Random Winter Happenings

A few things that happened during January and February that I forgot to mention:

I organized a sewing activity for my Miamaid girls. It was Madison's birthday so I made her lemon cupcakes. Her mom was the master seamstress who put together everything for the project and helped the girls. It was a really fun time and the girls really enjoyed it. Man, I love these girls!

Madison, pretending she didn't like all the fuss and attention on her birthday. I know the truth, though; she loved it!

Kerry helping Rebekah and Rachel.

Cam helping Maddie and Madison. Maddie was the only one to finish her project. Since she was the one who really wanted to have a sewing activity, it made sense she was the most focused.

I threw a baby shower for my wonderful friend, Candee. I absolutely loved how this shower turned out. I came up with a new game that I thought was absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure if anyone else loved it as much as I did but I think everyone laughed a lot. 

I made baby/birth related charade clues and put them in balloons. Everyone paired up and had to act out as many clues as they possibly could in a set period of time. The best part was that whoever was acting out the clues had to pop a balloon to be able to get the next clue to act out. That was super funny. There were several failed attempt at getting the balloon to pop, all of which were most entertaining. The person with the most clues guessed at the end won (Candee won. She was wicked fast and accurate with her guessing).  Oh! I love dumb baby shower games!

Candee and Staci (both seriously pregnant at this point) acting out a clue. There was just something so hilarious about these pregnant women running around doing ridiculous things and jumping on balloons. Staci is going to kill me for posting these. :) I love you, Stace!

Candee driving to the hospital. Not sure what Staci is doing but whatever it is, it makes me laugh out loud.

Kelli and Janene popping balloons. 

Laurie-Anne, once again, did the most amazing job with the decorations. 

And the food! It was fantastic! We had two gorgeous cakes and Kelli made three different hummus-like dips. They were ridiculously tasty. The edamame frijole-moly was my favorite. Yum!!

And this cake! Kelli made this super gourmet cake with mango whipped cream. Oh my heavens! 

The cute penant banner said "Congrats". Cute, cute! Best shower ever!

Sam has gotten really excited about his "buffalo pack-pack" and absolutely loves the little co-op preschool we do once a week. Considering that I almost stopped doing it because he hated it so much at first, this is quite the change. We are now looking in to preschools and it is ridiculous! I feel so stressed about it. It feels more like picking a college than picking a preschool. Anyway, he is looking forward to starting preschool in September at either Friends' School or Our School.

Such a cute picture of Sam smiling while wearing his "pack-pack".

The music class that I teach in Family Housing has a great turnout and I got asked to do a class at another birthday party (I did one for a sweet Chinese family a few months back - they just made my usual class the party and brought cake and treats for everyone). A Brazilian family from our ward and from Family Housing had me teach a class at their one year old's birthday party. The birthday girl really could have cared less about the music, but the other kids and the parents especially (you should have seen the chicken dance. The parents were totally in to it!) loved it. 

It was a good lesson for me culturally, too. I learned a lot about how laid back Brazilians seem to be and about their usual birthday fare. They always have a sweet cake and a savory cake.

Giovanna, the birthday girl, with Andre, her daddy, Giselle, her mom, and Julianna, her sister.

Here is the savory cake. Beautiful, right? It was made by layering bread, cream cheese, cottage cheese, seasoned chicken and was frosted/surrounded with mashed potatoes and decorated with various veggies. I thought it was tasty.  

For Valentine's Day, Sam and I heartattacked Don. We spent all afternoon cutting and coloring hearts and writing Don notes. Then, Sam helped me put it all on the door and around the bedroom. He was so excited! 

Sam making sure the hearts and chocolates were placed to his liking.

Putting chocolates on the bed for daddy.

Don gave me some beautiful roses, a pair of beautiful kyanite (a stone from Brazil) earrings, and some dark chocolate - one peppermint dark chocolate and the other with cherries and chilies (so hot!). I gave him a foam roller which sounds totally boring but he has wanted one for a long time so he was excited. I also got him a 90 minute massage gift certificate. I really love Valentine's Day despite the commercialization of love. I think it is a great opportunity to celebrate relationships. My mom always sends us holiday packages so that also added to the special feeling of the holiday. I just love Don and I love holidays! 

Don and I went out for dinner to celebrate V-day while we were in Colorado Springs with Don's parents the weekend before. We stopped to get some gas on our way home from dinner and the gas cap was frozen shut; it was so, so cold! We tried all kinds of things to get it open. Eventually, as Don was trying to tap the cap to break the ice inside, the cap kind of shattered because the plastic was so cold. Don was able to get a key inside one of the cracks and pry the door open. We've since been going to get gas together in case we can't get the door open. I think it opens ok now that the weather has warmed up. Oh, good times with our ghetto mobile. Holler really is a fitting name for him now. The hanger for an antenna certainly does add a touch of classiness. That's how we Conkeys roll!

Sam now knows that his name is Sam Conkey. It makes me so happy when he says his name. He has also recently learned that Don and I both have names besides mommy and daddy. He likes to say "Donald" (who doesn't? My nieces and nephews still think Don's name is hilarious!) and one night as I was talking to him while he was laying in bed, he said, "Your name is Emily." One night while Don and I were out on a date, Cam was watching Sam. He told her he wanted to call and say goodnight to us. So, she called us and I talked to him. After we hung up, I guess he told Cam, "I want to talk to Don!" It is so fascinating watching his language development skyrocket. He speaks so well.

He has become quite the chatterbox lately. When we're driving or eating lunch together, Sam says, "Mom! Talk with me!" He then talks to me about all the various kinds of tractors (he's an expert - that's all he wants to read about). Every night when Don or I take him to bed and lay him down after our usual routine, he says, "I want to talk. I want to talk about tractors! Tractors do jobs, mom (dad)!" He then goes into great detail about various tractors. He has started correcting his friends when they mislabel various kind of tractors. He is absolutely obsessed. 

Sam has also just discovered super heroes. He knows nothing about them except their names but he likes to imitate the poses he sees them making on the one coloring page he has with super heroes on it. 

Oh, good times with Sammy!