Trip over love, you can get up. Fall in love and you fall forever. ~Author Unknown

Tessa got married on Wednesday, November 17th. My family was lucky enough to be there for the ceremony. They were married by their good friend Aubri. The ceremony was really held in their living room and the family members who couldn't be there were able to watch the ceremony from Skype. I gave the kids the camera and told them to go around and get some pictures before the wedding started. I took picture's on my big camera. It was fun to look through the pictures that they took.This is Oscar Casey and Tessa's dog. I made him a bow tie to wear for the wedding.One of the flower's from Tessa's bouquet. When I was looking at all of the pictures there was about 15 pictures of the bouquet.Tessa getting ready.Nichole looking positively bored.Olivia and I while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. When she would see the red light on my small camera she would just cheese it for me!Everyone just hanging out waiting for the ceremony to begin.

I will have more pictures posted when I am able to edit the ones on my camera. It was a beautiful ceremony where we were able to share words of encouragement with the bride and groom. Congratulations Tessa and Casey! We Love You!

"Oregon the land of Hippies" Nate Musil

Nate and I were discussing what the people of Oregon call themselves. I said Oregonians and Nate said Hippies. I think I am right. Anyway our first full day in Oregon was a lot of fun. We went over to Tessa's house early in the morning and Ella started chasing her little dog Oscar all around the house. The poor dog would run away from her as soon as she set him down. Ella just learned not to set him down. After some time hanging out at the house Tessa, Nichole, Natalie and I went shopping. We only went to Old Navy which was having an amazing sale of 50% off of the already clearanced prices. Then we went over to get some yummy, yummy cuppy cakes from Ida's. You pick out the flavor of cupcake you want from a list of about 10 flavors and then a flavor of frosting to go with it. Tessa got a red velvet with cream cheese frosting (which was the best red velvet that I have ever had). I had Key Lime with Coconut frosting, Natalie had Lemon with cream cheese frosting and Nichole had Lemon poppy seed with vanilla butter cream frosting. They all looked really good. It was the best cupcake that I have ever had. Another fun thing we did that day was go to the Powell's Sweet Shoppe. We let the kids each get two dollars worth of candy. Natalie and Nichole each got Taffy and 2 peppermint candy sticks. Ella got 6 soda can candies, Tyler got Extinguisher sour candies, Nate got a blue cream soda and I got Jelly Bellies. It was a fun little store. Tyler got frustrated because there was too much to choose from. While Ella got frustrated because she wanted a jaw breaker the size of her head but it was way past her 2 dollar allowance.Natalie was just going to give Olivia a taste of her candy. But of course you can't really take candy away from a baby. She loved it!After having dinner at Tessa's and Casey's house we went back to the hotel and enjoyed some time in the pool. Since all of the swimsuits are shipped in boxes on their way to Alaska I had to buy something that we could use as swimsuits. I got Ella a tank top and some short pj bottoms. I got Tyler a pair of pants that we cut off and made into shorts. All of which I bought at Old Navy for 50% off the clearance price. Oh yeah can you say bargain! Some of the pictures are fuzzy but they were super cute action shots so I put them on here anyway!

Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home.

After we got home from our family vacation in Utah we had a few things to do before we started our long journey to Alaska. The first thing we had to do was get our house all packed up. On Tuesday the moving company came to the house and started to pack everything up. Between the house and the storage unit they were packing boxes from 9:30 until 4:30. It was a long day that ended with us going out to stay in TLF (Temporary living facility) on base. It was a very nice hotel that we stayed in which had a full kitchen, a washer and dryer, 2 bedrooms, one with a king size bed and one with 2 twin beds, it also had a pull out bed in the family room. It also had 3 t.v.'s for the 6 of us.

We had to get the kids up bright and early so that they could go to their last day of school. Then we went back to the house for the second day of the movers being at our house. That was a full day of the movers packing up the boxes.

The next day was veterans day and we spent almost the whole day cleaning the house getting ready to put it up on the market. It was really weird seeing my house all empty and clean!This is Nate demonstrating how the dog won't move even when you tug on her as long as you tell her to stay. But more importantly look how empty our house is!Tyler with his Idaho map project. I wanted a picture of it before we had to throw it away.One of the many days that we were in the hotel we occupied ourselves by doing makeovers on each other. Natalie below wearing makeup which is a big thing because she never wears makeup. I had to bribe her with a drink and a candy bar to get her to do it.On Friday we were finally able to put our house on the market. And on Monday we had our final good bye to the house. It has been a good house. We always had such big plans to fix it up nice but unfortunately we never had the money to do it. Good bye house!We left for our adventure and our first stop was Oregon. We are planning on staying here for a few days and attend a Nate's little sisters wedding.The kids are so lucky to be able to enjoy movies while we are driving. Even Pretzel was able to join in the fun.We are all pretty packed into our van. Pretzel has to share a seat with Natalie and Nichole which is not very roomy for any of them.I wanted evidence that Nate and I were on the trip to so I snuck this picture of us. Not a great one. Just proof. We made the first leg of our journey in a little over 6 hours.

Saying goodbye..... again

This last week has been an emotional week for me. It has been a week of many goodbyes for the second, third or even fourth time. I was lucky enough to get to spend as much time with my friends as I possibly could. I was able to go out to lunch with Johanna, Go and get dessert with Kori and Heather. The picture of us below is of us pretending to have a mustache. On time on one of our girls night we went to eat at Carrabas. Kori was pregnant at the time and very silly. One of the workers there had a 'stache. He looked like a pedophile. He probably drove a van that didn't have a window. Anyway Kori couldn't even look at the poor 'stache man without laughing. It was very contagious too. Soon I couldn't look at the guy without laughing and Heather was doing all of the communicating with the guy. It was great.Tyler got to spend the night with his best buddy Jackson in a hotel in Boise. The hotel had a pool and you could watch movies and swim at the same time! He had a blast.

I have had some amazing times in Mountain Home. It was hard to say good-bye. So as my little tribute to heather I am just going to say Good-bye THANKS!

No more monkies jumping on the bed

We were staying at a hotel on base after the movers packed all of our stuff up. It has a room with 2 twin beds in it. Ella and Tyler were staying in those beds. One morning I got woken up to Ella screaming her head off and this is why. Isn't it ugly. She was jumping from bed to bed and missed the bed. She must of hit the metal under the bed or something. The bruise is almost the size of the bottom part of her leg and it goes almost all of the way around. Hopefully it will go away soon.

List 10 reasons you enjoy being a girl.

1. Purses. I love purses no matter how big or small or average size you are a purse will always fit you. They are so cute and they can carry all of your stuff for you. And they are cute. Did I mention how cute purses are.

2. Sunglasses. Once again they are super cute and protect your eyes from the sun.

3. Make up. I like making myself feel pretty and my make up helps that right along. I never feel fully together without some mascara on.

4. You can look silly doing sports and no one can make fun of you and say "You run like a girl" Cuz hello you are one.

5. You can be as independent as you want to be and either say "I am a woman I can do anything that a man can do" or "I am a woman I shouldn't have to take out the garbage.

6. Pink. Pink doesn't look as good on a guy as it does on a girl. I don't care how comfortable you are with your sexuality pink always, ALWAYS, looks better on a girl.

7. Being the passenger in the car. I love it when Nate drives me places. I don't know why but it makes me feel very feminine when my husband drives me around instead of me driving him.

8. Perfume. I noticed that most of these things have to do with stuff that I put on but I love putting on perfume and smelling nice and sweet like a woman should.

9. The affection from my kids. My kids always came to me before they came to Nate when they had an ouchie or when they are scared and I love that they still do that. I love just chit chatting with my girls and hanging out with my son. I love that they will still give me hugs and kisses.

10. Being able to be pregnant. I think that that is why I like being a girl most. Although by the end of my pregnancy I am so sick of being pregnant I always enjoyed feeling a baby grow and move inside of me. I loved taking care of the helpless newborn and I even enjoyed breastfeeding my kids.

I'd rather be hunting with dad then shopping with mom

Every year Nate's grandparents have a pheasant hunt on their land. They raise these pheasants and then let them out and all of the cousins kill them. Poor pheasants didn't stand a chance. This year is the first in my married life that I can remember Nate being able to go hunting and he got to bring Tyler. Tyler LOVED it! He didn't shoot a pheasant but he did shoot. Tyler is out in the field flushing out the pheasants.One of the rules of going with was that Tyler had to help clean the pheasants. He did help gut him and pluck him. He also took the Pheasant claw home and would ask everyone to touch it and when you did he made the claw open up by try to freak everyone out. Silly boy.Nate and Tyler in front of the pheasants that Nate and some of his cousins killed.

Funny story... One of Nate's cousin's named Damen was out shooting and he accidentally shot his wife. Oops. She got peppered with the shotgun shrapnel. She didn't get hurt just stung her a bit. Later at the chili lunch (Nate's Grandma makes a ton of chili and cinnamon rolls for everyone to enjoy after the hunt) Someone asked where Nate's cousin Pat was and the wife that got shot said "They probably shot him and left him for dead in the field) Too funny.

While the boys were out shooting I took the girls and Nate's mom shopping. I was able to pick up some Christmas stuff and went to a fun home decorating store. We did meet up later for the chili and the cinnamon rolls. It was a fun day.