Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Its been a long time.....

We signed Moms casket and sent her love notes. It was a very special time one I will never forget...

Jesse and I on our wedding date almost 10 years ago.

I am blessed.......I mean I am REALLY blessed, I have struggled to see that as this winter has passed and tragedy has come and gone but when I look around at the end of the day I know with all my heart I am a blessed woman. I have five beautiful children whom I love with all my heart, a husband who I still am madly and deeply in love with, and a supportive family and friends who I love so much.
This March we lost a mother, Jesses mom who I have loved and adored for a very long time. When I first met her all those years ago she welcomed me with open arms, I will never forget her game of bummely bummely buck...... how many fingers do I hold up? How many times she played the "game" with me and with each and everyone of my children. The days of rising so early before the sun would even rise and picking whatever plant needed harvesting at the moment and talking REALLY talking as we worked. I remember her beautiful hands helping me and teaching me to make bread, or can, or cook. I remember the drives I took with mom and the wonderful and sweet advice she gave me. I remember the long drives we would go with everyone to go see the bright leaves. I remember the time when I was in college and sick with the flu and she was there with lemonade and stuck with me throughout the day trying to help me get better and telling me stories of my soon to be husband. I remember my wedding day and how I looked at my own mom and my soon to be mother in law thinking how wonderfuly blessed I was that day. She has been an incredible example to me in my life and her sudden death was a blow to all those around. I love this woman and I am blessed with the knowledge that someday I will see her again and the fact that we are eternally linked and for that I am so grateful. So for now I will revel in my family a little better, I will let them know how I love them and respect them, I will hug my own children a little bit longer, I will listen to that still small voice inside my heart closer and hope to be a little more like my mother in law who taught me so much.

It was a beautiful funeral and seeing my family was so wonderful my sweet friend Annika came up and seeing her was just so amazing. My father in law was absolutely incredible his unshakable faith and sweet spirit throughout this trial has instilled a new look at the world around me, his love for Sozel has changed my own love for Jesse helping it to grow even more. I am so proud to have such amazing in laws and seeing all of them truly helped this experience to be a good thing, a celebration of a beautiful life lived.
Our family is doing well this winter has been a long one and with that a little bit of light depression for all, but we are hanging in there and feel so lucky to live in "Gods Country" Alaska is truly magical and beautiful. I almost ran smack into 3 caribou meandering throughout the road the other day and thought only in Alaska would I have this problem. Spring is coming though the sun is out and so are the airplanes, did you know Alaska has more pilots then any other state? Yep they come out whenever the sun does! The moose are also springing forth we had a friend who just fed a baby moose carrots and pet him in his front driveway!
My family and I are just so excited for the summer to be able to get our boat out and go fishing! or even just cruise up and down the Kenai! Life is good and I have to remember that, because at the end of the day I have my family, I have my beliefs, and I have a wonderful support system.

Monday, January 23, 2012

WOW I am so bad at this blogging thing but at least I try to get things up every couple of months right?!?!
Hoping all of our loved ones had an incredible holiday. We had so much fun and were able to have my parents out for Christmas which provided lots of joyful memories that we will cherish forever! We went to Sealife to watch some sea lions and my Dad and Mom found there love of fourwheeling! good times! We all had a few of our christmas wishes answered (and by few I mean pretty much all of them.....) and all in all just had fun as a family. For those of you who did not get a Christmas Letter my deepest apologies but here it is.....

All in all its been incredible here, we are so blessed to live in such an incredible place that has been a dream to live in with kids. So enough about where we live now onto what we have all been up to these past couple of years!




Jesse- Jesse is working in Anchorage for the time being, it has been a rough go for Jesse getting his career started but I have been so proud of him for sticking to it and working for what he wanted. He commutes 4 days a week to Anchorage and then comes back down to Soldotna from Thursday night to Monday morning. So it works out well for us. There are plans to get him back to Sterling which is right by where we live and we hope and pray that it will work out soon for him.

Jesse is VERY excited to be considered a resident of Alaska now because now it means he has a tag to HUNT. He has put in for every animal there is about and we will hear back in the next few months as to which tags he will receive. Jesse loves Alaska especially the summers with the midnight sun it is amazing to go fishing all night long or boating for that matter. Jesse is also the ward clerk of our ward and while it has been tough to fit his calling in with our family and that chaos that has gone with it he has enjoyed it and feels so blessed to serve the Lord in any way he can. It has been a great move for our family and for our lifestyle the only thing missing is our families!


Heather- Heather is a stay at home mommy for the time being and absolutely loving it, she is also serving in church as the Primary Chorister and loves the kids so much she feels in alot of ways that this was the calling she was born to do. Other then family she loves to run, however, she tends to run where the wildlife ends up being at so she has been charged a few times by moose. This has not deterred her though she is just now more faithful in running with Teton our bullmastiff who has ended up being so protective of our family. She has goals to run a half marathon in the upcoming year, she was planning on doing it last year but hurt her knee right before the race. She has made lots of friends here and loves to hang out with her girlfriends she has come to rely on them in the way of sanity while Jesse is away at work. She is also busy raising the kids and working with them everyday. When she is not doing that she is either cleaning inside, taking care of the outside, or folding laundry.... her favorite thing. She loves the summers as well and her favorite part has been on the boat with the family. We would stay out till midnight with the kids in the summer fishing and it was fantastic! She canned a ton of salmon and is hoping to get stocked up on halibut this upcoming summer.


Tayla- Tayla is 16 months old and such a sweetheart she is a tomboy and LOVES to play with trucks and cars. She is beyond mischievous and gets into EVERYTHING she is on the brink of walking and wants to get in on everything her brothers and sister are into. We love this kid and feel so blessed that she is a part of our family.


Riya- Riya is still our princess so dainty and petite. She loves to play with her dolls and now that she acquired a kitchen and dollhouse during the holidays that is ALL she does. Tayla and Riya “cook” all day long just like their mom does now. She is pretty reserved except for when it comes to the outside she LOVES to play in the snow and sled we have had so much fun with her.


Zade- Our sweet Zade is growing taller and taller and has almost reached the same height as Kyran now. He has been a hard-worker and going to lots of extra classes and therapies to get his speech going strong. He is getting better but we still have alot of work to do with him. We recently found out he may have some hearing issues as well so he has had so much to face in his young life but we continue to try and work with him. He has the sweetest spirit and is so very loving, he is still into his trains and trucks and his best friend right now is Riya they will sit and chatter non stop downstairs it is adorable. It is times like these that I am so happy our kids ended up being so close in age.


Kyran- Oh Kyran, if any kid is going to give me grey hair it will be this one, he is always looking to do new tricks and recently decided jumping off my back deck onto the hill with his snowboard was a good idea. I literally cannot watch him sometimes but he is Kyran my wild child. He is doing well in school and is very smart the problem is he finishes early sometimes and then he has free time in which his mischievous ways come into play. All in all though he loves his kindergarten class and is doing well. He is a great helper to me and while he is wild he is probably our biggest cuddler and he teaches me so much about life everyday.


Landon- Landon is doing well in school and making friends, he loves his teacher and things are going so much better this year for him. Landon has had some of the most incredible adventures living in Alaska in Scouts he went on a fishing expedition, for a field trip they went out to Exit Glacier and hiked around. Living here has helped Landon break out of his shell and learn to love the outdoors, and for that I am so grateful.


All five kids have been growing and changing each day it has been such a wonderful gift just to watch them grown and see what little personalities they have ended up with. We have had many miracles in our lives these past few years and are so grateful for this season of celebrating Christ and his life, we have an everlasting testimony of him and what he has done for us and the incredible example he is to all mankind. We thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, love, and support as we have made it through the journey of schooling and onto the journey of life. We love you all so much and pray that you had a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!!!!




With Love,

Jesse, Heather,Landon

Kyran, Zade, Riya, and Tayla Mumm