South Africa Clothing Drive

I just wanted to pass along this note from my cousin as I am sure some of you might be interested, if you are then you can let me know and I can arrange to get the clothing to Krystal. Thanks for your help!

Clothing Drive for South Africa

Dear Family & Friends,
As I am sure all of you know Booker and I have moved to Cape Town, South Africa. While we have been here we have seen a lot of poverty and need. We would like to involve everyone (who wants to be) in trying to help the children here, because our collective efforts will be worth so much more. Booker and I are coming back for a family reunion and Kari’s wedding at the end of July. At such time, we hope to bring back to Africa as many bags as we can of clothing and other items to the children here. We hope that there is too much for us to bring back in one trip, so we will either ship it or we will have people who will be visiting us from home bring it along with them.


We are going to be focusing on children between the ages of 0-12. These children really need all kinds of clothing and other necessities (tights, underwear, toothbrushes, and shoes). However, we want to focus on Sunday clothes and winter wear. The winters get to be around 15ºC so a jacket is needed. Plus it is very rainy, so any rain gear would be appreciated. Tights are important for kids to wear under their pants and dresses to help keep them warm, and a good pair of shoes as well. As for Sunday wear, any kind of church clothes (dresses, shirts, dress pants, sweaters, ties, and skirts), shoes and tights are all needed. If the children are lucky they have one set of church clothes. Most have to wear either their school uniform or their best street wear.


We certainly do not expect people to go out and buy these things, but hope that you will be able to look in your own homes, or homes of your neighbors to help fulfill some of these children’s needs. Hand-me-downs work just fine. We suggest turning to your own ward, by making an announcement of things needed and collecting them. If you are wanting and able to purchase items, secondhand stores are more than appropriate.


We will be collecting all the goods during our trip to Canada July 18-31. We will be in Magrath from July 18-25 and Drayton Valley from the 26-31. By providing these goods, you can make a world of difference to a family. These families are in real need. It has been a humbling experience to see the need of some of these families, and their ability to persevere and put smiles on their faces.


We have committed to our ward leaders to do this clothing drive, so please don’t let us down!!! Any little bit helps!


If you know of people who have not received this message, please pass it on to all (relative). The more people we have donating goods the bigger the difference we can make!


If you are willing to participate, please let me know, so we can figure out if we need to find more people to enlist!!!

Little ballerina

Jadyn's ballet recital was a couple weeks ago and just as I was about to upload the video of it I got distracted with something else and haven't found where I put down the memory card, so annoying! So one day maybe I will post the adorable to die for video of her dancing on stage but for now here are some of the photos we got of the girls. They were so cute.

Family reunion Part 2

So the second half of the reunion was Calaway Park on Monday and then we left to go camping on Wednesday for the weekend in Waterton. It was so fun. I felt like I barely saw Jadyn the whole camping trip since she was always off playing with her cousins who she adores. She was in heaven. Heidi had fun too but she still needed me around a little more. They were both champs too and were in bed every night in the tent by 7 and slept all through the night. It was awesome. I was so glad they didn't have a hard time sleeping or else that would have ruined the trip for me, and now I am even more excited for camping at the end of the month with my family!


Jadyn and Sarah are inseparable, and Issac too but he missed the photo.



Before Jadyn went on this ride I reminded her that she was a little scared the last time but she still insisted on going on, and after the first ridethey lined back up to go on again. Josh said she just kept saying over and over "I'm not scared" but the look on her face tells it all! What a trooper!

Heidi helping daddy set up camp.

The kids all built this bridge that crossed over the creek by our campsite. May hours were spent on this during the week!

Josh and the older boys went on a hike up to this spot where they went fishing.


Pretty girls

Such a little nut!

Jadyn with her buddies


Happy girl

Josh's mom and dad and Grandma who's birthday we were celebrating.

Such a fun week!

Girls day

My cousin Hailey and I drove up to Kari's bridal shower this week, we had a fun gab fest on the way there and then spent the night giving Kari tips for her wedding night, lol! We stayed in a hotel that night with Radelle and Vanessa and then had a spa day all the next day. It was heaven. I swiped this photo from Radelle's blog of the 4 of us in the hotel room. It was a fun time girls, thanks for the awesome company! On the way home I was so tired but managed to stay awake by the sound of Hailey's broken hearted mentions every few minutes about how she can't believe Michael Jackson died!

Family reuinion Part 1

Josh's family is all in town this week and they celebrated Matthew's birthday this week (without me since I was at my cousins bridal shower in Edmonton that day) and then today we all got together at the beach for a fun day in the sun.

Totally random

Last Saturday I stumbled upon some sweet garage sales, here is the result in our living room. Jadyn was in heaven with the 30 + barbies, furniture, cars, clothes, accessories that I picked up for $15!


Josh taught the girls how to be eco friendly by collecting water spout water and watering the garden with it. They thought this was so fun.




My pie project from my flourishing rhubarb plants!


Jadyn practicing being a big sister by feeding her cousin Eliza a bottle. She thought this was so fun. The half grin on her face means that she secretly loves that Eliza is playing with her hair while she eats :)


And the setup from my Arbour Lake fair last weekend, so fun!

Great sites for kids

Check out my new button on the left. I was browsing through some of the sites tonight and think Jadyn will have some fun tomorrow with them!

A little peak into my life

Here is a little look into what I have been up to.

Packing and storing loads of this:


Trying to grow this:


And this:


While taming moods like this:


And wondering why this:

is sitting on my front lawn in June! (last week)

Life can be exhausting!

BUT, we have fun too. Such as going to Heritage Park to learn about... our heritage. But mostly just to ride the train, boat, and hit up the bakery, and check out the quilt market, because one day I am going to learn to quilt.

Jadyn getting on the train with my friend Vicki, without Heidi and I since Heidi apparently has an intense fear of trains and covered her ears and tried to hide every time it got near her. Even though from far away all she can do is point excitedly at the "choo choo".


We also like to spend a lot of time at the beach on the hot days that are showing up a little more frequesntly, the highlight of the last trip was definately the duck and her little ducklings that waddled in just as we were packing up to leave (Sue you missed them by about 2 minutes!)




They were so sweet!