The Jolliff Family

1. I told you yesterday about some chairs my mom and I picked out of the trash down the street. Here they are... They are in very good condition. One is a two seater (how romantic!) and then two single chairs. They are in great shape and are just perfect for down by the play area. I absolutely think our play area is great, with the woods behind it makes for a nice area to sit, relax and play! 2. Thank you Fazoli's Family Night for the nice prize pack Sam and Andrew won. A couple weeks ago, I went to Fazoli's on a Tuesday night and apparently that is Family night, which means free kids meals and crafts. The boys also entered their name into a drawing and yesterday I received the news we won. Anyone wanna come over and play games with us? Maybe we could sit in our lounge chairs outside?! 3. I made two yummy looking pies for tomorrow's bible study. I am so enjoying getting together with a group of ladies from church and going through Beth Moore's "Breakin...

I figured I need to post these pictures before this coming weekend, I'm way behind!!:) We had a fun weekend. This past weekend wrapped up Sam's football "camp". He did great and had fun too. He is really liking watching football on TV too, and unfortunately is into tackling haha !! Punting practice! Hap and I are glad he participated in it and will probably look into basketball over the winter for him. My mom came over Saturday and we headed to a Safety Fair. The fair had a rescue helicopter, firetrucks, a police horse, ambulance and much more. Andrew loves dogs and he is getting a kiss here from a rescue dog! Sam was drawn to the firetrucks of course! My attempt at a group shot! The weather was so great over the weekend and we enjoyed being outside much! My mom and I also dug some chairs out of the neighbor's trash and now I have been enjoying them by the play set outside. I will take some pictures for you to see my treasure:) Anyway, it was a gre...

Ok, my apology for not blogging more last week. With the amount of time we spent outside because of the beautiful weather, the time I was inside was spent cleaning, doing laundry and what not. That did not leave much time for blogging. However, I did want to share a yummy recipe that I made with my applesauce I made last week. They are applesauce meatballs. My mom used to make this growing up and this was the first meal I made for Hap and I after we got married. Sam LOVED it and Andrew ate some too:) Ok, so here is the recipe. Beat together 1 egg and 1/2 cup milk. Add 1 1/2 cup prepared stuffing to mix above and let stand for 5 minutes. Then add 1 1/2 lb ground beef, 2/3 cup applesauce, 3 tablespoon chopped onion, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/4 teaspoon sage. Shape into balls. This made around 20 good sized meat balls. If you want to make ahead, stop at this point and refrigerate or freeze. To finish them off, mix 1 can cream of mushroom soup with 1/2 cup water. Spoon over meatballs. Ba...

Remember these apples I bought yesterday, well I decided the first recipe I would make is Applesauce. This recipe is so easy and you make it in the crock pot , so it is fix it and forget it. Your house will smell good too:) First, peel, core and cut into chunks 8 apples. I used my handy dandy slicer. If you don't have one of these, I recommend it. It is awesome and makes working with apples so much easier! If you have a baby around, feed the baby some apples now. After you have chunked them, put them all in the crock pot. Add 1tsp cinnamon (or more if you wish), 1/2 c water and 1/2 cup of sugar (again more if you want it sweeter or less if you desire.) Cover and cook on high 3 hours. I stirred occasionally to mix the flavors. When 3 hours came up, the apples mushed easy with a little vigorous stirring. I didn't get a finished product picture, but it turned out really yummy!! Enjoy:)

This morning we headed to the apple orchard to meet our dear friends, Lucas, Micah, Caleb and Susan. Sam was excited about seeing his friends and talked about them the whole way down. The orchard was neat, with lots to do. The boys enjoyed the barn to climb around in, complete with rope swings! We probably spent the most time by the animals. They had goats, a turkey, peacocks, sheep and more. Andrew was enthralled by this baby goat. I love this picture of him looking at the goat:) Micah and Sam had fun "feeding" the calf. At one point I heard one of the boys tell the other one to "pick the cows nose." I was scared to look and see if the other boy did. The best I could do with five wild boys! It turned out precious!! It was special today because the train was operating. Usually it just operates on the weekend, but a school group was present and we also where able to have a ride. Everyone enjoyed it. The orchard was beautiful! I came home with 1 peck of apples,...

Today is my sweet husband's birthday. He worked and studied today, but is now home, full from dinner and cake, and outside playing with the boys! Happy 35th Birthday, Hap! You're old, but I sure do love you:)

Just a few pictures from lunch today! This kid loves to make a mess in his hair and then clap like he has done something big:) Precious boy!! "I love you in the mornin' And in the afternoon. I love you in the evenin' And underneath the moon."

This past weekend I had the opportunity to have a girl's weekend with some of my best friends. I have known Sara and Becky since I was around 4 in Thursday School and Jennifer since the 4th grade. We haven't been together for years and we have had this in the works since early summer and I am so thrilled it worked out. On Friday, Becky headed to my house and we traveled down to Nashville to meet up with Sara and Jennifer. Basically, we spent the weekend catching up, looking at old pictures, eating, laughing, shopping, and staying up way too late:) Though we haven't been together in years, it was like there was no time seperation. This weekend was better than I ever imagined and we are already planning next year's trip. I am already looking forward to it:) I did have a great time and didn't want to leave. However, it was nice to see these two last night!! I am so blessed to have a husband that allowed me to go and watch our two precious boys. Becky, Jennifer,...

Andrew loves to play peek-a-boo under his legs right now! And so does Sam:)

We had a wonderful weekend! On Saturday, Sam had football and did much better this week. I think it has taken him some time to get the hang of what Coach Al wants him to do. He also listened much better than he has in the weeks previous, which helps:) The rest of Saturday was spent hanging out around the house and Hap doing some studying. On Sunday, Hap had the privilege to preach at church. We were glad Carl and Jessica traveled over. They also brought two friends from Patoka who wanted to hear Hap preach. We enjoyed having them and also enjoyed a nice lunch afterwards, even thought the resturant was a little hot:) Sunday night, our family had pictures taken and I am so anxious to see them. I will post some when they come in! On Monday, I had to work. Yes... everyday is Labor Day in Labor and Delivery and we had babies galore:) Hap used the day to study. My parents came over late Sunday night and brought the two boys on a train ride on Monday. My parents gifted this train...

Not officially! But with this cooler weather we are having, I am remembering that fall is just around the corner. And according to the weather channel, 90* temps are around the corner for us too. We won't dwell on that! I really love fall, the leaves falling, sleeping with the windows open, the scent of pumpkin pie baking, the rich colors, the pumpkin patch and apple orchards! I know that Fall doesn't start for another couple weeks, but I decided to go ahead and get my fall decorations out so that we could enjoy them for the next three month! I made these little pumpkins and they turned out cute. This was the first one I made, the other's turned out better! Happy "Unofficial" Fall:)