Watch the cutest Nativity Story EVER!

The Christmas Story (2010 HD version) -- as told by the children of St Paul’s Church. Anyone is welcome to show this film publicly, but not change it in any way, nor make money out of it. We also welcome you to view the prequel (2011) Good News of Great Joy

We had such a great trip to Whistler, BC.  Here is a quick video montage of just some of the fun times that were had   We did plenty of outdoor activites despite the temps being in the 20s most of the time.  It was quite a shock to the desert dwellers and to some more than others (me!)!!  We hope these pictures get you in the mood for winter and the Holidays ahead.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to everyone.

All our love,

The AZ Smiths

P.S. Videos to come this weekend…….

It was 3 years ago today that Reiley passed away.  It’s true that time does heal but it never completely fills the void that is left behind when someone so special and loved passes on.

Reiley, I hope wherever you are, you are looking down on us and that you know we talk about you often and miss you every day.  I hope you are healed and whole and happy and I hope someday, we will see each other again.

All of our love still,

Mom, Dad and Braelyn

Hello everyone!

We have been featured on a deal of the day site geared towards products for kids and moms.  We are offering $50 worth of merchandise for $30 if the voucher on this site is purchased. Feel free to pass this along to anyone you may know who is looking for a gift or just some fun décor for their child’s room. Thanks for your support!

Click HERE for the website offer

Hello to all of our friends and family!

We hope you are enjoying your own summer adventures and activities and keeping busy but cool!

Here in the AZ Smith house we are constantly on the go and I sometimes feel like I am doing something EVERY waking minute of the day.  I’m sure many of you know the feeling right?  I have been trying to capture some of our activities and adventures on film and camera so that I can share them with all of you   Since Braelyn is the social butterfly and busybody, she has the MOST things going on and I thought instead of writing about them, I would post some short videos of what she has been up to in the past couple of months!  So without further delay, here are the many happenings of Braelyn!

#1 -- Swim Class -- I received a progress report for her and she has only 1 stroke left to master before moving up to the top level at her swim school.  The stroke?  The breast stroke.  She can do arms and legs seperately but can’t quite put them together.  This video is her best stroke, the butterfly.

#2 -- Gymnastics -- She participates in a dance/gym class that is 1/2 hour gymnastics and 1/2 hour ballet and tap (alternating each week).  I should have filmed her on the 2nd go around for her gym class because she seemed to catch on to the skills a bit better in that round!

#3 -- Dance -- Her class has a recital coming up that we weren’t signed up in time to participate in.  They are dancing to music from the Disney Rapunzel movie Tangled.  Here are their ballet routine and the finale.

#4 -- Agility -- She has started to show an interest in doing agility just like mom   I have been helping her with basic things while my teacher is on vacation for a bit this summer.  At first Casie didn’t want to do anything that Braelyn asked but now you can see they are quite good together!

#5 -- Reading -- Well, she is reading and has been for several months.  She has actually progressed a TON since this video was taken in early June and she can fly through these online stories.  She had never read this one before I filmed it but I think she is doing great for being 5!

#6 -- Traveling -- We had a very nice family trip to SD and to the cabin in the last few weeks and we got to spend time with some of our favorite people   Braelyn had a blast in SD with her cousins Emma and Kyleigh and asks me many times each week when she can go back. When we were in SD, Sheri took the girls and have their pictures done together and they are both so photogenic, the pics turned out great!

At the cabin, my dad found an area where there were several bones lying on the forest floor. Our little explorer wanted to go and check them out and it was a good anatomy lesson for her as they tried to construct a skeleton to see what kind of animal it used to be

Now onto Matt and I (I hope you are not expecting such amazing feats from us -- LOL!)

I have been busy taking B to all of her lessons and helping her to finish up her summer camp. I have also worked with her on her agility and when my instructor returns in mid-July, I am going to help teach a class for kiddos at the same place I take my lessons. It will be a good break for Casie as she HATES doing agility in the summer because of the heat and it has been HOT here so far this summer. We will work in the indoor building where it is much cooler and they will do short beginner activities instead of the longer courses I was running with her the rest of the year. We have also made the decision that we are going to homeschool Braelyn for Kindergarten and so I have been busy preparing lessons and teaching and finding fun things to do to supplement our online curriculum. This was a difficult decision but because Kindergarten isn’t required in AZ, and next year we could just enroll her with no placement testing required, we felt like it was the best fit, seeing as how we couldn’t find a school that really had what we needed for her. It is going well so far and I am using a 1st grade curriculum for some things and just filling in what she is interested in as we go. She has really been into Harry Potter lately (she is crazy about HP like her mom!) and so we did a measuring lesson using candy and pretending we worked for the wizarding candy store! She did this for over an hour and told me that she wished it would never end! We also did a big patriotic unit on July 4th that ended with making a flag dessert while talking about the meaning of the stars and stripes. That’s fun stuff

I have also been working hard to get our business ready to launch at Sam’s Club in a special event format where we go into the clubs and sell our customized artwork to members and then create it and ship it directly to them. It is looking like we are going to start here in AZ in September and this has been almost a YEAR in the planning stages. Keep your fingers crossed. We have also been picked up by a couple of internet stores and are offering ‘groupon’ like deals on a couple others. We have expanded our business to include graphic design and are assisting some of my parents’ vendors with projects that have helped keep us busy while waiting for the Sam’s business to materialize. We are also busy creating 2 more exciting ‘toy’ like art products that kids can play with and are hoping to be able to sell these for the upcoming holiday season

I have also had a couple of recent ‘cultural’ experiences that have been fun! First, my parents took my whole family to see the Broadway show, Les Miserables which is one of my favorite shows. It was a Christmas gift and we finally got to go last month. We took Braelyn too, unsure of how she would do with a complex story and nothing really ‘kid-like’ to watch. I played music from the show for her and sang some of the songs during our nightly bedtime routine and she actually did really great; sat still for most all of it and seemed to enjoy it. She was the youngest person there that I saw and Matt and I got some strange looks from other patrons wondering why we brough such a young child to a performance like that! My mom also surprised me by getting me tickets to the NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys) concert that came last week to AZ. My brother and one of my best friends who went with me to my very first concert, New Kids, when I was 11 -- went with me again! I was totally surprised which doesn’t happen often to me and we had SUCH a fun time dancing and singing to all of the songs that we had grown up with! It was a guilty pleasure and very nostalgic

Matt finished up (for the most part) with his amateur scouting in June when the draft was completed but of course, he has still been busy most everyday doing anything from watching high school kids in tournaments to watching major league teams to rookie league ball. There is never a shortage of kids to see and when you live in a city that has baseball year round and has so many spring training complexes, there are always things to do. We are hoping that his schedule calms down in the next few weeks and he can truly enjoy some down time for the first time in over a year. He was able to sneak away for a couple of days to the cabin which he hadn’t been able to visit for about a year. He enjoyed relaxing on the porch and reading and having fun with B painting some old tree stumps in the front garden.

He is happy because this year he has been able to play golf a lot more -- being able to take his clubs with him on the road a few times since he drives everywhere instead of flying. He has played in Colorado, California and he has even been able to sneak in a round or two here locally. It’s nice when he can play on the road because it is so much cooler and it gives him a bit of a break from the monotony that can sometimes come from traveling so much.

We hope you have enjoyed our multimedia update and that you are enjoying the summer days.

Love to all,

The AZ Smiths

We hope that everyone is enjoying the NICE weather that Spring always brings. Its been picture perfect here but we know that when Spring is over, the HOT weather is here to stay

I just wanted to write a quick note and share some new pictures with everyone. We have been busy (as always) with activities and fun trips.

Braelyn is still participating in her weekly swim classes as a ‘lobster’ and learning the breast stroke and butterfly stroke. She is really quite the little fish, as she should be since she’s been taking lessons since she was a year old. I finally feel confident that if she fell in and no one was around (not that that would EVER happen!), that she could safely swim across, and get out of, any pool. She is also taking a theater class which incorporates acting, singing and choreography and she really enjoys the singing part. I think she takes after her aunt and uncle and not her parents in that regard! They are performing some songs and dances from Lion King in April so that should be fun! She is in preschool 2 days a week for 3 hours each day and she really enjoys the crafts and the social part of that time. We have her on the waiting list for a charter school that we would LOVE for her to attend but we are #16 and aren’t sure we will get in this year. If not, I think that we’ve agreed we are going to homeschool her for Kindergarten. She is basically at a late-K level already and so I don’t think it would be very difficult to keep her home for the next year and see how it goes.

Matt is traveling a lot and working even more trying to cover all of his territory and see all of his players in time for the draft in early June. This year has been an adjustment for all of us in that his schedule can change by the minute, whereas in the past, it was very predictable which made for easier planning. He is putting tons of miles on his goold ole’ 4Runner and seeing lots of the 4 corners area – for better or worse! After the draft is over, he has some tournament coverages in Florida and New Mexico and then hopefully, some off time in the Fall.

I am just trying to keep my head above water and manage this crazy household all the while trying to work my own business and get it up and running. We have been approved to sell our children’s artwork to Sam’s Club and are waiting on final paperwork. We are REALLY excited to have a large venue to showcase our products and are hoping for some good sales and feedback. I am still doing agility with Casie and finding more and more each time out that agility is MUCH more about training the human than the dog! LOL! She learned the obstacles in about 6 months and here I am a year later, trying to figure out where I need to be and how to get there before her

My parents and I made a quick trip to Carlsbad, CA a few weeks ago to enjoy the beach and the pool and to see Tom, Sheri, Devyn and Kyleigh. We had a nice dinner at Tom and Sheri’s house and Braelyn and I ran on the beach for some exercise and she played in the waves and sand. She also enjoyed the heated pool since she has been begging to get into my parent’s pool since this winter. AZ is warm but not THAT warm!

We are trying to enjoy being outside before we are banished to the indoors by mother nature in a few months. Braelyn, Casie and I do weekly hikes at the mountain park near our house and it has been gorgeous weather and the wildflowers are starting to bloom. We are nearly always outside on the trampoline or in the playhouse or playing hide and seek in the backyard.

We miss everyone and hope that we can see you all soon when things calm down a bit, whenever that will be – LOL!

Lisa

Hello Everyone!

We hope you have enjoyed our blog posts this year.  We have had a memorable 2010 and are thankful for all of the special memories and times we have shared with you all.

Happy Holidays and Here’s to a Wonderful New Year!

Love,

The AZ Smiths

We hope you had a great Halloween and that you got all of the candy that your heart desires!

Here are some pictures of B in her Monarch Butterfly costume at her school carnival and out trick-or-treating. I was very proud of myself for making the wings – I felt very crafty.

We took her Tinkerbell wings from last year and removed the green fabric. Then I had to cover the wire outline of the wings with black pantyhose and hot glue the 3 wing sections together. After that, I cut out felt in orange and white and hot glued those shapes to the black pantyhose. Add in a black headband with some pipe cleaner and puff ball antennae and you have a complete Monarch Butterfly HOMEMADE costume for about $10!!

Braelyn got her whole bucket full of candy (which she won’t eat!) and now dad is going to have a feast for the next few weeks – LOL!

Hope all is well with everyone – we miss and love you all

Lisa

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are having a great week so far

I wanted to post some video of Casie and I (and Braelyn!) doing some agility at one of my lessons last week.

I know I often write about agility but many of you still probably have no idea what I am talking about so……I thought I would show you!

It’s amazing what a well-trained dog, and owner can do together!

ENJOY!

These 3 videos are of Casie and I……

This 1 is of Braelyn enjoying the agility course She was barking and running around on all of the obstacles!

Hello – Happy October and Happy Fall!

Can we really call it Fall when temperatures here are expected to be 99 tomorrow!?!

We have been busy with our usual running around and we have tried to add in some family activities along with keeping up on our yearly Fall traditions Braelyn’s playhouse at the cabin is finished and she has been able to enjoy decorating it and playing in it over the last month or so. We took a trip to the zoo with some of our cousins and thought it would be nice, cool, weather seeing as it was October when we went but, ALAS, mother nature did not humor us and it was 96 when we left! We also made our yearly trek to the Pumpkin Patch and Braelyn got her farm animal petting fix while we adults got lost in the corn maze for the 2nd year in a row. By now we are convinced that there is not an easy way out as we have been told – LOL!

Matt has been home for a few weeks now but, after being promoted to a different position (AGAIN!) he is now working most of this month instead of having it off as we anticipated. Not really the down time we had envisioned BUT at least he still has a contract for next year! He will write a post soon about what he is going to be up to now. It seems like in this industry it’s something new every year. It keeps us on our toes that’s for sure!

Braelyn moved up to Lobster level at her swim school and is one of only a few 4 year olds to make it to that advanced class. Most other kids are at least 5 when they get moved up but our little fish is a strong swimmer so she is the exception to the rule. If she wants to, she can do swim team this summer and can compete (I use this term loosely!) in swim meets. We got her a pink swim cap to keep her goggles from slipping down her head every few minutes and now when she does backstroke or the butterfly across the pool, she looks like an actual mini swimmer!

For Halloween, Braelyn decided that she wanted to be a Monarch Butterfly (not just any butterfly mind you! Only a MONARCH will do!) so we are modifying her Tinkerbell costume from last year and changing her fluorescent green fairy wings into black butterfly wings. Pictures to come! I am having my craftiness tested with altering these wings and the creation of all of the patterns on them BUT, I think I will pass the test of the 4YO Braelyn, although she is a butterfly expert and will probably point out any mistakes I make on either the wings or antennae

We are trying to enjoy some family time and outdoor time and are looking forward to setting up our trampoline and getting out on the hiking trails. We have been cooped up with this hellish weather for TOO LONG! We hope you too are enjoying the weather and the activities that this time of year provides. As the holidays approach, we are looking forward to seeing many of you in our travels.

Here’s to cooler weather, pumpkins and tasty treats!!!

Love,

Lisa