Merry Christmas and welcome to the latest EDITION of the Chronicle and the newest ADDITION to the family – Cadie Taylor Carlson. She was born on June 23^rd at 5:18 in the morning and weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz. Torie had another real quick labor (we didn’t arrive at the hospital until 2:30) and everything went real smoothly. Torie’s mom, Mary Kay, came out for the summer to help, and Craig “took the summer off” so things went pretty well.

Cadie is now about 16 lbs and rapidly catching up to her brother in size. She is an accomplished sitter and looks to be getting ready to start crawling any day now. She just cut her first two teeth and is becoming quite the chatter-box. She really enjoys the company of her big brother and is in the process of moving into his old room.

Tyler is now 21 months old and is doing great! His memory is phenomenal, as he can count to 10 with help and knows all his letters and colors. He loves balls, animals (and their noises) and is addicted to Disney/PIXAR movies. Tyler enjoys hangin’ with Uncle Brett and always wants to know when Aunt Debbie is going to visit next. He’s attended a few Clipper basketball games and USC football games with us and really seems to take after his dad as far as being a sports nut. He gets along great with Cadie and likes to hold her and make her laugh. Tyler has moved on to his own big-boy room with a big-boy bed…though he still hasn’t really mastered the art of sleeping.

Torie is back at work now and continues to like her job at the Capital Group. She really enjoyed having her mother out for the summer. Craig is now doing consulting work at Disney after leaving his interim CFO position down in Newport (the drive was too much). It worked out well as Craig left MetWest Capital in mid-June and didn’t return to the working world until August. Both Torie and Craig are still talking about being better about visiting the gym, though feel like the kids give them a good enough work-out on their own! The whole family has enjoyed the football season and encourages all of you to watch USC thump Michigan in the Real National Championship game at the Rose Bowl!

We were only able to take one trip this year and that was to Las Vegas to visit Torie’s sister Debbie (Craig might have been watching a little March Madness!). Craig was also able to get away to Atlanta to see USC start the season off against Auburn thanks to help from Debbie. We have been blessed by a number of visitors…Torie’s mom for the summer (and sister Kirsten for a bit), and Craig’s mom and Debbie have come out regularly to see the kids. We got to meet Andy’s girlfriend (now fiancée) Shelley in July and have had visits by a few of Craig’s friends from Atlanta. Tyler and Cadie got a special treat in October when Craig’s mom brought his 94 year old grandmother out to see her Great-Grandchildren.

We have much to be thankful for this holiday season and would really like to thank our family and friends that have helped out so much with the kids! We hope to see more friends and family in 2004 and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last Years Letter