Thanksgiving Weekend

Paige and Samuel Malavsky
David, Rusty and Todd (A scary crew!)
All 12 of the Burchard grandkids
Abby and Matthew Malavsky
Gaby wearing her Christmas stockings!
My dad and brother came to visit from Ohio!


We had a wonderful time during our visit to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm not sure how we were able to cram so much stuff into 6 days, but I'm so glad we did! We started off at Rusty's parents house in Port St. Lucie. The kids had a marvelous time hanging out with their cousins (all 9 of them!) and Rusty and I were able to spend some time visiting with his parents and brothers and their wives. It brings a whole new defintion to the saying "quality, not quantity" when you know the next visit might be a year away! On Thanksgiving Day we headed to my sister's in Ft. Myers (home for the past 12 years) to spend the rest of our stay. My sister and I were part of the crazy nuts who went shopping at 4:00 in morning on Black Friday. We have done this the past 4 years and we always have a great time! It's so much more about being together than the great sales. (although we did find quite a few!) We went to church Sunday morning at MBC and it was great to catch up with old friends. I really thought the trip would make me homesick for Florida, but again, God is so faithful and I never felt more at home then when I saw the pear trees that line our street! (see post below...)

It's Good to be Home....

It's always wonderful spending time with family and friends, but it's also great to be back home. This is what Rusty and I woke up to this morning. Isn't it beautiful? I so love this place!

One of the 1000 Reasons "I Love Megan Hunt!"

This morning Megan hands me three gift bags for the kiddos. She tells me that there is one for each of the kids for the ride to Florida. When I picked them up from school to get ready to head out of town, I let them open the bags. Inside were fun goodies all wrapped up with fun captions on each, like, "hungry?" with a snack inside and "to brighten your day!" with a booklight for reading tonight. All Paige could say was "She's so awesome!" and I would have to agree!! Love ya Meg! See ya in the FL!!

On the road again....

Like I said before, I don't do so well when Rusty and I are apart.... I'm sure it's something I should be over with by now, but about 48 hours is about all I can stand..... The kids and I decided to push up our leaving by a day. Instead of driving all day Tuesday, we plan to leave tomorrow around 1:00. I am praying this makes the traveling easier (lots of night time driving; hopefully this means sleeping and not fighting children!) I know this will be very disapointing to some of you (Ha Ha Ha!!), but I'm not sure if I will be posting much over the next week. I am really looking forward to spending some time doing a bunch of nothing all week. If I don't get a chance to post, I'm sure after spending a week with both sides of our family, I will have plenty of stories and pictures when we get back. Have a safe and very happy Turkey Day!!

A Night Out On The Town

So tonight, Lara, Lauren, Megan and myself, decided that loading up 5 kids and heading into Charlotte's Uptown district sounded like a good plan! I have no idea what on Earth we were thinking! We started out at a place called "The Penguin". The entire resturant could have fit in our house with some room left over! Needless to say, we decided to find another alternative to the hour or so wait we had before us. 5 kids + 1 hour wait = 1 bad idea!! We ended up at a resturant called, "Rockbottom Resturant and Brewery" in downtown Charlotte. The food was great and the fellowship was even better! We ended up having a great time and the kids were all angels (at least once we got to the resturant they were!). The above is a picture of poor Miss Lauren smooshed between 3 of the five kiddos, and the kids standing outside the resturant (mind you, it was about 30 degrees outside!)

4 Days to Go!

Only four days until I head home for Thanksgiving. I am so excited and can't wait to see all of our family. It has only been 6 months since we left, but I guess knowing that everyone is an 11 hour drive away makes them feel so distant. Rusty left yesterday to work a side job in West Palm Beach. It's great money (which we need right now!) but I hate being away from him. I do miss him when he's not here. I have a dear friend whose husband has been in Africa on a mission trip for the past 11 days. Since he's been gone, her youngest son (3 months old) has been diagnosed with RSV and hospitalized! She has been living on a few hours sleep and lots of caffeine! I told her today at lunch that she was my hero and that I thought she was an amazing woman! I am already complaining and Rusty's been gone less then 24 hours! I guess I'm a wimp!! Oh well, I still miss him! Florida - here we come!!

Going Home

In a week our family will be heading home for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am so excited to be going back to Florida, even if it is just for a week! I am looking forward to spending some time with family and friends and just enjoying the holiday. I have so many reasons to be thankful this season. God has so richly blessed our family this past year! I have missed my sister and brother-in-law so very much and thoughts of my sweet nieces have been my sunshine on those cloudy days when home just seems so far away. I can't wait to just sit and talk with Sofie and hear how her first year in "big school" is going and it really doesn't matter what Gaby says, I just love to hear the sound of her voice! I know how excited our families are that we are coming home and I was thinking how it doesn't even compare with how God must feel when when one of His children comes back to Him! Ridge is in our second week of the Jonah series, and it has been awesome! Andy has been talking about running away from God and how even when He should punish us from running, He doesn't. How He uses circumstances in our life to bring us back to Him; not "pay us back" for what we have done. The Lord has used so many circumstances this year to bring Rusty and I back to the foot of the cross, and there is no place in the world I would rather be right at this very moment!