Happy Thanksgivng

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives and on the top of the list is our 3 beautiful children!!  They make us laugh (and sometimes cry), keep us on our toes, give the best hugs in the whole wide world and fill our hearts with pride and love!

Blake is doing excellent in Grade 1.  He is learning more and more sight words each week.  He has math problem homework every week, he loves school and has a wonderful little group of friends :) They are such great little buddies, the other mom's and I are always remarking on how great they play together!!  Blake is a hockey nut - we have to pvr all the Oiler's games and he knows every player, number, game score, etc.  He's also really into football and baseball.  Oh, and curling and golf and, and, and ... he's a sports nut.  I believe he gets a little bit of that from his mother but a lot of that from his father!!!  Blake's passed on to the next level of swimming lessons and is a bit sad that we are not registered for the next session.  But we'll register him again in the New Year!  Blake is still really into Star War's, I am learning a lot about Star Wars from my 6 yr old!  I struggle with all the gun play and shooting but have relaxed a little bit!!  I know it's part of being a boy and he knows it is just play.  Doesn't matter if they have play guns or not, they will turn anything into a weapon!!  Boys ;)  And he still loves his Lego!!  He will spend a lot of time building!  We enjoy seeing his creations and love how he uses his imagination!  I love that Blake still has to give us a huge bear hug and high fives when we drop him off at school.  I know one day this will change, so for now I am soaking it all up :)

Emerson is doing fantastic!  She flourishes at preschool, nearly every preschool day her teachers are telling me how great she is ;)  During the week before Thanksgiving they were gushing over how when she was asked what she was thankful for, she replied, "A house because it keeps me warm and safe."  Apparently most of the other responses were, "my bey blades, my tv, my Mom, candy!"  Too funny!!!  The teachers are always remarking about how cooperative, helpful, mature, etc, etc, she is.  To be honest, I have a hard time accepting a compliment and have to bite my tongue at times!!  I feel the need to balance out the praise with, "Oh, you should see her at home some days!!"  But I am so incredibly thankful that she is so wonderful at school and try to graciously accept the compliments ;)  She has come a long way this spring/summer with her printing!  For the longest time she was writing "Em" but now she can write her full name :)  She knows all her letters and a lot of the sounds!  Em is in dance again and loving it.  She spends a large majority of the time we are home, twirling around and dancing!  "Mom, watch this!"  "Mom, watch me dance!"  Honestly, she is dancing 95% of the time we are home!!  I can't wait to see what dance their teacher choreographs for them this year!  Emerson is such a huge help at home.  I can always count on her to dress herself, brush her own teeth, be ready to go at the door, help Reese if need be, do any chore around the house that I ask her to - she's just so good!  She has her 'moment's' of course but boy oh boy is she ever a huge help!!  She has even taken to changing Reese's diaper!!!  And she does a good job of it too!!  I never have to ask Emerson to do something twice :)

Reese is doing great!!  She really loves Come Play With Me at the YMCA.  Every day she asks to go!  She loves Miss Christine!  She isn't as keen on the child minding room at the YMCA.  At first she loved it but that changed a few weeks in!!  She still goes but she is not fond of 'Grandma Jan'!! Reese seems to prefer to play by herself and is often annoyed and/or mad when someone tries too hard to play with her or include her in activities!!  I think she is a bit of an introvert at this point in time ;)  Which is totally fine but society seems to have a hard time accepting that some people just aren't people, people!!!  She's a very happy little girl and loves so many things, just not a lot of people.  And she is a very sensitive little girl and I have to remember this!  She will tell me, "You hurt my feelings!" if I raise my voice at her :s  I do believe that it is wonderful that she is so in touch with her feelings at such a young age!  Reese loves playing with her Barbies and her babies and really enjoys playing Dr. :)  I am often her patient!  She checks my ears, eyes, nose, gives me medicine and puts a bandaid on my hand!!  Reese loves books.  At home, I will sometimes notice she is not in the living room or kitchen and when I look for her, she is sitting on her glider in her bedroom looking at books or she has pulled out every single book on the bookcase and is sitting reading.  She also loves swimming and will start unparented lessons in the new year.  Where has the time gone?!  It seems like such a big step for my baby!!  We love our sweet, cuddly little girl :)

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving long weekend.  We are looking forward to the Stony Plain Cameron's and Grandpa Bruce joining us for dinner this evening!  The kids are very excited!!  My parents are in Fort McMurray at my sister's but we had a great visit everyone last weekend!  We got our annual Forest Green park fall pics under our belts and the kids devoured Grandma's spaghetti dinner and had a blast playing with Connor ;)  Blake, Em and Reese absolutely love him!!!  And on Sunday Reese and I joined my Mom, Lindsay and Connor for the Run for the Cure.  We walked 5 km with Reese and Connor in Lindsay's double stroller.  It was a beautiful day for a walk!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

xo
Tracy

Happy Anniversary to us!

Happy 9th wedding anniversary to us :)  On the 9th we celebrated our 9th year of wedded bliss!

Okay, let's be honest, it hasn't all been 'bliss' but that is what makes a marriage stronger :)  We have grown so much as individuals over the past 9 years and have grown together as well, through challenging times and great times.  9 years passes SO quickly, it is really unbelievable.  It feels as though our wedding day was maybe 2 or 3 years ago, NOT 9!!

It's fun to look at our wedding photo's with the kids, they love seeing all our wedding day photo's and hearing about our awesome day!

We have 3 date nights planned in the next few weeks, so didn't go out on our actual anniversary!  I enjoyed my flowers though and I'm pretty sure I have Emerson trained to remind her Dad that Mom needs flowers on almost every occasion ;)  lol!!

Love you Cal :)

xoxo