Mormon Disneyland

This is the group from Tallmadge ward that attended Youth conference. We went to Palmyra NY. Our first stop was in Fayette at the Peter Whitmer farm.

From the Peter Whitmore farm we went to a Girls Camp at Seneca Lake. It was awesome. This the barn from the Lake. Seneca Lakes is one of the finger lakes. This is Tori with Ashley from our ward and Kristen from the stake.

This is Olivia at the edge of the lake wading.

From the Lake we went to the Hill Cumorah. We went early and had a delicious chicken dinner. From there we were able to have a fireside with the producer of the Pageant. It was really interesting and sounds like such a great opportunity for people to work at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Then we visited with all kinds of people from the Book of Mormon. It was like Mormon Disney Land. This is a picture of some of the Youth with Mormon and his son Moroni. They were great.

Here are some of us girls with Mormon and Moroni. I told them to all marry men like them.

Here they are, father and son heros from the BOM.

Caleb hitting on some cute little lamanite and nephite girls.







Tori, Ashlee, and Kristen found some hot Lamanite and Nephites.

Olivia with Mormon

Mormon even agreed to put on a gun show with some of the boys. Caleb said he was pulled over for carrying concealed weapons.









David and Olivia with a wicked priest.

Olivia and David with Lehi.

Kristen, Ashlee and Tori in their bunks at our cabin.

Katie and Olivia in a bunk.

Caleb and Aaron Johnson at the back of the Smith cabin.

A group of our adorable Youth at the back of the Smith home.

Tori and Ashlee with the Palmyra Temple in the back ground.


We had a wonderful trip. The youth were so fun and good and I don't think we could have asked for anything better. The weather was perfect for the Pageant. It rained on us while we were in the Sacred Grove and we didn't get to stay there as long as we would have liked, but we got a good taste of Palmyra and hopefully every one was able to feel some of the wonderful spirit that is there.

Garden Update

I thought I would give you a little update of the garden. This is the tomato, pepper, basil etc. (Notice the hydrangea has blossoms. )

These are the squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe etc. (excuse the weeds around the edge. The gardner has been out to lunch or something.)

This is the patch by the back porch. It had peas, beets, cabbage and some herbs. It got a little carried away. We did get some nice salad out of it in the beggining.

As far as I know everything is legal and we are looking forward to a bumber crop. (some of it at least.)

David is 51!

Happy Birthday David 51 years young today!!!!!

aka hotty boy

I believe that 51 is going down the other side of the hill for most people. However, David doesn't even have any grey hair. (How lucky is that.) I met David about 3 1/2 years ago. Our sisters lined us up on a blind date. (blind dates actually work out once in a while) One day after we had been dating a few months, Davids mom was looking through her recipe box. She ran across this recipe that David had sent her from his mission (Adelaide Australia, the same one our son Kyson went to). She said it was his favorite recipe. David has not had any since he returned from Australia 30 years ago. I decided to make it for his 51st birthday!!!!!!!! I called Mom Pack and no answer. I decided to check out the internet to see if I could find it. Spotted Dick. Yes that is the name. Well come to find out it must be a pretty popular dessert amongst the Brits. I found many recipes. Most were not that easy for me to read and figure out. However, I finally found one that was a little more Americanized and actually had a video of them making it. (My lucky day). It actually tasted delicious, considering the middle wasn't quite cooked all the way. I have never steam cooked anything except vegetables, (steaming a cake for 2 hours was quite interesting) next time it should be perfect. So heres to you David, the most handsome, wonderful man in the world. Love you and Happy Birthday.

I have a request for the recipe:

(I bought a box of vanilla pudding from the store and added some lemon zest instead of making the custard sauce. It was just too much for me to make another thing I had no idea about. It tasted great!)

Spotted Dick (British raisin pudding cake)
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups plus of sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups self-rising flour or (2 ¾ C flour, 2 Tbls baking powder and ½ tsp salt)(I used pancake mix)
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 cup golden raisins
Special equipment: large ceramic heatproof bowl or 8 (8-ounce) ramekins, parchment paper
Preparation
Butter bowl, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.
Fill large, shallow, wide saucepan with 1 inch water. Add flat steamer or equally sized cookie cutters to create steaming platform just above water level.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until pale and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl periodically. Beat in vanilla.
Sift flour into medium bowl. Gradually beat flour into egg mixture just until combined. Add 3 tablespoons milk and beat until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add raisins and beat just until combined.
Transfer batter to prepared bowl, smoothing top. Top bowl with parchment paper. Secure edges all around. ( I also covered the bowl with a layer of foil) Over moderately high heat, bring water in steamer to boil. Transfer bowl to steamer, cover pan tightly, lower heat to moderate, and steam, adding more boiling water to pan if necessary, until pudding is set, about 2 hours for bowl, 1 hour for ramekins. ( mine needed a little more time)
Meanwhile, make custard sauce: Transfer pudding bowl(s) to rack and cool 5 minutes. Run paring knife around inside rim of bowl and invert pudding(s) onto plate(s). Serve warm with custard sauce.
Custard Sauce from Scratch
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
Preparation
Bring milk just to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk together yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl and add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking. Pour custard into pan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and a thermometer registers 170°F. Pour through a fine sieve into a pitcher and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Church sites with my fam

Mom and Dad Nelson, Peni, Steph, Tate, and Tierani came to visit us in the Ohio. We had a great time going to church sites. These are a few of the pictures. I will try to get more later.

Aaron set apart and ready to go.

Aaron was set apart Monday June 22, 2009 for the California, Anaheim, Spanish speaking mission.

We love you Aaron.

3 in 1 Sunday

Happy Birthday Tierani

Happy Fathers Day David

Happy Mission Aaron

Sunday was a very busy, wonderful day.

It was so fun to wake up Sunday morning and Have Tierani here for breakfast in bed on her 19th birthday.

I have really missed her and it was a treat for me to be able to fix her breakfast in bed.
For lunch we came home from church and sang Happy Birthday and ate Strawberry cake. It was divine! I didn't have any complaints about lunch.

Happy Birthday Princess Tierani.

It was so fun to spend the day with you. We love you.

I took a picture of Aaron and David together, however, it did not appear on my camera. So here is a picture from the temple. David and Aaron both spoke in Sacrament meeting today. David said he thought they would give a guy a break since it was fathers day and he wondered if it was because he didn't have enough kids.

David gave a wonderful talk on the Savior.

Happy Fathers Day David. You are a wonderful pappa and we love you.

Aaron talked on missionary work. He did a great job. He is going to be a wonderful missionary. California is blessed to have him.

Aaron told a very fun story of his life long companion Ryan. When they were young. Old enough that they both had scriptures, they decided to convert everyone on bus 25 from row 18 back. If you get the chance you should have him tell you the story. It is great.

Congrats Aaron thanks for being such a great example to us all.

We love you.

Happy Birthday Micah.

Micah turned 9 today. YEAH.

He is very happy to be able to watch transformers tonight.

Happy Birthday Micah we love you.