Fall Family Pictures

I loved the setting for our family pictures this year.  What a beautiful little path! I love how much easier it is to get pictures as my kids get older.  We have a little more time to work with before they are completely bored, and they are also quicker to get into place and do what you want them to do.  I set my camera up on a tripod and brought my mom along to press the shutter button when we were ready.  I loved these shots!

Mark wanted a shot of me for his desk at his office.

Kyle's boat

Kyle received a wooden boat from his grandpa McOmber.  He was so excited to paint it.  This was his creation!

Thanksgiving Festivities

Kyle and the whole 2nd grade put on a fabulous Thanksgiving program at school the week before Thanksgiving.  Those 2nd graders are darling...one in particular of course.  Kyle did a great job with his speaking parts.  That doesn't scare him at all, and he's really good at it!

Kyle with the music director who put the whole program together...

with his wonderful teacher...

Thanksgiving morning of COURSE began with the annual Ward Turkey Bowl at our park.  The ward had at least 50 men and boys out to compete this year.  It was huge!  And of course there were injuries...only to the men (pretending to be boys), not to the boys.  Bryan and Mark played well!

 At the end of it all, one dad went home with a torn ACL (very big deal), and one dad went home with a broken wrist/hand.  I'm sure there were other dads injured, but those were the only ones requiring a trip to the doctor.  But even with that, they all had a blast!


Then it was back to our house where the cooking had been in full swing for about 3 days.  We had a HUGE spread of yummy food being prepared and the house smelled so good!


My kids had been decorating...

Before everyone got there that morning, my kids and I put a tree trunk on a big sheet of posterboard and they cut out lots of colorful leaves.  Throughout the day everyone would walk by and add things they were thankful for to a leaf and stick it on our tree.  This is how it looked by the end of the day...

True to Bybee family tradition, we had a puzzle going all day for people to add to.  Here's my dad searching for pieces...

A picture of my mantel all decorated for the occasion.

Colton and Kyle made a pretty amazing fort spread over the entire gameroom...

Finally it was time to eat, and boy did we ever.  We had so much fun enjoying the food and the company.  Here's everyone...

 I'm thankful for Thanksgiving!!

Bryan the ladies man!

We LOVE to tease Bryan about this night.  He has a really great group of friends. The part we tease him about is how lopsided it is with the boy to girl ratio (smart boy!).  On this particular night he invited his friends over for a movie, and his guy friends couldn't make it, so it ended up being him and all these girls...

I laughed each time the doorbell rang and in walked another girl.  You might have thought it would be awkward, but amazingly enough it wasn't.  They all had such a great time!  But boy, have we gotten a lot of teasing mileage out of that night!

time out for women

I LOVE the program "Time Out for Women".  It's a weekend that happens once a year here in Phoenix where a group of wonderful speakers come to downtown Phoenix and speak about women.  It really gives me that lift I need to be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend.  I learn so much and feel so great at the end of the weekend.  I laugh and cry and have such a great time with friends.  I come away with tools I can use with my family to help us be closer and to live the gospel better.


This year also included a separate conference, happening adjacent to the women's one, called "Time Out for Girls".  Morgan came with me and attended that one with some of her friends.  We all had a great time!


One of our speakers was Shawni Pothier (a local here) and her mother, Linda Eyre.  Shawni is a wonderful photographer and mom and I love reading her blog, 71toes.  Linda has written a plethora of parenting books with her husband and created Joyschool which I loved using with all my kids when they were preschoolers (and my mom used it with me!).  They had such great advice about parenting and were so uplifting...(excuse the really bad camera phone pictures)

Another speaker who spoke to both the women and the girls was Laurel Christensen.  Both groups LOVED her!  She's the one in the center below...

Other speakers included Brad Wilcox (LOVE him!!), Hilary Weeks, Macy Robison, Mary Ellen Edmunds, Matthew Baldwin, Kris Belcher (SO funny!), and D. Kelly Ogden.  What a fabulous bunch...and SO what I needed!