The Jolliff Family

The other night, the ladies who live with us watched all three boys so that Hap and I could both attend a session during the evening.  These ladies are such a blessing to us and amazing young women!  I have enjoyed getting to know them, too!  Sam wants to eat with them when we can and Andrew loves to cuddle up close when possible! Jacob is just so precious and growing like a weed!  He is just now loving his Johnny Jumper, which we have renamed the Jacob Jumper!! And, disregard the gross factor and possible poor parenting but the other night Sam was cracking up and we found this... And for the record, we stopped it and don't encourage anymore toe sucking!!  hahaha! Happy Monday:)

I wanted to post some pictures from our life here!  We are doing well.  The kids are making great friends and so are we.  We are learning such great information and the boys are having fun at school! Usually we go to breakfast in the cafeteria.  Some mornings we don't make it as a family so the boys eat at the kitchen table.  They don't mind but they do like going to the cafeteria!  I think they like to socialize more than eat. I am most excited about our washing machine and clothes dryer.  I have done a load of laundry everyday since we have been here because I can:)  The boys made a tent in their room with an extra bed sheet.  They enjoy playing in the tent when we can't be outside.  It has been so beautiful here that we have been outside practically everyday after school!  What a blessing. Here is Jacob on his first day of nursery school last week.  He is adjusting really well to the schedule this week.  I leave ...

We have certainly had a whirlwind of a week.  We are still trying to get organized and I'm not yet:)  Actually, I walked over to the computer lab to blog and realized that I forgot my password for my computer, so only an update and no pictures tonight.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get it together!  ha This week has been great for everyone.  We arrived at the facility on Monday and had plenty of time to unload our things into our quad.  We were given a three bedroom place to live, which was a surprise.  We are in a quad with another married couple and four short-term journeygals.  They are all so great and the boys have taken to each of them. Tuesday was an off day to get settled and find our way around campus.  It is beautiful out here.  Plenty of places to run around, play grounds to play on and cows to look at.  The boys are loving it. They started school on Wednesday and Sam did great.  Andrew cried at drop off and was all smi...

On Saturday, we packed up the remaining items at our "house" and headed out of Illinois.  But not before some more goodbyes. We spent Friday night at my mom's house.  Saturday morning, the boys enjoyed a big breakfast.  Sam got into my mom's hair gel because he wanted to spike his hair.  He looked like a grease ball... but a cute one at that:)  Andrew went and had his hair cut.  It was getting long and unruly.  Andrew is an animal lover.  It could be cats, cows, dogs it doesn't matter.  Andrew has never been afraid of Ned and they are best buddies.  Andrew likes to have Ned lick his face (I know, gross).  Ned will follow both boys around and wag his tail when they come to the door or we pull up.  Ned knew something big was going on and would not leave the boys side on Saturday.  Andrew gave Ned a big neck hug before we left.  This guy is getting good at sitting like a tripod and will be sitting on his own b...

Today has certainly been cold and icy around these parts.  Hap and I spent the morning clearing out the house we are living in.  It didn't seem like we had much stuff left, but there is always more than it appears!  Since the boys spent the night in Patoka, Hap, Jacob and myself headed that direction mid morning.  The boys certainly had a good time!  Last night they fell asleep with Grandma Jessica reading books.  This morning they woke up to have Gigi cook them fried biscuits and chocolate milk.  Then they took a tractor ride to feed the cows silage.  The cows were fed twice because the boys wanted to feed them again:)  Zeb made an appearance for a rematch with the Nintendo.  Today they played Double Dribble though and apparently Hap won again.  Hap desires to be a carom champ, but Zeb remains unbeatable in that game!  This was the final trip to the farm before we leave.  The farm is so peaceful.  I love to hea...

Last night, we packed up the last of our belongings to be crated.  Sam stayed with Grandma Betty, while Andrew decided to come home and fight the bad guys. Never fear Andrew is here!!  He has lost his mask, but not his super powers!  He can leap off couches, drink an unbelievable about of pink milk and stand on four wheelers... it's Andrew, the superhero!  Hap and I stayed up until 2am finishing up the crating organization.  I also had an overwhelming urge to organize all of the boys pictures and the crafts they have made.  I knew that if I didn't get them organized it would be years or never before I did.  Two words of advice about this- 1) If you are going to do this for your kids, do it as you go.  Don't wait until you are overwhelmed.  2) Don't try and do this the night before you are moving to the other side of the globe.  Not smart!  This morning at 8am, Dave and Stan came to load up our belongings.  It only took a litt...