General Conference Weekend Extravaganza

I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   Which means I'm a Mormon!  We have a living Prophet and Apostles who give us guidance and direction from our Heavenly Father.  Each April and October, we have a world wide General Conference of our church where we are able to listen to messages from those Prophets and Apostles.  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  We just had our recent General Conference this past weekend.  If you are interested in hearing any of those messages, click here.

We started General Conference the week before, on September 27th, at the General Women's Meeting.  After watching the broadcast of the meeting at our local meeting house, the girls and I went out to dinner.

Also the week before Conference started, I made and mailed out "Conference Countdowns" to each of our family members and some of our friends.  There was a section of the countdown to open each day for the week leading up to Conference.  Each section had a treat in it and a little message about Conference.

I loved this picture my Sister in Law, Lisa, sent me yesterday.  The last day of the countdown had chocolate eyeballs with a message to make sure to keep your eye on the Prophet while you watch Conference.  The caption Lisa sent with this was "Josh has his eyes peeled and Ed is watching Conference."  I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but Ed has his chocolate eyeballs in.

 On Friday, we kicked off our "General Conference Weekend Extravaganza" by seeing the move 16 Stones and going out to dinner.

Saturday morning we snuggled in and made ourselves comfortable so we could watch General Conference.  We had our Conference Notebooks and baskets ready to go.  We also had a tasty breakfast.  We ate a lot of yummy food over the weekend! 

I bought this Lego set of the Salt Lake Temple for the kids to work on during conference weekend.  Emily took it upon her self to be the chief architect of the project.

 Between sessions on Saturday, we stuck with our conference tradition of a picnic in the park.  It was absolutely the most gorgeous perfect day.  Some of us took it as the perfect opportunity it was to have a little nap.

Then it was back home for the afternoon session.

That night Steve and Zac went to the Priesthood Session of Conference.  They have a tradition of going out to dinner after the session.  We have a tradition of having a Girls Night while the boys are away.  My mom and Lauren came over for dinner and games.

On Sunday we watched them morning session of conference and then between the morning and afternoon session, we went for our traditional walk on one of our favorite trails.  Again, it was another perfect day outside.  We had a lovely time on our walk.

There was an apple tree along the trail and Zac climbed the tree and picked everyone a delicious apple.

 There is a part on the trail with some animals.  This buck was sitting on the ground sunning himself.  When he smelled the apples the kids were eating he came over and was trying so hard to get to the apple.  He kept trying to stick his head through the fence rails, but just couldn't.  The kids felt bad and wanted to give him their apples, but there were signs posted saying do not feed the animals.

 Addy made a friend.

I tried to take a picture of Zac in the tree but he blocked me.  I finally convinced him to let me take one.

 Back home for the final session of General Conference.

Emily worked on this temple for 3 1/2 sessions.  Then she was stuck because she was missing a piece.  I will post picture when it is finished.

It was a most fabulous weekend.  I loved spending time with my family.  I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with my wonderful family.  I am so thankful he has given us a Prophet on the earth today to help guide and direct us.  I am thankful he is mindful of us.  I am thankful for the messages of peace, love and encouragement that I heard this weekend.  I am thankful for the renewed faith and determination that have come as a result of those messages.  I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the way it blesses my  life!

A Generally Awesome Weekend

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We have a living prophet and apostles who give us guidance and direction from our Heavenly Father for problems and challenges that we face in our world today.  Every six months we have a General Conference where we are able to listen to the Prophet and Apostles and other church leaders and receive counsel from them.  It is a wonderful renewal of the Spirit.  It lasts for 2 days, a Saturday and a Sunday.  There are 4 general sessions each lasting 2 hours.  If you would like to watch any part of the Conference, click here.  Our family makes a big weekend out of it.  I start a week before Conference by leaving treats for the kids to find when they wake up, counting down the days until General Conference.  We spend the entire weekend together as a family listening to the messages.  Above are some of the treats the kids found last week.  Below is our treat basket we had to help us make it through the day.

This Conference we started a new tradition that we loved, and will most certainly continue.  We put pictures of the Prophet and Apostles on the wall around our TV.  Everyone had their own stack of post it notes.  When anyone heard something from a speaker that the liked, they would write it on a post it note and place it around the picture of the person speaking.

 Saturday Morning Session and breakfast

Saturday night, after the morning and afternoon sessions, there is a Priesthood Session.  This is for all male members of our church ages 12 and up (the girls and I went to the General Women's Meeting the week before.)  Steve and Zac have a tradition of attending the Priesthood Session together and then going out for dinner after.  This time they even threw in a late movie and went to see Captain America.  The girls and I stayed at home and had a girls night.  The next morning our Conference baskets were replenished and ready to go.

I usually make crepes for Sunday Conference breakfast, but I decided to try something new.  I made German Pancakes in muffin pans.  We filled them with deliciousness.  They turned out yummy.  My family, despite their German heritage, usually doesn't like German Pancakes (I know right?), but they gobbled them up this way.  I guess this is how I will be making them from now on.

Steve and Aubrey watching Conference and refusing to be photographed.

 Ha ha!  I was able to sneak a picture!

Between the morning and the afternoon session on Sunday, we followed another tradition and went for a walk on one of our favorite trails.

 My kids can't just walk over a bridge like normal people.

 OK, quick picture to get mom off our backs.

Annnnd...back to climbing....

I really love this wall and wanted to take a picture of someone in front of it.  Addy and Emily were the only ones who would stop for me.  But then I couldn't get a serious, well placed pose from either of them.  And if one of them was being serious, the other most certainly wasn't.

Back home for the final session of Conference.

It was a most fantastic weekend.  I loved spending it with my family.  I loved all the wonderful, inspiring messages that were given.  Here is a a collage my friend Britta put together of some of her favorite quotes from General Conference.  They also happen to be some of mine.

My very most favorite quote though is the one below.  Over the past year, I have developed this grand obsession with my Family's History.  I have been reading histories of my ancestors, and Steve's, and learning about their lives and the sacrifices they made so that I can be where I am today.  One thing that has really made a huge impression on me is the great sacrifices they made for what they believe.  Steve and I both come from people who gave so much and suffered so much for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some of our ancestors even gave their very lives for their deep faith and convictions.  What an amazing legacy to pass on.  If just one of them had gone astray, I might not be where I am today.  I can't even imagine my life without my testimony of the Gospel.  I feel a huge responsibility for passing on this truly great legacy of faith to my children.  We are not required to suffer great consequences or the possible loss of our lives for what we believe.  But we are required to offer up a different kind  of sacrifice.  One of our time and efforts in order to nourish our faith and build a strong foundation.  If I don't put my all into making sure my children go out into the world with a sure foundation, generations that follow will be affected.  It makes me so thankful to the ancestors that came before us and helped to lay that foundation.  I am so thankful to those that came after them that added to that foundation until it eventually came to rest under my feet.  If I don't do may part to add to that foundation and pass it on to my children, all those who came before us and gave every fiber of their being to the building of that foundation, is lost.  That is why I so loved this talk and this quote from it:

(It was also an awesome talk because the grandfather President Eyring was referring to in this talk, who helped settle a Mormon Colony in Mexico, was friends with Steve's ancestors who also helped to settle that same colony.  A fact I made sure to pass on to my children)