Back to school tomorrow :s

It was family date night at the Oilers game on the 29th!!  Blake's been to tons of games, Em's been to a game when she was just a few weeks old and this was Reese's 1st game.  The girls kind of felt it was unfair that Blake got to go to so many Oilers games so we figured we'd better take them to a game!  The game wasn't so great but we all had fun and Reese kept us thoroughly entertained with her dancing and goofiness ;)

Cal and I had a whole 24 hrs to ourselves on Friday/Saturday :)  This is a rare occasion and seems to happen once a year!  I was so excited!  As much as I love my children, some time off is much needed!!  I feel like we never have time off !  We dropped the kids off at my mom and dads around noon on Friday.  They were so excited for a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's!!!!  Connor and Mason were at Grandma and Grandpa's also, so they had fun with their cousins on Friday afternoon :)  Cal and I went to a movie, did some shopping and went for dinner after we dropped them off.  The next morning I woke up at 8 am ... I had an entire 8 hrs of uninterrupted sleep.  It was heavenly :)  Everyone met us at Blake's hockey practice on Saturday afternoon and by all accounts they had a wonderful time!!  Thank you Mom and Dad for taking the kids overnight, we all enjoyed ourselves and I know you did too! xoxo

Saturday night we were invited to our friends house, the Costello's.  We had such a great time!!!  The kids all play so well together and we got home at 12:30 am ... REALLY late for out kids!  But they were all having a blast (7 boys and 2 girls!) and the adults were having a great time ;)  It was a super night and we can't wait to do it again!

Back to work and school tomorrow ... It has been such a wonderful Christmas break, I don't really want it to end!  The girls are excited to get back to school and Blake is not so excited ;)  Hopefully they'll be up in time tomorrow morning!!

Talk to you soon!

~Tracy

2015 highlight's!

Our 2015 highlight reel, in pictures!  Enjoy :)

We began 2015 with a road trip to Calgary! We spent 1 night in a hotel and the next night we spent with friends at our friends Derek and Jen's house.  It was so much fun for the 6 adults and (as you can see in the photo above) for the 6 children!!

In February, we celebrated Emerson's 6th birthday with a few of her closest friends and family at Cineplex Odeon!

 mid-February: Blake and the St. Matthew's KC Storm participated in the Stan Gantar Outdoor hockey tournament.  There were some very cold games and some games cancelled due to the cold but we got all our games in!  Nothing like some good old fashioned outdoor hockey :)  The kids had a blast!

End of February: Emerson and Reese's 1st ringette tournament!!  A day of fun at the Timbits Beaumont Ringette Jamboree!  1/2 ice games, 4 on 4, no score kept, just good 'ol fashioned fun :)  Reminded me of the Friendship Tournaments I played in as a young ringette player!   They had a blast and also enjoyed the lobby entertainment - make your own noise makers, face painting and hair braiding!!  Right up the girls' alley ;)

 Family photo before heading to Church on Easter Sunday!  Easter Sunday service is one of my favorite services of the year.

End of April: Em and Blake in their spring concert at school!  It was an underwater theme and another great concert by our fabulous music teacher, Mme. Bujold!

In May we celebrated Blake's 8th birthday at Servus Place with a few of his closest friends and family!  Floor hockey and Pokemon were the main activities of his choice ;)

Blake's 1st year of Lacrosse!  He loved it and did so well!  The lacrosse season was from the end of April to mid-June. 

Mother's Day weekend Emerson and her dance group competed in a dance competition at Grant MacEwan.  Their dance was a tap dance :)

Reese's preschool graduation in May.  And also saying goodbye to Mrs. Chong and Mrs. York!  We've spent 3 years with these fabulous ladies and thank them for the time they've spent with Emerson and Reese, they've been absolutely wonderful and we'll miss them and Lago Lind Preschool.

Powerhouse Dance Recital - June 2015!  These cuties did so well, 2 of the best in their groups!

Cal ran in the Canada Day Road Race (15 km) and we enjoyed the Canada Day festivities at the legislature grounds!

 

 Our annual Smith/Cameron/Stecyk summer camping trip was spent at Ol' MacDonald's Resort!  The weather was amazing and we had so much fun!

Spiffed up in SK!  mid-July, attending my cousin's wedding!

 

Pedalheads Bike camp in July with the Hrdlicka's and Connor :)  Another great week of camp and Reese is now on 2 wheels!!  Our week at bike camp was followed by a weekend at Miquelon lake with our besties, the Hrdlicka's!

One of many great camping trips this summer - Here the kids are enjoying Grandma and Grandpa's tube and boat at Long Lake :)

Enjoying the last days of our summer vacation, at Pyramid Lake in Jasper National Park :)  We visited Mt. Kidd, the Icefields parkway and Jasper on our summer camping vacay.

More fun at Pyramid Lake!

End of August: Emerson and Blake, crossing the finish line with Cal at the Edmonton Marathon.  One of my most favorite photo's of the year!  Cal did it, he finished his first FULL marathon!!

Cheering on Cal at the 1/2 way point during his marathon!

September 8th - first day of school!!

Off they go - all in the same school :)

The most handsome third grader!!

Our gorgeous first grader!!

Our beautiful kindergartener!!

 

After weeks of tryouts in August and September, Blake is proud to represent the KC Saints, Novice tier 2 rep team!!  There are 16 tiers in EMHA.  We're so proud of our boy, he's doing great at this level and loving the intense competition.

mid-September: Blake had another great Oil Kings clinic!  A huge thanks to the Oil Kings and ATB for putting on this wonderful event!

Reese and Emerson began ringette in October!  Reese is in Active Start 1, which is 1 ice time/weekend.  It is more like a learn to skate/learn ringette program.  They don't have any organized league games but do play in a fun tournament at the end of the year.  Last year she would tire after approx 45 minutes but this year, she's skating hard until the end :) I enjoy being on the ice with her as an assistant coach!

Emerson is in Active Start 2.  She plays 1/wk and twice every second week.  She will be participating in 3 tournaments this year.  In Active Start 2 they start learning more of the rules of the game and playing 1/2 ice games.  She is enjoying herself and is super happy to have her Dad on the ice with her, as an assistant coach :)

After a few years of being disappointed in our family photo's, we decided to try to take our own!  We took this photo on Thanksgiving weekend, before our family dinner at the Stecyk's.  We got gorgeous shots of the kids but it was raining off and on and we didn't get a great family photo :(  We'll try again next year and in the meantime, enjoy this photo of our gorgeous kiddo's!

LOVE this photo!!  The Hulk, Princess Auora and our Pirate = Halloween 2015.

A fabulous November night out at the River Cree with my Mom and Sister, celebrating my 35th birthday!!

Miss Emerson chose Ukrainian dance this year!  Here she is at her costume fitting in November!

Reese's 5th birthday party at 4 Cats Art Studio!  So much fun!!

Reese had her 1st Music Recital in December!  Her part was very short but she did wonderful and learned so much from this music class.  Unfortunately the next session does not work with our schedules but she wants to play piano, so I will try to get her into piano lessons in September!

 Blake's first school choir performance was in early December, at City Hall!!  

 I spent the first two Friday's of December on a field trip with Blake and the rest of the grade 3's, 4's, 5's and 6's!  We had so much fun and Blake mastered the chair lift!

 Another beautiful Christmas pageant by the Sunday school children at St. Albert United Church!  The kids did so great!

A new tradition begins!  Delivering gifts for Santa's Anoymous.  We delivered gifts to five different homes.
 

 Photo with Santa!  They all still believe :)

We spent Christmas Day at my Mom and Dad's with Connor and Mason (and their parents!) :)

Boxing Day at our house, with Grandma Bev, Colby, Jenna (and their parents!), Katie and Greyson :)

December 27 to 29th, Blake and the KC Saints participated in the Confederation Hockey Tournament.  They played amazing, and won GOLD!!  So proud of this team and my boys - #4 and Coach Cal ;)
 

 After a busy Christmas break, we decided to ring in 2016 together, at home.  It was a wonderful evening, spent watching hockey, putting together Lego, playing games and working on Cal's puzzle :)

~ I hope you've enjoyed this look back on some of the many highlights of our 2015!  I could add a 1000 more photo's :) We are looking forward to 2016 and wish everyone all the best in the New Year.  May your year be blessed with time spent with both great friends and family, good health and an abundance of love.  Smile and be grateful for each moment, as we all know the time passes far too quickly! xoxo The Cameron's ~

Confederation Hockey Tournament

We spent the 27th to the 30th at the rink, as the KC Saints were in the Confederation Hockey Tournament!  Some may think, "Why would you want to spend some of your Christmas break at the rink?" to which we would reply, "Because we're crazy hockey parents and we LOVE it!!!"  lol!  Our girls may not love it but quite honestly, they don't really complain so maybe they love it too?! 

Anyways, back to the tournament!  Blake's team had an amazing tournament, bringing home the GOLD medal!  They played teams who they play in their league play and beat the top 2 teams in the standings!!  It was extremely exciting (and stressful at times) as two games came down to shootouts! We also enjoyed watching other teams play, including many of Blake's classmates and the tier 1 KC team.  After the gold medal game, the entire team headed to BP's for a celebration.  Sending a HUGE thank you to all our friends and family who cheered Blake and his team on.  We love you and appreciate your support! 

Congrats to the Saints!!! We are now looking forward to a good run during Minor Hockey Week :)  The first game is January 8th.  It's an interesting format - if you win the first game, you move on but lose one game and you're out.  If you lose the first game, you still have one more loss before you're knocked out.  And the top teams in the tier are in one bracket, while the lower teams in the tier are in the other bracket.  So basically they make it difficult for the top teams!!  And we're one of those top teams.  Which we are proud of but in this instance, it might be easier to be lower in the standings!  lol!  Either way, we can beat every single team in our tier ... so hopefully they're on their game and play their best hockey!!  Either way, I'll be cheering hard and a proud hockey mom :)

Christmas Celebrations

It's funny how we spend weeks preparing for Christmas and just like that, it's over!  The preparations are always more than worth it :)

On Christmas Eve we spent the day at home - cleaning house, decorating cookies for Santa and relaxing.  That evening we attended the family pj service at Church, followed by take out and Christmas lights!!  It was a wonderful evening, the pj service is always so great, the stories and prayers targeted towards children but also enjoyable for the adults.  We picked up dinner and took in St. Albert's version of Candycane Lane.  It's just 2 blocks but gorgeous!  From there we headed to the actual Candycane Lane!  It was BUSY but we snuck in a 'back' way and enjoyed the scenery :)  When we got home we said goodbye to our elf, Picks Rudolph, set out cookies, carrots and Christmas milk (aka egg nog) and it was off to bed for the kiddo's!!  They took awhile to fall asleep ... after numerous threats that Santa was not going to come if they didn't get to sleep, they fell asleep.

On Christmas morning Cal and Blake woke early to go to November Project.  Blake was so excited to attend his very first November Project and it was a great time to attend, as they met at the zoo and there was a special visit from Santa's reindeer!!  When the boys got home, the girls were cuddled in with me and we quickly headed downstairs to open stockings and gifts :)  We spent a few hours at home, enjoying our wife saver breakfast and the kids enjoying their new gifts!  We headed to my parents house for the remainder of the day, where we met my sister and her family and my Grandma Kelley.  We had a great day!  My parents recently had all their old home movies transferred to DVD and we watched hours of footage!!  It was so awesome, I loved it all - from Christmas celebrations at my Grandma Marg and Grandpa Art's to swimming lessons in St. Paul!!  I'm so glad we have those memories to treasure forever and hopefully we'll be able to take in the other home movies some day soon!!  It was a great day with my family and after the previous weeks scare, I'm sure we all had our moments where we thanked our lucky stars that we were all together, at Mom and Dad's house.

On Boxing Day we had Cal's brother and his family, his mom and his niece and nephew over for a Cameron Christmas!  We had another wonderful day :)  The kids played outside for awhile and all had a blast together.  Many manicures and pedicures were given with Em's new salon set, Lego was built, plush pillows created and a few games of NHL '15 were played!

It was a wonderful Christmas and we are so very blessed with time with our wonderful families.  Sending love to those we did not see on Christmas, we are always thinking of everyone during this special time of year.

xoxo
Tracy

2015 Christmas Letter

We hope our annual Christmas letter finds all our family and friends enjoying the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season!  We have been enjoying the mild winter Mother Nature has blessed us with!  We are nowhere near done our Christmas shopping but we do have a start on it and the baking is in full swing.  This Christmas we will be spending Christmas day in Stony Plain at my Mom and Dad’s with my sister and her family and Boxing Day at our house with Cal’s brother and family, his Mom and his niece and nephew.  We are looking forward to spending time with family and also to some time off with our own fab 3!  The days pass quicker and quicker and before we know these kids will be teenagers!!

Cal is off for most of the Christmas break.  He has to sneak in a work trip to Bonyville on the 22nd.  He’s keeping busy at work, working mainly on fibre to the home projects. He completed one of his long term goals this summer when he finished the full marathon at the Edmonton Marathon!  We were all so proud of him; I had tears in my eyes as he crossed the finish line.  Blake and Emerson ran the last few meters with him and it was an emotional moment.  He’s already thinking ahead to summer 2016 and his next goal is to beat his 1^st marathon time!  He and a group of his November Project friends have also signed up for the Sinister 7 race in July.  It sounds like quite the challenge!  We hope to tie our summer camping vacation into this race and head off to the States or BC from there. Cal is coaching hockey again and this year the time commitment is slightly more as he is the head coach of Blake’s Novice rep team.  He’s doing such a great job, the team has improved so much and I think it’s partly because of Cal’s practice planning and his dedication.  Cal is also an assistant Coach for Emerson’s ringette team.   He’s enjoying learning the game of ringette and sharing his skills with the team and Emerson loves having him on the ice with her.  Cal has also volunteered for the Bauer First Shift program this fall.  It is an ice time once a week, coaching players who have never played hockey before.  Bauer outfits them from head to toe and then they learn the game of the hockey!  Cal has volunteered for this program in the past and really enjoys being involved at the grass roots level … you know, before politics are involved!!

I had a big change this year as I headed back to work in September.  I am working as an Occupational Therapy Assistant for Alberta Health Services.  Although I am employed by AHS, I work on an Inclusive Learning team for the Edmonton Public School Board. It is a bit complicated keeping straight who is who and where all my paperwork should go but after a few months, I think I have it!  I work with children who have mild to moderate delays, in various schools around the city.  Mainly we work on fine motor skills, concentrating on printing and legibility. I absolutely love my job and am so grateful that the opportunity arose.  I work part-time and am still able to drive the kids to school and pick them up, on most days. Kindergarten is ½ days, so Reese attends a day home 3 afternoons a week.  The day home is only a few houses down from the school, so she is picked up at school and then I meet her back at the school at the end of the day when Blake and Em are dismissed.  It’s worked out really well.  Other than work, I am still taxiing children around from school to activities; although it is much easier now that all are in the same school.  I am also coaching Reese’s ringette team and loving being on the ice with her and her team.  I’m so glad my girls are enjoying a sport that I grew up playing!  And I keep busy with the Parent Council at the school.  I am the secretary and really enjoy being involved in the school community. 

Blake turned 8 in May and is nearly as tall as both of his grandma’s!  He is in grade 3 and is doing very well in school.  He’s busy with homework, hockey, swimming lessons and school choir!  His downtime is often spent playing NHL ’15 on the Xbox, reading, creating with Lego, and playing mini-sticks!  He’s doing great in hockey and loves playing defense.  He has a great group of kids on his team!  They are kept quite busy with practices, games, power skating and dryland training.  He loves every minute and we love cheering him on!  This spring Blake played lacrosse for the first time.  He loved it and in the spring of ’16 he wants to play lacrosse and baseball.  I’m not sure if we’ll be able to juggle both team schedules but we will try! 

Emerson turned 6 in February!  Em is in grade 1 and LOVES school.  In fact, she isn’t really keen on being off from school for 2 weeks for Christmas break!  She switched from tap/ballet to Ukrainian dancing this year and I am so impressed with how much she has learned in such a short time!  She also loves Ringette and is in swimming lessons.  Ringette is once a week and twice every 2^nd week.  She has improved so much and really enjoys herself.  In her downtime, Emerson draws.  She draws probably 5-12 pictures every day!  Our fridge is beautifully decorated with her artwork (and some of Blake and Reese’s!)  Emerson has also recently discovered Shopkins and enjoys collecting them and watching Shopkins videos on YouTube!! 

Reese turned 5 in November and is in Kindergarten.  This is her first year of French Immersion and she is slowly picking it up!  As compared to her brother and sister, she is quite shy and not keen on being the teacher’s pet or answering every question.  But she is enjoying school and making new friends and her teacher says she is doing well!  Reese’s ringette team plays once a week.  She is doing great and loves each ice time!  Both she and Emerson do not like much help when getting their ringette equipment on, Cal and I have to sit on our hands J  Reese is also in swimming lessons and she recently wrapped up her very first music class.  She really enjoyed her music class and learned quite a lot.  Every class she would bring home her music folder with homework for the week.  I was actually learning alongside her!  I will definitely enroll her in another session in the New Year.  In her downtime, Reese enjoys playing babies and Barbie’s.  She plays independently very well and we enjoy eavesdropping on her conversations with her toys! She has a vivid imagination J

We all enjoyed our summer this year.  We spent many days and nights with friends and family at various campgrounds throughout Alberta.  The kids loved spending numerous hours behind Grandpa’s new boat!! We visited Kananaskis, the Icefields parkway and Jasper this summer and enjoyed some scenic hikes. The kids did really well this year and were able to take on some more challenging hikes! The kids also had fun at their Pedalheads bike camp in July and all three are now 2 wheels which has been nice for family bike rides!  Blake played in a 3 on 3 hockey league in June, July and August, so even though it was summer, we still spent some time in the rink!  Our nephew Colby also played 3 on 3, so it was really nice to visit with family during the games and Cal and his brother even coached a game or two together!

Sending best wishes to all our friends and family, near and far and thinking of you all during this magical time of year!  Merry Christmas and best wishes for a wonderful 2016!

xoxo

Cal, Tracy, Blake, Emerson and Reese

When time stands still

December has been flying by.  That is until last weekend when it came to screeching halt.  Our world was turned upside down on Saturday night.  My Dad suffered a heart attack.  You never think this type of thing will happen to you or to your people.  It was very scary but the good news is, he was very close to the hospital and was treated extremely quickly.  If we can take any positives from this situation, it is that.  3 stents later, 3 blockages cleared and Dad is home and feeling quite well.  We're so incredibly thankful for our health care system and wonderful dr's and nurses.  Dad received great care and I still can't quite wrap my head around what happened but the bottom line is that he has minimal damage to his heart, is in the best care now and will be back to himself very soon and possibly feeling even better than before!!  We are extra thankful for our health and family this Christmas.  And we love you Dad, so very, very, very much.

Demonstration of Learning

We had a very eventful Demo of Learning on the 2nd!!  First up was Reese's class :)  This was Reese's first demo of learning and unlike her brother and sister, she was very shy!  The main thing she wanted to show me in her classroom was the nativity scene ... apparently this is her most favorite part of school.  I am not surprised, as she also loves our nativity scene at home.  In fact, we have 3 nativity scenes and she is known to hoard all the Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus statues.  lol!  In her Santa letter she also asked for, "a manger and baby Jesus with his Mom and Dad."  I pointed out that we already have 3 of those and she said, "yeah but I want one to play with all year."  Alrighty then, Reese!!  She also showed me some of her school work and the various centres around the classroom.  We tried hard to get her to speak French and did get a little bit out of her!  As I said, she was quite shy and almost whispered most of her answers when I or Mme. Sina asked her a question.  But Mme. Sina says she is doing well and is coming out of her shell a little bit :)  She's made friends and doesn't complain about going to school!   

Next up was Emerson's grade 1 class.  Emerson was super-duper-excited to show us her classroom and the centres they had set up for demo night.  It was really great to hear her reading in French!  She's very excited to start her home reading program!  She's very strong in all her subjects and absorbs every single second of school.  Mme. Khair says Emerson is her go-to person in class.  She always knows the answer and is always raising her hand to answer ;)  Mme. Khair only speaks to the class in French and if someone doesn't understand something, she will ask a student to translate.  That student is usually Em! 

And last but not least, we visited Blake's grade 3 classroom.  Blake was very excited and official.  We had to follow the instructions laid out by his teacher ... step by step, minute by minute!  The pattern of progression from centre to centre could not veer off track ;)  Blake is doing really, has very high marks but as we know, sometimes need to concentrate on his work a little more!  He still sometimes complains of being bored and does not apply himself 100% because "it's too easy."  Oy!  Sounds familiar to someone I met back in 1996 ;)  But when it comes to testing and assignments, he rocks!! 

We're so proud of all 3 kids and their unique personalities and learning styles and are grateful for wonderful teachers!  Demo night is one of my favorites, as we get to see them in their classroom, leading us through their learning centres.  This year was a bit chaotic with juggling the 3 appointment times but we did it ;)

~Tracy