Maddie's Mission

Updates of Sister Maddie Christensen's mission in Peru can be found at missionarymaddie.blogspot.com

Holiday Roundup

Christmas 2015

We had a wonderful holiday.  A highlight was Santa's gift of a mid-January trip to Universal Studios in Orlando, FL and a Christmas Day visit to my (Rob's) parents serving a mission in Knoxville, TN. We haven't lived this close to family in years.  The four hour drive seemed so easy compared to our annual cross-country excursions to Utah/Idaho.  We saw the new Star Wars movie with G&G Idaho and did lots of holiday visiting and eating.  

January brought the promised Harry Potter/Universal Studios trip.  Bea was in heaven and we discovered that she is a bit of an adrenaline junkie...even opting for the front seat on the Rip Ride Rocket Roller Coaster with me.  We also discovered Lard Lad donuts the size of dinner plates in Simpson's Land. Delish.

Link to more photos or wait for slideshow to boot up (below)

https://goo.gl/photos/qitFJ5EXqyecoXLc6

2015 Christensen Holiday Report: A Focus on Memories

Making Memories: Awkward Family Holiday Pictures

We took our Christmas card inspiration this year from ugly sweaters and awkward photos--the best of which seem to feature some animal. We hit the thrift stores looking for some vintage, wearable holiday memories.

Making Memories: Family Holiday Pictures, Take Two

 

Hoping to take our family photo to the next level of “Awkward Family Photos” the girls begged to include one of our chickens in the picture.  We chose “Stacey” for her sweet and docile temperament.  Once inside the house, she got a little wily and was very distracted by the shining lights and sparkly bits on everyone’s sweaters.  Rob set the timer and jumped in the picture, calling for everyone to smile.  As soon as Bea showed her pretty white teeth, Stacey turned around and pecked her right in the mouth and then turned to escape.  We laughed so hard when we realized the camera had perfectly captured half of us smiling, totally unaware, and half of us in horrified chaos.  Folks, don’t try this at home.

Counting Memories: Christensens by the Numbers

8 years old Bea turned in April.  She was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   4,224 pages Bea read to finish the complete Harry Potter series this year.

24 instruments Sarah Jane plays (23 percussion + piano).  66 inches tall.  Sarah had a growth spurt and looks poised to be the tallest Christensen girl.

40 hours Eloise spent driving to qualify for her official Driver’s license in November.  5 clubs in which she participates before and after school--Beta, Spanish, Environmental, Tri-M (honors music) and A Capella.

14 credit hours Maddie is managing as a freshman at the University of Georgia (English Education major with Spanish minor).  52 stairs to her dorm room on the 4^th floor (no elevator) that she shares with her fun roommate, Piper.

0 number of times Flori’s craft area has been clean and organized this year.  261 approximate number of school lunches she has made since August.

1 chicken coop built by Rob & friends to house the 7 egg-laying hens he has raised this year in his role as “gentleman farmer”.   

20 wonderful years of marriage celebrated by Rob & Flori on December 28th! We pre-celebrated in June with an amazing 8-day trip to Italy.

1,936 miles our family will move in June from Watkinsville, GA to Provo, UT!! Rob will start at BYU next fall.

Countless people, places, and things we will miss about living in the South.

Immeasurable the love and gratitude we feel for our friends and family, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Incalculable the joy and blessings we’ve received in our life this year, many through the kindness of others. 

Boundless Our hope that you will feel our love and appreciation for the role you play in our family’s happy memories, this year and always!

Celebrating 20 years

In June, we celebrated our 20th anniversary early with a part work/mostly fun trip to Turin and Milan, Italy. It was gorgeous weather and we saw so many beautiful things and had fun just being together.

Sunday drive and walk around the shores of Lake Maggiore near Turin.

One of the best parts of our trip was sharing it with our LONG time friends, Chris and Helen Zollinger. We rented a great apartment in Turin for a few days, then they headed to France and Rob and I took the train up to Milan for our final days. One perfect day, we all drove out to the country and took a cooking class from a chef at Cascina Bella Vista.  Our menu was: stuffed zucchini blossoms, Sformatino with parmesan cream, roasted peppers with bagna cauda, gnocchi with pesto, and panna cotta with wild berry compote.  Much of the produce was grown and picked (by us!) right in the chef's garden. I  (Flori) was in absolute heaven the whole day!!  We cooked all day and then enjoyed the fruits of our labors outside in a lovely arbor.

View from the top of Basilica Superga (Turin)

View of the Italian Alps from Lake Maggiore

The piemontese region is famous for their Hazelnuts and Ferrero Rocher. We visited the world food expo in Milan while there and sampled some amazing chocolate!

Can you tell we're food tourists?  Gelato every day and beautiful food for every meal. I loved the salad mix with fresh flowers in it and the amazing market stalls piled high with enormous tomatoes, fresh herbs, and huge vats of olives in every color!

2015 Busy Spring

Catching up on some happenings around Georgia.

Bea had a wonderful baptism that brought G&G Idaho out for a visit, and friends in force.  She is a great young girl.  She even wore the special LeBaron baptism dress on her baptism day.

Grandma Idaho celebrated a birthday with us in Georgia.  Happy Birthday Grandma!

Finishing out a uber-eventful senior year, Maddie's senior piano recital was a hit with her dedicated teacher, Mrs. Lester, family and friends.  I (Rob) even jumped in for a duet -- see videos.

Videos at:

https://goo.gl/photos/Eg3pyj2utidCBJGaA

Fall 2014

Oh, life. Why did we think it would get easier when our kids got older? We find ourselves in the midst of a whirlwind every single day. Everyone is doing well, thriving even. We still take lots of pictures and do lots of fun things--we just don't make it to the blog so often. However, here are a few video gems that shouldn't be missed!

Bea and Star Wars:  Part of our family "bucket list" this past summer was to watch the entire Star Wars saga. Bea fell in love and watched them all twice. She has been slightly obsessed ever since. We loved her totally serious take on the theme music with her kazoo.  She was Darth Vader for Halloween too!

Bea and 2nd Grade Fall Choir: This girl almost always has a song in heart. From her older sisters, she has learned the art of making up crazy lyrics and loves to move to the beat of whatever is playing on the radio/ipod/spotify, etc! (in the video she is right in the middle in a blue shirt)

Grandpa and Zipline: We ordered a zipline kit a while ago but hadn't gotten around to putting it up. We asked Grandpa Idaho if he could figure it out while Rob and I were in Germany. A couple of days later, he had this platform built and the zipline was up!! (Thanks Grandpa!!!) It has gotten tons of use and we are now the most popular friends in the neighborhood! :)

One Act: The great love of Maddie's high school life is drama. She recently participated in her 3rd year of "One Act"--a drama competition of one act plays from various high schools in the region. The play was a farce called "Black Comedy"and it was hilarious! The actors onstage are in a "blackout" so they're not supposed to be able to see anything. Maddie was the BEST in the show with her accent and staying in character and had a great time, as always!

 More musical talents! Bea just started her second year of piano and did great in her recital, playing "The Wooly Worm"

Sarah Jane blew everyone away with her perfect rendition of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". She has excelled in piano this past year and is also loving middle school band. She tried oboe last year and switched to percussion this year.

Flori's Fabulous Fortieth Festivities!

Oh, how I've dreaded this day! 40 just seems old to me.  I set some goals for myself in January--doing 40 of some things that would make me happy and make me feel good about myself. I didn't set a hard deadline (except one) and have had a great time working on talking or spending time with 40 friends, sewing 40 things, writing 40 pages in my journal, and running 40 miles in March (finished that one on my birthday!)

We talked over different plans, but everything felt too overwhelming in this busy life of ours. Rob and I celebrated with a recent trip to Hawaii, but I really wanted to do something with friends too. Luckily, I do have WONDERFUL friends who surprised me with an 1980's party a few days before my birthday. We ate nachos and terrible candy (Big League Chew, Nerds, Pixie Stix). We compared awful outfits (double layered polos with the collar up, lots of gaudy jewelry, socks over the pants, headbands, ratted hair, gold hammer pants, and pegged cuffs--everyone really got into it and it was awesome!!). We watched old MTV videos and even had a Thriller dance off and a slow-dance to "Forever Young". By the end of the night, my face was sore from laughing so much. I felt so loved and so glad that I grew up in the 80s--it's the perfect decade to make fun of and make you feel young and silly!

 Mary Ann and I sporting our hot pink t-shirts and gloves. Maddie packed an outfit for me (since it was a surprise party!)

 A HUGE chocolate cake in the shape of a rubiks cube--covered in edible paper. So creative and delicious too!

My dear friend Barb--the hostess with the most-ess! She is a party-planner extraordinare, loves to dress up, loves the 80's, has big hair, and knows how to make my favorite chocolate cake.....what else is there?  Now I will always have happy memories of turning 40!!

Maddie, the latin soap star

Maddie did this project for school.  She is the president of Spanish Club at school and does a mighty fine job in this realistic in-school drama.

Ella's got Seoul

Several years ago I had a chance to take Maddie with me to Seoul as part of a student study abroad group that I was leading.  This last spring Eloise and I had the same opportunity.  

Rob's attempt at a selfie w/ Ella with a big camera

Eloise is a cool cat.  She was super adventurous and dug right into the sights, sounds, and tastes of Seoul.   Sights and sounds:  Eloise at a Buddhist temple, with the flutter of paper lanterns.

Sight:  The amazing view of downtown Seoul from our hotel window -- lucky room 2014 for a great trip in 2014.

Tastes:  Bibimbap--delicious.

Sounds:  The hustle and bustle of markets, shopping (including eyeglasses), and a baseball game.

 

  

We also found the place where earrings are born:



Friends:  Eloise met up with an old family friend -- Jasmine Im -- for a day of shopping, eating, and taking the tram up to Namsan mountain.

We had a great time with the sights, sounds, and tastes -- but our favorite was just hanging out with each other.  Love you Ella.

Annual Recital

Fun to see the girls making progress.  

  

Heavenly Hawaii--February 2014

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas card is hot off the presses.  Below is the 2013 edition.

As 2013 draws to a close we are grateful for another year filled with friends, family, and the blessings of faith in Jesus Christ.  Our girls continue to amaze us with their perfect blend of goodness, silliness, cleverness and--contrary to the photo montage--individuality. For a glimpse of who’s who and a few highlights of our year go to: chris10sen.blogspot.com       

The photo montage was not photoshopped or altered other than to combine slices of original photos of the girls. Even we were a bit surprised at the results.  To see who's who, scroll down.

…..and a Happy NEW Year!  What’s NEW with the Christensens in 2013?

• ·      In May we purchased a 1970’s ranch home that needed lots of love and remodeling. It was a different type of move for us—just 2 miles away—but we love it. We are enjoying the extra bathroom and finished basement.
• ·      Rob is the NEW early-morning bible study teacher for 18 youth at our church each weekday morning. His favorite NEW toy is a commercial-grade backpack blower to tame our 28 trees (mostly oaks with a billion acorns).
• ·      Flori has a few NEW hobbies: reading home renovation and DIY blogs, scouring Craigslist, refinishing furniture, and painting every single room in our house.
• ·      Maddie is a junior and loves her NEW pastimes of dating and driving (she’s almost ready to get her license). She is singing in Jazz Choir and a capella club and learning about photography with Rob.
• ·      Eloise is NEW to high school and AP classes.  She also sings in a capella club and is learning CAD in a design class at school. She has a knack for design and has taught herself to use Illustrator for some awesome projects.
• ·      Sarah Jane is a NEW middle-schooler, with the pressures of honors classes and a busy, changing schedule.  She has a great singing voice, but she wanted to try something NEW—she’s now playing the oboe in band.
• ·      Bea started 1^st grade at a NEW school(the only boundary change with our move). She is happy and friendly and makes NEW friends wherever she goes. She got her first permanent teeth this year and also started piano lessons with her sisters.

We are looking forward to NEW adventures and experiences in 2014!