general conference recap

Wasn't conference fabulous??  I went in with a few questions and a few thoughts that I was hoping for a little bit of enlightening on and, as always, I was not let down.  Within the first session, there was a talk that was just for me, packaged with a pretty bow and sent with love from our Heavenly Father that was a direct answer to one of my questions.

By the last session (hour 7 of sit down church for a certain 4 and 7 year old...) I had to retreat to the hallways to keep Lilly under wraps.  It seems like Sunday afternoon is always hardest for the littles, but Lilly and I had a little conference recap of our own.  She kept asking about different apostles that we had listened to.  And just in case I felt like the kids were a little wiggly and squirmy and maybe got minimal spiritual nourishment from the weekend, Elise made it all worth it.  Someone from primary came to "interview" her and wish her a happy birthday after conference.  One question was asking what she does that helps her testimony grow, to which Elise answered "General Conference".   When the primary president said something along the lines of her kids playing while they watched conference at home, my sweet seven year old said "We watch it at the stake center. It is so peaceful there."  (On a side note, I told Elise that her reverence at conference was associated to how soon she would get to watch conference in Salt Lake...and she was downright amazing.  Autumn said that she asked some pretty thoughtful  questions about the talks, too.)

family history friday (numero seis)

I know this is not Family History related, but let me do a birthday recap before I get into my f.h. post.  Today, my sweet little Elise has a birthday.  For it, we went clamming in the freezing rain and wind.  Why, you ask, did we go clamming in the freezing rain?  Well, it all started at two this morning.  Sweet Elise came into our room and woke up Chris, saying "Dad, are you ready to go clamming?"  She had wanted clams and crabs for her birthday dinner and had it in her head that Chris would be facilitating that.  What else could we do?  SO Rachel and I rushed to get our clamming licenses, amid sweet comments like "I feel so special that we are going clamming for my birthday" and we gave it our darned best for about 40 minutes.  We left with one tiny little clam.  And then we enjoyed a trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, which made it all worth it.   Instead of clams and crab, Chris took her out for sushi. (although this sounds like a good deal for him, it was quite a sacrifice since she was dead set on going to a sushi track restaurant!)  Elise was such a sweet birthday girl.  She was thanking everyone all day long for everything that they did.  She kept saying that this was her best birthday ever and that was even with her lovely clamming trip AND her dream jello birthday cake turned out to be a slushy disaster.  After opening her presents, she went around giving each person a crazy sincere hug and thank you for their gift.  To top off such a sweet day, Elise asked if she could say the prayer since she is the birthday girl.  And it was the purest prayer ever.

Now, to my family history posting.  This weekend is General Conference!  This is a biannual conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is a time for our prophet and other leaders to speak to us, inspire us, teach us and guide us.  I *love* conference.  I look forward to the answers that I will receive to my prayers, the insight that I gain from the 2 days of inspired speakers and the lovely way that the spirit works to guide my life in the right direction as I listen to conference.  I owe this love, 100% percent, to my parents and I hope to pass this love on to my girls. As far back as I can remember, my parents would haul all six of us kids to the nearest church building to watch all 4 sessions of conference.  I have fond memories of our little picnics at a nearby business park, I remember Thomas S. Monson (who is now our prophet) being my favorite speaker, but most importantly, I remember General Conference always being made a priority in our home.  Thank you, mom and dad, for passing down this legacy.

lillyisms of the day

after asking Lilly to do something, she matter of factly stated "Actually, I would prefer not to."
And to her, that was the final word on the issue.

And the next lillyism comes with a little bit of a disclaimer.  My bad word of choice is crap.  I say it a lot.  Up to now, I have had the luxury of saying it at will while not having to hear my children say it.  Today, for some reason, Lilly made it her word of the day of sorts.  She was saying it all stinking day long!  So we decided to implement a time out for saying crap.  A minute later she says crab, but in a crap sort of way.  And then it was "cra...." when she dropped her pen. (and not the "cra" that was her catching herself, but it was said in a way where she was just trying to circumvent my new rule)
 "But I didn't say crap, mom."  Ugh.


Finally, back to the beginning of the day.  While the older girls were in piano, I decided to take Lilly and Elise to photography a nearby cemetery for Billion Graves.  Two rows into the cemetery, Lilly tells me she needs to go to the bathroom.  This is a pioneer cemetery with no bathroom facilities in it or near it.  I asked her to sit in the car to buy a little time while I finished the row.  (my memory doesn't allow me to stop mid row)  I return to the car and tell the girls to buckle up so we can go find a bathroom.  Lilly told me that she didn't need to go to the bathroom anymore.  I say a silent "yeah!" and bribe them with breakfast burritos to do a few more rows with me.  About thirty minutes later, I notice a suspicious wet mark on Lilly's rear.  When I asked her if she peed in her pants, she matter of factly denied all charges.  When I asked her again, she said that Elise had suggested that she pee in the grass behind the car while they were waiting for me.  Girls, we are not boys.  Peeing in the grass is not something we approach in such a willy nilly fashion.  It requires strategic squatting that shouldn't be attempted without me.  We had a nice talk about when we can and can't pee in the grass.  Cemeteries?  Nope.  And then we drove 15 minutes home and 15 minutes back to piano so we could get Lilly all cleaned up.  Guess what we talked about during the drive?  Yep.  When to pee on the grass and when not to.  I like to drive home a good point.