A couple cute pictures from home

Following in Aunt Shannon's footsteps already?



Uh oh. Teaching her how to play Xbox from an early age. Before you know it, he'll have her running around Blood Gulch as a moving target for sniper practice.

Road Trip!

It's official: Clare has made it through her first road trip. I guess I should say that Tom & I made it through our first road trip with her. She was definitely the one in control along the way! We left last Wednesday afternoon when Tom got off work ultimately bound for the Walk for Life on Saturday the 19th in San Francisco. But we decided to take the opportunity to stop by and spend some time with our friends the Hardwicks in Salem. We got to spend all day Thursday with them and were planning on staying Thursday night as well, but Tom had the idea to drive through the night to Sacramento where we would be staying with Matt & Jenny. No, he wasn't just antsy to see Matt & Jenny. Clare, it turned out, wasn't such a fan of the looooong hours in the car, and wasn't afraid to let us know it! So he thought that maybe, just maybe, if we drove through the night she would think it was time for bed and sleep most of the way. It worked. She slept the WHOLE way there -- all 9 hours (except waking every 2 hours to nurse; but then she just went right back to sleep like a normal night). I wish I had taken some more pictures at the Hardwicks' house, but here are a few cute ones. It was so nice to see them; what a wonderful family! You can tell that their daughter Brielle just loved Clare!







Then it was on to Sacramento! The drive went well with Clare sleeping; the only nerve-wracking part for me was going through the mountains of Southern OR and Northern CA around Mt. Shasta. The roads were fine, but since there was so much snow around us on the ground I kept worrying that we were going to hit an icy patch. We got to Matt & Jenny's about 7 a.m. on Friday morning and Jenny graciously made us french toast for breakfast. Then we went to BED finally for all of 3 1/2 hours until Clare decided that she'd had a full night's rest and wanted to be up and about.

The Walk for Life was great; the turnout keeps getting better and better every year that we go. We met up with some old WWU friends -- Adam, Chris, Bekah (18 weeks along!), Bryan, & Mark. We missed seeing the WWU For Life group this year - Sorry guys! :( We also met up with some friends that Tom has made on the Facebook pro-life group over the past year -- Nathaniel, his wife Robin, and their daughter Sophie flew out from Virginia, and Monica lives in San Francisco. It was fun to put faces with names and meet the actual people behind the arguments. It's great to see how a common cause like this can unite people across the country who come from all walks and philosophies of life. Here are some pictures of our friends:


L-R: Monica, Tom & Clare, Nathaniel, Robin & Sophie


Robin & Sophie. She's wearing a t-shirt with one of my favorite pro-life sayings on it: "Smile! Your mom chose life."


Nathaniel & Sophie. Sophie had had enough of being carried and was ready to walk!


This picture's a little hard to see, but if you look down on the waterfront you can see thousands of people starting to congregate. That's us! We're near the end of the group, but there is still a ways to go until we reach that park down there. I think I heard an estimate of about 25,000 people this year!

Now on to the more, shall we say, COLORFUL part of the Walk for Life: the Counterprotest. Every year these people come out to call us all sorts of names and terrify our children by dressing up in God awful costumes, and every year their numbers seem to get smaller while ours continue to grow. A good sign, if you ask me.






This one just disgusted me.


Funny. We have a bumper sticker that says, "Real men don't pressure women to abort."

Christmas 2007

Here are a few (belated!) pictures from December and Christmas 2007. It was such a wonderful time, being able to spend it with family and friends, and of course, with our first child! Clare didn't really "get" the whole Christmas thing; but we're looking forward to next year when she'll actually have fun tearing in to presents and getting in to things!

Pray for Cheri & Zach!

Just got a call and was asked to help spread the word that Cheri's in labor with baby Mallahan #2! Please add Cheri to your prayer list, and I'll update as soon as I know more.

Here's a prayer to St. Gerard that is a great one to pray:

Prayer for a Safe Delivery

O great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted child of Mother of God, enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love.
O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine Master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the patron and protector of expectant mothers.
Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the purifying and life-giving waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

***UPDATE:*** at 9:36, Cheri gave birth to 9 lbs, 6 oz. Aidan Xavier Mallahan. Both mom and baby are doing well!