Hello Everyone!

We have had a busy month Matt is back into the swing of work trying to keep up with Spring Training and college baseball tournaments and we are trying to get back into the swing of him working again!! He usually has 1-2 games per day and has 0 days off this month – crazy!

B is starting tennis lessons and continuing on with her dance/gymnstics and swimming class. She actually got moved up a level in swim and now she is an ‘Octopus’! Uncle Chris isn’t her teacher anymore and she is the youngest in her class. 4 is the youngest age for an Octopus so she is really doing well. They are starting backstroke, freestyle, butterfly and side breathing. She can swim across the pool multiple times using different strokes, on her front and back and every which way! She really loves it too and it’s great exercise so everyone is happy

We just got back from a really fun trip to San Diego where the weather was PERFECT and we got to see some of our favorite people. We stayed for a few days at a resort in Carlsbad, courtesy of the Az Dbacks and B and I had a great time when our cousins Sara and Emma came to visit for the day. The girls played on the playground, in the sand and generally just ran around and wore each other out which was GREAT for Sara and I as they were asleep within minutes of hitting the bed.

On the weekend we went down to La Mesa and stayed with Tom and Sheri and got to spend a bit of time with Devyn and Kyleigh too, which was heaven for B as she LOVES other kids We spent Sunday at Seaport Village which was a lot of fun with all of the boats, birds, fountains, and of course, the carousel. There was also a man who rescues exotic birds that had them all on display along the water and if you stopped, he would let you hold a bird on your shoulder. Braelyn had the BEST time doing this and she was really happy when he put a little green bird named Lola on her arm. the bird was chirping and she thought it was talking to her!

We also made a trip up to my parent’s cabin after all of the snowstorms they have had so that we could see all of the snow. We were NOT disappointed as there was snow up to our knees; plenty for sledding, snowballs, snow angels and snowmen. Casie and Braelyn had a blast playing in the cold weather together. When it got too chilly, B came inside and did some baking recipes with me that she enjoyed and were pretty easy so they kept her attention. Grandpa Gary built her a snow cave/igloo that she thought was really cool and she and Casie played inside of that and had a good time.

I am staying busy with keeping schedules straight, setting up travel plans and overall just running our crazy AZ Smith household while Matt is off working his tail off! I am still doing agility with Casie and trying to fit in seeing friends and having playdates when we can. I am working with Braelyn on writing and reading a few days a week, very casually and she is improving dramatically. She can write all of her upper case letters and numbers 1-20 and she is really getting the hang of sounding out letters to read her words. Phonics are next I fear – yikes – flashback to gradeschool

Hope everyone is well – we hope to see you soon!

Love to all,

MLB Mama