Christmas 2010

Jared was busy this Christmas season carving beautiful ornaments, such as these, for his co-workers.

He felt he had to give them something nice considering that one of the neurosurgeons he works with was very generous and surprised him with a new band saw for Christmas.

Santa visited our ward Christmas party. I guess Nathan still prefers mommy's lap.

Hers are the girls telling Santa what they want. They didn't ask for too much. Abby just asked for a REAL magic wand that can actually do stuff like clean the house, make a cake or a dress, glass slippers, etc. (Mommy wants one too!) Maddy wanted a real violin.

Here they are as singing angels for the primary Nativity program.

We were very excited to be able to go to Boise for a few days to celebrate Christmas. We had a pot luck appetizer party on Christmas Eve. Here is the vegetable plate Jared put together complete with a cucumber he decided to carve into a Santa face.

Here is the spread--ham and pickle rolls, shrimp dip, stuffed mushrooms, lettuce wraps, pita chips with pesto, meatballs, etc. It was delicious and we had plenty of leftovers to snack on while we played board games.

We all gathered around for Christmas performances from family members. Jared did a beautiful job singing O Holy Night. Craig performed on his guitar. Courtney sang Up on the House Top. Here is our family singing Rudolph (I know my face looks funny in the picture--I'm laughing at Rudolph and calling him names).

Abby decided to play and sing her own unique version of Away In the Manger for everyone.

After the performances we all sang Christmas carols together and Jared shared the Christmas story from The Book of Mormon with us.

Here are the excited kids on Christmas morning. The girls didn't quite get what they asked Santa for, but they got enough other fun stuff from Grandparents that they were very happy. Jared spoiled me with the complete set of the Harry Potter books in hardback, and I gave him Rosetta Stone so he can learn French.

Nathan seemed more excited about the food than the presents. Here he is sneaking into some candy oranges and fudge. Unfortunately this little escapade left him feeling sick so he didn't sleep very well that night.

The girls absolutely loved playing with their cousins. Here they are playing princess dress up with their cousins Kaitlyn and Courtney.

Our nephew Carter has a birthday on the 26th, so luckily we got to have another party the next day. Here is Nathan trying to help Carter open some of his presents.

Santa knew we couldn't transport all our Christmas presents in our minivan, so he left the big ones at our house. Here is Nathan enjoying his new toy wagon. He loves to climb in it and then points to the handle for us to give him a ride.

Santa also left the girls' treasure shelves at our house (Jared helped Santa with them a little). Maddy loves having a place by her bed to put all her favorite books and toys.

Abby loves hers too.

Jared also built them this beautiful stand for their doll house.

We had a wonderful Christmas which we enjoyed spending with family. We loved all our gifts but especially rejoice in the most precious gift, our Savior Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate.

Happy Christmas 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Christmas! We cherish this time of year when we remember the birth of our Savior and reconnect with those we love. Here is what we have been up to this year.

Jared continues to be a wonderful husband and father. He loves his job working as a neurosurgery physician assistant. In his free time he enjoys reading, gardening, rollerblading, biking, and trying out his new BBQ grill. I have also kept him busy with home improvement projects--he painted all the bedrooms and built shelves for the children's closets. He has taken up woodworking and so far has built two beautiful end tables for the living room and shelves for the garage. He also serves as Elder's Quorum President for our ward and sings in the ward choir.

I love being a stay at home mom and cherish all the time I have to spend with my children. In addition to my many mommy duties, I am doing home school pre-school with the girls and have started watching an one year old girl during the week. Whenever I have free time (which is rare) I enjoy reading, rollerblading, biking, and decorating. At church I am serving as a Relief Society teacher and enjoy attending the R.S. sewing, book, and lunch groups.

Abigail (4 1/2 years old) is Miss Enthusiasm. She is always dressing up and playing pretend. She did ballet this year and loved the opportunity to dress up and perform. Her favorite activities are dancing, swimming, playing outside, singing, and riding her new bike. She is curious and loves learning. She amazed us this year by how quickly she learned to read. She is a kind and responsible older sister and a good helper to her mommy. We love having her in our family.

Madeline (3 years old) wants to be just like her older sister and copies her in everything she does. She loves coloring and is quite the artist. She constantly amazes us with her realistic pictures and the way she colors in the lines so carefully. Like Abby, she loves princesses and dressing up. She also loves swinging and going for walks by the Columbia River. She is a good friend to Abby, and is always looking out for her little brother Nathan. We feel very blessed to have her in our family.

Nathanael (16 months old) is a busy, happy boy. He crawls everywhere and is good at getting into mischief. He loves cars, dogs, hats, swinging, his star blanket, exploring outside, and most of all, food. He has fun with his older sisters and tries to be a part of whatever they are doing. We love his sweet, happy smiles and cheerful disposition.

For vacation this year we attended the Collett Family reunion at Time Lodge, and then we spent another week with my family in Utah. We took several trips to Boise to see Jared's family. We also got a new tent and attempted our first family camping trip (but that's another story).


We hope all is well with you. We love to hear from you, and if you every happen to be in Washington near the Tri-cities, we would love a visit from you too. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and wish you the best of everything in 2011.

Love,

The Colletts (Mary, Jared, Abby, Maddy, and Nathan)

Thanksgiving 2010

We were surprised when we had a big snow storm right before Thanksgiving. Here are the girls making a snowman with their dad.

Halloween is long over but the girls are still in the Halloween mode. Here they are pretending to be witches as they "fly" around my kitchen.

Jared finished Maddy's birthday jewelry box--purple at her request. As you can tell she loves it.
The night after this picture was taken Maddy fell asleep with the box cradled in her arms.

She knows daddy loves her.

Nathan's new favorite pastime. He climbs in the sled and whines until his sisters pull him around the living room in circles.

My mom making some delicious stuffing for our Thanksgiving dinner.

My dad helped by keeping the kids entertained. Here they are singing Little Bunny Foo Foo.

As you can tell the kids loved all the grandparent cuddles and attention. We wish we lived closer so they could get it more often.

Nathan loved getting rides on grandpa's shoulders.

All of us enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Since we did all the shopping and cooking on Thanksgiving day, we decided to do salmon instead of a turkey. Jared went out in the snow and barbecued us some delicious pineapple salmon.

This turkey on our apple pie was the only one we ended up eating, but it was delicious and we didn't even have leftovers.

Nathan with his new favorite hat from grandma that he insisted on wearing everywhere. He loves that his hat is black just like his daddy's.

After much looking we found a sled big enough for Grandpa and a hill small enough for the girls. So much fun!

The kids playing in the backyard with grandpa.

I think my dad burned off all his Thanksgiving dinner by running around the yard as he pulled the kids in the sled.

Abby making snow angels.

We had a beautiful thanksgiving with my parents. Along with the gospel, family is at the top of our list of things we are grateful for. We are grateful for my parents coming up to spend Thanksgiving with us and for the rest of our family that we were able to talk with on the phone.

Maddy Cinderella's 3rd Birthday

It is hard to belive that our little girl is now three years old. For Maddy's birthday this year we decided to do a family Cinderella party.


We started out with Maddy's favorite activity: coloring. She is really good at staying in the lines, but often comes up with some interesting color combinations (note Prince Charming's orange face and hair).

After a "find the mouse under the tea cup" game, the girls were put to work cleaning the kitchen floor while they sang, "Sing sweet nightingale." Their cleaning was interrupted by a knock on the door where there was a messenger delivering invitations to the ball.

Maddy had to find a dress for the ball by opening all her birthday presents.

Jared made Maddy a purple jewelry box (we will post pictures when it is completely finished).
She also got a Cinderella Dress from Grandma D and several sets of princess shoes from Grandma C.

Thanks to Maddy's fairy Grandmothers she is now ready for the ball.

Her are the girls dancing with their handsome prince daddy at the ball. Unfortunately their dancing was interrupted by a clock chiming the stroke of midnight. The girls quickly ran upstairs, dropping their slippers. Luckily prince daddy found them. The girls tried on the slippers, and when they fit they were rewarded with cake and ice cream.

Here is Maddy blowing out the candle on her Cinderella cake. Unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries at this point, but afterward the girls had a princess tea party on their little table with Maddy's new tea set from Grandma. They then watched Disney's Cinderella movie and have been playing Cinderella ever since.

Halloween 2010

We kicked off the season by having our friends over for FHE to decorate some pumpkin cookies.

Nathan in his duck costume.

Our cute little Maddy bear.

Abby was Tinkerbell. Can you tell she is about ready to fly with excitement?

She got excited when we were at playgroup and the Nursery had a Tinkerbell doll that she pretended was her baby.

The girls with our good friends at the library Halloween party.

The girls with their Halloween crafts (sorry they just wanted to look at the crafts and not the camera).

We went to the city Fall festival where the kids enjoyed a scavenger hunt, a maze, a hayride and games, but their favorite activity by far was the clown that made them balloon animals. Here is Maddy with her purple bear.

Abby with her flower.

Probably the girls' favorite Halloween activity was the trunk or treat where they got loads of candy (which I quickly confiscated for potty-training bribes).

They also enjoyed all the carnival games and activities they had beforehand.

Probably the most fun was seeing our bishop (who is reasonably trim) in this fun costume.