The Kecso Blaede Family

Lucy, Katie, Cassidy, and Nora

Happy Holidays

This year, we were thrilled to spend more time outdoors—we got our patio presentable with shade sails, string lights, and wireless speakers to round out the table, seating, and fire pit. We installed sod in our backyard in late fall 2023, and we were able to enjoy that in the warmer months this year. And because we have more grass, we got an electric lawnmower (we are very cool young adults excited about very cool things)!

We are so grateful we got to spend lots of time with friends and family this year. We enjoy living so close to Katie’s parents, where our kids have made themselves quite at home. We also got to see Cassidy’s parents a couple of times this year, and Lucy and Nora had some quality grandparent time camping with them for a couple of nights. We bid farewell to Katie’s sister, Liz, as she moved to begin law school in Portland, but we’re still lucky to visit with Auntie Liz quite often. In July, we traveled up to Spearfish, SD to spend time with Katie’s best friends from college, Rosemary and Emma, and felt so welcomed by and comfortable with Emma’s family. We’ve continued to enjoy hanging out with our friend Dagan, and Cassidy got to see Twenty One Pilots with him over the summer. Cassidy and Katie had the honor of becoming godparents to Oscar, Samuel, and Henry, our nephews through Cassidy’s brother Mark Brandon and sister-in-law Rebecca. We flew out to Minnesota in September for the celebration, where our families had a lot of fun together and the adults all stayed up way too late every night talking. In the fall, our friends Micah, Kim, and Thatcher moved just down the street from us, so we’ve been enjoying spending time with their family.

Cassidy

continues to work at Endless, where he’s doing more game development related things in addition to the Linux stuff. In February, he jetted off to the FOSDEM conference in Brussels. Instead of traveling internationally for GUADEC, Cassidy helped host it in Denver in July! In October, he traveled to Berlin for work where he presented at GodotCon, a game engine conference. He continues to volunteer by contributing to open source projects like GNOME and Flathub. He enjoys tinkering with his 3D printer and anything smart home related. He has been playing through a backlog of PS5 games when he finds time, currently Jedi Survivor, Horizon Forbidden West, and Death Stranding. Website Wishlist

Katie

spent the bulk of the spring and summer doing yard work and gardening. She moved garden beds, laid mulch, sowed seeds, and tended to veggies, herbs, flowers, and raspberries. (It mostly felt like just moving a bunch of dirt around.) According to her podcast app, she listened to more than 400 hours of podcasts this year (most of which was during all that yard work). In August, she completed a certificate in Data Science from CU Denver. In December, she took her first trip away from her kids! She got to visit her sister Liz in the beautiful city of Portland. Next year, she will begin work as a School Office Assistant at Challenge School, where Lucy attends. She continues to enjoy baking, arts and crafts, going on walks, and spending time with family and friends. Website Wishlist

Lucy

turned five years old on May 21, and we had a Bluey themed birthday party to celebrate! She is creative, inquisitive, and silly. She completed preschool at Sunrise Elementary, our neighborhood school, and began kindergarten at Challenge School, a public magnet school for highly gifted learners. She made immense progress in swim lessons this year, becoming confident enough to briefly go underwater and jump into the pool. Lucy is beginning to master video game skills, and really got into 3D platformers like Astro’s Playroom and Untitled Goose Game. She started watching Star Wars Rebels (and her dad beams with pride whenever she asks anything about it), in addition to the regular rotation of Bluey, Super Kitties, and The Lion Guard. We have cherished maintaining contact with friends she met in daycare, and are (slowly) fostering friendships with her kindergarten classmates. Lucy loves drawing, writing, reading, and learning more about the world around her. Wishlist

Nora

turned two years old on May 8, and she continues to grow at lightning speed! Her birthday party was themed around one of her obsessions, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (or “hunky powwow,” as she used to call it). She loves to talk and has a lot to say. She is funny, easygoing, and independent. She’s also quite creative—she started calling herself “Baby Frog” out of nowhere, likes to play make-believe, and makes up songs about everything. Nora adores her friends and family. Like her big sister, she enjoys watching Bluey and Super Kitties, though her first choice is often Spidey and His Amazing Friends. Wishlist

Lots of love and best wishes for 2025!
The Kecso Blaede Family