We Made It!!

I can't believe I actually made it home for Christmas, but we did. Just in between all these storms!! I left Spokane on Friday at about 1:00 pm. The city streets were still pretty messed up, but once I hit the freeway it was better. And once I got out of Spokane it was much better. I think that last storm just built up and dumped all it had on us because once I was about an hour outside of town there wasn't hardly anything. I drove to Ellensburg, about three hours away, where my Grandma lives and stayed the night there. The nice part was that my parents met me there with my sister Lindsey because I had a cousin that got married and was having a reception that same night. So, that was nice that we could then drive the rest of the way home together. We left Ellensburg about 8:30 Saturday morning and made it over the pass before a big storm was due to hit. Whew! We did watch some idiots in a Ford Ranger driving way too fast on the pass lose control, fishtail, turn sideways, slide in front of us and hit a snow bank facing the wrong way. Let's just say thankfully no one was hurt and they slowed down the rest of the way down the mountain!! We stopped in Olympia to say hi to Lavonda and Annie and as we were sitting in their house it started snowing - AGAIN!! So, we figured we better make it home. After a "quick" stop at WalMart to buy milk on the Saturday before Christmas - YIKES - we finally made it home just as it was really starting to come down. And now, my parents have like twelve inches of snow which hardly ever happens here. I feel like I can't get away from snow right now. Normally, I love it, but when I have to drive in it and then get stuck and can't go anywhere, it starts to drive me nuts. Anyhoo, I'm home for Christmas which is just where I wanted to be and I don't think I'm leaving until all of this white stuff is gone. Hopefully we can get Todd here for Christmas. He is supposed to fly out Christmas Eve, but the airport keeps cancelling all of the flights to Seattle and Portland because of the weather. Ugh, snow. Hello to all of my Chehalis ladies and I will be calling you when I can get out of my parents driveway!!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow,Snow, Snow, Snow!!

This is our front yard. There is a street out there and a couple of our cars, but they are buried!! My van is under here somewhere!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - And Snow, And Snow

Mother Nature hates my family. Of this I am sure. You think I've finally lost it, right? Here is my proof:

1. December 2007 - Flood in Chehalis, part of why we eventually had to close our office and move to Spokane.

2. July 2008 - Forest fires in Spokane, we were blocks away from having to be evacuated.

3. December 2008 - Snowstorm in Spokane, over two feet of snow in less than 24 hours.

Also the occasional wind storm (Chehalis) and lightning storm (Spokane) and I'm pretty sure that we have somehow pissed off the big Mother and she is exacting her revenge. LOL!! At this very moment I am supposed to be leaving to head home for Christmas. The only problem is we just barely found one car, we're still looking for the other two, and I couldn't back out of my driveway if I wanted to anyways!! Aahh!! We have to get home for Christmas!! Pray for us and to appease Mother Nature I beg of all of you!! (The kids, and by that I mean Raquel, Marcus and Todd, had fun outside today though!)

Holy Craps!!

I have to tell on Marcus. One day he will kill me for putting all of this stuff on the web, but for now he has no idea. He just keeps giving me such funny stuff to blog about. It's his own fault. We were eating dinner last night, in front of the TV I must admit. A bad habit to form I know, but I wanted to watch my Access Hollywood. The kids have to eat on the floor if they eat in the front room with us, so they were chowing down. All of the sudden, Marcus stands up in front of the TV, grabs a butt cheek in each hand and starts yelling, "Craps! Craps! Craps!" At first I thought he had to go to the bathroom, but then he proceeds to pull down his underwear and bend over to show us all his "craps"!!

I know what you're thinking, that he had pooped his pants, right? Nope. My adorable, sweet little boy just wanted to show us his "crack" and he doesn't pronounce everything so clearly yet and it came out sounding like "craps". What the heck? Are boys just born gross or is this something you have to have a special gene for. You would think growing up with six brothers I would have seen enough "crack" in my day, but no, now my son needs to share his "craps" with me. Aahh!! And right during dinner too. Love you Marcus!!

Macaroni & Cheese

I will freely admit that Marcus has been my most difficult child so far. But, as of late he has been growing on me (tee-hee), because out of nowhere he will do the sweetest things and then I forget that one minute before he was actually pulling Raigan's hair while she was strapped into her carseat. (And yes, that really has happened!) Marcus doesn't eat. Anything. Some days I think his only source of nourishment is apple juice. No joke. Honestly, I can tell you what I can get him to eat. Toast with peanut butter, chips, macaroni & cheese and of course all candy. Loves the candy. He was grocery shopping with me the other day and he wanted to sit in the basket where the food was going. So, I let him and then I proceeded to fill up the cart with groceries piled on top of him. He thought it was quite cool. When we walked by the macaroni & cheese I thought the kid was going to pee his pants he was so excited. You see, we had run out the week before and he had been asking for it for several days, so you can imagine his joy when we came across it in the grocery store. I piled macaroni & cheese on him and went to check out. He grabbed two boxes of the mac & cheese and wouldn't let go of them for anything. Wouldn't even let the lady scan them because he didn't want to let go. I think maybe he thought they wouldn't make it home if he let go. It was actually quite sweet watching him cling to those boxes. He carried them out of the store in his two little hands and into the car. While I was putting groceries in the back he was doing something in the back seat. When I came around to buckle him in his carseat he said to me, "Mom, buckled macaroni & cheese." And I in my distracted state of mind was like uh, huh honey. Then I looked in the back seat. Sure enough, there were Marcus' two boxes of macaroni & cheese, buckled into the seat belt on the back seat for a safe ride home from the store!! How cute is that!! Oh, my boy I love you!

Here's another Marcus moment for you. It made me realize how much our children actually do listen and learn from us. Raigan was down for a nap one day and I was talking in the front room and Marcus comes into the room and totally straight faced says, "Mom, shut up Raigan's sleeping." Aahhh!! From the student to the teacher, right?!? Of course, nothing will ever top the time that Raquel told my mom she was going to kick her a**. Yup, have no idea where she would have ever heard that word. Nope, none. My kids give me such good stuff to blog about!!

Dedicated to Aunt Lindsey

Dear Lindsey,

This post is just for you because you aren't getting to know Raigan the way you got to know Raquel and Marcus because you had to move away to that stupid place called Utah and you were feeling sad about not seeing her as much as you saw them. We love you and just wanted you to see how big and adorable your sweet Raigan is getting. See you at Christmas.

Love,

Traci & Raigan

Todd's Kids

I just thought this picture turned out cute. People here are flabbergasted when they find out Todd has four kids and then he has to remind them that he is forty, it's not that strange. I guess he just doesn't "seem" like he's forty and has four kids. I think that is code for he is on the immature side. I love him that way though, because we all know I'm a big dork and so we go well together. He's not perfect, but I think he's a pretty good daddy and ALL of his kids idolize him. I mean, forget about mom who takes care of you all day, when they here that key turn in the door at night everyone freaks out and runs for daddy. Even Raigan gets all excited and army crawls her way straight for him. They sure make me a proud wife and mommy.

Thanksgiving Week

Wow, what a week we just had!! Busy, busy, busy. And now I can finally sit down and write about it. We had my parents over for Thanksgiving and Nicholas flew in to be with us too. Everyone got here on Tuesday and stayed until this morning!! I'm tired, but I love having family here so it's worth it. Let's see if I can remember everything we did. First of all, I have to brag a bit about my sweet Raquel. I went to her parent/teacher conference on Tuesday and she is doing so well. Turning out to be quite the artist and with her flair for the dramatics, well, let's just say I hear the drama department calling and she's only in the first grade. She got rave reviews from her teacher and is excelling in every subject. I'm so proud of her. Not afraid to do anything that one. Very confident.

So, let's see, Wednesday during the day we just stayed home while Todd worked and raked all the leaves in the back yard. We have a pretty big back yard so it was quite the task, but my kids had fun "helping" Grandpa and I with the work. Wednesday evening we went out to eat at Old Country Buffet. It's kind of turning into a tradition when my parents are here. Raquel wanted to see if she could out eat Nick. Are you laughing yet? I swear that boy eats me out of house and home when he's here. No joke, he was on his third plate by the time the rest of us were done with one. Sometimes we ask him if he actually tastes the food or just breathe it down!! Needless to say, Nick won. Raquel tried, but he smoked all of us!! Later that evening my mom, Todd, Nick and I abandoned my poor father to babysit while we went and saw Twilight - again!! It was the second time for everyone but Todd, his first. He really liked it and may I just say - even BETTER the second time around. It is such a good movie and it makes me want to read the books again. I think I'll start after the holidays. Thursday we prepared our Thanksgiving meal and played games all day. Shocker, I know. That's what we do, we play games. And I especially love it when Nick is here because we gang up on Todd and he loses like every game we play. Good bonding for me and the Nickster. The best part of the day came when I was taking Marcus downstairs to bed. I was holding him in my arms facing towards me and at the bottom of the stairs he vomited - ALL OVER ME!! Three times. Apparently, all he had had to eat that afternoon was chocolate milk and hershey's kisses because I was covered in them. Aahh, I love being a mom.

After we cleaned up the "chocolate", I went to bed early because I LOVE to shop on Black Friday. I know, it's strange, but I get such an adrenaline rush and I just love to watch grown adults act like complete idiots!! I got up around 3:30 am and was at good old WalMart at 4:30. I must say, the Chehalis WalMart does things so much better and more organized than the one here. For starters, they actually let you in the warm store. Here, we were standing in lines outside and it is frickin' cold here!! At Chehalis, they give you a map of where everything is that is on sale. Here, you just wander around aimlessly until you stumble upon the dvd player that is on the floor behind the check out counter in electronics and then accidentally find the dvd's on sale in the dairy section. Strange, I know!! From there I hit Lowe's, Kohl's, Old Navy, Linens-N-Things, Walgreen's and finally Target. And believe it or not I was home before noon. Usually I'm gone all day, but I went by myself this year and I must say I got in and out and done a lot faster. The rest of Friday we played more games. Saturday Todd and my dad replaced a part on my new sweet ride while I took Marcus to his first birthday party at a friend's house. So cute!! And then, you guessed it, we played more games. I know, we're dorks. Saturday night Todd and I had a date night with Kim & Freddie and Allie & Todd. It was a blast. We ate out at Chili's and had dessert at Dairy Queen with a whole lotta nonsense inbetween. We've become good friends with them and we always have great fun when we're together!!

Sunday I think I was running out of steam because I didn't feel well so I stayed home with my babies while everyone went to church. Afterwards we did it again - we played some more games. Man, I feel like a broken record!! Nick flew home Sunday night and my parents drove home this morning. It was a hectic week but so worth it because I got to spend it with my family. Now, I must go finish putting up my Christmas decorations while listening to Christmas music. Goodbye Thanksgiving - Hello Christmas!!