The Bell Family

Wow! We can’t believe it…. our tiny little bubba is now a little lady and has started school!!!

No tears, no tantrums…. just sheer excitement and a ‘little bit of scariness’ as she puts it!!!

Despite the late night out at Australia Day celebrations (sorry, we couldn’t leave without seeing the fireworks!!!), Laura was up and dressed by 730, she’d had her breakfast and mandatory first day photos and was ready to go!!! Katie was a different matter of course, she would much prefer to stay home with Mummy or even go to school with Laura rather than go to daycare at the moment, but we got her settled back in at daycare so we could spend the morning with Laura.

Jason and I walked her to school and spent a little while getting her books, lunch, drink bottle and other supplies in place and then watched as she met new friends and settled into the home corner. In no time, she had set the table and prepared a feast fit for a king!!!

When it came time for us to go, Laura gave us both a quick cuddle and kiss on the cheek and then merrily kept playing with her new found friends!!!

At her first school assembly, she was lucky enough to be given a special merit award for her creative thinking and collage!!! She was quite chuffed!

It’s week 3 now and she’s still keen… she gets dressed, packs her own lunch box and is ready to go. Let’s hope it stays that way for the next 12 years!!!

Cheers from some very prud parents,
Jason and Chrissy

Here’s a little piccie from her first day….

Laura's First Day at School

Birthday time again…. little Katie’s now 3!!!

We had a great day on her birthday – she shared cupcakes with friends at daycare, then we went swimming and had a family dinner at home! Katie was spoilt with lots of new clothes, books, princess things, fairy dressups, craft/activity things and a new suitcase for our up and coming traveller!!!

She’s very proud to tell us all that she’s now ‘THREE!’, not two anymore and definitely gives her big sister a run for her money in the conversation stakes now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!

Present time - I love to rip the paper!!!

Party girl at daycare - with her special purple paper crown made by Laura

Katie, blowing out the candles at her party

Time flies when you’re having fun!!! We were all lucky enough to enjoy a couple of weeks off at Christmas this year, which gave us plenty of time for parties, bike riding, swimming, playing at the park, playing with Roxy, playing the Wii (especially bowling and tennis), as well as a bit of camping and just generally taking it easy! It was great! Here are some piccies for you to enjoy…

Hope you all had a good one too!

Cheers,
Chrissy, Jason, Laura and Katie

Early Christmas Morning

Laura painted up like a Princess at the daycare Christmas party

Katie the Butterfly at the daycare Christmas party

Katie on Christmas morning

Laura on Christmas morning

Sisters...

Family photo - from our New Year's Eve party

Explorers...

Chrissy and Katie at the beach

Girls at the rockpool

Laura on the ropes!

Ropes time for Katie!

Katie and Ma at camping

Laura and Chrissy going for a ride...

Great fishing... if you can catch anything!

Katie Koala

Laura loves hats!

Can anyone see the girls?

Laura on the swivel karts

Rocky 'Rocket'!

Doctor Laura

Hi Everyone!

After many years travelling abroad for work, finally, Jason and Chrissy have managed to travel abroad together!!!

Jason was invited to present at a conference at Canterbury Uni in Christchurch, New Zealand. So without further ado, we accepted and forked out the extra cash for the second airfare!!!

Laura and Katie happily packed their bags for a weekend at Ma and Pa’s (they know they always get spoilt by their grandparents, so no hesitations there!!!), whilst Jason and Chrissy packed their winter woollies for the expected 4 degree minimums!

Jason went early to attend the conference and Chrissy met him over there late on the Thursday night. Chrissy did some sightseeing around town on the Friday (Canterbury Museum and Botanical Gardens – absolutely gorgeous), whilst Jason wrapped things up at the conference, however Saturday and Sunday were ours to see the sights!!!

Christchurch Botanical Gardens - Fountain

Rhodedendron

Christchurch Botanical Gardens - Bridge over Avon

Duck on the Bridge!

We visited the French settlement of Akaroa, located in an extinct volcano with its own gorgeous little Bay and rugged cliffs.

Akaroa Day Trip

Sheepy Baa's

Silly Portrait!

Akaroa Harbour

We also visited Hamner Springs (the home of thermal pools and adventure sports)! The roads were good, the drives great and the scenery was absolutely spectacular!!!

Hanmer Springs Day Trip

Hanmer Springs - Still too cold for us to get our gear off in an outdoor pool!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jason

Recently, I was over in New Zealand for another conference to which I was invited as a guest speaker (I’ll document this trip in another blog post).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, as part of the trip I wanted to make it quite memorable, so I was searching for something a little extreme… I had heard that jet boating was pretty good and wanted to do that, but at the last moment I had decided to do some bungy jumping.

So with Chrissy with me, I decided to buy 2 tickets to go bungy jumping…

Well as you can imagine, Chrissy wasn’t too impressed….

It was funny, with the short drive to the bungy location, I was all excited saying that I would do a superman dive and saying it would be easy…

Here is a photo of the bridge both Chrissy and I jumped off.

Anyway, once we arrived, we got weighed and we had to wait for the jump master… Anyway, when walking to the bridge, which I might add is a single lane wooden bridge, I asked Chrissy did she want to go first or second…. So after a few moments, she decided that she wanted to go first….

So after triple checks, Chrissy walked up to the edge and with a quick count down 3, 2, 1, BUNGY – Chrissy jumped off without much fuss… I must admit I was surprised and proud… Chrissy later said that once it was paid for, there was not much to do than to get it over and done with!!!

Anyway below are some amazing pictures of Chrissy’s jump.

Okay, are you ready???

Wave to the camera

On your marks….

Get set….

Jump….

Can somebody come and get me….

So, it is funny, but with the lead up to the jump, I was all positive and Chrissy was somewhat hesitant… But when it came to being on the bridge and jumping it was quite different. Unlike Chrissy, when it came time for me to jump, I had a false start… It was quite funny, 3, 2, 1…. Uooh…. For those who are unaware, I am somewhat afraid of heights and as a kid I used to be scared of driving over large bridges… So this bungy was a combination of many of the fears I have/used to have…

So the guy said not to look down, but damn that is so hard not to do…

So after a few deep breaths and a second count down I took the leap of faith!!!!

Okay, wave to the camera

On your marks, get set….

False start… Deep breaths…

On your marks, get set…

Jump…..

I must say, this looks a pretty good picture…

Damn that was a lot of fun!!!!!!

Anyway, all things aside, even with Chrissy’s initial concerns and my trepidation, we both were very happy to have “JUMPED” and it was an amazing experience…. what do they say – mind over matter!!!

Hope you enjoyed the pics…

Until next time…

Take it easy,
Jason and Chrissy

Recently, I was in Sydney where I was fortunate enough to be able to present at the eResearch09 conference. The Conference was based at the beachfront Novotel Manly Pacific.

Details for the Conference can be found at http://www.eresearch.edu.au/

Additionally, the conference program can be found at http://www.eresearch.edu.au/programme, which includes my presentation, see “Connecting Video Collaboration Systems to Facilitate Inter-Organisation Communication- Jason Bell and Phillippe Galvez (Australian Research Collaboration Service)”.

Anyway, I have some pictures that I thought you might be interested in.

Here is a photo of a view from my hotel room.

A photo of the ARCS (Australian Research Collaboration Service) stand at the conference. This was where I was working some of the time throughout the conference.

Another photo of the ARCS (Australian Research Collaboration Service) stand at the conference.

View from the conference balcony.

Another photo from the conference balcony.

Here is a photo of the Aarnet Optiportal, which is a high resolution display utilising 27 x 24inch LCD screens.

Photo leaving Manly Harbour heading towards Circular Quay.

Photo of another similar ferry heading back to Manly Harbour.

Obligatory photo of the Harbour Bridge.

Obligatory photo of the Sydney Opera House.

Anyway, it was a good trip. Hope you liked the piccies.

Cheers,
Jason

Some of the latest funnies…

Katie:
* Taking another sandwich from the box – “Mmmm… one for the road!”
* “Today’s Friday, then no daycare, no kindy, no work… just family days!!!”
* “Mmm, salad with olives and mushrooms!”

Laura:
* “Mama Mia… here we go again! My, my…”
* At kindy after a power outage… Mum – “Oh it’s all dark here. What happened?” Laura – “The powers out”.
* “Oh Mum, why are you picking me up early??? I like Daddy’s work… I get to watch movies and play with computers!”
* “Oh, just a little bit tired, I had a big day.”

Hehehehehe…

Hi Everyone!

Guess what… I just turned 5!!!

I had a great party and thanks so much to all my friends and family for helping me to celebrate!

I got lots of presents… pretty dresses, games, movies and a really cool Sweetie Belle my little pony. I had my party up the Mountain, then took a cake to daycare on my birthday and had fish and chips at the beach with Mum, Dad and Katie for dinner, it was cool!

Hope you like the pictures…

Lots of love,
Laura

G’day All

Around late 2008, we hatched a plan for a “Boy’s Trip” to Townville to watch the Super V8’s inaugural series race (thanks for the suggestion Brad) – see the Townsville 400 website http://www.v8supercarevents.com.au/Townsville/.

We started looking for accommodation in November, but most places had already sold out! Undaunted, we bought our tickets and continued planning.

Fast forward to July 2009 and three of us (Paul, Mick and myself) drove to Townsville. We were lucky enough to travel free of charge in Paul’s company car and not only that, but we were able to crash at Mick’s Antie’s and Uncle’s place for free! They were extremely hospitable and gave us a fantastic place to stay and even stocked beer in the fridge!

On Friday night, we headed to the Casino and I was lucky enough to win $100 and double my money on Black Jack! I won quite quickly, so cashed out and headed round to a quiet bar, where I even got to see Mark Skaife!

On Saturday, we went out to the race track and managed to watch the first of the two – 200km races.

Above is a photo of the “Boy’s” at the track.

Anyway, over the 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) we were able to do lots, including:

• See Eskimo Joe Live in concert, plus during warm ups (see photo below);
• We had pit passes so we were able to Tour the pits and see the different teams;
• See all the different Teams sport girls and get photo’s with them!
• Watch not only the Super V8’s, but also watch the V8 Ute series, mini challenge and Fujitsu V8 Supercars (basically the reserve grade of V8 supercar).
• Other entertainments items such as the burnout V8 utes, ARMYGEDDON (http://www.defence.gov.au/defencemagazine/editions/200609/groups/army.htm) and some motorbike stunts were unreal!

Anyway, here are some photo’s from the trip!



Eskimo Joe Warming up!





Toll HRT Team (Will Davidson and Garth Tander)



Entrance into the Pit’s with all teams trucks lined up!

Obviously no race would be complete without the models, so here are some photo’s with the various models!


Photo of the Jupiter’s Miss Townsville 400 Grid Girls


A photo of me with a number of them!


The Super V8’s Girls!


The Supercheap girls and in my opinion, the pick of the lot!


One of the best inventions, which were awesome, were the Jim Beam and Coke and Rum and Coke slushies!




Some people might already know this, but I am a huge Russel Ingall (The Enforcer) fan. I was lucky enough to get a picture with him!


Even got a photo with Greg Murphy and Jason Bargwana!





The wosrt part about the trip was that I was travelling with 2 ford fans and even worst, ford won both races… So obviously we had to get photo’s of the ford drivers, including Jamie Wincup (Current points leader) and Craig Lowndes.

We even scored some seats on the ferry to Magnetic Island along with a seafood smorgasbord… very cool!


Photo of the ferry that I travelled on.

Photo of ferry terminal at Magnetic Island.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the piccies and the update,
Jas.

G’day All

For those who didn’t know, I am involved in the running of the Regional Robotics Competition. Initially, I started out providing IT support (website, etc) as well as being the Chief Referee. For the last 3-4 years, I have had the honour of being the organising chair for the competition.

Anyway, for those who might be interested, the Junior robotics website can be found at http://cqjrc.cqu.edu.au/

Interestingly, a short video was made of the recent competition has been posted on YouTube that has me on it, pretty sad hey. Click on the play button to view the movie.

There is also a local newspaper article which can be found at http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/06/13/robot-creations-shake-their-tails/

It should be noted that in my opinion, this year was the best year to date and it seems to be getting bigger and better each year!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video.

Cheers,
Jason.

Some of the girls memorable quotes from the last few weeks…

Laura:
* “Looking…. is like sniffing with your eyes!”
* “Can I use the dumb-puter” (aka computer)?
* “You look pretty Mum”, generally followed by “can I have something”?
* “Holy heck… Katie can reach the door! Just a minute you little polka dot!”

Katie:
* Anytime we mention the beach, Katie says “Oh, oh, oh!!! Swimming and sandcastles! Mmmm, chippies and gravy”!
* Donning her cute pink sunnies, Katie loves to say “cool dude Katie”!
* Anytime Jason says, “you’re kidding…”, Katie responds “no… you’re kidding ME!!!”

Then finally…
“Mum… Dad look….. we made Roxy into a fairy, just like us!!!”

Say no more… Cute as…

C.

Just a few quick piccies from the weekend…

Mmm… chocolate! Cheeky monkeys cooking up a storm

See how our garden grows!!!

We have started picking our first coriander and lettuce leaves… Carrot tops, along with celery and spring onions are all shooting madly and the corn is going strong. All of the tomato plants are in flower and our first little tomatoes are just beginning to form… the girls are so excited and can’t wait to sample them!

Laura couldn’t resist another photo opportunity… she’s such a little performer! Katie was too busy jumping on the trampoline to stop for a photo!

Have a good one,
Chrissy

Hi Everyone

Hope this message finds you all well… time seems to be scooting by so quickly lately, but we thought it would be good to post a quick blog about our Easter holidays to ‘the dam’.

We took a group holiday with some good friends and had a lovely time! We spend lots of time socialising and playing with the kids. The camping was great and we all coped surprisingly well given that between us there were 7 kids under the age of 5!!!

Anyway, here are some piccies to tell the rest of the story…

Laura and Jason going for a leisurely paddle

Row row row your boat!

Cricket at the park

Cool Cat Katie just hanging out…

Laura ready to hit the beach

Group game of ‘freeze fishy’ at the beach

Kids adventures… looking for treasure I guess!

Jason’s big catch of the day

Anyway, camping was definitely a big hit and all the kids had fun (big and small), so we’ll definitely be giving it another go sometime soon!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jas

Well, one of the latest renovations that we have been working on (dubbed the “Great Wall of China”) is a retaining wall, that now houses our veggie garden!

The retaining wall was a long time in the making.

It started with some “digger work”. In which I flattened out the back yard, to make it more level, then added some soil to the back wall to make a raised section.

This raised section then became the veggie garden! But as you can see, there was a lot of work to be done to make this possible!

The retaining wall took a long time, as there were around 8 separate concrete sections, which act as stable footings for the retaining wall. As you can see from the image, we tried to ensure it was as level as possible.

Here are some images of the retaining wall finally completed!

It is amazing how fast the grass grows back, so after we pulled out all of the grass again, we placed a number of trailer loads of mulch on top, to stop the grass from growing.

We let the mulch settle down for a few months, then we turned over the garden and used some “garden mix” to create some rows that we would use to plant our veggies in!

As of early May, this is what the garden looks like!
We currently have growing:

• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Coriander
• Carrots
• Lettuce (2 different varieties)
• Spring onions (though they are yet to sprout)
• A tall variety of broccoli

Anyway, I will try to post regular updates on how the garden is looking and how things are growing.

Cheers,
Jason.

G’day all

I thought I would post a photo of my current office.

As you can see, there are a few computers there and a number of “nice” LCD screens!

The current setup is as follows (for all those geeks out there):

• 4 x 23” Dell LCD Screens (1920 x 1080);
  • Dual Screen Windows XP setup; and
  • Dual Screen Fedora 10 Linux.
• 1 x 24” Apple iMac
• 1 x 13” Laptop running Windows XP and Fedora 10 Linux;

Using synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) allows me to use a single mouse and keyboard to be able to control all 3 computers, as well as being able to copy and paste from each other! I couldn’t do the work I am doing without it, handy program!

Anyway, thought I would show you my work area!

Cheers,
Jason.

Hi Everyone!

Katie’s just turned 2!!! We can’t believe it! Here’s a few piccies of her party…

Time for presents!

Pass the parcel… ooh, goodie, it’s my turn!!!

Birthday girl!

The jumping castle was a real hit!

Katie has been hard to separate from her new bike and helmet!!!

All worn out, time for bed!!!

Have a great day,
Chrissy

Hi Everyone!

Merry Christmas to you all!!! Here’s a few piccies for you…

Roxy at 6 Weeks

Are you looking at me???

Laura doting on Roxy

Ahhh, this looks like a good place for a nap….

Three on the swing

Laura takes Roxy on Safari

Katie doesn’t want to miss out either!

Laura puts on a Christmas Concert for Katie and rehearses ‘Six White Boomers’

It’s so hot… I can’t decide where I want to sleep!

Christmas Princess

Christmas cuddles!

Have a very merry Christmas everyone!

Best wishes,
Jason, Chrissy, Laura, Katelyn and little Roxy

G’day All

I would like to introduce to you the newest addition to the bell-family gang. After many years of asking for one, Chrissy finally said okay to getting a puppy dog.

How did this all come about? Well Mum (Suzie) saw an ad in the paper for King Charles Cavalier’s puppies. She has been looking to get a dog for a while and wanted to get another “Cindy” dog. So obviously as soon as she saw them, she had to get one (The White and Brown one is hers [female])… She told me that she was getting one and of course I wanted to get one as well. So we went around and there was still some left (Litter of seven). So all of us decided on a particular one (The Brown / Ruby puppy [female]) and we even have decided to call it Roxy!

Unfortunately it is only 4 weeks old and we have to wait another 2 weeks before we can get it. The entire family is quite excited and when Laura came home after seeing the puppy, she had to draw a puppy and a few bones! Even Katie see the photo and says “puppy dog – cuddle it”.

Hope you like the photos.

Until next time, take it easy,
Jason!

Oops, sorry everyone… how time flies! Sorry it’s been a while since our last post… life has been pretty hectic and ‘blogging’ kind of slipped our minds for a while there.

Jason has had a few visits to hospital since we last wrote and he finally managed to get his tonsils out – hooray… it’s made a huge difference. Katie too has had a visit, but for asthma/pneumonia related issues. Both are doing really well now though.

Jason’s had a few work trips, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne predominantly and I’ve also had a few trips to the Bay with work. In between all that, we even managed to go somewhere together and attended a beautiful wedding in Brisbane for our friends Drew and Lucy… thanks guys, it was great!

Jobs around the house are going slowly – we’ve started on the backyard again (gardens, lawn and retaining wall), however I think summer is going to beat us to the finish line. The weather’s soooo hot already, plus it’s way more fun to head down to the beach with the kids on a fine weekend like this one (hehehehehe)!

Laura has just turned four – got lots of fabulous presents and had an awesome time! She even has her ears pierced now (after about 6 months trying to convince Mummy she was ready for it and I must admit, she was very brave and loves them now, so no regrets)!!!

Katie will be two in the New Year and is quite the little talker now – loves joining in with the conversation, copying her big sister and just being a crazy little larrikin!

Anyway, onto the good stuff… here are a couple of the latest pics.

Hope you are all doing well and we’ll try and catch up again soon!

Cheers,
Chrissy, Jason, Laura and Katelyn

The girls and I decided to do a little project together on the weekend…. we made a new flower garden and strawberry patch! It was good fun and the girls were just too cute decked out in their gardening gear. They are especially happy that the ‘fairies’ have now come to live in the garden! I’ll try anything to get them to take some responsibility for looking after it, and it seems to be working (so far, hehehehehe)!!!

This is just the start of the gardening…. the courtyard was the easy bit, still yet to tackle the big backyard!!!

… Laura in the new flower garden

… Katie helping out

… Laura planting strawberry plants

Hope you like the piccies,
Chrissy