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)

March Recap

These lovely ladies and I have started walking every day (kinda) together.  We haven't been the best at it the last week.  Anyway, one day we were out and about and we were walking by this huge field and April was in a hurry to get home so she talked Tricia and me into cutting across the field with her, with a promise that there was a trail through the field that led right to our neighborhood.  It was a "shortcut".

Only problem was, she couldn't find the trail.  So we went climbing and scampering all over these rocky  muddy mounds of earth trying to spy a trail of some sort.

Finally, after some time, April spotted the trail far off in the distance.

 Yes!  We made it to the trail that led us safely home!  I don't know that any time was saved using this "shortcut", but we did have a fun adventure. 

Addison started a business called Just Art.  She has employed her sisters (she gives them paid vacations and everything).  She has hung signs all over our house.  She now has a menu of items you can order for your picture she draws for you.  I don't have a picture of the menu, but it gives a sample of a design element and a price for each element.  Depending on how many elements you choose, your custom picture can get pretty costly really fast.  But don't worry!  She offers free credit cards!  She is quite the entrepreneur.   She has been rakin' in the dough too.  Mostly from me and my mother.  She has been begging me to post these pictures in order to drum up some more business.  So here they are:

I edited out my phone number, but if you are interested in ordering anything, you can send me a message.

Emily had a Sports Banquet at her school.  Steve and I went with her.  Here they are recognizing the Volleyball Team.

Last year Zac went to AFY for the first time (Adventure for Youth).  He wants to go back this summer and Emily is old enough to go now as well.  So I was looking at the daunting price of sending 2 children on this fun summer adventure.  I noticed a contest on their website, just a few days before the contest entry deadline.  AFY is located at a place called Badger Creek.  One of the contests showed this picture of a beaver and had contestants send in their best beaver imitation.  I just knew one of  my kids could win this!

Here is Zac's beaver impersonation.  They chose the best 3 entries and posted them on Facebook.  The two pictures with the most likes and shares won free registration.  So we started spreading the word and asked our friends and family to like and share his picture.  In just under 2 days he had 122 likes and  43 shares.  Those numbers were well above the other two entries.   So he won!  WOO HOO!!!!  Thanks Zac for the creativity you showed and thank you to all who helped by liking and sharing his picture.  You helped to cut our registration costs in half!

We had our Relief Society Birthday Party.  It was the most fun I have ever had at a Relief Society activity ever.  For real.  It was a blast.  These are the ladies I was fortunate enough to share the evening with.

I won't even tell you the kind of things that came out of this pinata.  It was hilarious though.

And after the party, we topped the evening off with a massive Bag It!  That is where we put a meal together (in a bag) with all shelf stable items. 

I put together a little video for the evening.  We went around the neighborhood taking funny pictures of the ladies in our ward for the video.  We wouldn't tell them what the pictures were for.  They were all (for the most part) so willing to bust out a funny pose for us on the spot.  I live in a fantastic ward!  Here is the video:

If you've been in my kitchen and seen my orange retro bar stools, you will be so happy to know that I finally purchased new stools!!!!  I'm so excited about it!  I have waited so long.  I could never find a stool I liked that went along with our decor that was anywhere near a reasonable price.  I finally found these at Sam's a few weeks ago!  (that price pictured is not the price of the stool!)(this was just a picture I took to send to Steve before I bought them.  I'm so excited about the new stools, but that normally wouldn't warrant a post about them, except that we saw the movie Divergent the other day and our stools are in the movie!  So if you go to see it, look for them!  They're famous!

March was full of fun around here.  You can see other March posts by clicking on these links:

Aubrey's Birthday

St. George Trip

 FHE Hike

Emily's Birthday

SPRING BREAK POST COMING SOON!

Emily's 14th Birthday

About a week an a half ago, Emily turned 14!  All she has been talking about for months is that all she wants for her Birthday is a new room.  So a few days before her Birthday we went shopping at IKEA.  She had done all her pre-shopping online and knew exactly what she wanted.  When we got to the store, she told me the approximate price tag of her pre-selected items.  It was pretty laughable.  I suggested we forgo all pre selected notions and go for a stroll through the bedroom displays, find something she liked, and try our best to reproduce it within our modest budget.  She found the above room and fell in love.  Her room is pretty darn close to this.  Steve still has to make her headboard, and we haven't hung anything on the wall, but the bed is an exact replica (even down to the throw pillows that my mom made for her).  She selected different night stands which I actually like better than the ones in the room above.  Once we have it all finished we will post pictures.  I thought we could walk in IKEA, spend a few hours shopping, walk out and drive home.  Oh, was I wrong!  We were there forever!  Steve met us there after work.  By the time we left we were all famished so we took Emily out to Cafe Rio for dinner.  

On her actual Birthday my mom made her the dinner of her choosing.  She chose fettuccine alfredo with shrimp.  Can I just say- best shrimp alfredo I have ever had!  My mom made it with fresh shrimp (and she did not skimp on the shrimp).  It was so delicious.

 Instead of cake Em requested banana cream pie.

The day after her Birthday she had a party with some friends.  They went to see her friend Kelsey in the production of the Little Mermaid.

Then they came back to our house for pizza and a movie.

Kelsey, still in character.

They had cake and watched Catching Fire.

 Instead of blowing out her candles, Emily put them each out individually with her fingers.

The next morning, our family was cleaning the church when the Mia Maids came to kidnap her and take her out to breakfast and welcome her to their class.

Family Home Evening Hike

We live in a beautiful place.  We moved here 5 1/2 years ago, and we are still finding more and more things to love about it.  In our small little town, there is 128 miles of trails.  We have been on a lot of different trails, but we still have a lot more exploring to do.  The weather was spectacular yesterday and we decided to go hiking for Family Home Evening.  We found a new fun trail to hike that was only 5 minutes away from our house.

Zac being the good big brother making sure Addy didn't get left behind.

 Emily found the perfect place to sit and just enjoy nature.  

And by enjoying nature, I mean playing on her ipod.

Troll Bridge

By the time we headed back down the mountain, we were all starving.  We stopped by the grocery store to buy hot dogs to grill.  Steve was going to run in and grab those.  Somehow or another we all ended up in the store and everyone wanted something other than hot dogs.  So everyone ended up with their own dinner stuffs in the cart and by the time we checked out, we had spent enough we could have just gone out for dinner.  Lesson learned.  Don't take 6 starving people grocery shopping.  It was a fun night!