Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title. ~From Scooby-Doo

This is the first time since Natalie and Nichole was 6 weeks old that we have spent a Halloween in Utah. I think that the kids had fun going around Nate's parent's neighborhood getting candy. Natalie and Nichole took the 2 little ones out but Natalie got cold and wanted to be done with it after only 30 minutes. So Nichole was the only one with the kids. It's a good thing that I had her bring her cell phone because she got lost and Nate had to go and pick her up. She also went up to a house and someone jumped out and her and scared her to death.This year for Halloween Ella was a cow girl. Her favorite part is being able to wear makeup.Tyler wanted to be a werewolf. We had to search and search for this costume and luckily found it in Utah because we couldn't find it for him in Idaho.Natalie went as a volleyball playerAnd Nichole went as a spy.Nichole by her barfing pumpkinElla by her scary pumpkin.Everyone by in their costumes. We went to dinner at Joy's house and right before we left it started hailing. This is only about 30 seconds after it started hailing. This was on her covered porch.But then it cleared up enough for the kids to go out. And the sky looked gorgeous!The kids did made out pretty well in the candy department.

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Carving

We are in Utah this week so that we can visit family before we move to Alaska. I don't think that we will be able to see them again until until 2012. We needed to have this last time with them to say our good byes. Our first day here was SUPER busy. One of the things that we did was go to a pumpkin patch so that we could pick out pumpkins to carve that evening.We drove past this one in Springville and called Nate's mom to see if she wanted to meet up with us there. There was a small petting zoo. The animals that they had to pet there were a kangaroo, a llama, a couple donkey's, and some sheep. They also had a bunch of hay for the kids to climb on. They loved that!And a small hay maze to go through. After the kids did that stuff they went out searching for a pumpkin.Tyler saw his pumpkin before he even got out of the car and went right over to get it.Ella found hers pretty quickly too. She couldn't lift hers so she rolled it to where ever she wanted to go.Nate was looking for a perfectly shaped one. He found it too!Nichole and Natalie had a harder time finding the ones that they wanted. Natalie wanted a really round small one and Nichole wanted one that spoke to her.Then the kids washed off their pumpkins and with Nate's help went right to work on them.Natalie took a different approach to hers. She decided that she was going to make a splatter pumpkin.Nichole wanted hers to look like it was barfing.No that is not a nose that is a huge eye!Tyler made his look like a Frankenstein pumpkin.Ella's scary pumpkin and below is Nate's all knowing EYE!Tyler's Frankenstein pumpkinNichole's sick to her stomach pumpkin

Nate's lunch

Nate's work had a going away pot lunch for Nate. At the lunch they gave him a plaque. The plaques are usually done with something that the person will be remembered for while they were there in on the base. Nate's plaque said:

Nathan Musil bomb threat specialist of the year 2009.

He for sure will always be remembered for that. They were saying that it will probably follow him around every where he goes. Not necessarily a bad thing. Way to go Nate. What a great thing to be remembered for. Your first arrest! I couldn't be more proud!

Girls Night!

I have to start off this post by saying that I am very lucky to have made such amazing friends while I lived in Mountain Home. Each one of the ladies have been such an amazing influence in my life. Heather and Kori decided to throw a girls night for me before I moved away. We just went to the local pasta place in town and hung out for a few hours. It was a great send off.The ladies in the picture from right to left top row:

Kori: I have had so much fun on our girls nights. You laughing so hard at the mustache man made it so that I can never look at a mustache without thinking of you. You are an amazing friend! I am so glad that I was able to get to know you.

Jamie: Who would of thought that me having your husband put his hand on your butt would be such a controversy? I am glad that I got to know you even though it wasn't for long enough.

Anna: I have loved working in Young Women's with you. One of my favorite memories was making Christmas cookies with you all day long!

Shelley: I couldn't of asked for a better kindergarten teacher for Ella. I never have laughed so hard as when you told me about when you split your pants.

Sheryl: I am so glad that we had a chance to work together in Young Women's or else I would never of known just what a wonderful person you are. "Whoa, That is a big t.v. Did you see that big t.v. Jonathan"?

Jennifer: I wish that we would of been able to hang out more. You were always so much fun to talk with in church.

Bottom Row Right to Left:

JoHanna: Man Jo, I am so glad that you have always been there for me. I loved going out to eat lunch with you and going to the twilight movies with you. You are the best book friend ever!

Heather: You are one of the most patient and amazing mom's I have ever met. I will never forget going shopping with you (with you hands out to the side) and having some fun times just hanging out on the couch talking. You are the best!

I am going to miss all of you guys so much! My life has been touched and blessed knowing each of you!Nichole also went to dinner with us but, had to leave to go to work before we took the group picture. Nichole: You know exactly how to make me happy. I have loved watching our kids grow up together. I will always remember our gum workouts together and our fun times dancin in the car!

What is your favorite childhood birthday memory

I remember that one year for my birthday my parents threw me a surprise party. I was in grade school when it happened. Third grade I think. My dad took just me to the mall to get my mom a mother's day present (mother's day is always the Sunday after my birthday). When I got home that evening I walked into the living room and everyone yelled surprised. I ran out of the room as fast as I could and hid the present in my bedroom my mom could see it.
The party was a blast! We played games and stayed up all night long (it was after all a sleepover). My mom made a poster for all of the people who came to my party to leave me a note on. I kept that poster for a very long time.
One of my other favorite party activities is when my mom would cook a whole bunch of sugar cookies and make a whole bunch of frosting in different colors and we got to decorate our huge sugar cookie however we wanted to. That was always fun.
Now as an adult my birthday's mean something different (they mean I am getting older). Nate is a wonderful husband and spoils me for my birthday. He makes dinner for me every year and buys me exactly what I want (then again I give him a link as to what I want). The kids give me lots of loves and they always clean the house without being asked. Man my family loves me!

Would you rather tell the truth or take the dare?

This one is a no brainer for me. I would rather tell the truth then take a dare. And hopefully the question will be one that I am comfortable answering. The main reason I think for me to choose the truth is that I am very willing to answer just about anything about me. I do have my secrets but people don't tend to ask me those kind of questions.
Plus with a dare you don't know when you will be having to run around the outside of the house with only your socks on (again). Just kidding. When I was younger I used to be a lot more daring and would rather be doing the dare part of the truth or dare. But as I get older I just am not as willing to take a dare.

Places I have lived in order...

I grew up in the same house all of my childhood. As a matter of fact my parents still live in that house. It is in a small town in Utah called Mapleton. It is a 4 bedroom 3 bath house. I think at some point in time each of those bedrooms were mine. I had many great memories in that house.
In March of 1997 I moved into a teeny 1 bedroom apartment in Spanish Fork, Ut with Nate when we first got married. The whole house could fit inside a small gas station. I was pregnant with the twins and knew that we would need to find somewhere else to live before they were born because there would of been absolutely no room for them.
Right before they were born (only a few weeks) we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in Payson, UT. It was on the second story. It was bigger and it had a dishwasher. We spent our first Christmas together there as a family. It was perfect for our needs.
Then Nate joined the military. He went away to boot camp and I moved back in with my parents for a couple of months. Because he was going to be gone for so long in school the military paid for me to move to Wichita Falls, TX with him. At first we lived in a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment a few miles from the base. We stayed there about a month before we moved into a 2 bedroom duplex. It was the biggest house that I had lived in since we got married. We lived there until November of 1998.
That is when we moved to Phoenix, AZ. We lived in a shady part of town for a few months while we were waiting to get to move on base. It was awesome. On New Years Eve people went outside to shoot their guns off.
Luckily we didn't have to live there long until we were able to move onto base. We got a 3 bedroom house. The only really down side to it was there was no dishwasher and all of the dang bugs. It was a very old place. You could open the kitchen cabinets from the kitchen or from the living room. We brought Tyler home from the hospital to that house. We had many great times in that house.
Right before Ella was born we moved into a newer and bigger house on base. We were the first ones to live in the 4 bedroom 2 story house. It was perfect for when Tessa and Joy moved in (not at the same time mind you). It was cool being the first ones to of ever slept in the rooms and used the appliances.
In 2004 we got relocated to Mountain Home, ID. We spent our first year in an old run down 4 bedroom home on the base. It had a nice big backyard and the school was just across the field from us so the kids could walk to school there.
Then in 2005 Nate and I bought our first house. It is what we are living in and trying to sell now. It is a 5 bedroom split level home on almost an acre. We have been blessed to be able to buy our own home. And to have it big enough for all of the kids to have their own room (Tyler one day felt bad for me having to share a room with Nate that while he was gone to Disneyland he told me I could sleep in his room so that I wouldn't have to share a room with Daddy). There you have it 11 moves into 10 different house. 10 moves since I have been married. With another one soon to be under my belt. You would think I would be a pro at this by now. Nah I still don't like the whole process of moving. Wish me luck!

List all of the jobs you have had in your lifetime.

I have had some interesting jobs in m y short working career. For example my first job that I got paid money to do was pack pills. When I was in 6th grade I would put pills and instructions into boxes. From there someone would take the boxes and give them out as sample's at grocery stores. Do you find it as odd as I that they would let a 12 year old pack pills? Of course they were none that could do bodily harm to you. One of the samples that I packed would make it so your poo didn't stink. It also turned your poo green. That was one of the side effects. There were 3 different jobs that you could do there. You could make the box that the samples were put into. You would pop open the box and close one end so that the next person (and also the second job to do there) would put the pills and the instructions into the box and close up the sample box. Then that person would through there newly closed box into an empty box on the table then another person (the 3rd job) would come around get the sample boxes from the open box, make sure they were all facing the same way, line them up in a new box 3 across and 2 deep then seal the box up when that box was full. I did all three jobs and liked doing them too. I remember my paychecks would be around 40 for the week. Working several hours a day.
I also like most teenage girls babysat. There were 3 different families that I would babysit for on a regular basis. One family I started babysitting for in the 6th grade and babysat for her for over 6 years.
I worked at a fast food restaurant called Artic Circle. I worked the front end of the store taking orders. From there I became the night time manager and then would open the store on Sundays. I worked there for 2 years. That is where I met Nate for the first time.
I work for 1 day at Office Max. That was the day I found out for sure that I was pregnant and I never went back.
I worked for several months at a gas station when Natalie and Nichole were babies. That was a fun job except when I had to be in the store at night by myself.
I worked at Target for a few months too. I did that to help earn Christmas money. I got pregnant with Tyler and would get really sick so that didn't last very long either.
I worked for a few months as a Real Estate Agent's assistant. Then the market got really bad and she couldn't afford for me to work for her anymore. It was a lot of busy work but it was only for a few minutes a day.
I also have had a steady job as a taxi driver, teacher, chef, maid, confidant, counselor, referee, judge and jury, dish washer, and bank teller for the last 13 years. My employers lovingly call me mom. I get paid with hugs and kisses and can't get enough of them. I wouldn't trade that job for anything in the world. Ahhhh I love my job.

What gives you warm fuzzies?

This journal prompt could be taken many, many ways. Here are some things albeit very random and not all having to do with each other that give me warm fuzzies...
Butterfly kisses from Ella.
Complements from my friends.

Snuggling with Nate on cold winter nights (ok really I like snuggling with Nate any night but especially on cold winter nights).
Seeing the scale numbers drop (woohoo for 13 lbs. down)
Slippers
Completing a new craft
Hot Chocolate

A look from Nate telling me that I still got it.
Natalie and Nichole telling me things about their life and to me with their problems
The fact that Tyler will still give me a hug and a kiss. Not in public. But that's not the point.
Family time in bed.
Reading stories out loud.
Teaching my kids something and finally being able to see it click
When Nate introduces me as "My Wife Jessica" Yeah I still like hearing it.

Those are my warm fuzzies what are some of yours?

Young Women's Red Carpet Event

For Young Women's this week we did a Personal Progress Red Carpet night. The girls all dressed up in nice dresses, walked the red carpet and received an award. We gave out awards for almost all of the values. The girls also had to give an acceptance speech that went something like this. I would like to thank (insert value here) for helping me get this award tonight. It was great to see the many talents of the Young Women in the ward. I loved being able to see the displays of projects.Nichole got an award in Faith. She sculpted a nativity scene out of clay. She did an amazing job with it. I am quite impressed with her talent.Natalie got an award in Individual Worth. She learned a song on her saxophone and played it for everyone there. She is coming along rather nicely on her saxophone and plays it really well.