Hale Family

Diamondbacks game!!!!

2010-07-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer we were given four amazing seats to a diamondbacks game!!! The kids had so much fun as well as Richard and I!!!

We had time to kill before the game started!!!

This picture was taken from our awesome seats!!

After the game, one of the workers gave Jackson a game ball!! He was so excited!!!

We had a blast!!

We are still alive!!

2010-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

Just to let everyone know. . . we are, in fact, still alive!! It has been forever since I last posted, but I figured I would try to play a little bit of catch-up on (parts of) the last six months. . .SO SORRY!!

I did the Ragnar Relay with SOME of my most favorite people ever (Go Greek Freaks)!!!!

We took some stinkin' cute Easter pictures of Arwen and Jackson!!

We celebrated Jackson, Brodee and Trenton's 4th birthdays!

I got to do a team triathlon with some awesome girls!!! Yes this is the only picture of have of the three of us so how about you just close your eyes and try to imagine that my eyes are open and that I look amazing like my teammates!!

We got to watch our niece/cousin, Ellie, a couple times. Arwen and Jackson were in heaven!!

The cute girls snuggled together!!

We had some fun "GIRL TIME" while the boys were away at the Fathers-and-Sons!!

We got to watch Arwen's dance recital and she was adorable!! There were so many people who came to support her and didn't complain with the tickets being "sold out!" Satya, Halee and Sage as well as Aunt Kris and Uncle John were there too, but I don't have pictures of them!! Thanks for all the support!!

The kids did swimming lessons. We went to the movies, did some roofing in St. Johns as well as celebrated Pioneer days, went to family reunions, etc., but I slacked and I don't have pictures of any of these events!!

We have had a great summer and are getting ready to start school! :(

Infertility update!!

2010-01-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a minute and tell everyone THANKS SO MUCH for your prayers on our behalf. No. . . I am not yet pregnant, but I have felt completely HAPPY lately!! This is what I had asked family members and friends to pray for (my happiness) and it has made such a difference. I can testify that even though our Heavenly Father does not answer every prayer exactly when and how we want him to I know that he NEVER denies us comfort. He loves us and does whatever he can to get us through our trials in this life.

I still hope and pray that I will get pregnant again, but at this point in my life I have to turn everything over to my Heavenly Father and put my complete trust in him that things will happen when the time is right. As with every trial, I am sure there will come some more downs so I would ask that you would continue to keep our happiness in your prayers.

One more thing. . . I am going back to school. I have the one human anatomy class I am taking this semester and then I can apply for the MCC nursing program (just a semester behind Satya which is great because she has been such a blessing in helping me through the order of things). I am so excited. This has been a major change that has helped me to feel happy.

Arwen and Jackson

2009-12-22T23:26:00.001-08:00

As much as Arwen and Jackson can

sometimes drive me crazy,

did I mention how much I love them?!!

New Christmas outfits!!

Jackson's Zoolander pose . . .

Anjuli (Richard's sister) took a bunch of great family

pictures for us and here are a couple of

just Arwen and Jackson!!

Attitude of gratitude

2009-11-24T14:46:00.001-08:00

Here is a list of SOME of the things I am thankful for (in no particular order, just as they come to me)

1. A wonderful husband, who is hard working, selfless and honors his priesthood

2. Arwen . . . and the way she can make me laugh, the way she comforts me when I am sad and when she tells me that when she sees people cry it makes her cry.

3. Jackson. . . and the way makes me laugh as well (he is funny) the way he snuggles me and tells me he loves me regularly.

4. Parents . . . (both mine and Richard's) who are amazing examples for us and who have given us so much (temporally, spiritually, emotionally, etc.)

5. Grandparents . . . need I say more?

6. Sisters (and in-laws) who have been there for me through the ups and downs and can almost always help to make me happy if I am sad.

7. Brothers (and in-laws) who have sacrificed so much of their time to serve my family.

8. Friends who are like sisters and who would do anything and have done so much for me.

9. Cousins, aunts and uncles. . . again need I say more?

10. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

11. A living Prophet on the Earth - President Thomas S. Monson - and all of his apostles (general conference).

12. The Book of Mormon.

13. Temples - where I have had the opportunity to be sealed to my family forever.

14. My Savior Jesus Christ who has made it possible for me to live with him and my Heavenly Father again - he has felt every single feeling of sadness and pain I have ever felt - I am never alone because of this.

15. My Heavenly Father who loves me so much and has showed that love to me in many ways.

16. My testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

17. A beautiful home to live in to keep us safe and warm.

18. A car that runs well and can take us where we need to go.

19. Food to eat . . . we have never had to go hungry.

20. Richard's wonderful job and the fact that he still keeps busy with work.

21. Clothes and shoes.

22. Running water, working toilets, electricity. . . we took this for granted until we lived in a trailer in front of our unfinished house.

23. Volleyball . . . as cheesy as it may be there are many days that I have not been pregnant where I have volleyball to look forward to and cheer me up.

24. Dr. Pepper. . . I have to be honest.

25. Great movies . . . Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter

26. Great music.

27. Running. . . sometimes I am more grateful than others.

28. Christmas.

29. Birthdays.

30. Modern medicine, Doctors, hospitals, etc.

31. The power of prayer.

32. Priesthood blessings. . . have been comforted so many times because of these.

33. Digital cameras. . . we can take as many pictures as we want and make memories last forever.

34. Modern technology. . . internet and computers, email, etc.

35. Chocolate.

"Lessons From Liberty Jail" - Jeffrey R. Holland (September Ensign)

2009-11-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago (when I was having an especially hard time with my infertility trial), I was reading the Ensign and came across this talk by Jeffrey R. Holland. I am putting the link up, but I just wanted to quote a few of the things that really brought me comfort. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=70dd1a01e8d43210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

". . . In one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, every one of us is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not be our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord. . ."

". . . Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, “Where art Thou?” it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us—where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us. . ."

". . . We are not alone in our little prisons here. When suffering, we may in fact be nearer to God than we’ve ever been in our entire lives. That knowledge can turn every such situation into a would-be temple.
Regarding our earthly journey, the Lord has promised, “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (D&C 84:88). That is an everlasting declaration of God’s love and care for us, including—and perhaps especially—in times of trouble. . ."

". . . Furthermore, we note that not only has the Savior suffered, in His case entirely innocently, but so have most of the prophets and other great men and women recorded in the scriptures. The point is this: if you are having a bad day, you’ve got a lot of company—very, very good company. The best company that has ever lived. . ."

". . .Therefore … let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17; emphasis added).

". . .What a tremendously optimistic and faithful concluding declaration to be issued from a prison-temple! When he wrote those lines, Joseph did not know when he would be released or if he would ever be released. There was every indication that his enemies were still planning to take his life.
. . .Yet in these cold, lonely hours, Joseph says let us do all we can and do it cheerfully. And then we can justifiably turn to the Lord, wait upon His mercy, and see His arm revealed in our behalf.
What a magnificent attitude to maintain in good times or bad, in sorrow or in joy!"

Secondary infertility (some thoughts and feelings)

2009-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

I did the last post to give people a background as to some of the facts of what has been going on the past two years. This post is more to let people know of some of the thoughts and feelings I have had along the way. I am trying to break things up so that people don't have to read super long posts.

There have been many people who have said something to the effect of "just be grateful that you have two children." I know that they don't mean anything by it, but I just want to say that I know that I have two of the most amazing, beautiful, sweet, caring, loving and healthy children on this earth and, if anything, this experience has made me appreciate them even more. I thank Heavenly Father for them every single day of my life (sometimes I find myself crying because I feel so grateful and blessed to have them). I now know that every single pregnancy and child is truly a blessing and a miracle.

This being said, it does not stop the desire I am feeling to add to our family. I feel like our family is not complete and after seeing different characteristics Arwen and Jackson have I find myself wondering what the next child's personality might be like, what he/she might look like, what funny things he/she might do or say and how Arwen and Jackson would interact with a new baby and sibling.

I know that I cannot completely understand what someone who has not been able to get pregnant at all is going through, but I do know that my heart aches. Like I said before there are many times when I break down just longing to be pregnant again, longing to rock a baby to sleep at night, longing to be able to smell that sweet newborn scent anytime I want to, longing to hear those sweet baby noises and wondering if and when it will happen again.

There have also been times when I have felt out of place. I am not done having kids, but I have two kids already (which I had on my own without any fertility treatments). I am not pregnant and I do not have a child even under the age of two. There have been conversations I have been left out of (not intentionally) because I am just in an awkward place in my life.

There have also been times when I feel so frustrated with my body. It used to work close to perfect in this department and now the doctors cannot find anything wrong, but there IS something wrong. I just feel so helpless and out of control and that too is so hard for me to deal with.

I hope that in writing these thoughts and feelings down that I have not made anyone feel bad. That is not my intention. I just want to be able to express myself and to let those people who have said that they do not understand what I am going through, but that they want to know, be able to better understand how I am feeling.

Secondary infertility (the background)

2009-10-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

There have been some people in the recent past who have asked me when we are going to have another baby and there have been others who know what is going on who are afraid to ask me anything, so I decided that I am going to take the time to write down what is going on with us so people won't have to wonder anymore. Sorry if there is too much information in some areas and that it is so long.

As a lot of people know when we tried to get pregnant with Arwen and then (a short time later) with Jackson, each try only took us a couple months. So almost two years ago (in November) we decided to start trying for our third baby thinking this one too would only take a couple months. We were very disappointed when things did not go as we expected and planned.

We had been trying on our own for about seven months when I decided to call my doctor because I knew something was not right with my body. He was very nice and did a quite a few tests and found nothing out of the ordinary. He was pretty sure I was not ovulating on my own (since my periods were really far apart and irregular) so he started me on femara (a drug to induce ovulation). We also did some trigger injections so we would know exactly when I was going to ovulate. I did the femara for seven months with no pregnancy.

After the seven months my doctor then referred me to a fertility specialist. The specialist ran some more tests and could find nothing wrong. He then put me on clomid (another ovulation inducing drug) and it took about four months for me to have more than one follicle (this is what holds the egg) so that we could try insemination (cost us about 1500 for one month). We had been praying and fasting that it would work, but unfortunately it did not. It was a huge disappointment because we had spent all that money and everything seemed to be working properly in my body. After that expensive round and with all the extra hormones constantly in my body, we decided that I could not do this anymore at this time. It was too stressful for me.

We have been watching for ovulation on our own and we are pretty sure that I have been ovulating (really late) on my own the last two months, but I again started my period on day 45 this month. My body tends to play tricks on me and gives me signs of pregnancy so that I start to think that maybe I am and then wah-lah my period starts again.

It has been such a long, difficult trial for me. I think about it constantly and every month I am reminded that I am not pregnant. There have been some really good months (and/or days) where I am content and happy and there have been some really hard ones where I cry myself to sleep or I break down in the middle of the day.

Twins (I am not announcing anything)!!

2009-08-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

When Sian (my younger sister) and I were in Flagstaff we were standing by each other and this teenage girl looked at us and asked if we were twins. . . It made my day being as Sian is just about nine years younger than me.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

2009-07-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am sure my dad will never get on here to read this, but just in the off chance that he does, I wanted to say Happy Birthday Dad!! I was always a dadd'y girl growing up. I remember going to stay with my grandparents at times during the summer and I would always get "dadsick." I did not miss home, I just missed my dad (and the rest of my family of course).

My dad loved/s us so much. I remember being younger and he would always want us near his side no matter what he was doing (now he is the same way with my kids). He is a peacemaker. If any of us ever got/get mad at someone else, he is always there to try to help us look at things from their perspective.

Another great quality my dad has is that he has a great sense of humor (kind of goofy somtimes). Growing up, he would tell us the same joke nearly ever single night at dinner just to get a reaction.

I also love his spiritual, sensitive side. He has always loved the gospel. I have always known that if I had some question about the gospel I could go to him and there was a great chance he would know the answer. He was always there and worthy to give us Father's blessings and one of my favorite qualities about him (which hopefully does not embarass him) is that I remember so many times when he cried with us when we were sad. He does not like to see those he loves suffering.

Happy Birthday Dad!! We love you so much!!!

California!!

2009-06-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

This last week was great! We started off by taking the kids to Disneyland on Friday (the 5th). We left AZ at three in the morning so that we could get there not long after it had opened. The kids had so much fun (so did Richard and I we were just a little tired by the end of the day)!! It was pretty crowded, but that is the true Disneyland experience!! Arwen loved the princess castle and she loved the Matterhorn!! Jackson loved Space Mountain!! Oh and we cannot forget waiting in line to see the princesses for over an hour (longer than any wait for the rides)!!

After that first day at Disneyland, we headed to the beach house in Newport where we got to stay with Richard's family. This was a lot of fun and we spent a lot of time at the beach. We also went to the temple and one day all of the girls went to the District to go shopping. It was a fun experience!!

Jackson spent a lot of time running from the waves (Grandpa helped him out)!!Arwen tried burying herself!

Once the week was over, we ended our vacation going to Disneyland one more time (the next Friday)!! The highlight for Jackson was seeing Mater and Lightning McQueen and Mickey Mouse!!

Arwen and Jackson in Mickey's house!!

We had so much fun, but we are so happy to be home and to be getting back into a routine!!

6th anniversary!!

2009-05-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Richard and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. My parents have been so nice and they have had our kids up in SJ since Saturday (I am going up there tomorrow). We got to spend the weekend together just relaxing!! It was awesome!!!

I love Richard so much!! He is such a great man. He is an amazing husband and father. He works so so hard to provide for our family. He sacrifices a lot of his favorite things to provide for us and to spend his extra time with us. He honors his priesthood, he loves the Lord. He fulfills his callings. He is willing to do anything for anyone at any time. He loves me probably more than I deserve and is genuinely happy when I am happy and genuinely sad when I am sad. He is still so ATTRACTIVE and he knows how to make me laugh all the time. I am so grateful and blessed to have him as my eternal companion!!

Mom's 50th Surprise Party!! (A ton of pictures)

2009-05-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's 50th birthday. My sisters and I thought it would be fun to throw her a surprise party this last weekend!! I thought she would have caught on to something, but thankfully she did not. She thought she was coming to Jackson's birthday party, but boy was she surprised when she walked in to find, close to 50 family members, yelling, "SURPRISE!!!" (Sorry the picture is so dark. The lighting was bad and my c0mputer won't edit it any more than this.)

Aaron (mom's brother), Kris (sister), mom and Kelly (brother).

Here is all of my mom's side of the family that was here, unfortunately we are still missing a lot of family members cause they all live AT LEAST six hours away.

My cousin's wife Kelly and my cousin Jandee!! They are both so cute!!

There were many of my dad's side of the family in attendance as well!!

Jeanine (dad's sister) with baby RJ (Cassie's baby) and Cassie (my cousin)

Kayla (cousin) and Cody (cousin). Daniel (my brother) is in the background watching them jam out to rock band!!

More cousins, M and J (I am not sure if they want me to put their full names)!!

Lucia with Kendall and Satya plus their families were all there!!

Jessyka and Nate were also there!!!

There are many others who were there and I am sorry if I don't have a picture of you up!! Thanks so much to everyone for coming and for helping to make the party so awesome!!

The party kept going long after most of the guests had left. We played Rock Band and Guitar hero for quite a while and had a blast (thanks Liz and Jason)!!

Happy birthday Mom!! I love you so much!! You are such an amazing woman with so many talents. You are so smart, beautiful, you have the most beautiful voice, you are a great teacher. You are so selfess, you are always doing something for someone else!! You are such a great listener and I love how close you are to the spirit!! Thanks for giving me such a great example of what I need to do to be a great mom, wife and woman!! Thanks for being such an amazing mom and friend!!

Happy birthday to Jackson, Jessyka, Trenton and Brodee!!

2009-05-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

Jackson just had his third birthday last wednesday. It is hard to believe that he is already three, but at the same time I have thought he was three for a while because of his size. We had a great day and my friend, Misi, was so nice and made us an awesome Mater cake!! It was so good that Jackson did not want me to cut into it. He started crying and said, "You are going to hurt him," but he sure was happy when he tasted the yummy cake with peanut butter inside. He got a ton of awesome gifts from family and he wanted to go to chuck e cheese for dinner so that is what we did.

The awesome cake:

I love this boy so much!! He brings so much joy into our home. He makes us laugh constantly and he is the best snuggler of all times!! We are so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed us with him!!

He is not the only birthday boy we love!! My best friends, Satya and Lucia, and I all had our boys within one week of each other three years ago. Jackson was born on the 6th, Trenton on the 11th (today is his birthday) and Brodee was born on the 13th. I love their boys so much as well and it is fun that the three of them love to play with each other (most of the time). I swiped this picture off Lucia's blog! Thanks Lucia!!
Trenton (Lucia's) Brodee (Satya's) and Jackson

Also I cannot forget to wish Jessyka a happy belated birthday!! She is such a great friend and person!! Thanks for always being willing to help us at any time!! You are so much fun to be around and you are so gorgeous!! We love you and hope you had a great day. Thanks again for spending some of your special day with us!!

Happy Birthday Satya and Lucia!!

2009-04-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to wish a happy birthday to Satya and Lucia (even though their birthday is almost over). They are two of my most favorite people in the whole world!!

Happy birthday Satya!!! You are one of the most beautiful people on the inside and out!! Thank you for always being willing to do anything to help me. You are always so selfless, even though I know that you have a million things of your own going on!! You are an amazing mother and wife and you are one of the most organized people I know!! Thanks so much for always listening to me when I am struggling with things and for always making me feel better!! You are always one of the first people I want to call when I am having any problems. I love you so so much!! I hope you had an awesome birthday!! I am so blessed and thankful to have you as my friend!!

Happy birthday Lucia!!! You too, are so so beautiful on the inside and out!! You are such an amazing mom and wife as well!! You have always been such a good example to me. I have looked at you so many times and by watching you I know what choices I should make. Thanks for always being so quick to help. You are one of the most service oriented people I know. You are so much fun to be with and I am so grateful that we are still so close after all these years!! Thanks for always being there for me for anything I need at all. I love you so much as well and I am very grateful to have you in my life!!

I love you both so much!!!! You have so many of the same wonderful qualities, but you also have so many of your own unique talents and qualities as well!!

Bowling with Liz!!

2009-04-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

My sister, Liz, had her spring break this week, so the kids and I went to hang out with her for a couple days. She had the great idea to go bowling. It was one of the slowest games (we only played one game) of our lives because it took the kids' ball about five minutes (at least it felt that way) each to get all the way down the alley, but it was so much fun. They had so much fun as did we and I think I had the best time cause I actually won and that never happens!!

Here is Liz with her awesome bowling form!

Jackson getting ready to bowl. . .

Arwen getting ready to bowl. . .

Apparently I am an intense bowler!!! (warning: the following image is slightly frightening)

These were taken after Liz's strike!!

Here are just a couple more random pictures from bowling and from our trip. . .

As you can tell, we had an awesome time!! Thanks again Liz for hanging out with us!!!!

We've got the power!!

2009-04-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

We are so excited because we finally got our power (SRP) turned on!!

I don't really know these guys, but I am quite sure that I have rarely been as excited to see someone in my life as I was to see them!!

We have our C of O as well so we are finally llegal to move in!! I am so excited to finally see the end in sight. We have some touch ups to do and we still need to work on our yard, but things are finally calming down for us!! Thank you all for your constant support and prayers on our half. They really did help. It was a long road, but things finally all worked out!! Here are a couple pictures of the house (since the house was semi clean :)

Happy belated birthday Aunt Kris!!!

2009-03-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

My Aunt Kris shares her birthday with St. Patrick's Day. Since we had not seen her in a long, long time, the kids and I decided we would go to her work and surprise her on her birthday. We had so much fun visiting with her (we probably stayed longer than we should since she was supposed to be working), but we were so glad that she let us hang out for a while!! We had so much fun meeting all her coworkers and getting an awesome tour of her work!!

Going back in time . . . I remember when I was younger, she was always the "FUN" Aunt (no offense to the rest of you). All the other aunts and uncles would be visiting with each other and she would be hanging out with all of us kids thining of clever ways to try to embarrass us or inventing fun games to keep us entertained. There was even one point when she had a bunch of us hormonal girl cousins come stay at her house for a week (certain times during this week got pretty ugly), but she found a way to make it so much fun, even though some of us were not getting along with each other!!

She is such an amazing example to me. She is so smart, beautiful, hilarious, independent, etc. Even though she has had some hard things come her way, she always seems to get through them stronger than ever!! I love you so much aunt Kris!! Thanks for always being such an example to me!! We love you so, so, so much!!

You rock Sian!!

2009-03-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share, for anyone who does not know, that the St. Johns basketball girls are now state champions!!! I am so proud of all of them, but especially my little sister Sian. She played like a champ even though she had a stomach ache and strep throat!! Liz and I were so happy that we could live through her state championship victory since we never got one!! I just wanted to post a few pictures of the game!!

I love my sisters so so so much!!!

Our awesome cousins came to support Sian as well!! Thanks guys!!

We were sad that Richard and Daniel could not make it, but it was right during work. Richard did go to the other two games before that!!

Way to go Sian, you rock and I love you!!!!

So close!!

2009-03-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

Our house has taken a lot longer than we ever imagined, but we are so so close!! In fact, all we are waiting on are SRP and city of Mesa to come and hook up our electricity and water.

Thanks to some of our favorite people in the whole world (Amaron and Satya), we have been living in a toy hauler in front of our house since our appliances were stolen and we have not had any problems since then.

We also have really nice neighbors who are letting us use their water and the generator can now be plugged in to turn the lights in the house on. It actually feels pretty real except for the fact that we have to go elsewhere to shower.

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

2008-12-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-12-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-11-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-11-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-10-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-09-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

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. . .

California!!

2008-08-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

I am really slacking on my posts and for those of you who have already seen my sister's or my cousin's blogs then this will be old information for you, but for everyone else I just wanted to post a little bit about the awesome trip we went on to California. The main reason for going was because my Great Grandpa Burdick was turning 100 and we were going to celebrate his birthday with him. My parents wanted to make sure all of us could go so they rented a huge

12 passengeer van. The only sad thing was that Richard and Jason (my sister's husband could not go because of work).

Anyway so there was a lot (and I mean about 17 hours one way) of traveling in the van, but we made the best of it. We took a lot of crazy pictures to keep ourselves from getting too bored!!

Here are Arwen and I

Jackson also made some crazy faces . . .

Here are my awesome sisters . . . Sian and Liz

And this is the man (my dad) who gave us the amazing ability to take such photogenic pictures (did I mention that I love him?)!!

When we weren't in the van, it seemed like we were trying to get some sleep in random motels, but we did make sure to have some fun too and we spent one whole day at Great America Theme Park!! That was so much fun!! Here is a picture of my whole family in front of Great America, including my mom and my Brother, Daniel!!

My mom and dad were so nice and they took the kids on a bunch of rides while my siblings and I got to ride the big rollercoasters!!

We also went to the beach the following day!! The kids were having so much fun they would not even look up for a picture!!

My siblings and I . . .

Last, but not least, my mom and dad. . .

Home Sweet Home

2008-07-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, we are in the middle of building our house; well I am not doing much, but Richard is our general contractor. People said building a house was stressful and I was afraid, but it has not been too bad (occasionally things have been stressful) up until the last couple weeks when we were about to get drywall and someone decided to come in and cut out a bunch of our electrical wiring. Richard had to call and cancel drywall and now we get to wait on the insurance. . . and the electrician to come and redo everything he had already done.

All the yellow wires are cut and hanging down as well as the can light fixture.

This is in the garage where they did the most damage and it is annoying because they had to pull out a bunch of the insulation throughout the whole house to get to the wire out.

For some reason, they decided to cut a whole into one of our window screens even though there are no doors in the house yet and they went right through the garage.

I also just wanted to put a couple pictures of the outside of our house for those people who have not yet seen it.

Here is the back of the house.

I love the front of the house, although you cannot see it very well because of the big fence we have to try to keep it semi-safe.

I will post some before and after pictures of the inside of the house as soon as we get drywall.

Good times at the Whiting Homestead!!

2008-06-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to the Whiting Homestead with my cousin, Collette (and her family) and then Satya and Lucia (and their families). Thanks to Lucia by the way for the pictures. . .

Richard and I

Satya and Amaron

Lucia and David

Me and Collette

Mike (Collette's husband) and baby Cole

Satya, Lucia and Collette talked me into hiking up Trego even though I am a wuss, but I did have a good time. Here are some pictures of us at the top. The wind was crazy!!

I cannot believe how awesome Lucia looks considering she just had her baby about six weeks ago!!

Brooklyn, Arwen and Cassideen

Amaron, (Satya's husband) built this wagon, from scraps of metal and wood in his backyard, then he rigged it up and attached it to a bike. The kids had a blast and the mom's got some decent exercise taking turns pulling them.

I tried giving the kids rides, but luckily no one had a camera at the time because it was not pretty. I forgot how to ride a bike and the bike was shaking all over the place.

Our 5th Anniversary getaway!!

2008-06-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Richard and I decided that in honor of our 5th anniversary (on the 23rd of May) we were going to take our very first trip without the kids. We left the kids with my parents for the first couple days and then they dropped them off at Richard's parent's house for the last day and a half. We are so grateful for all of the grandparents help!!

We headed up to Vegas. We had a really relaxing time and did everything without a schedule. We got to eat a lot of yummy food and we went to a magic show and we did a lot of sightseeing, but our very favorite part was when we went to the Las Vegas Temple. It is so so beautiful!! We forgot our camera most of the trip, but luckily we had our camera at the temple so we took some pictures there.

Easter Pictures!!

2008-03-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law, Andrea, had the awesome idea to have all the Hale Grandkids (Arwen, Jackson and her son Grant) pictures taken together so that we could give them to our in-laws as an Easter gift for them!! I just wanted to share some of my favorite ones! Andrea's friend, Dray, took them for us and she did an amazing job!!

Do not let the happy faces on all of these pictures fool you, it was really quite challenging getting them all to smile at the same time!! Even bribing them with candy was not enough at times!

These were our favorites of the Arwen, Jackson and Grant!!

I know that I am getting a little carried away with pictures, but I just cannot help myself, anyway here is one of my favorite pictures of Arwen!!

And then of course I have to put one of my favorite ones of Jackson!!

Okay this is the last one, I promise!! I just loved this one of Arwen and Jackson together!!

The Purple Shirt!!

2008-03-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

For anyone who knows Richard, they probably know that he is really into making sure that his boy is very, very masculine. This is why I was a little nervous to bring home

the purple shirt that I found for Jackson to wear on Easter!

When Richard saw it, I got the reaction I expected. He did not love it, but hey at least it was not pink. Anyway I put his new Easter outfit on him just to make sure everything fit properly and I know that he is my son and that makes me biased, but he makes this shirt look dang good!! I just wanted to post a couple of pictures because I seriously love the shirt and tie combo!!!!

State Basketball Championship!

2008-02-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Last week my little sister, Sian, (and her team of course) played in the 2A State Championship Game. Unfortunately they lost by six points. But it was an awesome game to watch and they played so great!!

I decided it would be fun to make matching shirts for the family to wear, but I did not realize how long it was going to take me to finish making them all so Richard was so so sweet and he helped me finish them all.

Here is the finished product!!

We had a hard time getting a good picture of all of us!!

Here are the kids showing off the front and back of their shirts. . .

JASON AND LIZ WEDDING PICTURES!!

2008-01-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the many amazing pictures that my awesome, awesome sister-in-law, Anjuli, took for Jason and Liz's (Liz is my awesome sister for those of you who don't know her) wedding!!

This first one is my absolute favorite out of all of the 650 pictures that were taken!!

Sorry, but I had to put this one in because it is so stinkin' cute!!

Jackson is such a stud!!

This picture just seems so classic!!

I love the view of the Temple in this one!!

Okay seriously, sorry about the numerous posts at once, but now I am caught up for a while!!

RECAP. . . (DECEMBER)

2008-01-04T22:14:00.001-08:00

Hopefully nobody gets bored by my long posts, but maybe no one will ask me to post anything else again for a while. Anyway here goes the recap on December.

On the first of December, we were able to go and spend time up North (with my family) so that we could attend the Snowflake Temple as my little sister Liz was going through to get her endowments to prepare for her wedding a couple weeks later (we will get to that soon enough). It was the first time I had been through to do a session there and it was amazing. It was an awesome experience to say the least . . .

Here are my dad and mom, Richard and I, Liz and Jason and Jason's mom after she got her endowments.

We were going to try to take some pictures outside afterwards, but it was too windy and everyone else took off so Liz and I just decided to take a picture on our own!!

Liz had recieved her endowments early in the morning so right after we were finished at the Temple, we headed back to my mom's house to get ready for her bridal shower. She had a very nice turnout and got a lot of nice things.

The next day was Arwen's birthday and it seemed like her birthday just kept going as we had three small parties (get togethers) throughout that week.

This is from her party at my parents house, on her actual birthday!!

This second one is at our house!! I think that she had a pretty good time having three parties with numerous cakes and presents!!

About a week after Arwen's birthday, we found out that she has a serious allergy to pistachios. She had two pistachios and about an hour or two after she had eaten them she had hives all the way from her scalp down to her feet. There was not a part of her body that was not covered in hives. It was so sad. She was crying and going crazy on the floor trying to scratch everywhere. After a blessing and some Benadryl, she was finally feeling better and was able to go to sleep. Now we have an Epipen that we have to carry around just in case something like this happens again and she has any problems breathing. We also found out that she is allergic to cashews, poor girl, those are the two best nuts!!

Arwen was so pale and she had hives all over her face, arms, neck and ears.

If you look really closely, you can see the hives all over her back!!

Jason and Liz were married in between this and Christmas but I promised some people that I would post some pictures of their wedding so I will make a new post for that. After the wedding and reception, and getting all of my Christmas shopping finished, we greatly welcomed Christmas. We were able to go up to SJ to spend time with my family (where we missed Liz and Jason), but it was very relaxing. We watched some movies and just visited and ate and ate and ate. I will post some pictures of Christmas in the not too distant future (hopefully). We have not downloaded them off our camera yet. Sorry about this long blog (for those of you who are still reading it)!!

RECAP (November)!!

2008-01-04T21:46:00.000-08:00

Okay I have been pretty lame about posting, but we have had quite a bit of stuff going on for the past couple months so I am going to recap November first. . .

In mid-November, my in-laws, husband, Arwen, Jackson and I (most of them, we were sadly missing a couple) went to Prescott to run the 5k or 10k. It was a lot of fun and we all won a medal for our age group and race (we won't say how many people were in some of our age groups). I am just proud to say that I ran (well slowly jogged) my whole 10k. Here is a before the race picture . . .

And here is an after the race one . . .

Then came the Thanksgiving festivities!! We had a ton of fun with Richard's family!!

After Thanksgiving came Arwen's first Dance Recital, she got to take the class with Lucia's little girl Brooklyn (Arwen was so much more comfortable having Brooklyn there). . .

TAGGED. . .

2007-12-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

Some Marriage Quiz

What is his name: Richard Collins Hale III
How long have you been married: 4 1/2 years
How long did you date: Almost seven months
How old is he? 26
Who eats more? 95 percent of the time, he does, but occasionally I probably out-eat him.
Who said I love you first? He did.
Who is taller? He is.
Who sings better? I don't know for sure because neither of us really sing too much.
Who is smarter? It depends on the subject, but if it comes to random facts, then he definitely knows way more than I ever could dream of knowing.
Whose temper is worse? He does not get mad very often, but when he does he blows up. I can be the biggest brat though!
Who does the laundry? I do.
Who does the dishes? Again I do, but he is really good about cleaning off the table after dinner.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I always do, I don't sleep well on the left side. I am sure it is all mental.
Who cooks dinner? I cook the dinner, but I bet there are many days when Richard wishes that he could cook.
Who drives when you are together? The majority of the time he drives, but occasionally I will drive if he is really tired or something.
Who is more stubborn? Umm ya, that one is definately a tie.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Actually he used to be the only one who would admit they were wrong, but I am getting better . . . I think.
Whose parents do you see the most? Richard's because they live closer and I love them so much!!
Who has more friends? We have the same friends. So neither
Who has more siblings? Richard is the oldest of seven and I am the oldest of four.
Who wears the pants in the family? Even if I wanted to, he would not let me. . . Not that he is controlling or anything, he is just likes to "wear the pants."
I now tag: Tiffany Stradling, Andrea Hale