It has been a LONG time since I have updated you all - sorry for the delay :)  Things here have been very crazy with the launching of my new business along with Matt’s insane schedule.  I have been forgetful lately and unorganized which is NOT me, but alas, that’s what happens when you are all over the map with activities, household stuff and crazy travel plans.  Along with all of that, my computer decided that the hard drive needed to get corrupted (again!) which makes for 3 times in 4 years.  Needless to say, I have been spending tons of time getting everything switched to my new computer and it has been a pain.  Technology is GREAT when it works but we rely on it so much that when it doesn’t, we are lost.  Me especially since I use my computer 24/7 for EVERYTHING from work to watching TV and movies while I work out.  To be without is feels so strange and I am glad that I am almost done getting everything on my new laptop.  I will be most relieved when it is complete.

Aside from our MAD crazy lives, we have had a lot of fun that you all have missed, so we want to share with you!

Matt was actually home on Father’s Day this year so we had a nice day relaxing in the pool with my parents and grandparents, Chris and Justin and our cousins Brandyn and Cameron.  The kids and dogs swam and the adults watched (mostly) and talked.  Braelyn has been very into surfing since she saw a Barbie surfing movie and since there aren’t any places to try surfing in the desert, we improvised.  My parents got her a boogie board at Costco when they were in CA and we hold it for her while she pretends to be riding the waves!  We had lots of good food and a bit of a respite from the HOT weather.  Braelyn wanted to get my dad some new plants for their back yard this year so she went with him to Home Depot to pick them out and then helped him to plant them.  Mostly my dad was doing all of the work but it’s the thought that counts :)  She also helped make her grampy a HUGE sugar-free peanut butter cookie that took up the entire cookie sheet.  She loved making it because she could use her hands to smash it down onto the tray - getting her hands dirty is always enjoyable for her!

After Matt being gone for 27 out of 28 days from May-June, we decided to take a trip with him so that we could spend time together as a family after being separated for so long.  We made the short flight to San Antonio, TX and stayed with him for 5 days.  The weather was hot and very humid which is a departure from our dry heat here so Braelyn wasn’t too thrilled about being outside.  We very briefly visited the Alamo and Matt and I could have spent hours there but she kept asking when we were leaving the ‘old building’ and when we could go to the Riverwalk to take the boat ride which cooled us off a bit.  We went to a dinosaur museum which she loved and she kept tracking down the paleontologist and telling him things she knew about dinosaurs.  He was very impressed with her knowledge and vocabulary and he jokingly told her to fill out an application for the afternoon shift to work there - LOL!  Matt’s cousin Alicia and her daughter Mackenzie came to join us at the museum and for lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  Braelyn’s favorite activity was to feed the ducks on the Riverwalk and I think she would have been perfectly content to do nothing but sit and watch them all day.  Since it was so hot outside we decided to see Toy Story 3 in IMAX and 3D - we have never done that before and it was great, although Braelyn ended up taking her glasses off halfway through the movie.  It looked totally blurry to me without the glasses but she didn’t seem to mind at all.  The last day there we went to an official Texas boot store and got her a pair of her very own cowgirl boots.  We found the PERFECT ones for our little princess - pink with rhinestones!!  She had also picked out a wonderful hat that was lined with feathers and included a built in tiara - LOL, so Chic!

The day after we got back from Texas, Braelyn had her summer dance recital.  Only she and 1 other girl participated from their class so it was a little duet!  They did 1 tap number and 1 ballet number to different Beauty and the Beast songs and it was so hilarious.  They actually performed their routines the best that we had ever seen the day of the recital and Braelyn was very excited because I fancied up her hair and she got to wear makeup.  She really is our little queen of drama and loves dressing up and using accents and dancing and singing.  I am signing her up for a theater class in the fall because I truly think she is made for the theater - LOL!

Matt has been so busy this year, I don’t think he has had time to think straight.  His scheduled travel ends in August so we shall wait and see what the ‘off-season’ has in store.  The Dbacks have made some management changes so we are up in the air with knowing exactly what the future holds.  That is the nature of the best with this business; you don’t really ever know what tomorrow is going to be like, so, we wing it and do the best we can.  I have stayed busy with Braelyn’s activities, trying to visit with friends and doing some agility with Casie.  It has been so hot lately, I feel as if I am torturing her by making her go to class but luckily we have 3 more weeks and then a break for the rest of the summer.  We are at the point where I can start registering her for some events and as the weather cools off, I will probably get involved in some different games and courses which is exciting.  I have been working with her for over a year now and it’s nice to see all of the hard work pay off.

We hope you all have been enjoying summer and staying cool.  We miss you all and hope to catch up when our lives quiet down in a few months.  Love to everyone!

Lisa

I hope you are all having a great week so far.

I wanted to let everyone know about something exciting that has been brewing over the past 4 or 5 months!!

About a year or so ago, I was launching my kids clothing line and doing some PR giveaways and I happened upon an artist, Melissa, who won one of my giveaways. She contacted me to receive her prize and mentioned to me that she was an artist and that she would like to work with me on expanding my clothing designs into children’s artwork.

I was so incredibly awed by her talent and the ease in which we worked together, that I ended up ordering MANY more pieces of her original art as gifts for family and friends. We became close and Melissa mentioned to me that she may have to shut down her website and operation because she was doing the artwork more as a hobby and that she needed to bring in more money. I had been thinking about asking her about ‘mass’ producing her products for several months and this gave me the push to suggest it. She LOVED the idea and then asked me if I wanted to come on board and be her business partner and run the behind-the-scenes portion of the business. I said YES!! And Mona MELisa Designs was born.

We have spent the last 4 months feverishly getting our business up and running and our website is now LIVE and ready to launch! We have combined Melissa’s artistic talents as well as some of my designs from the Regionz Kidz clothing line and we have come up with some amazing art pieces for kiddos. The really cool thing about our line is that you can customize the art with SO many features – names, colors and even characters that you can personalize with different hair, skin and eye colors!

We would love for you all to stop by and check us out:

http://www.monamelisadesigns.com

Currently we only sell online BUT we have been in talks with some BIG retailers about producing for their stores so keep your fingers crossed, we may be in a store near you very soon!

If you want to order anything from the site or have questions, you can email me:

lisa@monamelisadesigns.com

Please don’t order directly from the site!! We are offering friends and family really big discounts so email me with what you want and I will place the order for you.

Thanks for supporting me and I hope you have a great week – I will leave you with some samples of our designs (they are a little pixel-y because of the transfers back and forth from different files.  Check out the website for the TRUE quality ) - - Lisa

It has been awhile since I updated our blog SOOOO…. I figured I better hop to it so that I don’t get angry notes from friends and family asking why they haven’t seen or heard from us - HA!

We are getting into the swing of having Matt traveling and scheduling good family time with him while he is here, as limited as his time at home may be :)  He was in Portland for 5 days to start off and then was home for 2 and back out to CA for a week, then starting Thursday he will be home for about 6 days before going back out on the road for 10 days - what a life! 

We have also taken our semi-annual trek to the Desert Botanical Garden Butterfly Exhibit where Braelyn was SO excited to have a butterfly land on her shoe AND her booty!  She was dressed in yellow which we were told was the butterflies’ favorite color - hence they landed right on her bum

We went to the zoo for my brother’s 30th birthday as a family which was a LOT of fun and the most absolute PERFECT weather for seeing the animals AND riding camels (see the pictures!). 

There have also been a lot of fun ‘Braelyn’ moments to capture from her tennis lesson (which was classic Braelyn - no attention span, laying on the court, talking to all of the kids instead of paying attention!) to her dress up outfits, to dousing herself in MUD at the cabin - - we are talking completely covered in what I like to call ‘industrial strength’ BLACK mud from the waist down!!  Luckily I had her dressed in brown and that made her happy because the mud was “camouflaged in her brown outfit!”

Anyway, this is short but hopefully sweet & I hope to have more to show and tell about the next time I write!  We are sending good thoughts your way and hoping you take time to smell the Spring flowers - - the ridiculous temperatures of Summer will be here before we know it!!

Love to all,

Lisa

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

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!!!

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!

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!!

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

Love,

The AZ Smiths