2011 Family Photo

We hope you have enjoyed an exciting 2011. Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas, and we hope you enjoy many happy celebrations for the Festive Season.

For many of you it has been a year since you have heard from us (sorry!). The major change for us being the birth of our third child Casper on August 31st. He is a carbon copy of the others, some calling them clones. Along with the sleepless nights and the usual baby crying, he has bought us lots of joy. He is now almost 4 months old and is growing up fast, and long. He might be the tallest of the lot! Olive and Jetson adore him, and smother him with cuddles and kisses regularly. Jetson loves talking to him, and Olive usually does a dance for him, which he loves!

Jetson is coming along wonderfully! He had more surgery in October to lengthen the Achilles tendon on the right foot again, and since then is now up on his feet walking around the place, albeit quite unsteadily. He used a metal framed walker for a few months but has gained the confidence to go out on his own. He is still wearing his foot orthotics all the time, which means he can’t sneak up on you due to the clip-clopping noise they make on the floorboards! He loves playing chasey with his sister around the house, and is learning to hold his ground. He is so excited about running too. He has progressed so much over the past year, we are very proud of him. Jetson started daycare when Casper was born attending one day a week, which he didn’t like at first due to his shy nature, but after a couple of months started to really enjoy going. He is rapidly learning his letters and numbers from his big sister, and he loves to sing and dance in the kitchen!

Olive turned four in April and attended Kindy 2 days a week. She has learned so much and is advancing her writing skills. She is so creative with her drawings, and really excelled with a new creative teacher in term 4. She was given the “Little Miss Creativity” award at Kindy for the drawings she does on the fruit she takes to school! She is very excited about starting full time pre-school next year and will be moving into it with confidence and gusto. She also loves to do craft, and has been doing ballet classes for 3 terms, which she enjoys and practices all the time. She is such a princess fairy girly girl!

The work life balance has been really enjoyable but quite challenging at times, often being a juggling act with three children. Rob is still working from home managing websites, but the amount of work has reduced a little since the new baby arrived! He is expanding his business empire by selling fitness equipment directly from his website, which also gets him out of the house for regular postal deliveries. Clare took a couple of months off work when Casper was born, but is now back into it. Her work hours at WAIS have been extended due to the high demand of her services. She now does one full day a week and is also doing a few more presentations to sporting groups.

As a family we had an excellent holiday for two weeks in Japan in May. We have also done some camping trips to the south of Perth with Clare’s brother and kids, to Busselton and on the Blackwood River. We also had a long weekend at Donnelly River. We did our usual pilgrimage to Melbourne, but this time separately with Rob taking Jetson before he was two and Clare taking Casper over for a work conference. Rob’s parents loved this as they got to see their newest grandchild earlier than their visit to Perth in November. We are really looking forward to a couple more trips in 2012, including a visit to Melbourne for Lois’s wedding in March and a stay in Bali in July.

We wish you good luck for the New Year, may it be filled with happy times!

Love from
Rob, Clare, Olive, Jetson and Casper

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