Well it has been the birthday season lately with Daen turning 16 in September, Liam turning 2 in October, Rosie's birthday in November and Bruce's birthday in December. As most of you are aware Rosie is much older than Bruce and he likes to remind her of this.

We had the usual adults party for Liam with the McKillop's and the Barker's gracing our table and drinking in another year. Liam managed to stay awake long enough to blow out his candles and Bruce was please to see that he can already do better than his Uncle Kim ever could at this type of event.

We followed this up with a family outing to the Freycinet for Rosie's birthday and then when all the monthly bills came in we decided to have a BBQ for Mum, Dad and the McKillop's for Bruce's birthday.

Daen has had a good year, breaking his arm twice, once in January and then the same arm again in October. Both times while doing jumps on his bike. Rosie has spent over half a year driving back and forth to Perth to have Daen's arm checked out. He will suffer a lot when he gets a bit older, arthritis being the most probable problem along with not being able to straighten his arm.

All this didn't stop Daen from building this magnificent entertainment unit in Furniture Woodwork. He asked us what we wanted and we told him, and then kept persisting with what we wanted every time he wanted to take a shortcut. In the end the unit has turned out extremely well and Daen is very proud of it and quite justifiably. The cabinet is all jarrah (a hardwood unique to the south west corner of Western Australia) and fits in well with the other woodwork in the house and the slate tiles. Daen also made the clock that you can see in the display section.

Daen's final report came out very well with 5 B's and 2 C's. I find it amazing given the amount of work that he does at home, but I have noticed that he seems to use his class time well so we can't be too upset.

Daen is working again at Supa-Valu packing bags all summer, hopefully he will save a bit of money for a car which is the next big event on his calender.

Well my holiday is now over and I have just started holidays before going back to work next year. This may seem a strange statement but it makes sense if you a teacher.

As a bit of a last fling I made Liam a sand box and put down some brick paving so that we had a path going from the gate to the other paved area around the house. It turned out very well and tends to compliment the other work we have done around the house. Liam loves playing in it and as you can see has shifted all his toys into the pit.

Danni and Joanne gave Liam had his first haircut while they were at Bruce's BBQ and it has changed his whole face. He suddenly looks like a little boy instead of a baby and has matured beyond his years.

He is now putting together three and four word sentences and has an excellent understanding of instructions (when he wants to obey them). His sleeping habits are getting better and with luck he will finally get into a good routine by the time Bruce goes back to work.

Liam has had a very good social life lately with the Margaret River Playgroup Christmas party followed by his own groups party. Liam loved the train ride and the merry go round at the party and kept running backwards and forwards between the two of them. When Father Christmas came out he had no idea what it was all about but each time he sees him he is starting to take a bit of an interest. He also saw Father Christmas at the school party and at the pool party.

We started taking Liam to the town pool a few weeks ago since he didn't like the ocean. He absolutely loves it and plays with his ball for an hour in the water. He is quite happy about have his head go under water and is starting to kick his feet and push himself around. His loves to run in the water and climb out and jump back in. It is great to watch and it also tires him out which is helping to improve his sleeping patterns.