The Bell Family

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

More theme corner stuff…. this time, Laura played Doctor whilst Katie was her Nurse Assistant. Mummy of course became the unwitting patient on her return from Singapore and didn’t have enough energy to escape before this photo was able to be taken!!! Nurse Katie clearly had more energy, she got out of view, just in time!!!

… Doctor Laura works on Patient Mummy

Cheers,
Chrissy

I’ve just returned from my third visit to Singapore… another work trip of course, however I did manage to get in some sight seeing this time!!! The conference went well and I even managed a visit to one of the air bases and had a ride in a very high tech flight simulator… very cool.

Well, here’s a few piccies from the trip…

…My Hotel

… Chinatown Food Street

… Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo (fabulous)

…Cable Car to Sentosa Island

…Sentosa Island – Contrast between natural areas, port and city high rise

… Chrissy and in the background, the Merlion (mythical creature, half lion, half fish)

… Giant Snail!!!

… Sentosa Island Mosaic Tiled Fountains

…Sentosa Fountains

... Fort Silosa Surrender Table (Singapore was under British rule until 1942 when they surrendered to the Japanese. After a number of harsh years and POW camps, the Japanese surrendered to the British in 1945, however Singapore's national spirit had already been sparked and it became its own nation in 1967)

… The Merlion

… Snake Charmer

… Sentosa – Mass Development Site for the Future Casino

… Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (train station)

… Singapore’s other national emblem, the Orchid

Hope you liked the piccies.

Cheers,
Christine

The girls have their own special corner in the lounge-room… each week, they decide on a new theme to decorate their play area. This week, Laura suggested we pack up the fairies and pirates from ‘Treasure Island’ and setup a new ‘Space’ corner!!! Laura said we needed stars, planets and a spaceship, whilst Katie piped in about the ‘mooon’! So we set to work…

… Laura and Katie in their space ship!!!

The girls had a great time collecting dress-ups, wearing their ‘space-ears’, making planets and stars, building their space ship and then piloting it to visit the planets, stars and the moon!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jason

As the title says, whilst in Canada, I had an exciting day where I managed to see snow for the first time!

I woke up fairly early in the morning, and headed for one of the “refec” locations on SFU campus to grab some breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they served cooked breakfasts and decided to have some bacon and eggs. However, the lady who was cooking simply opened what looked like a milk carton and poured a portion onto a hot plate, which is how my scrambled eggs were cooked.

Anyway, after breakfast, I headed back to my room and checked on my email. I was feeling a little out of whack and seriously considered not doing much for the day…. especially after the interesting experience I had the day before. But around 9:30, I decided what the heck and settled on a visit to “Grouse Mountain”. This meant that I had to get a bus into the city, a sea bus (ferry) from South to North Vancouver, then another bus to the base of “Grouse Mountain”. The total time taken was over an hour and a half, but it was interesting to see the various sites.

View of South Vancouver whilst on the Sea Bus

Once at the base of the mountain, there were two choices on how to get to the top… a very, very, very, long vertical hike, or a trip on the Cable Car. Obviously I took the Cable Car, though it was quite expensive something close to $40, but it was totally worth it. The top of “Grouse Mountain” is very high and the cable car travels up a very steep vertical incline. The day was overcast, so the cable car actually passed through a layer of the clouds before it reached the top and it was a lot higher than I expected. Once up there, the view of Vancouver City was quite limited because of the weather, but to my huge surprise there was still snow up on the mountain and I was very excited!

Picture of Cable Car

View from the Top of Grouse Mountain

As you can imagine, the first thing I did once off the cable car was to go to the nearest area and touch some snow. Now I realize that the snow wasn’t the usual “fluffy” snow, as it was nearly summer and most of it had melted a fair bit or was clear of snow altogether, however there was still quite a bit of snow left and, to me, it felt like the stuff you use in snow cones! Naturally I made a few snow balls and threw them!

Picture of the top of Grouse Mountain, with snow

After the initial excitement, I went and grabbed some lunch at the Cabin. I then decided to walk along some of the trails. When walking around, there was this group walking in the opposite direction who at one stage were throwing snow balls. One accidentally hit me and one of the guys apologized, but personally I thought it was pretty funny and if I knew them, I would have been throwing snow as well!!!

Main Cabin where I had lunch

Whilst walking around, there was a section in which people were standing, running and playing in the snow. Of course I had to get involved and after my first few steps on the snow, I almost slipped over. It took me a little to get the hang of walking on the snow and I felt like a little kid!

Proof, that it’s real snow

Open area within Grouse Mountain

Different View

After that, I continued walking and saw some real live grizzly bears, which are native to Grouse Mountain. The two bears are in captivity as part of a rehabilitation project and I had timed my visit to perfection, as the following day they were scheduled to open up a section of the fenced area to allow them over 5 acres of area to roam and explore.

Picture of the Grizzly Bears

Walking Track

There was also a bird show (with eagles and things) due to start, but I decided to skip the show and head back to SFU, as I didn’t want to miss the bus and would rather be back earlier than later.

So I managed to get back to SFU after an hour and half or so and was quite impressed with having managed to see snow. When I got back, a number of my AG (Access Grid) colleagues started to rock up and six or seven of us decided to head out and grab some dinner.

It is funny, but during the night’s conversation and also during the conference, many of my AG colleagues could not believe or understand that I had never seen snow. As for some of them, they have to live with it 6-9 months of the year!

So that was my exciting day, unexpected, but well worthwhile.

Cheers,
Jason

G’day All

For those who didn’t know, I am currently in Canada for a work conference (AG Retreat – See http://www.accessgrid.org/retreat2008 for more information if interested). I am fortunate, or unfortunate – depends how you think of it, to be presenting.

Sunday – Travels

Anyway, thought I would give an update on my travels so far. I caught a Taxi from home around 5:30 Sunday Morning, this enabled me to catch a flight to Brissy, with enough time to go through security, grab some breakfast and board the plane at 11 to L.A.X. For some reason, I find it difficult to sleep flying over to this side of the globe. I even tried forcing myself to have little sleep the night before, thinking it might assist me with sleeping on the plane. Unfortunately, this only made me more tired. I only had a couple of hours sleep and arrived at LAX on Sunday 7am (LA Time). I was surprised to see how booked the flight was,… I don’t think there was a spare seat! The bad news was, when I arrived at LAX, I then had to wait for a 7 hour layover to Vancouver. This was the most difficult part of the trip, I did try and lie down for some time, but I was afraid that I might sleep too well and miss the flight, or something!

Interestingly, there were quite a number of people on the flight to LA that were also heading over to Vancouver, so I got chatting to some of them to help pass the time. Like me, most of the people felt completely stuffed and simply couldn’t wait until they arrived in Vancouver.

I did manage to get a couple more hours sleep on the Vancouver flight, but unfortunately, I seem to have come down with a cold, or at least the start of one, which meant my ears were blocked and the descent nearly killed me!

After 28 hours in and out of airports and planes, I had arrived in Vancouver. From first impressions, it was one of the prettiest cities I had ever seen from the air. Everything was nice and green. It also boasts one of the nicest airports I’ve been too as well. It had waterfalls, statues and many other things to look at. Compared to the dodgey LAX, it was a pleasant change. I grabbed a taxi and headed for Simon Fraser University, as that is where the guest lodgings are, which had been suggested for the conference.

Anyway, disappointingly, the campus was very quiet and by the time I arrived and got things sorted, I couldn’t find anywhere to grab something to eat. Additionally, I had gotten out some Canadian money from an ATM, but it was only $20 notes and the vending machines didn’t take them (only coins or $5 and $10 notes). So I ended up going to bed without any dinner, as I was just too buggered to find any alternatives. Though, I did try some walking around campus to find something without any success. Anyway, I crashed out around 8 – 9pm.

Monday – Having a look around

As you would expect, I woke up around 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, my body clock was still out of whack! Unfortunately I woke up hungry and there was nothing I could do. I did manage to have a quick chat with home, checked my emails and tried to get some additional sleep without any success. I tried working on my presentations, but my head wasn’t up to it. Around 5am or there abouts, I decided to go for a walk to see what I could find. Unfortunately everything I could find was closed until around 8am, which meant I had to go hungry for a little while. After around an hour of walking, looking at everything, I decided to go back to my room to get changed and then head to Vancouver City. SFU (Simon Fraser University) is located in Burnaby, which is a large city in itself and is basically connected to Vancouver, which is located towards the Mountains. Anyway, I caught a bus which took around an hour to get to downtown Vancouver.

I visited an Information Centre, got a stack of brochures and then grabbed some brekky. I thought you couldn’t go wrong with some Macca’s, but sadly I was mistaken. I am not sure whether I was jus used to a certain ‘type’ of Macca’s, but the sausage McMuffins tasted very weird and I could barely eat them. The sausage meat was some strange chicken, cross beef, cross something else, I’m not sure! Even the hash browns tasted weird… Maybe I was just very jet lagged, but it was a struggle!

Anyway, I then decided to visit the Lookout Tower (for more info, feel free to visit http://www.vancouverlookout.com/). This gave me a good view of the city and its surrounds, as well as where I wanted to head to next, which was Stanley Park (more info, see http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/).

View of Cruise Ship Terminal

View of part of Stanley Park

After visiting the Tower for around 45 minutes, I then walked to Stanley Park following a nice riverside pathway. The walk took me around another 45 minutes, but it was good to get out and about.

Picture of a sight whist walking along the riverside pathway

Picture of one of the many parks along the riverside pathway

Picture of a Sea Plane landing

Stanley park has to be one of the greenest parks I have ever seen in my lifetime and once I arrived, I headed towards the Aquarium (http://www.vanaqua.org/home/). This place was pretty cool, lots of different types of fish, most were native to Canada and there was also a section on Southern America types of fish. They even had Piranhas!

Stanley Park

A picture of a sloth

Piranhas

South American Fish, huge fish!

Sea Turtle

One large Sea Lion, it gives people a fright as it swims by!

Same Sea Lion

They also has some Beluga Whales and different types of Dolphins (pacific white-sided dolphins) and I was able to catch a cool dolphin show as well. This place was pretty good, but in my opinion, not as good as Sea World or the Shedd Aquarium (Chicago), but still well worth a visit. Whilst at the Aquarium, I grabbed some lunch and then decided to head back into the city.

Beluga Whale

Pacific White-Sided Dolphins

My next stop was the “Edge Water” Casino. I thought I would walk through Robson street on the way (http://www.robsonstreet.ca/), as this place is well known for all your shopping needs. They even had all the major brand name shops and a lot more, although I couldn’t see any good book stores unfortunately.

After walking a fair bit, I had almost decided to call it a day but ended up finding the Casino on my way back anyway! By this time it was around 3pm and I didn’t want to stay to long, as I wanted to get back to SFU before the last bus etc. The casino is relatively small, but they do have nice customer service, like free bag holding facilities. Obviously I headed towards the Blackjack tables and was surprised to see they had $5 tables. I found the closest one with a free seat and sat down. I decided to play with $40 and it didn’t take long before I was ahead. I wanted to get to $85 as this would have meant I would have doubled my money and could take a $5 chip home as a souvenir. I got very close (I think I got up to $80), but for some reason, I started to feel a little sick, and after a few losses, I decided to leave while still marginally ahead. I still had my $40 I began with and a souvenir $5 chip, so I can’t complain. Although I was a little disappointed to be feeing ill, as I had been playing well and was having some luck.

I thought I might have been a little dehydrated, so I grabbed a glass of water before heading back to find a bus to catch. Unfortunately I had some distance to cover, but I knew I simply had to head north and find “Hastings Street”, as this is where the SFU bus route travels and the bus stops every 500 metres or so. Unfortunately, the part of town where I finally came across Hastings Street wasn’t the best part of the city and reminded me of some areas in San Francisco (where the homeless sleep on sidewalks and there are many drug users on the streets). I must say that I felt rather uncomfortable, as I thought I saw a fight and I was glad I found a bus after 5-10 minutes or so.

Another 45 minutes or so saw me back at SFU. Given past experiences for getting a lack of food, I decided to head out straight away and grab some food as it was after 5pm already. I stumbled across the Student Bar and was excited to see that they served food and that an ice hockey game was on. Obviously I had a couple of drinks, some nice food and watched the Game. Having never watched a full game before, I must say that it is pretty cool and pretty full on. Ice hockey is about two things, how good the goal keeper is and the “fights”!!!!

I managed to get back to my room around 9 and it didn’t take long before I crashed out!

More to come.

Cheers,
Jason

16 months worth of baby hair was starting to get a little scraggly, so off we went for Katie’s first visit to the hairdresser! We weren’t sure what to expect, Katie doesn’t like sitting still at the best of times (let alone whilst some strange person combs and snips away at your hair), however she was a little angel and soaked up all the attention!

Check out the piccies… too cute!!!

Can’t help but ‘smile’, I kept a few locks for her baby book of course!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Finally… some time off!

We all bundled into the car and headed off for a fun-filled adventure on the Gold Coast!

On the way, we journeyed through Moolooloba on the Sunshine Coast where we stopped off for a visit to Underwater World. The girls were amazed by the wide range of sea creatures – there were sea otters, seals, fish, stingrays, sharks, star-fish, turtles and even frogs. Laura loved the seal show, especially their cheeky antics, but took a while to warm to the toothy grin of the sharks as we wandered through the underwater tunnel. Katie was a little more hands on and enjoyed touching the star-fish in the touch pool and wandering around looking at all the action in the tanks.

After that, it was onto the Motorway and into the Gold Coast. We spent plenty of time hanging out at the beach, playing at the park, splashing in the pool, walking, exploring, shopping and doing the touristy thing! Some of the highlights included a very special visit to Sea World, Jupiters Casino and the Q1 Building. Springbook National Park was definitely memorable too (but for all the wrong reasons… the girls got car sick whilst Jason was trying out his rally driving on the wickedly winding roads)!!!

We were lucky enough to have some very special company (and babysitters) along for the holiday – Mum and Dad met up on the Gold Coast with us, which made things so much easier on Jason and I! We made the most of it and headed out on the town – spending a few hours around the Blackjack table and also enjoying the live music on offer at Jupiters. Jason and I were also to enjoy dinner and a show at the casino (for our anniversary), however when Jason fell ill with a tummy bug, Laura was kind enough to step in for the night, so we didn’t have to forfeit our pre-paid tickets!!! She absolutely loved Zingara – a kind of gypsy, come showgirl, come comedy, come acrobatics show! The music, singing, dancing and special effects were a real hit and she kept the nearby audience in awe with her insightful commentary and perfect behaviour!

Seaworld was a real hit with the whole family – the dolphin show was amazing, whilst the penguins were just too cute. The polar bear was a little tired, so we only saw him taking a nap! The girls saw the Sesame Street show and loved checking out Big Bird, up close and personal style! They also loved Elmo’s submarine ride as well as the trucks and helicopters down at the Sesame Street Beach area – it was perfect for them! Jason and I enjoyed a few rides too (Rollercoaster, Pirate Ship and the Bermuda Triangle). The train ride was also pretty good as it gave us a kind of ‘behind the scenes’ look at everything there at Seaworld.

The girls were fantastic and it was especially nice to have some one-on-one time with each of them. The holiday proved to be a real turning point for Katie’s communication – she’s been yabba-dabba-doing for some time, however whilst on the trip, we became much more tuned into her needs and wants and now understand her rapidly growing vocab much better. Laura and Katie played together beautifully (with the occasional tiff of course), but they’re getting much more imaginative now, staging their own puppet shows, pretend camping trips and other little games. It’s so nice to see them run off holding hands to explore some little imaginary world together!!!

A huge big thanks to ‘Ma and Pa’ for all their help… it was a great trip and I’m sure the girls will remember it for a long time to come!!!

Cheers from all of us,
Jason, Chrissy, Laura and Katelyn

Mother’s Day can be such a special treat… who needs all that fancy stuff? What counts most is the simple essence of what the day should be about – for us, that’s Mummy, Daddy and little Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, just hanging out having fun together!!! A family breakfast, some time at home, a little drive and some icecream for afternoon tea and of course lots of kisses, cuddles and giggles!

The girls had both done some handywork of their own at daycare for me – Katie a little album of her artwork and some gorgeous photo’s and Laura a lovely piccie in a handpainted paddle-pop frame with its own magnet to stick it to the fridge – both treasured little masterpieces!

Here’s a pic of us girls enjoying the day (with Daddy behind the camera of course trying desperately to get us all to look in the same direction at the same time)!

Hope yours was a special day too!

Cheers,
Chrissy

After many long years of blood, sweat and tears, it is my pleasure to make a long awaited announcement…

Jason has finally graduated from his Honours program!!!

After receiving his Honours degree at the Graduation Ceremony last week (in full academic regalia), Jason now has a Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours).

Here’s a little piccie to prove it… he even scrubbed up alright after all!!!

Congratulations JB!!!

Naturally, he’ll be celebrating with a big one sometime soon!!!

Cheers (and hallelujah!!!),
Chrissy

After dinner, Laura decided to make a ‘boat’ in the lounge room. To start with, she found a few towels, some pillows and a couple of her favourite animal friends. Then dubbing herself ‘Captain Laura’, she set-about creating her boat. Laura invited Mummy to join her on a big adventure and with Captain Laura at the helm, the boat took off to Pirate-Princess-Fairy Land!

Captain Laura provided the commentary (…over about an hour of crazy adventure). Here are a few highlights:

* ‘Come-on Mum, let’s go exploring!’

* ‘Look, there are some puppies swimming in the water, we have to rescue them. I’ll get them! Come on puppies, you’re okay now. We’ll get you dry’.

* ‘Oh man, we’ve hit a whale! Quick, we’ve got to help it. Let’s make a swimming pool on our boat to put it in, so that we can look after it and make it better’.

* ‘Over there, it’s a crocodile. Ooh, it’s two, they’re Mummy and Baby crocodiles and they’re trying to get on our boat… what should we do? (Mummy: Do they need help or do they want to eat us?) Wait, I’ll talk to them. No, they want to eat the puppies and my lambie… Quick, let’s get out of here’.

* ‘Wow, it’s raining. What are we going to do? We don’t have a roof on our boat! (Mummy: I wonder if we can make one?) No, we need umbrella’s! Look, our boat’s getting water in it, quick, we have to do something… (Mummy: What should we do?) Quick, there’s a bucket, let’s scoop it out!’

* ‘Oh, look out! The sharks are getting in out boat… let’s use this (rope) as a fishing line to catch them and throw them back in the ocean, ah, got them!’

* ‘Let’s look through the telescope. (Then finding a toilet paper roll) look over there, it’s land, that must be Pirate-Princess-Fairy Land. I wonder if the fairies will be able to help our whale?’

Here’s a little piccie of Captain Laura looking through the telescope whilst on her boat…

Tune in next month for another adventure of… Captain Laura!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Laura

Hi Everyone!

Just a few facts and funnies for you all…
• Laura – After an allergy to some sunscreen… “I’ve got a nose like Rudolph the red nose reindeer”!!!

• Laura on Caterpillars – “It’s hairy, it’s got lots of legs and it crawls like Katie” (hehehe)!

• Laura on Christmas Night – Laura: “Let’s see some more lights”! Dad: “Look Laura, there’s some”. Laura: “Sorry… I must have missed it, but that’s
ok, we can drive to see some more”!!!

• Girls at Brekkie – Laura sharing Cheerio cereal on the tray of Katie’s highchair, as a favourite daily past-time.

• Laura – “Oh man!” “You’re kidding!”

• Laura’s Favourites – Animals, fairies, princesses, pirates, hanging out with Nanna, cooking, food, movies and computer games (oh oh, hehehehe)!

• Katie’s Favourites – Playing outside and playing with bags, shoes, hats and Ma and Pa.

• Katie’s Playtime Antics – When Katie decides that she wants to play outside, she finds the hat bag and selects hats for everyone to wear. She then takes it to them and urges them to put it on and go outside to play!

• Katie’s Vocab – Mum, Dad, Ma, Pa, Nah-Nah, Laura, bath, backpack, hat plus lots of sounds like ‘ooo-oo-ooo’ and ‘trilling’!

• Katie’s Walking – She started at about 11 months and is now almost running (got to keep up with that sister of hers somehow)!

We hope you’ve shared a giggle with us… have a good one!

Cheers,
Jason, Chrissy and the Girls

We can’t believe it… Katie has just turned 1! Our baby is growing up sooo quickly! On the big day, we had a nice little celebration at home with family, Katie opened lots of presents (with Laura’s help of course) and we all ate lots of cake!

Here are some piccies of the Bell 4 and the birthday girl!

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jason

Well, we’re slowly adding the finishing touches. We’ve done a little more painting since our last blog, but still need to enamel the doors and do a few little patch-ups here and there. The main action now is happening outside in the backyard…

Just before Christmas, we decided to borrow a little digger affectionately known as ‘Thomas’ – a skidsteer mini loader (thanks Wendy and Gary)!!!

Thomas has been helping us to level out the backyard, create a little terraced area and of course rip up the compacted track from the front street to the back door where all the trucks came back and forward with building materials! Whilst we had the digger on loan, Laura woke up every day and asked ‘is Daddy going to work in the backyard with Thomas today’ and she was convinced that she needed a purple Thomas to help Daddy’s orange Thomas out!

Once we’d finished levelling the backyard and had removed around about 12 tonnes of dirt and rocks to the tip, we spread some new soil and lay some grass seed. Turns out we did it just in time, we’ve only just had our first dry day in about a month, so the grass is going gang-busters!!!

We’ve also started on a sandpit for the girls, but things are going pretty slowly with all the wet weather.

Early days yet, with lots more work to go but here are a few piccies to let you in on our latest round of devastation!

… Jason working with the digger

… terraced section awaiting new retaining wall

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy

Well, it started like any normal day. Big people off to work and little people off to daycare.

Later that day though, Jason received a call from daycare. There had been an ‘incident’ with the scissors whilst Laura was doing art and craft… it’s ok, breathe a sigh of relief, nothing serious.

That afternoon when we picked Laura up from daycare, we saw what all the commotion had been about. Turns out Laura’s hair had been getting in her face, so she’d decided to chop a bit off. We figured it might have been a little bit of fringe or perhaps a bit off the back, but she’d actually chopped off a whole big handful (see piccies below)!!! Could have been worse though, she could have decided to cut someone else’s hair… I guess most girls have a bad hair day at some stage, I certainly remember taking the scissors to my mousey brown locks at some stage (I was a little older than 3 though)!!!

Laura told us defiantly that ‘it was getting in my way… but I don’t cut hair anymore, I only cut paper and only hairdressers cut hair’.

The next morning, we were off to hairdressers. The long hair was not salvageable, so Laura’s sporting a sassy new short style (see piccie)! Turns out it really suits her – she’s got a really cute but cheeky look going on and I must admit, it’s much easier to look after

Hopefully no more bad hair days for a while now…

Until next time,
Chrissy

Greetings One and All!

We started 2007 by welcoming our new addition, Katelyn Lee, on 18 January 2007. She’s a gorgeous little girl, happy, adventurous and cheeky! Katie’s crawling now, can stand by herself and is walking around the walls and furniture. She’s also starting to get quite talkative, waves goodbye, let’s you know when she wants something and when she doesn’t and even has a good throwing arm! Katie and Laura are getting on wonderfully and just adore one another (most of the time)!!!

Laura’s growing up so fast… she’s quite the little chatterbox now and can have a very long and detailed conversation with you when the mood takes her! She’s incredibly active, loves getting out to the park, the shops and with her little sister. She’s learning to ride her bike at the moment which is proving to be a bit of a challenge but we’re sure she’ll master it eventually, like everything else!

Jason’s still at the Uni and still enjoying it, however the Uni is going through a major restructure at the moment, so there are changes to occur in the near future. Again, he’s had the opportunity to present to a number of international conferences, some done remotely via the ‘Access Grid’ and a few in person (Chicago and Perth, which he really enjoyed, just a pity the whole family couldn’t go)!

Chrissy’s back at work again now after enjoying 9 months maternity leave. Both Laura and Katelyn attend the community daycare centre and love seeing their friends, doing art and craft, reading books, playing outside in the garden and on the swings, singing, dancing and playing dress-ups!

The extension is now finished and it’s fabulous! We’ve now got 2 new bedrooms for the girls, a store-room and a big games room downstairs. We also did a few extra’s including tiling throughout the main part of the house and rendering the outside, so it looks great. The girls love their new rooms (and really appreciate them after spending a few months living in the lounge-room). The games room is great too, complete with pool table and new TV, so it’s really come together.

We’re looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home with family this year, ensuring there’s plenty of time to have fun with our little girls!

Compared to 2007, next year should be much quieter (we hope)!!! We’ve got a few more things to finish off around the house, so that should keep us fairly well occupied. But we’re planning a few family holidays and a bit of camping perhaps, so that should be fun! Other than that, it’ll be all about helping our little ladies grow and develop!

Be sure to have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!!!

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

Hi All

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’m growin’ a Mo!!!

That’s right, I’m bringing the Mo back because I’m passionate about changing men’s health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer. Why…

* Depression affects 1 in 6 men…Most don’t seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
* Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer – equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
* Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

It’s a really great opportunity to raise awareness and get involved in a really fun and valuable initiative. Feel free to check out my ‘Mo-Growin’ progress below…

Anyway, just have a laugh or feel free to sponsor my Mo by going to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, enter the registration number which is 141092 and your credit card details. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the details at: Movember Fundraising Outcomes.

Thanks for your support,
Jason

PS:
* More info is available at www.movember.com.
* Movember is proudly grown by Commonwealth Bank, Holden, Schick and VB.
* Movember is proud partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative.

Well, it’s nearly there… the external render and paint is all done and we hardly recognise the place! Check out the piccies…

Also, Jason was lucky enough to score a pool table for his birthday, so we’ve already put in some late nights over a few drinks! Thanks for all the accessories everyone!

Lots of fiddly things to finish around the house, but it’s very livable now and it’s looking great…

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy

Hi Everyone!

Well, October is a big birthday month in the Bell household, so Happy Birthday Jason, Dan and Susie!

Jason turned ’30′, so in celebration (or was it in commiseration?), we threw a bit of a shin-dig for him at home… a good opportunity to get lots of friends and family together to enjoy a heap of food and drink and christen our new, bigger, better home!

It turned out to be a good night and we all had a great time! Thanks to everyone who made it along to share it with us and also to those who couldn’t make it, but were thinking of us on the night!!!

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy