Celebrating Reese!!

Opening gift's the morning of her birthday!

Cupcakes on her birthday!

Cal rearranged his EDO and took Reese's birthday off instead of his usual Monday.  Reese was very excited to open her gifts from us the morning of her birthday!!  We got a good preview of what Christmas might be like!  She ripped right in to them, it was great!  It was out the door bright and early, as we dropped Blake off at school and headed to the south side.  I had a long-standing appointment to have our van detailed, so Cal and the girls picked me up there and then we went to the Terwillegar Rec Centre for swimming and play gym fun.  The girls had fun swimming, the little fish that they are and enjoyed the indoor play gym.  It was such a cold day!!!  Winter has officially 'hit' Edmonton :s  Next up was lunch and Reese chose McDonald's!  After some time in the McDonald's play place, we picked up the van and headed home.  The girls and I had fun making cupcakes for Reese's birthday dinner and a few extras for her party on the 23rd.  Reese requested spaghetti for her birthday dinner, it is one of her favorites!!  We all had a fabulous, fun day :)  Just wish Blake could have been with us for the entire day.  I would have let him play 'hookie' but that would not have been cool with Blake!!!

On the 23rd we had a birthday party for Reese at our house.  I had asked her if she would like to go somewhere for her party but she wanted to have her party at home :)  We had the Streadwick's, Parenteau's, Stony Plain Cameron's and Grandma and Grandpa D over for an afternoon of playing, pizza and cake!  Reese wanted a Dora Mermaid theme and thanks to Etsy and Ebay I found invitations and an edible cake topper!!  She also loved her Dora balloons and banner :)  I think this was the year that Reese really 'got' that it was her special day!  I could tell that she felt very special and enjoyed all the celebrations!!!  Thank you to everyone for your part in her special day!

xo
Tracy

Family photo at Reese's 3rd birthday party!

Mermaid Dora cake!

Backpack loot bags made by Tracy, Emerson & Reese!

Happy 3rd Birthday baby girl!

Sweet Reese ~ 3 years old

Today you turned 3!  3 whole years!  Your first 3 years have passed unbelievably fast.

We love you more than words could ever express.  Your Dad, sister, brother and I all dote on you and adore you :)  You are so lucky to have 2 of the best older siblings!!  They are so kind and loving and patient with you, it is truly heart-warming for us to see.  You are very close with Emerson and I pray you always stay that way.  Being 21 months apart, I can see the potential for a wonderful friendship and support system amongst the two of you.  You can fight like cats and dogs too but for the most part, you are the best of friends :)  Emerson behaves very 'motherly' towards you!!  Blake has always adored you, right from the first time he met you in the hospital.

You are my little cuddle bug and like to always be close to me.  I find that hard at times but then I stop and think and realize you are already 3 and before long you will be much more independent and I will miss this stage.  I think you have heard us telling people you are shy, because you now tell us, "I'm shy."  You don't open up to people really quickly and prefer to play by yourself when amongst kids you don't know.  But you do play great with your brother and sister and a few of your friends :)  You most certainly are shy, but we're working on helping you break out of your shell a little bit!!  You love Come Play With Me at the YMCA and most especially Miss Christine! Often when we ask you where you learned something, you reply, "At Miss Christine's class!!"  You know most of your colors and shapes and can count to 15 and sing your ABC's!  We definitely don't work on these skills with you as often as we did with your brother and sister!  Sorry about that, but I have a feeling you pick up a lot from Blake and Em and you are a very smart little girl :) You have even picked up some French from listening to Blake do his homework!!  You love to swim and are missing your swimming lessons, since you are not registered at the moment. When we register you again, you will be in unparented lessons.  Dad has been to soooo many parented lessons, it will be strange to not have him in the water with you!!  We recently went public skating as a family and were shocked at how well you skated!!  You fell down and were able to get up all by yourself, we were very impressed!  We can't wait to take you skating again :)  You love to read and I hope that will continue throughout the years.  You like to pull all the books off the book shelf and flip through them!  Sometimes I will find you in your room, on your glider, reading a book :)  You also love to do arts and crafts and looooove any craft involving glue!!  You also love Lego and enjoy sitting at the Lego table with Blake!

We can't wait to explore your third year with you Reesey!!!  We love you to the moon and back and are so proud of the little lady you are becoming :)

xoxo

Mom & Dad

Could it be??

Only 6 more Friday's until Christmas Day!!!  It feels like as soon as Remembrance Day long weekend has passed, Christmas sneaks up on us!  In the past, even before kids, we never decorated until December 1st and now with Reese's birthday on November 19th, we find that still works well.  We have time to celebrate her birthday, take a week or so 'off' and then into Christmas!!  Full swing ... letters to Santa, a visit to Santa at the mall (or one of his helpers!!), baking, gift buying and of course decorating!!  Last year I was lucky enough to get some awesome hand-me-down Christmas decorations from my Mom and I LOVED the way our house looked last year ... I'm so excited to decorate this year!!

The beginning of November has been great.  We've been blessed with really great weather and continue to play at the park after school whenever we can!

On Friday morning we headed to Tisdale, SK for my cousin Dallas' wedding.  Emerson had preschool photo's that morning so I quickly ran her into the school for her photo's and then we were off!  The roads weren't the greatest and were absolutely terrible from Saskatoon to Tisdale (approx. 200 km).  But we made it and I am so glad that Cal was behind the wheel!!  The kids are unbelievable on these long road trips.  I can't believe how well-behaved they are.  We're very thankful!  Only 1 stop each way, on an approx. 1600 km round road trip!  The wedding was nice and it was great to see my SK family.  The kids love spending time with their cousins (2nd/3rd/4th??).  They get a long great and have so much fun, especially this weekend while sitting at the guest book table at the wedding and dancing the night away :)  They were also glad they got to go to the Austin, Ryann and Alex' house to play!  We all had a great visit with my grandparents.  Emerson was sooo excited to see Great Grandma Marg.  It was very sweet, she kept saying, "I can't wait to see Great Grandma, she gives the best hugs!"  And they were all excited to stay at the condo again!!

We have an exciting few weeks coming up with my birthday tomorrow, a 'Smith' family dinner on Friday evening, KC St. Matthew's I2 (a mixture of all I2 teams) playing during the intermission at the Oil Kings game on Saturday evening (Blake is sooooo excited!!), Reese's birthday on the 19th and Reese's birthday party on the 23rd!

It has rained off and on here alllll day.  The roads may be interesting tomorrow morning ... drive safe everyone in and around E-town!

xo
Tracy

Remainder of October

Before we know it, it will be Christmas!!!  7 more Friday's until Christmas ... wow!!

We had a great October, full of school, work, hockey, swimming, dance, date nights, dentist appointments, birthday's, meetings and more!!!

All 3 kids visited the dentist for a check up and cleaning and all 3 did fabulous!  Reese has 2 bottom teeth that have fused together.  I did not know this was even possible!  Our dentist predicts an orthodontist visit in the future but nothing to worry about quite yet!

Cal is playing hockey again this year and had his first game at the beginning of the month.  It's a nice ice time and only once a week, which works well with our schedule!!  This month I finished my kettlebell class.  I've been registering for session after session for almost 2 years now.  I'll miss the class but hope to drop in now and then.  In the meantime, I'm going to make better use of our YMCA membership, going to boot camp and other classes!

The kids swimming lessons finished up at the end of the month.  Blake passed on to the next level, Reese will begin unparented lessons when we register next and Em is going to take the same level again.  The only item not checked off on her report card was an unassisted back float.  She sinks like a stone when she tries to go into a back float!!  If the teacher starts her off and lets her go, she floats like a pro ;)  They're not registered in the next session (much to their dismay!!) but will start up again after Christmas.  They sure love swimming!!

Cal and I were a little bit spoiled this month with a lot of date time!  One night a little shopping, dinner and a movie, another night dinner and an Oilers game and then an afternoon of shopping, dinner with Cal's brother and his wife and the Brad Paisley concert!!  So nice to get out together, it's been approx 6 months since our last date.  Now our babysitter is off to SK for a University placement but she'll be back in January, thank goodness!!!  The kids love her so much, the last time she babysat, she said they danced around the living room singing about how happy they are we went out and they love it when Mom and Dad go out!  LOL!!  The day of the concert, the kids had a great time with Grandma D.  We all went to the Mini Monster Bash in Stony Plain and then she brought them back to our house for dinner and bedtime.

Cal's Mom's 60th birthday was October 9th.  I really wish we would have been able to spend it with her but she is in Grande Prairie and is a busy lady these days.  We were thinking of her though and hope she had some time to herself on her big day - she rarely takes any time off or to her self, Lord knows she deserves it!  She did have a nice dinner and cake at Carmen's that night, which is nice :)

My Dad's birthday was on the 24th and Carmen's birthday was on the 29th!  It's a busy birthday month in our families!!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday this evening.  He was away working on his actual birthday and the kids would not let a birthday go by without a proper celebration!  We had a delicious dinner and carrot cake!  Linds and Connor Facetimed with us during the birthday song :)  When we were leaving Emerson said, "Thanks for inviting me to Grandpa's party, Grandma!!"  Too cute!

On the 28th I accompanied Em's preschool class on their field trip to Safety City.  It was an awesome field trip, the kids learned a lot and we all had fun in the mini-city!  Emerson couldn't believe there was a little Tim Horton's and McDonald's ;)  She also loved riding the battery-operated quads around the little city and following the street signs and lights!!

On the 30th I volunteered at Emerson's preschool Halloween Party, while Mom, Dad and Reese spent the morning together.  It was a fantastic party!!  Those teachers sure put a lot of thought and planning in to their day.  The crafts were so cool and fun!!  Reese had fun with Grandma and Grandpa and later that week told me, "I like Grandma and Grandpa from Stony Plain, they can come to my birthday party!"  Good thing, since they were invited anyways!!!

On the 31st the girls and I joined Blake's class for a few hours during their Halloween party and school parade.  I love that we were welcome to join in!  We had fun and I enjoyed spending some time in Blake's classroom.  Blake was sad because his friend Addison's last day in his class was Halloween Day.  He's had 2 classmates move since the beginning of school and being the sensitive boy he is, he is not fond of someone leaving :s   A few weeks ago when we were driving home from school he said (in an angry voice with a scowl on his face), "When are we moving."  I told him we are not moving and he said, "Good.  Even if we do move, we have to move somewhere so I can go to the same school."  I told him not to worry!  I had no idea why this even came up until 2 days later when he told me (in a sad voice with a sad look on his face :( ) that Addison was moving.  Another life lesson.

Halloween night was great, the kids collected more candy than anyone would ever want and have put a major dent in it (with some help from Cal and I!)!  We also donated a large bowl to TELUS and re-filled our own candy bowl for our trick-or-treater's!!  It was a late night, but tons of good 'ol fashioned Halloween fun running from house to house in the neighbourhood, some time spent with our good friends the Parenteau's and chatting with friends and neighbour's!  We all love Halloween!!!

Hope you had a great October, I see that white stuff on the ground ... looks like Winter is officially here!  So funny how the kids are all excited when it snows and most of the adults are complaining ;)

~ Tracy  

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

It's all good ...

Blake took approx 1 1/2 weeks to adjust to the new Grade 1 routine!  He is now excited to get going in the morning and does not ask to stay home ;)  Phew!!  I'm a bit of a softy, that was quite hard on me.  All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and keep him home!

We had a meet the teacher/BBQ at Blake's school on the 19th.  It was fun, nice to visit with our school friends and friends with kids in other grades and lots of fun for the kids!!  I love watching them all play together!  The siblings, classmates, everyone, just having a blast :)  I really like Blake's teacher, Mme. Khair.  The few times I have spoken with her, I've been very happy with what I've heard!  And Blake seems to really like her.  They've started going to the library every Tuesday, so he is bringing home an English and a French book.  His nightly homework is spelling different family members and friends names and sounding out the letters of the alphabet in French and English.  They are starting on French sight words and will soon begin a home reading program.  I can't wait for him to begin reading more!!  Although I won't have a clue what he is saying, I'm still excited for him!

He's had his first hot lunch of the school year, which was exciting for both us ... I was happy to not have to make a lunch!  Blake started bringing his own soccer ball to school.  They play a lot of soccer at recess, along with Star Wars!  Everyday after school we stay at the park and play, sometimes for an hour or more.  We're so lucky our weather has allowed us to do this!  The kids have so much fun and the mom's chat and often remark at how well they all play together :)

Last Thursday the girls and I joined Blake and his school on their Terry Fox run (walk).  It was a brisk morning but beautiful around Lake Beaumaris.  We love this hidden little gem in our city ;)

On Sunday afternoon Blake and I escaped on a little date!  I asked him where he would like to go and he quickly said, "Chapters!"  We spent 2 hours reading books and looking at Lego!  And followed that up with a treat at Starbucks ;)  We love Chapters and I love that our kids love Chapters!!  It was really nice to spend some one on one time with Blake.  I do feel like I don't get to spend much time with him since he's started grade 1!  Even when he is home, it seems like the girls take up so much of my time!  Take getting dressed for example, Blake grabs a pair of pants, underwear, socks and a tshirt and gets dressed.  The girls are a whole process of leggings, skirts/dresses, tops, headbands, hair clips, etc, etc ... they just take longer and have more 'coordinating' to do, which takes up more of my time!!  So it was great to spend some uninterrupted time with just Blake :)

Blake has started hockey, he's been on the ice every weekend since the 15th.  They have now formed the teams, so this Saturday will be their first skate together.  Cal is head coach this year and really looking forward to the challenge!  He's already planned out numerous practices for the year, he's very excited and prepared :)

Blake's also enjoying swimming lessons and started 6 yr old lessons this session!  He's expecting to be in the 'big' pool for the majority of the time!

Blake participated in his 3rd and last 1K run of the 5 peaks trail running series 2012/2013 season, a couple of weekends ago in Devon.  He told me that the run seemed short!  I told him he should maybe try the 3K next year ;)  He's really enjoyed these runs and Cal and I are so proud of him!!  Emerson opted out of the Devon run, as it was quite chilly outside that morning!  I can't wait for the kids to run next year and I'm guessing Reese will be joining them!!

Blake would like to try Tae Kwon Do and so we've been looking into programs.  We'd like to take him once a week but most schools recommend twice a week.  It's such a juggling act, trying to balance school/homework/extracurricular activities.  Our current schedule is working quite well, so I am afraid to upset that balance ;)

~ Tracy