Merry Christmas 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!  We feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people like you in our lives.  We are also grateful for Jesus Christ and His gospel.  We join with you in celebrating His glorious birth during this wonderful season.

Here is what our family has been up to this year:

We just finished out our first year deep in the heart of Texas.  It's been a hard adjustment because Texas is very different from what we are used to.   Probably the hardest part has been living so far from family.  Luckily that changed in September when Mary's sister and her family moved to Waco for her husband to start a post-doc at Baylor University.  The kids miss Homelink and their friends in Washington, but they have enjoyed our new homeschool co-op as well as the amazing zoo, children's museum at Baylor, and the pool at the YMCA.

This year we took a couple trips down to San Antonio and New Braunfels where we enjoyed the Natural Bridge Caverns, the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the missions, and the beautiful San Antonio Botanical Gardens.  In April, Mary took the kids to Arizona to see her brother Joseph and his family.  In June we took a family trip/job interview in Sequim, Washington.   Jared decided not to take the position, but we did enjoy Olympic National park, the Hoh Rainforest, and the Sequim Lavender Festival.  In September, Mary drove up to see family in Utah, and then Jared joined Mary and the kids in McCall, Idaho for a fun Collett family reunion.  In October we found out that our landlord wanted to put the house we were renting up for sale, so we did a quick last minute move to a new house 4 minutes away.   Moving a  household as big as ours twice in one year is not recommended, but it is a good exercise if you find you are accumulating too much stuff.

When Mary isn't busy packing and unpacking boxes from our moves, she is homeschooling and taking care of Audrey.  She loves teaching her kids and she is super excited to finally have a room she can use for homeschooling in our new house.  In her free time Mary enjoys yoga classes at the YMCA, swimming, reading, and dates with Jared.

Jared works hard and has been very busy doing neurosurgery with Dr. O'Grady at Providence Hospital.  In addition to a demanding work schedule, Jared served as the Executive Secretary before recently being called to be the Elder's Quorum president in our ward.  Despite his busy schedule, Jared makes time to read to the kids at night, which is the highlight of their day.   In the rare moments when he has time for himself, he enjoys woodworking, reading, and dates with his wife.

Abigail (9) is growing up to be a very responsible and helpful child.   She is great at keeping Audrey entertained and out of trouble.  She is very creative, and I often find her busy with sewing and crafts.  Abby is happiest when she is reading, doing gymnastics, swimming, building with LEGOs, or playing the piano.

Madeline (8) decided to be baptized this year, and we are very proud of her decision to follow Christ.  She loves playing the piano and learning new things.  Maddy is a great reader, and excels at math and science.   She enjoys playing LEGOs with Abby and Nathan, and she is very sweet with her little sister Audrey.  Maddy is our girly girl who delights in all things princess, sparkly, fashionable, and fancy.

Nathanael (6) sometimes has a hard time being surrounded by girls, so he was super excited when 3 boy cousins moved to town.  He loves having Nerf gun battles and playing Harry Potter and Star Wars with them.  Nathan also really enjoys building things with LEGOs.  He has gotten really creative at coming up with his own designs. His favorite subjects in homeschool are history, science, and reading (he recently finished the Magic Tree House series).

Thomas (would be 3) is loved and missed greatly.  We think of his sweet, gentle spirit a lot during this Christmas season.

Audrey (13 months) has grown a lot this year.  She is now walking, signing, and saying a few words.   The milestone we are most excited about is that, after 1 year of trying, Audrey finally started sleeping through the night!  Audrey loves books, coloring, cuddles from mommy, and rides on her toy car.  Audrey is very busy exploring the world around her, and we love rediscovering the world and all its wonders with her.

 That's what we've been up to this year.  We hope that this year leaves your family happy, safe, and full of faith.

Love,

The Colletts

November/December 2015 Update

WALKING BEAR

Audrey now is walking all the time.  She keeps me busy cleaning now that she can get into things and carry them all over the house.

Dressed for the cold weather.

Rocking with her big sister at piano lessons.

Audrey thought she was pretty cool in Maddy's sunglasses.

Snuggling mom after immunizations.

Audrey now likes to climb into the rocking chair and sign BOOK when she wants me to read to her.  Sometimes she will even say, "Read book."

Playing at the park.

Rocking with Abby.

You can tell Audrey is pretty excited about Christmas, thus the gate around the tree.

FUN WITH THE KIDS

The kids helped me plan a surprise Harry Potter party for their cousin Christian.

Here are the kids making potions with Professor Snape.

The kids learned how to shoot rubber bands at each other, but Jared insisted on eye-protection.  

COOKING BEAR

We had a day of cooking homeschool on the day before Thanksgiving.  Audrey of course wanted to help.

We had to move her kitchen into the dining room.

We love our little chef.

THANKSGIVING

A gratitude tree that the kids made in homeschool.

The feast!  Luckily the Cranney's were on board with our vegetarian Thanksgiving plans.

The kids were proud to eat the food that they had helped prepare.

When I asked Nathan and Christian what they were most thankful for this year, they both said, "Cousins!"  They do have a lot of fun playing together.

Audrey loved the meal and actually polished off this whole plate.

The girls thought it was neat that they got to eat at the adult table.

CAMEL FARM

We visited a camel farm with the kids' homeschool co-op.  Audrey kept looking at the camels and calling them dogs.

Abby was the first to ride.  She rode a dromedary camel named Richard.

Nathan rode Richard too.

Maddy riding a bactrian camel from China.

PLAYING AT THE FARM

Another reason we homeschool: public schools won't let kids climb trees

PIANO RECITAL

The girls had a Christmas piano recital.  Here they are with their teacher, Linda Houlding.  It is amazing to see how much progress they've made since they began lessons with her.

FAMILY PICTURE ATTEMPTS

The girls

Audrey doesn't like Nathan getting too close to mommy.

Here she is whacking Nathan with her head.

She did better once we gave her a bell, but notice Maddy's very large, weird looking hand.

Audrey kept pulling and playing with Nathan's hair.

Nathan decided to let us know he had had it.

We decided that laying in the grass would at least force most of us to look up at the camera at the same time.

  Family picture craziness!

KID FUN

The girls did a great FHE lesson for us about the Lehi's dream.  Nathan felt left out so we had him prepare a FHE lesson about one of his favorite Book of Mormon stories--Samulel the Lamanite.  He made a cool visual aid for the lesson out of LEGOs.

Abby has been very busy with sewing and crafts this Christmas season.  In addition to cards and a dozen snowflakes, she has taken up sewing with felt.  She made some cute miniature stockings for her and Maddy's dolls, as well as one for Nathan's stuffed animals.  Abby also designed and made this little kitty puppet to give to Audrey.

 MAYBORN CHRISTMAS PARTY

Visiting Santa.

Maddy was shy and told Santa she wanted whatever Abby wants.

Nathan asked for LEGO Ewok Attack.

Audrey just asked for Mommy.

With the kids by the tree.

They put on a live puppet show that they kids really enjoyed.

The kids were excited to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the historic village.

Audrey's favorite part was probably the mini rocking chair.

They had a lot of fun crafts for the kids, such as making their own candles the old-fashioned way.