Conference Weekend

This weekend was Candy Conference Weekend. In order to get our kids to sit quietly and listen, we used this candy reward system. When they heard the designated word, they could get a piece of candy out of that jar.

Holy cow. It worked like a charm. They were SO well behaved for all the sessions of conference. However, after the first 2 talks, we changed the rules a bit. They had to keep a tally of how many of the words they heard, then after the talk, they got 5 pieces of candy. I wasn't expecting them to get SO much candy in each talk. We did realize that out of our selected words, Jesus Christ and Family were said the most. And because of our 5 pieces per talk limit, we have PLENTY of candy left over (now, what to do with it all?).

I love General Conference! I love having the opportunity to have two spiritually packed days. And not having to get dressed for church on Sunday is such a nice break from the routine. I felt like there were so many talks that pertained to me. And so many things said that encouraged me and gave me hope and motivation to do better. I actually wish every weekend (or at least once a month) we could have this experience.

During one of the songs that the choir sang the kids were watching the singers. Then Addie said "Grant was staring at that lady. He's falling in love with her." Landon asked how she knew he was falling in love with her and she said 'Because I saw hearts coming out of his mind'. We all died laughing! She didn't think it was all that funny. She was serious (which made us all laugh even harder)! I think she's seen too many cartoons!

Even though I was kind of grumpy yesterday evening and this evening (it's been a LONG week with the kids off school for Spring Break, I had a head cold for the first half of the week, Steven was home for MAYBE 6 waking hours this week, and Ella was pretty grumpy most of the week) I loved being home as a family. We took walks between sessions. Steven made french toast for breakfast today. Grant started drawing my favorite kind of pictures of people. Oh goodness! It made my mother heart SO happy when I saw this picture (and Addie labeled it for him). I seriously get kind of sad when my kids quit drawing people like a big head with arms and legs coming out of it!

It was a great weekend and we're sad to see it's over (but gad to put the candy away!! Next time, I think I'll do carrot sticks, popcorn, M&M's, apple chunks, and peanuts).