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. . .

California!!

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

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.