General Conference

All my childhood memories of Conference are very black and white.  General Conference was a black-and-white, desperately boring weekend.  As a new mom, I decided to be way cooler than my own parents and teach my daughter to enjoy Conference...through bribery.  I settled on ziplock containers with pictures of the apostles glued to them, filled with prizes.  When the apostle spoke, hooray! There's a prize.

But then my daughter was disappointed every time there was a non-apostle speaker.  So I doubled the amount of containers.  Then she was disappointed when President Monson got up to speak more than once.  So I made three for President Monson.  Then she was disappointed at the audit report.  So I bought bags of candy to make up the difference.  Then I had another daughter, and they fought over the prizes.  So I made another set.  Then I had another daughter.  And another.

Everyone always talks about the commercialization of Christmas, but I think it's possible that I have successfully commercialized General Conference.  If my kids don't have a new toy or treat every twenty minutes for all eight hours of conference, you would think that the world is ending in blood and terror.  Ziplock containers pasted with smiling pictures of David A. Bednar and Dieter F. Uchtdorf are constantly cycling through my dishwasher.  The girls spend the time between speakers protecting their hoard.

Maybe this year I'll just sit and listen.

Anyway, here's a picture of President Monson for my friend Britta --she's putting together a General Conference packet for October, you should check it out.

Jesus Christ Restored the Fulness of the Gospel through Joseph Smith

An attempt at a Joseph Smith picture for April's primary theme:

Child of God

Here's your basic, "Hi, I'm a child of God" graphic.  I'm having a little bit too much fun figuring out how to use pixlr.com.

Maybe I'll do a few more of these.  Here's my four-year-old's rendition:

Chip off the old block, that one.  

"...See that ye serve Him...," D&C 4:2

I think this could go nicely at the bottom edge of a Young Women flyer.

I honestly don't know where the other leg went.  If you look at it too long, it kind of makes you dizzy.  Here's the black & white:

Girl with Sign

Here's a girl with a sign (inspired by Mormon Channel's "I pray when..." photos).

I don't know what I'm going to use it for yet.  I imagine there's a lot of things you can write on a sign like this.  If it were my kids, it would probably say:

But I'll probably make something like this General Conference reminder.  Any other ideas?

LDS Prophet Clipart (It's supposed to be Lehi, can you tell?)

I was just thinking, as everyone does now and again, "I should start a blog."  And then I realized, just as most everyone does now and again, "I already have a blog."  So, without further fanfare, I reintroduce the world to "The Warren Smith Family."

In celebration I am posting this clipart I drew (based on the painting "Lehi and his Family") for next month's primary theme, "God Speaks Through Prophets."  I benefit so much from other people's blogged illustrations, I thought I could add another free image on the internet (besides, it is my first clip art, and I'm tickled with how it turned out).

I will be putting this in our March Primary Newsletter.  You may do what you like.  Just celebrate the fact that I drew a picture not covered in children's scribbles.  I will also be doing that.  I may also eat some chocolate.

Cheers,

Emily