Growing up so fast!!

A quick update on our growing kidlet's ;)

Reese:
Miss Reese is changing so quickly!!  She is so much more a little girl now vs. a baby.  I love this age though!!!  I forgot how much fun it can be :)  She's talking more and more every day and learning so fast!  She absolutely LOVES Heidi right now and can't seem to get enough of her.  Whenever the pantry door is open, Reese goes to Heidi's food and tries to reach inside to feed her.  She reaches and says, "Heidi!!  Heidi!"  It is adorable!!  If it is time for Heidi to eat, I will get a scoop of food ready and let Reese help me pour it into Heidi's bowl.  Reese LOVES this and gives me a huge grin!!!  She also loves to help me put the lid back on Heidi's food container!  She lifts it up, I put it on and then ask her to help me push the lid on!  She has such a proud look on her face when she gets to help!!  She loves to help doing anything and everything - getting a cup out of the kid's cupboard, plates, bowls, spoons, putting her clothes in the hamper, cleaning up, getting her boots, etc.

Emerson:
I registered Emerson for preschool today!  She is on a wait list though.  There was space in Monday and Friday afternoons, but I'd like her to go with Blake on a Tuesday or Thursday morning.  We're only going to put her in one morning a week this school year.  I'm hoping it will be an easy transition for Emerson!  She is A LOT more independent then Blake was at her age!!  We feel that preschool will be very good for Em.  Being that she's only attended a dayhome a handful of times and has spent the rest of her time with Mom and/or Dad, she isn't very comfortable in a crowd and doesn't always have the best social skills.  We have definitely included her in many group activities and lessons, but it will be good for her to be more independent, without Mom and/or Dad!  I'm sure she's going to love it and will learn a great deal :)  She's starting to show a lot of interest in learning!  She's very interested in writing her name these days and enjoys pointing out different letters of the alphabet :)  I still can't believe Em is 3 ... seems like just yesterday she was a tiny little baby.  There will definitely be some tears shed by this Mom on her 1st day of preschool ;)

Blake:
Blake is growing like a weed (what's new?!)!!  His size 5 pants are getting too short but size 6 is too long!  They need to make 1/2 sizes ;)  Blake and Cal are going to the Oiler's game on Saturday afternoon!  They are both very excited!!  Blake can't wait to see Taylor Hall up close.  Their seats are in row 2, in the end the Oiler's warm up in, so Blake will get a very close look!!!  I can't wait to hear all about it!  I wish I was going too!!  Blake continues to love preschool!  He talks often about his best friends ... Nathan, Evan and Ryder!  It is really quite cute ;)  He will be sad to hear that Nathan's Mom is pulling him out of preschool at the end of the month.  I'm not sure if I should tell him or wait until he notices :(  I am going to miss Blake so much when he goes to Kindergarten next year.  I'm so glad it's only a 1/2 a day!  Thank you to the school board for easing us overprotective, SAHM's into the school years ;)  Grade 1, I can't even imagine ... having him gone 5 full days a week?!  EEK!!  I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself!!

Talk to you all again soon :)

xo
Tracy

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!!

Cal, Blake, Emerson and I would like to wish my Mom a VERY HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY!!!

We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives.  A simple thank you does not suffice, but THANK YOU for all you do for our family.  Thank you for always being there for us and for your endless love and support :)

You are one of the greatest woman I know and we are all so proud to call you Mom/Grandma!!

xo
Cal, Tracy, Blake, Emerson and Reese

Emerson's 3rd Birthday Party!!

We hosted Emerson's 3rd birthday party this afternoon at Dynamyx Gymnastics Club in St. Albert!

Emerson chose a princess/prince theme, which was really fun!!  The girls worn their favorite tu-tu's :)  Emerson's party outfit was super cute, with matching t and tutu!!

For party favors we gave out prince crowns and foam swords to the boys and tiara's and wands to the girls!  The kids all wore their tiara's and crowns for dinner and cake!

And I actually had fun making a princess cake!  It turned out great and was pretty easy to make, thanks to a special cake pan a friend lent me!!

The kids had a great time at the party and most especially loved the floor time with their 2 coaches!!

Emerson was in her element and had a huge grin on her face the entire time :) The two young girls who were the coaches for the party, did an excellent job!!

After 1 hour of floor time, we had a party room for 1 hour for dinner, cake and gift opening.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate with us and spoil our little girl!  Emerson is definitely not a huge crowd person, but she did have a lot of fun and is very thankful for your presence and your presents!  She's been enjoying her gifts this week and is over the moon with everything ;)  A special thanks to Grandma Bev for flying down to spend the weekend with us!!  We loved having you and the kids are still talking about Grandma's bed ;)

xo
The Cameron's

From Cal to Em

I needed to blog this, as I want Emerson to see this one day :)  Cal's FB post this morning:

A HUGE Happy Birthday to one of the most strong-willed little girls with the biggest heart! WE LOVE YOU EMDOG! Mom, Dad, Blake, Reese, Heidi and Jazz! Here's a song that reminds me of her even though we've never done it, soon maybe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IheODRwalEw

Happy 3rd Birthday Emerson!

We have had a great day celebrating Em's 3rd birthday :)

Emerson was so excited to open her gifts from Blake, Reese, Cal and I!  She LOVED the elephant stuffie her brother and sister got her and all the kids had a blast in Em's new pop up princess tent!  

We dropped Blake off at preschool, ran some errands, went to Timmie's for a snack and then to Come Play With Me!  Em had a great morning!!  At Come Play With Me she didn't want to tell anyone except for Miss Christine that it was her birthday.  And I told Miss Christine that she wouldn't do well with everyone singing to her ... but she was very happy with her birthday wishes from her favorite teacher!!

After lunch Emerson and I ran some party preparation errands and then we met up with my Mom and Dad.  They took her to buy her birthday gift!  They bought her a bike and apparently Emerson was very excited to "accessorize" the bike ;)  She was all about the basket, horn, bells, etc!  She chose a purple, Tangle-themed bike!  We haven't even seen Tangled, but apparently it's her favorite movie?!  lol! 

The rest of us met the three of them and Cal's Dad at Red Lobster for dinner.  It was delicious as usual and my Mom made princess cupcakes, which were very cute and yummy :)

I think Emerson had a great day!!  And she is looking forward to her birthday party on Saturday at Dynamyx Gymnastic's Club :)

I found it very cute today, how whenever someone would say happy birthday to Emerson, she would say happy birthday back!  It was sweet!! 

We hope you had a fun day Em and love you very, very much!!

xo

To Emerson on her 3rd birthday

We love you so very much Em!  You are a very special little girl and bring much joy to every day :)  You keep us on our toes, that is for sure and challenge us in ways we've never experienced!  You are very passionate and have a mind of your own.  You are independent (I can do it myself!) and very helpful (I can help!)!  You are sweet and have a sweet tooth ;)  You love your brother and sister so much and play so well with both of them, although you and Blake are closer at the moment.  You two love to play vacation together and often "travel" to Fort McMurray and Disneyland!!!  You also pretend you are taking Reese to the Dr.  You LOVE your stuffies and your babies.  You will not wear pants and a shirt, only dresses.  More specifically, dresses that twirl!!  Today you chose to wear a sweater dress and I was quite surprised ;)  When we are at home, we let you dress however you choose ... which almost always involves a tutu and usually involves a tiara!  You wake up and want your pj's off and a tutu on (you have 4!!).  Some days you choose to wear your underwear on the outside of you pants!!  You have been saying you want to be a Princess when you grow up and know that in order to be a Princess you must marry a Prince.  At times you will say you want to be a doctor when you grow up, but usually quickly change that idea to a Princess!!  You love music and dancing and twirling.  You love arts and crafts, especially crafts that involve the use of a glue stick and/or glitter!  You love stamping and always ask to finger paint!!  You can spend quite a bit of time with a sheet of stickers and a sticker book, but nothing keeps you still for long!  You color a picture faster then I've ever seen!!  You are active ... running, jumping and keeping up with Blake!!  You are excited to start unparented swimming lessons and have been telling us for months that you are going all by yourself.  Not with Mom or Dad, by yourself.  We are allowed to watch!  You have fun at gymnastics but sometimes tell us you don't want to go.  We ask you why and you say, "Because there are too many kids."  We understand your aversion to crowds ... neither your Dad or I are much for crowds either!  You are a smart girl Emerson and I try to tell you often how smart you are!  It is hard not to tell you how beautiful you are every second I spend with you ... I look at your big green eyes, gorgeous long, wavy hair and can't believe how beautiful you are!  But I want you to grow up feeling smart and confident as well, not just beautiful!  I see the way you "do" your hair in the mirror and think, "Oh boy ... !!"  We love your imagination, your cuddles, your kisses, your sweet smile and the way you talk non-stop when we are 1 on 1 with you!  It melts our hearts when you kiss and hug Blake and Reese and most especially when Reese hugs you and you say, "Aww, she hugged me!  She loves me!"  I love when I am driving with you and you talk a mile a minute!!  I love looking in the rear view mirror and seeing your facial expressions as you tell story after story after story :) 

You are growing up so fast Emerson, but will always be our baby girl!

xo

Mom & Dad

Happy Birthday Cal!!

Friday we packed up a bag full of snacks and the sit n' stand stroller and embarked upon the r.v. show!!!!  We were on a mission to find a floor plan and price we thought would work for us!  The kids were so excited to go (this is a yearly tradition for the Cameron/Smith family!) and had a lot of fun looking in trailers and bouncing in the Western RV Country monster truck bouncy house ;)  My parents kept an eye on the kids for us and we were able to see a lot of r.v.'s!!

Saturday was Cal's 33rd birthday!  Blake, Emerson and I went shopping for a gift for Cal last week.  We knew he needed a new Flyer's hat, so that is what we were looking for!  We went to a few different stores.  The thought Blake put into this purchase is unbelievable!!  He would inspect each hat I handed him, try it on, check the size, see if it was adjustable, the color, what size the logo was, etc, etc.  It was really cute!!!

Cal and Blake had hockey Saturday morning and before they left Blake wanted to tell me something.  He (not so quietly) whispered to me that he was going to tell all the kids that it was his Dad's birthday and that Dad was going to tell the coaches!  I told him that Dad would probably not tell the coaches!!  When they got home from hockey, Cal told me Blake made a point of telling every single person on the ice that it was his Dad's birthday.  At the end of practice they all huddle together and do 3 cheers, and yesterday after the cheer Blake asked everyone to sing happy birthday to his Dad!  So sweet :) :)

My parents came over for supper and cake that evening.  The kids were so excited to sing happy birthday!!  After supper Cal and I went (back) to the r.v. show.  We checked out every single r.v. that we thought we would be interested in and still liked the first one we found!!  But we're not 100% sure if we want to buy a new one this year ... such a hard decision!  After the r.v. show we went for a beverage and to chat about if we really want to buy a new r.v. this year.  For now our plan is to take our current trailer out for May long weekend, then list it for sale and see what happens!!!  With Reese being around 18 months come summer, we know this camping season will not be the easiest, but next year and the years beyond should get easier!  So maybe we'll just do a few short trips this summer and look to buy again next year ... maybe.  Plans change, we'll see what happens!!  I think the salesman and dealer from the factory in Indiana thought we were the most indecisive people they've ever seen ... I don't how many times we went back to Coachworks RV to look at the trailer we liked, or how much time we spent sitting in it, looking around!!!  And chatting with the 2 of them!  Was great to talk to a Colts fan though ;)  lol!

Today we had a Valentine's Day party/baby shower with our New Mom's Group friends!  My friend Cindy had a baby girl at the end of December.  It was nice to have some baby snuggles and meet Ainsley!  The party was a lot of fun and the kids and I enjoyed making their own valentines and popcorn treats for their friends (thank you Pinterest!!).  Tonight when I asked Emerson what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "Handing out popcorn treats to my friends and the ladies giving me candy!"

This week is going to be crazy ... teleconference meeting will take up my evening tomorrow, preschool Valentine's Day party Tuesday, Kettlebells Tues and Thurs evening, Emerson's 3rd birthday Thursday, meeting with Cameron's Closet helpers Wed evening, Cameron's Closet meet Friday morning and pick up Cal's Mom from the airport Friday night! Then Emerson's birthday party Saturday afternoon.  Wowzers ... not sure when I'm going to clean house, make Em's cake, do the loot bags, plan the party food, oh and SLEEP!  Phew!  February is a BUSY month!!

Have a great week everyone :)