2013 April General Conference

We like counting down to things around here. It just adds that extra aspect of anticipation that makes a world of difference when trying to get little kids excitement about an upcoming event. Visuals work wonders! Typically, we do a little more comprehensive of a countdown to General Conference, but with Jason's Birthday, Easter and Conference happening on consecutive weekends I did not want the count downs to overlap and just get confusing. So a nice, 5 evening countdown it was.

I picked 5 different talks from October General Conference that stood out to me. Restudied them. High lighted things I felt were applicable for us and put them on little coloured cards with a small illustration that I felt would be a good cue for the talk (and a good little visual for the kids).  I'm certainly not an artist, yet my little doodles seemed to do the trick. So, with the talk summaries tucked away in numbered envelopes I hung them on the wall next to the dinner table with the pictures of the general authorities underneath it. And each night, at dinner time (since dinner time affords us some pretty undivided attention from the kiddos so we use it as best we can), we would take a look at the next talk and find the picture of the person who said those wonderful things. The whole thing went brilliantly. The kids loved it and even retained some of those little pearls of wisdom, not to mention it was an awesome review for us adults :). 

When General Conference rolled around, the kids each had a little General Conference notebook, and a couple coloring pages from the Friend. I know some families do things a little more elaborate but just a couple things that promoted listening seemed to do the trick for us here. In the end, Milayla spent nearing every song conducting and most of the talks trying to find the corresponding picture on the paper on the wall.  

I recorded a video of Milayla conducting because we happen to think it is one of the sweetest things ever. She loves music. She tinkers away on any instrument that she gets her little fingers on and it's not just banging away; she tries to be quite deliberate about it. In any case, hopefully I can figure out how to upload the video (though shortening it may be asking a bit much...) 

(I FIGURED IT OUT! Yay! I love the faces she makes.)

As for Atticus, he loved listening for key words in each talk and drawing the speakers. 

Because of the time difference between here and Salt Lake City, the kids needed to head to bed on Sunday night before they got to hear President Monson speak and they were pretty sad about that, but I think the anticipation made it even better for them. They both sat through President Monson's entire address - now, that was a blessing :)!

Now, typically we would be busy making cinnamon buns amidst all these conference sessions, but not this go around. We simplified (something we've been trying to do a lot around here). Jason found a Gelateria not too far from us that makes Sorbet with only fruit and water and pitched the idea that we celebrate conference by going for ice cream. It was an easy sell; a treat we could all eat, an outing as a family, and an opportunity to talk a little bit about conference. Yes, please!

We didn't tell the kids where we were going beforehand, so they were pretty anxious to find out. Atticus was just excited that he was going to get to bike down there. He is getting so good on his Laufrad and has been pointing out to us nearly every time he gets on his bike that he is good enough for pedals. Perhaps there is a new bike in his future, his birthday is coming up...

Milayla went in the stroller, though she would have preferred to walk - or to ride a bike. She is just anxious to get on a bike and get moving. She is going to be one happy girl when her birthday rolls around...

In the meantime, she is pretty patient and makes the most of the stroller when we are traveling a little too far for her to walk. 

And after a very looooooong journey (according to Atticus), we made it. I don't know what kind of machine they use to make blueberries and water taste so delicious, but I love it. 

Milayla was not too pleased about the ice cream. We really never have it around here (though she is quite fond of green smoothies!) and I think she was a little surprised at how cold it is. 

 Certainly no problems or complaints from these boys though.

While enjoying our treat we each talked about our favorite parts of conference. The kids picked the music - big surprise ;). Though, Atticus went on and on about how we got to watch President Monson just like when we saw him in person! So perhaps that was his second favorite part; watching and listening to President Monson. I know I feel pretty blessed to listen to the words of a living prophet and to have the technology at our fingertips that allows us to hear those words no matter where we are living. I am so grateful for that. And I am so grateful that conference is every 6 months. I never quite realize just how much I need it until I have an entire weekend packed full of inspiring and uplifting talks that help me to be a better person, wife and mother. 

And with our ice cream complete (and our insides sufficiently frozen), we snapped one more picture and continued our conversation on the way home. Jason and I always seem to come up with lots of wonderful ways to enrich our marriage and our family that we fine tune and put into action. We're definitely not the best about putting them into action, but we're trying and getting better at it!

Yes, we are siting outside, bundled up and eating ice cream. We felt sufficiently crazy Canadian while doing it. Though, I think our Canadian friends and family would laugh at us if they knew we bundled up like this and it was above 0 degrees Celsius.  

 And of course, upon arriving home Milayla had to make it up all three flights of stairs on her own. Her determination is adorable. It doesn't matter how she has to get up those stairs, she is making it up them and will conquer them. She is pretty good at walking up the first couple flights, but the third one sometimes ends up more of a crawl. Particularly sweet is that he big brother stands at the top of the stairs cheering her on. Making it up all those steps is a BIG accomplishment and we are pretty proud of her.

 And then another conference weekend had come and gone. We've set a plan forward to do better at reviewing conference talks this go around. Jason and I will be rewatching and relistening to them in the coming weeks and talking about them more. Then we are planning on having more family home evening lessons focusing on conference talks that we feel would be good for our family to learn about together. I'm excited. So much goodness! I love the gospel.