General Conference

We watched general conference on TV this past weekend. Dallin and Connor are still pretty young, but getting old enough to understand some things and they're picking up on gospel principles. So we came up with some activities they could do to keep themselves semi-engaged during the 8 total hours.

As each speaker came up, we had the boys find the matching picture for that person on the general authority page (found in every conference issue of the Ensign magazine).

Then they got to put a sticker on the person's face. They needed a little help sometimes with matching the faces (gray hair and glasses aren't much of a clue among this group of speakers), but they did surprisingly well at identifying each speaker. Found on a different page in the Ensign are the women and other presidency members who are potential speakers. We stickered them too.

 Then we told the boys to listen for specific words that we would hear in the talks. We chose our words based on what our boys have been learning about and what we had a picture for.

Our words to listen for were prayer, Joseph Smith, Jesus, baptism/baptized, sacrament, temple, and scriptures (or related words like Bible, Book of Mormon). When they heard one of our words from a speaker, they got to put a sticker on the corresponding picture.

I was amazed at how well Dallin and Connor listened for the words. They certainly did their fair share of coloring and playing with playdoh and toys during the two days of conference, but they really listened and were so excited every time they heard one of the words. At one point, Dallin heard the words and exclaimed, "Brass plates! He said brass plates", and then he went to put a sticker on the "scriptures" picture. He's learning a lot.

Not surprisingly, "Jesus Christ" was the picture with the most stickers. Every talk had his name at least once at the end.

On Sunday morning, I decided to switch things up and make waffles instead of  my weekly pancakes. Dallin seemed a little disappointed when I told the boys of the breakfast plan early that morning, but Connor lifted his sleepy head and with a huge smile, said, "I LIKE waffles!"

The waffles won Dallin over. He ate a good amount. But the best part was the next morning, when I went to get Dallin's usual frozen pancake out to cook, and he asked for a waffle instead.  ....GASP... He proceeded to eat one and a half plate-size waffles! I don't think he plans to stop eating pancakes, but it's nice to have an alternative breakfast food that he'll eat.

Birthday Boy

We threw a little birthday party for Dallin and invited some of his friends over.  On the menu: Dallin's favorite foods.

  We had bagels, peanut butter, crackers, pepperoni, deli meat, cheese, olives, and a rainbow of fruits.

 Dallin LOVES cantaloupe, and he also likes grapes and apples. He won't eat strawberries and bananas, so they were there for the rest of us to eat (and to complete the rainbow).

 Dallin enjoyed his food with his friends, while Connor played with his baby friends.

 Then Dallin opened his presents.

 He got lots of great stuff from his grandparents and friends.

 And I made a crayon roll for him.

I'll show you some close ups because I'm just so proud of it.

I made a Lego birthday cake.

 There was kind of a Lego theme to the party. I made Lego guy heads to hold the utensils. 

And Lego bunting for decorations.

There aren't really triangle shaped legos, so this took some creative thinking to make.

 Dallin blew out all of his candles... one at a time.

 He played with his cake for a bit, but didn't try any. Three birthdays, and I still can't get that kid to eat his cake. That's okay though. There are worse things in life than a kid who won't eat cake.

 And it look's like he had a pretty good time, don't you think?

 It was a great day. We played, ate, watched General Conference, went on a walk...

Mckay had brats with the guys from church before the priesthood session of conference for the men, so we were on our own for dinner. I made another one of Dallin's favorite foods: pizza. I made us a little BBQ chicken pizza to share.

His is the side with less cheese on it. It may have been his birthday and we definitely spoiled him, but he still has to watch his calcium intake.

Relief Society Saturday

Our stake had a Relief Society Conference today. I went to the conference while Dallin stayed home to play with daddy. While I was gone, Dallin and Mckay were playing on the couch and Dallin got down from the couch onto the ground all by himself. He's done this before, but it's usually with a lot of guidance from us, or he does it accidentally and it really scares him, so he cries when he lands. This time he did it all by himself, he didn't fall and he was so happy and proud of himself.

(Notice the triscuit in the shoe at the bottom of the picture? That was all Dallin.)

The conference was from 3-5 pm. The annual Relief Society broadcast was also tonight at 8pm. (Being in the eastern time zone sucks for live broadcasts like this). So rather than drive 20 minutes back home from our church building after the conference only to go back a few hours later, I watched the broadcast at home on the internet. (We don't have cable, and they don't show it on the local channels here. Go figure. I guess that's a Utah thing. :))

Dallin was really interested in watching the broadcast too.

He really did just sit there and stare at the screen for a few minutes.

After a while though, he started playing with the computer...

...and laying on it.

Easter and more Birthday fun!

Much like Dallin's birthday a week ago, Easter is a concept that is too hard for a 1 year old to understand. However, Dallin did really enjoy his Easter. He enjoyed playing with this ball he got in his Easter basket.

Ok, so the only thing in this basket for Dallin was the ball because I know he won't eat any of the candy, but a basket with just a ball looks boring. So this is more of a mom and dad easter basket.

After enjoying the morning and afternoon watching conference and relaxing at home, we went to my Grandparents house for an Easter extravaganza.

There was an egg hunt for all the younger kids. Dalllin found the perfect spot to hunt eggs.

But he seemed a little more interested in the dirt and wood pieces on the stump than the eggs. Such a boy!

We enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner with the traditional fixings, and then it was time for birthday celebrations. It was my Grandma's birthday, but she graciously shared a little bit of the celebration with Dallin.

We tried once again to let him play with and eat his cupcake.

We got the same reaction as last time. He loved squishing the cupcake with his hands, but did not try to bring it anywhere near his mouth.

His daddy helped him to put some frosting on his face, but I really don't think he liked it.

He did enjoy eating the plate the cupcake came on though.

Last of all he opened some presents from his great aunt.

He got some cute summer clothes, little baby sandals, and a mosquito repellent wristband.

And of course, his favorite present was the one he could put in his mouth.

General Conference

Conference Weekend was really great. I kept trying to remember what we did for last general conference 6 months ago, and it's all kind of a blur. And then I remembered that Dallin was just a few days old and fresh from the hospital for last conference, and I was getting used to a little baby and trying to walk like a normal person. Needless to say, I couldn't keep my eyes open for too much of it. So I was really excited for this weekend of conference and listening to the words of our wonderful church leaders. And it was nice to have Mckay home the whole weekend without him leaving for work, homework, or church meetings. I think it was hard for Dallin to grasp sitting at home all day and watching the TV. He got very bored. And it was a cold and rainy weekend which made us want to stay inside even more. Once again, I was glad to have another person to keep Dallin happy.

We prepared for conference by getting lots of sleep the night before.

And Dallin looked for all the good weekend sales.

I was inspired by my sister-in-law Ashley to clean the house to create a more peaceful environment for watching conference. Unfortunately, the cleanliness didn't last into Sunday. There were some really great talks, and I enjoyed the hours of hearing what our church leaders want us to hear. I feel like there were a lot of talks about love and building relationships with others. President Monson is an inspired man, as are his apostles. I wanted to write down a few things that I heard in conference that are things I want to work on to make my life better.

Conference Goals

• Record spiritual experiences and promptings.
• Create an environment in my home where the spirit can be felt.
• Be more diligent and concerned at home.
• Express love to others and show it.
• Share testimony with others by speaking and through my actions.
• Be more consistent in scripture study, prayer, and Family Home Evening.
• Serve others more frequently and ask myself, "What have I done for someone today?"

Possibly one of my favorite quotes from conference was from Elder Uchtdorf.

"Try. And keep on trying until that which seems difficult becomes possible. And that which seems only possible becomes a habit."

Especially right now as I am struggling with getting Dallin to fall asleep by himself, eat solid foods, gain weight, and learning how to be a good mother and keeping up with everything I have to do, I know that I just need to keep trying. And if I keep trying it will get easier.

All in all, it was a great conference. I'm excited to get the conference edition of the Ensign and re-read the talks and study from them for the next 6 months.