Study Stickers

Okay, I promise this is my last post about General Conference for a while! All of these things have been on my mind for a while, and I just want to get them checked off my to-do list...

As I searched through my Conference Journal a couple of weeks ago in preparation for my talk, I started thinking how fun it would be to make stickers for my side margins instead of just writing my impressions. I didn't think I would have time to make some up before this session, but I was too excited to let them slide. :)

(Aren't they cute?) I made these stickers specifically to go in my Conference Journal, but they are open-ended enough, you could probably use them for any study journal of sorts. I printed this .pdf on a full sized clear sheet of sticker paper, then cut out the individual stickers.



Here is an alternate link to download the file: Conference Journal Stickers

After I finished those up, I started thinking about what I want to get out of Conference this session... and my church calling (a volunteer "job" in the church for right now) kept coming to mind. I currently serve with the Young Women, and I want to be a better example to the girls (ages 12-17) I serve with. One of the ways I want to do that, is to recognize the young women values in my scriptures and in my life more often, as well as topics in the Come Follow Me lessons.

 

To help, I made up some more stickers... I went through the list of scriptures in the personal progress book, and marked each one with the color pencil in the coordinating value color and added the little value sticker in the margin. I love them! I also included a little silhouette of Christ with "Come Follow Me" on it to add next to an amazing scripture shared during one of the lessons. I think I am going to make some for my girls. Hopefully you can get some use out of them, too!


Here is an alternate link to download the file: Young Women Value Stickers

For more ideas on preparing for General Conference, click HERE.

Guess Who: General Conference Edition

**UPDATED 4/2/2019**

As part of my plan to help my children become familiar with the General Authorities and Auxiliary leaders, I created a version of Guess Who with their pictures.

I added the General Primary and General Young Women's Presidencies, mostly because I know that it is important to girls to have some girl options. But also because my children are or will be in their respective organizations (also including the General Young Men).

Harvey loves playing this game.. and without fail, always chooses to be the prophet. I love that he knows the Prophet, but maybe he will understand someday that this gives his opponent an advantage. ;) We ask questions about their hair, their ties, their glasses, or if they are smiling with their teeth or not. Then when we get down to a few, we start saying their names: "Is your person David A. Bednar?" I love hearing my kids say their names.

I have the new version of Guess Who which is very different from the one I remember growing up with, so I made my printable for that.

Anyway... hopefully this helps your family get to know our church leaders in the coming weeks until General Conference!

Here is an alternate link for downloading the file: Guess Who-General Conference Edition-New

For more ideas on preparing for General Conference, click HERE.

Christmas Advents (and a free printable!)

Before I start up with all of our mini devotionals.. I wanted to show you all of our Christmas Advents. (I love advents: Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween...)

Here are two of our advents.. the Santa one I downloaded from this site (you have to sign up, but it's free). I liked that I could save printer ink by letting Harvey color it, but as you can see.. coloring is not really his favorite thing. That took about 15 seconds and he was done. In case you can't read the poem...

Santa's beard is very bare,
On his chin, there is no hair.
So each day add a puff of white,
When they are all on, he'll come that night.

The tree advent is actually 2 different advents combined. First I found this adorable tree advent (again, you have to sign up, but it's free), but then when I saw this candle one (print pages 24-26), I decided I liked how it incorporated Jesus, so I printed off the candles to use instead.

Anyway, you look up the scripture written on each day, then figure out what name of Christ it mentions, then add that candle to the calendar. Harvey loves them both.

I made our last advent two years ago, and I love it because it's so versatile. You can put whatever you want inside the muffin cups. In the past, I've added a piece or two of candy, and a little slip of paper with a fun activity or craft written on it. This year I only put activities in a few. I also added a cotton ball for the Santa beard advent.

I know you only see 12 spots, and that is because I just replace the opened spots with higher numbers as we go. You could certainly fill 2 muffin tins from the beginning, or you could buy a tin that has 24 spots. I just like the size of ours. Oh, and I printed the circles, laminated them, and stuck them over the holes with putty. You could also print them on magnetic paper, or add magnets to the back once you've laminated them.

Do you want to make one? Wendy (the designer of these cute scrapbook elements) said that since the products I used are now discontinued, I could share my creation with you. Merry Christmas!



Here is an alternate link to download the file: Muffin Tin Christmas Advent

I need some new ideas for activities to put inside mine... what are your favorite traditions to do at Christmastime?

Our General Conference Center

I know, no one is thinking about General Conference right now. But tonight I'm showing my board to my mom's Relief Society group, and I wanted to have the printables available to them if they decided to complete this project. If any of you are interested... you have three and a half months to complete it. :)

Two days before General Conference, I stumbled across this idea for engaging young children.... and I thought it was absolutely amazing. (And so are most of the ideas found on Jen Lund's blog - check it out!)

 
One of the main reasons I love this idea, is that it doesn't just distract young children from being disruptive during Conference, but it engages them and encourages them to listen! I'm not gonna lie. It took time to put together, but I am positive that Harvey will enjoy working with this board. That will hopefully translate into Justin and I being able to listen, and that will make all of my hard work worth it in the end.

Here's how it works...
Everything uses Velcro to move and switch around speakers and pictures depending on what is happening during Conference. (I found clear Velcro dots in the craft isle at Walmart, and if you look really closely at the photos you can see the little Velcro circles.) The clock has moveable hands and the little temple identifies the session of Conference.

 
All of the speakers (there are pictures for all the auxiliaries, and 6 general "man" pictures to represent anyone from the Quorum of the Seventies) start out in the pockets on the left side. At the beginning of a talk, Harvey can find their picture in the folders, then move him or her to the podium. After they are finished speaking, he can move them to their red chair. The first presidency sits in the top three chairs, the Quorum of the 12 sits in the next two rows, and the others just sit in the bottom two rows according to the order in which they spoke.

While the speaker is at the podium, Harvey can add topics cards to the speech bubble. This is what it would look like if Elder Holland was speaking about choosing the right, the holy ghost, and obedience...

The topics cards are on the right side of the board when they are not in use...

During a song, Harvey can move the arrows depending on who is singing and he can move pictures of the conductor and the organist(s).

UPDATE (3/20/2014):
I've been wanting to add a few things to our board, and I finally made the time to sit down and get it done. I'm so excited for my kids to use the updated board in a couple of weeks!

Here is the whole board, so you can see where I added new items:

I wanted to change the music section a little, because I noticed that Harvey didn't really do anything with it unless I prompted him. I figured it was probably because he couldn't read the words, so now that section is non-reader friendly. I split the two arrows up - one for the choir, and one for who is singing (men, women, or both). I also added little pictures of an organ and a music stand for the conductor. I also included both a male and a female guest conductor, and a guest organist.

I also added a map. Jen Lund had a map on her original board, and I went back and forth on including it due to space, but I finally decided to make it work. I added an airplane, like she has, to move around any time a country is mentioned. I also added 5 of our favorite temples, so my children can place them on the map wherever new temples are announced.

I also liked her idea of placing her family members in attendance on their couch watching Conference, but I couldn't figure out where to add that feature due to space. Now I have added a picture of our family on the couch to move from session to session instead of the temple. (This isn't included in the download... for obvious reasons, but the temple is still there.)

I also wanted to add a little more diversity to our anonymous Quorum of the 70s guys, since there are men called from all over the world, after all. I added a couple more skin colors.

Lastly, I added a spot for my kids to write in a couple of the statistics given during General Conference; total members of the church, full-time missionaries, and total operating temples in the world. (Don't trust those numbers, I just guessed for the picture.) The dry erase marker will wipe off the contact paper with a tissue.

(end edit)

Isn't this idea amazing?! Jen Lund offered to e-mail all of her files upon request, but she was in the hospital having a sweet baby boy during Conference weekend. I got so antsy/excited about this idea that I compiled my own files... and then she e-mailed me back. She said she didn't mind if I shared my files, so here you go! (I found most of the files on lds.org.)

Here are all of the printouts for the board. You'll have to print a couple of the pages more than once, but it's noted in the file. You can preview, print or share from this, but you can't download. See my explanation below. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD and save this file to your computer.



Here are the topics cards. Print this out twice: adhere one copy to the board, then cut the second copy up for the individual cards. Feel free to use all of my pictures, but if you'd like to personalize your family, father, and mother cards, just cut the label off the bottom and glue it on your own photo. Then laminate. You can preview, print or share from this, but you can't download. See my explanation below. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD and save this file to your computer.



 After I cut out all of the pictures and text, arranged them how I wanted them on the board, and attached them with a glue stick, I covered the board with contact paper. Then I added all of the Velcro circles to everything. I found clear dots at Wal-mart by the scrapbooking supplies for about 4 dollars a pack. (I needed 2 packets, plus a few extra dots to complete the board. (EDIT: with the updates, it's close to 3 packets.)

For the colored pockets, I glued on the labels, laminated them closed, and then used an exact-o knife to slice along the opening (just enough to cut through the laminate to "open" the pocket). I didn't even bother to glue them together first. After laminating, I didn't cut them out separately. It was easier to attach the two pages with pop dots to the board. If you have any questions about how to assemble the board, feel free to e-mail me (dayinmylifeblog@gmail.com) or leave a comment! And if you make one, I would love to see a picture!

I can't wait until General Conference!!!

**Okay... I'm having a little trouble keeping these available to you through box.com. Without boring you with too much detail, I'm only allotted so much bandwidth, and since these files are fairly large (130MB when downloaded together) my 10 GB bandwidth is exceeded fast. Sooooo, I know it's totally confusing, but I like being able to show you a preview of what you are getting and there is also a feature to print right from this blog, so I'm keeping the box.com widgets here. But the links to download, if you so desire, will now be through dropbox.com. If you missed the links earlier, here they are again:

General Conference Board (updated 10/2/18)
General Conference Board Topics (updated 10/2/18)

**I update the original file each time, so you don't need to download or print the updates if you are putting this together for the first time. The updates are just for those who downloaded and put together the board before the new people were called. :)

New Goodies Update (3/20/2014)
Sunday School/70s Update (9/19/2014)
YM/Primary Update (9/20/2015)
Apostle/SundaySchool Update (10/4/2015)
70s/Bishop/YW Update (3/29/2016)
Primary Update (9/30/2016)
RS/70/Primary Update (9/19/2017)
Presidency/Apostle/YW/plus Update (Only needed if you downloaded the original file before 10/2/18)

(Half) Birthday Interview

It seems like age three is a good time to start doing birthday interviews... but I missed my little guy's third birthday. I decided I'd better do something soon to capture my little Harvey before he got much older. His half birthday was last Sunday, so I got to work.

I made up a little double-sided printable that I can repeat every year... I've seen many versions of the birthday interview all over Pinterest, but I wanted to add a few elements of my own - like a place for a handprint, and a place to either attach a photo or let my child draw a self portrait. Plus, I wanted a little box to write stuff that didn't apply anywhere else.

After I printed a copy, I set up the video camera, sat Harvey in front of it.. and asked him the questions. It was thoroughly delightful to see what his answers would be.

Harvey hasn't really traced letters much, so I helped him with the first letters in his name. But he did V, E, and Y all by himself. I was so impressed! I love his self portrait - I coached him... "Let's draw your hair. What color is it?...Oh, how about shoes?" (For my future self: The yellow on top is his hair, the big brown blob in the middle is his eyes, and the two little orange lines on the side are his arms. He drew blue lines for pants, and orange shoes at the bottom.)

(Wow, that handprint is bold. Harvey picked out the color with enthusiasm...)

It's funny what kids think and say. For some reason during the interview Harvey kept answering "fox" for many questions. I coaxed the real answer out of him on some, but on others he wouldn't budge from "fox." Anyway, I'm pretty sure his favorite song is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and his favorite game is either wrestling with daddy, or the verbal games I play with him while I push him on the swings. And well... exercise as his favorite sport? That just makes me laugh! (Oh, and I just noticed that when I took this photo, I hadn't finished spelling Little Einsteins, because I wasn't sure if it was I before E... and apparently that little phrase doesn't work all the time. I'm glad I checked.)

Feel free to grab a copy if you'd like:


Here is an alternate link to download: Birthday Interview

New Beginnings

Several weeks ago we held our New Beginnings program. Typically, that's when we introduce all of the new girls coming into the program, and invite their parents for the special night. But, this year we don't have any new young women coming into our program (in fact, we don't have any new girls coming in for a few years... SO sad!).

And then we found out two of our girls were performing in (separate) school plays/musicals so it got pushed back even more. I mean, we had to see our beautiful girls steal the show(s). So, finally, at the beginning of April we held our New Beginnings.

Since this year's Mutual theme is "Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations" (D&C 115:4), we wanted to emphasize that message with light. We held our program in our Relief Society room - one of the only rooms in our church building that has recessed lighting. We kept all of the main lights turned off, and only had the recessed lights on for a dimly lit atmosphere to start our program. Eight of the girls got up one by one and read off a scripture and a little thought about each value, then turned on the lamp that was positioned by the corresponding value poster. (Most of our ideas come from here.)

Slowly, as we learned about each value, the room got brighter and brighter.  (I downloaded the value posters here, and then I had them printed 8x12 and then I mounted them on foam board.)

 Then one of our leaders shared a children's story called The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter. It is based on a true story about a girl who braves a raging storm to keep the lamps in her father's lighthouse lit while he is away. She likened it to each of the girls keeping their light shining by living each of the values for all to see. They could each be a "standard to the nations" by being an example in living the eight values. It was perfect.

After her presentation, we handed out little alarm clocks with an "arise and shine forth" sticker on the front. (Idea also from here.)

The alarm clocks were from Ikea, and I just printed the stickers on full sheet clear sticker paper, then used a 1 inch circle punch to cut them out. I have extra, so I'm thinking we will use them for some kind of handout at camp in the summer - maybe flashlights?


Here is an alternate link to download the file: Arise and Shine Forth Stickers

We ended with a value colored fruit/dessert buffet...

and listened to Jenny Phillips CD: Arise and Shine Forth.

We are so pleased with how the night turned out!

Genealogy Chart

My mom loves genealogy. She has several books with pictures and stories of people in our pedigree lines, and she is constantly working on finding more members of our family.

All of her information was in books, and although she has a pedigree chart that unfolds out to show 21 (I think) generations, once you get past the first couple generations, it's really hard to tell who is next in line. As soon as I saw this circular chart on Martha Stewart's website, I knew this would be an awesome birthday gift.

The template Martha provides is totally not like the awesome one in the picture, so I thought I would have to recreate it with Photoshop... but then I read the comments, and someone had already done that! I just double checked the link and it seems to be having issues, so I'm going to host the same file here:



Here is an alternate link to download the file: Genealogy Chart

After I got mine printed, I set to work with a fine tipped black marker to fill in all of the information.

 
It took a while, but it was worth it. Especially when my mom saw the finished piece. She loved it!

And it's quite the conversation piece. I love that all of her hard work is out on display; where she, and others can look it over and appreciate it! 

The Legend of the Leprechauns

I am so excited that Harvey is old enough to start this cute little tradition! But... when I mentioned that Leprechauns might come to our house this year, he had no idea what I was talking about so I checked out some books at the library. After he got the idea of what a Leprechaun actually was, I told him the Legend of the Leprechauns.

Here's a copy for you if you haven't heard it before...


Here is an alternate link to download the file: Legend of the Leprechauns

Then we set to work decorating our treasure box. I conveniently had a Leprechaun-sized Altoid Tin laying around, and I found green, orange and white supplies in my scrapbooking stash. We are so excited to set it out on our front porch (the legend says "under the moon") and see where it ends up on Saturday!

If I know Leprechauns they will probably leave a trail of green confetti or sprinkles, and I'm guessing there will be gold covered chocolate coins inside. Maybe with a real silver dollar for each of the kids if the Leprechauns get around to going to the bank.

Pin It

Potty Training, Part 1

Potty Training.

It's almost been like a dirty word around my house because... to be honest, I've been scared. I had all the excuses: Harvey hasn't been motivated (like at all), I didn't want to train too close to when the baby would be born, we needed to adjust to Dad's new job, I needed to be getting more sleep at night so I'd have more patience during the process... etc.

While I did want to make sure Harvey was ready, I think we waited mostly because I wasn't ready. Plus, in the spirit of full disclosure... it's just so convenient when Harvey has a diaper on. We don't have to stop mid-grocery-trip to dash to the bathroom. I can send him to a play date without worrying that my mom friends will have to change an accident with the extra stash of clothing I had to pack.

But... it was time.

Harvey said he wanted to wear big boy underwear about three weeks ago, so I jumped on it. We didn't wear diapers during the day at all, and I bought juice, salty snacks and treats to get him excited. And it worked. (Harvey is a big fan of food). I put the "big treats" on the back of the toilet in a little basket as a visual.

If he went potty, he got to choose something out of the basket. My theory was that it would encourage him to drink fluids all day.. or eating something salty would make him want more fluids. (While this worked great for a couple days, I didn't want to continue it for fear that the junk would mess with his system.) More fluids = more chances for success on the potty.

Periodically throughout the day, I also asked him "Are you dry?" And if the answer was "Yes!" then he got a small candy - like two skittles or candy hearts. I read in Pottywise for Toddlers that it is important to reward the success of staying dry, not just going on the toilet. True potty training means that the kid is staying dry in his underwear... right?!

Anyway, then Avery went through a terrible sleeping phase, and I started getting NO sleep, and it seemed like Harvey refused to poop anywhere except in his underwear, so I gave up for a while. I put all the treats away, didn't mention his underwear, or make him go on the toilet if he didn't want to. (I know, reverting back to diapers is the number one thing I've heard not to do when potty training, but I was in survival mode.)

Then, last Saturday we were invited to a Potty Party by my friend Hannah. I hoped it would get both Harvey and I excited about the concept again.

Hannah made the cutest treats:

(seriously... aren't these little toilets adorable?)

(and these Oreo truffles were to die for...)

I whipped up a couple of labels for her:

We stuck them on with clear packing tape to help the drink become water resistant, but my labels were a smidge wider than the tape, so it didn't work as perfectly as I had hoped. Here are the labels if you'd like to print them for a party of your own (just cut the drink labels thinner than the tape so your drinks will really be water resistant!)



Here is an alternate link for downloading the file: Potty Party Printables

For all the details on Hannah's party, check out her blog.

As for us... Harvey is back in underwear, (so far) enjoying adding stickers to his Potty Progress Chart, and earning treats from the cute treat jar we got from the party. Wish us luck!!

Oh.. and any advice from the seasoned Potty Trainers out there??? I'm ALL EARS!

Harvey: 3 Years

Wow. Where did the time go? I blinked and now my baby boy is THREE.

He loves Curious George (in fact, we are on our 8th day in a row watching "George and the Elephant" aka Curious George: 2) so I thought it fitting to have his party at the zoo, with some George inspired cupcakes and colors.

These cupcake toppers were SUPER easy to make. I found the instructions here, but they required several punches I didn't have. Instead, I whipped them up in Photoshop, and assembled them in a snap. If you want to make them, here's a printable for you. To download, click the little arrow in the bottom right corner, or click the little printer to print without saving. 

Here is an alternate link to download the file: Monkey Cupcake Toppers

They were super easy to make. After cutting out all of the pieces, I just used a flat glue dot to attach a sucker stick to the monkey head. Then I used 2 pop dots to attach the nose/mouth (and hide the stick between them) so it was lined up just below the eyes.

Isn't he cute?

Pin It

Oh! And I must tell you about the cupcake liners! I wasn't even searching for monkey liners when I found them (at Smiths) but I liked the colors and thought little monkey faces were cute. (Sheesh, the photo doesn't even show them.) Anyway, I bought them and when I got home I realized they were AWESOME. Reynolds Staybrite Baking Cups are foil lined so they stay totally beautiful and don't get all dark and greasy looking after baking. I hope they get more popular and start making oodles of designs. I will buy them forever. I used this recipe for banana cupcakes, and they were so delicious!

Anyway... I also made up these little favors with lemon drops and red jelly beans inside to give to everyone who came to the zoo with us. All of the kids got a red or yellow balloon as well.

My little guy was in heaven with his cousin buddies...

 And I picked a good theme because man, our zoo has a lot of monkeys!!

I got this shot on accident, but I love how you can see my nephew's reflection...

 And this guy was cracking me up! He just sat there with his arms folded. He wiped his nose once, then put his hands right back in that position.

We had a blast with our family celebrating my cute little buddy. I sure love him!

And I can't end this post without listing my 3 favorite things about him:
1) He shares; his toys, his treats, and even his special blankie. With everyone.

2) He is quick to say sorry. And I hope he always will, as it is a quality that will carry him far.

3) He is thankful. He often says thank you without any prompts from me. I love his little "thanks, mom!"

Oh.. I can't stop at three, so here are a few more.
4) He is a great dancer.

5) He has the best belly laugh ever. I can't resist tickling him to hear it just one more time...

6) He is athletic. Seriously, he can throw a mean football.

7) He is smart. I am often amazed during our conversations. He remembers everything!

I love you Harvster!