Happy New Year and a baked bean recipe

The holidays have been a whirlwind. My whole family has been in town so we have been driving back and forth to Gilbert a lot. We have all had a good time, but we have also had a lot of illness-two trips to the emergency room is way too many (one for croup and one for walking pneumonia). This is the first year I have had my girls vaccinated for the flu. I am glad I did. I wish I had done the same for Tanner.
Some highlights of our family gathering were a trip to the Phoenix Children's museum, the McCormack Ranch railroad park, and Rawhide. We were able to accomplish a family photo. I am not sure what one should expect with 40 people in a photo where half of the people are under the age of 10, but I am confident that you can never make everyone happy. We had a good time. A picture of that magnitude is not about capturing images but about capturing the feeling and the memories and knowing that for a few moments we were all together and we had a good time.
Feeding a crowd of this size is no small feat. We are not going to win a James Beard award or anything like that, but no one went hungry (if they did it was their own fault). Reed and I had volunteered to have everyone here for dinner on Monday after Rawhide. As we thought about it on Sunday night we realized that there was no way we had room. We decided that it was time to call in the resources and we moved the party to the church. This was a good idea. The kids had room to run around and make noise. All the adults could sit and eat and visit and see their kids running around. We had family home evening and then introduced everyone to office chair hockey. Good times.
There have been many requests for the baked bean recipe-so here it is:

1 can pork and beans (recipe calls for 16oz-I routinely use 28 oz cans)

1 can lima beans, drained (use frozen if you can find them)

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can butter beans, drained

1 onion chopped

1/2 lb bacon

3/4 c brown sugar

3/4 c water

combine beans in crockpot

in skillet saute onion and bacon until tender.

Add brown sugar and water, simmer 10 min.

Add to crockpot. Stir. Cook on Med/high for 6 hours.

Can also be baked in 9x13 for 2 hours at 350 or can be made stove top-bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer about 1 1/2 hours-stirring occationally.