Dec 13 2010

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS!

Greetings One and All!

We hope this letter finds you well. It’s Christmas time already and another year has absolutely flown by! Here’s a quick update on what’s been happening with the Bell Family.

Laura started school this year at the local State School. She’s had a great time mixing it with the Preppies and Year 1’s in her composite class and learning all sorts of new stuff! Some of her favourite experiences have been singing (including performing with a group at school parade and in the school concert), lots of art, craft and story writing, reading and taking photo’s. She’s continued her swimming lessons and now loves swimming from one end of the pool to the other. Laura also loves hanging out with her little sister and Roxy the dog.

Laura’s first day at school (Prep 2010)

Laura’s first visit from the tooth fairy

Laura’s 6th birthday

Katie is still ‘a hundred miles an hour’ and just loves competing with her big sister! She loves the outdoors, being a monkey on the swings, playing with animals and pottering in the garden with Mum and Dad. She also likes dressing up, playing with her dolls (as well as her sister’s Barbie’s) and dancing. She’s become really talkative lately however speaks so quickly on the phone no-one can ever understand her!

Katie having fun

Dress-ups

Katie hanging out at the beach

Little performer

Katie and Laura at the Heritage Village

Laura first time milking a cow…

Katie first time milking a cow…

Holiday-wise, back in March we enjoyed a fabulous cruise to Fiji (Suva and Port Denarau), Vanuatu (Port Vila and Pentecost Island) and New Caledonia (Isles of Pine) – it was pure bliss! We all had a wonderful time and felt thoroughly pampered during the 12 nights of silver service, good company and sightseeing! Highly recommended if you’re in need of some rest and relaxation…

See previous blog post (http://www.thebellfamily.id.au/2010/04/27/our-cruise-to-the-south-pacific/) for photos and more details about our amazing trip!

We also did a little weekend away in the September school holidays and took the girls fishing and swimming… good fun!



Chrissy’s had a big year… it started off with 30th birthday celebrations and the much debated decision to change careers after over a decade in the one place! It turns out to have been a great decision and the new job as an Environmental Consultant has already been very rewarding, helping to open a new branch of the company and kick-start new work in the area. Best of all, there’s lots more flexibility for the family and a lot less travel!

Jason has had another big year at work, including becoming the “Video Collaboration Champion” for ARCS (http://www.arcs.org.au/) and the “Senior Research Technologies Officer” at the Uni that included trips to Perth, Tasmania, Adelaide and the Gold Coast. Jason has also been busy with touch football, Captaining his team in the Masters League and also refereeing a game or two every week.

The Footy Geeks…

Roxy’s doing really well and is still one spoilt little dog…

Roxy loves attention and is quite happy to curl up wherever the family is…

In 2011, we’re planning to start the year off with a few days away as a family before Laura starts in Year 1 and Katie starts Kindy five days a fortnight (plus another few days a fortnight at daycare). No more career changes or big trips planned in the year ahead, however we hope to get a few more trips away camping and ‘cabin-ing’ whenever we can make the time.

Thanks everyone for all your support and kind wishes throughout the year – we hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!!!

Keep in touch and please be sure to tune into our blog from time to time…

Thinking of you all,
Jason, Chrissy, Laura and Katelyn

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Dec 12 2010

Lounge Room Reno

G’day All

Thought I would post a new blog detailing our Lounge Room renovations that we have been working on recently.

I had the plan for this year to upgrade the TV and stereo in the Lounge room to a new media centre. This was okay with Chrissy, but she stated that if I wanted these new things we needed to give the room a bit of a “face-lift”. I expected this to be new carpet and paint, but things got a little out of control…. the more we thought about the renovation, the more things we thought we should do!

We wanted to give the room a more modern look. So we ended up sanding and varnishing the timber ceiling, removing the fireplace, rendering the brick feature wall and laying new carpet.

Anyway, hope you enjoy looking at the pictures through the renovation lifecycle.

To be honest, the ceiling was probably the hardest thing to do. I spent over 3 weekends, sanding and varnishing (twice).

I think this was my new gym routine, up and down the ladder!

We thought we would remove the fireplace, as we have never used it and it was simply taking up space.

We were surprised how much the room “opened up” by removing the fireplace.

We also had to patch the roof after removing the fireplace.

I thought I would also try my hand at rendering and it was a messy process, but its always good to try something new I reckon!

Once the wall was done, it was time to paint it… We decided to paint it the same colour as the walls, as we believed it was a feature in itself.

Laura was also on hand to help with the painting.

Time to paint!

As you can see, renovating is a messy business.

Katie also had to get involved with the painting and she helped to paint the lounge room walls.

Then it was time to remove the carpet.

As you can see by the finished product, it actually turned out better than we could have hoped for, so all the hard work was worth it!!!

Anyway, we hope to do a few more posts soon.

Cheers,
Jason.

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