January 2018 Update

NEW YEAR'S DAY

The kids were super excited that it actually snowed in Texas.  Yep that's it.  I'm excited to take them to see a real snowstorm in Utah and Idaho next winter.

FUN WITH FRIENDS

We had fun at the Jumping Place with our friends.

DALLAS TEMPLE

The kids are always such good sports when we take them on our long temple trips to Dallas and they have to wait while mom and dad take turns doing a session.

SUNBEAM

Audrey is the cutest new Sunbeam!  She was SO excited to go to big girl primary.  She kept raising her hand every time they asked a question even if she didn't know the answer.


BROOKLYN

Audrey loves her baby sister and sometimes wakes her up so she can play with her.

 My little shopper helper.

Brooklyn loves bath time.

Playing with her toys.  Brooklyn finally learned to crawl this month.

Nathan teaching baby Jedi the ways of the force with a light saber he made out of a cardboard tube.

Naps with Daddy

Eating Cheerios

Brooklyn loves getting laundry basket rides from her big sisters.

Audrey wanted a ride too.

CAMERON PARK ZOO

On the otter slide

Hanging with the orangatans

Brooklyn waving

BASKETBALL

Abby, Maddy, and Nathan are all doing basketball at the YMCA this season.  It's been hard competing with a lot of inner city kids who've been playing since they were toddlers, but we're proud of them putting themselves out there to learn a new skill.

December 2017 Update

 WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY

Audrey and Abby got to be in the angel choir.

Nathan was a wiseman with a sweet beard.

Jared did a great job singing "We Three Kings."

Maddy was the perfect Mary for the Nativity play.

Audrey meeting "Santa"


MORE DECEMBER FUN


Brooklyn loves to swing at the park.



Nativity dress up at the Mayborn.  Audrey was SO excited to be an angel.



Brooklyn, our little red-headed Mexican.



Brooklyn taking a nap with her dad.

Of course Brooklyn's favorite place to play is by the Christmas tree.

Audrey climbing her first tree.

I left Jared in charge of the kids while I ran out and came home to find him stuck on the couch with two sleeping girls.

 The kids had fun building a foam block castle for Brooklyn at the library.

Maddy was excited to get her braces off right before Christmas so she could eat the See's Chocolate caramels from the bishop.

Nathan's festivities consisted of dressing his Darthbear up as Darth Santa bear.  Nathan and Brooklyn both came down with flu a week before Christmas, but thanks to Tamiflu they got better just in time to enjoy Christmas day with us.

 CHRISTMAS EVE

It was really nice to have Christmas Eve fall on a Sunday.  We got to enjoy a beautiful musical program with many performances by members of the Collett family.  Jared sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" with the bishopric and Abby and Maddy sang "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly" with the activity day girls.  Nathan and Abby and Maddy also sang "Away In A Manger" and "Tiny King" with the primary kids.  The program ended with Maddy and Abby playing a piano duet of "Silent Night."  I should mention that earlier this month Abby performed the Piano Guy's version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" on the piano for sacrament meeting.  Living in Texas has definitely given us a lot of opportunities to share our musical talents.

Audrey was really excited to play the angel in our family nativity program.

Brooklyn was a darling little shepherd.

Nathan and Maddy made a nice Mary and Joseph and of course the rocking horse played his usual role as a donkey.

Jared and Abby were wonderful wisemen

Our ornaments for this year were sea turtles from our trip to South Padre Island.

Jared reading "The Night Before Christmas" before tucking the children all snug in their beds.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Brooklyn was super cute opening her gifts on Christmas morning.  She got a Little People animal zoo from Santa, but what she was the most excited about was the clementine in her stocking.

Audrey was super excited about her new shopping cart.

Nathan wrote Santa asking for a dog, but he didn't seem too disappointed that Santa brought him this Star Wars LEGO set instead.

The girls really enjoyed getting a gymnastic set for their dolls.

Brooklyn looking super cute in her new outfit from her cousin.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We celebrated New Year's Eve by eating appetizers and chocolate almond truffles (From Dr. Greger's new cookbook) and staying up late playing games.