Burnett Family

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!!!

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!

Three deer were harvested this year. Caleb killed two deer, a doe and a 93 pound, eight point buck, and I (Carinna) killed a 95 pound, eight point buck. My first buck! The difference was the size of the rack.: ) Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of Caleb’s deer. Benjamin got a squirrel at my Grandparents on Thanksgiving. He’s pretty proud of it. We smoked it with the ham, and it was really good!

Although deer season is over, duck season is in full swing.

   

As you can tell we like to hunt, and it makes for some good eatin’!

Happy New Year!

Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of year! We have some really fun traditions, I love being with family, plus I get to bake … A LOT! :) No, really, I think you’ll be able to see why it’s so special to me after you look at all these pictures – enjoy!

 

The twins and I got to accompany some friends to Branson earlier this month. There’s a lot I could say, but to sum it all up, we had a VERY good time! A big highlight was that we unexpectedly all got free tickets to Silver Dollar City-it was so pretty all decorated up for Christmas, and the roller-coasters were terrifying  great!

 

When we got back home, most of our family got to sing and play for the sweet folks down at the Senior Citizen Center here in town.

Tradition: We always go Christmas caroling to our neighbors, and around town. (including the local police station and sometimes to random folks we’ve never met =) Our list is getting bigger. It seems to be a real blessing to others, but sometimes I think we are the ones who feel the most blessed by it.

As I said earlier, we did LOTS of Christmas baking. =)

Christmas caroling.

 

Tradition: For several years now, mom has put together a themed Christmas tea for just our family. This year the theme was ornaments. She did an AMAZING job with spazzy decorations and lots of good food – we all really enjoyed it!

 

After the tea, Dad read from a Christmas devotional, then we opened stockings and presents. With both the older boys working, and well, I guess some us girls have taken plenty of trips this year, it makes me appreciate even more when we can all be together – I love my family.

 

For the first time, our little church group held a Christmas Eve candlelight service, complete with beautiful carols and formal dresses. It was lovely.

  

We were encouraged to memorize Luke 2:1-20, this was a blessing to me.

 

Tradition: Daddy writes up our annual Christmas letter. We sent out 106 copies this year! :)

We had a special time celebrating at Grandma’s house on Christmas day after church. We are so blessed to have godly grandparents who live close and love the Lord.

A few of us did some duck hunting, we got…one. :) (Carinna didn’t hunt, she brought our dog to retrieve the ducks, and Dad carried a rifle hoping we’d spook a doe.)

Some special things we do at Grandma’s on Christmas is: Eat Grandpa’s amazing chex-mix and open stockings.

  

We taught and learned some new games this time. It was fun and we had some pretty good laughs! =)

 

On the 26th, we drove up north a little ways to welcome the Paine family to Oklahoma. They are moving here from Chicago. We had a great time fellowshipping, playing volley- ball, and playing games. We are glad they live “close” and are definitely looking forward to the next time we can get together with them!

On the 27th we celebrated with mom’s side of the family at Granny’s house.

Yay! We remembered to sing carols this year! :)

It’s pretty fun, there are 5 great-grandkids now, which means there are little people around again! =)

 

The winners of a game with their prizes. :)

Twins holding twins. Carinna has Nickolas Patrick and Maggie has Natalie Shae.

 

Special traditions at Granny’s are: Eating her delicious homemade cinnamon rolls and playing white elephant.

“ And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

The Christmas season is in full swing at the Burnett household! Multiple mysterious packages in the mail, baked goodies, LOTS of Christmas music, daily Christmas family devotionals, Braums eggnog :), and plenty of red toenails. ;)

Assembling our nine-foot Christmas tree! We won’t say how long it took Charity and Hannah to figure it out without Dad. :)

 

Some dear neighbors of ours, who we carol to every Christmas, moved to an assisted living facility this past year, so we took our caroling down to them!

Abbie has worked up some lovely violin solos to play this month.

It’s so fulfilling to reach out as Jesus would to the widows, the forgotten, and the lonely! We were just as blessed as the residents were.

 
Girls’ quintet – “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”

Carinna worked really hard to be able to play a duet arrangement of “Silent Night” with Hannah. They are planning to perform it at least 3 times this month.

In a couple weeks, we’ll be doing our annual caroling around the neighborhood, which is always a highlight for us…not because of our singing ;), but because we have seen God use it over and over again to demonstrate His love to the individuals around us who are hurting, spiritually hungry, and hard to reach.

 

Look around – who does Jesus want you to reach out to this Christmas? Sometimes the best opportunities are right under your nose.

God is working in unseen ways, everywhere, ALL the time. Don’t miss the privilege He offers you of joining Him in that work!

“…because as He is, so are WE in this world.”
1 John 4:17b