p.s. i love you

My sweet Morgan is VERY GOOD at writing.  I LOVE to read her writing.  She will sit down and write story after story just for fun.  She amazes her teachers and us as her parents.  Recently, after we (Mark and I) had an argument with her (I think it was about entitlement) she left this on our bed...

It included a bag of candy and a beautiful, well written letter telling us what great parents we are and how sorry she was.  I love letters like that and always save them. We are far from perfect and are constantly apologizing to our kids for our imperfections, but I am so grateful for encouragement such as this from our kids who we love more than life itself.  Thank goodness we are patient with each other.

roses are red

My sweet husband gave me two dozen BEAUTIFUL roses for our Anniversary.  He is so thoughtful!  This man is everything I need.  Neither of us is perfect, but we complement each other very well.  He picks up where I am lacking and vice versa.  I am so glad I get to spend eternity with him.  I love the father he is to our children.  He teaches them responsibility, respect, hard work, and how to show love to their Father in Heaven by doing what is right.  He is a wonderful leader in our home.  He loves to surprise me - and he's good at it.  I'm a lucky girl!

scripture POWER

This picture pulls at my heartstrings - first because of guilt, and the other because of pride.  The guilt comes from the fact that I told Kyle to wait in bed for me (I don't remember what I was in the middle of) and I would come up and read him a story and listen to his prayers before he went to sleep (our nightly routine).  It took a little longer than I planned to finish whatever it was I was doing and by the time I got to his room this was how I found him.  This little boy crashes within a few minutes of his head hitting the pillow.  He plays hard and then is out like a light when he crawls into bed.  I wished I had been quicker to get to his room.  I hate disappointing my kids.


The pride came from seeing what he had chose to do while waiting for me.  The book he fell asleep reading is a child's illustrated adaptation of The Book of Mormon.  He was reading his scriptures.  He loves reading the scriptures.  He loves hearing all the stories.  I am so proud of the person he is becoming!  I know how much he loves his Heavenly Father and strives to do what is right...

I made a promise to myself to be better at getting in to Kyle quicker when he is going to bed.  I've been doing pretty good!

Summer's ending...Back To School!

I have to be totally honest.  I love summer and finally being able to sleep in, but in previous summers I have spent the last month of summer vacation counting down the days for the return to school and a schedule.  We have a lot of fun the first month of vacation, but eventually the kids start to get on each other's nerves, arguing, and generally becoming bored.


THIS summer was pleasantly different.  I found myself longing for summer to continue.  Everyone got along pretty well (with only an occasional argument).  They also were able to keep themselves entertained...I don't think I ever heard an "I'm bored".  Now, maybe it is because they are getting older, or maybe it's because we took a few fun trips and it helped to break up the summer - but either way I loved it.  We had a lot of lazy days spent swimming, reading, making lots of chocolate chip cookies (everyone but Kyle has the recipe memorized I can make them completely on their own) or playing in the yard.  I really enjoyed hanging out with them all day!


So here we are starting another year of school.  I really do love having a schedule.  I think my children do too.  It's also really fun for them to get back to seeing their friends on a daily basis.  I crave having a clean kitchen, messes that stay cleaned up once I clean them, and SILENCE (at least for a little while).  I find this helps me to be excited when they come home and more ready for the whirlwind that follows.


The whole silence thing is another subject altogether.  I realized when my children were younger how much I craved it.  Before I had kids I used to listen to the radio when I was driving.  After kids, if I ever found myself alone in the car, I was excited to keep the music off.  Silence...  Sweet Silence...  I love their babbling voices - I just also love to hear my own thoughts.  Sometimes.  


When my youngest joined the ranks of his other siblings attending school I thought I would get so much more done during the day.  That really wasn't the case.  I was pretty productive even with him in tow.  He was my little shadow and was actually very good at entertaining himself.  He'd just come check to see what I was doing every so often.  He was wonderful that way.  The biggest difference once ALL my kids were in school was the silence.  I could do everything in complete silence, and I hadn't realized how much I craved that until I had it.  I am such the better mommy when I get a little silence each day.


Here are our pictures before sending my kids off on their first day of school...

This was the elementary-age bunch...

 Bryan starts school at 6:30am, so we weren't so great at getting pictures that first day.  This picture was taken the 3rd day of school.  Can you tell how tired he is?  It's all in his eyes.  He is my one who likes to stay up late but not getting up in the morning (takes after me that way).

Colton Turns 10!

Since Colton's actual birthday was the same day as "Meet the Teacher" night, this year we decided to celebrate a few days earlier.  This way we could really enjoy his birthday with him, have more family and friends able to come, and slow down and enjoy it more.  This was a "family-party" year for him, which meant he wouldn't be inviting a ton of friends, but we would celebrate his special day as a family.  He could invite one friend over to enjoy the occasion with our family and he chose his friend, a cute little boy named Sam.


I have always had a lot of fun making our family's birthday cakes each year.  Sometimes they are elaborate, and other times they are very simple with the birthday child picking the flavor cake and frosting, and then some sort of their favorite candy to decorate it with.  We always have fun with it.


We also have a "You are special today" plate that was given to us as a wedding gift.  We love pulling that out for birthdays...

Our friend, Sarah, came over with her son, Jace...

Colton's big gift this year was a digital camera.  As our kids have gotten older and the gifts are a little pricier, we've come up with an idea that has worked pretty well.  If they really want something, and we feel they are old enough for the responsibility of taking care of it, we have agreed to pay for half of the item.  This helps them to feel ownership of the item.  Because they helped to pay for it they are much more careful with it.  They know if it gets lost or broken they will be responsible for the full price if they want another one.  So far it has worked pretty well.  Colton was SO excited about his camera...

 

Five things I love about Colton...


1) He is super compassionate.  When he's sees me cry he gets big crocodile tears.  He has great empathy.


2) He is an awesome chef!  I have a passion for cooking, and has been fun to see that rub off on all of my children, but Colton loves it so much he talks about having it as a profession someday.  He has told me he will open his own restaurant and I can eat there for free.  He makes a mean chocolate chip cookie...completely by himself.


3) He is so cute with little kids.  He gets down on their level and plays with them.  He wants to help them and make them happy.  He will be a fabulous dad!


4) He is an amazing singer!  He loves to sing and has a fabulous voice.  I can always hear him singing as he goes about different tasks all day long.  This carries over into playing the piano.  He loves sitting down and playing music on the piano as he sings.


5) He is intense.  He has great passion for the things he loves.  It is so fun to watch him play ball, whether it is soccer, basketball, or baseball - he goes at it with everything he has.


We love our Colton!!

Fairview Ward Campout 2011

The campout this year was full of surprises.  I must preface this by saying that Mark ended up having to work the SECOND year in a row.  If it wasn't for the fact that I KNOW he loves camping, I MIGHT think that was more than just coincidence...That left me flying solo taking the kids on the 3 day, 2 night campout.  But I wasn't really alone.  My oldest, Bryan, is an extremely wonderful Boy Scout and completely competent camper.  I could not have done this without him (or at least it wouldn't have been nearly as fun!).

We were one of the first families to make it up to camp Thursday afternoon.  I had packed up the car the night before and was mostly ready to go the next morning after adding a few last minute things.  We drove the 3 1/2 hours up past Clint's Well to the campground and proceeded to pick out a nice shady spot and set up camp.

The raindrops began to fall just as we were finishing the tent.  It proceeded to a torrential downpour in a matter of about 30 seconds.  Bryan had brought his own tent that he uses on Scout campouts, while I had the other 3 kids with me in the big tent.  We all went into our tents and sat there, bored, waiting for it to stop, or at least lighten up a bit.  We hadn't yet had time to unload the games and things we had brought to pass the time from the car, and none of us were going to get soaked going to get them.

As we sat listening to it coming down outside one of my children commented that they were getting dripped on.  They moved over near me.  Then I felt the drops.  As we looked around we realized the rain was leaking through the ceiling of our tent all over the place.  There weren't any holes we could see.  It was just coming through the seams (later I found out that it is a good idea to seal the seams of your tent every couple of years, starting with the first day you bring it home from the store).  The rain showed no signs of lightening up.

Just then I heard Bryan outside.  He had heard us talking to each other about the drips and had run over to our car and found some extra tarps we had brought and was proceeding to cover our tent with them.  That cute boy was getting soaked as he tried to protect his family from the rain. My heart almost burst with the love I have for him.  He didn't complain.  He saw a need and went to work.  Man is he amazing!

The rain lasted for about 30 minutes and then it was over.  We got out of our tent only to discover it was sitting in about 3-inch deep water.  Our nice shady spot was actually a bit lower than the surrounding land.  We needed to move our tent.  When that was finally accomplished we decided it was time to start thinking about dinner.

Bryan had made tin-foil dinners for each of us the night before.  He had cooked them in the oven to make it quicker when we reached camp.  All I had to do was go over to a friend's camper to borrow their microwave and warm them up.  Bryan makes a great foil dinner!  It was still drizzling here and there, so we decided to save the s'mores for the next night.

It is so funny to me how my kids fight going to bed when we are at home, but when we go camping they can't WAIT to climb into that fun tent and go to sleep!  Bryan and Morgan stayed up wandering the campsites with their friends for awhile, but Colton and Kyle were down for the count within minutes.  Camping wears you out, but man is it fun!

Friday we got up and had cereal and milk.  When it is just me running the show, as much as I love to cook, I keep the food simple.  Otherwise I would spend the entire time cooking and cleaning up!  The kids never complain.  They are just excited to be out there.

We don't have a ton of camping equipment - a few tents, ice chests, a table and chairs, flashlights, lantern, sleeping bags, and that's kind of it.  But every year I try to get one more thing to add to our supplies.  A couple years ago I bought a $5 solar shower from Walmart.  It worked OK.  You lay a black vinyl bag full of water out in the sun.  After a couple of hours it isn't ice cold (not super warm but not cold either) and you hang it up in a tree and take a shower.  I'd put a swim suit on and I could wash the grime off.  I don't mind camping and getting dirty, as long as I have a way to get clean.  I don't like climbing into a sleeping bag all sticky and dirty.  I also like being able to rinse off in the morning.

Last year I bought a shower tent enclosure so I could actually have some privacy.  The solar shower hung from a hook in the tent.  Better.

This year I went ahead and got a shower heater plus pump.  That was heaven!  It's powered by batteries and heated with a one-pound propane tank.  You stick the pump in a bucket of water and have an instant hot shower!  Bryan asked to use it Friday morning.  I told him if he got everything set up he could have the first shower.  We were both so happy to have a shower that morning!

The ward had organized several activities.  The teenagers (and some of the adults) were playing volleyball.  Bryan had a lot of fun with that...

Some of the fathers had set up a BB gun shooting range.  Kyle and Colton were in heaven...

Our ward Scoutmaster, who is also an amazing carpenter, had brought up a lathe and was helping anyone who wanted to make wood hammers.  They picked out branches from the campsite and made some really cool hammers. Colton and Kyle both loved it!

Other ward members set up a long, high zipline going from one tree to another.  It was amazing!


Morgan had fun hanging out with her friends and climbed quite a few trees (a little higher than I would have liked).  She's about 30 feet off the ground in this picture...

Lunch while were camping was sandwiches.  Thursday night we roasted hotdogs.

We got rained on again Friday afternoon.  Thankfully, our tent was now covered and in a better spot - no leaks!  We enjoyed the rest of the day and had a wonderful ward campfire that night.

Saturday morning everyone awoke to a yummy ward sponsored pancake breakfast.  Bryan and I then proceeded to pack up camp while the other kids were off playing.  Bryan and I had that camp taken down and packed away pretty quickly.  I was so grateful to have him there.

On the way home we stopped along the way to pick up Wendy's frosties - our reward for all our hard work.  We'll be up there again next summer!  Hopefully with my husband in tow...

Pinetop Reunion Photoshoot

My family asked that I get some family pictures one morning.  Bryan had designed the shirts for the reunion for my mom.  They turned out really cute!  We started out with pictures of the whole crew.  Then Matt and Maria wanted some of their family, and so did Kacie and Matt Ling.  They turned out pretty cute!


The whole Bybee clan...

My brother,Matt, with his family...

My sister, Kacie, with her family...

Senior pictures of Taylor...

Bybee Family Reunion at Pinetop

We had the opportunity this summer to have EVERYONE from my family together for a reunion!  It is always amazing to me when everyone manages to carve out time to get together ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  Life gets so busy.  Everyone doesn't live near each other.  It can be really hard to accomplish that.


We met up in the beautiful mountain town of Pinetop, Arizona.  My dad has a cousin with a beautiful cabin large enough to accommodate everyone.  It even had a fabulous backyard with a playset, zip line, tree house, and a fire pit.  The kids had a blast! And so did the adults.  We went on bike rides, took hikes and walks, the boys played a little golf, we toasted s'mores at night, had devotionals, went on treasure hunts, and enjoyed some pretty amazing meals as each family took a turn in the kitchen.




Here are some pics of our nights making s'mores...


My brother, Matt...

My mom, Morgan, Colton, my sister Kacie, and nephew McKay...

Matt's wife, Maria...

Kyle...

Colton...

Morgan...

Bryan...

Logan kissing his mom, Maria...

McKay sharing a s'more with his dad...

My mom and dad sharing a s'more...

My sister, Kacie, getting a sticky smooch from Colton...

Kacie and me!

Kyle and my nephew, Logan...

Kyle, Kacie, and my mom...

My older kids set up a treasure hunt for all the younger kids with clues all around inside and outside the cabin...

And finally...the treasure!!!

Now they got to sit down and enjoy eating their treasure...

Another day we went into town to the go-cart track.  That was a BLAST!  First the youngest three were able to drive their own cars on a smaller size track.  This included McKay and Logan (Matt and Maria's boys).  They are REALLY into cars and trains.  It is their life.  They took driving these cars SUPER seriously...


McKay, Kyle, and Logan...

Then we moved onto the big track.  The younger kids had to ride shotgun on this one (the cars went MUCH faster).  It was pretty fun to watch everyone trying to beat out other family members...


Morgan...

Kyle racing...

Bryan...

I love the expression on Morgan here...

Kyle in the foreground, with my brother-in-law Matt Ling and Colton right behind, and Morgan and Bryan way in the back...

My sister Kacie...

My sister-in-law Maria with her son Logan and my niece Taylor right behind...

Taylor...

Kacie, Morgan, and Bryan...

This picture cracks me up because Kyle's driving partner let go of the wheel to pose as they were headed straight for the wall.  Kyle was POSITIVE they were going to crash.  Can you see how worried he is?

We ate a lot of s'mores.  It was so nice for it to be cold enough to do a campfire when back in Phoenix it was 115 degrees.  Pinetop is about 3 hours north of Phoenix.  It makes it easy to get out of the summer heat.

All my kids...

Kyle and I...

Our little family...

Brittany...

One thing I loved was that each family took a turn giving a nightly devotional before bed.  That meant they picked a topic to share with everyone (usually a somewhat spiritual one).  It was really a nice way to end the day...

On our night to make dinner we decided to do homemade ice cream for dessert.  We used bags of homemade ice cream inside these tubs filled with ice and salt.  Everyone took a turn shaking it until the ice cream was done.  This ice cream never really firmed up.  It was pretty much soft serve, but it was still super yummy!


Morgan looks a little less enthused here...

My mom and Kacie...

Morgan, me, and Colton...

LOVE the look on Bryan...

This was a really fun trip and it was so nice to all be together!