general conference
my favorite quote this weekend comes from Hyrum...."conference is kind of a like a long movie that we have to watch Mommy"
General Conference out East is broadcast from 12-2 and then 4-6 so Saturday we enjoyed a picnic lunch while we watched the first session. We had promised Hyrum he could have Cheetoh's with his lunch since it was a special weekend. Boy, was he excited. I was excited we bought a cord to hook our computer up to our TV so we could actually watch conference on a bigger screen and we could turn the volume up high enough so we could hear. Best 18 dollar purchase ever perhaps!
We played a couple of games, thanks to the ideas in the
Ensign, with Hyrum to help him pay attention. We hung up pictures of the
First Presidency and 12 Apostles and every time one of them spoke and he could identify them he could place a sticker on their picture. He learned the names of the First Presidency in family home evening earlier in the week.
Then for Hyrum's favorite game. Every time he heard them say 'Jesus' or 'Christ' he was able to eat an M&M. I was rather impressed with how many he heard. He missed a lot too but it's a start. Saturday he watched the entire first session on the couch with us and watched about 3/4ths of the second session that day. Sunday we watched the morning session at a friend's house so he played mostly and he slept through most of the second one but I was really proud of him for paying attention so well. Hunter wasn't too loud and he enjoyed Hyrum getting him an M&M on occasion.
This was the year for starting traditions I guess. We decided on Saturday that in between the second general session and the Priesthood session we would make a tradition to go out to dinner and that the kids could decide what kind of food we would get. Hyrum decided readily on 'hangabers'. I have to say it was really special to see Hyrum get excited about conference, even though I know it had mostly to do with the food! That is the quickest way to Hyrum's heart.
I love conference. I love that we have a prophet on the Earth called from God. I love that for two weekends a year I can be uplifted and encouraged by our leaders. I love how peaceful, hopeful and energized I feel afterwards. And I have to say I love my parents for teaching me to love conference. I am grateful that they always took our family to each session no matter how small we were. I know it would have been much easier to not go but I'm so glad we did.
I love my parents---THANK YOU!!!
The last 3 or so months we have been trying hard to break Hyrum's bad habit of sucking his thumb. But nothing has really worked and I end up asking Hyrum about 50 times a day to please stop sucking his thumb and pull his thumb out of his mouth another 200 times a day. Then a few days ago Jeremy told him it wasn't good for his teeth (which we have told him multiple times already) and that if he kept sucking his thumb he would have beaver teeth that stick out. I tell you what, ever since that happened I have not seen Hyrum suck his thumb ONCE! 
