China pictures I should have posted

China as in plates...not the country. I found these pictures on my "little" camera (I don't use it often) and big surprise, they are a bit fuzzy. Oh well. This is the dinner that I had with my in-laws in the scary house. Have I told you how much I LOVE to entertain in this house? I think it's the green linoleum that just sends me over the edge.

But, have them over I did.

The phone conversation went something like this "Hi Rebecca, Daryl is going to speak to your young men during church today so we thought we'd just attend all 3 classes with you." Great, I love having them visit...too bad I'm in primary. "Since we're there, we thought we'd just stick around for dinner, what time do you usually eat?" 5:00. "We are meeting with the Webb's at 4:00 so can we eat right after church instead" Sure.

I LOVE my mother-in-law. For many many MANY reasons, but right now because she will just call and invite herself over for dinner. So easy. No beating around the bush. Just the way I like it. I really would have invited them over myself if I would have thought about it -- just didn't enter my mind that they would want to eat at the scary house. "I" don't want to eat at the scary house. Again, the green linoleum. And the stairs in the middle of the kitchen. And the light fixtures. But hey, at least we were eating on my fine wedding China!

Posing

I'm sure I didn't teach him this. And I thought it was so strange when Nicole would post pictures of Zane doing it. Strange as in funny, not strange as in needs help... I was making Dax try on his pants because I was sure he had grown out of a few of them. When he had them on he just did this -- struck a pose. Weird, none of his sisters have EVER struck poses quite like THIS!



As usual, Addie had to get in on it. Post-bath hair, not a pretty sight.

Twins (practically)

They're actually cousins, but they see a LOT of each other. And although Joy and I live next to each other in the same house...there is only one bathtub in all of the 6 bathrooms. ONE. So they share. Don't think they look alike? Check this out.



Matching birthmarks! I'm pretty sure that things got mixed up in the pre-existence and they accidentally sent me the girl spirit and Joy the boy spirit. I was praying REALLY hard, so it must have been a mistake. And I'm okay with it...now that I have my Adders!

It's Fall! (at my house)

You should see the foliage around here. Sometimes we have the kids rake the leaves just because they're there -- the kids and the leaves, both doing nothing. I LOVE this land. Everytime I drive up to it I think man, this land is incredible! I'm not a photographer and I'm usually lucky if I can even find the camera but -- Greg took these.

On the other side of the property (Joy's side) we have Orange trees. Addie likes to climb them and believe me, she is a determined little gal.





I play volleyball on Wednesday mornings (sometimes) with a group of women at a church. When I bring Addie, she plays around on the stage. Last Wednesday as we were playing, one of the ladies runs over to the stage and says, Rebecca, your baby is on the ladder! Like I should panic. A) she is NOT a baby B) she climbs orange trees -- the little step ladder is not going to hurt her. Even if she falls (which she won't) it's not even as high as the trampoline. Are we a society that babies our children too much? Are we so afraid of them falling that we don't let them find out what they're capable of? When Addie was a little baby, she'd play close to the edge of the stage. She'd dangle her hands over, peek over the edge...sometimes she give me a start, but she REALLY gave the girls I play with a heart attack. I think I was born without the worry gene. Is that possible? Even when Kylee was a baby, other mom's would be dashing toward their children on the playground and I would just watch as she tottered to the top of the climbing ropes. Miracle my kids have survived.

Worst Blog Name in the World

Okay, I haven't been on my blog in a week or two and I was knocked over by the lame-ness of my blog name (Dust in the wind - I actually named it that! and yes, lame-ness is a word.) How do you people come up with these things?! I'm trying out a new one (My Indoor Voice.) I don't really have an indoor voice and sadly, neither do my children. Especially Dax. But if I did have one, I'd use it here and not be as loud as I usually am.

THIS was funny

As opposed to the car crashing...not funny. Dax had a paddle ball from his visit to the dentist. It was shaped like a dinosaur and he had it in his hand all afternoon. He came walking into my office and, true to form, put it in the shredder. We LOVE the shredder. Wait a sec, what the...?! It shredded the dinosaur! I'm so glad my camera was sitting there on my desk.

It is not pretty when little boys cry. Especially this one.



Nope, not putting this one back together!

Swear Word

I hit my grandma (MamaGinger)'s car today. Yes, I smashed it while I was whipping out of the driveway in GREG'S car because he had mine in Payson. I was ON the phone with Greg, and next thing I know. SMASH, CRUNCH, BANG - swear word.

Here she is pretending like she doesn't care that I just put a big dent in her bumper. La dee da, I'm just going to sit here and watch the kids for you while you crash into my UNMOVING car in the driveway.




I THOUGHT when I heard the crunch, that I had smashed in the whole side of Greg's car (that we just got fixed from my last run-in with an inanimate object...) but no, as luck would have it I hit her bumper with my turned wheel and I just put a few scrapes along the side of the Lexus. Lucky me.

This is even better, next day, driving down the street, minding my own business (texting on my phone) crash, bang, holy smokes! (no swear word, I'm getting too used to hitting things.) I took out a big road sign. Yes, a big one. Smashed it to smithereens. My poor, poor car.



I don't even bother fixing it anymore because I know that if I fix it, I'll just hit something else. Like a tree...yep, hit one while we were at the cabin. Backed into it while I was trying to get my phone to work after dropping it in the toilet -- tree has a little dent, car has a little dent (and phone works, shwew!).

I'm officially giving up my phone while driving. It has to be done.

The roads will be a little safer now.

A Dream Come True

For the past month, I have been thinking about renting a cabin in the snow. I looked at posts on the VRBO website and really thought about it, but never pulled the trigger. Then it was too late, they were all rented. At the last minute, I decided to look in Overgaard instead of Pinetop and lo and behold...people do not clamor to Overgaard the way they do Pinetop. So off we went from Friday to Sunday. Just the fam. and a cabin. and a couple sleds. and some puzzles. and some movies. and some art projects. and some books. and plenty of hot chocolate. Thank Heavens.

All my planning paid off because it was really fun. We spent the first day painting and coloring and started a really really hard puzzle of glow-in-the-dark dolphins.




I wish I had taken pictures of the art strewn all over the house. Life sized paintings of Dora and all her sidekicks. Horses, flowers, fairies...girl stuff. I couldn't help but think of Nicole and all her boys at their cabin at the same time. Betcha it wasn't covered in artwork. My girls take their art very seriously!

Here's Kylee and Addie sippin hot chocolate. Actually, it's probably Chomba Chai because that's what Kylee likes.

The next day we went sledding. We drove to Forest Lakes because the snow at our cabin was mostly melted. It was only 20 minutes away, but we couldn't find it so it took an hour and a half to get there. It was worth it though. I think I had more fun than the kids! Fun hill, fun sleds.


Go Kinsey!


Doesn't Addie look happy?

Of course Addie always wants to be with her Mommy. Climb up, sled down, climb up, sled down.

Greg is handicapped (knee surgery) so there are a lot of pictures of yours truly. Woo hoo. It WAS fun though. Here are all the kids piled on a tube. No, they didn't crash (miracle) It was awesome.




You should have seen the kids getting out of the car. They were piling on clothes and DYING at how cold it was. By the time we hiked to the hill, they were DYING of heat stroke and taking off coats. Dax didn't want his hat or gloves. GLOVES?!

Gloves back on to eat the snow. He carried this around taking bites out of it. I'm sure it was a healthy snack. I'm such a good mom.


Here's Greg hobbling back to the car. Kylee stayed to keep him company, isn't she nice? Every time Greg stepped on a soft spot he'd sink to his knee - and with his knee stuck in locked position he can't bend it so Kylee had to pull him out. It was slow going. Of course that's me in the nice warm car taking pictures. Hey, somebody's got to do it!


Back at the cabin I made white chicken chili and we watched movies and did puzzles. The little kids crashed. The big kids stayed up and watched a movie while I made bagels then we ate them with strawberry cream cheese at about midnight. Yummy. It was a perfect day - and guess what was even better? It was snowing when we woke up in the morning! It snowed all day. It was so pretty. Check out our front yard.

Sending Addie down on her own.



She LOVED the snow. It was so fun to watch her wander around in it and explore all the new scenery. I love this girl! All the diapers and the "one more book", and the "I want the dancing dora, not true princess dora, no wait wait, Diego and the Dinosaurs, no, Holly Hobby, I want Holly Hobby" --totally worth it. What, you haven't heard that from your 2 year old? Yes, Holly Hobby.

Kinsey's Snow Angel on the road.

Sweet Saydie. Always smiling, even under her neck-warmer.

Dax's precious snowball. He asked me in his concerned little voice if he could throw it at me. He is the nicest boy, I'm sure he gets that from his mom. :) If only I could get him to stop crying all the time! (he must get that from Greg, ha ha)

Addie saw these two wood pieces and ran over there to do this "trick" Tricks are very popular this family. She was barely able to spread her legs this far apart. She was pretty impressed with herself.

Mom's love cold little cheekies!

Dax's crash landing into the trees. "That was sweet!" He said, then he rolled off the sled onto a little tiny rock and cried for 10 minutes. (sigh)

Our game of snowball suicide. The snow was very fluffy and hard to pack into snowballs so Saydie was very protective of this snowball - for about 5 minutes. Then she was bored so we played catch until we dropped it, and it was destroyed. No second chances for that little ball...
This is what little boys do in the snow. They find a stick and start hitting everything they see. (Then they break their stick and cry...)

When Addie saw all the snow outside, she was totally excited about all the "Christmas trees" out there. She was singing songs and running from tree to tree. Then she found this "little Christmas tree" and spent some quality time with it. "I'm going to go get that little Christmas tree" "I'm in the Christmas tree, bouncing bouncing bouncing, falling, whoa! It's slippery, I almost falled down in there, I'm going to stay in this Christmas tree" She destroyed the poor bush, but it was entertaining.


Taking a break to catch snow, but not leaving the tree.

I love this picture. The hat she couldn't keep up and the red nose and shiny lips. I am trying to imprint every little thing about her childhood on my brain but it's not making it past my Alzheimers.

We had to pack up the car in the snow and then drive through the mountains in a snowstorm but it was a small price to pay. What a great vacation! Anyone want to come next year?

Wedding China!

Hey, check this out, I have wedding china! It has never been used, ever. It was still wrapped in plastic. Silverware, goblets, everything...still wrapped in plastic. I think of the hundreds of dollars that could have been in use for the past 15 years. New skis, snowboard, annual lift passes...all sitting in the Garn basement. And look at that China pattern...at least it's not gold, ha ha! It reminds me of my wedding, you should have seen my bridesmaid's dresses.


See that look on Sherry's face? Doesn't she look happy to be wearing this little sailor dress?!



Here are the rest of the happy bridesmaids! Oh the things I would change if I could do this day again. For one thing, I'd hire a different photographer...my professional photos were all overexposed while being developed. Ruined. Every single one. The whole day is a big blur but I'm sure it was great. At least I remember the honeymoon...

Back to the China, we had a great dinner with my in-laws. They are in town visiting for Christmas. Special occasion, dinner at my house. And quite the house it is. The best thing about it is the pantry, and since the China is pretty much in my face every time I enter the pantry, it made it's short debut. Now, it'll probably be another 15 years til it sees the light of day. Sad but true. Coincidentally, my wedding dress is in my face every time I look in my closet -- trust me, it will stay there.