Our General Conference Weekend

I was really excited for Conference this time. The most excited I've been since having children I'm sure. I knew I still wouldn't be able to sit and listen to the whole thing undistracted, but this time I was determined to teach Brayden about it and share my love for the prophet and apostles. As I got excited to teach him I got really excited to hear the prophet myself!! After the first session (maybe two) I was kinda bummed because Brayden didn't seem as into it as I had pictured and we didn't get to watch any part of conference without at least one child. Nap times just didn't work out like they should've. But, Preston reminded me that my effort was good and not to be discouraged. So come day 2 of conference I was ready for another shot!

Previously in our home, we had an FHE about when King Benjamin spoke to the Nephites and they gathered their families together in tents to hear him. So, we built our own little fort/tent in our Study to watch conference in. Brayden's reaction to the fort: "Woooow." Starting Monday I had been showing him pictures of all the apostles and first Presidency to help him learn their names and he could sing their names to the same tune as the Books in the Book of Mormon are sung to. I didn't do a good job in preparing him for my treat idea, but we did have jelly beans that were out of reach, but available if Brayden listened and heard the speakers talk about Jesus Christ. So, back to conference....

Come Sunday sessions, Brayden was pretty ready for a nap when it was going to start at noon but we let him stay up for a little because he was so excited that we were all going to go watch more "prophet show" as he called it. Presiden Eyring conducted the first session and when Brayden saw him he pointed and yelled "EYRING! There he is!" You can only imagine how happy my heart was to hear that! Precious. We put Brayden to bed after the first speaker I think, but he was up for the next session.  When the session started, Brayden asked "more Eyring?" Then the songs started and we saw Preston's dad in the choir and told Brayden "there's Grandpa!" He must not have actually seen his grandpa, because every time the camera would show a male shot of the choir and there was a grey haired, glasses wearing man Brayden would shout - "Bapa! There he is!" haha. In fact, one of the speakers from the 70 who spoke Brayden called grandpa too. Haha. What I really loved was how enthusiastic he was about finding the apostles all throughout the session and even when I didn't think he was listening at all, he'd suddenly say "Jesus Christ. Jellybean!" And the speakers really had said Jesus every time! So, even when he was playing on my phone or fishing through Zander's toys, he could be listening too.  Both days of conference he really enjoyed putting a sticker on the picture of the speaker when it was one of the apostles or first Presidency (because those are the pictures we had for him). And he got very excited when he could recognize someone.

I'm just so filled with joy at how enthusiastic Brayden was with Conference in the end! And I'm also filled with urgency to alter a few habits of mine and create some new ones. Conference leaves me with a mix of determination, joy, peace and also a nice to do list. But, I love it!

Hope you got to watch and if not, go check it out!!