Cara had a very big first Christmas! Aside from the usuals - tons of presents, Santa coming down the chimney, loads of Yule; Cara had some very big events. On Christmas Eve we officially declared her a 'walker'. Just 10 months old and she's walking all over the place. That officially makes her the earliest walker in our brood. Lily started at 11 months while Gavin took until 13 months to get up and going.
The other exciting event for Cara was to finally have a 3rd tooth pop through. It took almost 2 months between teeth 2 & 3 but it's finally here. The weird thing is that the tooth that came through is the second from the left on the top. She looks a bit like a jack-o-lantern. Fortunately, the other 3 teeth on top seem to be poking through and might show up in the next couple of weeks.
Merry Early-Christmas!
Our Christmas season is in full swing. Shopping's done, tree's up, cookies and candies have been made. Now it's just time to sit back and enjoy it!
Grandma and Grandpa Sayre left for home earlier this week so last weekend the kids got to enjoy a little taste of Christmas with some early gifting frenzy. They were in heaven; I can't wait until Christmas morning!
We hope that you all have an absolutely perfect Christmas!
Love,
Bob, Jenna, Gavin, Lily & Cara
Happy Thanksgiving
I've been using a few days off work to make some updates to the webpage. Check out the new Video Library page.
I've added a few items but mostly just made it a nicer experience for everyone. If anyone has troubles with it please let me know. One piece of advice - make sure you have the latest Flash Player installed. I'm hoping to have more videos up by the end of the year; we have several tapes that I haven't even looked at yet so we'll have to see if there's anything worthwhile there.Our little elves were very anxious to start decorating for Christmas. We set up the tree on Thanksgiving and then put up the ornaments on Friday. They were really into it; it should be a nice Christmas for us!
Happy Halloween
Bob & Jenna Celebrate their 10th Wedding Anniversary
Cara Starts to Crawl
Cara's Got Teeth!
Cara is also really cranking up the crawling effort. She has definitely perfected the army crawl now; actually she's so good at it she might take a little longer to start regular crawling because, I mean, who needs it?
Last night Bob took Gavin to his very first movie and it was a very special event.
Gavin had a pretty good time. Mostly he just enjoyed spending some one on one time with Daddy. His favorite part of the whole night might have just been the hour spent at Bob's office before going to the screening. Until he got into the theater he really didn't have much understanding of what was going on. 
But once we got to Pixar and he saw all of the characters from his favorite movies he went crazy - jumping and dancing everywhere, it was really something. The only problem we had all night was that Gavin got a little scared because the theater was pretty loud, so we did end up leaving before the movie was over but we went to get ice cream so all was well with the world!
The whole setup was very cool; check out more photos from the night in the photo library. You can also see photos in the July album from Gavin's field trip to the California Academy of Sciences and Gavin's first time Bowling.
We're finally back from our long, extended, paternity leave, family visit, extravaganza to Illinois. It was such a great time visiting all of our family. The kids loved spending time with their grandparents, uncles, aunts & cousins. They're already asking when we're going back.
While we were in Illinois we celebrated Mother's Day, Gavin's birthday, Magen's birthday and Cara's baptism. Plenty of activities kept us really busy during our trip but there was some down time too. Jenna and Bob got away (with Cara) for a 2 day visit to Carbondale to visit the old college town. It's been 10 years since we graduated so it was fun to go back and relive some of the glory days. We even visited the place that we first met!
We've now settled back into life in San Francisco. Jenna's been back at work for 2 weeks, Cara's now going to daycare at 2nd Gen, the kids started swim lessons last weekend and Bob and Gavin are going on a field trip tomorrow to the brand new California Academy of Sciences. Lots of fun all around!
We have begun our long 6 week extended vacation to the Midwest. After a rocky start that included a 3.5 hr delay at the San Francisco 
airport we made it to St. Louis after 10pm on Tuesday. Cara did amazingly well on her first airplane ride. A little bit of crying but nothing to worry about. Lily, after having a few meltdowns at SFO, quickly fell asleep once the plane was cruising. She slept for over 2 hrs of the flight - [sigh] What a releif! Gavin continued his reign as a greater airborne adventurer. We've lost count by now but this was probably close to his 20th flight so he knows what's up but he still gets really excited.
In St. Louis we've been staying with Jenna's sister Niki & her family. Ian & Danielle have had a great time playing with the kids. Danielle is more than thrilled to sit & hold Cara for hours on end!! We spent two days doing some of the best kids activities St. Louis has to offer - Grant's Farm and the Magic House. The kids had a ball feeding the goats, riding the carousel, exploring the museum & just running whenever they get the opportunity. Be sure to check out the photo album for some of these photos, including a great hair raising pic of Lily at the Magic House!!
duel with difficult fights in every round. But at the end Gavin's Big Blue remained superior & took on all comers. Even Cara got in on the action, luckily no stray shells came in her direction!
We had a lovely weekend in Burlingame the weather was absolutely perfect. The kids got to the park a couple of times & we were even able to enjoy a little picnic lunch in the backyard. The Easter Bunny made an appearance & set up a great little easter egg hunt for the kids. Candy was enjoyed by all - some enjoyed a bit too much!!
For those of you who don't know we'll be in Illinois for most of the month of May. Cara will be having her baptism & we hope to catch up with a lot of friends and family who we haven't seen in way too long! If you're in the area during that time please let us know so we can make sure to see you!
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!
