Hello to All!

The AZ Smiths hope that you all had a wonderful Holiday :)  We had an extended celebration of about a week or so and we enjoyed every minute.  Despite the fact that we didn’t do much decorating inside or outside, we still got our fill of lights due to our neighbors’ colorful displays and our annual trip to the Phoenix Zoo to see Zoolights.  Braelyn has a great time every year and enjoys all of the animal lights and Christmas tunes which she listened and danced to with great enthusiasm.

We also got our own personal CA Smith family Christmas when Tom, Sheri, Devyn and Baby Kyleigh came to visit for the weekend.  We ate lots of yummy food (Thanks Aunt Cindy for the lasagna feast!) and opened LOTS of presents and stockings.  Braelyn has really started liking Kyleigh and she is so sweet and careful with her.  Kyleigh enjoys all of Braelyn’s attention and smiles at her all the time!  We are thankful for the time with family, although we don’t get to spend as much as we’d like.

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house with some of my family and Braelyn got more gifts including several princess dress-up gowns (Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty) from Uncle Chris and Justin.  Her princess trunk was overflowing and we transitioned her to the beautiful wooden toy chest made for her by Uncle Larry Marquardt.  She loves that it is so big and she can now find all of her “fancy stuff.”  While she was dressing up, she decided it would be good for Casie to get some Princess time, so against my better judgement (my pet peeve is animals in clothing!) I put the Cinderella costume on Casie!

On Christmas morning, we opened presents and stockings for Braelyn from Santa.  The highlights included an art easel with lots of art supplies, a complete cowboy costume to dress in while watching Backyardigans cowboy episodes and some classic board games like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders.

We made our last stop on Christmas at my parent’s house Christmas afternoon where Santa had left Braelyn a Fisher Price kitchen.  Throughout the day she cooked various dishes for our relatives who could only laugh and shake their heads at her imaginative recipes.

We enjoyed our busy 2008 Holiday season and are looking forward to 2009.  We hope that it brings happiness, health and good times to our family and yours.  Happy New Year!!!

Love,

MLB Mama

Happy Tuesday to everyone!!  We hope you are having a great week so far :)  We wanted to share a couple of home videos with you to get you into the Holiday spirit and also show of our CUTE new puppy.  Enjoy the rest of your week!! 

Happy Holidays Everyone

For those of you that don’t know, we have a tradition in our family started by my Grandma Hillery that every year in December we get together and bake and decorate gingerbread cookies.  This started when I was only 2 (and was the only guest at the party!) and has now evolved to include all of my cousins, good friends, and our kids!!

We have hosted the past few years as the parties get bigger and bigger and have outgrown my grandma’s condo and this year we had 14 people all rolling, cutting and decorating as well as listening to Christmas music, eating and enjoying each others’ company.  Our guests included Grandma, My Aunt Jana (and her grandaughter - too young to enjoy the dough but happy to be here all the same!), Cousin Michael, Cousin Lauren, Cousin Gabby, Brother Chris, Justin, and high school friends Jim and Jessica Scott and their girls, Allison and Chloe.  Braelyn had a great time this year and Matt & I are always so excited to see her when she is having so much fun!

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in all of the Holiday hustle and bustle and we forget what this time of year is really about.  It’s not about presents or shopping or buying things, but it’s more about the simple things like dinner and singing and talking and making cookies together with people you care about.  Hopefully you get to do a few of those things this season before it passes us all by.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year!!

Love,

MLB Mama

I also wanted to share a funny singing video that expresses our holiday spirit

Feel free to send this blog link along to anyone you think may want to catch up on our goings-ons and may not have our link!!

Happy Holidays,

MLB Mama