Cookbook Boss

Recently I e-mailed to each of you (the ones I had e-mail addresses for) a site with info regarding doing a family cookbook.  I had some positive replies.  I spoke to Barb who loves working with computers.  She has agreed to be our Family COOKBOOK BOSS.  I'm hoping that we can all donate our favourite recipes and come up with a neat Hudkins Family Cookbook that will be available for the next family reunion - whenever that will be.  So please give Barb your support when she gives the word.

Thanks everyone.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Grampa and I wish you all a happy and healthy new year.

Love you all lots,
Gramma

New plans for the upcoming family reunion

Miss Jenny it's that time again very soon and I figured I'd take some ideas on the reunion this year see what we all can come up with and if we can figure things out for the next up and coming.

If you guys have any ides feel free to comment them and we can plan something out and make assignments. But first enjoy your Christmas and your new year before worrying about this.

I though of a few ideas:

A farm like last year

Maybe west Ed mall

A lake house

Camping

Other ideas for the big party it self:

Talent show

Crazy games/ including kick the can

Big card tourney

Hudkins Olympics that ones in thought

Maybe if were on a farm a horse back adventure

Family bike ride

Arts crafts like before

And that's all I got for now but I'd love to hear from you all so we can get this all set up as soon as possible for an awesome family reunion this coming year.

And I'd love to give this one a big bang one to remember

Thank you and love you all

Cal

Christmas Idea

Yesterday in RS we talked about our ancestors.  I thought this was a wonderful idea that our teacher shared with us. 
She takes a pictures of her ancestors  that she knew.  Puts them into a nice small frame, attaches a ribbon to the it and hangs it on the tree as a decoration.  They looked really nice and certainly would make a  meaningful tree decoration.  I thought I'd share this idea.  - so cool.

We wish you all a wonderful, safe and happy Christmas.  One where we all remember the birth and life of our Savior.  In our bishop's talk yesterday he talked about the Savior's life.  He said "He had a humble birth, a terrible death, but a magnificent life."  I loved that and have thought about it a lot since he spoke.  I am so grateful for the knowledge of our Savior, for the scriptures and for all our prayers he hears and answers.  What a wonderful blessing this is. 

Much love and blessings to you all.

Gramma & Grampa

New updates of shauna,cal and family/friends

sorry for not posting sooner but i have been busy working like a dog.

Im loving my new job with Superior Fire Control and shauna is loving hers at ALS labs.

we have been keeping busy and working hard and trying to keep up with the animals

and hobbys on the side.

We hope all of you out there (Family,friends and all others that follow our blog)

a very merry christmas and a happy new year love you all.

and now some pictures to share =)

more pictures of my job and shop to come from my mom

keep an eye out for all the faces us hudkins are known for!

 Mr. Mini Kouper and I at my graduation party.

                                      

 receiving my certificate

also check that funny hudkins face.

loving i know!

 Program director Judy

one big thank you to Judy

 cass was to excited for me.

he is making yet another hudkins face

touching moment cass cried

and jeanine laughed at him

Kouper and uncle

yet another set of hudkins faces

look at that 2 more hudkins faces

i know i know no need to say it we are awesome

hudkins face

hudkins face

hudkins face

hudkins face

evan shaunas bro. not going anywhere anytime soon haha

making the neilsen face

and another neilsen face also shauna called me a loser

because i took a pic of her

mom was not happy i was pretending to be a photographer

Grandpa wanted attention too. lol

Kouper in the fire engine.

suites him well

(future firefighter i think so)

hudkins face yet again

another set of beauty hudkins faces

christmas rocking with a snake

soya posing for her christmas photo

classic hudkins face

soya and george

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Great Grands!!

The former 'Hinko Girls' recently had a photoshoot with Gramma and Grandpa.

We wanted to capture them with our little folk.

Emma came and helped us wrangle everyone, she got some AWESOME pictures. Thanks lady! Thanks Gramma and Grandpa for doing this with us.

Jacey's fundraising is.....COMPLETE!!!

 These are the wicked posters that Jenny and Nina Lynch had created for our family garage sale in Fort Sask! I think they rock and totally depict Miss Bird...her cuteness, her sillyness and her family that loves her!

 These aprons were made by the ladies who hosted the Fort McMurray garage sale for us. How sweet are they?!? Jacey's stinkin' cute face on their flowers.

 Jacey was asked to ride in the Fort Sask Santa Clause Parade a few weeks ago. Fort Sask Towing is still collecting money from every service call they make for Jacey. They have been fantastic and wanted us to ride in their tow truck.

 Miss Bird the glasses wearing reindeer and me...her unfortunate chaperone. Still so cute though!

Well we have officially started...and stopped fundraising! We began in August with our big family/friend garage sale and it took off from there. I never expected it to get as big as it did, or do as well as it did. I thought the bottle drive would be a lasting event until May when we left, but I think I did 5 trips of bottles...and poor Graham, Mikey and Jon did a really yucky, huge trip! (Thanks guys!)

The big family garage sale was huge, I thought we'd have a little pile and that would be it. I guessed wrong! People from church, family members, random friends and strangers all donated items and poor Jenny, Gramma and I were pricing and organizing for hours at a time. It was CRAZY!! I had contacted the newspaper thinking they would maybe do a little write up and that would create more foot traffic, little did I know, she would be on the main community page. A huge write up and pictures explaining what we were doing! It was so cool and that really made it happen. 2 nights before the sale I was organizing at Jenny's when a woman showed up with her daughter and she explained why she was interested and that they wanted to be involved. She donated $5000 on the spot to Jacey. There were many tears and hugs (poor lady didn't know I was part Hudkins and I hugged her like 5 times). That is when I knew camp would happen for Jacey and she really got the ball moving. The garage sale was a HUGE success, people stopped just to donate, they bought bread for $100 (Gramma's bread rocks but sorry Gramma, not $100 worth!! hehe), they donated their own garage sale earnings to Jacey. There was another newspaper picture with info about the garage sale. It was great. We raised alot that weekend and it was so great to see all the family support.

We were then contacted by Walmart who had seen the newspaper article and asked if they could host 2 BBQ's for us. They wanted to help Jacey, who lives in the comminuty. We did 2 BBQ's on 2 separate Fridays...even Gramma and Grampa drove out for the best hot dog they have ever tasted....I'm sure of it! We raised $1000 and then Fort Sask Walmart doubled that. Unknown to us, the store manager had contacted Walmart Canada and they decided to match the amount...again tears and hugs to the employees occured. (Excpet the manager, he did NOT look like a hugger) So a total of $4000 was made to Jacey that afternoon. The same newspaper write had come to do pictures and a large write up again...I asked if he as sick of seeing us yet!

Next was a large garage sale in Fort McMurray. A bunch of Emily (my mother in law's) old staff had asked if they could "throw something together". I thought it would be a tiny little thing. Not so. It took place in my old elementary school gym and there were over 25 tables of things. There 3 tables just for all the baking that friends and strangers did for Jacey. Over 10 companies from Fort McMurray donated items for a raffle as well as some beautiful quilts from Mom and Aunty Sylvia. M&M meat shop donated their grill and food for a BBQ to run at the same time. It was HUGE!!! There was another write up in the Fort McMurray paper about it and there was huge interest. There were even a group of construction workers outside who came and had lunch at the BBQ and at the end of their day showed up with a $200 cheque that they had done up for Jacey. It was AMAZING and hugely successful!!!

At the end of the sale while we were cleaning up, a man and woman showed up looking for us. They had read the article and run a foundation called KIDS FOREVER. They had decided to adopt Jacey for the year. They have a large dinner, dance and auction where they raise most of their money and then choose 10-12 children to adopt every year and Jacey was one of them. They gave us a $3000 cheque and again can you guess.....tears and hugs and tears. They offered to pay for her wheelchair. Although her chair will be 100% covered, they offered then to help pay for the van and adaptations we would need to make. 3 weeks later we were invited back up for the KIDS FOREVER fundraising event. My parents, Jon's parents, Jacey and all the couples who helped in the Fort Mac garage sale came. There was a delicious meal (the chef brought out an early little plate just for Jacey, she was starving) and then a silent auction, a live auction and company presentations of funds and then the family recognition. They had picures and write ups of all the kids they were adopting. (Don't worry guys I picked the cutest pic of Jacey I could find) It was an amazing night to be a part of. They presented us with our cheque and I almost passed out. They had given each family somewhere between $12,000 to $20,000. Jacey received $17,000. It was such a surreal experience.There were again many tears and hugs and we all had to speak...you know Jon, strong and silent type. So while I was bawling I had to get through some type of thank you and speech.

There are still things happening for Jacey. Retrospect Photography in Fort McMurray is donating a portion of each of her sessions to Jacey until March. Fort Sask Towing is donating a portion of every service call to Jacey until May and a friend of mine in the Fort does photography and is auctioning off a few sessions that she will donate the money to Jacey.

As I sit here typing it all down, tears stream down my face. I would have never in my wildest dreams thought that this would happen for our family. It is a tough, tough business raising kids...and it is a tough, tough business raising special kids. I know that Jacey was meant to come to our family, and this success just shows how much she is loved and supported by not just our family, but friends and communities. It is still surreal to me, I look at the fundriasing bank account and pinch myself. We are so excited for camp and for her changes that will occur. Thank you everyone for all that you have done to help get us there. Couldn't have done it without all your love and support. Thanks!!

 Love The Bird Family (Jon, Alyson and Jacey)