Family Christmas pic 2021

 

LtoR; Josh, Coco the dog, Mandy, Karla, Simon & Brad. 

If you scroll through the posts of our family website, you'll see that every Christmas morning we sit down in front of the tree for a family portrait.  The difference this year is that we are in our new house and there is a new member of the family - Coco the dog. 

We moved into the new house back in late March, and a common topic of conversation since then has been about where the Christmas tree might go.  We found a spot between Mandy's display cabinets, but we had to push the couches out of the way so we could all sit in front for the photo.  Maybe we'll find a better spot for the Christmas tree next year.

Coco is a Miniature Dachshund (Sausage Dog) who joined our family back in September as an eight week old puppy.  Now we can't imagine not having her running around the house. 

We bought a house!

Well after too many long years of renting, we've finally been able to purchase our own house.  

The circumstances are a bit sad, it was Simon's cancer diagnosis that meant we could make a life insurance claim to get the finance over the line, but at the end of the day we now have our own home. 

There is plenty of room in the new place, big bedrooms (there's even a "spare" bedroom), a big backyard and room to park all the cars.  We even have a fireplace to get cozy in-front of on those cold nights. 

Simon put together a YouTube video of our moving week and will probably do a house tour video once we've settled in.  Check out the moving video below.  

Christmas morning 2020

Our annual Christmas morning family photo - 2020

Our Christmas morning family photo is looking a little different this year.  Thanks to his chemotherapy, Simon has lost all his hair and is now a baldy.  

Thankfully, though, we are all still together.  Josh turns 21 next week, but is still living at home, so the family is all here Christmas morning for our traditional family portrait.

Lockdown Family Photos

What do you do on a weekend during COVID-19 Stage-4 Lockdown when you're not supposed to leave home?  Yesterday we decided to have some fun taking family photos.  

There was another reason for getting some new family memories, apart from being stuck at home with nothing to do because of Corona Virus.  Despite six months of chemotherapy last year, Simon's Pancreatic Cancer has returned and he needs to start a different chemo programme.  This new treatment will make him lose his hair, so we wanted to get some photos before he becomes a baldy.

L to R:  Joshua, Bradley, Simon, Mandy & Karla

We also made a video of the fun we had taking our latest family photos, 
you can watch it on YouTube here... https://youtu.be/kF4osIdGz2Q 

Made by Mandy

So this family blog as been around for more than 10 years, and Simon has had his personal blog for some time too.  Now Mandy has her own website, dedicated mostly to her resin art, with some other creative stuff planned for the future.

Check out Mandy's brand new website at madebymandy.art 

Screen-shot of Mandy's new website

Christmas Morning 2019

2019 has been a huge year for our family, as I have fought (and hopefully beaten) pancreatic cancer.  With all of that behind us, before you know it, Christmas morning is upon us. 

Since 2010, we've had a tradition of taking a family photo in-front of the tree on Christmas morning, before any presents are opened.  With our eldest son, Josh, almost 20 years old, I'm not sure how many more Christmas mornings the five of us will be all together for a family portrait.  After such a stressful year, I'm so glad we were all at home this Christmas to continue our family tradition.

Embarrassing the kids

We recently spent some time going through some old home movie footage of the kids as they were growing up, and put it together for a video on YouTube titled "Embarrassing my Kids".  The title probably gives you an idea of what to expect, but thankfully the kids are good sports and had a good laugh at themselves when showed the finished product.

It's not a short video, but take a look, I think you'll get a laugh out of it as well.

Christmas Morning Family Photo

L to R: Mandy, Brad, Karla, Josh & Simon - Christmas morning 2018

It's become a family tradition to get dressed and pose for our family photo on Christmas morning before any gifts are opened.  Even though Josh is officially an adult now, he's still one of the kids who enjoys opening presents Christmas morning, so it was good that we were all still together and able to continue our tradition.

This year I've also made a "Behind The Scenes" video of us getting this family photo done, check it out on YouTube...  

https://youtu.be/sy2XcF_GnjM 

Christmas 2017

Every year on this family blog, we post our Christmas Morning Family Photo.  2017 is the last year before our oldest, Josh, turns 18 and officially becomes an adult.

We've agreed that when Josh is an adult, his appearance in the family photo as one of the kids will be optional, but hopefully he sticks around!

L to R - Josh, Mandy, Brad, Karla & Simon - Christmas morning 2017

Josh, Brad and Karla with their Santa Sacks

Karla's Gymnastics

Last year Karla started doing gymnastics.  She has progressed really well and has this year done a few competitions.

This year Karla (aged 8) has also developed an interest in making videos for YouTube (with Dad's help of course), so we've combined the two.  Check out these couple of videos we made at two of her competitions. 

Needless to say, Mum and Dad are very proud.

Christmas family photo 2016

Our Christmas morning family tradition, a family photo infront of the tree, continued this morning...

2016 Christmas family photo

Santa Photo 2016

As the big day draws closer, today our kids had our annual visit to see Santa.

Josh, Karla, Santa and Brad

See more on Simon's personal blog - simonyeo.id.au/2016-santa-photo

Family Photos

L to R: Brad, Mandy, Karla, Simon and Josh

We've had new Family Photos done!

Shot at the Old Cheese Factory in Narre Warren by Samantha from Inspired by Life Photography.  We are really happy with the photos, now it's jst a matter getting the best photos printed and framed.

Read, and see, more on my perosonal blog - simonyeo.id.au/2016-family-photos

Mandy and Karla drawn as Simpsons characters

Mandy and Karla, simpsonized by Dean Rankine

Mandy and Karla have been simpsonized!  They've been drawn by cartoon artist Dean Rankine as if they were characters in the long running TV animation "The Simpsons".

You can rean more in Simon's personal blog - simonyeo.id.au/mandy-and-karla-simpsonized

Christmas morning family photo

Our 2015 traditional Christmas morning family photo

At school recently Karla's class was asked what Christmas traditions their families had.  Karla didn't didn't hesitate to nominate our family photo in front of the Christmas tree.  We've been doing these family photos for several years now, since I've really gotten into photography, so Karla hasn't known a Christmas morning without the family photo!  It's also a good way to get the kids dressed before they're allowed to open any presents!

This year we had a couple of guests staying with us, Lee and Steve from Scotland, so we had a second group photo with all of us (this time we closed the blind so it wasn't so bright in the window behind us).

Our visitors from Scotland, Lee and Steve, joined us for a second family photo this Christmas

This post has been re-published on my personal website blog;
simonyeo.id.au/family/2015/12/christmas-morning-family-photo  
Simon.

New Car

We've collected our new car, a Kia Rondo.  It's a seven seater without being an SUV or mini-bus!

Christmas Morning

Our tradition Christmas Morning Family Photo.
Merry Christmas!

2014 Santa Photo

It's almost Christmas, and that means the kids need to sit down with Santa and have a serious talk.

Here's this year's Santa photo...

Red Black Bash

Last Friday the family went to Essendon Football Club's new head quarters at Melbourne Airport to watch the fun cricket match between Essendon and the Melbourne Renegades cricket team.

It was a nice day with photo and autograph opportunities before and after the match.

 

Christmas, done and dusted!

When I posted our family photo with Santa last week, I mentioned that I hadn't realised that this site hadn't been updated for almost 12 months.  So today I've gone through the various Blogger options and given this - our family web page - a bit of a spruce up and new look.

To top it off, below is our annual family photo in front of the tree on Christmas morning.
Hopefully it wont be another 12 months before I post another update SMJBK update!

Simon.