Thursday, December 29, 2016

An Online New Year's Letter from our Family to Yours!

An online New Year Letter from our Family to Yours!:)

This year has been filled with many exciting events for our household!

As Sean and I were looking back the other day we are amazed at how much we squeezed into one year with five kiddos in tow! Sean is still busy with his job at Hornady Manufacturing where he is the Director of Operations. He oversees manufacturing and really enjoys what he does. He spent a week hunting in Southern Missouri with Easton and Weston. They killed a buck, and the boys are proudly displaying the antlers in their room! He was also in three different archery leagues over the course of the year and has enjoyed spending time at the archery club here in town. Sean’s mother, Karen, passed away in October. Our family appreciated everyone’s kindness during that time.

Jocelyn turned 11 this summer and started 6th grade! She has developed a love for shooting archery. She is very competitive and has enjoyed winning a few competitions this past year. She was selected as the shooter of the year for our counties 4-H program and received Grand Champion for Archery! She played soccer at the beginning of the year, but has switched gears and is now in dance. When not shooting archery and dancing around, she enjoys crafting, baking, cooking, hanging out with friends, and playing with her baby brother.

Katelyn turned 9 this year and started the 4th grade! Like Jocelyn she also loves archery and dancing. She is not the most coordinated person, but we have been really impressed at how she did at their first dance recital. She worked so hard and did so well! She has also done great at several archery tournaments. She played softball over the summer. In her free-time she enjoys cooking gourmet egg recipes and baking mug cakes, crafting, hanging out with friends, talking, reading, and making slime!

Easton turned 7 and is in the 2nd grade! He loves building anything he can think of with his Legos and K’nex pieces. He amazes me as to what he creates. He is my “Johnny on the spot” and is always around to help with whatever needs to get done. He is such a hard worker, I miss him when he is not around! He also loves archery and has become quite good at it. He played soccer and baseball this past year and really enjoyed those sports.

Weston turned 6 last month and is in Kindergarten! He is learning how to read and is doing great at addition and subtraction in school. He is our shy one, but when he gets to talking, he never stops! He played soccer this past year and has developed a love for swimming. He has taken a while to get used to use shooting archery, but over these past few weeks he has improved by leaps and bounds—and is hitting the target on most shots! In his free-time he loves doing bike stunts, roller blading, playing with Lego people, playing with friends, and going on bike rides.

Landon turned one in October! He has been a delight and is such a good baby! He is a little spitfire though and keeps us on our toes. He is always on the go and it seems like he never stops! He loves food, shooting his play bows, sweeping, playing ball, and playing with his brothers and sisters!

I am busy with homeschooling the kids and keeping the house running. I started my third year coordinating a Christian homeschool co-op! It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun in return. I also learned how to shoot a bow and had a wonderful time shooting in various 3-D shoots around Nebraska. In my free-time….Oh wait…what free-time! I wouldn’t trade staying home with the kiddos for anything!

This past year was a year of discovering a new activity for the kids and me. It is fun to have something to do as a family! We also enjoyed a vacation in Colorado, a trip to a Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas, and lots of various fun things scattered throughout!

We have been blessed this past year and cannot thank our Lord Jesus Christ enough for providing us with a daily assurance, that even though we enjoy (for the most part) our life here
on Earth that something better is waiting for us.

For by HIS GRACE we are SAVED through FAITH in our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

With Love, Sean, Julie, Jocelyn, Katelyn, Easton, Weston & Landon McGee

Monday, December 12, 2016

Busy days!

We have had a busy month with lots of different things going on! We joined our Science museum again and the kids have enjoyed some of the homeschool classes over the past two months.  We took a year off from these classes, because they are kind of pricey if you are not a member.  
This past week the class was about levers, pivots, and catapults.  Each child made a little catapult and had a paper ball war at the end.  It was a great time.
The girls had their first dance recital.  It was a lot of work to prepare for it, but they both did a great job.  They are getting ready for competiton season and are traveling as far as Rochester.  They are pretty excited!
My parents are abandoning us once again and heading south, so we had them over for a nice lunch...along with my sis!
They also babysat the kids so Sean and I could go to his work party and party hard until 10pm...lam-o.  We are getting old!  The party was nice though!
The kids also made gingerbread houses.  I had a chiro appointment and I came home to Joc coordinating this activity.  They turned out pretty good!
Of course archery is keeping us busy!  The kids go shoot usually 2-3 times a week and Sean shoots quiet a bit.  We got awards form the quad shoot that we shot this past Spring/Summer.  I even got a plaque!  Landon is holding it in the pic!
We volunteer at a nursing home.  This month the kids read to the residents and some even read to us.  We also watched a VHS tape of Bing Crosby singing....interesting, but the residents enjoyed it.
I taught the girls how to sew a pair of shorts.  Both of the girls would like to be in the 4-H fashion show this next summer.  They have been out of town for the past 2 years, so we are hoping they will be around this year!
Landon is keeping us busy!  He turned 14 months today!  
Some days we do school on the road...like spend the day at the Science Center doing Science or doing home-ec like making gingerbread houses and cleaning!  We do actual school as well, but I haven't taken very many pics.  I did have a flashback moment of my keyboard teaching days...I was giving Easton a verbal keyboard test and had him cover his hands while typing.  He did pretty good on the test!
Whelp that is our last few weeks in a nut shell!     

Pamper yourself Spa party!

A few weeks ago while three of our boys were away hunting the girls threw a spa party.  They invited a few of their homeschooling friends over, planned some activities, made food, and put me in charge of painting nails!  I am not into this whole beauty thing...but I did my best to stay in the lines...a little!  It was a nice little get together!
     

Weston Turned 6!

I am a bit late with posting this...but Weston turned 6 a few weeks ago!  We really timed his birth during the wrong time of year because it is always around Thanksgiving...but we did our best to celebrate! Weston was my brown hair little baby eskimo.  I had wanted a brown headed child...and I got it!  He was a chunky, monkey--weighing in at 11 lbs!   He is our shy little guy out in public--but trust me he does talk...and is full of stories.  He loves playing with legos, doing bike tricks, rollerblading, playing with his brother and friends, hunting, and shooting archery.  He wanted cupcakes and a lego tower decorated with lego people--so that is what he did.
We had my friend Becky's family over for his favorite lunch-hot dogs and chips!  
For dinner he wanted to go to Raising Canes and then in the evening we went to archery and he handed out cookies to everyone.