Burnett Family

With summer comes fun times with family, homemade ice cream, hot weather, travel, and…lots and lots of FRIENDS! This summer has been no exception, as we have gotten many chances to get together with old friends and meet new ones.

When we traveled to Indy, Joe and Jerica Henline met us at Skyline – a Cincinnati restaurant that serves a signature chili. We had a great time catching up with Joe and Jerica and talking about their newest project – a short film entitled, The Forgotten Martyr: Lady Jane Grey.

Note: This isn’t your typical chili…it contains chocolate and cinnamon! I made it a little more Oklahoma-ish by eating it over fries instead of spaghetti noodles. :)

Next – Abbie’s good friend, Laura, was in OK for a week, so we drove up to the City and went to Cimarron for chicken fried steak!

Laura and Abbie spent a lot of time together coordinating the CI’s this summer and became great friends…with the specialty of solving all the world’s problems late at night. ;)

A few weeks ago, all of us girls attended a 2-day youth conference called Ultimate Quest. UQ began in Australia and is touring the States for the first time this summer. We came away thoroughly blessed and challenged!! This team does an incredible job of presenting Truth in an interesting and impacting way. Just the fact that you get to sit and listen to an amazing Australian accent the whole time makes it easy and fun to listen to! :) Each leader has a passionate desire to help young people make wise choices and follow God’s ways…because His ways WORK. UQ is highly recommended by our family. :)

Maggie and Carinna’s team

Mine and Abbie’s team  – we didn’t get a picture of Charity’s team. :(

 
What would you think if a total stranger from Alaska (blog reader) contacted you about stopping for a visit on their way to Texas?? Well, after asking a few questions :), we were happy to host Barrie for a visit, admiring her bravery to STAY with total strangers! But actually, I don’t think there are any such things as “strangers” when you’re talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you have never met each other before. We had a grand time learning about her family, beating her in Dutch Blitz playing lots of fun games =D, listening to her crazy adventures of missionary life overseas, and talking about the amazing way God leads us when we give all to Him.

Does anybody recall our gingerbread house competition with the Fortune family last Christmas? :) We’re still friends even after that (haha), and were soooo excited to see them on their singing tour here in Oklahoma!

Our grandparents’ church hosted them here in town for a Sunday night service. Once again, we were so blessed by their testimony and music. The Lord speaks through them in a powerful way!

Keeping up the tradition of fellowshipping at Braum’s. :) Lots of talking, pictures, teasing, sharing, and encouragement!

Fortune and Burnett girls – we outnumber the guys 2 to 1. :)

So, there’s a much-needed update on what’s been going on around here in the month of August! We have more things to tell you soon…so stay tuned. Until then, thank the Lord for the wonderful FRIEND that He is to you and the special friends He has put in your life. :)

WARNING: This post contains lots of pictures. Just click on one if you want to see more detail.

Competition always adds a little spice to life, right? (No pun intended – *grin*) Our good friends, the Fortune family, and us have a running game of whose family can beat who. First, we had the “who can build the biggest snowman” contest, which WE legally won. Next, our family automatically took the prize for the largest pile of raked leaves, because…they didn’t have any leaves to rake around their house. :) Then, we came up with the brilliant idea of having a “who can make the best gingerbread house” competition! We picked the same day to make our creations with midnight as the deadline. Everything had to be edible, and no looking at any pictures of other gingerbread houses to get ideas!

With much anticipation, excitement, and wondering what each others families were building, we meticulously drew house plans, gathered creative supplies, and went to work. Throughout the day, we sent taunting emails and pictures of everything BUT our prized projects back and forth!

The Fortunes shocked us with this picture of all their candy!!! Looks like they’re planning to get really creative.

By the end of the day, they had made 11 batches of gingerbread and over 20 batches of royal icing, compared to our 3 batches of gingerbread and around 9 batches of icing. Wow.

One story of the “structure” almost done…_____ to go.

Let’s check out how the Burnetts are doing…

The porch construction crew – it was a big plus to have a real construction worker helping us out. Thanks, Caleb! :)

Guess what we had for supper?

Just kidding. ;)

Of course, we took great pains to make sure the pictures we sent to our rivals didn’t give anything away!

“Aerial view” of our family table. :) We pretty much took over the kitchen.

Waffle cones make exceptional additions to your scene. Carinna developed a great method for creating very realistic trees.

After HOURS and HOURS of work, we finally finished our masterpieces soon after midnight and sent pictures of our works of art to each other.

Okay, are you ready for the final results?? Here we go.

Announcing the Fortunes’…

WALT DISNEY CASTLE!!

TOTALLY impressive! This castle reaches 40 inches high!!

They built a walkway all the way through the castle with a mural on each inner wall.

Here you can see the making of the 9-inch Mickey Mouse mural.

Tinker bell, made out of candy clay – very creative.

Well done, Fortune family!! You get the prize for the most elaborately decorated and impressive structure. =)

And now for the Burnetts’…

CABIN IN THE NORTH WOODS!

Welcome to our cabin! Abbie wound all the “Christmas lights” on the entry way and porch posts.

This is what Christmas is all about, folks! Maggie made the nativity figures out of candy and gingerbread dough.

Would you believe the mailbox is made out of a marshmallow?? Carinna did a great job on this.

The porch is one of our favorite aspects of the scene. Notice the details! Abbie made the pretzel rocking chair and Charity created the holly hedges. *So cute*

Meet Mr. Frosty…is he winking at you? ;)

Now, we’ll take you ‘round back.

Every nostalgic cabin needs an outhouse and a woodpile. :)

Here’s Ole Nose nappin’ in front – another product of Maggie’s gingerbread dough artwork.

Credit for this part of the scene goes to Carinna! She put a lot of effort into the jello pond that is set in a basin of icing, surrounded by evergreens, with a sled in front. That’s exactly how we sled around here…down Grandpa’s pond dam. :)

I have a “thing” for old trucks, so I built this one out of graham crackers. This is our other favorite element of the scene! Can’t have a country cabin without a truck…

…and a FORD, at that! No other comment needed. ;)

We gave ourselves a ribbon :) for the most realistically detailed gingerbread house that tells a meaningful story.

Well, we hope you enjoyed that summary of our contest from “Fortunett Competitions”! (Did you get that?) We already came up with a r-e-a-l-l-y good idea for next time, so watch out, guys!!

Now, go have fun on a yummy project with YOUR family. :)