A great 30 days

Well, okay, it was actually a little more than thirty days, 

but what's another couple of days??

 I believe in family.  My family is probably the most important thing in my life, right alongside my belief in God and Jesus Christ and His gospel.  Even though we were serving a mission for our Church in Mexico, I was able to come home for a visit in November last year for a very important event, our son's wedding.  I love my family and was grateful for the opportunity to be with most of them for a few days.

We started off with the birth of our 17th grandbaby, Bennett Robert Reeves, 
on November 25, 2013.  He was born to our oldest son, Richard and his wife Nickie.  
Bennett was their fourth child. 

We are so happy to welcome him into the family...

this was taken a little later... January 5th, 2014, on his blessing day

A few days after Bennett was born, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Kimber and Ryan's home.  It was so much fun to have so many of the family there.  

Two days later our son Bradley was married!

Bradley Reeves and Emy Guildner were married in the Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple on 

November 30, 2013.

They had a lovely ring ceremony and reception in the backyard of our family friends, 
Steve and Fran Lowder 

Robert couldn't be there because he had to stay in Mexico, but we planned ahead!  
We made a cardboard cut out of him, which was pretty lifelike, and brought 
him along to the reception.  

I also got to spend some quality time with this young man, Tye Hicken, for a week.  This was the first time I actually met him in person!  It was so fun to finally see him up close and personal.  We shared a bedroom while I was there and I got to wake up to his sweet face every morning!

We couldn't be happier for Brad and Emy... Congratulations!

Just a couple of days later on December 2, 2013, Adam and Kelli welcomed Sawyer Adam Bishop into their family.  Sawyer is number 8 in their family!  It was great to meet him a few months later when we returned from Mexico

This is another handsome face that I got to see for the first time.  Wesley is Lindsay and Darren's first baby and is seven months old.  

It was so fun to meet him and get to know him.

He is just too cute for words!

While in Gilbert, I was able to see the new Gilbert Temple that was almost finished being built.  There was an Open House in February and it was dedicated in March.  I think it's pretty beautiful and Temples like this make it possible for our family to be sealed as an Eternal family.  Pretty special...

 Another thing I had to do was to drive by our house for a look around.  It is still looking pretty good!

Included in our thirty days was me coming back to Mexico and enjoying a very small Christmas with Robert.  Then five days later, our son Taylor and his wife Nicole brought this beautiful little baby girl into the world.  Emma Grace was born December 30, 2013 on our 37th wedding anniversary!  What a great anniversary present!  We were so excited to have little Emma born into our family and have enjoyed getting to know her.