A favorite Easter tradition at the Parker house is the baking of  “Resurrection rolls” to tell the story of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection.

Delicious rolls for Easter have been a family tradition since I was a child. My grandmother would wake up at 4 a.m. to start baking for the family. I can still remember the inviting smell. A few years ago when I had three children under the age of 4, I discovered a disappearing marshmallow roll recipe in the Friend Magazine that I knew would be a fun and delicious way to continue the tradition of Easter rolls.

Each step of the recipe is an opportunity to teach part of the Resurrection story. My children always get excited when they discover the crescent roll is empty and the marshmallow has disappeared. It’s a beautiful reminder that the tomb was empty and that Jesus Christ lives.

My daughter has added singing songs about the Savior to our Easter tradition. Hearing her sweetly sing, ‘Now I am here in a beautiful place, Learning the teachings of Jesus,’ as we bake is the perfect addition to our tradition that began long ago with my grandmother’s rolls.

This year we will be watching new Easter messages from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while the rolls bake. This web-site has more beautiful videos that I can’t wait to share with my family as well. It’s a lovely reminder of why we celebrate Easter presented in a way that is easy for my children to understand.

This post was featured in the Deseret News.

I love that Easter and General Conference are so close together in the Spring. Here are some of the fun ways that we are getting ready!

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As a counselor for my ward’s Primary (read more about the LDS church and the Primary program for children at these links), I’ve been pondering how to help our children prepare and get the most out of General Conference. General Conference is a twice a year event when we get to hear from our church leaders. I grew up loving to listen to General Conference and I want to pass that on to my own children and the children I teach.

The answer came to me as I was reading The Friend magazine for this month. This beautiful girl and her mother had the best idea. Read about it below:

Photo from LDS.org

My seven year old will love drawing her own hearts during sessions, but I know my three year old will do better if I print out hearts for him to color in. I decided to make a printable for the little ones like my son. You can click on the picture to print or click on this link. I think this will be a great way to keep them engaged while also learning to recognize their feelings during General Conference.

Need more ideas on helping your children during General Conference? Many of our General Conference traditions revolve around food as you can see from this instagram picture from last year. (PS Follow me on Instagram for more fun ideas!) My kids loved the GoGo Squeez, Crispy Chocolate Rice Bars, and strawberries!

For this activity/treat. we matched the picture of the apostle on the TV to the prophet on their snack. We watched the youtube video on this post to help us get to know more about the apostles beforehand so we would recognize them better.

This year, I wanted my children to focus more on the words, but I’m not quite ready for the mantel of candy jars for all the different key words. Instead, I am going to have a tray with Easter eggs filled with treats. There will be an Easter egg for each apostle. Each time that apostle testifies of Jesus Christ, they can have a treat from their Easter egg. Pretty sure the kids will sneak extra treats, but I hope it encourages them to listen closely for mentions of the Savior. You can cut out the apostle pictures from the friend or print them from lds.org. I laminated mine so that I can use them every year.

This web-site has more beautiful videos that I can’t wait to share with my family as well. It’s a lovely reminder of why we celebrate Easter presented in a way that is easy for my children to understand.

For more General Conference Activities and ideas. Check out these posts.

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What are your families favorite General Conference traditions?

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It’s spring time which means General Conference will be here before we know it. Seventeen LDS Bloggers are joining me to share a few of our favorite things.  We are so excited to be giving away over $400 in prizes. It’s been a treat to work with so many talented women to spoil our readers with products that strengthen the family and make our lives a little easier, too.

We as bloggers are so thankful for you – our readers! Thank you for your encouragement, comments, and time that you take out of your busy day to check in with us. We appreciate how you #sharethegood with us and hopefully we can share some with you as well!

Meet the bloggers who are taking part in this giveaway:

Now for the giveaway! If you are anything like me, your wish list for Deseret Book is a mile long! We are excited to send two of you some fun money to spend there. We hope you love the recipes from the Six Sisters as much as we do and that Nicole Carpenter’s 5-minute messages will make family devotional more manageable! From bulking up your food storage with Thrive to the cutest projects by Fizzy Pops – there are so many wonderful prizes. Check them out and ENTER TO WIN below! There are TWO rafflecopters so be sure to enter each one!

Prize Package #2

$85 Gift Card to Deseret Book

$75 value Food Storage Package from Thrive – We update our 72 hour kits/Food Storage every conference. I love having products like this on hand that last a long time!

             Six Sisters Stuff Cookbook

$50 Gift Card to Sego Lily Soap – I’ve replaced all my body washes with these soaps. Absolutely love them. Their Plain Jane soap is one of the only soaps that has worked with my daughter’s eczema.

Doodle Journal for General Conference by A Lively Hope. – These are darling! Be sure to check them out.

Pink Star CTR Necklace and I am a Child of God Pin from Ringmasters. – All three of my children adore their jewelry from Ringmasters. As a mom, I love that the jewelry is a sweet little reminder they can always have with them.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prize Package #1

$85 Gift Card to Deseret Book

$50 Gift Card to Sweet Salt Clothing – I get compliments on my skirts from Sweet Salt every time I wear them and I love their under tees. Check out my two favorite skirts here and here.

Fizzy Pops Young Women Zipper Pull Kit ($50 value) with

YW Value Bottle Cap Printables from My Computer is My Canvas – I used the zipper pull kit for our Primary birthday gifts last year. They were super easy to make and darling!

Six Sisters Stuff Cookbook – I am visiting the Six Sisters site for their delicious recipes several times a week. This would make a perfect Mother’s Day gift or keep it and enjoy the yumminess for yourself.

52 Weeks to Fortify Your Family from MOMentity.com – See more about why I absolutely love this book and how it has made our morning easier in my book review here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner will be announced and e-mailed April 2. Facebook and Instagram are not liable for this giveaway.

We’ve compiled a few of our favorite General Conference Activities, Recipes, and Ideas. Comment with your favorite traditions or add a link below!

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The post LDS General Conference Spring Blogger Giveaway – $400+ in prizes! appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

(Be sure to enter our Spring 2015 General Conference GIveaway. Over $400 in prizes including gift cards to Deseret Book, Sweet Salt Clothing, and Thrive Food Storage! Ends 4/1/2015)

In the last six months, I’ve thought a lot about what I want my children to learn from General Conference. In April, I posted many of our conference traditions. This year’s conference weekend will similarly be full of cinnamon rolls, updating 72-hour kits, and creative printables, but I especially want to hone in on one specific goal. That goal is teaching my children to recognize and follow the prophet’s voice.

There are many amazing resources available, but I’d like to share with your the ones that I found on lds.org. Here are a few of the things we are doing to better follow the prophet in our home.

1. Listening at meal times. I still remember an audio quiz I took in high school seminary. Our teacher played clips from general conference and asked us to write down who was speaking. He then played clips from popular music, TV shows, and movies and asked us again to write down who was in the clip. Sadly, I did much better on the pop culture part than the church part! That has always stuck with me!

One easy way to help your children to physically recognize the voices of general authorities is to play them often in your home. We literally have General Conference talks at our finger tips. Play a talk from April’s session at meal time, even if it is just a clip and talk about who said it and what it means.

2. Utilize prime real estate. Put the word’s of the prophets up around your home. One of my mom friend’s says that she has quotes taped to her cupboards, to her children’s doors, and even to the wall in front of the toilet! The more your children see and read the words, the more likely they are to remember them! We’ve done this this year with The Family Proclamation to the World. My Clear Plastic Tablecloth has gotten a lot of use! You can also put quotes under the table cloth for memorization.

I also did a search on Pinterest for free General Conference printables and found quite a few that I liked to print and laminate. (Putting this Laminator to use!). You can see some of my favorites on my General Conference Pinterest Board (along with other great ideas to help you prepare for general conference!). Above is one of my favorites from Mimi Lee Printables. You can find it here.

3. Play online games. My kids love playing games online. Why not use them to help get ready for conference! These matching games will definitely help with facial recognition if your child plays them during the next few weeks leading up to conference.

4. Take a tour of conference center online. There are child-led video tours of all the buildings on temple square. At two-minutes length, these videos would be perfect for a devotional or family home evening to familiarize children with what they will see conference weekend!

5. Subscribe to the Friend or view it online. There are articles in the Friend each month written by the general authorities along with the many activities and stories. My daughter reads at least 20 minutes a day for her school homework and the Friend provides perfect reading material while exposing her to the words of the prophets!

6. Make it fun. All three of my children love the general authority matching cards from the Friend (pictured at the top of the post). Even my three year old enjoys pointing at the cards and asking, “who is that?” I love hearing him try to pronounce Elder Uchtdorf and talk about the man who flies planes! 

7. Set up a writing and drawing station in the weeks leading up to conference with printables produced by the church. If you use up those printables before general conference, worry not! There are many more resources put out by church memories available to print out as well! You can check out some of them below!

I hope these ideas help your and your family to prepare to listen to the prophet’s voice. The more we listen to and heed the prophet’s voice ourselves, the more our children will as well.

Here are more resources put together by my talented blogger friends to help you prepare for general conference!

We hope that our activities and ideas will help to enrich your family’s General Conference experience! For more ideas and recipes, check out April’s General Conference round up for 13 additional posts!

Preparing for Inspiration

Quiet Time with Doh Vinci

General Conference Bingo

General Conference Yearly Calendar

General Conference Personal Progress Scavenger Hunt
General Conference Journal Cards
General Conference Fun Scratch Off Cards

General Conference Packet with Temple Memory Matching Printable

General Conference Journal for Moms

General Conference Fun Bags

What are your favorite conference traditions?

Be sure to enter our Fall Conference Giveaway going on through 9/27/14!!

This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

The post Resources for Teaching Children about Following the Prophet + 10 Preparation Ideas #ldsconf appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

As a Latter-day Saint, I look forward to hearing from our world-wide church leaders twice a year at General Conference. The event is held in downtown Salt Lake City, but is also broadcast to LDS church buildings worldwide as well as on the Internet and television. I am so excited to listen with my family!

Each year, I find myself asking, how do I prepare myself and my family for General Conference? The church has put together amazing resources (available at the above link) and I have also teamed with some of my favorite LDS  bloggers to share our favorite conference traditions, recipes, and activities. You can check out their fun links at the bottom of this post! 

My three children are ages 6, 4, and 2. Each year since our oldest was born, we have tweaked our traditions, but the basis is the same. A family gathered together listening to the prophet and apostles! A typical conference weekend for us includes delicious recipes, quiet activities for the little ones, and this mama saying a little prayer that our preparation pays off! Here’s a little sneak peek into a few of our favorite recipes and quiet activity ideas!

Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice … General Conference Preparation

My two oldest love watching this youtube video every year to help them learn the names of the apostles. Sometimes we have it on repeat over breakfast (at their request!).

As mentioned above, our kitchen table is prime real estate when it comes to places to learn! Kids have to eat so I take advantage of it. I first saw this at my neighbor’s home and I love the possibilities! I bought this clear, durable table cover  and rotate the content that goes underneath as my children learn or memorize it.  Right now we are working on learning the Family Proclamation with these printables from Chocolate on my Cranium. You could easily print off pictures of the first presidency and twelve apostles as well to help your children learn and recognize them. Easy pop quizzes at the dinner table!

General Conference Breakfast Ideas

Before the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions, we like to have a big family breakfast to start our day. These yummy blueberry crepes are on the menu for Saturday morning and I am debating between Cupcake Diary’s cinnamon and sugar pull-apart rolls and Love to be in the Kitchen’s homemade cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning! Can you tell I am a fan of cinnamon baked goods? We are going to be snacking on Live to be Inspired’s banana bread some time during the weekend as well!

General Conference Traditions and Quiet Activities

With three young children at home, I like to start General Conference weekend with a plethora of printables (see the blogger links below!) and quiet activity ideas. We’ve watched conference from our version of King Benjamin’s tents, illustrated the stories we are hearing on giant pieces of butcher paper, and played conference bingo many a time! I also like having a big basket of books available for my children to look at and read. I’ve listed some of our favorites below.

Books are a big part of our General Conference preparation! Earlier this year I helped make flip books with text and pictures for The Family: A Proclamation to the World from the Chocolate on my Cranium printables. My daughter loves reading her book because it matches the songs she is learning in Primary. She’s learned so many big words from reading it so often!

My children also have books with pictures of the Savior put together by their grandmother. She took card-sized pictures of the Savior by Greg Olson and put them in the sleeves of photo books to make darling books for each of her grandchildren. She wrote her testimony in the cover which is sweet for the children to have! My kids love looking through those as well.

Story of the Walnut Tree is one of our favorites to read while getting read for conference. It is the story of the walnut tree from President Hinckley’s home that was used to build the podium for the conference center. Knowing the story gives my children something familiar to look for during the sessions.

I am going to add The Giver of Holy Gifts to our collection this year in the children’s Easter baskets. The beautifully simple children’s board book shows some of the images from the Sacred Gifts art exhibition taking place at the Museum of Art at BYU right now and talks about Jesus’ holy gifts to us.

If Jesus Came to Visit Me and others by Jill Roman Lord are sweet board books as well. Perfect for the 2-6 year old crowd to look through during conference. We also have The Story of Easter and others by Patricia Pingrey in our book basket for conference.

Session Breaks 

In between sessions, we like to let our children get all their energy out! Whether it is a picnic in the back yard or a quick family walk to the local park. It definitely helps to let them play to their hearts content and get the wiggles out! After an hour or so of outside play, afternoon nap time is much more likely to happen!

In between the Sunday session, we like to update our 72 hour kits. So many stores have case lot deals and emergency essential sales. General conference weekend is a great time to see what you have and add what you need! I stay tuned to sites like Freebies2Deals to get the heads up on the best local and online preparedness deals. My children love rotating out the older clothes and munching on the 72 hour kit snacks!

Find more ideas on my General Conference and Primary Pinterest boards! Be sure to check out these fabulous ideas by my blogger friends as well!

We would love if you added your General Conference traditions to our link up! Just two requests, please link back to this post and it must be General Conference related! To find out more about the LDS Church and what we believe, click on this link! 

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