Burnett Family

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

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! =)