Tyler's Baptism AND Kelsey's 3rd Birthday

This weekend we had some wonderful excitement at our house. My parents flew in from Houston, TX around 12:30 a.m. Friday morning. The kids were SOO excited to wake up and see them. Grandpa hasn't been out here since Kelsey's blessing, shortly after we moved here. So it was a special treat to have him here. In fact, the day before they came Bryn was asking me how much longer till my mom got here. And I told her Grandpa and Grandma Andersen were coming. She said "What?! Grandpa too?! I haven't seen him in SO long. He must be really old by now!" haha. 

Friday we didn't do a whole lot except play and catch up with them. The kids are just so happy to spend time with them and show them everything they own and show off everything they know. Grandparents are good troopers :). And Grandma brought a big suitcase full of presents and quilts.

Saturday, Feb. 28th was the big day! We did yummy pancakes with nutella and whip cream for Kelsey's birthday breakfast. Then there was no time to waste as we all got ready for the baptism. We had to drive out to the Palmer chapel for his baptism because our stake was holding a big women's conference at our building. (It ended up being a mistake that Tyler got baptized on this day instead of on march 7th like all the other kids that had feb. birthdays. But back when we bought my parents tickets, this conference wasn't planned, and we couldn't change them now. Thankfully the bishop was kind enough to let us go through with it and have our own event.)

Tyler was so excited for this event, and was very well prepared. He seems to have always had an understanding of serious things and is much more sober-minded than a lot of kids that age. Gpa and Gma gifted him a brand new set of scriptures with his name engraved on them. He thinks that is just the greatest gift in the world and reads them a lot.

We only had one little bump when we realized we forgot towels! So my mom and dad ran to the nearest Fred Meyer to get some for us, and made it back in plenty of time. 

We were so grateful to those who came to show their love and support for Tyler: the Sponsellers and Westons came from Anchorage, the Birch family (non-member friends from CC), the Bostons (she conducted the music and he conducted the whole baptism), Sis. Vandike the primary Pres., and of course grandparents. Uncle Andy gave a talk on baptism. Then our family sang a song together called "I Know That My Savior Loves Me", then Grandma gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Kenny baptized him (side note: their baptismal font was in the same room as the mother's lounge which I have never seen before and thought it was hilarious.) Afterwards my dad, Grandpa Andersen confirmed him. 

After the baptism everyone came back to our house for lunch. We just kept it really simple and had tacos. It was yummy though and just so fun to have everyone there to talk and enjoy being together. We love the family we have up here in Alaska. They were very thoughtful of the fact that my parents were only here for such a short time though, so they didn't stay long. But we loved having them.

The rest of the day we tried to focus more on Kelsey. She was good to share her day with Tyler, but I know it was obvious there were times when she was feeling a little neglected, which was sad. She is such a sweet and sassy girl. We jut love her so very much and can't believe we're lucky enough to be her parents. She wanted pizza for dinner so we ordered papa johns. Then had "princess cake" (just did pink frosting and stuck a princess figurine on top) and ice cream. The kids did some more showing off with a little talent show and recited some of their memory work from CC. We played lots of games over the weekend and had great conversations and just really really loved having my parents here. There were lots of tears from the kids when they had to say goodbye that night. We left at 3:00 a.m. and drove on very icy roads through lots of fog to get to the airport. I will see them in a couple weeks (for France!!!) but it'll be not till the summer (hopefully) that my kids get to see them. It was a fabulous weekend full of happy times, and great memories. It's so easy to feel God's love at special times like this.

Tyler and his cute friend Zoe, and her older sister whose name escapes me right now.