Burnett Family

A couple weekends ago, we had a family get-together at Granny and Granddad’s for a cousin who was visiting from Florida. Family is such a special, God-given blessing!!

This has been the most beautiful Oklahoma fall that we can remember having in a long time!

*Cousins*   

Granddad’s dogs have always been a special part of the farm.

You can’t really tell from this picture, but the metal chair Benj is sitting in just decided it was tired of holding people up and kind of gave way, bending back nearly to the ground! Benj decided it made a great, natural recliner. :)

 
Shooting skeet was a blast. Of course, Granddad showed us all up! He’s a pro.

Cousin-in-law and cousin :) – Les and Julie are so much fun!

 
All of us girls love to shoot. I’m the only one left who hasn’t hunted yet, but I hope to remedy that in the near future. ;) Deer season is in full swing right now around here – one doe down and hopefully more to come!

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, we find our hearts full of awe and gratefulness to the Lord for His work in our lives this year! He is so good!!

Ten things we are thankful for…
1. Open doors for many of us to travel and serve the Lord.

2. The gentle way that God prepares our hearts for unexpected turns in the path of life.

3. Our WHOLE family was able to make the trip to Michigan and host the Journey Reunion.

4. All the special people that came through our humble abode this year. :)

5. Growing relationships with our neighbors.

6. Deepening unity in our family.

7. Provision of the Lord for our family’s needs.

8. Protection in many, many ways…I have been on 8 trips this year, not to mention everyone else in the family!

9. Good health – Abbie has been well from mono for about one year now. Praise God!!

10. The privilege of being a part of the work God is doing in the hearts of people!

What are YOU praising God for today?

“From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same
the LORD’s name is to be praised.”
Psalm 113:3

When you have this many people, I guess it takes ALOT of stuff. ;)

 

 

Notice their big smiles? They REALLY enjoyed their lunch! (smirk ;)

 

If ya’ll ever go camping, you HAVE to try this one! First, cut a big slit across the top of a banana, then fill it with butter, chocolate bar, nutella, peanut butter, and marshmellows, then roast it over the fire and consume.

Abbie and Hannah trying to come up with new roasted concoctions… :)

Gotta love singing your heart out around the campfire. =D

We enjoyed catching a lot of fish-perch, crappie, and bass.

      

Now that is what I call FRESH fish! This stuff was amazing!

Granny and Granddad (mom’s parents) joined us on Saturday, and greatly contributed to the loads of fun we had!

The hiking trail we went on was stunningly gorgeous! Near the end of the trail was this beautiful view of the lake.

…take notice of the storm clouds rollin’ in…

There was a really cool water dam near the camp ground we climbed, it was pretty epic!

We sang from the top… :)

  

On Saturday afternoon/evening/night :), the big adventure came – in the form of a STORM. Thank the Lord, those of us who were out hiking made it back in time before it hit. Knowing that a storm was coming, and that our big tent leaks (from past experience :) Mom, and others took out some stuff and piled it in the van, so it wouldn’t get all wet.  As the storm quickly approached, we snarfed down our supper, finished filleting the fresh catch of fish, Granny and Granddad headed back, and we all piled in the vehicles to take refuge, all except for J-C and Caleb who stayed in their tent to hold it down.

This is a 15 second video, of a 30 minute time lapse to show you how quick this thing came!

As the rain poured, it lightening and thundered, we waited and waited, Dad checked the weather on his phone, we phoned called and walkie-talkied each other back and forth to give each other updates…and ate good comfort food like chips and cookies…:) As we watched the wind pick up, we started wondering if our big tent, which we’ve had since Charity was 6 weeks old,(17 1/2 years) was gonna survive, so we got out and put more stuff in the van, shortly after, the wind whisked it up, right in front of our eyes and blew it into a tree!!! …so glad we took that stuff out! We found out the wind probably got up to about 60 mph!

We were very thankful that the baseball size hail didn’t hit us! Meanwhile, Granny and Granddad were having a VERY difficult time getting home. With the Lord’s protection they finally made it.

Now that it was very dark (round 10:00) and 6 of our sleeping places were slightly unavailable   GONE, Mom and Dad decided that the girls should all sleep in the van and Mom sleep in the car.

A spur-of-the-moment sister sleep-over in the…VAN…of all places!!! What a night!

 

 

The ol’ tent gone kasplat. Guess it was time for a new tent anyway. =)

 

Sunday we attended this local church, did some more hiking and fishing, and a lot of rearranging and packing-up. Our stuff needed a lot of organizing after last night.

On our way home, those in the car barely missed having a head-on collision driving on a two-lane road. They topped a hill and saw a car coming from the other direction erratically drive in their lane, to the shoulder and grass, and back to their lane. Not knowing where the car was going to end up, mom didn’t know what to do. She stayed in her lane, and the car stayed on the shoulder coming the wrong way, passing within 6 inches of the car. They think they heard the other car scraping the guard rail, and then it zipped right back in with the line of cars that it came from.  We are praising the Lord for His hand of protection and guardian angels!

Needless to say, after such a dramatic weekend, it was a very good feeling to be home ALL TOGETHER, ALIVE, WELL, AND SAFE, and in our own beds again. :) I don’t think we’ll ever forget that memorable camping trip.

Until next time…

happy trails! =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past weekend, on the first day of fall, we celebrated! Boy has it been a hot, dry, Indian summer here, and the cool weather and rain the Lord has blessed us with have been wonderful! With the wonderful arrival of this season came a great excuse reason to cook up a bunch of fun food! ;) It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. I’ve included links for all the recipes we made, in case anyone is interested. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ya get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. =)

 

Pumpkin pie dip with pie crust “dippers”

 

Chicken Veggie Appetizers

 

Sweet Potato Cranberry muffins         Baked Coconut Shrimp

Saucy Meatballs                               Pesto Pinwheels

 

Caprese Skewers

Apple Pot Stickers                                  Sweet Onion Cheese Spread Hannah made

                                                                this, and it was one of my favorites!!!

Bacon Wrapped Tator Tots Out of all the food, this one was a big hitter!

Along with the normal version of the Tator Tot recipe (cheese and tabasco), I also tried the variation with a pickle and dipped it in brown sugar, and those were REALLY good!

 

Holiday Bark                                             Fried Corn Balls

Turtle Tassies

 

The faithful dish-washers. :)

Happy Fall Ya’ll! =)

Our family LOVES this time of the year!

Just want you to know, this picture doesn’t do justice to our legendary pile of leaves. It was HUGE! ;)

Charity will demonstrate one way to do it…

=) So.much.fun.

A few neighbor kids came over and joined us in the raking and jumping party!

We are blessed. Thank You, Lord.

Almost all of the cousins made it to Thanksgiving at Grandma’s! We were only missing two in this picture. Food, games, food, sleep, hunting, food, games, egg nog, food….

Is there any such thing as cousins who aren’t CrAzY?

Charity and Abbie making pear sauce out of Highway 59 pears. :) This stuff is really yummy!

Ducks! (Pre-jerky)

Carinna’s “button buck” – we eat a lot of venison around here.

Anybody else like to switch out their wardrobes when the weather changes?? It’s always a much-anticipated event for us girls.

Down came the fall decor and up went the Christmas tree, the day after Thanksgiving! By the way, the tree isn’t bent. I was tipping the top section over so I could wire the bow on. :)

Look forward to more Christmas happenings…it’s a full, fun, and blessed time of year for the Burnetts!

The End.

*chuckle*