General Conference Weekend!

General Conference weekend is always FUN--because it is a little bit different than ANY other weekend for 6 months.

Our family (luckily in the comforts of our home) gets to enjoy listening and watching the apostles and prophets and being taught by the noble and great ones.

It usually is a weekend that we try to "clear the calendar"...however, it usually ends up being pretty busy as we try to squeeze it all in between conference sessions.

My weekend started a little bit early with Girls Game Night on Thursday.

I always enjoy a good night with my friends!

Our friend Julie made some yummy dessert and it was pretty to look at, to boot!

So we tried snapping a shot of her masterpiece before it all got eaten!! Friday Evening we had a ward party. It had a Renaissance theme. The ward was split into 6 teams--we were on the purple team AND since we did NOT have purple shirts we just taped some purple construction paper on our backs-GO PURPLE!

They had a couple of games that we competed against the other teams, brackets and all.

AND a set of "the locks" that fit the kids just right to play with. Ryland had a grand ol' time until Daddy would not get him out when he had enough of them! Dan found this quite humorous--since Ryland kept BEGGING to go in them.

This certainly would the best form of babysitting the kids (especially Ryland)

Having to take our car in for tires, oil, and brakes this week--we were having to prepare for the my brothers wedding this weekend as well...AND boys haircuts at the Barber were in order between sessions.

We had a family home evening lesson a few weeks ago on trying to get the most out of conference. The Ensign gave some good ideas of what other families did to help their kids--and we let our kids vote on what they wanted to do.

A picnic lunch between sessions was one of them!

While Daddy was at priesthood Dacie dropped off a birthday gift to a friend from chomp chomp church (what Dacie calls anything relating to church b/c of an alligator song they sing in nursery), since she slept through a majority of her friends party and missed it--she did not care. Dacie just squealed buying a present and giving it to her friend. Oh, to have that unselfish innocence!

Another thing we tried out this year--was going to the ice cream shop (or Gelato shop--its more healthy--if that is possible) AFTER priesthood session was over, and talk about our favorite talks-- or something new we learned. The kids absolutely embraced this idea and took notes, drew pictures AND wanted to share before even ordering our ice cream!

Since it was close to bedtime we had the kids bathed and in pj's for our little adventure.

Now this new shop in town is not only an upscale ice cream shop BUT it has a play room for the kids and we spent an HOUR after in it!

We even accidentally met up with some of our friends while we were there.

My first go around with french braids in little Dacie's hair. OK so my part and tightness have much to be desired, BUT it made for some pretty CRAZY hair today!!!

Oh- AND daddy got in on the action and made formula one cars with Colton and the Lego's

He was pretty proud of his creation!!!!!

This FUN shop EVEN has a train that rides around the rooms!

On Sunday between sessions Dan and I were able to attend a baptism bar-B-Que for a fellow PT's baby .

What is typically kosher to bring to a celebrations like this?

(as baptizing babies is not something we do in our faith)

We figured a pot of daffodils would do the trick?

it was a beautiful day and I have not been able to see the baby

... after all this was a baby I recently threw a shower for.

At the ward party and today at the bar-b-Que I got to hold small babies for the first time in a LONG time...

Oh, they smell so good!

We enjoyed the rest of our sabbath with my sister and her hubby. Watching the rest of conference, enjoying a nice dinner and playing evening games (I am opting to blog instead!)

The kids played a fun game today where we laid out items on the table (like a picture of the temple, our family, some keys, a flashlight, scriptures, etc...) IF they heard these key words during the talks--they got a piece of candy. Colton listened pretty intently all sessions!

Last but not least, the highlighted or circled the speakers on a poster in front of the TV. This helped them see where these brethren (and sisters) served and become much more familiar with their names!

Baseball pictures were cancelled this weekend because the uniforms did not arrive. I was pretty relieved, as it freed up allot of our time. I was so impressed with how much more the kids seemed to get out of conference this year. We have always done the packets...BUT this seemed to involve them more. It made my heart happy.

As always I came away uplifted, comforted, and with a better sense of what is really important. BUT also a very real awakening of what I can do better. I cannot wait to apply it and read it in depth next month.

I have always really enjoyed conference weekends and our little bit of extra time together!