Rest in Peace

Heaven gained an angel on March 9th. My Grandma Kelley, my mom's mom, passed away peacefully in her sleep. I posted a status update on Facebook in a rush of emotion, late at night while I was all by myself contemplating life and remembering  my Grandma.  I think I'll share that here as I feel it sums up my thoughts best. Love you, Grandma. I pray you are at peace and happy.

Facebook post:

"the world lost a very special lady today. My Grandma Kelley passed away and although I am very sad, I know she is in a better place. A place where she has all the spunk and spark back that she's lost over the past few years, reading her gossip magazines, listening to her radio, lighting cigarette after cigarette and mostly letting them burn out!! She was one of a kind and I am so glad for all of our awesome memories - we never had to pack pj's when we visited, we always snuggled up in one of her flannel nighties! And the stuffies, oh how we loved her stuffie collection!! She always sent us on our way with something cool - a trinkette, the entire Fraggle Rock collection from McDonald's, a cool Slurpee cup from 7-11 and always a huge canister of coffee for Mom and Dad (she was a bargain shopper, if it was on sale she bought multiples!!) I could sit around her kitchen table for hours, just reading magazines and listening to the radio. She taught us a lot about life, probably without even knowing it, but I think the most important lesson was one of resilience. She was tough as nails, endured many hardships, a lot of shit (no better way to say it) and always persevered. She was one of the hardest working ladies I know and a woman of few words. She wasn't much of a hugger but I'll miss wrapping my arms around her skin and bones and at the same time wondering why the hell didn't I inherit her small frame!!! lol! I feel like I got her and I think she got me. Oh and one more memory because I often think back to this - at our wedding a group of friends and I were dancing to Grease Lightning and I look over and there's my Grandma, busting a move on the dance floor!!!! Maybe I got my love of dancing from her! She was one of a kind  I love you Grandma and I will hold our memories very close, forever and ever. xoxo Cal, Tracy, Blake, Emerson, Reese and even Hilda the dog (inside joke)"

Happy 8th Birthday, Emerson!!

Emerson's 8th Spa Birthday party!!  Girls showing off their freshly painted nails :)

Emerson turned 8 on the 16th!  Emerson gets VERY excited for her birthday :) She talks about it and counts down for months prior and then the days leading up to her birthday, she is literally vibrating with excitement!!!  She was up before 7 am on her birthday, ready to open her gift and get her day started!!! We baked mini heart-shaped cakes for her class, which she loved helping with.  Her birthday was a Thursday, which is a 1/2 day of school so after school we met Cal, my parents and Mason for lunch at BP's where she had her favorite food - boneless wings!!  After lunch the kids and I met some friends from school at the theatre.  We saw the new LEGO Batman movie, which we all loved!  Then it was home for some relax time before Cal and Blake headed off to hockey practice and Reese and I took Em to her dance performance at St. Michael's seniors home. And we were all excited to get there because my parents had picked up my Grandma Marg from the airport that afternoon and they were meeting us at the seniors home!  Emerson was so excited that her Great Grandma would be seeing her dance :) She had a great performance followed by ice cream at DQ after wards!!  A great day for a special little 8 yo :)

We hosted a birthday party for Em on the 18th. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do, we thought we might go to Beaner's for a spa party but she also wanted to have friends over so I suggested a spa party at home and she thought that was the best idea!!  Although I find it easier to have birthday party elsewhere, they love having friends over and I am grateful for that!  We had 8 little girls giggling, playing, singing, dancing, smiling girls in our house!!  My friend Christa and I gave them manicures and helped them put colored hair chalk in their hair, while they applied their own makeup!!  It was a great party, everyone had so much fun and everything went off without a hitch :) Best of all Emerson was happy as can be and had a blast!!

Happy 8th Birthday to our little spunky one who never does anything 1/2 way!! Emerson, you may be small but everything you do, you do BIG with your heart of gold on your sleeve. You make us better parents and continue to teach us lessons everyday.  We love you to the moon and back (& back again)!!  We can't wait to see what year #8 brings you!!  xoxoxo Mom & Dad

~ Tracy 

Ice cream on Em's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma (right after Emerson's Ukrainian dance performance at St. Michael's long term care)!

Having fun at her spa birthday party!!

Friends from school :)

Careful makeup application!

Gift opening!

Faith Development Day

Today was Faith Development Day for the ECSD school board teachers, which means the kids had no school!  So I took the day off work and we met my mom and dad and Lindsay and her boys at the WEM Waterpark.  Mom purchased tickets for everyone with Airmiles and a friend gave her a gift card to have a private Cabana for the day!  We had a great time, this was the kids first visit and my third although I hadn't been in ages - like 20 years probably!!  Blake, Em and Reese loved the wave pool and some of the waterslides.  They loved jumping the waves or having Grandpa throw them up as the waves came crashing!  Reese and I floated on our tummies, letting the waves carry us around!  The kids have been out of swimming lessons for quite awhile but they're still little fishies!!  They love the water, just like I do.  Grandpa, Blake and Em took 6 trips up and down a very long set of stairs to ride the tube ride, all 3 fitting on one tube!  The kid area was also fun and the ice cream Grandma bought the kids was delicious ;)  We'll definitely have to visit the waterpark again, we had a blast!  (photos to come!)

xo

Tracy

Weekend sweetness

I'm never 'caught up' on this blog but I just had to log on tonight to write up a short post, because what I'm about to talk about are moments I don't want to EVER forget!

1) At Emerson's ringette game on Saturday, Blake and 2 friends were off running around the rink and playing. At 1/2 time Em's team does a cheer for all the fans in the stands.  Blake actually came back to the stands to do the cheer.  I could tell that Em was so happy to see all her family in the stands and I had to tell Blake that evening that, that was a very nice thing to do for Em.  My momma heart melted!!

2) This afternoon the girls and I went to the movie Moana. There were some very suspenseful moments that had both girls cuddled up to me!  Reese bounced between sitting next to me and sitting next to Emerson. At one point when Reese was next to Emerson, the movie got a little bit scary.  Emerson cuddled over to Reese and Reese rested her head on Em's shoulder.  Em looked at me with a proud look, as if to say, "Look mom, I'm taking care of Reese!" It was sooooo sweet and again, my momma heart melted :)

These 2 moments this weekend had me feeling like a proud parent and smiling ear-to-ear because #parentingwin !!

NYE

We had a fabulous New Year's Eve!!  So much fun!  Our friends the Costello's invited us to their NYE party and we all bad a blast. We were joined by many of our hockey friends (last year's team + this year's team). The kids skated and played hockey on the outdoor rink for hours, we had a wicked fireworks show, watched the Oilers game, ate delicious food and laughed + laughed + laughed for hours!!  We didn't get home until 2:30am. The kids skated from 8 to 10:30 pm and then again from 11:50 pm to 12:30 am, they skated under the fireworks :) So fun, the best way to ring in 2017!  My heart is full!  Happy New Year's, everyone!  Here's to a happy, healthy and fun 2017 :)

I didn't take many photos, but here's some fabulous hockey momma's dabbing, LOL!!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve was a lovely day.  We started out slow, taking our time getting out of bed and getting ready for the day.  Well, that is the adults in the house took our time!!  I think the kids slept in a bit as well ;) Once we were up and at 'em, we headed to Stony Plain for our Cameron Christmas.  For the past few years Cal's mom and his niece and nephew have come down from Grande Prairie but this year it was just the Stony Plain Cameron's and the Edmonton Cameron's. We decided to make it an appetizer dinner and it sure was yummy!!  The kids and adults had a great time visiting and we opened our gifts from Grandma Bev :) It was a wonderful day! When we left Stony Plain that evening, we rushed home to change into our pj's and head to the family Christmas Eve Church service at our Church.  This is one of my most favorite traditions :) We follow up the service by picking up fast food and checking out Christmas lights!  After Candy Cane lane, we headed home to put out 'Christmas milk' (aka egg nog) and cookies (our homemade sugar cookies) for Santa!  And Em spread her reindeer food :) Then it's off to bed for the kiddo's!  Of course they took forever to fall asleep ;)

Dinner with Gerry, Lesley, Colby & Jenna <3 br="">

Cousins :)

Ready to head to the Christmas Eve pj service at Church, in their new onesie's (delivered that morning from our Elf, Picks Rudolph)!

Christmas Day was sooooo relaxing!!  It was really, really nice. Everyone was so happy to spend time figuring out their new gifts and playing with their new toys.  We watched movies, played games and just chilled. Mom, Dad and Grandma Kelley came by for the afternoon and we had a really great, relaxing time :) I made a turkey roll and perogi casserole (soooo good, I'm craving it now, lol!) and we had Cal's homemade cheesecake for dessert (a Christmas tradition!), all enjoyed on our finest china. Oh and how could I forget the Christmas morning wifesaver we had for breakfast ... and I made the kids cinnamon buns because sometimes they don't care for the wifesaver (however, this year they did!)!

A collage of our wonderful Christmas Day!

Boxing Day we headed to Mom and Dad's in Stony Plain for our 'Smith' Christmas!  We picked up Grandma Kelley before we left the city and were a little later than we expected but we made up for lost time and ripped into our gifts as soon as we got there :) Mom always fills our stockings at her house and we opened those first!  I love all our stocking gifts, so many fun, unique items!!  Thanks Stony Plain Santa ;) We had another great day, playing games, putting Lego together, watching hockey and feasting on a delicious Christmas dinner!!

Mom and Dad with all the grandkids <3 br="">

Our 3 sweeties :)

The whole crew <3 br="">

We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas festivities and had a wonderful few days!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

~the Cameron's~

It's almost Christmas!!

Our past few weeks have been filled with the usual + a few special events!

On December 11th Reese participated in her first ever piano recital at the Yardbird Suite!!  I knew about this recital for weeks before but did not know that Reese could participate in it until the Tuesday before!  I asked Reese if she'd like to play in the recital and she very excitedly told me she would!  So I signed her up and we bought tickets :) It was a bit of a juggle that day with Blake having a hockey practice, Church pageant practice, Emerson's ringette game and BOTH girls scheduled for ringette pictures!  But we pulled it off like the pro's we are, hahaha. And Reese did amazing!!  She walked across the stage, said into the mic, "My name is Reese Cameron and I am playing Up on the Rooftop", walked to the piano, sat down and tickled the ivories ;) I can't say I really could get 'Up on the Rooftop' from what she played but I was so darn proud of her, I had tears in my eyes!!  After her piece she got up, walked to the centre of the stage and took a bow!  And off the stage she went.  Such a brave girl!!

Ready to perform at the Yardbird Suite!!

Then on the 14th Reese had her Christmas concert!  This year our school decided to split the grades into Christmas concerts and Spring concerts.  100 Voices, grades 1, 3 and 5 all performed in the Christmas concert.  Our music teacher is so incredibly talented and conducts such great concerts, it's always a pleasure to watch and this year was no exception!  I'm looking forward to what the Spring concert has in store for us!

Off to Reese's concert!

On the 16th the kids and I met the Stecyk's and my parents for our annual Santa photo's. For the 2nd year in a row, my Mom booked us into the Santa by appointment at WEM. This is such a great service, more than worth it's cost!!  Santa is so wonderful and this year he really brought the magic of Christmas to my kids :) Blake especially. I think he was really doubting the whole Santa thing but Santa was so good with him and I could see the magic in his eyes!  I had tears in my eyes while I was listening to Santa speak to all the kids!  The photo's turned out beautiful, thanks Mom and Dad for doing this for us all, these will be wonderful memories for all the years to come!!

Ready for Santa pictures!

On the 17th we had 2 Christmas parties!!  First up was the Crusaders party at St. Albert Bowling Alley.  It was originally scheduled for a ranch but with the cold weather, we had to re-locate!  We had fun bowling and had an awesome cake donated to us from another KC rep mom, which was pretty cool!!  The second party was my parents annual DWS Christmas party. We had fun visiting with family and family friends, eating and drinking of course ;) A great day of Christmas parties!!

Crusaders Christmas Party

The 18th was the kids Christmas Pageant at Church!  They did so awesome and were well-practiced from all the previous weeks of practice. Reese played Mary and loved on baby Jesus like he was a real-life baby, Blake played an Angel and had numerous lines throughout the play and Emerson was a shepard. They were all so cute and the play was awesome!  One of the Sunday school teachers wrote the play and I was very impressed. She's a talented lady!!

Ready for the pageant!

On the 20th we had our annual sugar cookie bake-a-thon, baking 5 dozen sugar cookies!!  I must say, my sugar cookies are delicious!!

Decorating crew + some boxes filled for the kids teachers!

Blake had a snowboarding trip with school on the 21st.  He always has a lot of fun on these field trips but this was the first time I wasn't able to go with him. But by all reports he had fun and was safe, he did not go on the chair lift, said he'd wait for me to go with him on the next trip.  I was grateful for that, the chair lifts scare me a little and especially the thought of 3 9 year old boys on the chair lift!!

And now it is the 22nd and Cal and I are off work for two weeks!  The kids have a 1/2  day of school tomorrow and we can't wait to begin the Christmas break :)

Talk to you soon!

~Tracy