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

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

Hi Everyone, Happy Sunday!

It is warming up here and so we are spending more and more time in the pool. I thought you might enjoy a couple of pictures and videos of the fun we have while cooling off!!

We also had a get together when Sara was in town and had all of the kiddos together finally (minus the Charlesworth boys)! It was great to see everyone and so amazing and surreal to see us old high school and grade school friends with children of our own.

(From left to right: Gideon Schwamb, Braelyn, Chloe Scott, Luke Flowers, Allison Scott & Mikayla Bryan)

Here’s to a great week ahead!

Love,

MLB Mama

HI!

Just a warning: Get ready for PICTURE OVERLOAD

We have been so very busy the last few weeks and have captured it all on film! 

My cousin Sara and her daughter Emma came to visit last week and we had so much fun with them catching up and showing them our usual hang outs (The Zoo, park and Museum).  Braelyn was really happy to get to know her newest cousin and was constantly touching her head and cheek and giving her kisses.  She was a little leery about sharing her toys but for a 3 year old who is used to ALL the attention, I think she did rather well. 

Matt had off for a day or so and was able to join us on the visit to the Zoo/Aquarium where we spent 1/2 the day and had lunch near the shark aquarium.  It was a little bit warm but we managed to escape into the indoor exhibits as the temperatures got too hot. 

The Children’s Museum in downtown Phoenix is one of my favorite places to take Braelyn.  We have an annual pass so it’s great to just pop in for a couple of hours to get out of the heat.  It has some of the most creative, hands-on exhibits I have ever seen and it is entertaining even for kiddos that are Emma’s age because there is so much going on.  There is a kids grocery store, pizza kitchen, flower garden a “noodle” forest and lots of other cool exhibits.  It has been 5 years in the making and they are always adding new features and activities for the kids to do.

Matt has had a bit more down time lately so he and Braelyn have been bonding a bit more and spending some more time together.  When I sat down to write this blog and go through the pictures, I realized there were quite a few of them together so I thought I would put together a little collage since he is on the road right now (for 12 days) and would probably like to see some pictures to remind him of home.

I have been keeping extremely busy between entertaining guests :), taking Braelyn to all of her activities and working with Casie at her training classes to become a therapy dog plus trying to maintain my workout schedule and some sanity as well.  My mom had back surgery 2 weeks ago and I have been trying to help out a lot at my parent’s house too. 

Braelyn is still enjoying her art class where just this week she made a clay family (from L to R - Me, Braelyn, Matt and Casie is the one with the red face!). 

She also passed the test to move up from her Goldfish swim class to a Jellyfish class.  Uncle Chris says she is the youngest Jellyfish as most are 4YO and that she will probably be in this class for awhile since it requires them to swim across the entire pool and do a lot of floating and turning over by themselves.

She is still doing dance classes and I am going to be switching her to a different class for the summer so she can be with her friend Esteka.  They are doing a Princess themed summer dance recital in mid July where they dress up like Princesses and dance to Disney songs.  I will keep you updated on dates for that as it should be VERY fun and funny!

Matt is still plugging away at the amateur scouting side of things.  The high school season is ending soon and right now he’s away on a pro-scouting coverage back east in Washington DC and Delaware.  When he returns, they will be prepping for the draft which is the first week of June and then after that we are taking a much needed vacation to Whistler, Canada over July 4th.  We aren’t sure what exactly his assignment will be after the draft and school years are over, but he does have some additional pro coverages in August and the Dbacks are running a scout team that he helped put together as well as a summer league team so I’m sure he will be working on those things as well. 

Casie continues to be such a good puppy for us.  Now that she has finally recovered from all of her ailments and is obedience trained, she is a joy to take with us wherever we can.  I will be starting agility (obstacle course work) with her in mid-May and we are taking the classes with my cousin, Lauren and her dog, Levi.  We are looking forward to it.  I also take her to weekly group training classes through my dog trainer which help her get better socialized and used to all different people, noises, situations, etc.  She is only 7 months old but does everything on command and will stay and listen until we let her go.  Everyone remarks how well behaved she is and because she is VERY smart, it has been pretty easy to train her.

I think that is all from our neck of the woods.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Love,

MLB Mama

P.S. Here are some miscellaneous pictures - didn’t think you’d seen enough!!

Hello All!

We hope you had a great Easter Here are some recent pictures of Braelyn and Casie. Not much new to report here. We will have some pictures and video of our upcoming visit with Cousin Sara and Baby Emma next week. Hope all is well!!

Just wanted to send out a quick note with some pictures and video (thanks to grampa Tom for the pictures!)

Braelyn is really loving her “goldfish” swim class.  She can now float on her back ALL BY HERSELF and then roll over onto her tummy.  She can also jump in from the side, swim around Chris and then back to the wall, as well as swim underwater to Chris in the middle of the pool.  When she is able to roll from her tummy to her back unassisted, she will move up levels to the “jellyfish” class which Chris also teaches.

Braelyn and Casie also LOVE their newest outdoor toy - the Bubble BBQ, sent over from San Diego from Gramma Sheri.  They enjoy jumping up to pop the bubbles together and chasing them all over the backyard when they blow in the wind.

I was able to catch some of the antics of the bubble play on video - hope you all enjoy this as much as we did!  Have a good week

We have been busy these last 3 weeks and hope you are all doing well!

First off, Braelyn started an art class and dance class right after her Birthday. She loves the art class and painted a dog and cat figurine (which Casie promptly took out in the backyard and ate!!!!) and made a horse and rose out of clay which are still surviving The class goes in 3 week cycles so she is off from that right now and during the next session will be sand art, more painting and other messy stuff!!

The dance class is a combo tap, ballet and tumbling which has not gone over well. She likes the tap but she says that the ballet music makes her “too sad” and she cries during that whole portion. Since it is close to her nap time, I thought maybe she was overtired too which added to the sadness. This week we are switching her to a combo jazz and tap class in the evening with the hopes that she will be well rested after her nap and that the music will be more upbeat!

We also had Casie spayed 2 weeks ago and have been on the constant “puppy patrol” trying to keep her calm so she doesn’t rip her incision. This is hard with any puppy but add in the fact that she is a Golden Retriever, extremely excited and feels perfectly fine despite her incision and that makes for a very tough job!! The vet did a great job with her and said she was a model patient and got lots of attention from the vet staff When we brought her home, she was wearing a pressure bandage and full body gauze suit to keep her from getting to her stitches. It only lasted about 2 days and then she had bitten a hole in the sleeve so we had to put her into a tank top to keep her covered!

She and Braelyn are proving to be best buddies and Braelyn is always laying down next to her in the hall, hugging and kissing her and asking me to take pictures. I obliged her……

Finally, I had to include this last photo because the circumstances around it were so funny The other night my grandparents were here and we were all downstairs at my parent’s house playing in her playroom. She looked at my grandpa and said “Grampy, would you like to wear this hat because you have a bald head!” All of us started laughing and she made both Grammy and Grampy wear hats and take a picture with her.

I hope to have some video of her dancing soon to post, as well as several other songs that she can sing. She is establishing quite a repetoire and will probably soon be singing in shows at Disneyland because of her liking for princess ballads!!! I also hope to have a post from Matt soon telling you all about his new job and how it is going after the first 2 months or so.

Because Matt isn’t going to be traveling as much this season, we probably won’t be getting out to see everyone as much as we’d like, but we are thinking of you all and hoping that things are going well for you during these difficult times. Take care!!!!

MLB Mama

So, my blog post doesn’t really have a theme this time around, other than to show off how AWESOME our family is!!! LOL

Braelyn started swim class again and this time, Uncle Chris is her private instructor.  She LOVES going to class and is really happy to see Chris every week and kick her feet, wear goggles and splash around for 1/2 an hour.  Mom likes it too because it seems to tire her out and make her naps last longer!

Braelyn has really been into writing and drawing lately and she has perfected the drawing of faces; happy, mad or scared with big eyes and “crazy hair”.  She will draw faces over and over on her easel, pads of paper and her chalkboard.  I thought everyone might like to see one of the samples that she drew especially for me with NO help!

I also wanted to show everyone how she can write her name (with some help from mom!).  She is definitely right handed which is strange to Matt and I, both being lefties!

This week we took some family pictures and any of you that have ever tried to photograph Braelyn know what an experience it can be getting her to stay still, look at the camera & smile nicely all at the same time.  So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when the pictures turned out WONDERFULLY!  Here are 2 of my favorites:

We here in AZ hope that you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and enjoy the upcoming week.  We will have another post soon detailing all of the 3rd Birthday festivities for those of you that won’t be able to be here with us.  It should be a lot of fun!

Love Always,

MLB Mama