Almost Christmas

Here is Ella lovin' on her brother, she is so great with him it is unbelievable.  She's also been incredibly helpful, pretty much folding all of our laundry now, and earning a handsome allowance for her work ($2).   Desmond is a fairly good baby, he sleeps a lot and only gets us up at 1am and 4am for feedings.  Last night he ate himself silly at 11pm and didn't wake up until 4am to eat, so I am feeling like a million dollars today.  That is a good thing because we have a crazy day ahead of us, for all you who didn't know, my sister in law was pregnant also and she had her baby on the 17th.  Peyton Joye Copley was 7lbs 10oz and 19 in. long. We went to go visit them at the hospital and Ella and Cody had a sleep over his house that night with grandma.  They had fun but didn't get to bed till late but thankfully she got a nap in the next day.

     We picked a great time to have a baby, and have thus fallen behind on our Christmas preparations.  Luckily we got our tree the night before Desmond was born, but otherwise it's been a mad dash to get everything done.  I hope everyone is okay with Martin Luther King day cards.  This year all Ella asked Santa for was nesting dolls, which she calls 'Open and close dollies.' (Don't let the kids read from here on because it will wreck there lives from here until they are 14.)  So of course there isn't one shop anywhere near us that has them.  Fortunately Nancy knew somebody who knows somebody who is Russian, and told us about a Russian store in West Hollywood.  So we had to drive down in awful rain and find this place, but we got her some great dolls, so it was worth it.  Much better than driving an hour in the snow in Chicago last year for her present.

We've put more pictures of Desmond up on the picasa page, and I have to say I have put a decree (decree valid no further than the confines of Shelley's head) on the nickname spelling saga.  Desmond will forever be spelled out in writing as Desmond or Desi, he can be called Des(Dez), but from here on out will never have that nickname written again, or at least until he is old enough to decide for himself (I figure he will be 18 when we will give him the option).  We just can't come to a decision and both Nate and I are very stubborn about it and won't give it up, so to prevent a tramatizing life where each parent spells his name different, I have made this crazy decree (see above).

     In last two days, Des has rolled over 3 times!  Twice yesterday and once today.  He gets mad about being on his tummy and then throws his leg over and the rest of him follows.  We'll put up videos of him crawling next week.

Merry Christmas everybody!

?

Everybody is home and happy and healthy.  Shelley has been up and around, and we even all took Ella to preschool as a family, and visited all our friends at Shooting Stars. Ella held Desmond for about an hour today, just hugging him and kissing him.  It's pretty hilarious though, because I was telling her to talk to him, to tell him what's going on, but the only things she says to him are "I love you," "I'm your big Sister," and "Hi Desi."

In lieu of a coherent post with actual events and such described, we will instead ask your opinion on a matter of some import.  Shelley and I have had an argument about which is the correct short form of Desmond: "Des" or "Dez."  If you feel inclined, we would appreciate your reasoning as well.  Thanks in advance; The very tired Pyles.  Oh, many more pictures on the picasa page.

Desmond Floyd Pyle

Thanksgiving Week

We started off Thanksgiving week in the best way possible, with my Birthday! I'm now 27!  We had 3 nights of celebration starting with a visit to Chuck-e Cheese for the wee ones, who enjoyed it very much.  The next day, Shelley and I met up with Tom, Cici, Nick and Paul and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which is an incredible movie.  We saw it at the ArcLight in Hollywood, which is a great place for seeing movies.  You get to pick out your seats if you buy them on line, and the chairs are super comfortable.  After that we went to a Thai/Chinese restaurant where we got a ton of really really good food, and stuffed ourselves.  On Sunday, my actual birthday, I got a great card from Ella

That's a picture of our family, including the baby in Shelley's tummy, on the far right,

 and a bunch of great presents as well, including a salad spinner that I've wanted forever, and a great vest, too.  That night we went to our Indian restaurant, and had a great big meal there.

We spent all of Wednesday night cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Ella helped Nancy make oreo turkeys, which were really cool, and we made fake chicken noodle soup, party potatoes and Nuts and Bolts.  I had to work in the morning on Thursday, but we were at Tom and Cici's by 3 where we saw Katie and Tebben for the first time in a long time, and had lots of fun playing games and helping cook everything for dinner.  After dinner Tom, Tebben and I played pool while everybody else talked.  Ella was full of energy, so I would give her our camera and have her go on photo-treasure hunts, which she did quite well at.  She also took a lot of pictures of us playing pool, and goofy other stuff.

Shelley and I both took Friday off to hang out with Katie and Tebben, and despite it being a crazy shopping day, we went to two different shopping centers.  The weren't actually that crowded though, so we got to walk along and look at some different stores, and eat some good food.  In between the Grove and the 3rd St. Promenade, we went to Nick and Paul's house and ate some more food and talked with them for a while.  Lot's of eating that week.  

These last few days we've been doing lot's of baby stuff, washing clothes and getting the room together.  The baby's room is almost done, Ella's room is now looking pretty good, we got her a new dresser and changed a few things around.  Our room is still a royal mess however, because anything that didn't have a place in Ella's room or the baby's room ended up in our room.  But we've got the day off today, so maybe we'll actually get it clean.  Or else we'll just go and get a Christmas tree, and create a whole new mess.  Who knows?

There's a bunch of new picture on our picasa site, including a video of Ella's proto-cartwheel.  It's pretty good for a four year old.  And the picture of her in bed with dolls and such is what she actually sleeps with every night.

Getting Ready

Ella in her new dress for picture day at school.

We've made some great leaps forward in the realm of baby preparedness this last week.  Gabriella and I put together the crib in the spare bedroom.  She was super helpful, putting in all the bolts and even tightening them most of the way, and then helping clean it up.  It's a super nice crib that was given to us for free from a mom at Shelley's work.  We also got a king size bed for the two of us, and a glider for the baby.    

Yesterday, there was a baby shower at Shooting Stars for the 3 of them there that are pregnant, and the one who just gave birth.  We got a major haul of stuff, some of it stuff that people weren't going to use anymore and some that is brand new.  One cool thing is a nice big swing, like one we had in Chicago that my cousin Karin lent us.  It was super useful, and we're very glad to have it.  

   

Today was way fun because I fixed up a bike in the garage and went for a ride on it with Ella.  She was on her bigwheel.  We went for about 40 minutes, which in normal people time would only have taken about 20 minutes.  However, my daughter is a genius at not paying attention to important things.  Dogs walking by, kids 50 yards away; she can focus on them like a laser.  A big yellow pole right in front of her... crash!  And that not all, she also  steered right into a wall.  And when ever I got behind her, she would always turn around to look at me, which caused her to swerve around a lot.  But she rode the whole way, and was really good about it.  Afterward we went to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for a big siblings tour of the maternity wing.  There was an incredibly goofy video about being a big sibling and then they got to practice changing a baby doll, and then we went to the nursery and saw a real live little baby, which all the little kids loved, and then we saw a birthing room.  Ella and Cody were both really excited the whole time.

November

So I'm a little depressed right now. I bought a new ringtone for my phone on Tuesday, the very first one I've ever bought. It's All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. I was totally psyched about it, but so far I've only gotten one call (thanks Mom!), and that was when my phone was on vibrate. But it's Christmas song time again, and I'm excited about that. That also means that it's very very close to baby time, which is way crazy. We are still undecided as to the name, for those who may be wondering. Maybe we'll put it to a vote if we can't decide, or just let Ella handle it if we can't figure it out.
We've kinda started to get ready, we're slowly buying the things we need, although Shelley is convinced he's coming sooner rather than later, so we had better hurry up. We've also got to ry and get in Christmas shopping with the baby shopping, and haven't been doing to great at either. Luckily we've been gifted many things from people at Shelley's work, so we don't have a ton to buy.
Ella had her very first cavity, and filling last week, which wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The dentist only drilled for 5 seconds, and she didn't need a shot. The funny thing is she was more freaked out by the filling stuff than the actual drill. But we got through it, and as a reward we took her to see High School Musical 3, which she loved. It was actually pretty good, nothing tremendous, but as no one else is making musicals, it'll have to do.
Oh, there are pictures from Halloween time on our picasa website.

Birthday Party

1. the brand new four year old.

2. Ella with her friends Sierra and Olivia.

3. Ella petting a baby chick.

First of all, there are a bunch of new pictures on the Picasa site, from our Zoo trip with Nick and Paul, and the party at the farm.   

Last Saturday, before the party, Nick and Paul, Tom and Cici all came up here and we went for a hike and then had dinner at our favorite Indian Restaurant.  The four of them are going to India soon, and Paul wanted to do some research on Indian food, and we just love the restaurant, so it all worked out perfectly.

Sunday was the big day.  It's hard to believe she's four already.  Farms are a great place to have parties, all the kids totally loved it.  We got a wagon ride around the farm, and then Ella got a big bucket of feed, which I never got at one of my parties, and she and all her friends fed the animals.  They all got to go on the different rides  and such, which was fun, but because we had it on a weekend during the Fall Festival, it was super crowded.  But the party area was set aside with a covered area and tables, which was excellent.  We had pizza, super fancy cupcakes for the kids and regular cake for the adults.  Afterward we did the other stuff, like the corn maze, which was pretty hilarious.  I had never done one before, and Ella was way psyched about it.  We went in as a big party, but got separated, and walked around for a long time, almost to the point where it was getting old, but then we finally met up again right near the exit.  Then we did my favorite part, which was the tomato slingshot and the corn cannon.  Ella really liked the corn cannon too.  We were all completely exhausted afterward, especially Shelley who was already feeling a little sick and had been on her feet all day.  

On Monday, there was a big fire right on my way to work, which was pretty crazy, and made for a really slow week at work.

Nothing super exciting coming up for us that I can think of.  Just looking forward to thanksgiving, and Katie and Tebben visiting.

pictures

Mammoo and Grandad are here, so we're have a great time.  Big party this Sunday for Ella's 4th.  Updates later.  Here are some pictures.

Pregnant Basketball.  Trike riding.  Block wall.  At the Bower's Childrens museum.  Ella's wicked new loft bed from her Grandpa.  

Fun Week

It's been a pretty fun week for the out here in California.    Shelley's Dad and Grandparents came in for a long weekend, during which they went to Hurricane Harbor, and Ventura, with lots of hanging out as well.  It was really great to see them, and Ella had a blast.   

Gabriella started soccer last Thursday, and that will go for around 10 weeks or so.  She absolutely loved it, and we got a couple soccer outfits for her.  She was the only girl out there, but she was super boisterous, answering all the questions quickly and loudly, but not necessarily correctly.  

On Sunday we took Nancy to the Bower's Museum  for her birthday.  Ella explains it in our little chat.

bowers museum1.m4a

She forgot to mention that she got a gold terra cotta orrior, and Shelley and I got a book about the exhibit and a set of 5 Mini orriors.

Photos

1.  Ella and I pre-haircuts

2.  Ella at a fountain at the Disney Music Hall

3.  Photo by Ella, in the LA Cathedral

4.  Grandad whizzing Ella around the track at Underwood farms

5.  Grandma, Ella and Cody at the Santa Barbara zoo for Grandma's birthday

  There are a bunch more pictures on our Picasa site.  

We've been planning Ella's party, and she wants to go to Underwood farms, out in Moorpark, by my work.  We even offered her Disney, but she wants to have a party, so we're going there.  She likes it because we'll get to pick pumpkins and other vegetable while we're there and go in their bounce house and all sorts of fun stuff.

My favorite thing that Ella says lately is when she talks about Shelley walking.  We'll be downstairs laying on the couch and hear Shelley walking around upstairs in the morning, and Ella will get really excited and say "I hear Mommy going Clip-Clop!"  It cracks me up all the time.

Bad Dream

ella's bad dream.m4a

This is a little recording we did yesterday.  I was messing around with our computer and you can do podcasts with garageband.  So I recorded it, and since I can't sleep, I've figured out a way to at least get in on here.  You have to have some sort of compatible thing to play it in, such as itunes, but now I can have this on my ipod, which is pretty cool.  there's some more stuff below too.  Pictures will follow in a day or so, not too long, I promise.

Visit

Just a brief update.  My parents are visiting right now, which Ella is absolutely over the moon about.  She got to stay with them at Nick and Paul's, go to the Huntington Gardens, eat lunch with them at Rustic Canyon and go to the farm, and have dinner at Tom and Cici's.  Also she swam with them, went to the library, showed them her preschool, and tomorrow they get to watch her dance class before they go this afternoon.  

It's been a busy visit as you can imagine, but loads of fun.  In other news, I got a raise at work, and yesterday was the 1st anniversary of me starting there.  We went to see a great magic/comedy/hypnotism show with Tom and Cici in Hermosa Beach a while back, and Tom wants me to help him film the same guy at a different place later this month, which is pretty exciting.  Shelley is progressing along nicely with our little boy, whom she says is huge and won't leave her alone.  Still no progress on the Name front though.    Trying a new thing with the link above, hope it works.

Drawing!

This is a self portrait, if you couldn't tell.  The things above the arms, obviously, are shoulders.  

We went to Hurricane Harbor today, the waterpark near us, and the last few times we've gotten Funnel Cake, cause it's the best, and Ella loves it.  Today we asked what kind of snack she wanted, and she thought and then said "Parmesan Cheese."  Eventually we figured out that she wanted Funnel Cake, but she had forgotten the name.

Doin' stuff

We've had a pretty  busy few weeks since our last post.  We celebrated our 4th anniversary with a little overnight trip to Ventura.  It was really fun, we went to Rustic Canyon for breakfast, and to leave one of our cars there because I had to drive it home from work the next day.  Ella was amazed that we served breakfast there, and wanted to stay all day and eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner there.  But instead we went to Ventura.  We stayed at a nice hotel just a short walk from the beach, and went down there as soon as we were settled in the hotel.  We saw the three goofy guys in the picture below, and they spend at least half an hour trying to break the log in the picture buy throwing big rocks at it.  It was pretty hilarious to watch.

Afterward we swam at the hotel pool for a little while, and then went back to the beach and rented a two-person surrey and rode it along the beach, which was quite nice, although Ella complained constantly about having to wear a helmet.

A few days later Ella and I went and had dinner with Tom, Cici, Nick and Paul.  Shelley stayed home sick, unfortunately, but the rest of us had a excellent time.  We had another fun beach day with my friend Alex, which was excellent, we played frisbee and watched Ella be a goon, and then had an excellent dinner at a chinese place that had both vegetarian pot stickers and vegetarian orange chicken (with tofu in stead).  Now I just need to find a place that has vegetarian bao, 'cause bao is uber good.

In this last week, I finished my class with a 97%, which is better than any grade I ever got at U of I, which is pretty cool.  I haven't decided if I'll take another class right away yet.  But most importantly we found out last thursday that we are going to have a boy this December!  We are super stoked, but have no idea really as to name.  Shelley is feeling good now, and is in super good shape, pregnancy wise.  

  We've actually even been able to see some movies too lately, and we saw Wanted and Pineapple Express together, and I saw Hellboy 2 and Dark Knight.  Wanted was extremely goofy, but was trying to be serious, and Pineapple Express was extremely goofy, but it was trying to be and we thought it was hilarious.  Hellboy and Dark Knight are both incredibly good movies, even if you don't like comic book movies.  

  Not much coming up for us, Ella's school starts again this week, and then my parents are coming in the beginning of September, which will be fun, and Shelley's Dad and his parents right after that, so that will keep us busy.  

To Eva, if she's reading,

  I've been trying to post on your blog for a couple days but it just won't let me.  Ella doesn't even know that milk exists in a chocolate form right now, and we'll probably keep it that way for a while.  Shelley agrees with your dad about it being a once a week thing.  We loved the movie of Maddie dancing, and it just happens to be to Ella's favorite music ever.  We've heard those songs about a million times now, but she just has to hear them everytime we get in the car or are just sitting around at home.  Oh, and while it may not interest everybody out there, we really want to know how things are going with the cloth diapers as we are pretty sure that's what we are going to be doing.

For Auntie Katie

My favorite part is Shelley gasping when Ella dives.

InSoMNiA

I can't sleep at all.  Normally if we put on a movie I can fall asleep pretty quick, especially if it's a movie I've seen a ton, which is why last night when I couldn't sleep I put on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but then I just ended up watching that.  Eventually I fell asleep much later, laying on the floor.  Tonight I watched all of Casino Royale, which is excellent by the way, read the Onion and Achewood for a while,  updated our netflix queue, looked at top 100 lists for books and movies, and then looked at some old pictures, some of which are above.  As for the top 100 books list only one of them, the BBC list, had my favorite book(s) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.   I think I just decided now that that's(those) is(are) my favorite, a close second would be the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, all books that I could read over and over and over again, no problem.  Oh that's a good TravelingPyles survey Top Three Books(series). Let's hear them people!

  Now I'm going to put on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I usually fall asleep just as Harry and Dudley are running through the field, so we'll see what happens tonight.  I'm on the floor tonight as well.  I like really hard surfaces (part of the reason I like camping so much) and I sleep slightly better on the floor.  Not always though.  More swimming planned for tomorrow, than possibly the Library, and I have my class as well.  Troy and Christie just moved into their new house, which has a pool with a diving board, which Ella absolutely loves, she would go jump off of it and then swim to me, and then get out a do it again.  Still doesn't bother to take a breath though.  alright, it's 4:00 and I'm rambling, so I'm going to bed. 

Swimming!!!

Well, I know that I may be giving the impression that it's all sunshine and swimming here in California, but that's only about half the time.  The rest is just sunshine and sitting by the swimming pool.  Well, not really.  But it's been a couple of weeks since that last video, and Ella has taken off with her swimming.  Nothing like her cousin Maddie, but she is actually getting somewhere now.  The one thing we need to work on with her is her breathing.  She can swim the short width of the pool without any help but she just holds her breath the whole way.  She can't quite get her head above the water to take a breath.  I tried to make her stop in the middle of the pool and bring up her head for a breath, but she wouldn't be able to keep going because once she stops she needs something to push off of to get going again.  We're going to keep working with her and by the end of summer she should be golden.

  As for us, we've been doing well.  On Sunday, Ella and I drove out to see Nate at work and then when he got off we went to the farm out by his work and she rode the ponies, a train and jumped in a bounce house.  She also got to feed the emus and a couple other animals.  We also went out into the fields and picked some strawberries, yellow squash, oranges, cucumbers and lettuce.  We really like going there to get our produce, but since you have to pay to get in we try to make it a special occasion.

 Our fouth was fun, and laid back.  We took the kids to the Santa Clarita Parade, and then relaxed the rest of the day, eventually going to Katie's house (Christie's sister) and having dinner and swimming for the rest of the evening.

Nate is doing well in his class, and is looking for something to take this fall.

We're going to have the next ultrasound on August 7th, and find out about the baby!!  That's all for now.

Swimming!?!

Yesterday marked the end of Gabriella's swim lessons.  She absolutely loved them, and we did too.  They were half an hour a day for 10 consecutive weekdays.  Unfortunately she was sick for 4 of them, but we still got our money's worth as they were only $50.  She was in the first level, of those who could not swim at all, but at the top end, because she totally loves the water, and has no problem going under, where as some of the other kids in the group were hesitant to go in the water, and still wouldn't go under even by the end.  She was so good at the lessons that we got her goggles and are continuing to teach her at home (Shelley was on the swim team).  She loves to try and swim, and here are the first videos of her doing so all by her self.  I don't know how much she moves due to the actual swimming, but it is a great start.

Haircut

Ella in her costume from the dance, and talking to her friends.  The new hair cut.

Shelley took Ella to get a haircut this saturday.  Ella had wanted one for a little while so we took her.  They cut it to a bit short, and then Shelley asked if she wanted it shorter, and she said yes, so they took it even shorter.  She loves it, and we really like it to.   She got to sit in a car and watch Cinderella while they cut her hair.  She also got to go back to swim class today, which she had to miss for the last few days because of an ear infection.  

I also started my class, Biology 106, last week.  It meets twice a week for 3 hours at a time, and we have lots of online stuff to do as well.  It's just an introductory class, but it's interesting, and it's a good first step.  

Lots of stuff

We've had a lot going on here recently, lets see...  Ella's has been going to friends house's lately, something she likes a lot.  And we have had a couple of her friends over as well.  We even took one of her friends, Olivia, with us for a hike.  We went to Vazquez Rocks county park, in Aqua Dulce, just a little bit outside of Santa Clarita.  It was really cool, with big rock formations.  It's been used in a lot of movies, like Blazing Saddles, and in TV shows too.  I even found out what the name of my new favorite plant is;  Yucca Whipple, there are some pictures of it on our picture site.  

Next we went to the zoo with Tom, Cici, Nick and Paul.  It was super fun.  We were there at the end of the day so it wasn't that crowded, but a lot of animals were also inside being fed.  We did get to see the seals being fed, which was great because they do this hilarious shuffley thing, called galumphing, up to the area where the trainers feed them.  Ella expanded her embossed penny collection as well, adding an Alligator and a Koala, it think.  Afterward we went to Prizzie's a really good pizza place by Nick and Paul's.  The have super delicious breadsticks that are covered in olive oil, parmesan cheese and garlic.  They were great.

Ella had here first dance recital last saturday, and she absolutely loved it.  She danced to 'Hot Hot Hot' and had on a cute black flapper dress with neon polka dots and fringe.  We video taped it, but we our software for our video camera only works on a PC, so I can't get the images on our mac to upload just yet, but I'm working on it.    There are lots of pictures from Vazquez rocks, some from the Zoo and from the Cubs game we went to as well.  We watched them beat the Dodgers, and Ella got a Los Angeles hat.  It's pink and white the the Dodgers LA logo on it, but she likes to say it's not a Dodgers hat.  

Anything else... I've got 2 new second cousins Olivia Hurubean and Julia Smith.  Julia looks adorable, and I'm still waiting to see pictures of Olivia, ahem ahem.

Oh yeah, Shelley it pregnant, which I think most of you know by now.  She had her second doctors appointment today and everything is looking good.  Ella is very excited and has thought up a bunch of names including Noodlehead, Vaughn, Rachel, and Nate.  I think Noodlehead is for if its a girl.   We are of course very excited.  The baby is due December 22, so we are going to be Californian's for a while longer.    Luckily Southern California has some cool apartment buildings, so we are looking to move into one in late July or early August.  

Well, I guess that's all for now.  I'll get the video up as soon as I can.

Fun Day

Cool pictures from Kidspace, and Ella's new dress

We decided to have a fun thursday again, because we hadn't had one in a while.  In our LA by stroller book we saw a Children's museum in Pasadena and decided to go to it.  It was totally excellent!  They had lots of nature related stuff, and a huge outdoor area with a climbing wall, tricycles, and water toys.  They had excellent 40 foot tall climbing things where you go from platform to platform, like in the picture above, but Ella would freak out after getting about 8 feet high.  She really liked it a lot, and we think it probably would have gone better with a friend, so we will probably go back soon with one of her friends from school.  Shelley has to work thursday nights now, so while Ella and I were home alone, she helped me make her a new dress, the green one she has on in the picture.  Joanne sells this cool fabric that already has the scrunchie top sew into it, so all you have to do is sew it up, hem it and make the straps.  I've got another on of those to make for her and then a halter top dress that will be a little more challenging.  She loved helping and putting the pins back in the potato ( what she calls the pin cushion tomato).  Another hilarious thing she does is sing these rambling songs that are more stream of conciousness than anything else and one part we heard her sing was "and there's no santa, yes there's no santa, so don't worry about santa."  and then she kept going on about other stuff we didn't hear because we were too busy laughing.   Don't worry though, it seemed like she was just saying that santa wasn't present at the time, not that he doesn't exist.  

Happy Mother's Day!

Shelley's grandma Joye Floyd died a little over two weeks ago.  These are just some of the pictures that we have of her.  She will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her.