THE THRILL OF GENERAL CONFERENCE

Faith has realized how different it is to be in our family.   This realization came yesterday at school as she excitedly asked each of her friends how general conference was.  She explained to them that it was like Christmas at our house!  And it is.

Truthfully, conference weekend begins 15 days begin conference starts.  We put together a chain and took off a chain each night that had an activity, scriptures, or a song.  Well, almost each night.  We had a couple of makeups.  We start early discussing conference and explaining the importance.

This year, we also put together a different type of conference wall.  I printed out the prophet and each apostle with a quote from the last general conference.  We did a guessing game of who said what.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how many 'right' answers there were.

We started with homemade pizza Friday night and set up the tent!

And then the watching game began.  This year, I tried to do Reverence Rolos where I randomly selected speakers (or the sequence) to give out treats.  It didn't work great, but it was a fun idea and it worked for 2 other families that we shared the idea with.

How the boys watched Saturday afternoon.

The girls were wide awake!

And we had to take that opportunity during the choir's musical number to each take a selfie.

This is how I feel about conference!  It's just SO amazing!!!

We had a great turkey dinner (though I overcooked the bird.)

Sunday morning, I snapped a couple of quick shots in the tent with the kiddos.

Faith and Kate

Faith again

Dawson and Kate

Dad cooked us pumpkin french toast that morning.  It was heavenly!

Sunday, we had additional problems of Kate wanting to love "my brother!"

But I am happy to report that the "squirty spray cheese" lasted for all 4 sessions of conference.  Yippee!

We followed up with a family home evening on general conference.  Did you remember what they said?  We hung up quotes next to their picture.  Again, I was surprised, especially by our teenager and how many she got right.

Here are our favorites from this general conference:

Kate loved Elder David A. Bednar about tithing

Dawson loved President Uchtdorf!  His quote "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."  I'm sure this is destined to be a gospel classic.

Faith loved Elder Holland's talk!  It was sure a different one!

I felt the same thing that Faith felt (I think) and loved his.  A close second was Elder Hales Saturday morning.

Dad enjoyed Elder Eyring's talk!

And here is the completed wall!

I have to say that our family home evening was so much fun that we are thinking of having someone write down quotes, etc. of who said what and give us all a quiz.  The winner will be granted something fantastic ... like $10!  Grandma and Grandpa - I think you're it!!!

So, we're not perfect (President Uchtdorf), but we're striving to be better and to put the words of the prophet and apostles really into our hearts and souls.  It is no longer enough just to know.  We have to do! We love our conference tradition and will continue to make it a holiday in our home.