While You Were Out

We have four married men and six single missionaries on Logan’s team this year. The five single girls all live together in a duplex. They haven’t loved their place this year, but all it needed was a little TLC. 

So the wives decided to get permission and a little budget from the girls to transform the living room, dining room, kitchen, and entryway. 

They handed over the keys to us as they left for Christmas break. It was a really fun, creative project and we love how it turned out. The girls did too!

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Dining room before

Dining room after

A focus couple here in Lincoln made the girls a custom coffee bar. 

Living room before

Living room after

The same couple who made the coffee bar also made the girls the custom art above the couch. 

Entryway before

Entryway after

Logan’s Students

We have had so much fun with this particular batch of Logan’s students. They come over every Monday night to chat, study something about the Bible, talk about faith life, learn about prayer, or the Catholic Church. 

They are incredible question askers and listeners. They share their hearts beautifuly and without reserve. They delight in our children (who are usually in bed).

We will miss them next year as most of them graduate. We will keep lots of memories of them in our hearts. 

One of the guys helped us move for an entire day last December. 

They’ve all babysat for us as a group and a few of the girls individually, and our boys LOVE them. Our boys were rambunctious and a bit naughty for the girls, but they showed up again the following Monday despite our crazy fraternity. 

One guy went trick-or-treating with us...and he dressed up like a cow. 

Two of the guys ALWAYS pick a day to come help me for 4 hours when Logan is on a business trip. And they really are a huge help!

One guy and I had a very non-competitive pigs-in-a-blanket competition one Monday night. It was very tasty!
And one guy agreed to help me with my crazy mom idea. He built my boys a stage for the playroom!!! They love it (it was just delivered today) and I can’t wait to see all the creative ways they think of to use it. 

The students have been a bigger blessing than we could’ve imagined, and we are so grateful they’ve wanted to be a part of our family for the last few years. 

Brothers Doin’ Stuff

Taking turns cuddling under the baby’s new blanket. It’s SO soft. A gal from my bible study hand-made it...but I’m not sure the baby will ever get a turn with it. 

Elias couldn’t stop giggling about this Lewis idea. I believe they made it into lion soup. I opted out of that meal. 

They found my old “marble machines” as we called them when I was little. They are still fun!

Advent/Christmas Prep

We’ve kept up pretty well with advent this year despite me moving slower than normal. It’s been a fun couple of weeks. 

I got creative with wrapping gifts (thank you, Pinterest). I really like how they turned out!


I snuck a Norwex party in at the end of November. Merry (free) Christmas to me!

I snagged the LEGO advent wreath at Logan’s Christmas work party. They boys were excited. 

The boys and I made a sweet pretend post office. We made our own stamps with the cool sticker maker Grandma Kathleen gave us this year. We also wrapped fake packages, made a scale for them and a drop box, sorted felt envelopes into various boxes, scanned everything coming and going, and delivered a lot of mail. 

Grandma Kathleen took the boys to our third annual candyhouse workshop at the children’s museum. It did not disappoint!



Lewis brought home a mini one from school...on the same day I got an email saying that 40% of the student population was out sick with fevers and vomiting. Lovely. A finger-licking activity. Great idea. {insert sarcasm}

Another Christmas treat was one of my best friend’s and her daughter visiting us for two days this week. They knew of a cool lights display, so we packed everyone up in their jammies after dinner and adventured to south Lincoln. 

It also did not disappoint! It even has its own radio channel that all the lights are coordinated to. Wowza!

We put the kids to bed and whipped up 6 batches of Christmas cookies. 

Some of the cookies are keto so I can eat them. I’ve yet to bake the press cookies...a project for tomorrow. 

We will take goodies to our Visitation Family tomorrow!

Gingerbread Cookies

Of course, now that Elias has baked with Grandma, the request to do so is often. His new favorite is gingerbread cookies. 





He also helped us whip up some St. Lucy bread dough since her feast day was the next day. 

But back to the cookies...





“Mom, cookie making is hard work.”

Yes it is, Elias. Exhausting. 

It’s A...

Boy! The Burda Frat lives on. The boys don’t really care that it’s another brother...they just LOVE a baby to hold, so they are happy. 

We did a gender reveal Christmas present. The confetti inside was green for a (Christmas) boy. They got their trucks out and played in the confetti for a while. It was fun, but man was it a project to vacuum that all up. 

We took the opportunity on the day of our ultrasound to show our love to our baby doc. She is the absolute best and we never cease to feel very well cared for and loved by her. We made t-shirts and wore them as a surprise that day. She liked them even more than I thought she would. (Thanks to Debbie for making them for us!)

Elias stayed home from the baby appointment due to nap time, but he still wore his t-shirt in solidarity. 

The best part was that the joke lived on because our good friends also go to the same baby doc and had the same t-shirts on an hour later at their appointment!

A Day Home

Lewis was hit fast and furious with strep throat a few weeks ago. He was better the second day home but not yet able to return to school. 

We sent Elias to Grandma’s house to keep him away from the germs, and spent the day together. It was fun! 

We played at home, made salads at HyVee for lunch, and made a whirlpool viewer. 
Lewis LOVES to watch the whirlpool in the drain after a bath, but it’s hard to see and not very big and (in my opinion) gross. So this experiment was very exciting for him!