A longer post. . . sorry! - I usually try to keep them short!

What do the following have in common?

If you guessed that these are all the things that have been stolen from our house since we started building it, then you are right. I hesitate to put this on here for two reasons, one being that I don't want people to think that I want them to feel sorry for me and the second one is that I don't want people to judge us and call us idiots behind our back because this happened over a few break-ins.

In fact, once all of our windows and doors were put in we thought that we could leave some tools (the generator, the tile saw, the drill), but boy were we wrong. The first break-in occurance happened a couple months ago (this does not include the wire theft where they did not have to technically break in). We obviously learned that we could not leave the power tools there, but little did we know that the people who had robbed us would be back for anything. The second time they took a first aid kit and my MP3 player that I accidentally left on the counter there. I guess I kind of figured that they had left the extension cords and stuff the last two times (my mistake) and that they did not really want it, but no more than two or three days later they came back for some broken (they did not know this) work lights, a beat up shop vac and our extension cords. We realized that they were popping our master bedroom window open each time to get in so Richard cut up some boards to stick in every single window. We hoped this would keep them out for about one more week until we would be getting carpet and then we would start sleeping there. (Just for reference, our appliances had been in our garage the whole time and we probably should have moved them, but we really did not have a good place to store them). We went back to work on the house on Saturday morning, and the last time we had been there before that was late Thursday afternoon, and we discovered that our garage door was wide open and our appliances were all gone. I am not going to lie, I bawled like a baby and I felt like this house was too much and I did not know how I was going to be able to finish. It was one of the hardest things I have been through in my life - I do realize I am blessed if this is one of my hardest trials, but it still was very devastating.

The real reason I wanted to share this was because I just wanted to share a little bit of the positive experience that came with this trial. Like I said, Saturday was very hard for me, but I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life and although I feel like parts are too personal to post online, I can say that I felt the love of my Savior and my Heavenly Father more strongly than I think I have ever felt it! I felt so comforted! I know that Heavenly Father knows of me and that he loves me so much. I know of the power of the priesthood and that priesthood blessings come from the Lord. Richard was able to receive the most wonderful, comforting blessing from his dad and I was able to receive an amazing blessing from Richard. This reminded me how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband who honors his priesthood and to have two beautiful, healthy children. I was also reminded of how blessed Richard and I are to have wonderful parents and siblings and other family members and we also have the most amazing friends (even though I consider them family). People were not hesitating to offer help (babysitting our kids so we could get some relaxing time, letting us live in their trailor in front of our house, letting us use their house nearby whenever we want to shower, sleep, do laundry, etc. since we don't have electricity or water yet) and to pray on our behalf and I can testify that the prayers help so much and I could feel the strength from those prayers and I am still continuing to feel the strength. Like I said before, I know that my trials are nothing like a lot of people are going through (and I am very grateful for that), but I do know that my Savior loves me and I love him and as I was so upset by everything I was reminded that Jesus Christ knew exactly what I was feeling and that gave me great comfort. I am so grateful for this Christmas season when we can really reflect on our Savior, Jesus Christ and on all of the wonderful sacrifices he has made on our behalfs.

Sorry again for the length of this post and if you did not read it all I completely understand, but if you did thank you!

A few more pictures!!

I know that a lot of you have already looked at our family pictures on my friend's blog, but I thought I would put a few of my favorites for people to see easily without having to scroll down her blog forever!! She did a great job and I would recommend her to anyone who is thinking about getting some pictures taken!!!

This one is my very favorite, so I apologize to everyone who has already seen it . . .

I love these two kiddos so so much. . .

A couple of my favorite Arwen shots. . .

Jackson with his bright, blue eyes . . .

Here is one of Richard and I . . .

Pictures

A friend from our ward took some pictures of us yesterday. Here is the link to her page so you can see just a few of them and you can see what great work she does!

http://embraceyourcreativity.blogspot.com/

Duathlon!!

We had a late-night Halloween and the next morning we woke the kids up at about 5:45 to get in the car to head to Casa Grande for my Duathlon (which Satya and Lucia) talked me into doing!! I was so glad that I did it though because once the race was over, I felt so great!! I did it in a decent time, even though Satya totally whooped on me!!

The only bad part was we got there at about seven and the race started at seven thirty and I had to get my packet and get my bike put away and of course, inconveniently, I had to use the restroom. I got everything set up and there were about ten minutes until the race began. I decided to go to the bathroom. Well when I was done I looked at my watch and it said 7:33. I jogged out to where the race was supposed to begin and I found this. . .

That is right, everyone was gone . . . they left right at 7:30 on the dot so I was all alone.

It is all right though because I still finished in 1 hour and 29 minutes even though I left three minutes late.

Once the race was over we took some pictures of all of us racers. Lucia was great and even though she broke her foot practicing for the race just three weeks earlier, she was still there cheering us on!!

Here are Melanie, Satya, Charlotte, Me and Lucia after the race!!

Thanks so much to all of the awesome husbands for watching the kids and cheering for us so that we could run and finish our race!! We love you guys!!

One "Incredible" Halloween!!

We had a great Halloween!! We started the evening out by stopping by the Hale's house where we took some pictures of everyone's costumes (including our own)!! Unfortunately Chris and Andrea were not there and that is why we have no pictures of them in the mix.

We had a fun night as the incredibles. . .

Richard's head is slightly cut off, but you get the idea!!

Richard was such a good sport about wearing the tights and he even went the extra mile and wore the spandex that I was not willing to wear!! I would have to say that he is the best looking Mr. Incredible I have ever seen.

Here are Kevin and Jessica, and of course Jackson had to get in the picture with them!

The weekend was also great because we finally got to meet Michael's fiancee, Taylor. She is so incredibly gorgeous and sweet and we are excited to have her in our family!! They look so great together!! Oh and they are dressed up as a "newly engaged couple" just in case anyone is wondering!!

Tiffany and Richard dressed up as the nurse and the beat up patient!!

And Anjuli and Quinn did awesome on their costumes!! Quinn won the funniest costume award at Jessyka and Nate's costume party later that night!!

After we were finished taking pictures, we headed to the Hale's ward party where Richard and Michael competed in the pie eating contest.

Michael won the contest!!

After the party we did some trick-or-treating and then we headed to Jessyka and Nate's third annual Halloween party where, sad to say, I did not take any pictures!! We had an "incredible" night!!

Tucson Trip!!

I am a little behind, but a couple weeks ago (or so) Richard had to do some work in Tucson for a few days. We invited ourselves along so that we could go visit Liz and Jason. We had so much fun with them!! We even went out to eat one night with them and my cousin Megan. It was a blast and I thought I would post some pictures from the evening!!

Here are Jason, Liz and Megan while we waited for our food. I am not really sure exactly what Jason is doing, but that right there is why he fits in our family perfectly (we are all about the randomness)!!

Here are all us girls making crazy faces because you know in this family we cannot resist that pose.

Here is another picture with Jackson added in . . .

Here are the boys with another random pose!!

The day we were leaving Liz ditched a class to hang out with us and we spent a few hours at the mall, mostly just window shopping. It was so much fun. We took the kids to the Disney Store and Arwen found the Gizelle wedding dress that she really wanted to get, but I was not willing to pay 80 dollars for it, so Liz improvised and put her in the dress long enough to take some pictures. . .

Thanks Liz, Jason and Megs for hanging out with us!! We seriously had so much fun and we hope to come back again soon!! We love you guys!!

Happy Birthday!!

September is a busy month for us because Richard and I both have birthdays this month. So for his birthday we decided to go to Payson (a couple days early) and spend the day there with the kids just enjoying the nice weather. We started off by going to the fish hatchery. We got to feed the fish and just look at all the different sized fish. The kids loved it. Here are a couple pictures. .

We then went down by the creek and the kids had so much fun getting their feet wet and throwing rocks into the creek. . .

Richard set the camera on a rock and put the timer on and the very first picture we took like this actually turned out so we were really excited!!

We then went on another hike in the rain, went to Chili's for dinner and then headed home. It was a really nice, relaxing weekend.

Here are some pictures of Richard's actual birthday!!!

Then came my birthday which was awesome thanks to everyone who made it a very special day for me!! Richard was so sweet and he completely surprised me with a brand new (pink) bike which I love and I am so excited to ride it around!! He also took me out on a date the night before my birthday!! Here are a couple pictures from my birthday!! My mother-in-law made the most delicious ice cream cake I have ever tasted. Seriously it beat Cold Stone!!

Thanks to all of our family and friends who made our birthdays so so special!! You all made us feel so loved and we feel so blessed to have so many people who care about us!!

100-years-old!!

My Great Grandpa Burdick turned 100 so my family (the Burdicks) went to California to attend the big party and I just wanted to post a few of the pictures because it was an awesome occasion!!

Here are all of my family members (excluding Richard and Jason) with my Great Grandpa (he is seriously one of the cutest old men I have ever seen!!

A lot of family members took some time to tell some stories about Grandpa and then he took the stage and sang the cutest song that he had sung at his wife's funeral in November of 2007. It was one of the sweetest things I have ever heard and I have to admit that I got a little choked up.

After the party was over, we took a lot more pictures with and without Grandpa in them (mostly with him)!!

I loved this picture of Sian, my mom and Daniel. . .

A lot of my dad's siblings and their spouses and children made it, but we were still missing quite a lot of family members, even though it may not look like we could possibly be missing anyone. My dad is the fourth child out of ten if that explains anything.

Of course I could not finish the post without some five-generation pictures with Great Grandpa Burdick, Grandpa Burdick, my dad, me and Arwen and Jackson. . .