Burnett Family

This year’s winter has been unusually warm. Our grass is greener and taller now than it has been in a year. So…we were thrilled to get 1 1/2” of snow the other week! It pretty much all melted by the afternoon…but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

The four youngest.

Benjamin workin’ on a snowman. One of our beehives.

Maggie had fun with the car windows. :)

 Calli loves snow.                       Charity’s snow heart.

Twins forever. :)

Benjamin with his cute snowman.

We have LOTS of different kinds of flowers popping up in the yard.

Have a blessed day!

John-Clays’ most recent film project, Captivated, is contending as a finalist this weekend at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival! He served as the Director of Photography, Editor, and Assistant Director on the project.

Synopsis:
Everywhere we go we are surrounded by screens.
Have we entered a techno utopia or a virtual prison?

Should we be celebrating unreservedly
or should we be cautious and skeptical?

Is it the greatest leap in productivity
or the biggest setback from the things most meaningful in life?

Has today’s connectivity drawn us closer to one another
or strangely more disjointed?

Is our social experience richer and deeper
or more shallow and artificial?

Is it all of these things or none of them?

Discover insightful answers to these questions from media experts, church leaders, and inspiring individuals and families from across the country.

Most importantly you’ll discover how God’s word addresses the unique media challenges we face today.

John-Clay is in San Antonio right now attending the Film Academy and is giving us reports of great feedback on the film.
Lord-willing, most of us will be heading down to join him on Saturday for the closing ceremonies! Very exciting. :)

Besides the anticipation of the film possibly winning an award,
we are really looking forward to meeting all the great people he has worked with on recent projects.

So, stay tuned for more exciting updates in the very near future. :)

On Saturday, the 11th, we hosted a Valentine’s dinner for the couples from our church.

We had lots of fun getting everything ready!
Lots of cooking…

Old love songs… ;)

Last minute, we decided to learn a couple of old love songs as entertainment for the evening. Although I’m not sure it sounded that great, we definitely had fun serenading all the love birds with “L-O-V-E” and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”. :)

Enjoying our time together to the fullest!

Washing dishes…

Mom did an amazing job decorating!

John-Clay and I were grateful for all the help getting the photo booth ready to take pictures for the couples when they arrived! ;)

And during dinner…

We kids served them, while they ate by candle light…

They played some games and told lots of hilarious stories, and we heard LOTS of laughter!

The honeymoon stories were soooo funny!!

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen…

That’s one good reason to serve at an event for couples…you get to listen in on conversation between married folk. ;)

On the 14th, Dad and Benjamin did something special for all of us girls. They bought us flowers and chocolate and took us to dinner at Tio’s Mexican Restaurant! Grandma and Grandpa came with us too, and we had a great time. <3 John-Clay and Caleb had a fun Valentine’s Day, as well. They went to the OKC Thunder basketball game! :)

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Remember……Jesus loves you!!!

A week ago, we were privileged to participate in Home Educators’ Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol. A dedicated crowd of 2,600 homeschoolers showed up to be a presence to our legislators at the Capitol who had just began the first week of the legislative session.

Oklahoma is special. We are the only state who, ever since our Constitution was written over 100 years ago, has recognized that parents may teach their children at home by providing other means of education! There is a lot of freedom to home school in Oklahoma. That’s something we don’t take for granted and that we want to continue to uphold and fight for.

I LOVE our country. The incredibly rich history of our nation never ceases to amaze me. Even just a simple trip to the state capitol and taking time to think about how all “this” came to be fills my heart with awe! There is just nothing like it. The freedom I live in every single day is HUGE.

 
Finding a slot in the crowd to see was not easy with the floor and the two surrounding balconies filled. :) Governor Mary Fallin, who is very supportive of home schooling, gave a speech, as well as several other people, including…

…Meet Representative Josh Cockcroft! Josh is a home school graduate who we attended church with for many years. When he got elected at age 22 in 2010, he was the second youngest person to get elected in history of the House of Representatives (beat by another home school graduate who was elected the same year and is slightly younger than him).

Josh is a great example of the fruit of home schooling! It was thrilling to listen as he addressed everyone at the rally and so encouraging to see a young man willing to step out and do big, hard things for God in our country!

Meet TJ Schmidt, Oklahoma’s HSLDA’s attorney. HSLDA does an incredible job of helping protect our liberty to home school that is constantly being attacked and challenged.

After the inspiring rally, we met with our representative and senator – both of whom have eaten our homemade peach ice cream at the Stratford Peach Festival. :) Representative Hilliard and Senator Paddack are great at listening to constituents and representing us well.

And if that wasn’t politically inspiring enough for one week, we had the unexpected opportunity a few days later to attend a rally for presidential candidate Rick Santorum!!

John-Clay, Charity, Carinna, and I walked into the hotel room with seating for 600 that was basically full, except for some back row seats and reserved seating. We were just about to claim the back row, when a lady gave us a red streamer to go get seats in the reserved section…on the sixth row from the front!! We weren’t about to turn that offer down. (That’s the second time we’ve gotten a really nice deal when four of us kids were together…hmmmm. Kinda like this.)

 
J-C ran over to the front corner of the room to take a quick panoramic picture of the full crowd that was there, when suddenly everyone started clapping and cheering, and Rick Santorum entered the room from that corner and stepped right in front of John-Clay! All the photographers began snapping away with a very shocked J-C in the background. *chuckle*
 

With a very enthusiastic audience of about 1,000 supporters, Rick gave a bold, timely speech to the issues facing our nation.

He is definitely not afraid to say what he believes, especially when it comes to his faith in God.

 
“If there are no rights that government needs to respect, then what we see with ObamaCare is just the beginning of what government will do to you.”

“The Constitution is there to do one thing: protect God-given rights. That’s what makes America different than every other country in the world.”
-Rick Santorum

Several of us managed to squeeze to the front to get his signature and shake his hand. :) Santorum went on to a rally of 4,000 people in Tulsa – the biggest crowd his campaign had had so far.

This is not an endorsement for Rick Santorum, by the way. There are still lots of issues we are weighing between candidates, but Rick Santorum’s value for faith and family as the key to our nation’s strength is something that we greatly appreciate! And since our family will have a total of 7 voters by November, these important issues are a daily topic of discussion for us. :)

This election is crucial to the future of our nation and our families and the world. Research, study, pray! We have a responsibility to protect our God-given freedom for the next generation – don’t take it lightly.

“You will never know how much it cost our present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” 
–John Quincy Adams

January 31st was the last day of duck season and thanks to Granddad, we got to go huntin’. There was one duck on each of the three ponds, and we got them all. Thanks to Calli for retrieving them for us. :)

Maggie and I went home with Granny and Granddad for a week. We played games, “pulled” calves, hauled hay for the cows, played games, cleaned house, shot skunks that were getting into the cat food, played games, caught 11 fish between two trips, petted calves, put grease in the windmill, played games, took Calli to the ponds, took pictures, went out to eat for their 58th anniversary, and many more things.
Granddad’s breed of cows are known for having big calves. So we helped a couple cows by putting chains on the calf’s feet and pulling. Sometimes they’re bigger, and we have to use other means to pull. This cow could’ve had the calf by herself but it was getting dark, and we wanted it out, so we pulled it.
Granddad is putting the chains on the feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is about as fresh as you get!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maggie petting another calf we pulled. (while it was raining) :) The cow probably couldn’t have had this calf by herself. He was big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here he is a couple of days old.

 

Granddad wears striped overalls everyday.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me greasing the windmill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

          

Calli had lots of fun with their dogs. 

So far there’s seven calves.

As you can tell we had lots of fun!