General Conference

I was excited for General Conference this year. The past few years I have almost always ended up turning it off and then just reading it or watching it online at night because it was so hard to get the girls to be reverent and quiet so I could really hear or I was doing activities with them and I couldn't pay as much attention as I wanted to.

This conference I really wanted both girls to be able to sit through all four sessions and to be able to pay attention and take notes myself. So, I started finding ideas for cool things to do to keep them busy and interested with minimal help from me. 

The first idea I got was from Jen Lund's blog. It is for a General Conference Board. 

Here is my finished board:

The pockets on the left had pictures of speakers in them. When they got up to speak the girls could put their picture at the podium and then have them sit in one of the red chairs. While they were speaking they could put topics from the right of the board into the speech bubble (as seen above).

That was a really fun activity and will be easy to update each year. 

I also set up a "tent" for the girls. We still have to watch on our computer but I set it up on the shelves in front of the tv so we could sit in our comfortable chairs and I could set this area up for them. As you can see they gathered some friends to watch with them!

I gathered crafts and treats into this basket and put pictures of each of the 12 apostles and the First Presidency on them.  When that person spoke we would get out that treat or activity. 

I was sewing some pants for my niece Courtney to match some I made for her sister a few years ago out of this temple fabric. I decided to make some for Abi and Maddy too and had just enough fabric. They are so soft and cute! They got to wear these during each session.

Ready to start...

Abi loved the tent!

The girls did so good. They really didn't get restless until the last hour or so of the Sunday afternoon session so I was really able to have a peaceful conference. It was great! These things are definitely a new family tradition!

Build a My Little Pony

A few weeks ago I found out that Build A Bear was doing a My Little Pony week and introducing two of the ponies that you could build. 

I knew the girls would freak out if we did it!

My mom takes all of the grand kids on dates and when I told her about it she asked if she could take Abi there for their date. I thought it was a great idea but took Maddy along as well because I knew she would want one too.
My mom kind of stuck with Abi and got hers for her while I took Maddy.
Maddy chose Rainbow Dash- her favorite pony!

Filling her up with fluff...

these ponies are huge!

Abi picked Pinkie Pie.

wishes...

They both got the pony outfits and were so excited and happy! These ponies have been at their sides almost constantly in the few weeks since we did this!

We let the girls play at the treehouse for a little while before taking them to lunch at Chick fi la.

My birthday

 I made some fun plans for the girls and I since it fell on the first day of Spring Break for Abi. But that all changed when Easter night Abi woke up around midnight throwing up.

 So, my birthday we spent at home making sure Abi wasn't really sick. I have no idea what it was all about but she never threw up again and was her normal self all day.

My sister surprised me by coming over that morning with my nieces McKenna and Courtney to bring me gifts. My sister gave me this awesome welcome mat and McKenna gave me that perfect wooden block! So, I did celebrate a little for my birthday!

I also had the book and card from my mom.

Tuesday Abi was still good and none of the rest of has had caught anything so we did a little late celebrating that day. 

We went to IHOP for breakfast.

I got a card from my Grandma and my Aunt Celia in the mail!

That night I made Cafe Rio Salads and got to open the rest of my presents: a few great things from Abi (that belonged to her but she wanted to give to me), some books (of course!), and the X-men movies.

I really enjoyed the day. 36!

Easter

Easter at last! We all came downstairs early to see that the Easter Bunny had indeed made a visit to our home!

Abi's basket...

Maddy's basket

Doug's basket...

My basket...

The girls had so much fun exploring their baskets.

We also did a family egg hunt. I hid the eggs around the front room for the girls to find.

The different thing about this Easter Egg hunt is that it was a testimony egg hunt. I asked family members for their testimonies to put into the eggs and then after we had gathered all the eggs we took turns reading them...

A big thanks to those who were able to get them to me! 

I also had clues to find these two puzzles in two of the eggs.

Then it was time to get ready for church!

Madeline looked so cute and was so excited! She loves being fancy and wearing dresses!

Abi also wanted a side braid.

All ready to go!