Pinewood Derby

Lindsay has moved back home and we're excited to have her here. She realized that paying rent isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's great to have her back home even if we don't see her a lot. She has gotten a new job and works every day and has a busy social calendar, but at least she's here for dinner occasionally.

Brian has started Lacrosse practices again and will be starting games soon. We are excited to see him play and look forward to a good season.

PINEWOOD DERBY??

Yes, its that time of year again, and as one of the Scout leaders, Richard was in

charge of the Pinewood Derby this year. I guess the Pinewood Derby is one

of those things that just keeps coming back.

Richard took his job very seriously...

and here are Richard´s loyal supporters...

the finish line

I have to say, that I really enjoyed it this year,

because I wasn't worried about one of my boys losing. It was just a lot of fun!

Another fun thing we did this month was to take the kids to the Phoenix Zoo.

They had fun feeding the Meerkats, who were lounging on a little island

they got to ride on this fun camel...

and feed these giraffes.

Even though it never changes much, we still enjoy seeing all the animals...

February Fun...

We celebrated Melanie's birthday by going out to dinner this year.

The kids loved it and then we had cake and presents at our house.

Melanie's mom and dad came out from California and spent a few days for her birthday.

Kimber & Ryan, Lindsay and Richard & Nickie were also there

Richard and Kendyl

Later in the month, we traveled to Utah where we attended the baptism of our Granddaughter, Alysa Jones. It was a wonderful baptism...

everything went very smoothly and she seemed very happy to be baptized. Because of some scheduling conflicts and other roadblocks, she's been patiently waiting since October when she turned 8. There were many family members in attendance and Adam was able to baptize her. Kelli & Adam planned a nice luncheon afterward and we all enjoyed visiting with family & friends.


After the baptism, we met at the church and had a really good chili lunch and Alysa opened presents. It was a fun trip and we are glad we could be there for it.

Congratulations, Alysa!

The drive to Utah and back was amazing. No matter how often we make that drive or what time of year we drive it, it's always different and we love the scenery. We saw beautiful mountain ranges, snow covered fields, deer feeding along the road and beautiful Lake Powell. Ryan & Kimber, Lindsay, Brian and Dad and I made the trip this time. We picked up Ben when we got to Provo and were able to enjoy the day together. We stayed with Dave & Vickie in Provo then at Grandma Heagle's on the way home. When we drove into the Phoenix area we were treated to another beautiful Arizona sunset. It was altogether a great trip.

Brand new Year!

So it's definitely time to post something new! I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday. I know we did! We had all of our children home at one time or another during Christmas. Plus all their children...all 12 of the grandkids! At the busiest time we had 27 of us in the house.

Thankfully we weren't all sleeping here (well, I guess sometimes we were), just eating, visiting, laughing and generally having a great time. These are just some random pictures from Christmas because they didn't make it into the book from last year!

December 12th, 2008, brought our newest granddaughter into the world...Kendyl Taylor Reeves was born to Richard & Nickie and is the cutest baby born this year, I think. She has proven to have a very sweet nature. Grandma loves having the opportunity to hold a baby anytime she wants to without all the nighttime interruptions...

Kimber and Chase were enjoying the opportunity to hold and talk to Kendyl.

Richard decided to have a photo shoot with all the kids. That proved to be a lot of fun.

Lindsay is helping to make a judgement call on the pictures...

Taylor came home for 2 weeks from Florida and tried to stay as busy as he could. Because he doesn't know many people here, it's hard to stay occupied.

Bradley was here from school in Hawaii and he stayed the longest. He was even able to take a quick trip to California to visit his friend, Daniel.

Benjamin came home from BYU in Provo and as usual, we hardly saw him at all because he is a social butterfly. He actually spent some time with Brian when he went out with his friends and they had a good time.

Kelli and Adam and their family came down for a week after Christmas and it was good to spend some time with all of her kids. We don't see them too often, so it was fun to see them for such a long time.

Mom & Dad also had the opportunity right after Christmas to go to Hurricane, Utah, to spend a couple of days with their good friends Earl & Lona Thomas, Glen & Carolyn Lewis and Ron & Dee Hellings. We had a great time visiting and talking about the "good old days" in California. It was great to see them and enjoy the beauties of Bryce Canyon, in Utah at the same time!

As much fun as our Christmas holiday was it also brought sick children and hospital visits. Kendyl was in the ER once, Sadie had a 3 day hospital stay and there were various other people not feeling well most of the time they were here. It's amazing we had such a good time in spite of it all! To top it all off, Mom had to have her wisdom teeth ripped from her mouth in January. But I think most everyone is feeling better now and we are looking forward to a great new year.

I am so pleased to be writing about the Eagle Court that we recently held for Benjamin Heagle Reeves and Brian Douglas Reeves, our youngest two sons and the last of our six sons to receive their Eagle Rank in scouting. They actually finished and were officially Eagle Scouts last August, but we held their court this month so that all their brothers, who are also Eagle Scouts, could be here for the court.

Ben, Brian and Brother Lines, who was one of Brian's leaders
and a great help in achieving this rank

Mom, Dad and the new Eagle Scouts!

Taylor, Richard, Ryan, Larry, Bradley, Benjamin, Brian, and Robert

Brother Phelps who was Ben's scout leader in California

The Reeves kids... Christmas, 2008

New Baby!

This may just be one of the best presents that we all got this Christmas! On December 12, at 1:01 p.m., Nickie gave birth to Kendyl Taylor Reeves. The best part of this is that Richard and Nickie are living with us for a few months so I get to see Kendyl every day. It's wonderful having a baby in the house again!

Of course, Lindsay is loving having Kendyl here...

Richard, the proud dad and Mason the new big brother!

Congratulations to Richard and Nickie! We love you all...

Christmas is here!

This has to be my favorite time of year! Not just Christmas, but the whole time between Halloween and when the kids go back to school, I love it all. I am very excited to say that my shopping is done, the presents are wrapped and under the tree and I'm looking forward to a little more of a relaxed Christmas this year. Well... Nickie is having a baby next week, but other than that, a very relaxing Christmas. We are expecting all the family to be here for at least one week all together and we are looking forward to that.
Our family is doing very well this year, not to say we haven't had our challenges, but we've handled the challenges well. We feel very blessed to have good children who are making good decisions and going forward with their lives in a very satisfying way. Our four oldest are married and having children of their own (we have 11 grandchildren and two on the way), three who are in college, one in the Navy and our youngest is still at home. (You can look at the bottom of the page for more details...)
We are very grateful for the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and at this time of the year, we want to express our love for all of you, our family, friends and neighbors, and thank you for the influence you have been in our lives and the lives of our children.
We love all of you and hope you
have a wonderful Christmas!

Some highlights from our year...

Ben's Seminary graduation last May...
Ryan, Kimber, Ben, Brian, Robert, Lindsay and Janet




Bradley's return from his mission last January
that's Lindsay with him and Robert in the background...





Our yearly trip to Hawaii in July...
Brian, Bradley, Lindsay, Janet, Robert, Ben

visiting my parents in March...
back row...
Janet, Taylor, Bradley
front row...
Ben, G'pa, G'ma, Brian