Christmas and visitors

 Well, it's almost February, so how about a picture from Christmas? :) 

  

 My parents came to visit the day after Christmas

Holly and Ashley came to visit me last weekend.

We are so blessed to be so close to Utah and have so many visitors here before we move back across the country again in June! I love my family!!

Oops! I did it again!

No, I'm not singing the Brittany Spears song. I am just cursing myself for forgetting to blog last month for only the 2nd time in over 7 years! I just can't seem to get my head on straight these days. There are so many pictures I want to post but I just don't seem to have the time! So here is a video of Shad's first time ice skating. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Baga and Baca come to visit!

{Baga and Baca is how Shad says Grandma and Grandpa, respectively}

My mom and dad came to visit us in Arizona and we had a grand old time. I'm so glad that we were given the opportunity to be close to family for a year before going back even further east for at least three more years so that Shad can know his grandparents. Family is the most important thing in the world to us!

They came to church with us on Sunday and got to see our crazy cool "Arizona-style" church building

Shad loved swimming with "Baca"

Before taking my dad back to the airport on Monday we snagged a few pictures at the Gilbert temple

My mom got Shad a season pass to the zoo for his birthday present so we went one of the days she was here. The forecast for that day showed a lot of rain, but we decided to take our chances. It was almost completely void of people and the weather was great up until a few minutes before we were about to leave.

Then it poured. 

And Shad loved walking in the rain with Baga. He refused to let us cover him with an umbrella.

He loved the monkeys too

We actually saw more animals out than I have ever seen before, they must have really loved the rain!

A bear just chillin' in a tree

"Baga" and Shad at Papago park

Shad wasn't too happy with all the picture taking while he was trying to throw rocks into the water

Hanging out in Old Town Scottsdale

Loving Arizona

I can't believe we have been here for almost 3 months now! Even though it has been crazy hot, we have really enjoyed living here so far! The first week we got here we were invited to a Diamondback's game by some friends in our ward the Drapers (Jared actually served his mission with Allan in Chile- small world!). Shad really enjoyed it, especially the fireworks after!

The following week Jared's mom and sister Alina came to visit, and we spent most of that week in Sonoita where Jared's Grandpa Matthews lives. Here is Jared with his Grandpa. I love this picture of them!

They live on a ranch and have dogs, horses, goats, and deer. Shad loved all the animals.

This horse's name is Rocky. Shad called him "Gocky".

He also loved seeing the tractor

We have also been swimming quite a bit in both of the pools at our apartment. It's been really nice, the majority of the time we are the only ones swimming in it.

I really love how we are so close to so much where we live, especially the Mexican food on every corner! One of the hardest things living in Michigan was the lack of good Mexican food. I think in the four years we lived there we only found one good place, and it was clear in Detroit. 

We only have less than 10 months here, it is kind of crazy! We are trying to enjoy every bit of warmth we can though before we go back to the freezing winter in New York next year!

I lost a month- part 2

Ok, so now that July is almost over I can continue what happened in May! After my parents left Jared's parents came to visit a few days later. They came to see Jared graduate from medical school. It was really fun to show them around some of our favorite places in Michigan.

Eating lunch at a really yummy sandwich restaurant

We rented a wheelchair for Cathy because she broke her leg a couple days before they came to visit us (seriously, she is such a trooper!) 

This is just Shad making a mess at lunch on our way to Detroit to see a Tiger's game. I think he's cute.

While we were at the Tiger's game Shad was totally flirting with the girl sitting next to us. He kept doing silly things and then looking over to see if she was watching. This boy!

This is Jared's first official picture as a doctor that I took after he became hooded as an MD!

Daddy and Shaddy

Unfortunately this is the best picture we have of all three of us after Jared's graduation.

Jared and I celebrating our graduations!

I can't believe that 4 years already came and went and that Jared is now known as Dr. Jared Smedley, MD! He has worked so hard and I am so proud of him!


As soon as Jared's parents left we packed and packed until I felt like throwing up, and then we packed some more. The last week of May we loaded up our truck and drove almost 2,000 miles across the country to our new home in Phoenix, AZ. My amazing dad flew out and helped us drive, I don't know what we would have done without him!

Jared drove the truck himself the entire time. Ick!




It took us a lot longer each day than we had planned because the truck was maxed out at 65 mph, so we got to our hotels each night around 1 or 2 am. Jared and Shad fell asleep on the couch the first night while I was setting up Shad's pack n play.

While we were driving we stopped at a little town called Shamrock, which is where they got the idea for "Ramone's" shop on the movie "Cars"(which happens to be Shad's favorite movie).

 Shad really did pretty well considering he was cooped up in the car for 14 hours a day three days in a row! I was proud of my little buddy.

We finally made it to Arizona on May 31 (with bugs on the windshield from 9 different states). Hallelujah!