Monroe and the Super Moon

James Monroe became close friends with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He was 18 years old. He's in that famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River. He also camped at Valley Forge. After the war, Monroe met Thomas Jefferson, who was Governor of Virginia. They became lifelong friends...and neighbors. Jefferson's Monticello is adjacent to Highland, Monroe's plantation. James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States from 1817-1825. He died in his daughter's home in New York City on July 4, 1831. His home is 15 minutes from ours...so we decided to take advantage of a beautiful day and explore.
Since living here in Virginia, we have visited the Monticello and Mount Vernon. Both are situated on beautiful land and are large estates. We were surprised at how small James Monroe's house was. It was very practical...but small. As we walked from the dining room to one of the bedrooms, there was a tiny toilet. The kids noticed there was no flushing mechanism...and the bowl of the toilet looked like a pot we cook Macaroni and Cheese in. They were curious how they cleaned the toilet. And I was reminded how many blessings we have because we live today.
The yellow two-story portion of the estate was built after the Monroe's sold the plantation in 1825.
The property was beautiful with a large garden surrounded by a white picket fence. The next time Karen and I plant a garden, we want it to be surrounded by a white picket fence. It added so much charm. And there were plenty of fields for the kids to run around.
The kids got to see peacocks, chickens, and sheep (with cute little lambs). I don't think Eliza has ever been to a zoo...so we'll be planning a trip to the National Zoo soon.
The trees were majestic. And perfect for climbing. Hopefully, we'll own property some day with a HUGE tree for the kids to climb. The trees in our neighborhood are sticks that go straight up.
Completely unrelated to James Monroe...we heard that tonight would be a super moon. The moon would appear larger and brighter than it has in 19 years. I love the night sky so I wanted to watch the moon rise with the kids. At 7:45, we drove down the street to an open field, pulled off to the side of the road, and everyone got out.
Of course, pictures never do nature justice. But in the picture above, depending on the angle of your computer screen, you might be able to see a fence below and a tree to the right. The moon really was big and I was trying to provide perspective. It didn't really work. :)

In the picture below, I zoomed in as much as I possibly could. It was a very red moon...so it looks like Mars. But it was beautiful, big, and fun to watch. We were all surprised at how quickly the moon rises. The kids were excited. And that always gets Karen and I excited, too.

Doldrums

For some reason the time between mid February and mid March is essentially a boring time. There just hasn't been anything blog-worthy going on. Or maybe I just haven't been paying attention. Hmm . . . well in any case here is a short of what has been happening around here.

Mark decorated this cake (with only a tiny bit of help from Mom) for the Blue and Gold Banquet in February. He was pretty proud of himself:)

James (my doesn't sit still and read kid) has become a real bookworm and his older siblings gladly introduced him to Fablehaven which he is loving.

I love getting shots when they don't know I'm there. The first picture both of them were unaware, in this one Anya is trying not to smile because she noticed me with the camera.

Eventually they do notice the flashes.

Peter and Luke are great buddies and spend a lot of time getting into trouble together.

Beans prefers Luke's clothes bin to anyone else's. She unloads his clean clothes and gets comfortable. She will sit there for an amazing amount of time considering she is an active little 18 month old. She is one cute little stinker.

Lincoln's Birthday

For the last few years, we have celebrated Abraham Lincoln's birthday by adding to our collection of Lincoln Logs. However this year I decided that since the container holding said logs is full, it was time to try something different. I purchased one of Lincoln's favorite books, Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, and have begun reading it with the kids. I am thoroughly intrigued by it beginning with the author apologizing in case you don't like his book. I'll let you know how it turns out.

For a more kid focused and fun activity, I got big pretzels sticks, peanut butter and graham crackers and let the kids go crazy in an attempt to build logs cabins.

It was a rather messy, but interesting experience.

Of course we built the cabins whilst the Beans was sleeping, but here she is in all her silliness.

January

This is usually a fairly calm month for us, but it has been a little busy this year. January 8th was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Mark entered his "Iron Racer" and won one heat he raced in, but mostly he just had fun. Anya's birthday was Jan 9 and she is loving being 9, on January 9th. She got an ice cream log cake, made by Mom, and had fun opening all her gifts.
Way back about 1 year ago, Aunt Laurel took a little trip to China. She brought back gifts. One was matching dresses for our little girls. However being halfway around the world, it was a little difficult to size match, so Eliza is just now big enough to wear hers. Since Anya is simply enthralled with matching her baby sister, they now have two Sunday outfits that are identical.

Eliza Beans

Princess Anya

A week ago a stomach bug invaded our home. James was first, early on Saturday morning. It lasted about six hours and he was fine. Later that night Luke had the unfortunate experience of being next. He is only three and had no idea what was happening, and this was his expression after the fact. Clearly a sad boy. Thankfully everyone is better now.
I have come to realize that we have reached a point in the life of our family that things are only going to get exponentially busier as kids get older. We'll try to keep with our lives and share it too.

Personal Family Treasures

Karen and I take this family business seriously. :) Over five years ago, we created a family mission statement. It's not perfect - but it came from our hearts as our tiny family was growing. And then two years ago we created a family standard. We review them both as a family the first Monday night of each year. If we create any other family documents in the future, we'll review those as well. Since this is our family blog, we wanted to share them here:

The Christensen Family Mission Statement

The Christensen family knows that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the literal Son of God. We believe that grace works through the daily application of the atonement; through which we may return to live with our Heavenly Father. We know that the sealing power of the priesthood has been restored to the earth and through that power husband and wife are joined together for time and all eternity. We strive always to bring the spirit of the temple into our home as a protection from the temptations of this life.

As parents, we have determined the proper order of events for the lives of our children. Our desire is that: each child receive their baptismal covenant at the age of eight; each boy receive the Aaronic Priesthood at twelve years of age, to be followed by the Melchizedek Priesthood prior to leaving home; each child receive his or her endowment in the house of the Lord; each son, and each daughter who chooses, serve an honorable mission; each child pursue continued education at a college or school of their choice; each child be sealed to an eternal companion in the temple. But if not, we will love each child dearly and praise God for the blessings our children have brought into our home.

We believe that the purpose of life is to have joy. Our family hopes to create joy by having a spirit of honesty, forgiveness, service, and charity; as well as a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of work, a house of order.

Christensen Family Standard

We are committed to living according to standards that will set us apart from the world and help us live a more Christ-like life. If ever there is a question as to whether or not something fits within our standards, we will use these three questions to determine if it is right for us as a family:

What do the Latter-Day Prophets say?

What do the Scriptures say?

What does the Spirit tell you?

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These two documents are treasures for our family. They are personal testimonies that help us stay on course. Karen and I are special stewards of these sweet children. And we take that responsibility with reverence and joy.

A Sixth First

Here's an advanced warning for our two sets of grandparents in St. Louis. Prepare your homes now. Because...

ELIZA WALKS!!! :)

And we couldn't be happier! You'd think after 5 kids, we wouldn't be as excited for number 6 to walk. But the first "anything" never gets old. Enjoy!

A Visit from Saint Nick

We have celebrated Saint Nicholas Day for several years now. But this year we did things a little differently. Since Santa has been overworked for some years, we offered to ease his burden by letting him bring his gifts, and grandmas's and grandpas's too, on his birthday. So the evening before the kids put their shoes by the front door, with a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

David is learning to play with the camera and here is the tree after Santa's visit, but before the littles woke up.

This is our Advent Wreath, we just started it this year, and each Sunday we add something to our little garden in the center of it. Right now we have rocks and mini pinecones, next we will add tiny animals and then Mary and Joseph, all in preparation for the birth of Christ.

Santa even left little treats in the kids shoes as well as gifts under the tree.

Santa always leaves a lovely note to let us know if he liked the cookies and to let us know how good or bad we have all been throughout the year.

Since Daddy had an early morning dentist appt. and most of the country in which we live doesn't consider Saint Nick's day a really official holiday, we had to wait until Dad got home from work to open presents. Yes, for some it was a very long day:) However, it did eventually end and here they all are ready to dash for the presents.

Luke got a cool superman truck from Anya.

James got a Teddy Bear from Mark.

Mark is only a little excited about the Creationary game that Luke picked for him.

Eliza just loved the doll that James gave her.

They each received just fours gifts, but when there are six kids, it equals a lot of mess.

Anya showing off her new Granddaughter bracelet from Grandma and Grandpa Knutti.

Whatever Mark was opening certainly caught James' attention.

Peter just loved everything, he usually does.

The Gigantigest Pile of Leaves

It's a long story. Really it is. But I'm going to tell it anyway. It begins on Sunday evening(last night) with a certain 10 year old boy was let's say, less than energetic in his responsibilities. There was a certain kitchen floor that needed to be swept, so a warning was given and then it was ignored. Needless to say, Mom swept said floor, which was waay nasty and Mark earned a major maintenance. I decided that he could rake a portion of the backyard to fulfill his consequence. Stop right there, I know what you are thinking and really, how could you? Of course I didn't make him rake the whole thing! However, realizing how much it needed to be raked, I went out with him to work on it while he worked on his appropriated section. I had made one full loop around the outer edge of the yard, separating our leaves from everyone else's, when it hit me. You see in the back of my mind I am almost always trying to think of ways to have fun and to do fun things with my kids. I do want them to be happy and enjoy life, despite what they may have told you. So I thought wouldn't it be so crazy fun to rake all the leaves from the front, bring them to the back and rake all the backyard leaves and put it all together in the most gigantigest pile of leaves in the history of the world? I proposed, they were overjoyed and we raked. It took about 3 1/2 hours total, but we did it. We really did it. I have the pictures to prove it.

Do you see how huge this pile is? It's higher than Mark's head and he is over four feet! Once all the leaves were raked, I let them at it.

They sat, fell, dove, swam, and Mark even tunneled through the pile. That was kinda cool. All the while we were popping in and out of the house to take turns taking care of Beans.

We did bring her out and sit her in the leaves and she screamed, a lot, so I put her back inside. As you can see, part of her still really wants to be out there with the rest of the crew, someday little one, someday.

Oh, yeah, in case you were wondering, my hands feel like they have been pulverized, I am sure full mobility will return in time and the muscle ached hasn't completely hit yet, but I am sure I will be feeling it tomorrow. With all that I gotta say, watching them play in the gigantigest pile of leaves ever, I would do it again. Probably not tomorrow, but it was worth it.