Dear Friends and Family,
Merry Christmas! We love taking the time to catch up with all of you. Here’s what we have been up to this year:
Jared continues to enjoy working at Kadlec Neuroscience. In his free time he likes reading, rollerblading, biking, and studying French. Most of his free time, however, has been taken up by serving in the Elder’s Quorum and on home improvement projects. He spent spring and summer landscaping our backyard, and has spent this summer and fall tiling our master bath, dining room, kitchen, hall, and guest bathroom. He is looking forward to a new year with hopefully not quite so many projects.
Mary stays home with our three darling children. She enjoys doing homeschool pre-school with Nathan, reading lessons with Maddy, and homeschool with Abby in the afternoons. In her free time she enjoys rollerblading, biking, and reading.
Abby (5) is growing up and learning to be more responsible. She is very enthusiastic and gets super excited about birthdays, holidays, and vacations. She enjoys school (she started Kindergarten this year), playing with her siblings, swimming, riding her bike, and reading. She is learning to play the piano and is doing well. Her favorite things are Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Ponies, and princesses (she was Ariel for Halloween). She is a good big sister and a wonderful helper to her mom. We love having her in our family.
Maddy (4) is as sweet as ever. She loves to play with her siblings, go to the park and library, and do arts and crafts. She loves books and is learning to be a good reader. Her favorite things include everything her sister likes, as well as cats (she insisted on a cat-themed birthday party) and babies (she dressed as a baby for Halloween). Her sweet smiles and snuggles continue to warm our home.
Nathan (2) learned how to walk at the beginning of this year, and he has been busy getting into everything ever since. His favorite things include cars, tools, Clifford, Bob the Builder, firemen, and dogs. He likes to be mommy’s helper with his little vacuum and by “helping” her cook and do laundry. Most of all he likes to help dad by digging in the yard, or by using his toy tools to help with projects around the house. We love our little man cub.
As far as trips go, we went to Boise in March for Jared’s brother’s wedding, and then down to Utah to see Mary’s family and the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU. In May went to Boise to celebrate Jared’s birthday and to see the musical Wicked. In June we took a family vacation to the Oregon coast with a stop at the Portland zoo on our way home. In August we met up with Mary’s parents in Spokane and spent several days in beautiful Coeur d’Alene. We went to Boise in September for a fun Collett family reunion and again in November for Thanksgiving.
That’s what we’ve been up to this year. We hope you and your families are well, and that you enjoy the beautiful Christmas season filled with the peace and joy Christ brings.
Love, The Colletts
