Merry Christmas!

Here is our Christmas Letter that for some reason I could not email out.


Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

We hope that this year has been a joyful one for you all! We have enjoyed it and wanted to share an update on what is going on in our lives! Consider this our family Christmas card letter!!

We are still living in Kennewick, Washington and we love it! In February we moved to a house about 2 miles from our previous one. A family from church offered for us to move into their house and manage a self storage unit facility they own, which shares the same property as the house. So we took the offer and it has been a great blessing! We live on site and manage all the office duties and keep the facility clean and maintained and in working order. It is pretty low key and doesn't really require more than just a couple of hours worth of work a day, and so it's nice that I can still be a stay at home mom. We really enjoy all the space in the house and the nice big yard. It really is wonderful!

Kody has kept pretty busy with our roofing business. It has had it's slow days, but overall we do a lot of work for a lot of the biggest builders in the area. Residential and Commercial roofing (and all parts of construction for that matter) have stayed pretty on top in this area compared to other parts of the country, so we feel very blessed to have that work. Kody attended 3 semesters of college this year and really enjoyed it. He took a break this semester because roofing really got busy, and he wanted to focus on other projects. Nonetheless, he still enjoys learning from every source he can and has great goals he is working hard on. He continues to work with with the Young Men in our ward at church, and enjoys playing basketball each week with other guys from church.

In addition to managing the storage units, I stay busy with all the kiddos! They keep me on my toes and we have fun together. In church I have been doing the music with all of the primary children for the past 2 years. It has been a lot of work, and a LOT of fun. I love those precious kids and hearing them sing, but will not be in charge of the music much longer. Instead I will teach the children who will be turning 8 this coming year. I'm looking forward to doing that and I'm sure I will learn a lot from them. Some exciting news also is that we are expecting baby number 4, another boy, at the end of April. We are very happy and look forward to it very much. Although with my history baby will probably be born in May! We plan on doing another home birth and are using the same midwife we used with Jameson. It will be fun to have two girls and two boys!

Kamille has had a great year. She just turned five on the 15th and was looking forward to it all year long. The morning of her birthday she comes in to me and says "Mom, I'm 5 now, do I get to go to Kindergarten today?" I explained to her that she would have to wait until next fall. She loves to learn, just like her dad, and she is very smart. She loves to read and write and does very well at it. She is reading on a high 1st grade level and loves to play school with Kayda and Jameson, with Kamille always being the teacher, of course! She played T-ball and Soccer this year and had a lot of fun with that. She loves going to Primary and loves to sing, act and dance.

Kayda turned 3 in August and had a pretty calm year.....no broken bones or hospital visits. Lots of bumps and bruises, but that's about all. She still climbs and jumps on everything she can and she is our favorite little knuckle head. She and Kamille play so well together, and are the best little friends. She is looking forward to doing all the same types of things Kamille has done (i.e.. T-ball, soccer) and we know that she will be a great athlete. She is very coordinated and has no fear. She loves to be silly and dress up in anything but her own clothes.

Jameson turned 1 in September. He is our little man. Always happy and smiling. He keeps up pretty well with the girls and is at a near run when playing with them. He too is a little climber and can pull himself up on just about everything. He likes to dance and talk on the phone and is so loving and sweet. He's brought so much joy to our family and we are very thankful for him. And I'm sure that he will be very thrilled to have a little brother to wrestle and do boy things with, although the girls fill in pretty well for now.

We are looking forward to the upcoming year and the experiences and opportunities we will face. The Lord has truly blessed our lives and our family with what we have needed. We are thankful for the knowledge we have of the gospel and the light and direction it is for us. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that your hearts and homes are filled with love, happiness, and joy this special season and always!

Warmest Wishes and Much Love,
The Collier Family
Kody, Julie, Kamille, Kayda, Jameson, and Baby Boy