4 more Sneak Peak's!!

Karyn from IsaBelle's Photography posted a few more "sneak peak" photo's to her FB page today!!  I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised and quite impressed :)  She will be giving us approximately 50 pictures on our disc, so I'm really excited to see the rest!!!

We couldn't get these kids to sit still, but look at the JOY on their faces :)

1 word: a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e

They love each other :)

My heart, soul & life ...

Fabulous Fall!

Sneak peak of Fall photo's!

This is my favorite time of the year!!  I love the crispness in the air and the beautiful colors!  I've always wanted to have fall family photo's done, but we usually do photo's around the time of our kid's birthdays and we don't have any September babies!  Our favorite photographer Rose was in town doing photo sessions a few weeks ago but I passed on the opportunity because I thought we'd get photos done for Reese's 1st birthday in November ... then I regretted my decision :S  So this week I quickly found a photographer to take photo's of us this weekend and searched out outfits for the family.  Blake and Em were very excited to be outside running around and Reese was busy chewing on her hand ... BUT Karyn did take a lot of photo's and there were some cute moments, so hopefully she caught at least a few good shots :)   I'll be sure to post more when we get them back!!

We've had a great few weeks in our house!  Cal enjoyed his first Oiler's game of the season, taking in a preseason game.  We are sharing season tickets this year with 2 other people, so look forward to attending a few games!!  I actually can't wait for the first game we're going to together on October 20th, as we have not had a date night since before Reese was born!!!  

Blake had his 2nd dentist visit a few weeks ago and returned last week to have sealants put on 4 of his bottom molars.  He was a superstar at the dentist's :)  Dr. Bergt didn't have to freeze his mouth and we were in and out in 22 minutes, even though she'd scheduled Blake in for 1 hr!!  They were so impressed with how well he sat and cooperated!  No complaints, no crying, nothing ... such a good patient!  He has extremely deep grooves in his teeth (more so then normal according to the dentist) and so will be prone to cavities his entire life, unfortunately.  But he loves to brush and floss, so we'll keep on that and hopefully avoid fillings ;)  While at the dentist with Blake, I also scheduled Emerson's 1st visit for March 2012 on kid's day!!

Taking a break at the zoo :)

We had a super fun time at the Edmonton zoo on Sunday the 25th!  It was "free day" in Edmonton (free admission to numerous attractions and fitness facilities in the city) and the kids wanted to take Dad to the zoo!!  It was very busy, but with all the space the zoo has it wasn't overwhelming or hard to get around.  Blake and Em LOVE Lucy the elephant and were soaking up every bit of information during the "getting to know Lucy" session we attended :)  We're going to look into a family pass next summer, as I love taking the kids there to run and explore.  Blake really enjoys looking at the maps of where the animals are from and hearing about what they eat and I'm sure Emerson will be into those facts too next year!!

Cal was in Fort McMurray on Monday night for work, which was very strange for me!  I have been away from Cal overnight in the past few years, but not the reverse!!  Cal always puts Blake and Emerson to bed, so we had to call him to sing their songs they sing every night!  It was really sweet, hearing everyone singing over the phone :)  He will be doing a bit of travelling now with his new job and is also away this Monday and Tuesday night, so I'm sure we'll be calling him again to sing the bedtime songs!

We had a great time on Saturday at Emma's 2nd birthday party, which Jess and Robb hosted at Dynamyx Gymnastic's Club.  Blake and Em and even Reese enjoyed the floor activities and of course the dinner and cake afterwards!  It was really nice to visit with my Uncle Clifford and Auntie Cheryl, who we spent a lot of time with when we lived in St. Paul, but don't get to see very often now.  Emma enjoyed her party too and is so stinkin' cute, she has a great little personality :)  

I am SO excited for our upcoming visit to Lindsay and Jeremy's house in Fort McMurray this weekend!!  I can't wait to see their new house, but mostly can't wait to spend time with my family and see Linds' baby bump ;)  It will be really nice to go to them for once, as they are always coming to us!  

Our visit to Fort Mac will be followed by Cal's week off!!  Yippee!!!!  It will be a busy week though, we have a lot to accomplish around home!  But will be nice to have him home and I'm sure we'll squeeze in some fun ;)

Take care everyone, talk to you again soon!

xoxo The Cameron's

  

Happy 10 month Birthday Reese :)

Yes, Reese is 10 months old today!!  I know with every child I say I can't believe how fast time is going by but it continues to speed up.  SLOW DOWN ... please?!  I don't know how Reese is 10 months old already.  I mean, really ... where in the world does the time go???

Reese is growing and changing fast and is so much fun!!  She loves to move and is crawling all over the place and just started pulling herself up to standing on her play table and on Heidi's toy bin!!  The couch and coffee table seem to high for her to pull herself up on!  She seems to know where we don't want her to go and as soon as an opportunity presents itself, she heads for those areas (i.e. the bathroom/laundry room, the stairs to the basement!!).  As soon as I say, "Reeeese!!" she crawls faster!  lol!  She still has 7 teeth, with an 8th near breaking through (it's been near for a long time!!).  She loves food (surprise, surprise!) and really enjoys feeding herself.  She's eating a lot of what we eat now, just chopped up really small.  She loves drinking her water from a straw cup, but also loves spitting water out and making a mess!!!!  I find it really neat that she already recognizes Heidi, Jazz, Dad, Mom, Blake, Emerson, her teddy and her blankie.  When I ask her, "Where's Heidi?"  She scans the room and looks right at her!  Same with the other people/items!  It's so amazing how much a child learns in 10 short months.  And so rewarding to be a part of as a parent :)  Blake and Emerson love her to death and are still really good with her!  They are always watching out for her, making sure she isn't putting anything too small in her mouth.  We're definitely lucky she hasn't choked on anything yet ... to date she's been found with dice, small Lego, and a penny in her mouth :S  Reese is really enjoying our Come Play With Me program and loves music and books!! Just yesterday we moved her into a big kid carseat.  She could technically still be in the bucket seat, but it's way to heavy to carry around!!  She seemed smitten with her new car seat yesterday!  We love her big grins :)  And sometimes if we're lucky when we ask for hugs and kisses, she gives up a big mouth wide open kiss!!  

Blake and Emerson both started swimming and dove right back into lessons ;)  Blake's swimming really improved this summer!  Grandpa taught him how to doggie paddle at the cabin and he picked that right up again during his first lesson!!  Emerson's having fun too, but is ready to move on to unparented lessons.  But she'll have to wait until she's 3 for those!!  Em also started gymnastics on Wednesday.  She loves it and is most especially fond of the "stork stance" and choosing her outfit for her class ;)  Blake started hockey on Saturday and had a blast!  I woke Reese up from her morning nap so the girls and I could catch the last 1/2 hr of his practice!

We had fun on Sunday afternoon celebrating our niece Jenna's 2nd birthday at a polka-dot themed party :)  Grandma Bev was down for the party too, so it was nice to visit and catch up with her! 

Fall is definitely in the air!  Hoodie and sweater season is upon us - my 2 favorite pieces of clothing ;)

Have a great week everyone!!

Tracy

She's really movin' now!!

Reese is not only rolling but crawling at the speed of light ;)  Well not quite, but she's crawling faster and a lot more then she was 2 weeks ago!!  She also is "walking" when she's standing and being supported under her armpits and she's trying to walk along the couch and coffee table too!  And she's learned how to sit up from crawling!  A couple of weeks ago she could sit up from laying on the ground, by holding onto something with one hand and pushing on the ground with the other, but now she sits up without holding onto anything!!  Every morning when I go into her room to get her out of her crib, she's sitting up!  She gives me the biggest smiles, I love it :)  She tries to pull herself up on everything she can hold onto and has bumped her head more times then I can count :S  Way more then Blake and Emerson!!  She's a lot busier then they were at this age!  It's amazing how fast she's growing and changing!  I also taught her the signs for "more" and for "all done!"  And it seems like she actually gets them, which is amazing to me?!  I showed her all done a few times and now when I say it she tries to copy me and do the sign!  I never taught Blake or Em signs when they were this young, but when they were over 1 one of the library programs we attended taught signs so I remember a lot of them and just for fun thought I'd show Reese a few!!

Cousins!

The last few weeks of August and the beginning of September has been busy!  We had our niece Jenna and nephew Colby for a sleepover on September long weekend.  It was lots of fun and they were SO well-behaved!!  We really enjoyed spending time with them :)  We also attended Berlyn's 2nd birthday party that weekend.  There was a great group of kids there and we all had a lot of fun!  Blake and Emerson had a blast in the bouncy houses!!  And to top the weekend off, we met Carmen and family (- Kourtney) for dinner.  It was nice to see everyone :)

1st day of Preschool (year 2) - September 6, 2011

Blake started his 2nd year of Preschool on Tuesday, September 6th.  We registered him in Fun Factory at the CD YMCA again.  It's a great program and so convenient for us, because we take Emerson and Reese to a parented program (Come Play With Me) across the hall from Blake's classroom!  It was an entirely new scene for Blake this year, only 1 returning friend from last year and all new teachers!!  Although, Mrs. Steele (a volunteer) did return on Tuesday mornings and Miss Kara ran the summer day camp programs this year, so Blake recognized her as well.  Emerson had a blast at Come Play With Me and Reese did too!!!  Reese crawled around, "talking" and playing! 

On Wednesday we had a fun playdate with my cousin Jessica and her daughter Emma and look forward to more "dates" with them!!!

Enjoying the zoo!

Today the kids and I made an impromptu trip to the Valley Zoo.  The past 2 summers we've visited the zoo numerous times, but hadn't made it there this summer.  There are a lot of renovations happening, but the kids still had a blast!  Emerson had a close encounter with the tiger - he was right on the glass behind her!  Scared the life out of her (& Blake)!!!  It was SO funny, I wish I'd had my camera out at that time!!!  Every time we go to the zoo, the kids wish Cal was there!  They're always saying, "I wish Dad could see Lucy!"  "We should show Dad the monkeys!" etc, etc, etc.  So hopefully we'll make it there on Free Zoo Day (September 25th)!  Free admission for all, can't beat it!!!

Swimming lessons start today (Blake) and tomorrow (Emerson) and Blake's hockey starts on September 17th.  Both of our little fish are looking forward to their lessons and Blake is super excited for hockey ;)  Emerson is also VERY excited to start gymnastics on Wednesday and to attend Emma's Dynamyx birthday party on October 1st!! 

Cal had his annual Telus golf tournament yesterday afternoon/evening.  He had a great time and brought me home a pair of Oakley sunglasses!!  All the golfers received a pair!  And apparently the door prizes were amazing, last year he won an iPod touch, but he didn't win anything this year.  Cal doesn't get out golfing much anymore, but I'm sure it's a hobby he'll take up again one day ;)

Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week!  We've had fun in the backyard, playing in the sprinkler and keeping cool in the shade!!   

Hope you're able to enjoy some of this sun, have a great weekend :)

Love The Cameron's

PS:  I forgot to mention that Emerson is doing so great on the potty!!  At home and out and about!  She takes herself and doesn't even need reminding!  Very few accidents too!  We're so proud of her!!  Way to go Em :)

So much going on!!

Reese:

a.k.a. Reesey, Goose, Goosester, Blueberry, Baby!!  Reese turned 9 months old on August 19th.  9 MONTHS?!?  Oy!!  Her 1st year is flying by. I am not sure where I got Goose from, but that is my favorite nickname for Reese a.t.m. Emerson refers to her most often as "baby!"  Reese continues to be a very fast roller!  She gets from one end of a room to the other extremely fast via rolling!!  She still doesn't get too far with crawling - gets up on her hands and knees, crawls a "step" or 2, collapses and rolls!!!  But her new favorite thing to do is what I call a bear walk position - up on her toes and hands on the floor in front of her!  She loves doing this "downward dog" type pose!!  Makes her smile ;)  She also loves to stand!!  Reese has a rough few days last week.  She came down with a high fever and was extremely unhappy for 2 days and not very happy for a 3rd day!  We were off to Saskatoon last weekend for my cousin Aaron's wedding and she fell ill on Tuesday night.  Wednesday wasn't too bad, but Wednesday night and Thursday all day were terrible!  So I took her to the E.R.  She had no other symptoms so they did an in and out catheter to see if she had a urinary tract infection, but she didn't.  Dr. said it was a virus.  Dang viruses!!!  She was not nursing, not eating solids, crying, fussing, not sleeping ... it was terrible!!  By Friday night she was almost back to her normal self and so we left for the airport early Saturday morning.  We had a wonderful time in Saskatoon, visiting with a lot of my "Smith" family.  Reese travelled well, thank goodness and was back to her normal self!

Emerson:

Emerson is pretty much potty trained!!  She has been going to the potty off and on for the past few weeks and this week started using the potty exclusively.  She's had a few accidents, mostly #2's, but has really impressed us with how quickly she picked up on using the potty!  We new that potty training Emerson would not be the same experience as we had with Blake.  She had to decide how and when to do it and she pretty much did just that and virtually trained herself!  Which I suppose is not really training at all, but maybe more appropriately called potty learning.  Blake has been one of her biggest cheer leaders, which I think has helped a lot :)  We've taken her out 2 days in a row now, yesterday she had an accident while out so today I put a Pull-Up on her, but she used the washroom while out :)  We're so proud of her!!!  The whole process has been a lot less work this time around!  We were going to have her potty party on Sunday evening, but post poned it to this Sunday evening at my parent's new lake lot!  Emerson is SO into clothes and is of course really into all her new underwear ;)  She's always been a girly girl, but it's getting more and more as she gets older.  She picks her clothes and changes her outfit a gazillion times a day!  It's like an ongoing fashion show around here :)  It is so cute to see her pick up a piece of clothing, hold it up and say, "Awwww ... cute!"  Or sometimes she'll look at something, put it down and tell me to sell it!!  Too funny!!! 

Blake:

Blake's doing great!  He's still our little ball of energy, enjoying summer and all the activities that come with it :)  He loves to play every sport you can think of and still loves his truck's and trains!!  He had a blast at his Jitter Bug's camp in July and is in another session this week.  He was pretty excited to see Adam, his preschool buddy this week at the YMCA.  It was cute to see them chatting and catching up!!!  Blake is very proud of Emerson's potty accomplishments and all of Reese's new accomplishments!  He's very excited to go camping and quadding with Grandma and Grandpa D this weekend!! 

So as I said above, Reese took her first airplane ride this weekend.  She did great!  I was worried about her ears, but we had no issues.  We enjoyed visiting with family in Saskatoon!  While Reese and I were in SK, Cal, Blake and Emerson were having a fun weekend in E-Town!!!  Saturday they went to the Canadian Derby at Northlands (an annual outing for the Cameron family!) and had a great time par-taking in the race day activities.  Sunday they went to a local park with Berlyn and then after naptime, they went to the Parenteau's for a pool party/BBQ!  They had a busy weekend and were tuckered out by Sunday night!! 

September is fast approaching and with it comes a new set of fall and winter activities.  Blake's taking a skating lesson on Monday's starting in October and Initiation 1 hockey will start sometime in September (Saturdays).  Preschool starts the week after September long weekend (Tuesdays and Thursday mornings) and so do swimming lessons on Friday afternoons.  Emerson starts gymnastics (Wednesday afternoons) and swimming lessons (Saturday mornings) starting the week after September long weekend.  Em's also really looking forward to Come Play With Me (during Blake's preschool class) and seeing Ms. Christine again!!  Reese will be joining us at Come Play With Me and I'm really looking forward to seeing her reaction to the group this year, as she is older and LOVES singing and music!!  She loves playing with our LeapFrog fridge toys that sings and smiles and tries to clap her hands when I sing and clap to the music!  I think she'll really enjoy Come Play With Me!!

Looking at the list of activities above worries me a tad!!!!  I already feel overwhelmingly busy and we don't have any of that on our plates yet?!  I better get better organized!  And get to bed earlier ...  

Enjoy the last few weeks of August everyone!  Hopefully our weather will continue to be nice and our September will be kind to us as well :)

xoxo Tracy

Productive Weekend!

We have had a very busy weekend around home! 

Blake had his last hockey camp ice time on Friday morning.  We all went to watch!  Cal and I both noticed a huge improvement over the course of the week.  But what matters most is Blake had a lot of fun :)  I spoke to the lady who was running the camp and she said, "He is so cute!  Every time one of us looks at him, he has the biggest smile on his face!"  Now what more could you ask for?!  

Friday afternoon Emerson and I took Jazz to the vet.  He's been urinating in places he shouldn't be :(  I know ... gross, right?!  He got his regular vaccinations and also an antibiotic shot.  Hopefully it was just an infection causing his issues vs. crystal's in his bladder (which he's had before), a tumor or just plain old bad behaviour!!  We've also been letting Jazz out to hunt mice, but the vet advised against it.  So far, so good.  We got him a new litter box and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) this issue is resolved!  Cal also painted the railings on the deck on Friday night!

Saturday morning I put Reese down for her morning nap and took the other 2 kids to the St. Albert market.  I love, love, love all the markets available to us in Edmonton and surrounding area!!  We bought some organic carrots and onions and a few different varieties of organic chicken.  I wish we could afford to eat organic meat all the time, but wowzers is it pricey!!  We met up with my Mom, sister, her friend and new baby girl and ran into my friend Melissa and her 2 boys there!  The kids had fun and Cal was able to finish painting the deck while we were gone!  Saturday afternoon Cal and my Dad fixed the hot water heater in our trailer, so we're getting closer to being able to list it.  Not sure how successful we'll be with selling it this late in the year, but if it doesn't sell we'll either try again next Spring or trade it in!!  I can't wait to get our new trailer!!!  We're really looking forward to camping with adequate space next year ;)  Saturday evening we went out for supper with my sister and watched a movie with her after the kids were finally sleeping!!  The Lincoln Lawyer - if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

Today was a bit slower, Cal took Blake and Em to yet another new spray park near our house!  We feel pretty lucky to have so many options of spray parks, all within 15 minutes of us!!  I did some Cameron's Closet business and cleaning while they were gone and Reese napped.  I even got 2 pictures hung today!  This afternoon my parents came over for a visit and homemade hamburgers and potato salad (yummy!!!)!  

It feels great to get some things checked off of our every growing to-do list!  We hope you had a great weekend too :)  Have a wonderful week!

xoxo Tracy 

PS: Goose is very close to crawling ... she gets up on all 4's and rocks back and forth and takes a few "steps" forward and then usually collapses to her tummy!  I've also found her sitting up in her crib a few times this week!  She's growing and changing so fast!!

PPS: Emerson is kind of potty training!  She asks to put underwear on and we let her.  She's done #1 in the potty a lot but has had accidents too!  We really need to concentrate on her potty training one day soon ... one day when we can stay home for a few days, we just need to plan for it!! 

 

Summer fun!!

We've had some great times these past few weeks!!  Here are some highlights:

- The kids and I spent a fun-filled day with the Stony Plain Cameron's (minus Gerry!)!  It started out with a visit to Cafe O'Play, followed by lunch at Wendy's and ending with Capital Ex!  We had a wonderful time, lots of fun and laughs!!  The kids were so well-behaved, even though the girls missed nap time ;)  It was nice to spend some time with them and hopefully we'll squeeze in another "date" before September!

- A day trip to Battleford, Saskatchewan to surprise my Grandma Kelley with an 80th birthday party at the Legion!!!  It was a nice gathering!  We seen a lot of relatives who we haven't seen in years - cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.  Great to catch up with everyone and so nice to see my Grandma enjoying herself!  She's a hard worker (still working at 80!!) and I worry she doesn't take much down time, so it was great for her to have some fun and visit :) 

- A visit to the Strathcona Farmer's Market!  It was full of wonderful vendors - we could have spent a fortune, but only walked away with fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies, pesto, and perogies!!  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm ... 

- A visit to United Cycle!  We needed to get Blake's skates repaired and sized and check the fit of some of his hockey equipment.  And the boys were (both) extremely excited to pick out matching Flyers hats!!!

- Many trips to local parks!  One of our favorites is the CD park.  They have recently renovated this park and it is SO awesome!  The kids love the spray park, but also have fun on all the playground equipment :)
- Dinner with Cal's Mom and his Grandparents.  Grandma and Grandpa Alstad hadn't met Reese yet, so it was nice to introduce them to her!!  We had a nice dinner and visit, it was great to catch up :) 

- An overnight stay at the Krywiak cabin at Skeleton Lake.  And I use the term "cabin" loosely ... it's more a house then a cabin, very nice with all the modern day conveniences!!  The weather wasn't the greatest, but at least it didn't rain!  The kids had fun playing in the bouncy house, swinging and we visited the public beach and park.  The boys took a quick fishing trip Sunday morning, but didn't catch anything.  Reese was averse to sleeping, which always stresses me out for some silly reason :S  But at least they all slept in!!  We're looking forward to spending some more time out there next year with the Parenteau's :)

- Blake started his hockey camp this Monday.  It is 45 min. and focuses mostly on skating and basic hockey skills!  Blake's has improved greatly from his first time on the ice (less then a year ago) and continues to enjoy himself!!  He's shuffling along a little faster this year, but he seemed to have this idea in his head that because he took skating lessons this Spring and is older now that he would step on the ice and fly!!! 

- Reese had her 9 month check up today!  She is doing great and is now 20 lbs (75th %tile), 27.5" (50th %tile) and her head circumference is in the 50th %tile as well :)  She's a strong, healthy little girl!  She is still rolling all over the place and can really get going fast!  She tries to get up onto her knees to crawl, but hasn't figured out crawling quite yet.  She loves standing and tries to pull herself up when you're holding onto her hands - once she stands up she grins and grins and is so happy to be standing!!  She has a good appetite and loves finger foods!  She prefers soft veggies and fruits to pureed, but still eats a lot of pureed when we're on the go!!  She has 7 teeth (all 7 came through within 1 month) with an 8th that has popped out and today is back in!   

We're doing some work around home this weekend (need to hang pictures and shelves in the house, paint our deck, build a sandbox under the play set, and fix our trailer!  Not sure we'll get all of that done?!) and hopefully visit the St. Albert Farmer's Market.

Next week we don't have too many plans.  On Saturday Reese and I are flying to Saskatoon for my cousin Aaron's wedding.  I wish we could all go, but I am looking forward to seeing my relatives again and hopefully relaxing a little more then usual, being I'll only have 1 child under my care ;)  I'm sure Cal and the other 2 kidlets will also have a nice weekend!  

We hope you are all having a fantastic summer!!!  ttyl :)

Tracy