This picture is from Jason and Laura's wedding, Bryan was strangling me!!


WHOOO HOOOO!!!Uncle Bryan is out of the hospital. He has a follow up appt in San Diego
on Monday and then he is on his way home to AZ. We can't wait to see you Bryan!!

Last night before leaving the hospital they made sure he could do a flight of stairs, walk a set amount of steps...etc so that he can take care of himself relatively well. He is on anti-inflammatory meds only now and that controls his pain. That is really good, no narcotics. He has a few weeks of rest and recovery and will be on his way...

For those that do not know Krissy's brother Bryan is recovering from heart by pass surgery and could use all the blessing, thoughts and prayers we can send. Please keep him in your thoughts for us. He seems to be doing well but it was scary for awhile.

Toll house chocolate chip cookies are our favorites, except for Sammie (we take out a batch to bake BEFORE the chocolate chips , I don't think she is my child by the way!) One variation to this batch was: Smart Balance butter stick (says you can bake with it.... WRONG!!) the cookies were good, but about a min before the timer went off, they went flat!

Grandma and the girls made chocolates out of the chocolate molds...very fun and super cute!

WELCOME 2009!!

Ralph and Kathleen

Auddie

Happy New Year!!

Santa came to our house disguised as a cat!!

And brought us everything we wanted...

Elizabeth got an American Girl doll and the fixin's

Auddie got a Jack in The Box

Sammie's going to Disneyland!!

When we went to San Diego to celebrate Christmas...It was a Rock Band marathon...

We played for hours and hours

and hours...

We, as most of you reading this know, live in the northern part of Arizona just about a mile up so it goes without saying that it gets cold in the winter. As a matter of fact our low the last few days has been between 20-25 degrees in the morning, warming up to around 50 during the day.
I will not let this deter me from cooing up some pulled pork!

Ilene, Ray and Lisa were in town vising so we decided the pulled pork would be good!
Luckily it was not "that" cold the morning I decided to cook.

30 outside...63 in the kitchen.

I went out side and saw this...

I started the fire and went back in the house to get the meat out of the fridge.
One was a regular rub and one was DDogs apple rub.
"DDOG RUBS"is a local (Phoenix) guy who makes and sells many different meat/bbq rubs. He also frequents and supports the AZBARBEQUE board.

All done and ready to eat.
My rub...

DDogs Apple...

It was all delicious.

A couple of days later we made Carnitas Tacos by frying up some of the pulled pork until it becomes crispy.

The girls love it.
Eli was at her grandparents so she is not in this picture.

The COURTHOUSE THAT IS!

Every year the city of Prescott puts on a Christmas and Lighting
program at the courthouse. Someone reads the
"traditional Christmas story" of Jesus's birth.
This year Elizabeth, along with her class, sang at the lighting...

You can see it in the background.

Every year the Prescott Resort here in Prescott, AZ does a gingerbread village.
Money raised goes to Boys and Girls Club. So it is a good cause...and we (from
the xray department at the hospital) join in the competition.
It is a ton of fun & lots of work.
Click here

Here is the Heli-pad for the helicopter and our "North Pole". Our hospital
has an East and West campus, but now we have added the North Campus. :)

Quick and dirty run down on Thanksgiving, well I should say the day after thanksgiving. Thanksgiving day we had dinner with Krissys side of the family out in Dewey, I know I took some pics so as soon as I find them I will add them but after dinner that night we headed to San Diego for the rest of the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family and Brian, Krissy little Bro.

This year was a year of firsts. Smoked ham on the WSM, Smoked turkey on the brand new ProQ!



We have never smoked a ham or a turkey so we decided to do both this year...no practice, no try outs...just jump right in, let it all hang out. Get the family together and try something new!

The ham we did was a precooked ham we simply heated up in the WSM. We placed it in a pan to keep the glaze from running off into the water pan and smoked over Kingsford hickory charcoal. After the ham reached about 140 internal I started opening the WSM and re-glazing the ham every 20-30 minutes. The glaze was something my mom put together so I am not sure what was in it but it was very good. The ham turned out AWESOME!! I have now used the hickory charcoal twice and can say I do like it...it has surprised me both times just how much good smoke flavor it imparts.


Now to the really important stuff...Turkey on the new Excel 20. At the Pulte event my dad picked up a ProQ Excel 20 for a very good price. He wanted something bigger than the WSM to cook the turkey on, the Excel 20 fits the bill and for the price, who can ask for anything more. We have cooked on the WSM enough times to know what to expect from this style of smoker but as with anything new you just can never really know for sure how well things are going to work....

Well as you can see here it works very well!

Smoked Ham, Smoked turkey, BIGEASY turkey

Love those fall colors!