Plugging along...always plugging along....

I WAS A PIRATE WHAT WERE YOU!?!!?

RIYA WAS A PRINCESS TINKERBELL!
TAYLA THE PRECIOUS LION!
LANDON ON HIS FIELD TRIP!
Well what the heck is new at the Mumms....

Well there are a few lil things. Projects and extra children , a wedding in Texas and SNOW!

I cannot believe that we have almost been in this beautiful country for a year, how I love it here and feel so blessed to have this great adventure and all the oppurtunities for my kids. Landon just had the opportunity to go hiking at Exit Glacier. I mean SERIOUSLY he got to hike on a GLACIER!! how cool is that! I think the most exciting field trip I took was to a zoo....which I might add had a lot of the same animals that we have just roaming around here. Kyran and Jesse were able to go on a field trip together a few weeks back and that was so exciting for both of them. I was so grateful that they were able to have time to themselves while the 3 days of heaven with Jesse are just that .... the 4 days can be well quite difficult. I am so very grateful for a good solid job and the workplace has treated us very well and we feel very blessed. They are throwing a big Christmas Ball .... seriously a BALL! with prom dresses and everything so that will be quite amazing Im excited to see what its like!

As for Kyran he is rocking out in school and doing so well I am proud of that lil guy! Zade is struggling a little in preschool but we have him going to therapy 3 times a week and that is helping he is such a special guy and I love him so so so so so much he brings such joy to our family! he learned 3 colors just this week! we have been working on this for awhile and he is just getting it Im SO EXCITED for that! Riya and Tayla are just the best of friends and drumroll please.......TAYLA TOOK HER FIRST STEPS! with Daddy here I was so happy he was there to witness the official FIRST STEP! she is getting so big and is the cutest lil girl with the biggest dimples and most devilish grin you cant help but to smile back at her.

As for me I am doing pretty well I had one of my best buds kiddos while they were lucky enough to go to Africa. We had SO much fun I love those 2 kiddos so much and her lil guy and his hugs and smiles just always made my day! Zade was so happy to have his best friend living with him for a couple weeks they were great!

Now I have 2 other kiddos ... who are just by chance FROM Africa and also 2 special lil guys the kids have had fun having some new adopted siblings for the time being.

Another exciting note.....MY BROTHER GOT MARRIED! I am so proud of him and it was so great to see all of my family and meet my sister in laws side. We had a blast and enjoyed the warm texas weather and an added bonus we were able to go see my brother in law Jake and his family I love them so much and it was SO wonderful to see them and hang out with my wonderful niece and nephews they are getting so big!

Also on Halloween we got our first BLIZZARD oh my gosh the snow was just dumping down I had to go plow it was crazy!!!! All in all though things are going so well here we have our good days and our bad days but life is good!

Things are scary out there. The economy is unsure....jobs are shaky...... everything is unstable except for the overwhelming love I have for my family and for my Heavenly Father he is there. I feel him when I pray and I have witnessed his miracles in my life and the lives of those I know and love. As we head into the Thanksgiving/Christmas season I hope that we can remember what we believe and stand up for it!

Change in the air again....

Russian Falls see that waterfall?!?! Salmon jump UP it amazing huh!!!!Know what that is.....bear poo in my backyard SICK!!!! takes like a SHOVEL to scoop out I should have put my foot next to it to compare the size but seriously NASTINESS!

One of my nearest dearest friends here shes pretty much my family here and her kids yep I love em like my ownKiddos being crazy at Russian Falls!
Its about a 5-6 mile hike in and out and we POOPED the dog out .... we strapped him to our jogger and made him pull our kids up the steep hills poor guy DEF earned his keep that day!

Our sweet new camper!
How big was the last fish YOU RODE?!?! Sawfest guys with chainsaws MAKE THESE right in front of your eyes its AMAZING! This is in Homer Alaska (where they film the Deadliest Catch..sometimes you even get to see cast wandering around if your lucky ;) )

As sad as this is....my first alaskan catch a Dolly Varden.....but just for the record TODAY I caught 2 TEN POUNDERS!!! good eating tonight!!!!
This is one of my best friends friends for almost a DECADE! she was at my wedding and I felt so glad and privilaged to be there as she sealed herself to her eternal sweetheart. What a special and wonderful day that was and to be with friends in Portland was INDESCRIBABLE!!!! Yep me and MY eternal sweetheart had to throw him in there since hes still handsome as ever sweeping me off my feet everyday how blessed I am and how I love him!
AFTER well almost after we almost there you get the point :0)
BEFORE horrible huh!
Well my friends once again I have waited to long to blog....but life with 5 children and constant ups and downs just happens.... and so as a result sometimes my blog does not happen :0)

Anyhoo where the crap do I begin with whats going on in the life of the Mumms.....we are still living here in Soldotna and to make the official announcement although it did happen a few months back....

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of you knew, some may be shocked, some may talk whatever..... its our dream house and we love it here the kiddos are happy here and so are we....another big shocker

WE LOST OUR JOB....AGAIN no seriously AGAIN.....

Yep Jesse had been working his little heart out at the hospital and without real warning BAM they fired us with no reason....literally that is what they wrote out was that there was NO GOOD reason for firing Jesse. So as you can imagine it was quite the sucker punch, we were shocked and hurt and oh did I mention SHOCKED. But about a week later a little miracle in our lives....there are 2 guys in our church who run and small family clinic (and does the hcg diet) and they were looking for another PA and when they found out Jesse was out of work they IMMEDIATELY offerred us a job. It is difficult because Jesse travels about 4 days a week so we only see him for 3 but they are 3 solid days of Jesse which is heaven. Then came the REALLY good news they are building a new clinic literally about 1.5 miles down the road from our new home so Jesse could just bike to work if he really wanted too amazing right?!?! God really does have a plan for us even through the devestating times where we think life just stops it is really just a turn in the road for us.

So Jesse is there now and they absolutely LOVE him there are no doubts there even had the doctors wife call me and tell me how lucky they feel to have him! and a HUGE bonus is I started the hcg diet! and guess what IT WORKS in 3 weeks I am down 20 POUNDS seriously 20 POUNDS. Is it kinda tough yeah it really is the diet gets some getting used to and well first thing in the morning taking a shot in the thigh never did make the list of things I wanted to do in life but as I see myself shrink down again I am good with whatever works!

So there are the 2 biggies in our lives then there are a few smaller biggies we REMODELED our kitchen WAHOOO because seriously the plaid wallpaper and blue counters were awesome and all but HAD TO GO!!!! and thanks to our awesome contract with the hospital that they broke we were all set up to go through with it and thus that is what we did!

Then of course we lived in Alaska and thought we best be getting a camper to put our kiddos in and soooooo yep we got one of those too..... great lil camper a 95 with bunk beds and the perfect layout for our family so we are READY!!!!

Now for some coolness went to the fish run today and you know how many fish had gotten through....230,000 that is an all time record here! fishing was a DREAM you put your pole in and BAM about every 5-10 min you would get a hit! that is until the tourist invaded and it became combat fishing which is LAME and man they get a lil rude as well! but that didnt ruin the day I took my 5 kids by myself and we caught 2 big ones and I felt pretty dang accomplished by the end of it!

So we are doing well here, which means something I am sure will happen soon a little hiccup in life but we have what is most important to us our beliefs and the gospel to steady us, our family which is important above all, and all around us we have this incredible nature. That is one thing that is so different here there is a special peace and beauty in Alaska that you do not find other places you look at the landscape and you meet the people here and you know it is just filled with a goodness you cannot explain I love it! I hope you are all doing well and enjoy the pictures my love to all my family and friends in the lower 48 I miss you so very much!

We ARE alive we have not been eaten....yet

Hello to all!

It has been a LONG LONG LONG time since I have updated my blog, things have been crazy what can I say moving a whole world away from all our familiar surroundings has definately been a process. But we are HERE and really do love it. If we had sat down and put down on a list all of our dreams of what the perfect town would consist of for our family to grow up in I think that Soldotna would have about every single quality that we wanted.

We live in a beautiful log cabin its 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and just adore living here. We have had moose, we have seen one bear (well to be clear it was a bear butt but Jesse doesnt think I should go announcing I saw a bear butt in my backyard ha ha) We have been to one side of the peninsula clear over to the other and we love it ALL. We have not lived through a fishing season yet but we are counting on that to provide some food for our deep freezer that seems to empty a little more each day, as my kids grow so do their appetites! and along with all the wonderful things of Alaska one of the biggest drawbacks is that food is kinda spendy here. It is worth it though, whatever we pay extra in we feel as though our quality of life here is so much richer.

The people of Alaska are what truly impress me, they are kind and loving and have welcomed us with open arms. I have met some of the most incredible women here who I already love very much they are absolute angels to me! So hows Jesse Im sure your wondering, he is doing well he loves his job in orthopedics and is just trying to learn everything he possibly can to best assist the doctor. The kids are all doing wonderful.

Landon is settling into his new home and really liked his new school hes struggled a little but things are getting better for him everyday!

Kyran is well hes Kyran my wild child he searches everyday for a bear to shoot, definately his fathers son.

Zade is coping we are still trying to get his speech under control it is very hard to understand him but we are working as hard as we can.

Riya is doing fantastic mostly because she is POTTY TRAINED WAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! she is the little princess that she has always thought she was and is loving it here, she loves to point to the different animals she sees and her favorite place on earth is Sea Life.

Tayla is CRAWLING and eating and just growing I can hardly believe how big she has gotten! it goes by so dang fast.

So that is a quick update of where the Mumms are at we are trying to keep the faith and keep our chins up as we make our way through this difficult life.

WE ARE ALMOST THERE 72 HOURS TILL TAKEOFF.....

Well we have packed (and with that the kids have unpacked argh!)

We have cleaned

We have said our goodbyes (while picking up our leftovers in Rexburg)

We have our home in place in Soldotna (YAY!)

And so with all of that ... it is about time for takeoff ..... On Monday we will be taking off with our 5 beautiful and LOUD children (heaven help our fellow passengers and US!!)

We have been so very blessed with this whole process it has been scary, frusterating, time consuming, did I mention SCARY ...but we know without a doubt that Alaska is where we were suppossed to go.... The Lord is there he answers the prayers in our hearts and how thankful I am for his direction in my life. He is real to me and has become more so through this whole process I know he KNOWS me and care for me and my beautiful family. So we will make our great adventure happen in Alaska it is so far away from family and loved ones but we will forge on. We are so excited and hope that our loved ones make the journey to come so we can introduce them to the absolute beauty that Alaska offers. Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts we love you.

WE ARE MOVING........TO.....ALASKA!!!!

Not sure if you all had heard.... I know many of my fellow blogsters are facebook friends as well but if you havent heard we are heading off to Soldotna Alaska! how did this happen?

Well its quite a long story so here we go.... so as a prestory to the story....we finished school in August came back and had baby #5 (Tayla) Jesse took it and missed it by about 3 questions, then we lost our job in Boise, after 2 weeks we got our job back, then we moved to Boise, 2 weeks before Jesse took his test (AND PASSED!!!) they let him go (GRRR!) so we were on our bums again. No fear though I got on the ball and in no time I had 3 interviews lined up that all just fell into place..... first Casper WY, Soldotna AK, and lastly Glennallen AK so we headed to Casper. I loved Casper it was beautiful there and the people were as friendly as you could possibly get. Minus the realtor we had she was actually quite horrible and being the eloquent and awesome person that I am I managed to butt call her as I expressed my feelings of displeasure with her services. Ok fast forward we had this AMAZING Christmas with the kids the pure and simple joy of Christmas is just something you cannot explain. It is one of the times of year I am most thankful to have all the children I do...why you ask? well to see their faces and feel their excitement....and to play with their toys that eh hem Santa brings :0)

So the DAY after Christmas we board a plane heading to Alaska (cue the exciting music) arrived at 1:30am (that would be 3:30am Idaho time) and proceeded to this hotel that had more animal heads in one place then I had seen my entire life put together....well maybe not that many but it was a close call there. We had this amazing breakfast and headed from Anchorage to Soldotna and let me tell you without even HESITATING it was the MOST BEAUTIFUL drive I have ever taken in my LIFE. We got to Soldotna and were just blown away it was AMAZING the people were so friendly there was a WALMART (biggest one I have ever seen.....seriously!) and a Fred Meyer. Now it was not all love at first price...I mean sight....yeah thats right holy COW gas is EXPENSIVE! to the tune of $3.65 a gallon good GRAVY! and milk to the tune of $3.00 and the worst of all...EGGS can you believe that EGGS?!?! but one dozen eggs there is over $4.00!!!!! that threw Jesse and I a little bit but as we talked to people and compared salaries (which in Alaska is alot higher then we would get here...) not to mention the PFD which is around $2000 a person things evened out. After deciding that Glennallen was just not going to workout to drive to due to time, expense, and how flipping cold it gets up there.....we were soon touring a log cabin home that was absolutely the PERFECT place for us just felt like home there..... I hope Im not cursing myself as I write this blog as things have changed SO many times this last little bit. But with airplane tickets bought, car trasnport reserved, moving truck set to come..... things are looking up for us. There is a beauty and a feeling of peace and serenity there that I cannot explain. It is something that in order to feel it you have to go there take in this incredible scenery where you see eagles everyday and moose wandering alongside the road. It is a place where you know you are this little human in this big world and where you know there is a higher power you cannot deny it.

So thats the story .... we are headed to Alaska flying out January 31st, 2011 to start our new chapter. Lets hope our story is non-eventful for awhile..... All I want to report on from now on is all the fun outdoor things we will be doing. .... So now all of you who read know someone who will live in Alaska .... So dont hesitate to call and come take a visit into heaven!!!