Temple Square

We couldn’t go to Conference and not walk around Temple Square even though a bazillion other people were doing the same thing.  Everything looked beautiful as always!

Emma stopped to get a drink in the “holy water.”  After I told her that Ashley wanted a drink really bad too.  Too bad it really just tastes a lot like down town Salt Lake City water!  Silly girls!

The Seagull monument

The girls trounced all around the Assembly Hall.  It is so pretty, and has so much detail in side.  I have been there a few times before but we really looked it over good this time, we really liked it.

Check out this organ inside!  It was fantastic, we wished to go down for a closer look but we weren’t supposed to get any closer.

Emma pushing a  handcart.

The reflecting pool, Ryan said it was almost as smooth as one of his potato fields…. he wishes!

 

Some pretty fountains in front of the church office buildings.

Ashley and Emma checking out Joseph and Emma.

We really had a great time, no pressure, just took our time and enjoyed the day.

The Conference Center

We scoped out the Conference Center a little bit while we were there.  There is an awesome hanging huge crystal like work of art surrounded by mirrors and 5 stories high (or something like that)  The girls were busy looking down at it and then saw themselves in the mirror.  An old man next to them thought it was funny too and started pointing with them, I’m surprised he isn’t in my picture.  He was embarrassed when he realized I was taking a picture.  It was funny.

I hadn’t been up to the top floors of the Conference Center before so I hadn’t seen this cool art of the 12 apostles and the First Presidency.  I wished there weren’t so many people so we could get a good picture.

Then the people parted and I could get a good picture and I cant take a good picture!  Pres. Monson had a glare no matter what I tried!

We had a fantastic time.  I love that my girls are gaining their own testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What a blessing!

LIVE: From the Conference Center

Ryan got us tickets to attend General Conference!  The girls have been asking to go for years and so we finally just decided to do it.  Conference is always at our busiest times of the year, Spring planting and Fall harvest, but we couldn’t put it off anymore.  We have been so excited.  Ryan got the tickets before church a couple weeks ago and he showed them to us right when Sacrament meeting started and the girls were screaming under their breath!  We were excited, even Ryan!  We went down Saturday night and wanted to stay as close to Temple Square as we could, and we did, but it was two blocks away so we couldn’t see the temple from our room.  It was still nice not to have to be up so early to be on time.  We did fine with traffic and all of that.

It was really fast getting in and to our seats, it felt VERY claustrophobic, I panicked a little.  Next time we will try to sit on an aisle for sure!  We were definitely in the “nose bleed” section, Ash even got a bloody nose!  This is a picture not zoomed in.

Then zoomed in on the choir, they asked us not to take pictures a little later, I didn’t know it wasn’t ok until after I had taken all of these…. oops!

We were still just so excited to be there!

The girls were pretty disappointed that we couldn’t see anyone’s face.  Next time we will work on pulling some strings and getting a floor seat, maybe, hopefully.

We got to be there for the Tabernacle Choir singing, it sounded awesome!

It was fun to just take the girls, I had told them they had to hold my hand so I didn’t loose them, but they were so independent and didn’t need my help at all.  I guess I just think they are still babies!  It was nice not to have to worry about losing anyone either.  I couldn’t imagine trying to keep track of the little kids!

It was fun to see President Monson come in, and then he pushed Sister Monson out after it was over.  We were so excited to be in the same room with the Prophet of God, it was a really, really, big room, but still!  We were not disappointed with our experience and cant wait for the chance to go again!

Spring Break: Sunday

Menu:

Breakfast: Waffles, Bacon, eggs

Lunch:  Sunday Dinner

Activity: General Conference

Spring Break: Saturday

Menu:

Breakfast: Cheesy Eggs, Bacon, toast

Lunch: Tomato soup, grilled cheese

Dinner: Meatballs over rice

treat: conference candy

Activity: General Conference

Conference was excellent today.  The children were quite well behaved, it seems like they are on Saturday sessions, then when Dad is home for Sunday we kind of all fall apart?  The kids did good keeping busy and trying to pay attention.  Claire wouldn’t stay out of the “conference candy” so we ended up putting it away halfway through the last session.  She is such a busy body, and feeling totally better thankfully!  I didn’t take many pictures, I was too busy trying to keep notes.  They were all in their seats an hour before it even started working on their packets!

Justin was thrilled with these “puppets”  he had fun making them and playing with them also.  I cant wait for tomorrow to have Ryan around.  We are really excited about another Idaho Temple too! 

PS  Still no baby….he really isn't due until Friday…..but we are all getting anxious for his arrival.  I thought for sure all of this spring break activity would put me into labor, not so though.  The waiting game continues!  Until tomorrow!

General Conference Ideas

I LOVE printing the General Conference packets for the kids and this year I found some really good ones.  My favorite ideas came from Oopsey Daisy.   I have been wanting to do some sort of game with the 12 Apostles so the kids could learn first names.  They all know their last names so hopefully this fun matching game will help.  I used Oopsey Daisys General Conference for Tots to adapt it to a matching game for Ash and Emma at least.  

I also got some packets form sugardoodle.net and a couple other places.  I took everything to a  print shop on my thumb drive today because I figured it would be less expensive and better quality. These really help the kids get into conference and now they are super excited! 

Listening to General Conference

The kids must be growing up because I could actually listen to both sessions of conference today without (too much) interruption.  Ashley took notes on EVERY speaker, Emma tried hard, and did better once I printed her conference packet for the second session.  Justin colored and Claire played with playdoh and some dress ups.

We also (like Erica) pick a couple of key words to listen for and then get a candy every time the word is said.  On the first session we had picked the word children, we almost ate ALL of the candy by the time the General Primary Presidents talk was over! 

I caught Just with his arm around Ash, it is a rare shot, he can be so sweet and kind, and then turn around and punch ya in the nose!  Hopefully he is starting to have more nice moments then mean ones!  We cant wait for more tomorrow and especially to have our Daddy home with us too!

Last Bit of Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was really fun that it fell on Conference. We got to stay home and listen to our Prophet and eat lots of jelly beans! We (I) thought for sure it would take the kids ALL morning to find those Easter baskets, but not at all, they found them before Ryan and I even got out of bed! I can never keep a stash (of anything) secret for long in this family, but then I wonder why we can never find the remote, or a matching shoe when the bus is here honking? How does that work?

We did end up dyeing eggs on Saturday night while the Dad's were at the Priesthood Session of Conference. Unlike me Sara is a good mom and likes to do these fun activities, which works out good for my kids, (and me) because they still get to have the fun traditions and Aunt Sara gets to do all of the work! Sound fair? I am excited for Spring to be here, we finally have a 55 degree day today and no wind, I need to get outside and work on SOMETHING!