What's been going on???

I have been lazy about posting on here the last few months.  My new camera takes FOR-EV-ER to upload a picture to this blog site and forget about ever seeing another video on here because the HD videos from my camera seem to be too high of a resolution to even use on this blog.  So  I am here to make a quick deposit of "recent" pictures.  I'll come back soon with stories, but for now what you see is what you get!

One of the baby calves born this past month

Momma and baby bonding

Eli, Ethan, Emly, and Abigail
at Jump Sky High indoor trampoline house



Lil' Brandon and project for school



Abigail and a cow skull-she enjoyed
pulling it's teeth-morbid, but true!



Have you ever seen cows stand at attention?



Me and my cousin Sheila-hadn't been able to catch up with her since she moved to Rockingham over a year ago.  We went down for her little boys 3rd birthday and got to catch up a little!

Sheila and the birthday boy Colton.



Me, Sheila, and all of our kids!

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Saturday Night Burnette Family Party

Last night we rented the movie Zookeeper and had a family night.  I was working on my scrapbooking and the girls folded out the sleeper sofa in the living room.  We had a fire in the basement, but Brandon was still cold so the girls fixed Daddy up.  (See pictures)  Yes they are Grinch pajamas, Maria the Aristocat, bunny slippers, Elmer Fudd hat, and a cup of coffee! HAHA!  We had a good time and actually ended up watching a second movie, Are we there Yet.   FUN TIMES. FUN TIMES.

Here is a picture of kids Saturday during the day.  Who would have thought we would have sunny 70 degree in January?  Kids played what they call "beach bums", but they ended up having to wear jackets over there bathing suits!

I had been walking and I came back and saw Abigail decked out in knee pads, a pool kick board, and a bicycle helmet.  She looked like a turtle!  So funny.  Wouldn't trade these days with my nutty family for anything!

Here are pictures of Abigail dressed as a cowboy today.

2011 Look Back

Well here it is 2012 already. Where did 2011 go? We all ask this question as the year ends, but as me and my family look back we know where it went. We spent the year either having the time of our lives or trying to keep our heads above water. Literally it is sink or swim around here.  There were a lot of "firsts" happenings with us this past year.  Hang on and I will try to give a quick synopsis of how things went for us.


January 2011 we sold 10 goats at Monroe sale barn and the kids pocketed them a huge wad of cash in their pockets.




In February Brandon got his 1st speeding ticket ever.  He was only going 70 in a 55.  No big deal- a couple of phones calls, and several hundred dollars later and he had a lawyer take care of it for him.  He drove like a grandma for a while until the scare wore off!


We had been toying with the idea of going to Disney World and we began searching for rates and deals and best times to go. We booked in February and went the beginning of March. We checked them out of school on a Tuesday and spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the 4 parks at Disney. The kids (and us) can back empty pocketed, but have the trip of a lifetime under our belts.


April I had surgery to repair my “leaky” belly button. To you that don’t know this story, it’s not really something you need to hear about in detail. Boy am I glad I did have it fixed! 
Easter week I took the girls to the Whitewater Center so they could do the ropes courses and the ziplines.  This was the first time they had ever done anything like this and they loved it!  Emily was sore for several days after.  She is not known for her physical abilities, but this was something she did well at. 


We got the leaky belly button fixed so as Spring approached we had to conquer the problem of our chimney and roof leaking. We found out in October of 2010 that we had a problem and we began “fixing” this and “fixing” that, but it didn’t help our problem so by May we were faced with the dilemma of tearing all the stone off of our chimney, the siding off that side of the house, and waterproofing the area that seemed to be having the problem. Our contractor knew we had a problem when we built the house, but he thought he had fixed it. So here we are 3 ½ years into a new house and we found out our chimney was rotted under the stone. We did get the contractor to by supplies, but Brandon didn’t trust anyone to actually do the work so he did it himself.



This Spring we started going to a new church.  We now go to New Life in Locust.  DIfferent kind of church experience than normal, but seems to keep us coming back.  They have lots of groups and good activities for the kids. 



We spent most of March, April, and May worrying about them shutting down our kids' school.  We were granted 1 more year and are coming up on another crucial time for the school system to make some decisions


Abigail won the Superintendents Award for her class and she also got an "most Likely to Run an Organic Farm" award.  How cute!  That comes from all the time she has spent around Maw Maw Kaye in her immaculate raised vegetable beds.


My nephew graduated from High School and took a job that led him out to Utah for 6-8 weeks at a time so that was a good new beginning for him to experience.


When school let out in June we bought Abigail’s birthday present early (the Bansai waterslide) and we invited different kids over every week and put the slide up for them to play on. We had a birthday party and made everybody sit out in the 100 degree heat while the kids played with the water stuff. We got our money out of the slide by summer end.


In July we got an invitation from one of our friends to come with her to race car driver Marcos Ambrose's house to go swimming and of course we had to go!  He wasn't there because he was in Daytona for the race, but that was OK, we enjoyed his pool anyway!
In August we went on our summer vacation with the Johnson family.  We went back to Georgia where we spent vacation 2009 with them.  This is starting to become a tradition since we generally only get to see them at an occasional softball game and on our mandatory New Year Eve party every year. 


Both Emily and Abigail got saved at church this summer also.  We are really proud of them and hope they continue to love church and learn more about God.


In October my car got 252,000 miles on it and decided to work its little headbolts loose on us.  We thought motor was blown, but it was only the headbolts.  We went ahead and had it rebuilt anyway.  The motor went out on October 10 and on October 14 I hit a deer with Brandon's Mustang.  During the previous week Brandon had torn down his truck to replace the clutch, the catalytic converter, and get a new exhaust system put on.  So... here we were with all 3 of our insured vehicles unusable.  We dashed to get my old truck back on the road with insurance and inspection and we borrowed my moms' 4-Runner till all could be fixed.  This was a very stressful month but we took a break Halloween weekend and went to Rick's cabin with the Austin family.  This too is becoming a tradition of ours. 


November brought around Emily's 10th birthday!  WOW!  We had a party and she invited 3 friends from school to spend the night and we ended up taking 3 more girls that were siblings of 1 of the invited girls.  We had an hilarious night with the all 8 girls.  Brandon was outnumbered 1 to 9!  We stayed up till after 1am and got up early for a tour of the "farm". 


Thanksgiving week flew by and sent us speeding into the Christmas month.  The last weekend of November my cousin had a toilet emergency on a Sunday night.  Brandon wanted me to go with him but I had just got out of the shower.  So we haul the kids out on a school night, me in my pajamas and flip flops over to her house.  He had to crawl under there house and he messed with a clean out valve and in the process he tore his jeans and got human waste on him.  He gave up and told her she was going to have to call my dad the next day.  So it was 10:30 when we left and we saw deer 1/2 mile from home.  We were almost completely stopped when we literally "bumped" the deer and it fell over and we rolled over it. We came to a skidding stop on the  its' back legs and it was kicking and hollering underneath the truck.  It pulled itself with its front 2 legs back towards the field  and Brandon jumped out of the truck and went and tackled it.  I had to go home for the gun and then Brandon used his 1 and only shell on it and missed.  It had begun to rain and I was in a brier patch in flip flops with pajamas on.  We had to load the deer in the truck and take it home to shoot it.  I drove and Brandon held the injured and fighting deer in the bed of the truck.  Boy are we rednecks...


December Brandon made a large purchase of 25 beef cows.  His plan is to send the kids to college with his profits, but hopefully we will get something in turn for it along the way too!  His hobby has gone from just chickens, pigs, and goats to a herd of hungry eat you out of house and home cows too!  We sold 15 goats early in the month, but had to turn around and put all that money into tires for the goat hauling trailer and for trailer repairs on there regular trailer, so that was pretty much a wash.


Abigail decided in December that she wanted to take ice skating lessons, so that is her new adventure.  Stay tuned for pictures of that...


Brandon and I went on our annual trip to Charleston the 1st week of December for our Oyster Crawl as I like to call it.  We walked and ate, the walked some more and then ate some more.  We love Charleston in the winter time.  This year we greeted by nice 70 degree weather which was perfect for exploring the city. 


As you can see we have had a very eventful year.  I don't know if this is good or bad.  I hope that 2012 brings us a little less of the harsh events and maybe a little more of the relaxing ones.

Charleston Get Away

We spent this past weekend in Charleston SC at the Lodge Alley Inn.  We go here every winter as a quick get away and to do some Christmas shopping done without the kids being with us.  We left Saturday after leaving the kids with Brandon's mom and came back late Monday night.  We always enjoy going to Pearlz (oyster bar) and Toast (a restaurant that has amazing breakfast).  We walk and eat and then walk some more and then eat some more when we are in Charleston.  Saturday when we got there we walked down to the market and looked at all the locals trying to sell their goods and we walked out to the Waterside Park to look at the Port area.  We watched a Carnival cruise ship leave out of the port that evening and we wished we were on it!  I need to get with the program and schedule us our next cruise.  Sunday we went out to Sullivans Island and walked the beach .  We had a nice long walk and enjoyed the 70 degree weather.  We saw ships coming in and out and when even saw several groups of dolphins playing out from where we were.  It was a beautiful day for exploring.  We also walked the Cooper River Bridge this time we were there and it was an experience.  Brandon is afraid of heights which made it funny. It is a great workout because it is a huge long up and then long hill down coming back.  People were running it and biking it with way too much seriousness if you ask me.  Professionals I would say.  It is a nice experience, but I wouldn't want to make it part of my daily routine because the exhaust coming from all the traffic is horrible and can't be good for your lungs and the noise is extremely loud also.  I took pictures against Brandon's will.  He said Homeland Security was going to come get me for taking pictures of a bridge structure.  This bridge was just opened in 2005 and it is quite impressive.  It's neat that they constructed a pedestrian pathway on one side so that you could actually walk it and enjoy the views from that high up. 
Monday morning we walked for 30 minutes to try to find a restaurant open.  Our 1st two choices were closed and we ended up going back to Toast for a second morning in a row, but it is always good so we didn't mind.  We headed out towards home and hit Sam's, Wal-Mart, Target, Hobby Town, and a few other favorites on the way.  We picked up a few Christmas presents, but we are no where near being done.  I love Christmas, but I really hate shopping for people too.  So here it is Monday night and I have to get geared up for work tomorrow and a busy couple of weeks coming up.  I have a work Christmas party to make something for this week, we are going to sale some goats Wednesday night, and we are killing a pig Friday to put in the freezer.  Saturday I have a women's Christmas dinner to go to and the list goes on and on until the end of the year.  We are slammed packed with plans, but that is always fun to look forward to something coming up.    

Brandon at his best on vacation



Us on our balcony at Lodge Alley Inn

Enjoying a walk along the Battery

Our cute little bedroom

Our cute little living room

Me watching Brandon watch TV

Me contemplating all the important things in life

Brandon beside one of the cables on Cooper River Bridge

Me after an evening out

Lobby of the Lodge Alley Inn

Resting and watching dolphins

Me at our favorite restaurant Pearlz



Brandon enjoying his steamed oysters



Busy Weekend

We have had another marathon weekend.  Friday I was off work so I was off to go to the kids' school for cafeteria lunches.  Two of them.  I made a Wendy's run so they would have something different for lunch.  Abigail was first and we sat with 2 of her friends Colby and Danny.  Second lunch was with Emily and 2 of her friends, but we were quarantined to the opposite side of the cafeteria because we had "outside" food so we only got to sit with her friends the second half of lunch.  Haha! 
Friday night we had supper with Brandon's mom and the kids spent the night with her because Brandon and I both had to work Saturday.  Saturday after Brandon got home we turned around and went back to Charlotte for the Auto Show.  And no, I didn't take the camera there, so no pictures.  We left there and walked around downtown Charlotte and came across a Buffalo Wild Wings.  We stopped in for a late night supper.  We had seats right where Abigail could watch Ultimate fighting, a football game, and a Saw movie.  She somehow kept up with all 3 of the shows and would tell us when something exciting would happen.  She also informed me that the city had more tornadoes than out in the country where we live.  I have no idea where she heard this or even if it is true.  She was hoot that night for her adventure to the city.  It was like taking Ma Furr to the city, you get to see things in a different perspective. 

Sunday morning we went to church and left there and went to the Renaissance Festival.  The kids love it, but Brandon and I aren't really into it anymore.  We won tickets and that is really the only reason we made it this year.  Both of our girls "dressed" for the occasion and had fun.  I am always amazed at the stuff that can be purchased there.  This year for $20-30  you could have latex elf ears put onto the tops of your own ears and they would paint over to blend them in.  They looked awesome. but $20-30 bucks?!?  I mean really!!!  They also had a table of notepads and journals that had pieces of paper sewed into them.  Wow.  You could also pay $10 for a pint mason jar and put colored sand in it.   Nice.  I guess the camel ride for a family of 4 for $20 was a bargain, I don't know.  We did buy Abigail a belly dancer head piece with flowers on it and Emily got a huge feather ink pen.  We bought our normal Renaissance food-roasted corn, turkey leg, and pickle, but that was just about all we unloaded our money on.  Brandon made the comment that Denton Thresher's Reunion was his Renaissance Festival and there was something to actually look at there.  I am not big on that either.  I don't know what my "thing" is.  I guess I would rather someone give me a few hours for a Target, Kohls, and JCPenney trip...  Just think was those neat elf ears could buy me when I stacked my Penney's discount on my "Gold" Card!  I could get an entire outfit! 

Well I guess now we are going to gear up for Thanksgiving week.  There is so much to be thankful for.  We are healthy and have a roof over our heads.  We are so lucky to have a supportive family that helps us keep things moving forward.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Abigail fixing to take the jump



Their knight in shining armour. 
Isn't that cool-they had Chuck Taylor's during the Renaissance era? 



Abigail with her upside down headpiece...

Me and my 2 favorite "ladies"

Abigail at home in her belly dancer costume...

My Renaissance girl

Emily's 1st Concert-Thompson Square and Eli Young Band at the Fillmore

Here are a few pictures from last night show.  It was a wonderful acoustical performance by all of them.  Casey James, James Wesley, Eli Young Band, and Thompson Square. 

James Wesley

Thompson Square

Emily's 10th Birthday

We had a blast of a 3 day Holiday/Birthday weekend!  The kids were out of school Friday so I took off work. We scheduled her party for Saturday and had a few kids stay overnight.  I think we had about 35 people at the party and 6 girls spent the night with us. 3 of the girls are in Emily's class at school and the other 3 were siblings of one of the girls in her class.  Which ironically made 10 people overnight in the house for her 10th birthday!  We had BBQ and hotdogs and thankfully the weather was warm enough to send all the kids out on front porch for eating and all the guys seemed to stay out in the yard at the fire.  Even so we had a crowd of people stuffed in the house but it was worth it.   It made it hard to get around to spending time with everyone, but that is always the case when you have that many people around. 

The after party didn't end until 2 am when we finally got the 8 girls (ranging from 1st to 7th grade) to get calmed down enough to go to bed.  Brandon had told them that the Sasquach was outside and they had this thing where they kept running to the basement and screaming as they looked out into the blackness of the back yard.  The 7th grader got a creative idea to talk Julia into letting her borrow her camera phone to  take a picture so she tricked the younger ones and went and took a picture off the internet to use for scaring them.  So here it was 1 am and all these girls thought this thing was in the back yard.  I was thinking "this is just great-I'm trying to get them calmed down and Brandon is getting them riled up"  The 4 Bisson family girls are all about horror and scary stuff and mine are ok too, but I was worried about the other 2 girls and I eventually had to let them in on the internet picture part of the story.  So we all went to bed by 2 am or so and they were up between 8 and 8:30 am. YAY!  Haha!  But here again thank goodness the weather was good because by 10 am they were ready to go outside.  We went outside and did face painting and color hair spraying and they wanted to go see the animals so we walked over to the shop.  We fed the animals about 20 loaves of old bread and the kids got to see and feed the turkeys, goats, pigs, chickens, and horse.  Brandon ended up taking them down in the pasture to see a goat skeleton, he took them to the hay barn to gather grubs to go take to the chickens and then he went on a nature walk in the woods down by the creek.  It was like watching a teacher with his students-too cute!  They followed him around and listened to what he had to say.  Parents don't realize when they send there kids here that you will get science and nature lessons! 

All the parent were here by 12:30 to pick up their girls and by 1:30 we all were asleep here at the Burnette house.  The kids had a good 3 hour nap, I got 2 hours, and Brandon nodded off watching TV.  We decided it would be better to go get naps than to go out and go to Morrow Mountain or Dan Nicholas Park since we were all exhausted.  When we got our naps in we took Emily to her favorite restaurant, Sogos.  Then we took her to Wal-Mart and to Target to find some accessories for her Kindle that she got for her birthday.  Tomorrow is a big day too.  I am taking her to the Thompson Square and Eli Young Band concert tomorrow night and Brandon had to plan a movie night with Abigail.  They are going to go see Puss in Boots together that way she won't fill left out.  I had told Emily it was a standing room only concert (not a seated ticket venue) and Abigail kept telling Emily that she was going to a movie theater that had seats and Emily was going to have to stand all night.  It was too funny!  I have to say it has been one great weekend around here!  I am so thankful to have friends that took time to come celebrate with us. 

The Bisson sisters-what a handful!

Curtis Mountain 2011

We went to the mountains over the weekend with our friends.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.  Weather was cold but we didn't let that stop us!