Newest Army Brat

The last post was by Jon - the much more eloquent writer in the family. Here are the pictures of us coming home and a few other fun ones.

Leaving the Wolf area where Molly and I were holed up for 46 hours to make sure we would be alright.

Molly's first non-government issued outfit - the bunny toes are our favorite!!

Molly in her Army brat outfit and daddy

Can you see the camo baby?

This was after Molly's first bath - let me tell you it is great to have family that you can learn from. We are slowly learning how to be parents and how to do things - luckily Molly is pretty calm and ok with us learning on her. She however does like to turn into a completely different baby come 11pm at night until 7am - she turns into THE CRIER! I am thankful for grandparents and a husband - between the 4 of us we are able to get enough sleep to survive and make it through those fun night hours.
For those of you that were wondering no we are not going to all the fun Fur Rondy things I thought I would be able to go to right after having Molly - recovery time takes a little longer than I thought. Luckily some friends took Jon's parents for a few hours of fun so they can tell us all about it - next year Molly and I will go experience it all first hand.

Feeling Like One of the Shepherds

In Luke chapter two a few shepherds are out tending their flocks when they receive some good news. The entire host of heaven comes to tell them that the Savior of the world has been born in Bethlehem and that they need to go check it out. The shepherds go and discover things exactly how the angels had told them. They found baby Jesus lying in a manger and they got excited. After all, this baby was going to grow up and rescue the world from sin. This was good news for everyone so, "they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them."
The McPherson have some good news to announce to the world, too. It's not the kind of news that is going to save the world from sin, but it is the kind that needs to be shared with all. On 25 FEB 2009 at 1718 (or 5:18PM) Alaska time, Molly Frances McPherson came into the world. Ashley and baby are doing well. The name "Molly Frances" means "freedom from sorrow" and thus far Molly has lived up to her name. She hardly cries and she is so patient with Daddy as he learns how to change diapers.
Spread the news far and wide, Molly is born. And if you did not know, two thousand years ago God sent his son Jesus into the world to save you from sin because he loves you very much. Enjoy the pictures below.

Fur Rondy

Remember Jon and I live in Alaska - people up here have to make their own fun. Saturday is the Running of the Reindeer (like running of the bulls in Spain but with reindeer) part of the week long celebration of Fun Rondy. What is Fur Rondy you ask - this is the time of year all the trappers brought back their furs and traded downtown - since they were all in town they decided to make a festival of it so we have tons of random fun coming up.

Fun things like:
Championship Dog Sled Racing
Frostbite Footrace
Snow Sculpture Competition
World Ice Bowling Championships
Outhouse Races
Running of the Reindeer
Dog Pull
Snowshoe Softball
Trappers and Miner's ball (supposedly protested by PETA)

Since Molly is coming Wednesday I know we will be good to go when things start Saturday! Or at least so we can see a few of the random things I mean how many people have gotten to ice bowl or see snowshoe softball (which I would participate in if not for the aforementioned delivery) or run away from reindeer chasing you down the street??
I will at least be sending Jon to see some of the fun so pictures will be posted along with pictures of Molly when she comes out after a 30 minute delivery tomorrow (ok at least not a 4 day delivery).

Winter Carnival Fun and McPherson's made it!

Today the base had a Winter Carnival at the sledding hill. You got free rides up the mountain to go tubing, there were dog sled rides, a hockey shot, food like reindeer sausage and many other fun free things! We met up with our friends at the hill to have some fun.

Jon coming down the half pipe

Jon at the bottom of the half pipe which they let us all tube down today - yes us. All 9 people in our party went down the hill in a tube don't worry it was perfectly safe.

Tina getting ready for her snowmobile ride through the woods

Olivia going over the stopping mound at the bottom of the half pipe

Olivia and Tina getting ready for the snowboard limbo - if I wasn't pregnant I would have tried this one but I don't think I could bend that low

Jon and I before our scanoe race - yes we rode down the hill in a canoe. We lost the race but didn't fall out of the scanoe or cause Molly to come out.

Vince and Ashley beating Jon and I to the finish - Jon had to get out and push to get us into the orange finishers circle.

After our loss at scanoing we headed straight to the airport to pick up Jon's parents. We took a scenic tour of downtown, came home for a few minutes and then took them to Bear's Tooth. This is the theater/restaurant in one. We saw The Tale of Despaurx and then came home so they could get to bed. They had been up since 5am Eastern Time so it was close to midnight before we let them come home and relax. Since I was exhausted and I have only been up since 9am Alaskan time I know they must be a little tired.

Waiting for our food and the movie to start!

We have until Wednesday when they induce me to get as much in as we can. Tomorrow we are going to watch some Outhouse Racing! We will be taking the McPherson's out to see the town and all the random fun they can handle for the next 3 days then we will let them see their granddaughter!!

Molly update: She is still in, I am having a few contractions but nothing major. She has such a sense of adventure that is why I am doing all the sledding and tubing and scanoing - it is my "cravings" - some people crave food - Molly craves FUN!!! (or at least I can blame her right??)

Presiden't Day Celebration

President's Day is a military holiday so Jon had off!! The base was offering free snow tubing tickets to the first 100 people to our ski/tubing slope so we went with some friends to try and get those tickets. Free things go fast in case you were wondering and they were out before we got any so instead we went to the Army training mountain and went sledding down what I think was at least a 2 mile course. It is one of those hills that only certain people know about but someone in our group did and it was free! Everyone drove to the top and got out - 1 person drives to the bottom and picks everyone up - we all pile into a car and ride to the top to sled down again. It was so fun - Here are some pictures. In case you were wondering the kids that were not in our group and kept flying past us on their super fast sled made it down in 3minutes and 43 seconds - that is a long time to sled!! I think Jon and I made it down in like 10 minutes.

Jon crashing at the bottom

Jon and I after a trip down

The group

After sledding we went the Vince and Ashley's to have sandwiches and go ICE FISHING!! They live on a lake and their neighbors regularly fish so we thought we would find some of their holes and try out ice fishing ourselves. I am not a regular fisher because it takes patience and now I know I am also not an ice fisher but at least I can say I tried.

Jon cross country skiing on a lake.

Ashley ice fishing - I had to have some serious help getting out of that chair

The only one in our group to catch anything - Annie the dog

Annie's catch as soon as we could get a picture

Needless to say after our President's Day Celebration we were extremely exhausted - but it was so much fun. One nice thing about living in Alaska is there is never a shortage of random things to do!!

Next weekend - Outhouse racing! The McPherson's are coming into town and we plan on taking them to see what outhouse racing looks like but from what I have read you put an out house on skis and go down a hill until you crash.

Moose and Pranks!

Yesterday when getting ready for church we looked out our kitchen window and saw this. That would be a moose looking over a neighbors fence - they sent their dog out and it scared off the moose. Moose DO NOT like dogs they think they are wolves - or so we have been told.
Saturday was our friends 40th birthday and since he husband deployed the day before we thought we would prank her so she would have something fun to think about. We were going to post-it note her car but she was out picking up one of her kids from a dance so we got the others to let us in and we post-it noted her house!! It was AWESOME!! 1,200 post-it notes on mirrors, pictures, toilets, walls and her dogs. We also got 40 $1 gift cards and stuffed them into balloons. She had to pop all 70 balloons to find the 40 that had a gift card in them. Here are some pictures from the fun. Don't worry though - on Saturday we took her and her kids to dinner so everything we did they didn't have to clean up.

Stuffing the balloons

The balloon in her room instead of car

Her bathroom mirror

Entryway mirror

Her yard - black spray painted 40. The nice thing about snow is that it isn't really vandalizing b/c it will melt (right??).

Molly Update: I get induced Feb 25th - she should be around soon!!

Shoes and Funny outfits

Here are Molly's newest shoes - I got a little bit more creative on this pair and sewed on some ribbon to add a little color. I was at JoAnn's the other day and for $10 I have enough material (cloth, ribbon, buttons) to make at least 10 more pair. It took me 45 minutes to complete this set so I am getting faster:) Making the shoes is my compromise to Jon saying Molly wouldn't wear shoes until she could walk - he is ok with $10 for 10 shoes but not $10 for 1 pair.
Do you see anything out of the ordinary?? The big blob is not a snowman but Jon in his Arctic Cammo on our back porch.
This is Jon doing his impersonation of the guy in My Bloody Valentine 3-D - or just wearing one of the many outfits he is packing to take downrange (war zone). We have had some fun taking pictures of the many outfits he will be packing.

Molly update : Jon brought home a cold and shared it with Me so Molly and I have gotten to go to the hospital to make sure everything is ok - so far so good but I will be thankful with I no longer have a fever, coughing or just feeling crummy!

Is this nesting??

Today was my first day with nothing to do and no car to get anywhere so I got to hang out at home all day - oh boy! I am also on moderated bed rest as of my last appointment so I guess hanging out at the house is good for me. Jon did come get me to take me to the JAG (military lawyers) office to get our wills set straight so that if something happens to either of us Molly is taken care of - how fun to think of. While it is not fun to write down what happens to your child, money, things if you die at a young age I know that it is good - especially after getting to be a part of the process working in development.
SO - what did Ashley do all day you ask????

I made shoes!!! It took 2 hours for the first shoe and 30 minutes to complete the second one. My next ones will have more decorations but I just needed to work on the basics this time.

Made burp clothes! That way Molly can spit up all over those and not my clothes.
Hung up her wall hanging (Jon did this) so that her room is COMPLETE!!
Put the finishing touches on our guest bedroom so when family and friends start coming they don't have to sleep under covers that are stained and torn.

My Fatal Valentine

Last night we went to a murder mystery dinner theater with our friends Vince and Ashley. It was My Fatal Valentine NOT My Bloody Valentine 3-D - please do not get those two confused! This murder mystery was about authors coming to win the Love Knot award (fake award and fake books) and in the middle of the show one gets shot and we had to decide who was the murderer. When we entered they asked if one of us would be willing to read an excerpt from one of the books during the show - after some persuasion by the host Jon agreed. Jon hammed it up - he was so funny none of us could look at him without laughing and the crowd clapped the loudest after he finished reading and the actors even came up afterward and told him that he should think about theater. Basically he channeled his inner child from the Journey and got a year's worth of skits out on stage at the theater. His novel was Passage to Savannah and here is one of the lines: "Delaney tossed her head and sniffed before she turned on her heels and walked away. Chance placed his large hand on Bliss's tiny waist and his black eyes burned in to hers."
I forgot my camera - how sad!!!! So this is the best I can do a picture of the program and the excerpt Jon read. Ashley our friend was the only one at our table who guessed the right person the rest of us guessed wrong.

Volcano Update: It is not as much of a threat anymore it has settled down again

Molly Update: After a 2 hour appointment yesterday we know everything is good with Molly. I know get to go 3 times a week until she comes because of the gestational diabetes. I will get 2 non stress tests where they watch her heartbeat for 20 minutes and 1 doctor visit a week - oh boy! They talked about possibly inducing at 39 weeks so she may be 3 weeks away now instead of 4!

Denny's and Operation Enduring Freedom

In case you didn't know yesterday Denny's gave away FREE Grand Slams from 6am - 2pm. It also happened to be the day that we had our official farewell ceremony for Operation Enduring Freedom - the name of the deployment Jon is leaving for. On our way to the ceremony we went to breakfast at Denny's with our friends Vince and Ashley.

Jon and I getting ready to enjoy our FREE breakfast.

The total bill for 4 people to each at Denny's - the drinks were not free. $6.25 is not bad for 4 people to get completely full!!

Jon and I at the Sullivan arena after the ceremony

As part of the ceremony they case the battalion flags. This is right after the flags were cased - they will not be pulled out until another formal ceremony overseas and then again next year when we welcome home the troops! 3,500 men and women are on their way as of yesterday and they should all be in place sometime next month.

Governor Palin was one of the speakers - here is our closest picture of her.

Fun things going on with the McP's
*Jon is jumping out of airplane today
*Ashley is attempting to make Molly a pair of shoes (yep make)
*Friday we go for our 36 week visit for Molly at the hospital
*Jon is helping me with children's church and we are going over the Armor of God since out of 16 kids 14 have a parent deploying. It is fun to be able to bring in the armor the kids parents wear and talk about how God calls us to wear spiritual armor that is similar to fight against our invisible enemies - these kids understand war and what it means in a different way than most.

Snowballing

It has been snowing on and off for 3 days now. Living on base you have to keep your driveway and sidewalk shoveled - if you don't you can get tickets and supposedly kicked off base. Needless to say three days of snow when you have to shovel and worry about the crazy drivers on the road aren't as fun as three days of snow when you were a kid with no worries.

BUT not last night!!!

We went to the movies with our friends Vince and Ashley and afterwards when we got to our house we thought it would be fun to throw snowballs at some of our other friends who live just down the street. One thing about Alaska snow - it is a DRY snow so making snowballs was more difficult than we thought. We picked up some of the snow that had been plowed and snuck around to the back of their house where we could see the tv on and started throwing the snowballs. It only took a few for them to start looking around for what was going on - as we were making our escape in the front they sent their dog to attack us (really lick us since she knew everyone). Then we went in their house for some hot chocolate and coffee. While hanging around they gave us the great idea of getting another friend who lives down another block. This time we wanted to have a game plan so we went back to the house to get ready. We made the snowballs in the kitchen sink - Jon brought in snow while Vince, Ashley and I got it wet to form slush balls (much easier to throw - just a tad more dangerous) then we headed out in 1 degree weather with our 10lb bag of "snowballs". As we approached the back of their house their neighbors were having a bar-b-que party but don't worry they didn't even pay attention to the 4 people in black hiding behind the power box throwing snowballs at the house- they just ignored us. So we attacked their house until they found us out and then went in for some warm apple cider.
That was probably one of the funnest nights I have had in awhile and I think we will have to do it more often because the hot chocolate and apple cider were definitely worth it!

Volcano Update: still brewing and the glacier around it is melting faster than they expected but no eruption yet.