Happy Birthday Pops!

This year was my daddy's 6oth birthday. I know, I know, he's ancient! My mom suggested we try and do something special so because I LOVE planning parties so much, I took it on as a project. Okay, I hate planning parties, remember a certain post about Miriam's 5th birthday? MOVING ON!

At first we were just trying to arrange a time to getting our family from Utah here, but then we thought how cool it would be to have my brother from D.C. come as a surprise. My sister-in-law and her parents made that dream a reality. Unfortunately she and the kiddies weren't able to come as well, but just having Sherman here was a HUGE surprise!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009

My brother Seth, his wife Sherry, their darling baby, and my handsome SINGLE brother Daniel arrived in town. We met at Grandma Jensen's house and waited for my dad to arrive. My mom had made soup and rolls for dinner and was going to send my dad over with some for Grandma. My grandma is in her 90's and very independent so my mom had to create an excuse for why she was sending dinner over. She told my dad that grandma wasn't feeling very well and asked if he'd run some soup over.

Mom called Dad at the office and asked if he was coming home soon. He said yes so we all rushed to Grandma's house. An hour later, Mom calls and says he finally pulled in. We hurried and hid in Grandma's dark kitchen. Apparently while we were hiding Grandma laid on the couch wrapped in an afgan. She was such a good actress that my dad started panicking and trying to think of someone he could have come help give her a blessing. He thought she was knocking on death's door. Since he's bishop he was thinking it was going to be one more thing he was going to have to worry about. Finally he came into the kitchen and set the food on the table. He didn't bother turning on the lights, but he noticed Kirill with the video camera. Since it was dark he thought Kirill was on his cell phone, but he couldn't figure out why he was on his cell phone, in the dark, at Grandma's house while she's lying on the couch dying.

We couldn't stay crammed in the hallway off the kitchen anymore so we came out. We had a cake and a birthday sign. I think he was surprised to see Daniel, Seth, Sherry, and baby Anderson. We all parked down the street because we didn't want him to recognize the cars. It wouldn't have mattered because by the time Dad got there it was pitch black. It was funny though because Doug and Seth parked about two houses down. Weston parked WAY down the street, almost at the end of the road. That is one kid that takes his surprises seriously!

We went to Mom and Dad's and had a yummy dinner. For desert we ate cupcakes that Miriam and I had decorated. We talked about our plans for the following day. We hung out for a little bit and then asked Kai to come have a sleepover at our house. We left him and the girls at our house while Doug and I drove to Idaho Falls and picked up Sherman at the airport.

Sherman arrived around 11 p.m. We were going to sneak him into the house, but Mom said to have him call if he decided he wanted to see them that night, instead of surprising Dad in the morning. Sherman decided to call but my parents were already in bed. Mom said Dad was already asleep. When we got to their house my dad, mom, and Daniel were still up. Apparently my dad heard my mom talking and when she hung up he said, "Well I guess I better go unlock the door." The surprise didn't go as planned, but it was still a surprise.

Grandma's House

Waiting for Grandpa. What better way to pass the time than to attack and choke Uncle Weston?

SURPRISE!

Friday Dinner

Weston attacking Jessica

Weston acting innocent while Jessica tells him to leave her on the ground.

Deciding to just not touch each other. Newlyweds....Sheesh!

Yummy! Who doesn't love a picture of themselves eating?

Doug and I trying to act like newlyweds.

Game time!

Visiting

Cupcakes

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2009

The next morning we met for breakfast and then headed to the Rexburg LDS Temple to do a session. It was COLD! It was an amazing experience to be all together in the temple. Sherry didn't come because she needed to stay with Meili, but most of our family was there together. Let's see, there was Dad, Mom, Sherman, Seth, Mallena, Doug, Daniel, Weston, and Jessica. We were only missing Willow, Sherry, and Hyrum. Of course the younger boys aren't endowed, but other than Hyrum all of my biological siblings were there. Isn't that amazing? I can't wait until Hyrum gets home from his mission and we can do it again. It solidifys that we are joined for the eternities if we live worthy.

After the temple we went home and played a really fun Jeopardy game that Weston and Jessica put together. We had to answer questions about other family members. It was a blast! It's amazing the things I didn't know about my parents or my brothers. I think the in-laws were starting to wonder what they had married into!

Dad had meetings for Stake Conference so he had to leave for a little bit, but the rest of us had fun hanging out and playing games. When Dad got home we had dinner and just visited the rest of the evening.

Saturday Temple Trip

Weston

Seth and Daniel

Doug

All of us at the temple, minus Doug, the cameraman.

All of us at the temple, minus Jessica, the camerawoman.

Someone suggested we take a sibling picture the old fashioned way with no one smiling. Here are our attempts:


As you can tell----we aren't very good at being serious.

Sherman----enough said.



Family Pictures

Tell Grandpa what you want for Christmas little girl.

Mom and Dad


Seth and Baby


Grandpa & Grandma with Baby Anderson

All of us----what's in your hand Mom?


All of us---take two!

Saturday Dinner

Dinner Preperations

Not only is he single, but he can drain potatoes. You'd better snatch him up quick girls!

How many Anderson's does it take to make dinner?

Jessica, thinking.

Weston taking the knives to Doug because he thinks he's following Jessica around. Okay, not really, but that's what it looks like.

Doug cutting the ham.

Seth and Sherry discussing something.

Weston being a muscle man.

Seth and Sherry still discussing something.

Finally, it's time to eat!

Shaylynn decided to stick her hands in Weston's pockets and walk around, and around, and around.


Here's video of the walk. I have a weird child!

Here's the one other video we have. Sorry, if you aren't family, you'll probably not enjoy it. At the end of the video we have the boys each say "Happy Birthday" in the language they learned on their mission. We have Danish, Portuguese, Russian, Texan, and Spanish!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Sunday morning Seth, Sherry, their baby, and Daniel had to leave to get back to Utah. The rest of us went to Stake Conference together. Funny how all of us that live in Rexburg are still in the same stake. It was fun! After church we went back to Mom and Dad's and had dinner. Dinner was pretty much the end of the celebration. We went home as well as Weston and Jessica. Sherman was able to stay for a few more days. It was fun having him around. We wish he and his family lived closer. When we lived in Philadelphia we saw them a few times, but now we're back to probably only being able to see them about once a year.