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!