Welcome :-)

We've gotten a few more authors (yeah!) and I wanted to remind everyone that you are free to contribute to the posted topic ANYTIME during the week, since different people have "easier to blog" days (mine usually on Ed's days off). Hopefully we can hear from everyone at least once a month. 

For the first while, I'll be posting the topic Sunday. If you have a particular topic you want to put out, email me and I'll be sure to use it as soon as I can or give you a designated week to post your topic. This will prevent multiple people posting on their own on Sunday, and creating too many topics at once. 

My husband suggested also having a "no topic" week once in a while to allow moms to just share whatever is on their minds. What do you think?

Special Thanks to Angela T. for our awesome header, Caitlin W. for making our background MUCH nicer, and all the moms that have written bios :-)

Wow! I created this blog not even 15 hours ago and I already have 10 authors! I'll continue to check back throughout the week to make sure any new comers are given full author privileges, but I plan on making this a weekly thing once things are rolling, which thanks to all of you, will probably be very soon :-).

Just a couple of notes:

 - Even though we can touch other people's posts, we can assume that if something needed to be changed, that that particular author would do so ;-)

 - I thought of this after the 4 posts today (so if you are one of them, take special note and maybe add this to today's posts?) that it would be easier to organize if we labeled them according to what the topic is (which I know Angela and Amy do so well on their own personal blogs). So maybe see what label the first person chose, and stick with that?


 - and by way of Megan's suggestion, if you feel comfortable doing so, I have added a tab for you to add a profile of yourself. Give us a paragraph describing you, your families, your life, gospel background... anything that would help us know you better as some of us don't know each other as well.

Unless something else comes to my attention, have a great week, keep inviting friends, add a little profile if so willing, and most importantly, take care of your families! :-)

Thanks!
Paula :-)

Let him be distracted

Our little two year old got really excited when Conference first started, especially with the wonderful music! But he hit his "limit" about 10 seconds into the opening prayer, which I expected. We were able to listen to a lot more of Conference than we otherwise would have with Little Guy watching his Sesame Street ABC video 3 times. Does this make me a bad mom? Lucky thing the afternoon sessions were during his nap!

General Conference: from a new perspective

I'm Amy Sprinkle. I only have one little girl right now who I affectionatly call Bromus so I don't have to put her name on my blog. This keeping a child entertained and interested in General Conference is new to me, but this is what I have to offer.

This is only the second General Conference have watched with a child, the first where she was really mobile and needed more attention. It is also the first where I had neither a T.V. or fast enough internet service to watch it at home. I decided to do the next best thing: go to Grandma's!

I decided I would get more out of the experience if Bromus was in a place where she could be comfortable, run around, and I could still listen to what's going on. I'm really glad I decided to do this because she ended up napping through lot of the sessions. I could put her down and let her sleep, something I couldn't do if I was in a church building. At the beginning of one session she sat on my lap for a little bit and I talked to her about what was going on. I think for an alomst 1 year old, that's one of the best things to do.

I have found, like Angela, that if I have questions I write down before Conference I get way more out of it. It's amazing. It helps me focus and learn what I need to do. This time as I watched more questions have come and les me to further study, it's great!

General Conference: Gettin' the Most Outta' It

Brief Introduction:
Howdy, I’m Angela. And, unlike Paula, I married a dry Thomson, (as my husband teases we don’t have pee in our surname). And yes, my husband’s third grade humor is what made me swoon. I have one son and one on the way due early January.
That’s about as brief as I can make this thing. For more about me check out my blog. That’s what it’s there for, right?


For me, it's all about prep. If I want me, my spouse and my toddler to get the most out of Conference, we need to take time to prepare.

Before Conference…

• Our family has a semiannual Family Home Evening: Conference Edition as I like to call it. We teach what we can from this lesson before Caleb’s attention span calls it quits, then make a list of family concerns or questions that we will pray about up until Conference.
• I find that General Conference weekend goes a lot smoother when I have a planned menu in my artillery. Especially if the snacks and menu items can be prepared ahead of time or with little fuss. I live on the east coast so our morning sessions don’t start until noon, so lunch ends up being our snack along with grapes and pretzels. And the afternoon Saturday session ends at 6:00, so having something in the crock pot acquits me cooking during the session and also of worrying what I'm going to feed hubby before Priesthood at 8:00.
  

The Day of Conference…

• Set out quiet entertaining toys. For my son that’s blocks, playdough, puzzles, books, and more blocks. Put away noisy toys. Goodbye play piano and tool set.
• Potty break before a session starts and during songs. (We are potty-training right now)
• Whenever President Monson speaks I pause (oh the marvels of modern technology) and ask Caleb to sit on the couch or in our laps and explain to him that our prophet is going to speak to us, we tell Caleb his name, and as he addresses the congregation explain to Caleb in my own words what President Monson is saying.
• Caleb loves MoTab. We make it game to stand up when the choir rises and to lead along with Mack Wilberg.
• If you only have one or two small children and a cooperative spouse assign session shifts. He can tend to your children’s needs during the morning session while you take junior for the afternoon.
• In-between sessions GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. Caleb is more willing to play quietly after playing outside or going on a walk.

General Conference: This time around

Our girls still don't understand why we sit and listen to people on the TV instead of going to church, so we're still learning in this area. A couple things we did:
* Each time someone new came to the pulpit, we told our 3 year old their name and she'd repeat it. If it was someone she already knew, we'd ask her who it was. We'd remind her that they were teaching us about things Jesus wants us to do.
* Made a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. (30 minutes of quieter time)
* I painted the 3 year olds fingernails and toenails, teaching her to be still, while we listened on Saturday (30 minutes of quieter time)
* Let the girls twirl to the pretty hymns. Encouraged them to sing with us, and "I am a Child of God" was a sucess :-)
* Tried the whole coloring thing... but since they do that all the time, didn't work in maintaining quiet.

Getting Started

I'm excited that several people are already on board! This should be fun! Please spread the word to any friends you think may be interested as well. The more ideas, the better :-) You'll be free to add anyone once you've been added as administrator. And this is just in the starting stages of design too, so if anyone of you feel so inclined to make it look nicer (those of you who are pretty good at that stuff *cough* Angela *cough*), by all means, go ahead.

I think we will try to do one topic a week for input. You can either do a new post with a related title or comment on others' posts (which should show up just below).

This week:

What ways were you able to get the most of conference with the little ones?