Conference weekend bliss

(Yep. I totally copied Jill's post title. It's just too perfect.)

After two times in a row of not being able to watch Conference, I was so very excited for last weekend. Not only were we able to watch every session as a family, but we didn't have to go anywhere! No other plans. Just Conference weekend bliss.


On Friday night, I made the raspberry rolls from the recipe that Jill posted. I took some to visiting teachees, and kept the rest for us. They were good, but a tad underbaked. I found the hot pink filling (caused by my homemade raspberry jam) to be quite humorous.

Eva helped me assemble the conference baskets on Saturday morning. For some reason, the kids are excited about using their Easter baskets. Who am I to question? I'll do whatever it takes to make Conference weekend something to look forward to. My goal is that one day they'll be as excited about it as I am.

The kids all worked on their Conference packets, taking notes and drawing pictures.

Emily and I took notes.

(and knitted)

Marc is not a note-taker, just a listener. I just love it when we're all together, laughing at the jokes, commenting on the hymn arrangements, asking the others if we've missed something, and expressing surprise over things we hadn't known, or agreeing on really good statements.

Jill, Lori, and Whitney came over to join us for donut night. (We have a family tradition of making donuts while the men are at the priesthood session.) The dough wasn't rising as fast as I expected, but they didn't seem to mind just hanging out and chatting.

Lucas and Whitney talked and played video games.

Eva helped me roll and cut out the donuts.

I was the fryer and Emily was the glazer. We tried a chocolate glaze for the first time, but Marc shocked me by shunning the chocolate, even going so far as to call it an abomination! I thought it was pretty good, but had to agree that the plain glazed was the clear winner.

Marc and Max told us some of the highlights (they both really loved President Uchtdorf's talk). Marc was typing in a favorite quote as his Facebook status as soon as he got home.

It's good to have extra people around to help eat the donuts.

This little aberration was a donut hole that stuck to the cookie sheet. I fried it anyway, just for fun, and decided that it looks like Ming Ming from The Wonder Pets. Emily thought it looked like a penguin. What do you see?

We played Bananagrams after Eva went to bed. Good times.

Sunday was more of the same, with donuts for breakfast and relaxing in our jammies.

Lucas and Eva got out the Legos on Sunday and did a pretty good job of playing quietly and whispering. I noticed that Lucas was still reacting to the talks, so he was still listening, at least somewhat.

There was one part of the weekend that was not blissful. During the Sunday morning session, I suddenly realized that I had promised to make a birthday cake for one of the young women in our ward. Her birthday was on Friday! I was mortified, and I just felt horrible. I don't know how I managed to forget, as it never entered my mind even once.

As soon as Conference was over, I called her to apologize and offered to make the cake immediately. So, stomach churning, I spent the in-between hours baking and caking a birthday cake. I finished frosting it just as the afternoon session was starting, so I decided to hold off on delivery.

We ate popcorn and m&ms for lunch!

When Conference ended, I went on my walk of shame to take the cake over. Boy did I ever feel humble! I still can't believe I forgot. I asked their forgiveness and hope we can still be friends.

On Sunday night I made this delectable dinner. Try it!

I'll have to post my notes when I have more time to type them in. Did you have a blissful weekend as well?