Preparing for General Conference

General Conference is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love being able to see and hear from the Prophet, Apostles and other church leaders.  Thanks to technology I can do that in the comfort of my own home.  

We've done different things to make General Conference memorable, fun, and quiet throughout the years.  Some things have worked better than others.  I find that what works for one family may not work for another.  Sugar Doodle has an extensive list of ideas to check out.  Chicken Scratch N Sniff has a collection of ideas that are hands on activities.

In thinking about General Conference I decide to share this quote from Elder Hales that he said last year with my kids.  I want them to know that Conference is for them as well as their parents and so while I'm all for doing little quiet activities I want them to know that listening to Conference is beneficial and can help them in their lives.

You can download this printable here.

Attitude

My oldest son had eye muscle surgery on both of his eyes a couple of weeks ago.  I was quite nervous about it, but things went really well and he is doing great now.  I also was combating a cold around the same time so I am trying to get myself back on top of life in general.  I realized I haven't posted on this blog for a while and I would like to post at least weekly. 

Here is a quote from Thomas S. Monson.  I made a printable you can download here.  It is hanging up next to our kindness quote. So often I find a quote that I think will be helpful to my kids and as I start pondering about it I realize that I need those words probably much more than my children.

Here is a picture of my little (but not so little anymore) trooper just before his eye surgery.

Kindness

Our two oldest boys started a new school year not too long ago.  The night before the first day of school we gathered together so that their dad could give them each a Father's Blessing.  It is a special opportunity and I am grateful for it.  My husband said that within seconds of placing his hands on my oldest son's head, he noticed that my son's head increased in temperature.  It made me curious thinking about maybe when he feels the spirit he will always have his body temperature rise.  The Holy Ghost works in different ways for different people so maybe. 

Soon after school begin I noticed how awful everyone was treating each other after school.  I decided that we needed to remember to show kindness to everyone especially our family members so I found this quote, made a printable on photoshop elements, and hung it up. We talked about it as a family and have been working on being kinder to each other.  

Some days we do really well and others not so well, but I think having this quote hanging up for the kids to look at helps.  I know it at least helps me to remember to be kinder to my children.  No matter how tired, stressed, sick, or sad we feel we should always try to be kind.  It is definitely something I need to remember.

LDS Temple Open House

We've been really excited to go to the Ogden Temple Open House this month.  This was the fourth open house I have been able to attend and third as a family.  Although, when we went to Rexburg's my youngest was not born yet, and the older two were real young.  We went to Brigham City's a couple of years ago, but I not sure how much my children remember of it so I tried to do some things before we went to the temple to help them prepare.  I didn't go all out this time because August has been a crazy month, but we did watch many videos and did a few other things that I'll share. 

 Brightly Street has a 12 day countdown to a temple open house.  Wow.  It's pretty awesome and if you have the time to spend a few minutes each day to talk about the different things it's worth checking out.  We watched the video she includes a link to called Mormon Temples:  A Conversation with a Church Leader.  The video is a little over 15 minutes long, but it goes through the different rooms in the temple that you'll see at a temple open house and explains it's purpose.  My six year old in the middle of it said, "This is actually interesting."  I guess he was a little surprised...but I'm glad he enjoyed it.

Other videos we watch were Mormon Temples:  Made Simple, Why Mormons Build Temples, and Blessings of the Temple.  We also watched this little video tour that specifically shows the Ogden Temple.  We also looked at the pictures of the temple that they had made available online.  It was nice as we went through the temple to have the boys recognize things they'd seen in pictures and such.

You can search for temple theme topics on LDS.org and find things about temples that interests you for your purposes.  Sugardoodle.net also has a great list of different types of things to go along with temples.  

 I printed off some activities from the LDS Primary Temple Countdown.  We also sang "I Love to See the Temple".  In fact my four year old asked as we were getting out of the car if we were going to sing that as we walked into the temple.  I suggested that we sing it in our minds so that we didn't bother other people.  Later, he asked me if I had sang it in my head because he had.  :)

We own My First Book of Temples and we read that as well. I think helping them start to understand what the purpose of the various rooms helped as we looked at the different rooms.  I didn't expect them to understand exactly what happened in each room specifically, but they had a general idea.  Some rooms were easier for them to understand like the baptismal font and the sealing rooms where couples get married.

 We were able to walk around a little outside and enjoy the exterior of the temple and get a few pictures.  I asked each of my children what their favorite part of the temple was.  My oldest said the Celestial Room, my middle son said all of them at first, but then also decided on the Celestial Room, my youngest enjoyed seeing the Baptismal Font.

I recommend going to the Ogden Temple House if it is at all plausible for you and your family.  We had a wonderful time as a family.  There was plenty of parking near the temple and although it was busy it didn't feel overcrowded.  I found it to be a great opportunity for my family to feel the Spirit, enjoy the beauty of the Lord's house and spend some time together.

11 Love/Marriage Quotes

In celebration of my husband and I's wedding anniversary I thought I would share some pictures of us with marriage/love quotes attached to them.  My sister took some family pictures of us when we were together last and we got some couple pictures too.  You can check out her facebook page at Durfee Photography or visit her website.

Enjoy the Moment

My oldest son is constantly asking "Then what?"  or "What's next?"  He wants a play by play of every minute of every day.  He often gets so consumed with what is coming that he doesn't enjoy what we are doing right then.  I find that I am often guilty of this.  I am not asking, "What's next?", but I do find myself thinking, "I wish..."  Or "I can't wait until..."

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave this talk  in October of 2012 at General Conference.  He talked about riding bikes with his wife and how he would focus on who was going to "win".  His wife would say, "It's not a race.  It's a journey.  Enjoy the moment."  He goes on to say, "There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it."  I feel like these wise words are some I need to take to heart and life my life in a way where I can recognize and appreciate all I have been blessed with and the joy that I can experience in the small things that happen each day.

Sometimes I get quite wrapped up in breaking up fights between my sons, or letting other things bog me down.  I think I need to strive better to enjoy each moment I am in and remember that my children will grow and be gone before I know it.  I often tell my son to just enjoy what he is doing right now which is why I put this quote next to a picture of him.  I hope to strive to follow these words and my own advice.

Scripture Heroes: Job

Today was our final scripture hero day of the summer.  We talked about Job and overcoming trials.  You can download his scripture hero chart here.

We watched several videos.  The first one we watched was the LDS Scripture video about Job.  This is a short video clip of Elder Hales talking about faith during trials.  Here is a video of President Uchtdorf about having gratitude in any circumstance.  The last video is a Mormon Channel video called Mountains to Climb.

The Golden Seven has a FHE Lesson about trials and I really liked her object lesson so I used that.  You take a piece of paper and try to make it fly.  Point out how it really didn't fly well at all.  Then fold the paper into an airplane.  As the creases are made tell them that those represent trials in our life and if we endure with faith those trials will make us stronger just like the creases in the paper make it able to fly.  After that they folded their own airplanes and practiced flying them.

Scripture Heroes: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego

Today we talked about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and bravery.  You can download this Scripture Hero Chart here.

 My boys have had a hard time with their names so they have referred to them as "the three cool guys".    We watched the LDS Scripture video 42.  The Golden Seven has an FHE lesson about them and a couple of videos that my kids enjoyed.

We used A Year of FHE's lesson and printable that the boys colored, cut out, and pasted to the fiery furnance.  Somedays trying to get a decent picture of the three of them together just doesn't happen...

Scripture Heroes: Daniel in the Lion's Den

Today we talked about Daniel in the Lion's Den and prayer!  I have always enjoyed hearing this story from the time I was little.  You can download this Scripture Hero Chart here.

 I just focused on the story of Daniel in the lion's den which is LDS Scripture video 43.  The church also has a short video about Daniel.

We made lion paper bag puppets!  This is a cute idea that I didn't do, but would be fun especially for little ones with the lion puppets as you tell the story.

 My kids love getting "The Friend" magazine and will pour over it for a week or two.  In August's Friend they have an idea to do a Scripture Figure Puppet Show and my boys instantly wanted to try it out so we used Daniel's story.  The flannel board figures had been given to me by my mother so I don't have a source for them.

 They had a great time.  In the end I read the story and they put the stick puppets up where they belonged in the story.

We only have two more scripture heroes to do this summer.  I will still be posting regularly on here about various things.

Scripture Heroes: Esther

Today we talked about Queen Esther and fasting.  I know that Esther is often linked with courage or bravery and rightly so, but I was trying to come up with different powers for our scripture heroes.  Since Esther spent three days fasting and encouraged her people to fast as well I thought it was a good time to talk about it.  You can download her Scripture Hero Chart here.

We watched the LDS Scripture Story video of Esther. The church also has a video about Esther that's nearly 14 minutes long.  We also watched Veggie Tales:  Esther, the Girl Who Becomes Queen.

Chocolate on My Cranium has printable flannel board figures to tell the story of Esther.

A Year of FHE has a lesson about Queen Esther.

We also did a role play about fasting to help the children understand the concept a little better.  You can find it in this FHE Fasting Lesson.

Scripture Heroes: King Solomon

Today we talked about King Solomon and how he used his wisdom.  You can download this Scripture Hero Chart here.

 We watched LDS Scripture Videos 30 and 31 about King Solomon and the temple.  Then we reviewed what we learned in the videos.

Here is a coloring page.

The highlight of the day was making and decorating crowns so they could be kings.

Scripture Heroes: Story of David and Goliath

Today we talked about David and Goliath and how David had courage.  You can find his Scripture Hero Chart to download here.

 We watched the LDS Scripture video about David and Goliath (28).  We also watched Veggie Tales: Dave and the Giant Pickle which is a fun little version of the story and promotes self esteem.

We then measured about how tall Goliath was (nine feet) with yarn and hung it up so that we could compare how tall we were to Goliath's height.  I am around the same height David probably was so that gave them an idea of how much bigger Goliath was.

 A Year of FHE has a fun coloring page and great lesson.  We also talked about "Goliath's" that come into our lives (peer pressure, bad language, etc.) and how we combat those things (prayer, Holy Ghost, going to church, etc.)  This lesson has some great ideas.

 The boys had a great time acting out the story.  We used marshmallows instead of slings and rocks.

We had a pretty fun day talking about David and Goliath.

Scripture Heroes: Ruth & Naomi

Today we talked about Ruth and Naomi and loyalty.  You can download this Scripture Hero Chart here.

 We watch the LDS Scripture Video about Ruth and Naomi.  We also watched this video and song that my kids seemed to enjoy a lot more.  It is narrated by a child and is a fun video.

Here is a link to this dot-to-dot and coloring page.

 We played a game where I told of scenarios and they had to hold up a card that described if the person was being loyal or disloyal.

 We traced their a foot of each boy and then they wrote down traits to try and have to be a good example to other people.  This idea came from Primary 6 Lesson 26.

Chicken Scratch N Sniff is an awesome resource for the Old Testament and Primary Manual 6.

Scripture Heroes: Moses

I felt like we tried to squish too much story about Joseph into one day so I spread things out a little bit when talking about Moses.  You can download Moses' Scripture Hero Chart here.

Over the course of a few days we watched the LDS Scripture videos for the Old Testament 15-22.  Here is a fun coloring page that is of Baby Moses and Moses with the Ten Commandments.

 A Year of FHE has a lesson about the Moses that is helpful.  We also talked about President Uchtdorf's talking about Judging Others and how we need to stop doing things that bring others down.  We made stop signs to remind ourselves of that.  Check out the idea here.

 We got more familiar with the Ten Commandments.  I don't have links for either of these pictures because they were resources given to me by my mother.  Chicken Scratch 'N Sniff has a great list of resources.

My kids have gotten whiney about doing our Scripture Hero stuff and so I am cutting back on the number of activities we do in hopes that they are still interested in the story and become familiar with it without growing tired of it.