Conference Weekend

We had a great conference weekend. Saturday morning we woke up and had donuts, then we watched conference. It was so great to be able to be a part of the Solemn Assembly to sustain our prophet and our newest Apostle. It was neat to be in our home and see each group called to stand and sustain President Monson. I felt the spirit very strongly during that, and I hope my girls will remember standing and sustaining him, too. As much as I loved President Hinckley (and still do), I already love President Monson and know he is a prophet. Elder Christofferson will be great, too. Before I was married and when I was still living at home, his son and daughter-in-law Rainey lived in our ward while he went to the graduate school by our house. There were lots of changes--we got a new young women's general presidency and my brother, Brian's, mission president--James Hamula--was called to the first quorum of the seventy.

After the first session, we went out back and cleaned out and filled our water storage barrels, then we had lunch outside before watching the next session. That night Brian went to the priesthood meeting, and I took Sarah's senior pictures. It has been fun taking senior pictures lately--they are quite easy as they are very cooperative and I don't have to bribe them! Here are a couple shots from two I did recently.




I met Brian after his broadcast was over and we ate dinner, then went to Wal-Mart to get supplies to restock our 72-hour kits. Just a few more items and those will be ready for another 6 months.


This morning was day two of conference. I made (from a tube only) cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then we watched conference. We got to watch most all of each session--just having to miss parts here and there to put kids down for naps or run Ellie to the potty, etc. Eliza and Libby had conference packets I had printed off for them, and I had some coloring pages for Ellie. The best thing was this afternoon when we opened up a new puzzle we got at Wal-Mart last night. 500 pieces and it kept us busy during the last session! It was fun and kept Libby and Eliza busy so we could watch. I think my favorite talk was Elder Ballards on mothers. That will be my first one to reread. Two parts from his talk really stuck out--that finding joy in motherhood comes in moments. I have been feeling bad for a while that sometimes I don't always find joy in being a mom. Gasp! Some days are really hard and I think, "Did I sign up for this?!" But in his talk he said there will be moments of joy, but there will also be hard times, too. That made me feel better. I also loved the quote from Anna Quindlen about how we moms should focus more on "getting there" than "getting it done." So that is going to be new goal for me. Instead of focusing on wanting the task of getting them to bed, for example, to be done, I want to focus more on enjoying the "getting them to bed part." Or whatever the task is. Tonight Libby wanted me to put her to bed. Brian usually does and he has the routine down pat and she usually goes to bed fairly easily for him. Whenever I do, it doesn't usually go so smoothly. But tonight I tried to enjoy it more. We read books and I really enjoyed it. I was mostly impressed with her wanting to sound out words, so I kept getting books for her to read. Overall it was a great weekend watching conference. I certainly learned a lot. I had written down about 4 questions I was seeking and praying for answers for and probably 75% of the talks brought me ideas and insight into my questions. That was a blessing to me.

This evening after conference we spent some time out back, then I made French toast for dinner. I don't know why I don't make it more often. It is so easy and everyone loved it. Libby--who usually says she doesn't want anything I make--ate it without a word. It was such a nice change from her usual, "I don't want to eat that."

I think that about covers it! I'll end with a picture of Ellie after she found some lip gloss (with 'tint' no less)!