SPINACH?

So what's the deal with spinach these days? Is it back in the stores or is the Trader Joes in Palm Springs WAY out of the loop. I found a bag there on Friday and was totally shocked about it. You all might have been scared and run screaming from the store. You may have politely informed the manager that he was endangering the population by selling spinach during the e-coli breakout. You also may have purchased every bag (to keep them out of the hands of unsuspecting customers) and gone home to burn them. Me, I bought a bag and have been eating spinach salad the past two days, and I have a reserve for tomorrow morning's green drink. I might even go and check out the Trader Joes near my home now to see if THEY are selling any because I'll be out by tomorrow.

Note: No children have consumed spinach in the making of this episode.

Pigtails?
If that is what you call this hilariousity, then yes.

That tongue just cracks me up!
I've actually been seeing a little bit of my baby pictures in this girl lately.

Top view.
So there you have it Jodie. It is humanly possible to get pigtails into this hair, but don't get used to the look. I am not up for the work and I figure I've just got to take those rubber bands out four times before it rips out all of her hair and we have to start all over from scratch. So, expect the comb-over look for at least six more months.

 

Chompers
Derek isn't going to believe me until he comes home and feels the sharp little pearly white barely revealing itself. I'm getting all nostalgic because she's really getting bigger. Heck, I look over and she's standing on the kitchen floor hanging onto the chair beside me. All 25 3/4 inches of her - vertical. She crawled/climbed up the slide today at the park and went up a couple of stairs and then went down the slide on her belly. (This all took a good 15 minutes mind you). Tomorrow, she'll be doing cartwheels.

 

Some things that make me happy

I am really so pleased with how things have been going this week. Before we moved out to California Ryan and Grandma Bayles were talking something like this;
Grandma: "Where are you moving to Ryan?"
Ryan: "California."
Grandma: "What are you going to do in California?"
Ryan: "Make friends."

So we drive up to our new home on Friday night at around 5:30 p.m. There are about 8 kids outside across the street riding scooters and bikes and playing on the grass while their parents visited with each other (3 different families) and Ryan yells out, "MY FRIENDS!" That's pretty much how things have been going for us this past week.

Our home was fixed up pretty nicely with a few minor issues, but nothing like our Provo apartments so I've got no serious complaints. I love having a garage, 2 refrigerators (ghetto as they may be), tons of windows, a window box in the kitchen, a patio for Ryan to ride his bike on, the fantastic park in our backyard, and such nice neighbors. The weather is fantastic, even chilly sometimes, and it feels SO safe in the neighborhood.

I look outside in the park and see families out there pretty often playing together, people will take their dogs on walks regularly so I have learned to expect certain people. For instance, there is a man and his wife who walk their dog and their parrot, Joaquin, each day around 2:00. The real-estate agent who showed us our place lives right around the corner and yesterday she took Ryan on a walk around the park while she walked her dog. There is a playground right around the corner and we don't live on a very busy street so Ryan will ride his bike and I'll take Katie in the stroller and we go on over to the park right after lunch. Sometimes we'll take our lunch and have a picnic. We'll get home and Ryan will be all worn out and take a 3 hour nap (YES!!) and I can work on unpacking things.

Really, this might all seem unimpressive to other people, but it just feels really good where we are. I could only be happier if Derek were home all day long with us. It is an adjustment to realize that he will be at work all day long for a good couple of years before he will get into the "swing" of things, but we'll manage, I'm sure. Derek has some great people that he is working with (probably about 15% of the lawyers there are members of the church) so that should help. Incidently, we heard that Derek is the 22nd lawyer in our ward. Crazy!

Tomorrow we're off to look for some couches so wish us luck.
I'll post some pictures of our place when we have some furniture and not just a million boxes in each room.

 

Gone Fishing
(with Grandpa Cozza)

In case you all are wondering, it's the reflection!

That kid could not seem to get enough of that power bait.

It was beautiful out there and Beaver Creek had plenty of tiny little fish. And then there was the HUGE one that Grandpa and Ryan caught (pictured below).

They were only able to catch 3 fish before it started pouring rain and Ryan fell in the creek one too many times. Still, he remembers it fondly so it was a big success in the end.

 

She's back!

I'm not going to go on and on about how my normally very content Katie spent a month and a half being incredibly clingy (to put it lightly) and quite cranky. I just wanted to break the good news that she's back to her normal cheerful self. She'll spend an hour just exploring around the house and playing with Ryan. She is also putting every little tiny thing in her mouth so I am digging things out of her mouth all day long. The most common item, carpet fuzz from our new carpet. Need I say more?

 

Meet Charlotte

My first thought was, "Holy cow, did we move next door to Jamie or what!?"
I did some internet research and have determined that Charlotte is an Orb-Weaver spider which (as far as I can tell) is non-poisonous. I am thrilled about that because boy howdy does she ever spin some awesome webs. She lives on the corner of our house right outside our patio and if she ever steps so much as one leg in this house, she is DEAD MEAT. Until then, we can live in peace together.

Can anyone else make out "Some Pig" or is it just me?

 

A few highlights of the Bayles family campout
(in random order)

• It rained every day at around the same time
• Ryan ate about 2500 calories each day
• Katie never touched the floor (but luckily for me she did crawl around the camper trailer)
• Derek showed us all that he still has the bow and arrow skills with 5 bullseyes in a row
• Ryan and I discovered a pond of tadpoles
• Grandma and Grandpa brought a port-a-potty so I didn't have to squat in the woods
• I shot a gun for the first time ever (and didn't totally embarrass myself)
• Denton is a pyromaniac and builds awesome campfires
• We had a bed to sleep on in the camper trailer
• I got about 18 mosquito bites
• Ryan got filthy dirty but we were actually able to keep him out of the fire pit this time
• We found out that Joanne is pregnant (okay, that is just a rumor that Derek is starting)
  

A recipe for disaster!

Where is this kid's mother anyway?

 

DEJA VU!

Ryan made his own sandwich the other day. Holy cow, am I like re-living my childhood or what? This definitely seems familiar.

Yes folks, those are (off brand) cheetos in there. My mom and my sisters will understand...