Hidden Talent?!?!

Pepere feeding Mallory puffs as her parents bowled it up...
She's such an intense little lady...sizing up this whole bowling thing...
Right before I bowled with Mallory...I only attempted to once! :)
Aren't the shoes niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!??!?!
Mallory loved watching the balls roll up...

Pepere treated us to an afternoon of bowling. We had forgotten how fun it is!!! Brought back the memories of cosmic bowling back in the day! (Minus the black light, fog, and crazy music!) Mike and I hadn't been since we've been married and I think Mike's been hiding his talent...he was striking all over the place!

Christmas 2007!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What a fun Christmas we have had!!...It's always sad when it's over and you can't find festive tunes on the radio anymore...but we have next season to look forward to and all the many blessings of 2008! We had fun celebrating with Uncle Matt, Aunt Sandy, and the kids on the Sunday before Christmas. Then Mike, Mallory and I enjoyed walking the neighborhood and looking at the luminaries after our Christmas with the cousins.

Sadly, Mallory was sick with a virus this Christmas. We were at the doctor's on Christmas Eve and she was a bit of a "Crank-en-stein" opening gifts at my parents house, so it was disappointing that she didn't feel well, but we had fun anyway...We had a scrumptious Christmas Eve meal at MiMi and PaPa's followed by our Candlelight Service at church and then Uncle Matt's Christmas play at their church, and then we (Mike, Pepere, Mal, and I) all got new PJs before checking the chimney for Santa and leaving out cookies and milk and heading to bed.

Mallory enjoyed the crumbs Santa left and opening her presents here before heading over to my parent's house to have Christmas with everyone. We finished up our holiday with a visit to Lynchburg yesterday to see PaPa's family. Santa was so good to us this year...bringing everything from chapstick to hardwood floors for our downstairs! We are overwhelmed!!! :) Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday celebrating Jesus' birth!

It's Official!

Mallory is a walker!!!! Mike and I were chatting the other night and realizing how Mallory was choosing to walk more than crawl...she is a definite walker now and boy is she on the move! As with every milestone it is bittersweet because our little baby is growing up! We can't believe she just turned 13 months old!

Girly's got a New Game!

Thanks for the B-Day puppets Aunt Kirsti, Uncle Neil, Alex, and Eleni! Mallory loves them!!! And below is a clip of Mallory's favorite new game!

We 3 cats...

... of the Morins are...traveling to the vet so far...(has a ring, huh??) Mike got on the gloves and 30 mins later after lots of chasing all 3 cats were ready to head to the vet. What a lovely Christmas gift to them right?? SADness! They are all napping now as they rest up from all of their yearly shots. What a way to start the day! MiMi brought over her carrier and hung out with Mallory and Pepere while we went on our feline adventure... Everyone is glad that our furry friends are back home and happy!

Dr./Pepere (as good as the SODA!)

Mike took Mallory to the doctor today for the 2nd installment of her flu shot and to have her ears checked after her meds for her last ear infection...and the doctor went ahead and made it her "1 year checkup"...and I wasn't even there (I was nannying today and Mike's on vacation already!!!!) I was sad to miss out (and I'm sure the doctor missed my pages of ?s!!) But we are happy that our little girl is healthy and very consistent with her stats! She is still in the 75%tile for height and 20%tile for weight! And she now weighs 19 lbs 14 ozs!

And Pepere (Mike's dad) arrived this afternoon for the holidays and Mallory is already having a GRAND time showing him all of her toys and chatting it up!

Happy 60th MiMi !!!

MiMi turned 60 on Sunday and we went out to eat to celebrate! 3/6 people were feeling "under the weather" including the B-Day girl herself, but the party went on! Happy B-Day MiMi...we love you!!!!

Vaaaaaaaaaa Beach!

It's fun to get away as a family during the BUSY holiday season and just "be." And what better place than the beach!?!? Had a nice stroll on the shore and some "Dawson Creek" photo moments under the pier. :) Then we went for a lovely dinner out with Chiquita and the guy she's dating (the first we have ever met I might add!!! And we REALLY like him...I mean he went to JMU...how could you not!?!!?) Mallory slept through the lights as we drove on the boardwalk and then decided to PARTY when we got back to the hotel for a few hours...We didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she tore through the room with excitement until she finally went to sleep...but it was definitely a weekend of fun memories!

Little Ber's Website...

Please add the link http://www.caringbridge.org/ as one of your favorites and read and pray for Ber daily. When you get to the site you just type Ber in the search box to read his story, journal, guestbook, etc. He gets to come home from the hospital tomorrow to rest from his first round of chemo. Please pray that he is able to enjoy time at home before going back to the hospital for another round after Christmas.

We are so proud of BRAVE little Ber who is fighting his cancer with all his might. So many are praying for strength and courage for this little 4 yr old boy! Please keep the prayers coming and add him to as many prayer chains as possible! Thank you!

What a weekend!

Rockbridge Camp...isn't is Be-A-U-tiful!?!?!? :) Gotta love being in the Valley!!!
Fun times at camp in the summer...did "the blob" as a college student...would I dare to do it today??? hummmmmmmm?!?!?!?
Molly caring for Mallory after breakfast...
Mallory and MiMi busy playing before bedtime last night...

Mike is away at camp with the middle schoolers of our church and having a blast!! We were all 3 going to go, but after much debate we thought it might be best to keep baby at home with one of us. We thought she would be too distracting and we wanted the kids to have as much fun as possible. We also couldn't see leaving her for a whole weekend w/out one of us and being several hours away...(one day it will feel ok to do that for a weekend...a night we've done, but 48 hrs would be hard!!!) There were more boys going and Mike is so good with the age group so he was elected to go on the trip! The 2 speakers I know from my time at JMU so it's fun to know Mike is getting to hear from them now! He has had a lot of fun playing sports with the guys and hanging out. Mallory and I can't wait for him to come home this afternoon! :)

Meanwhile at home we had Molly spend the night on Fri. (she is the couple's daughter who went on the trip with Mike) She is so fun and loves babies so she was such a help to have around the house. Mallory loves her. She left in the afternoon for her aunt's house and then Mallory and I headed over to MiMi and PaPa's for a slumber party. I wanted to bake cookies with Mom and we had a lot of fun! Now it's time to head out to cousin Abby and Thomas' Christmas pageant at church!

Stockings! Stockings! And More!

How fun are these stockings????
The Wise men are making their way to Baby Jesus...(A tradition we started that we learned from a teacher at Mike's school...) The Wise men move to a different spot each day until Christmas Day when they get to the Nativity!
Mallory in her new tent with her new robot...the cats love it too!

Busy, busy, busy! Mallory and I had a fun time at Club Mom this morning with friends and now we are busy around the house and Mallory is enjoying all of the goodies that were passed down to her yesterday! Ever since we found out Mallory was a little girl back in Aug. of 2006 I couldn't wait to get some of these fun stockings...and now I have some! (Thanks for all the great stuff Courtney!)

And I also wanted to thank everyone so much for your prayers for Ber...when he got to the hospital yesterday they decided he needs chemo before they can have the surgery to remove the tumor. Please keep praying for healing. His parents are making a website and I will post that as soon as they do.

Little Ber Van der Meer...

Please join with us in praying for my sister's boyfriend's 4 yr old nephew Ber. ("Bear" short for Berend) We found out on Friday that he has a rare form of childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. We can't imagine what his parents Amber and Steve are going though right now. Ber is a bright, energetic, and full of life kid who just in the last few months has complained of his legs hurting and has run fevers for no reason. After a lot of testing they have made this diagnosis and Ber will have surgery on Monday to remove a tumor in his abdomen. Please pray for the doctors, Ber, and his family. Pray Ber and his parents will have courage as they face the days ahead. Pray that the Lord would heal his little body.

His parents have asked that we ask as many churches and people as possible to pray for him. I will let you know if they make a site for him and you can check in on him and pray for specific things. I will post a link to a site that I found in the many hours I have been on the computer this weekend reading about it. There are many stories on here of children on this site that are in treatment or have been declared cancer free.

Thank you for praying!
http://www.beebo.info/ned/nedwarriors.html