My Little Multi-Tasker!

If you look closely, you'll see that she is holding a milk shake between her legs and drinking it while using her hands to play her Gameboy. I'm so proud!

Christmas . . . Spencer County Style!

I LOVE this! This is the official Taylorsville Christmas Gourd! It's right on Main Street, all decked out with lights and little gourd ornaments! Tera, I know you're wishing you'd moved to Spencer County now!

A one-horse, open carriage ride at the Millican's Christmas party. This is absolutely one of the girls' favorite memories of the year. They rode and sang songs. It actually wasn't snowing, it was drizzling rain a little, but the lights made the rain drops look like snow flakes! In the front seat is the driver, then Emma riding in Courtney's lap. In the back, that's Grace in Kristy's lap and Makenna Cox in Tracy Millican's lap. What a crew!

Merry Christmas from the Jolly girls! Yes, Grace needs her front teeth, but you'll have to fight the urge to sing the song to her. It got old pretty quick!

A Jolly Holiday Gift For You!

I know, it's REALLY corny! I can't help it. We laughed and laughed, especially the girls! Enjoy!

Grace and her fellow second-graders entertained the residents at the Atria assisted living center. They also made gifts for the residents and spent some time just visiting and talking with them. They were soooo sweet!

The Second Grade class of Whitefield Academy. Yep, that's all of them.

There's Grace in the green shirt.

The camera battery died right in the middle of the song. I wish you could have seen the litte lady in the left corner in the knit hat. She sang with them and was so excited. Especially when they sang "Jingle Bells". She was all about that!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

It may not be Christmas for a few more days, and there may not be a lot of white, but it's December in Kentucky and it snowed! That's more than we usually get. To be honest, I don't really like snow. Or cold weather at all. Give me Christmas lights on a palm tree, I'd LOVE it! But I have to admit, it was really pretty to look at. The driving was not fun, but my little girly SUV made it just fine.

For Aunt Patti in California and Angie in Las Vegas, some pics of our house, and of Elk Creek.

Cook Boys News!!!

News from Ethiopia. Another set of adoptive parents, the Scotts, are at the orphange. They have met and spent a little time with Charlie and Sam! Check out Jana's blog for more details!

The BEST present ever! Thanks, Aunt Patti!

Our box of goodies arrived from Aunt Patti and Uncle Mike in California. I unpacked them and put them under the tree, thinking I was going to have to distract Emma from opening them. No way! She found "the best present ever" in the box: a sheet of bubble wrap. Not just regular bubble wrap, the kind with the really big bubbles! I taped this with my little camera, so there's no audio. I'll narrate:

"Pop, pop, poppity pop, pop, pop, giggle, giggle, pop!"

Go, Gracie!!!

We are SOOOOO proud of Grace! For the second year in a row, she'll be one of the students representing Whitefield Academy at the regional spelling bee! I don't know the date yet, but I'll keep you posted.

A little something to put you in the holiday spirit . . .

Emma's philosophy on Santa: He's okay as long as he sits in his little chair at the mall and doesn't bother her. As far as the presents go, she wants them, but he is NOT, under any circumstances, to come to our house. Daddy and I are to meet him at Wal-Mart and pick up the presents from him, and bring them home. Oh, what fun!

We Have New Cousins!!!

In case you haven't already heard . . . the Cooks are getting two beautiful little boys from Ethiopia! Okay, so they aren't really cousins. I'm not really sure what Emma thinks that "cousins" means, but the day after Jana and Kenny got the referral, she talked about the boys all day. At one point, she asked me if they could be her cousins. I think for her, that is some where above "just plain, old friends." SO, of course, I said they could be her cousins.

So, we have new cousins! They are Charlie and Sam, or as Emma says, "Trolley" and Sam. I really should correct that before the boys get home, but it's just too stinking cute right now!

Check out the latest info on the Cook's Blog, and pray for these precious little ones every day!

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Grace celebrated her 8th birthday on November 1st. It's so hard to believe that she could be 8 years old! She had a great day. She actually had 2 parties in one day because Aunt Patti, Uncle Mike, Uncle Eric, Aunt Melanie, Abigail and Leah came that night and stayed with us. She was so excited to see them all.

I think my favorite part of the day was her BIG surprise. First, her dad and I gave her this giant helmet. She put it on and thanked us so graciously, but I know she was wandering how in the world we expected her to ride her bike in this thing!

After we had a good laugh, we took her outside for the big reveal: her gift from Grandma!

Yes, that's a real 4-wheeler! Her dad was as excited as she was!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween is a fun day at the Jolly House, and a busy one. Our little town of Taylorsville closes down to all traffic and everyone trick-or-treats in main street. That's what its called, "Trick or Treat on Main Street." It's also our church's biggest outreach event of the year. We set up an entire festival right on Main Street. It's so much fun!


Here are the girls: Grace as Hannah Montana (check out the hair!) and Emma as, you guessed it, Jessie the cowgirl!

The Song Stylings of the Jolly Girls

These girls are constantly singing something. We finally got them to sit still long enough to get it on video. The first one is the Awana Cubbies Song. I'll translate:

We are Awana Cubbies, we're happy all day long.
We know that Jesus loves us that's why we sing this song.
We hop because we're happy and we jump and shout for joy!
For Jesus is a friend to us, He loves each girl and boy.





I look like such a grouch back there behind her! I was sick and on Nyquil, I'm not usually that grumpy-looking!

This next one is a song I sing to Emma all the time. I guess it's an old song, the only person I ever heard sing it was my Great Grandfather when I was little. It's called Let Me Call You Sweetheart.

Happy Fall!

Gracie and her fellow second graders spent a day at Huber's Farm getting ready for fall. Ciana was Grace's pumkin-pickin' buddy!

After the pumpkin-pickin' adventure, we were inspired! We had to do some carving on the back porch. They handled it pretty well this year. Sure, it was nasty, but it's supposed to be, right?

Ok, ok! I know it has taken me entirely too long to post vacation pics. Sorry. We spent a few days in the mountains. We love to go there in the fall. We stayed pretty busy. One entire day was devoted to Dollywood - Grace's favorite place! She rode her first real, grown-up rollercoaster, the Thunderhead! She was so funny. When the ride was over, she said "That was AWESOME! But I don't want to do it again today."


One of the girls' favorite parts was the river behind our condo, or "congo", as Emma says. There were ducks on the river that would come right up and beg for food. On the last morning we were there, one of the momma ducks brought her three little babies along! The best part of the river, for me, was that on the first day there, both of the girls fell in! Not at the same time, but I did manage to get Grace falling in on camera!

Emma loved the river, she just got a little too close!

Unicorns made of Sudafed?

Today we're going through the pharmacy drive thru and there's a sign posted that you can no longer get Sudafed through the drive thru. Logan (13 year-old cousin) asks why that's necessary. I told him it was because people use it to make meth. Grace pops up from the back seat and asks, " you mean like unicorns?"

Now, Grace is a bright kid. I knew there had to be some connection. Logan and I stared blankly at each other as my brain processed . . . unicorns . . . sudafed . . . meth . . . meth . . . .OOOOH, she means MYTH!

No Gracie, you cannot use sudafed to make unicorns.

What must the neighbors be thinking?

Dwayne brought Grace home an assortment of medical stuff; surgical masks, hair things, gloves, etc. Tonight after supper, the girls climbed up into the "tree house" part of the swing set in the back yard, and played doctor.

Our Girls, You Gotta Love 'Em

Tonight at supper, Emma looks at me and asks, "Mommy, is today yesterday or tomorrow?" I have to admit, I was a little puzzled as to how to answer. I tried to explain to her that today is neither tomorrow, nor yesterday, but is today. My argument just left both of us confused. Fortunately, she was pretty easily distracted by her carrots and dip.

Then tonight at bedtime, I was telling Grace that we are going to the Heritage Festival tomorrow. She responded with "will their be hair stuff?" I thought she was asking if there'd be a booth selling hair bows - she loves those. The look on her daddy's face clued me in pretty quickly. She thought I meant "HAIRitage Festival."

Gotta Love 'Em!

"Auntie Em, Auntie Em!"

Hurricane Ike hit Kentucky and nearly blew us all away! Last Sunday afternoon we had the most unbelievable wind storm. We knew that the remnants from Ike were headed this way. We were not expected to get much rain from it, but were warned that there could be some stray thunderstorms. Apparently, what the weather guys didn't expect was that the sun would come out just long enough that morning to warm up the atmosphere and force those strong winds that were supposed to stay up in the clouds down to the surface. The result: hurricane-force winds all day long! No kidding. Our church family had planned a baby shower that afternoon. What a sight we all were with our little pink packages trying to walk upright in 80-mile-an-hour winds.

All joking aside, the damage was amazing. There is a whole region of Kentucky and Southern Indiana that has been without power all week. Many of our own friends and family are still in the dark. I can't imagine! We were so fortunate. No major damage, and we never lost power. Gracie and Emma did lose their playhouse from the back yard, but our sweet neighbors collected the pieces for us. The wind was so strong all the way to the ground that it actually blew the three inches of mulch out of our flower bed in front of the house. Here's the weirdest thing: it looks as if the wind actually blew the life out of the pretty pear trees in our front yard. The trees themselves are okay, but the leaves are black, dry, and crispy. Weird.

Makes me wonder: if it was this bad by the time it reached Kentucky, what was it like when it hit land in Texas. Our prayers are certainly with those folks.

Our little playhouse sustained serious damage, but Daddy fixed it!

If you look closely, you can see Emma's swing and Grace's disk swing wrapped around the tree.

Kentucky's Hillbilly Homeland Security

Where else, but our beloved Bluegrass state, could you walk right past the door to the Lt Governor's office, no questions asked?! That's pretty much what Jana and I did while getting some of her adoption stuff taken care of. Check out the full story on the Cook's blog!

Faith Art For You

You all need to check this out! This is our friend, Rachel Thomas, the Elementary Director at Highview's East Campus. She is VERY talented. She does canvas "word art" prints that are sooo pretty. They are perfect for a wedding or baby shower. I'm giving one this weekend. Shhhh!

Check out Rachel's blog at Faith Art, or click on the link under our favorite sites.

Just don't anyone plan to give one as a gift at a certain little baby shower this weekend!!!

Grace's Baptism

Grace was baptized during our Combined Worship Service last night. It was such a sweet time for her. Pastor Nick baptized her and two others from our campus. One of those was her friend, Kenny. The service was held at our Fegenbush campus, which is where Grace attends school. Not only was she surrounded by her friends and family that came to watch, but also many classmates, teachers, and administrators from her school.

During the same service, the church voted to purchase land for our Spencer County Campus. It was a great night all around!

. . . even the end! The night was supposed to have ended with a fellowship time of cookies, ice cream, and some large inflatables outside in the parking lot. It started well. It ended in a monsoon-like rain storm. I was in charge of one of the bouncies. Did you know that those things collapse when rain water collects on the roof? Well, they do.

Still, it certainly was a night that we will never forget!

Fun in the Rain!

Daddy and the girls had some big fun during a surprise rain shower this afternoon.

The First Day of Second Grade

Gracie is officially a Second Grader! Her first day was great. She got the exact teacher she hoped for, Mrs. Reinhart. She is such a sweet, Godly lady and I know she's going to be a wonderful teacher. Grace already loves her. She also has two of her best friends in her class, Ciana and Abby. Pray that this will be a great year for her.

Emma turns 3!

Yes, our little Emma is three years old! Hard to believe. She had a wonderful birthday. She is just now at the age where she really gets into this birthday thing. Everything was extra special that day. There was birthday pizza, birthday kisses, birthday peepee, birthday boo-boos, etc. We had lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, and finished the day off with a big party with our family and friends. Oh, yeah, it was my birthday, too. :)

Here are her official Three Year-Old pics:

The Jollys at Great Wolf Lodge

We LOVE this place!! The girls had so much fun. When we walked into the lobby, Grace jumped and squealed "AWESOME!" Emma just stopped in her tracks and whispered "Wow!" It's that good! The water park was a lot of fun. We definitely plan to go back!

This is my favorite part! Check out the video below. Here's the scene: there's this game thing in one big pool at the lodge. You have to make it from one side to the other on these floating things. It's apparently harder than it sounds. Grace gets in line behind maybe 7 or 8 teenagers and grown men. As each one of them crosses, she's just watching and studying. NOT ONE of them makes it! Most don't even make it half way! Then she gets up there. At first, no one is really paying attention to her. Then, as it starts to look like she may actually have a plan, some of the people who didn't make it began to get each other's attention and they all turn back to watch her. Before long, she has an audience of all of these teenage and adult "losers" who couldn't make it and are now watching this skinny little girl kick their collective behinds. By the way, her daddy was one of those "losers!" :) I watched in disbelief! I guess this is what you'd call "brains over brawn!" Watch it!