Evidently now we're just highlighting the holidays here on our blog! Jumping from Halloween to Christmas 
leaves out so much but I did get some photos loaded for November. Some of the highlights include the kids playing in their pool during the second week of November - three weeks later we were taking out the winter coats & gloves! Also during November, the family took a trip to Phoenix for Bob's friend Toby's wedding and to spend Thanksgiving 
with Monnie & Papa Carlson. While in Phoenix we visited the Hall of Flame firefighting museum, a Railroad park in Scottsdale & a really cool playspot for the kids. Be sure to check them out!
Christmas is tomorrow so we'll have more pictures coming soon! Here's a sneak peek at the kids. Gavin is of particular interest due to his injuries. He has a huge mark on the side of his eye from running into the couch & he has an even bigger rug-burn on his nose from playing "Vacuum Cleaner". Don't ask!
Yesterday Gavin & Lily had a Halloween parade at their daycare. 
Gavin donned his very authentic Fireman's costume and Lily let out her Lil Devil.
It was a slightly cold and rainy day which was actually a lot nicer than the last few years when the kids were sweating in their costumes. For those of you who were curious to see Genentech's new daycare you can check out some of the parade photos in the photo gallery.
Tonight Bob and the kids went trick or treating while Jenna took care of the kids that came to our door. It was a beautiful night although we did have a few sprinkles that brought an early end to our t-or-t'n. 
After that Gavin was having a blast handing out candy. When we ran out of candy he wanted to start giving his candy out.
Jenna even got in on the holiday spirit, dressing up as a Pregnant Devil to go along with Lily's Lil Devil. Everybody had a blast!
San Diego Vacation
We're back from our first "family vacation" and I'm pleased to say everyone survived had a great time! We took our new van - oh by the way did I mention we're now mini-van people, yeah "those" people. Ugh! So we drove the family truckster 8 hrs to San Diego. The kids managed the long drive really well - lots a naps, a few DVDs and a lot of starring out into the nothingness of central California.
Of course we stopped in Buena Park, CA for a little Portillo's (Jenna's favorite part of the trip!) Pregnancy cravings not withstanding we were all going to get our Portillo's fix. After that, the trip was all about the kids. 
We spent the next 4 days at Legoland & Sea World. Gavin enjoyed Legoland the most. Lily was still too little for most of the fun at LL but she didn't seem to mind just hanging out in her stroller. Gavin's favorite thing to do was familiar to us since it was the same thing Logan loved about Legoland 10 years ago when we took him. That would be the ride where you can operate a water cannon from the side & get people wet as they passed by. BOOM! There's just something about boys, getting people wet & blowing things up that go hand in hand.
Lily on the other hand really loved Sea World. She's already showing a real love of animals at her young age. Her favorite was the Penguin Encounter. Immediately after 
we got off the moving walkway that slowly strolled you by the penguins she was signing & saying "more. more. more."
Also at Sea World, we got to eat lunch with Shamu. This was definitely one of the best parts of the trip. Going into it we thought it might have been just another way to suck $70 out of a family but in actuality you get a buffet meal with great food & while you're eating they have 2 trainers who put on a mini-show for you. We got to see three whales perform all the tricks right up close along with a nice narrative from one of the trainers. We'd definitely recommend this to any of you who might plan a trip of your own in the future.
& baby makes 3... +2 = 5!
The word is out - we're expecting Baby #3 in March!
Sorry!!
Sorry it's been so long since we've updated this page. I hope you've kept up with the photos we've loaded over the last few months. We've been really busy but we've been having lots of fun!
We finished our sunroom remodel last week. Here are some before & after photos for you...
Here's what it looked like before
Happy Birthday Gavin!!
Although tonight is Gavin's birthday he's going to have what amounts to a Birthday Week. It started on Saturday and will continue until Grandma and Papa Sayre plus Ian arrive this weekend.
Saturday was so hot that we let Gavin open a kiddie pool that Aunt Niki sent. It was just what we needed to get out of the house and have a little fun - complete with a water gun fight (Mommy got soaked!!). Tonight we're taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese. I know you're jealous! So because of that we let Gavin open most of his presents last night. He got a lot new toys for the sandbox plus some great cars & books. He even got a really cool Lightning McQueen hat from Monnie & Papa. The boy was raking it in from all sides. He even got a new big boy bike! I wish I was 3 again!!
It's official. We're losing. 
There have been a lot of battles and the kids are definitely putting more W's on the scoreboard. It's not surprising considering they're using Biological and Psychological warfare. 
Besides the endless string of disease that comes home from daycare, we find ourselves uttering sentences that no one would ever believe could make sense in the English language. Such as, "Don't put your bacon in your milk!"
Lily's developing really fast these days. She's still eating really well - usually more than Gavin and occasionally more than mama. She's even using a cup without a lid.
Overall we're having a great time with these two! They're getting along really well. When everybody's happy they spend a lot of time playing together. Occasionally it turns sour when they insist on playing with whatever the other one's playing with. You know - the usual!
So wish us luck!
We arrived back safely from St. Martin this week. What a great vacation! The picture above pretty accurately reflects how we spent the week. As much as we enjoyed the trip we were thrilled to get back home to the kids! Gavin met us at the airport with the biggest, silliest grim imaginable. And surprisingly Lily didn't hold as big of a grudge towards mama as we thought she might. She was just glad to have us home! Many thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Sayre for spending the week with the kids.
Happy Birthday Lily! The girl is officially 1 - going on 10. Monnie & Papa Carlson came out for a visit to celebrate the big B-day. It was lots of fun & she thoroughly enjoyed devouring cupcakes & opening presents.
Be sure to check out the video of the cupcake carnage. 
Gavin proved himself a true Carlson male this week when he asked for a roadie cup for a trip to the store. Albeit the cup was filled with milk it was a sure sign of things to come!
Next up Jenna & Bob are headed to the Caribbean for a vacation without the kids! That's right, Mom & Dad are headed to the beaches of St. Martin & Grandma & Papa Sayre are heading to California to watch the kids. Sounds like a good deal all around!
Take a Video Tour of our House Remodel
I'm pleased to announce that the remodel is almost finished. Our preliminary run at the final inspection just turned up a few small issues that we'll deal with easily and we plan on having carpet installed within a couple weeks. Of course I hate to say it but when the remodel is done, all that means is our real work begins! We have a project list a mile long of things that we are handling ourselves, such as landscaping and re-painting the old part of the house. Once the contractor is gone and we've moved into the new living area we'll begin tackling our list.
The kids are still doing amazing. Lily is 8 months old now if you can believe that! 
She's crawling all over the place and pulling herself up to stand along the couch. In September, the kids started at a new daycare program that's affiliated with Jenna's company Genentech. Since it's a biotech company the daycare has a strong educational push. We've already seen amazing changes in Gavin's language skills; it's been quite remarkable.
Jenna's in Washington D.C. this week, so Bob's playing single dad with the kids and so far - 1 day into it - everyone's surviving!
insulation & drywall go up. We might even have kitchen cabinets in by the end of the week!
Lily continues to work on her crawling skills. With a little effort, she can easily get to anything on the floor that she wants. After all that exercise a girl needs to eat, & Lily can pack it away. 
A few weeks ago she started on rice cereal and quickly moved up to full-fledged baby food. Compared to Gavin this girl is easy!
It's potty training time for Gavin and he's doing pretty well with it. We're not sure how long it's going to take before we can move him into underwear but we think it should be soon!
While taxiing at O'Hare the wing of her United plane clipped the tail rudder of an American jet. Jenna watched the whole thing unfold and then had to sit and wonder for 5 minutes if the pilot noticed he just hit another plane. Eventually the pilot came on and said "Uh, I made a boo boo!" Safe to say they turned the plane back to the terminal
and the girls ended up spending another night in Chicago. They made it home safely the next morning.
For the Fourth of July we headed a few towns south on the Peninsula to Redwood City. As a special treat we decided to take Gavin on the choo-choo train. The CalTrain commuter line is about 3/4 of a mile from our house and it dropped you off right at the festivities. So it was win-win for everybody. Gavin was good at the parade for about 20 minutes but then his attention waned. Not to worry there was plenty of food and activities to check out.
Last weekend we moved to an extended stay hotel so the contractors could do some work upstairs, including installing new windows and re-wiring all of the electrical. The stay at the hotel has been pretty lux compared to our past few months! No dust, noise or extension cords to deal with. This place is pretty nice we might even stay longer. For $105 night we've got a suite with a fridge & cooktop. But we don't even need to cook because it comes with complimentary dinner 4 days a week and breakfast is served everyday. Add daily housekeeping to that and life is pretty good!!
On Saturday we headed down to San Jose to the Children's Discovery Museum and had a great time. This place is full of fun hands-on activities for kids. Gavin was totally into it
but kids up to 10 seemed to be enjoying it. Check out the photo album to see all of the fun!
On a side note to those of you who were wondering why we don't have many pictures of Lily, I submit to you this photo as Exhibit A. Gavin has a way to insert himself into the frame so we miss a lot of good moments with her. But you should be able to see a bunch of new Lily shots in the July photo album so check it out!
opportunity to come up & spend a couple of days with her little girls. Lily had a great time hanging out with Grandma during the day while Mom was at the conference. That left the boys at home to party like rockstars! It was nothing but long outings to the park & waffles for 
dinner. The guys had a great time together. The other big news from this week was that Gavin started swimming lessons at the YMCA. It's an 8 week Water Adjustment class for Bob & Gavin. The little guy did really well with his kicks but we need to work on putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles.
Construction Update - Nothing much new to report this week on the house remodel. Electrical & plumbing systems are almost complete. Once they're finished we have to install an automatic sprinkler system in the whole house, which will probably take a few weeks. Overall we're a full month behind schedule which makes the estimated completion date the end of September. We'll see if the contractor can stick to that date!!
Here are the stats: At 4 months, Lily weighs in at 13 lbs 5 oz and is 24 inches long. Our little guy Gavin is having a hard time keeping up with Lily. His stats were 22 lbs and 30 inches tall.
And of course when you visit the doctor you can't leave without a shot or four! Gavin escaped with only 1 shot and he took 
it like a champ. Poor Lily got hit with 4 shots this time around and she took 'em like a girl! Both kids are doing better today, no worse for wear.
Jenna's been back at work now for a full week & she's having so much fun! Okay maybe not, so she misses her babies and would like nothing better than to spend her days with the two of them! Who wouldn't!!?
The house remodel is moving along better now. We had a few setbacks but they got cleared up. This week we passed plumbing inspection, the contractor installed one of the steel beams over the garage door & they poured the concrete slab for all of the rooms except the garage. They were even able to frame up Lily's room. Next week they're supposed to finish framing and begin the rough plumbing in the walls.
The most exciting change comes with the photo albums. We've implemented a new photo community that offers some exciting options for you. Visitors to CarlsonOC.com can now leave comments for any of our photos & even upload photos & videos of your own! Let's see what you're up to.
Now that everyone is home it's a lot more difficult to deal with a house under construction. Currently we're living without a kitchen and the dining room is covered with plastic. Even though it's uncomfortable the remodel is progressing. This week they finished the deck, roughed in the plumbing and installed all of the windows.
The kids are doing great. Lily is rolling over at will now - front to back & back to front. Gavin's trash obsession continues now that he has a few garbage trucks to play with & thanks to Aunt Janet he has two brand new books all about garbage that mommy & daddy can read to him over and over and over again!!
Bob's heading to Illinois on Friday to reunite the tribe. For those of you who haven't heard we have a few events while we're home. On Saturday May 12th, we're having a Carlson family party in Yorkville, then on May 19th we'll be celebrating Gavin's 2nd & Magen's 7th birthdays. Finally Lily's Baptism is going to take place on Sunday May 20th in Andover. We hope to see as many of you as possible while we're home.
the tough parts are. It's a pretty dirty trick that as soon as you get one trained with a schedule you can live with, here comes number 2 with a mind of her own! Even simple things, like updating the webpage, become a challenge.
Overall we're doing just great. At her 1 month doctor's appointment Ms. Lily weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz. The girl has been eating like a fiend although she tends to spit up a lot. The only issue is that Lily does not like to be by herself. This has made nights pretty tough but Jenna is doing a great job keeping the little one content. Gavin is his normally awesome self. He loves helping out with his sister as much as he can. Right now that help is pretty limited to throwing away dirty diapers but he's itching for more.
Jenna and the kids are going to spend 6 weeks of April and May in Illinois visiting Jenna's Grandma as she recovers 
from a broken hip. We figured it was a good time to get home and see all of the family while Jenna's on maternity leave. Bob will be coming home for a week in May to celebrate Mother's Day, Gavin's 2nd Birthday and Lily's baptism. We hope that we can see many of you while we're in the neighborhood.
And on one final note, we're glad to say that we have finally unloaded our house in Orange County. After 9 months on the market we received a solid offer a few days after Lily was born. It's about time and we're glad we can finally move on!