Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We love this time of year that we have to remember family and friends, and to reflect on the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has brought our family hope, peace, and joy through all of our ups and down in life. This year we have much to be grateful for.

Jared was able to dramatically improve his work situation without us having to move again. He now works as a Neurosurgery PA and loves it. He finds neurosurgery fascinating, and enjoys the regular hours and easy call schedule. He likes having more time for his family and recreation. When he isn't working or playing with the kids he is busy woodworking, rollerblading, reading, gardening, or riding his new recumbent tricycle. He put together a swing set in the backyard and has plans to redo many of the rooms in the house starting with the master closet. His new job has also freed him up for some new church callings including nursery worker, Elder's Quorum presidency 1st counselor, and choir member.

Mary loves being a mom and feels very blessed to be able to stay home with her three wonderful children. She has started doing home school pre-school with the girls which they love. In the rare moments when she gets a break from the kids and household responsibilities she enjoys reading, cycling, rollerblading, writing, and quilting. She is involved in a monthly book group and serves in the Relief Society as a teacher. She is enjoying decorating our new home and is excited for the planned home improvements.

Abigail (3 1/2) is imaginative and full of life. She is obsessed with princesses and anything girly and frilly. Her favorite activities include: dressing up, coloring, swinging, reading, helping mommy cook, dancing, and going on dates with daddy. Her favorite characters are Fancy Nancy, Angelina Ballerina, and Cinderella. She has learned a lot this year including her numbers, her letters and their sounds, and how to write her name. She is a good big sister to Maddy and Nathan, and we love the enthusiasm and excitement she brings to our family.

Madeline (2) has grown by leaps and bounds this year. She loves to be independent and do things herself. She is now sleeping in a big girl bed and starting to go on the big girl potty. She has learned most of her letters and especially loves the letter M. Her favorite things are animals, baby dolls, books, and choo choo trains. Her sweet smiles, cuddles, and cute little pigtails help to brighten our lives.

Nathanael (4 months) is a sweet, happy baby. Despite an early delivery and a week in the NICU, he is now a perfectly healthy baby boy. We loves his cuddles, laughter, and smiles. His favorite things are nursing, playing patty-cake, and being sung to. His name Nathan is fitting--he truly is our "gift from God."

We hope this letter finds you and your family well and hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

Love,

The Colletts

Big Girl Beds

BIG GIRL BEDS

Maddy informed us that she is "2 years old" and that she is now going to sleep in the "big girl bed." So we got a bed rail and after 2 weeks of trial and error she is finally sleeping in it. More than having to train Maddy, we had to train Abby to stay in and keep the door closed, but now they are both finally going to bed without too much trouble. Sometimes Jared and I like to listen at the door to hear what they say to each other. Here is one conversation: MADDY: "My white doggy! My dolly! My blankey!" ABBY: "Maddy you need to be a big girl and stay in bed or you have to go back to your baby crib!" MADDY: "No Abby! Two years old. Abby shh. Quiet. Shhh. Time sleep." As much as they argue I think they both have fun and are comforted knowing the other is in the room.

They still get each other riled up and like to giggle and act silly at bedtime, but overall they are doing really well.

DRESSING UP

So Abby still loves to dress up and now that Halloween is over, she is dressing up with a more wintry Christmas theme.

Abby got in this outfit and said, "Mommy I'm dressing up like you!"

Here is Abby dressed up like Mary. Notice the stuffed animal that she zipped into her pajamas. The dog is Joseph and the unicorn is the donkey. She loves to act out the Nativity complete with the birth scene (as she unzips her pajamas). Maddy is of course the little drummer boy with her new drum and mommy gets to play the mean inn keepers.

Abby likes to dress up Nathan too. Here he is as Ol' Saint Nick.

She thought he would look good with a funnel on his head like the tin man.

Thanksgiving 2009

We thought we were going to have to spend Thanksgiving up here alone since the doctor Jared works for was on call over the holiday. Last week he told Jared not to worry about sticking around, so we decided to take a last minute trip down to Boise to spend Thanksgiving with Jared's family. I for one was happy not to have to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner myself.





The girls loved seeing their grandparents again and of course loved exploring their house and yard complete with cows, horses, pigs, goats, and squirrels. Here are Jared's parents in front of the delicious "spread."

Here we all are enjoying JoyAnn's wonderful cooking. We all talked about what we are grateful for. Abby said "flowers" and Maddy said "nursery rhymes." Jared is grateful for his new job and I am grateful for Nathan and that he is alright despite the difficult pregnancy and delivery. Neal and JoyAnn were happy to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of living in their house.

The day after Thanksgiving Jared did a little Black Friday shopping with his mom in the morning, and we spent the afternoon canning applesauce. We were blessed with an abundance of apples since an orchard in Pasco was giving away free apples for the picking. So we brought a van full down and used JoyAnn's canning equipment, kitchen, and expertise to can 88 quarts of applesauce.

Here are all the jars. I think this will make a pretty good dent in our goal to get our emergency year's supply of food.

Jared spent Saturday getting us a beautiful Christmas tree from the mountains with his brother. It's much nicer than what you can get from Grizzly Gus, but at the expense of long hours of hiking in the snow and exposure to wild animals (Neal saw a wolf track the size of Nathan's head). On Sunday we had a pleasant drive home (thanks to our new portable DVD player). We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and were reminded of all we have to be thankful for.