Well, I remember writing her Birthday post last year and thinking that 4 years old was so far away BUT today the day is here

We had a great time at Braelyn’s party, despite the rain and she was so excited to have everyone here to celebrate, thank you all for coming. To those who weren’t able to join us, we hope you enjoy some pictures……

We love our little girl so very much and are amazed at the beautiful person she is becoming. Thank you to everyone who spends time with her, loves her, thinks about her and supports Matt and I on our parenting journey. She is the light of our lives and we are so lucky to have the time to be able to spend with her and see her grow, learn and change everyday. Being a parent is the most amazing job in the world and I am so glad that I spend each and every day with my daughter! She is perfection and I love her from the bottom of my heart. Happy Birthday Beetle Bug!!!

We hope you are having a good Valentine’s Day weekend!

I have some short video of Casie doing agility that I wanted to post and some funny pictures of Braelyn getting into mischief - pretty much an everyday occurrence as well as baking with Nana.  Enjoy your weekend and Happy Heart Day!

Hope you enjoy our slideshow of family pictures taken this morning

My cousin Lauren took them for us out at the park that we hike at - she did a great job SOOOO, if you ever need great pics taken, you know who to call!!

Love to all!!

So it’s been a little while since the last time we gave an update on all things “Desert Dwelling Smith” and about a hundred times longer since I was actually the one putting fingers to keyboard. 

First of all, Happy New Year to everybody and we hope that 2010 is full of health, happiness, and success for all of you.

And now for the update …

Christmas for us was a good one.  We spent Christmas Eve with Lisa’s family at Gary and Bonnie’s house where we were able to see Lisa’s Uncle, his wife, and their son Cameron (who we hadn’t seen in far too long).  Christmas morning at our house was fun, as it always seems to be every year.  Braelyn was surprised with a handful of treats from Santa and we were able to just take our time and relax together as a family … for a few hours at least … we ended up hosting Christmas Lunner at our house with about 20 friends and family with a fun potluck, bocce ball tournament, and a fire outside on the patio.  It was cool to have so many good people come together and just enjoy each others’ company.

Lisa, Braelyn, and I packed up and headed home to SD for the week between Christmas and New Years and were fortunate enough to see lots of family and friends while we were there. 

We took a family trip (my Mom, Dad, Devyn, and Kyleigh along with L, B, and me) to the Wild Animal Park which Braelyn absolutely ate up.  We took the safari tour, heard Lions roaring, got to touch an African Boa Constrictor, got mooned by a handful of Gorillas, fed Ducks, rode the Carousel, and about died from heat exhaustion (the forecast called for something near 60 degrees but ended up roasting our fully clothed selves with a very January-esque 85).  It was a good family outing as none of us had been there since Devyn was in Middle School (10 years ago at least).  Braelyn also decided she wanted to get her face painted … pretty darn cute in my biased opinion.

My parents hosted a New Year’s Eve open house and we were able to see Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, and Neighbors … all of whom we haven’t seen in too long … it was awesome to get caught up.

Braelyn and her Gramma Sheri spent some time baking cookies, playing in the front yard, and playing with lots of toys … Braelyn enjoyed having her little cousin following her every footstep for the week too.

Since we’ve been back to reality, Braelyn continues to keep us busy with her dance/gymnastics classes, swim classes, and play dates with her friend Esteka.  We also had another fun annual excursion with Jack and Betty (Lisa’s Gpa/Gma) when “Disney on Ice” came to town - Braelyn hasn’t stopped talking about it nor has she quit pretending to skate around the house.

As this is a rare update with me as the author, I’ll try to give a recap of some of my job/role changes since the last time I posted:

After spending 2009 away from our Major League team for the first time in 5 years; I was running around scouting High School and College players in preparation for the Draft as well as covering and reporting on a handful of Minor League teams in case trade opportunities were to arise and/or to gauge our interest in Free Agent acquisitions.  I really enjoyed my time and was able to earn a more involved role within our scouting department.  2010 will see me covering 21 professional teams (5 Major League, 16 Minor League) for trades/free agency as well as seeing some of the top amateur players in the country as we prepare for the Draft (it sounds extremely similar but it is different, I promise, though it’s hard to explain).  Long story short, lots of travel, lots of writing, lots and lots and lots of baseball … and lots of opportunity.

I’m just enjoying every minute of the off-season right now since my time at home runs out on April 8th.  Braelyn is such an incredible little girl and Lisa, with very little help from me, sets such a wonderful example of what a caring, loving, genuine person embodies.

Long winded I know, but at least I hope you feel caught up.  Best wishes to you and yours …

Matt

We would like to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Year!

Love,

The AZ Smiths

We thought that with the stress and hustle-bustle of the season, that you might appreciate these Christmas carols and hopefully, they brighten your day!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night

WOW!  It’s been awhile since I posted and we have been b-u-s-y!  We had a great Thanksgiving with about 25 people and we hosted so it was a full house.  Our construction is finished and our extra room looks great!  We have to paint the stucco on the outside and get our patio cover up, move the office furniture and hang a few pictures and then we will be DONE!  It will probably be after Christmas that we get everything finally moved and in it’s place, but we are making progress each day

Since Matt had shoulder surgery about a month ago, we haven’t really decorated too much for Christmas.  We have put up 2 blow up decorations in the front yard, but that’s about it.  Luckily our next-door neighbors have a very festive front yard so Braelyn gets her nightly fill of lights by going to visit them. 

We also made our annual trek to ZOOlights at the Phoenix Zoo which we all think is pretty cool.  They have a new exhibit for the Kimodo Dragons which Braelyn was VERY excited about.  They are pretty scary creatures actually, but she loved them and climbed on the life-size statue and gave it a kiss :)  She also decided that she wanted to ride a camel with Grandpa which was pretty funny because she was so very excited for it.

We have been listening to Christmas Carols almost every day because we have a radio station here that plays them from Thanksgiving through the New Year and Braelyn is really into listening to them this year.  This works out great for me because I absolutely LOVE Christmas music and frankly I needed a break from the Magic Treehouse CDs that we have been listening to in the Durango for the past 6 months!!!  Braelyn is also getting really good at singing the carols so I decided to film some of her repetoire….. (more to come later!)

She is also becoming a ‘double-threat’ to the entertainment world by singing and now DANCING!  She had her winter recital last night at her dance school and again did really well.  It was so great to see her onstage performing and having such a good time.

Matt is doing great following his surgery.  He saw the doctor this week and got out of his sling - finally!  His doctor was really amazed at his range of motion and pleased with all of the physical therapy that he has been doing with the Dbacks trainers - they definitely have him on the right track.  He still has some minor pain but is able to sleep better out of the sling and he can start lifting things and using his arm again, slowly but surely.  He has been going into the office on and off for the past few weeks to try to be available to the staff and get in the flow of working again.  He met with his new boss a week or so ago and they put together his schedule for the upcoming season.  He will be out of town about 25 days per month from April-August.  There are a few trips that Braelyn and I can make with him to some west coast cities so that we can see him more often and explore some places we have never been but, it will be another challenging year having him gone so much.

I am staying busy with Braelyn’s swim and dance classes and my agility sessions with Casie.  We have moved into the intermediate class and she is the best pup in it.  It is fun to actually start running mini-courses with her and see how well all of the training and time I have put in is paying off.  She is not the fastest dog but she is the most consistent, never missing obstacles, so that will be beneficial if I ever decide to compete with her. 

After the first of the year I am going to start taking B to the library 2-3 times per week to do some home-preschooling with her.  When I try to do educational things at home, she tells me that she ‘doesn’t want to learn’ so I have to be sneaky with what I ‘teach’ her.  I think that getting her into a different environment will allow me to work with her on some things like reading and writing.  I want to get her into more of a learning routine but not overdo it so I think that the library will give us a bit of what we need.

We will also be starting her in tennis lessons when she is 4 in February because she actually has a bit of natural talent with a racket.  She has been asking to try tennis lessons for a few months now but the clubs won’t start them until they are 4, so we have to hold out a bit longer.  She is still a really strong swimmer and hopefully will be moving up to be an ‘octopus’ as soon as she can dive and grab the rings from the bottom of the pool without Chris’s help.

We hope to have some family holiday pictures to post in the next week or so, hopefully before Christmas!  Have a wonderful Holiday and we hope to see you all soon!

Love,

MLB Mama

Happy November to Everyone!

We just got back from a week long California extravaganza which included a lot of visits with friends and family and a very fun trip to Disneyland to see it decorated for Halloween and to do some trick-or-treating with Mickey and the gang!

We have never done trick-or-treating with Braelyn before because she is not one to eat candy BUT she really wanted to dress up and go out this year so we figured, what the heck! She wanted to be Tinkerbell which is right in line with her new fairy obsession so of course, mom obliged! On Friday of our trip, we went with Tom and Sheri to the trick-or-treat party at California Adventure Park which consisted of parades, characters dressed up in costumes and several trick-or-treat stations around the park.

Braelyn was lucky enough to be in the parade and to dance with Pinocchio and a very friendly pink witch. They grabbed her out of the crowd and showed her some funny Halloween dances. She was SO excited and kept looking over at us and smiling.

She was also VERY into standing in line and getting her candy. We hit all of the candy stations and her bucket was totally full by the end of the evening. She only ate 1 thing out of the entire bucket and divided up the rest for her sweet-tooth relatives!

We also did a 2 day pass to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday and got to see some shows, go on all of her old favorite rides and even experience a couple of new rides. She finally agreed to go into the Tiki Room and even wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. She did really good with both, only hiding her face once or twice which is a real accomplishment for her. We tried to get her to do Nemo but she told us that she would only do that when she turns 4.

We did our annual Princess lunch as well and she was picked to be the one to greet all of the princesses when they come out. She stood at the front as the royal announcer told everyone her name and that she would be helping him, then each princess came out to our table first. She was really happy about that and would run up to them the second they came out from the back.

We had a lot of fun but were worn out from all of our activities and it took us a few days to recover once we got home!

Matt carved a pumpkin with her on Friday and she wanted to go out again on Halloween night to get more candy!

We weren’t sure that we would take her out because she had been sick all week and was still coughing and sneezing that morning, but after a 4 hour nap her heart was really set on going out.  We dressed her up as Minnie Mouse and I think that her costume earned her extra treats because after only 7 houses, her bucket was full. Again she ate only 1 thing and we put the rest away for everyone else.

We have lots more pictures to share of things we’ve done with friends and family and I will update everyone about Matt’s surgery next week. OR maybe I will make him dictate it to me since he still owes everyone an update on his new job!! We hope everyone is doing well and that we will get to spend some time with you during the upcoming Holiday season. Goodbye for now!

It’s about that time for our annual Tolmachoff Farms pumpkin patch visit.

This year the set up was much better than the last few years and because we went earlier in the day, it was cooler and less crowded.  Braelyn enjoyed petting the animals and picking out her perfect pumpkin but she did not enjoy the chicken that was following us around the entire time.  It was hiding in the corn by the pumpkin picking area and jumped out right above her which prompted her to run and yell and have uncle Chris pick her up the rest of the visit!!

We also went in the corn maze this year which started off to be quite simple and ended up with us lost and going around in circles for 25 minutes.  It was funny and we ended up escaping by plowing our way through the middle of the corn and then finding the exit path :)  Braelyn was also brave and big enough this year to ride on the ladybug train which was pulled by an ATV down a trail next to the corn maze.  She was proud of herself that she didn’t get scared or dizzy when it went around in circles.

We are excited to be going to Disneyland next week and we will have lots of pictures and information to report about the trick-or-treat party at California Adventure. 

We hope you are all picking your “perfect pumpkin” and celebrating the beginning of the fall, holiday season.

Love to All!!

Happy Cooler (relatively!) Weather Everyone

Temperatures here have finally dropped down below 100 so we feel like “fall” has officially come.  In celebration of this, we decided to get together with our friends, Mia, Esteka and Moises to make some fun pumpkin cupcakes.  The girls had a lot of fun mixing and decorating the cupcakes and the difficulty level was perfect for both of them.  We got the decorating ideas from the book, Hello Cupcake .  Just a word of advice, if you do choose to try this activity, DO NOT USE PILLSBURY WHIPPED FROSTING - it falls right off of the cupcakes and you will have a puddle of orange at the base of your cupcakes!  Anyway, I digress :)  Here are the photos from our fun day yesterday!!

Braelyn has also been really enjoying her dance/gymnastics class that she goes to once a week.  They alternate 1/2 hour of tap and ballet each week and then also do 1/2 hour of gymnastics.  They are practicing a tap routine for a community holiday festival called Glendale Glitters where they will be performing on the big stage in front of a crowd!!  We think that the date is November 27th at 7PM, but are waiting for final confirmation from the dance teacher.  We will keep everyone updated and of course, will be there with the video camera to capture it for those of you that can’t make it.  She wanted to show off her dance costume in these pics and we had been to the zoo to get a HUGE lollipop

Happy beginning of fall to everyone!  We hope your days are filled with cooler temps, falling leaves and pumpkins galore!!

Love,

MLB Mama