I have no idea why these loaded in the opposite order they were uploaded. I have never had that happen. I tried to drag them to put them in the right order but that didn't work either. Any suggestions???
ANYWAY, I am not going to change it now. These are still cute pictures even if the are out of order. Some of these were linked to Claire's blog a month and a half ago when my computer was out of space. I am still trying to catch up !
I am finally posting pictures from my Mom's party. I didn't have my camera out until the end of the party for family pictures. So I had to get pictures from others. There are a bunch more picture in our Kodak gallery if you are interested, let me know.
She really was super surprised to see 
Mom and her 8 D's
Mom and her big boys!
Mom laughing with her girls
(I am pretty sure it was Evan that said something crude)
Cynthia and Wendy
Cynthia, Danette and Amber
Adalyn and Amber
Our little family
Adam and Erin
Amber (baby Addisyn) and Great Uncle Evan
Start with filling the pit (55 gallon barrel in ground) with mesquite wood
Let wood burn down to red hot coals. Coals should fill about 1/3 of the barrel...I think, (I will check with Evan and fix it if I am wrong)
While wood is burning down, season meat and place in foil pans. For the ham we use brown sugar, chili powder, and honey. For the turkey, we have experimented several times. This time, each had a different sauce inside along with onions and celery. I think I sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and parsley. You really can't go wrong!!! For Easter we did a traditionally flavored turkey and a Curry flavored turkey. YUM!
Once seasoned, wrap the entire pan in 6-8 layers of foil. Take outside to put pans in burlap sacks that have been soaking in water. We put two pans to a sack. Fold end of sack under and wrap with wire, making a handle for lowing into the pit.
Place all wire wrapped sacks down in pit. Put the lid on the barrel and cover completely with damp dirt. This seals the heat in. 12 hours later remove dirt and lid. Take sacks out of barrel, and the pans out of the sacks. We leave the foil on until we are ready to serve...unless we just can't help ourselves and need to taste the meat! Which is usually the case. The meat comes out soooo tender and just falls off the bone!
I have taken pictures (for blogging) several times when we have cooked in the pit and I have forgotten every time to take a picture of the finished product. Maybe next time...or maybe some one took a picture of the food for Mom's 70th surprise birthday party. I will have to ask around.
I am so glad that my girls are so comfortable with their sweet grandma. I love it that she lives so close and they get to see her at least once a week but usually more.
I can guarantee that while they were falling asleep, Ansley was rubbing grandma's arm and Adalyn had her hand down grandma's shirt. (I will have to put a post together about Adalyn's addiction) :-)
We love you so much Grandma!!!
This is the best thing that came from our garden! We planted several things but we weren't the best at watering and the sun wasn't the nicest to our plants either. I think we just need to start all over again. At least we did enjoy seeing some of the plants grow for a little while even though we didn't eat anything from them. We were all very excited to see the beautiful sunflowers bloom! Although the sun got to these too after only a few days.
Our sweet Adalyn posing with the pretty flowers
Ansley loves to give rides around the backyard
Jenniffer, Dawn, Carolyn, Betty Sue, Claire, Mom (Norma), Sarah and myselfThursday night all of us went to Mesa to Poppy's Home Decor to hear Betty Sue from season 5 of NBC's Biggest Loser. We were supposed to go on Tuesday, but it was moved to Thursday so that Betty Sue could go to the Oprah show to be on with others from the Biggest Loser. Her and her daughter were on the Biggest Loser together and Ali ended up winning! Betty Sue is now wanting to talk to as many people as possible about being your best self. Betty Sue tells about how they got on the Biggest Loser and what they went through being on the show. She is very entertaining!
A few weeks ago Katie sent me some information from her cousin about Betty Sue. So I emailed back and forth with Betty Sue and booked her to speak at our December Enrichment meeting. It was great to be able to meet her Thursday and hear her speak. I am looking forward to being in contact with her and hearing her speak again.
I know, I know....but better late than never, right? Now that we were able to move out of the dark ages, it is WAY easier to post pictures! So maybe I will catch up.
Ansley (right) was so excited to have her cousins come over to play. Nikki (left) lives here in town and Kacie (middle) lives in Sierra Vista. Her Mom, my sister Dawney, came to go thru the temple with her daughter's boyfriend.Adalyn and Cecelia have become such cute little friends! They have their moments but for the most part they get along great! They both ended up in the sink tonight and loved it. Claire and I figured if they have bathed together they must be BFF'S!!!
I am just going to refer you all to Claire's blog for the cute pictures in her post because my computer is having problems. The second bath picture cracks me up! Adalyn started smiling like this a few weeks ago. She loves to show it off to anyone that will look her way.
Looking south from the north side of house
