Cookies & Snow

Sunday night's Family time - decorating and eating a few sugar cookies! Yummy!

And today's Blizzard's worth of snow! It was a lot of fun. Of course, Luke was really mad when I made him come in. I doubt the girls will have school tomorrow and am wondering how Michael is going to get out of the driveway to go to work... Maybe another Snow Day! :)

There are a lot more pictures in a slideshow and a video on my Picasa site. Click here to see!

If you check out many of my friends' blogs, you will notice similar pictures, but I just couldn't resist. Luke has decided that he's too big for his booster seat and wants to sit with the girls during meal time. Obviously, you can tell from the floor how successful this is. I don't remember why, but I had looked under the table (to see his mess?) and this is the adorable picture that I saw. I love it!

Two Princesses and a Monkey

Many thanks to CG for getting the only picture of my Ariel, Mulan and Monkey together. This is cropped from our T&T photo of 17 kiddos! There were so many awesome costumes this year. It was a fun time!!

Halloween Week

This last week has been a lot of fun and full of activities! We carved our pumpkins with the Missionaries on Monday night, the girls did the cutest Halloween dances at class on Tuesday (forgot the camera), both of them had school parties and LH's parade on Friday as well as the Ward's Trunk or Treat Friday night. On Saturday, RahRah & Poppa Hollywood came up for the weekend and we all went Trick or Treating for a bit Saturday night. Phew! It was busy! And that's my excuse for have almost no pictures! So if you have any pictures of my Monkey, Ariel, or Mulan, please send them my way!!

But the most exciting news of the week was Grace's first tooth came out. Thankfully - because the adult tooth was already growing up behind it! So no more 21 teeth in her mouth; she's back to just 20 as she as been telling us all day! I hope the Tooth Fairy is nice to her...

A mouth with 21 teeth

And a mouth with only 20

Top reasons why I don't have time to post

1. Buying fresh fruit & veggies at the local Farmer's Market.
2. Steaming, peeling, pureeing & freezing said fruit & veggies.
3. Baking homemade breads & cookies.
4. Reading with my son.
5. Playing Barbies with my daughters.
6. Hanging with my homies (ie. Darcy, Max & Addy and Lisa & Chloe).
7. Off visiting far away places (Granny & the Oesterles).
8. Raking leaves and jumping in them.
9. Knitting - a stocking, 2 hats, 3 mittens & one set of booties.
10. Reading "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley (Surprisingly good and not at all like the movies).
11. Saving frogs from freezing to death.
12. Making sure I see my hubby...

Celebrating Granny's 75th Birthday

Eating apples at the Orchard with the Oesterles (the little gal is Ellia).

Yes I made his hat, but we gave to Cousin Max, whose head is smaller.

And yes, Darcy did let Addy put the sprinkles on.

Purpose on Earth

Last week I was surprised to learn that Grace knows the real reason she was placed here in this family. Setting: Our van, Audrey's asleep, Luke's asleep, & Grace is wide awake (b/c she stayed home that day "sick").

JJ (holding a sleeping Audrey): Grace, will you be my big helper and bring Audrey's bag in please?
GJ (sighs and rolls her eyes): That's my purpose in life - to help you out.

I'm glad she at least knows why she's here!

Maddax Davis!

Maddax Davis Jolley join the Clan in August - after deciding not to share his mother's birthday with her! Everything went really well. He is most definitely EJ's son & Grandpa Pat's grandson! It's amazing!

Just wanted to show off another adorable bebe! (taken this week)

Another joins the ranks!

Tuesday night, I became the proud mother of not one, but TWO, ballerinas! Audrey started her first class of dance, with all the other little Tiny Tots. She had a wonderful time and knew exactly what the teachers were asking her to do! It was adoreable. Be sure to watch a little bit of her video. Don't worry, you'll be able to tell which one is her!


Grace also started Beginning Ballet & Tap classes on Tuesday night. She was super excited and has been walking around our place heel to toe all week. I'm sure she'll continue to enjoy it!

We've Grown!

For those of you who don't check Facebook, here are some pictures of last Sunday with the Oesterles. Their baby boy Beck was blessed, which brought Jolleys, Hartelys and Oesterles to the great city of PduC. :) It was fun and it's great to see our families together!

Grace (5), Ellia (2), Audrey (3.5), Addy (3)

Maddax (9 days), Luke (14.5 mo), Beck (1 mo)

Audrey's First day

Audrey has started a formal preschool this year and she absolutely loves it! She calls her head teacher, her "Grandma Teacher" and askes every day if she gets to go to school.

On her second day, after I said hi to her teachers, she looked up at me and said, "Can you go now?"

I'm not sure that I'm ready - but she sure is!!

Seriously?

One of my passions in life is to take a shower daily, by myself. Ask my husband, I'm very protective of my shower time. It is my time, maybe for the entire day. So this morning, after working with Luke to keep the shower door closed while I was showering (my foot was keeping it that way), he wondered off. As I was rinsing my face, I realized that it was suddenly cold on the southside. As I turned around, I had company.

In his jammies, no less.

Kindergarten - Already!!

Okay, I can believe that my baby has begun Kindergarten. She is so thrilled to be going to school and learning new things, although I know I won't be so thrilled about all the new things she'll learn. She loves it, so we are loving it. And that's all the news she tells us!

Grace came in at 6:30, dressed and ready to go. She spent the next 1.5 hr wearing her backpack, with it's cold lunch inside. So excited!
Our big Kindergartner

The crew on the first day of school 2009

At her desk, wanting me to leave. Can you believe that look already?!?

Her bus that brought her home.

And we survived!! :)

Busy Summer

Well, I haven't been very good about blogging this summer - too much happening! Here are a few highlights!
- Grace & Audrey took swimming lessons.
- Luke decided he didn't need to breath in the water - and just kept going.
- Momma finished Physical Therapy for her back - and got great legs in the process.
- Daddy ... didn't get to go fishin' or campin' or bikin' (his bike did get stolen though...) Poor Daddy!

The major highlights:
- Luke started walking and
- We MOVED into a bigger place!! Yeah! It's wonderful!

There is a park not far from our house and we ventured out Tuesday night to celebrate the end of summer. We've had a great one and are excited for this fall!!

YEAH!!

We've got at home phone service now!! YEAH!! :)

Never mind...

I guess it isn't working yet. Keep using our cell phone. Maybe tomorrow...

UP & Running!

Okay, this is brief. As most of you know, we've moved last week to a place across town.

If you'd like our new address, leave a comment and I'll get it to you.

Our phone number is still the same and is now ON! So, give us a call at home!!

Thanks for your help and thoughts!

Bubba's 1 Year Pix

Wonderful One Year pix of our favorite little guy. He was having fun, just not when the camera caught him. We finally started bribing him to stay with Cheerios... hence, the funny faces.

My favorite is the bottom one!

Introducing...

My MOM!

My mom has been added as an author of our blog, because she loves to give comments and occassionally has a correction to make in my story-telling.

Welcome Mom! :)

oops! how did that happen? do tell, love, mom

wow, finally here I am. I love having your blog as our home page! Thank you for doing such a great job writing, photographing and presenting the times of your lives! love, mom

Happy 1st Birthday Luke!!

Stats:

Date: 06/19/09

Height: 27.75"

Weight: 18 lb. 1 oz.

Luke celebrated his first birthday this week. With RahRah, Poppa Hollywood, Uncle Patrick, Aunt Julie, Gma Vickie and Poppa Frank spending the night after Grace's dance performance, we decided that Sunday would be a wonderful day to celebrate (along with Uncle Chris' birthday too!). I made Luke a Cookie Monster cake - which turned out pretty good, if I say so. Much thanks to Miss Charity for the pan and the coloring. (This is the second cake she's missed making for my kids.... :-P )


Luke wasn't a big fan of his cake at first, but after it was cut and given a piece of it, he was all for it. By the end, he had it in his hair, ear, his clothes, it was everywhere! But he loved it!!

Flashback Friday // Graduation Day

Today was the last day of Grace's Preschool career. She had a wonderful time, with great teachers, learning a lot, and making many new friends. We are so grateful for her teachers!

The teachers had a graduation ceremony at the end of class today. We got to see all the children walk over to the Principal, receive their dipolma and run back to their chairs. It was very cute. They also sang many songs, which I will upload at some point.

So today's picture is a Flashback to the first day of school in August 08 and today's picture, the last day of school. Look how they've grown.

PS. Audrey is standing a little taller on the step today.

Bowling

I finally got to go on a field trip with Grace and her class (last day of school is tomorrow!). We went bowling and it was a lot of fun! Grace was grouped with the 3 children I have heard the most about this year. Toby is her boyfriend and Emma would be her best girl friend. They are with her below. And being Grace, she didn't let bowling deter her from wearing a dress...

Adventures in May

The May showers have brought a lot of fun things to us. Luke started drinking from a bottle again, although not all of the time. He received his first hair cut from Momma and then after our Disney trip, he received his first cut with the clipper. We traveled to Pella to spend time with friends from Iowa City and to Disneyland to visit Poppa Michael for a few hours and spend time with Uncle Patrick. It has been a very busy month!