Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all!! We spent the evening with friends. I think we all had intentions of a bit more of a upbeat party but after some late nights over the Christmas holidays, we were all a little tired! We chatted, ate and watched a movie while the kids whooped it, lol!! And we did make midnight ;) We took the above photo when we got home, just before heading to bed at 1:30 am!! 

May 2018 bring you peace, joy, love, happiness and good health! 

xoxo

The Cameron 5

2017 Christmas Photo Card and Letter

The holiday season is upon us and as I sit down to type our annual letter, I think back over 2017 and all that the year has brought.

My Grandma Kelley passed away in February. We were very lucky to have her in Edmonton for the past few years and are grateful we got to spend a lot of time together, most especially during the holidays. We miss her dearly but know she is in a better place, no longer suffering from any pain. Although hard to say goodbye, we were glad to attend Grandma’s celebration of life in the spring. Many hilarious and wonderful memories were shared and it was great to see our extended family.

In November we had to say goodbye to our beloved Heidi. As anyone who has had a dog knows, they become family members. Heidi was twelve years old and the loss was quite unexpected. It’s been hard adjusting to no longer having our fluffy friend around and I’m not sure we’ll ever really get used it. The kids have learned a lot about loss this year which is always hard but unfortunately part of life. Emerson cheered us up a bit when she commented that she thinks Heidi is keeping Jazz (our cat who we lost last year) and Grandma Kelley company in heaven. Sometimes kids just know the right thing to say.

Together with the sad times there have also been wonderful memories in 2017. The top of our list would be our summer vacation. We visited many spots in AB, BC and the USA and loved every minute! We had such a fabulous time, I think we could have stayed ‘on the road’ for another few weeks! Throughout our vacation we camped with my parents, with Cal’s brother and his family and visited friends and Cal’s Aunt and cousin while we were in Penticton. Some other highlights of our 3 weeks away were: Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Beach in Idaho, watching the Seattle Mariners play and the kids running the bases and beach days in Penticton! I could go on and on, it was just such a fabulous trip! I swear we didn’t see a day below +28 until the last few days of our holiday when we were back in Alberta.

We took on downhill skiing as a family this year, getting Reese on skis and Cal back on ski’s after a long hiatus!! Blake took some ski lessons this year and has decided he will ski and snowboard! We all loved our trip to Jasper and look forward to more mountain skiing in our future!!

We visited Tisdale, SK this fall for my cousins wedding and were so happy to see our Smith family. We hadn’t been to Tisdale in a few years so it was a long overdue trip and great to visit my Grandpa, Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. 

The kids are all growing and changing! Still in the French Immersion program at the same school, Blake is in the double digits now, in grade 5 and almost taller than both his grandmas!! Emerson is in grade 3 and 8 years old and Reese is in grade 2 and 7 years old. They all love their teachers, Blake and Reese are in split classes this year and Blake actually has three teachers which is different for him but he is enjoying the change of scenery throughout the day. Blake is filling his spare time right now with hockey and guitar lessons. He loves his sports games on his Xbox and hanging out with his hockey and school buds. Emerson is currently filling her spare time with ringette, guitar lessons and Ukrainian dance. She loves her cooking and baking shows and lots of crafting and reading as well!!  Reese is keeping busy with ringette and piano lessons and still loves her Lego, American Girl doll and lots of art work and drawing!

Cal and I are good, still at our same careers. I’m still working part-time and Cal is still working from home on most days. Cal ran in the Sinister 7 Race again this year but took the year off from marathons. He’s playing hockey once a week and is head coach of Blake’s Atom AA hockey team. I am co-managing Blake’s team and assistant coach on Reese’s ringette team and head cheer leader on Emerson’s ringette team J Obviously we enjoy the rinks in the winters!!! Blake played lacrosse again this spring and Emerson played 3 on 3 ringette, so we were in the rinks for the spring too!

Our schedules are crazy but we try to stay very organized! It takes a village and we are very lucky to have great help from my parents and school and sports friends.

Christmas holidays will be here before we know it and we’re looking forward to the slower pace for a few weeks and all being home together. We hope this letter finds you all in good health and spirits. We are sending lots of love and wishing you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2018! 

Cal, Tracy, Blake, Emerson and Reese

Poor Em :(

I felt so bad for Emerson this week :( She's been so sick and has had to miss dance, ringette, choir and the long awaited choir performance at City Hall. She wasn't the biggest fan of choir but had the end in sight and was toughing it out so she could sing at City Hall and now she's had to miss it. Poor girl :( Thankfully she is on antibiotics now (ear infection) and is starting to feel better.

We're getting ready for Christmas. I've done a lot of online shopping and plan to finish up next week. Cal and I both had Friday off and our plan was to watch Em sing and then finish off the Christmas shopping but instead Cal worked and I stayed home with Em. We also plan to start our baking this week, which I always enjoy! The baking plan for this year includes, salted caramel pretzels, sugar cookies, peanut butter marshmallow squares, Christmas crack and butter tarts! And Cal will be making his cheesecakes :)

Talk to you soon!

~Tracy

An unusual E.R. visit

Well, we can now say we've had to visit the Stollery for one of the oddest reasons. Before I tell the story, can I just say that I am not surprised in the least that this occurred in our family!!!

On Sunday afternoon I washed the girls hair, as Blake had a late hockey game and I didn't want to keep them up any later than we needed to. When they got out of the bathtub, I decided to clean their earrings. And that is when I noticed that something was wrong with Reese's earrings. Upon further inspection, the back of her earrings had grown into her ear??  Not sure how to put it but I think you get the idea. She started to cry a little bit and ask what was wrong and I was pretty surprised but tried to play around with her ears a little bit to see if I could get the backs off. By holding the back and pulling on the front of one of her earrings, I was able to get the back off but on the other side it appeared to be more stuck or grown into the ear. I called Cal in to look and we weren't sure what to do but everyone was getting pretty 'excited' sort to speak ... so I cleared the bathroom and calmed Reese down before trying to pull the back off with tweezers.  I literally pulled as hard as I could and I couldn't get the back off. So off to the Stollery we went! My gosh, like how does this crap happen???!! I felt so bad for Reese, she was very upset but you want to know why she was most upset??  Because she would have to miss Blake's hockey game, miss playing with her bff Gioia and she was also upset that Em was going to the game and would get to play with Gioia!!  lol!!  She cried the whole way to the hospital and kept asking, "Will we be able to go to the game?" I told her maybe we'd make it, maybe if the wait was short. Of course the wait was super long and we didn't make the game :( But she calmed down a bit and was happy to enjoy a pop and 2 bags of chips during the 4 hour wait!!  The extraction was not pretty, when she saw the needle the dr. had to use to freeze her ear she was VERY upset. I tried to hold her down but she managed to get a hand free and the dr. had to remove the needle before her ear was entirely frozen. They tried emla gel but that did not numb the area enough so they tried another kind of topical gel, apparently way stronger than emla and that combined with the freezing was enough that she didn't scream out in pain while the dr. removed the earring back. It was still uncomfortable (and there was a lot of blood) but she managed. He used tweezers to slowly work it free, to protect the skin. We got home at 9:30pm and boy was I ever glad to be home! Poor Reese :( I don't know how that happened but she did tell me that she was scared to lose an earring (a few months ago she lost a favorite earring) so every day she pushed harder and harder on the backs so the earring would be in tight ... I'm guessing that combined with fairly new piercings contributed to the problem. Just another day in the adventures of our home!!

November

My Mom and Dad brought my Grandma Marg home with them from Tiffany's wedding!!  We're so glad she is able to do this, as she got to see all 3 kids play ringette and hockey and we got to spend some extra time with her :)

Reese got glasses!!! In September Reese told me that the board at school was blurry. I told her to maybe try sitting closer, as she had just had her eyes checked in August and all was well!! Then again in October she said the same thing. So we decided we better get her eyes checked again and sure enough, she needed glasses. Seeing as she's been wearing 'fashion' glasses off and on for a year, she had no problem accepting that she needed glasses ;) She picked out a super cute purple pair and has had no problem transitioning into wearing glasses!!  We will have to take her in to have her eyes checked every 6 months as the dr. thinks her prescription will change frequently for the first year or so and then hopefully stabilize. 

The glasses Reese picked out :)

We travelled to Jasper for a hockey tournament and had an absolute blast!!! We left Thursday afternoon after early dismissal and got home Sunday night. The Cougars played 5 games over 3 days and did quite well, although didn't bring home a medal. They had many close games and played really well together. We had a lot of fun with the team and the parents had a lot of fun in the evenings :) My Dad came for a night as well and took Em back to her ringette game on Saturday which was so awesome! Thank goodness she was able to go as they were down quite a few players. 

Team photo at Pyramid Lake

My favorite hockey players ;)

Cougars hockey mom's!!

Girls table :) So awesome the girls have friends to play with at hockey!!

I celebrated my 37th birthday! We had my favorite - Mt. Fugi and chocolate cake ;) Hard to believe I'm only a few years away from 40!!  

And we also celebrated Reese turning 7!!!  (see Reese's birthday post!!)

We're getting excited for December and the holiday season!!  Can't wait to get the house decorated and all the Christmas fun!!

xo

Tracy

Happy 7th Birthday, Reese!!

We had a wonderful time celebrating our little Reesey!!! I'm not so sure how long we'll be able to call her our 'little Reesey' but I'm sticking with it as long as I can ;) Reese is such a sweet girl! She's an awesome little sister, daughter and friend. She loves to draw and sing and loves playing ringette! She aksed me the other day if she can play basketball ;) She also loves her piano lessons and her big brother and sister. She never tires of playing with them but it doesn't always work both ways! She should probably be an actress, as she turns on the waterworks quite easily in my opinion, lol! She's sensitive to others feelings and some what emotional as well. She loves to cuddle and has a heart of gold! We can't imagine life without her and are so glad we decided to 'have one more', she completes our family :)

Reese had her birthday party at the American Girl doll store in West Edmonton Mall Chapters. She invited 4 friends to join her in a spa date for their dolls, followed by dinner and cake at BP's bourbon street. I think I've often said this in the past but this was such an awesome birthday party!!  The girls had a blast, the whole experience at AG was awesome. The AG staff are amazing and made the girls feel so special! Reese had a great time :) Her party was on the 18th and then on the 19th she had quite the day - a ringette practice, followed by a team builder at Jump 360, followed by dinner and cake with my Mom and Dad, the Stecyk cousins and Auntie Lindsay and the Stony Plain Cameron's! Thank you to everyone who made Reese's 7th birthday so amazing!!

Ready for her party at the American Girl store!

Their dolls have been pampered and are almost ready to go for dinner ;) 

So cute!

Love this scrunchy face :)

Happy Birthday, Reese!

Jump 360 with her ringette team!

Birthday dinner with cousins!

October and Thanksgiving

October started off with Em's first ringette game of the season! She was so excited and had a great game :) She's pretty excited to also be affiliated to a Step 3 team! We're so proud of her :)

On the 9th we celebrated Thanksgiving and it was also our 13th wedding anniversary! We had dinner at Mom and Dad's and took some quick family photo's, which turned out awesome!!

On the 14th it was double date night with Lindsay and Jeremy :) We went to Japanese Village and then to the Oilers game! It was a great night!! While we were watching the Oilers lose, Emerson was at a WAM game with her ringette team! She had so much fun! They went to the game and then the BP's.

Reese had her first ringette practice on the 15th! She was SOOOOO excited, it was awesome to see :) She had so much fun and was very happy that her friend Ava is on her team this year! She is all smiles at the ringette, it's awesome :)

On the weekend of the 29th we travelled to Tisdale, SK for my cousins wedding. We had such a great weekend, I'm so glad we were able to go! We missed 3 ringette practices, 1 ringette game and a hockey practice but it was worth it :) We got to visit with all my aunts and uncles and cousins and cousins kids, my grandma and grandpa and saw my mom's sister and 1 of her daughters! We rented a 2 bedroom condo in my grandma's building and it was perfect! We hadn't been to visit my grandpa since he moved into a long term care centre so it was really nice to be able to do that. Tiffany's wedding was fun, the girls enjoyed tearing up the dance floor!!

Grandma Marg with most of her great grandchildren!