Merry Christmas 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!  We love this time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior.   We also love taking the time to reconnect with all of you. Thank you for all the cards, newsletters, e-mails, and Facebook updates.  Here is what our family has been up to this year.

This year has been a busy one for us.   In the spring our family visited Olympic National park and the Hoh Rainforest.  Over the summer we took several trips down to Utah and Idaho to visit family.  In June Jared accepted a new neurosurgery job and we spent the rest of the summer packing and getting our house ready to sell.  In the fall we visited Mt. St Helen's and beautiful Mount Rainier National Park.  In October Jared went down to Texas to start work while Mary stayed in Washington until after Audrey was born in November.  Jared flew back up for Audrey's birth, then after a few weeks of visiting family in Idaho and Utah we all joined Jared down in our new home in Texas.

Jared has worked really hard this year getting our house all fixed up and ready to sell.  His hard work really paid off since the house sold in less than 2 days.  He likes new job in Waco and is excited to be working with Dr. O'Grady again (he worked with him for 4 years in Washington).  Jared is a great dad and he loves reading to the kids every night, especially now that they are old enough to enjoy some of his favorite books  (Candy Shop War, Fablehaven, and Harry Potter).

Moving, homeschooling, teaching Primary, and being pregnant have kept Mary pretty busy this year so she hasn't had time (or energy) for much else.  When she does get free time she enjoys book group, date nights with Jared, and visiting family.

Abby turned 8 and was baptized this year.  She also learned to ride a 2 wheeler.  She continues to excel at the piano and is already starting to pass her mom up.  She also loves art, swimming, gymnastics, and playing LEGOs and with her Gotz doll.  Probably Abby's greatest love is reading, and we have a hard time keeping her in books since she reads several each day.

Maddy turned 7 and lost her first tooth this year.  She finished up kindergarten and is now enjoying doing first grade at home with mom.  She works hard at home school and has a real talent for art, reading, and math. She also does well in her swimming and gymnastics classes.  Her favorite thing is playing LEGOs and dolls with her sister and brother.

Nathan (5) enjoyed being in public school kindergarten and is excited to start homeschooling with Mom now that we are in Texas.  He is a great reader and enjoys reading the Magic Tree House series.  He loves knights, pirates, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.  Nathan started piano this year and he is doing really well.  He has also made a lot of progress in his gymnastic and swimming lessons.

Audrey was born on November 7th.  She is a very sweet, cuddly baby.  She just started smiling and we feel very blessed to have her in our family.

 Thomas would have been 2 this year.  We love him and think of him often.

We hope all of you have peace and joy this Christmas season.

Love,

The Collett Family

Maddy's 7th Birthday

Since we were busy packing, Maddy didn't get much of a celebration on her actual birthday.  She did get to open a few gifts and Jared took the kids to IHOP for her birthday dinner.  For some reason she is obsessed with bacon lately and wanted to go somewhere where she could eat bacon.

Maddy holding the other birthday girl.

Maddy wanted a Frozen party for her birthday, so we had a party with her cousins while we were down in Boise.

Here are the kids all dressed up for the party.

Even Grandma and baby Lyla dressed up for the occasion.

It was fun to see Lyla, who is 8 months old and just a little bigger than her 2 week old cousin.

Jenna was a super cute little princess.

Maddy and Emily in their Anna costumes.  Emily actually made her costume herself.

Kaitlyn, Abby, and Kayla in their Elsa costumes.

The boys dressed up.

The kids had fun making snowflake and snowmen crafts, putting the nose on Olaf, having a treasure hunt, and playing a game where they put on reindeer antlers and looked for Olaf's nose.

Grandma Collett made Maddy a beautiful big cake with frosting that looked like snow.

Maddy's Favorite Things
Food: Tomato soup and grilled cheese, bacon
Color: Purple
Toys: American Girl dolls and clothes, LEGO Friends, Princess LEGOs
Sports: swimming, gymnastics
Things to Do: arts and crafts, riding her bike, playing with Abby
Subjects in School: reading, science, art, and PE

November 2014 Update

OUR FINAL WEEK IN WASHINGTON

Bringing Audrey home from the hospital was a little hard since our whole house was full of boxes.   Since all the kids' books were packed up and all the library books were returned, they were especially excited to open their new books from Audrey. (We have a tradition that when we bring a baby home from the hospital, he/she gives the other kids a new book or some other small gift.)

The kids decided that she is a very reverent baby since she likes to fold her arms a lot.

Since we were busy getting ready to move in less than a week, I was grateful that she was such a well behaved baby.

So sweet!

The kids enjoying our backyard for the last time before moving.

They were excited that Jared had finally filled up the sandbox with sand (since he was emptying the base of our outdoor umbrella).

We were reminded of why we never filled it up in the first place because the kids all ended up covered in sand.

Abby with a walking stick that she decorated on her last day of Homelink.

The girls had a piano recital their last day before leaving.  Here they are with their teacher Amy Merdith.  She was a great teacher for the girls, and they made a lot of progress with her help.

Nathan on his last day of Kindergarten with his teacher Mrs. Beach.

Exactly one week after Audrey was born we had this big moving truck pull up and a team loaded up all our stuff to take to Texas.  It felt very strange to say good bye to this beautiful place that we have called home for over 6 years.

BOISE

We drove to Boise that night and the kids insisted on taking our sled (which we were planning on donating to GoodWill) so they could play with it in the snow in Boise.  The only place in our very loaded down van was on the girls' lap, so they rode the whole way down with a giant sled on their lap.  It looks like it was worth it.

We told the kids to enjoy the snow since we probably won't get any in Texas.

Nathan really loved it, and stayed out playing for hours.  After spending a day in Boise, Jared had to fly back to Texas to work while I stayed in Boise with the kids for a week and a half.

Audrey had her first bath in Grandma's sink since we didn't have her baby bath tub with us.

We got to celebrate Jared's brother Eric's birthday with him.

Grandma Collett took the kids to The Village at Meridian so they could enjoy the fun lights and fountain show.

Grandma got to enjoy some sweet Audrey snuggles.

Jared flew back in town just in time to enjoy this delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Random cute picture of Audrey.

AUDREY'S BABY BLESSING

We feel so blessed to have this precious little girl join our family.  Jared blessed her in his parents' ward in Boise and my parents and niece Emily drove up to share this special day with us.  The blessing and the baby were both beautiful.

She looked gorgeous in the blessing dress that my mom picked out.

Abby and Maddy wanted a picture of just the girls.

Our family together.

My mom finally getting a chance to hold Audrey.

Audrey with her Grandpa Donaldson.

GOOD-BYE TO BOISE

The Saturday before we left, the kids helped Grandma Collett decorate for Christmas and we had a mini Christmas celebration.  The kids watched a Nativity video that they had made with their cousins, and they opened gifts from their cousin gift exchange.

The girls playing dolls with their cousins on their final night together.

UTAH

We only had a few days to spend in Utah, but we had a great time.  The kids really enjoyed all of Grandma's  grand kid toys, especially the dress-up. I think Maddy wore this butterfly costume the entire time we were there.  We had a nice late Thanksgiving dinner with everyone, followed by a story from Grandpa.  I got to go out to lunch with my Mom, Nikki, and Sarah to celebrate Sarah's birthday while Jared and my dad took the kids to the newly remodeled Monte L. Bean Museum.

On our last night there the kids performed the Nativity for us with my dad playing his usual role as the donkey.

Abby (a very versatile actress) was the inn keeper, the shepherd, the angel and the 3 kings.

Maddy was excited that she could play Mary, and Nathan was Joseph.

We're grateful that we had such a wonderful time with family before heading down to Texas at the end of the month.

Audrey's Birth

 I was scheduled to be induced on November 9th, but on the the morning of the 7th I woke up to lots of blood.   I thought that my water may have broken so we rushed to the hospital.   The nurse checked me and said I was in labor.  I told them that I usually went fast so they hurried and put in an epidural.  My contractions then slowed down and they decided that I actually wasn't in labor and that my bleeding had been from one of my vulvar varicose veins that had burst (which is very unusual).  But since I already had an epidural and I was scheduled to be induced in 2 days, they decided to break my water.  When that didn't seem to do anything they decided to help my contractions along with some pitocin.  The contractions started hurting like crazy on one side of my body.  I was upset because I was really looking forward to a pain free birth experience.  The nurse had me lay on my side and the epidural started working on the other side too.    I started contracting more often, and then the nurse noticed that Audrey's heart rate was going down with my contractions. When she checked me again she found I was ready to push.  Unfortunately the doctor who had been waiting around all day to deliver Audrey had just gone into surgery so they had me try not to push while another doctor rushed over to deliver her.

 It was nice to be able to push without it hurting.  The doctor had to use a vacuum at the end because he was worried about her heart rate, but then her head came out with the next push.  She was born at 4:36 p.m. When I heard her cry for the first time, I started to cry because I was so happy (with Thomas I didn't hear him cry until he was almost a week old).  I also got to hold her right after birth which was nice since Nathan and Thomas were both whisked away into the NICU.  Of all my birth experiences, this was by far my best.  I could enjoy my sweet baby without all the pain.

 She was upset by the birth experience and peed all over me, but I was so happy that she was healthy that I didn't care.

 It was a good thing she peed because she came in at exactly 7 pounds.  My biggest baby by about a pound.  She measured 19.5  inches, so she is also my longest baby by an inch.

Her face is really swollen here, but you can still tell she is a cutie.

Jared was one proud daddy!

The kids were super excited to meet their little sister!

 Abby holding Audrey for the fist time.

 Maddy is thrilled to have a little sister.

You can tell that Nathan is going to be the best big brother a girl could ask for.

  Mommy enjoying Audrey snuggles.

 A picture of all my girls.

Enjoying snuggles with all my kids (I'm sure Thomas was there in spirit).

 Ready to take my little princess home.

 A picture right before leaving the hospital.  We feel so blessed to have Audrey join our family.  We love her so much already.