babysitter) she asked what I was doing the next morning. With no plans as of yet, I offered my services for whatever she needed. She proceeded to tell me about how her husband, Steven, called in to a radio show and won the chance to win some concert tickets. The only problem was they needed two other people. They had called around to family and friends, but everyone was working and couldn't go on a Friday morning at 8:30. I asked JaNae what the competition entailed. I was excited to hear it was something as childish and playful as it was. We would be given an extra large roll of bubble wrap to wrap one teammate. The other three would have to roll that person through an out door course outside the radio studio. The fastest time wins the tickets. "We're in!"

Friday morning, Jason and the boys came in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30am. (They had done an early Father/son campout in the back yard.) We all got ready and down to the radio station by 8:15am. We decided to have JaNae be the one wrapped. We signed away our lives (our waivers) and waited to hear the order we would be going in. Going first would be a complete disadvantage, so we were ok with the decision to go third. The marked course was about 100 meters long on some slight hills and trees surrounding. As we watched the two teams before us, we calculated different things that would be to our benefit: put her head this way instead of that, use more bubble wrap for a tighter fit, wrap tighter so its easier to roll her, ways to roll, who rolls from where.

The first team struggled through the finish line in about 4 minutes. The second team was 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Being the guys of competitive sorts, Jason and Steven wanted to blow everyone out of the water with a time of 2 minutes. (This is us being totally pumped!). The timer starts when the air horn (which was just about out of air and sounded like a sad excuse for a fog horn) blows. Jason and Steven wrapped as fast as they could while I got JaNae's helmet on. We tipped her over and lay her down. (Lucky girl! Some of the other bubble-wrappees got slammed to the ground). Around the first curve was fairly easy and then rolling her along the hill while trying to keep her within the borders got a lot harder. My legs had already been sore from working out this week, so my legs were screaming at me. Jason and Steven were rolling JaNae so fast that I could hardly touch her, let alone roll her. I tried to pick up the slack when Jason got more tired. About 3/4 of the way through the race I hear JaNae moaning, " I need to vomit..." Yeah RIGHT! Like we're about to stop so she can spill her breakfast! All I could say was, " Hang in there, we're almost there!" Continuing down the home stretch I barely touched the roll. I figured I would just slow things down if I got in the way. We finally crossed the finish line at 3 minutes 5 seconds. The next team slid in there with a finish time of 3 minutes 6 seconds! One second slower than us! One more team to go. They started out really well and at the half way mark had the fastest time......until they fubbed something up. They finished in over 4 minutes.

We won the tickets by ONE second! So come August 11th, Jason and I are going to the Michael Buble' concert!

Looking in hind sight, Steven and JaNae are really glad they asked us to help them out. With both of us being so short, it was easier to roll JaNae so close to the ground. Also, Steven has been deployed for 2 of their anniversaries since they've been married-one of them was last year. The concert happens to fall the day before their anniversary. So Happy Anniversary Steven and JaNae!

Welcome...

Tatum Lavell Woodbury

After what seemed a very long wait (with Mary's passing, Christmas, New years, Parker's Birthday, and all the parties in between) we were blessed with another little baby boy on January 6, 2011. Born at 1:22 p.m. this tank was a whopping 8lbs 7oz. and 22 inches long.

We had a nice, easy going morning: showering, makeup, breakfast, bags ready. We got all nestled into our room and ready to start! They started my pitocin at about 8:30. I went through a few contractions before my water broke. Once the contractions got really bad, I asked for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came and tried to get my epidural in, but he was having a rough time because my spine was so compact. He decided to give me a spinal block before giving me my epidural. Bless his heart! That was the best! I was all numbed up and ready to sleep. I only got about an hour and a half before I was ready to start pushing. They called the doctor, and it wasn't long before Tatum came out. I was quite surprised when they lay him in my arms. He was the spitting image of Parker when he was born. Jason, my mom, and I all said at the same time that he looks like Parker. I was in for another shocker when they put him on the scale. 8lbs. 7oz. !!! "Come again? How heavy?" I couldn't believe he was a full pound heavier than what Walker was.

After a little while, and after I got my land legs back again, we were moved to another room. On our way there, our friend and neighbor who works at the hospital just happen to be coming in down the hallway to see us. Talk about good timing!

Later that night, Tatum and I were sleeping while Jason was playing on his phone. The nurse came in and told us she would just take Tatum into the nursery. Later she came back to tell us that he was turning a little blue and they were running some tests and x-rays to find out why. Tatum was admitted to the NICU for having pneumonia. He would be there for a week, receiving antibiotics. They put a pic. line through his arm to his heart, so they wouldn't have to keep poking him again and again.

A week later we were able to all come home.
The boys seem to be adjusting pretty well. Aside from Parker having an obsession to poke Tatum in the eyes, we haven't had any problems. Tatum is 5 weeks old today and sleeps like a champ. From day one of being home, Tatum sleeps 7-9 hours a night. I love this boy!

January 8, 1960-December 20, 2010

This was a difficult time for Jason and I. The services were lovely and it was nice having all of Jason's family (and mine) here to visit for so long. I will forever have fond memories of Michelle (in crutches from having foot surgery), Kristin (7 months pregnant) and myself (8 1/2 months pregnant) store hopping from Bath and Body Works to Sportsman's Warehouse to the Dollar Store to Target and back home. We'll just say there were some good laughs while watching Kristen carrying a gun tote around the dollar store, Michelle 'playing hopscotch' hopping on one foot everywhere (she was quite good at this), Kristen holding up parking lot traffic in the motorized carts, taking them back to the store after Michelle had used them, and then ME having to wear my high heels to drive the car because my belly wouldn't let me reach the petals otherwise.
My mom and dad spent most of that week at my sister's house, letting Jason and I spend most of our time at the Woodbury's home. We wanted to spend as much time with Mary as possible. I felt so guilty when I had to bring the boys home to sleep at night, while Jason stayed there. Both Jason and I had tried to prepare ourselves, and the boys, for the inevitable. On Monday the 20th, I hurried and got the boys ready to go back to Grandma's house. We got there at about 10:30 am. The nurse came at about 11 to take Mary's vitals, and at 11:30 she slowly passed away. Jason, his brothers, sister and his dad were all surrounding Mary as she took her last breath. She will truly be missed.

Look who's talking NOW!

Something we now hear Parker saying a lot around the house. He has quite the vocabulary now with words like: go, wash, I love you, help, out, in, on, off, bus and nice. We are teaching him the ABC's-with Walker's help of course.

How are YOU feeling?

Alright! I've decided it's been WAY too long since I've said my peace on this page. It's 8pm. Both boys are asleep...kinda. Jason is on a camp out and I'm too restless to read quite yet.

Lately, it seems everyone (including those who don't know me) likes to ask me, "How are you feeling?" It wasn't until I heard how pregnancies went for my sis-in-law that I knew why people ask this. Little did I know that some women are sick for the duration of their pregnancy and can't function on a daily basis without some relief from a pill. For the past 2 1/2 pregnancies I've had the pleasure of not getting sick at all and being able to bend, lift, contort any which way until about month 8. Then, being so huge puts my body at such shock, it decides it doesn't like to let me walk, clean, do dishes or laundry, put on shoes or paint my toenails. So as of right now, I feel great. The answer might be different in a couple of months, but for now, things are just peachy.

Right now I am 20 weeks-half way through. Most of the people I see come in to my work ask me how CLOSE I am to having this baby! HA! I just giggle and tell them I am due in January. (Not making the mistake of telling them the BEGINNING of January, because then I just get lectured on the infamous tax break if I have him/her sooner) I have my ultrasound this coming Wednesday and we are not finding out the gender. That's the way that Jason likes things and he has convinced me that it's more exciting that way. Is your anticipation building yet?

Things have been a little bit of a roller coaster for me emotionally. My mother-in-law recently found out her breast cancer, thought to have been in remission, had spread to her lungs, liver, and brain. Going to work the next day was very difficult. I could only think about Mary and the fear I saw in her face when she told us the news. After the many doctor visits we were told the cancer is terminal and they gave her a time frame of 6 to 12 months. Jason seems to be doing ok with the news. I don't think the emotional part of the reality has hit him. Jason, getting his degree in biology, took a class on the biology of aging. One section was on cancer, so he understands the disease quite well. He hasn't had any real devastation in his life, so I think the logistics are overcoming his emotions right now. I have tried to teach Walker that Grandma will be getting more and more sick and that she will go back to our Heavenly Father soon, but he doesn't really understand how that can be. She looks so full of life right now and to him, she's just the same. I fear I will need to comfort him and teach him about death when it comes.

My mom is also having some trouble with a foot injury she got in running class. It could affect her performance grades in class if it doesn't get better.

Prayers are greatly appreciated for these two ladies.

On a much happier note, my newest niece was born on Wednesday. I can't wait to see little Ruby! Congratulations Kyle and Michelle!

The past few weeks at church have been interesting. Our ward got rearranged and we are now in the Meridian 6th ward. I helped out the first Sunday in our new ward acting as the Primary Chorister. Luckily someone already holds that calling. That is the one calling that scares me to death. Not that I'm not willing, but I would be afraid, very afraid. After helping out the one time, the primary presidency told me what a hit I was, and that the kids enjoyed every minute of it. I must say though, that it was quite fun having both the Jr. and Sr. Primaries signing the "Hello, Hello" song at the top of their lungs. I told them I wanted the bishop to be able to hear them from the other side of the building!

Like I said, An emotional roller coaster. WEEEEEEEEEEE!

So for all those who ask me how I'm feeling, watchout! You just might get the truth.