Things We Could Have Been Posting About in the Last Six Months . . .

(in no particular order)

-Alex graduated from Utah State University in Biological Engineering earlier this month. Thank you to our family who came to celebrate with us.

-We are moving to Columbus, Ohio in July for Alex to attend medical school at The Ohio State University. We are really excited for this new stage of our lives.

-Alex received a Health Professions Scholarship through the Air Force, which will pay for all medical school expenses and will even provide us a monthly stipend. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in January and will soon attend a five week Commissioned Officer Training in Alabama.

-Emma has been walking for six months or so. She is also the cutest little dancer there ever was. Her hair is getting quite long, and if I could get her to hold still long enough we could probably do something besides pigtails. But those little pigtails sure are adorable.

-Graham has been sleeping in a toddler bed for a few months, and he almost (sometimes) stays in his bed and goes to sleep right away. Though I can hear him in there laughing with Emma right now-- they are supposed to be taking a nap.

-Graham got his first concussion and his first stitches a few weeks ago (same week, different accidents). He was such a brave boy and handled them really well. He likes to talk about when "I went to the doctor and got my chin fixed."

-A couple weeks ago I made a list of all the words that Emma can say. There were 60 plus words! And since then I have heard at least ten more. This girl amazes me.

-Graham loves to read and I often see him sit down with a book and rehearse it aloud. He has such cute inflection and he is so animated. (And now I can hear him reading to Emma and she is squealing. I should probably get him back in his bed.)

-I recently stopped working as a Breastfeeding Counselor for our local WIC office. I really enjoyed working there, but I am glad to be done.

-Graham is just over two and a half and Emma is about sixteen months. They are such sweet little friends. I love to hear them talk to each other and see them play together.

-Emma loves to ask, "What's that?" Sometimes "that" kind of sounds like "Dad." Often when we are driving in the car, Emma will point out the window and say, "What's that?" and Graham will say, "No, I'm not Daddy, I'm Graham Hatch." They crack me up.

-We are expecting our third baby. We are so thrilled! I am just about 13 weeks along and our due date is the first week of December. Graham and I think it's a boy, Alex hasn't decided, and Emma has yet to tell us what she thinks. She just says, "Baby," and runs to find her own little baby doll. I can't wait for the craziness this one will add. There is nothing better than having a family.

Well, I am sure that there has been more than that going on, but there's a quick update on us. It really wasn't that hard, maybe I'll do it again soon. And since a post isn't really a post without some pictures, I'll get on that too. Hopefully sometime within the next six months.

Merry Christmas

Love, Our Family

Family Hair-loom

For the last eight or nine months, I've been trying to grow out my hair (since I have been compulsively cutting it since high school). Alex said to me the other day, "I think this is the longest your hair has been since we've met."

"Yeah, probably," I said. "Well, except for my tail . . ." When I first met Alex, I had this:


Not the best photo quality ever, but I think you get the idea. This little beauty swept down past my shoulders. I cut it off a few weeks before we were married and never looked back, and being the wonderful man that he is, Alex never said a thing about it until we'd been married well over a year: "I'm glad you decided to cut it."

I was (and occasionally still am), of course, ruthlessly teased about it by my brother-in-law, Mike. The first thing he said when Graham was born was, "Does he have a rat tail?"

No Mike, Graham has never sported the tail. The bald ring, the fuzz ball, but never the tail. But Emma on the other hand, was born with this:


Though hers is probably cuter than mine ever was. Or my dad's. Yeah, my dad had the true rat tail in the 80s. (Don't tell him I told.) The little braid and everything! (Sorry no picture of that one, but trust me, it was pretty sweet.) I guess it just runs in the family. Emma should feel proud.

Now I am a mom and my hair spends most of its time in a ponytail. And after many years and dozens of hairstyles, I've finally figured out that you don't have to look like you stand out to really stand out. Hopefully it won't take Emma that long to figure that one out.

P.S. My dad now has very respectable hair.

Emma Girl and Graham the Man

We love having Emma in our family. She is so sweet and pleasant. Her sweet (and frequent) smile lights up her whole face. Though we've yet to really catch it on camera.
Graham loves sports. Everytime he sees a ball, a hoop, a field, or even someone just in uniform, he excitedly yells out, "Ball!" We got him this little football from D.I. and he loves it. He's never really been attached to anything, but when we first got this ball, he carried it everywhere. He wanted to eat dinner with it and had a hard time putting it down for bed. He's got his game face on: We are excited for Spring so we can play outside. We recently got dumped with snow: but did spend some time outside when it was warm for a little while. We made Graham wear this backpack because it looked so cute:

Graham Keepin' It Real

Last night at dinner Graham ate a boatload of peaches and then refused to eat anything else. So Alex and I tried to hold a serious, somewhat stern conversation with him about why you can't eat only peaches, Alex incorporating a mini biochemistry lesson. In the middle of this very serious conversation, Graham looks back and forth at both of us, notices both of us unknowingly folding our arms, and then folds his own as if he is ready for prayer. His face was so sweet and so sincere we both started laughing. Alex said, "Okay Graham, should we say a prayer?" I couldn't help it, I laughed through the whole prayer.

The days are just packed . . .

. . . with stories,

snacks,
play,

naps,

laundry,

hugs,

diapers,

tickles,

pouts,

little messes,

and little miracles.


I love being a mom.

In other news, my diploma finally came so I am now an official college graduate.

Laura Hatch
Bachelor of Science
Major in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing
Minor in American Studies with emphases in Literature and History


Hooray!

Hi Baby!

Graham said his first sentence today. He was in the room with Emma and unprompted he said, Hi Baby. He said it once more when we asked him to say it again. Graham seems to like having a younger sister, most of the time. He usually just goes about doing his own thing, but now and then he'll run and pat her on the head, or touch her face, or poke her eye and say eyes. There have been a few times that he tries to pick up Emma out of her bouncer. We're not sure if he wants to pick her up, or if he wants to climb in and she's in the way. He likes to give her a kiss before he goes to bed. He's starting to learn that he doesn't have to kiss on the lips. Maybe someday he'll learn that he doesn't have to kiss with his mouth gaping open.








Thanks to Isaac Stephens who took these pictures. Isaac and Emily and Eli have been in our ward since we've moved in and they've been good friends. We'll miss them as they are moving to Mississippi this week.