Autumn

We are really enjoying the onset of fall in Columbus. Here are a few pictures/videos to give a taste.

These pictures were taken at a little park close to the Scioto river, about 10 minutes from home. We live between two fairly decent sized rivers. The Scioto is larger and more scenic. If you look closely in the first, we caught a little friend (only in the camera, none of us were really in the mood to catch the slimy guy with our hands).








We've been having a lot of fun going to the "softball game," aka, the park next to the library which also has softball fields.










There are a few farms in the area that allow the public to come in late summer and early fall to pick fruit from their orchards. We went this weekend and picked a lot of apples and picked up some other produce at the same time. The best part was they encourage taste testing while you pick.








We also tried to grow some tomatoes and peppers in the little patio behind our townhome. Graham and Emma love to play out there, and we love that they can't open the back gate.




And of course, you can't talk about Columbus in the fall without also addressing football at OSU. I won free tickets to a game so Graham and I went to get a firsthand experience. Here are 105,000 people converging upon the OSU house of worship. The football was okay, but we went mostly to watch the marching band. Just kidding, but really they were pretty impressive (the band, not the football, they deserved to lose but won anyway; I might get expelled or tarred and feathered for saying that). Graham's favorite part was the stadium hot dogs (he had two).

Welcome to the Buckeye State

We're moving to Ohio?


We woke our kids early in the morning and began our four day trip to our new home. The first day of our drive took us through Wyoming and into Nebraska. We had a minor car scare in The Absolute Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming (not kidding, the next town/city was at least 30 miles away). For a minute, we thought we weren't going to make it. As we pulled off the freeway to inspect our stalling, over-packed car, Alex and I immediately thought of this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. After a little prayer, a phone call to Alex's brother, and a lot of faith, we set on the road again. We felt confident that we would make it okay, and that we would not have any more car trouble.


We spent our first night in North Platte, Nebraska. It was exciting to be able to see other parts of the country. It seemed that each state had its own unique feel and look. You just know when you cross into Wyoming. It just looks different-- drier, dustier. And when you leave it, Nebraska rolls out its soft, pale grass in front of you. Most of the view was cornfields. And soybeans. But mostly corn, a lot of it. Sometimes for as far as you could see. I loved seeing those crops. There is something inspiring to me to think of someone working on that land. To see that there are people who take a plot of dirt and, through hard work and diligence and attention, turn it into something else. The rows seem perfect and straight and the stalks are the same height and the fields are so green and full, I want to run my fingers through them. I don't know if I'll ever love any landscape as much as I love the mountains, but we drove through some really pretty country. (I feel really Midwestern saying that..."some real purdy country.")


(Emma entertaining herself in the car.)

On our second day, we stopped in Winter Quarters, Nebraska at the temple site and the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters. We ate lunch in a picnic area there and I can see how so many of the pioneers got sick. There were so many bugs! We were driving through a record heat wave, I guess, so everywhere we stopped was at least 100 degrees. It was really hot. And sweaty. That night we stayed with some wonderful friends in Iowa City (thank you Jess and Joe!). Our kids had a great time being able to run around and jump and throw pillows and eat a real meal. It was awesome.


Our kids did remarkably well on the drive. Graham did watch Tangled about eight times, which was indeed helpful. We were able to stop in Nauvoo for an evening. It was beautiful. I didn't realize how close to the Mississippi River it was. We attended the Nauvoo pageant, which was a really great experience. Even though it was about 10 PM when we finished, our kids loved it! They were really intent. Emma was even dancing and singing along. This little girl loves to dance.



(Graham blowing dandelion seeds in Nauvoo.)

We were pleasantly surprised to find that Ohio was the prettiest part of the drive. There are so many trees here! It is very green. Also much more humid than out West. Our first couple weeks here were so hot. The heat is different here. You don't feel your skin frying when you walk outside, like it can in Utah heat, but the humidity can sometimes suck the life out of you. Fall is approaching and we are told that it is beautiful here, which must be true because of all the trees.


So far, we are really enjoying Ohio. We have great neighbors and ward members. We've made some good friends already and are really grateful for the support of the Church. It's nice to know that wherever we go, the gospel and the organization of the Church will be there. Our kids seem to be adjusting well. The first couple weeks were a little tough. There were certainly more tantrums and outbursts than usual, but I think they feel pretty comfortable here. They love that we have a basement and a back patio. We get to water our plants out there everyday, which they find very exciting. We live between two rivers, just a couple minutes from each, so we get to drive over bridges. Graham loves that. Our church shares a parking lot with the Columbus, Ohio temple, so we even get to see the temple once a week. Our kids love seeing the temple. Whenever we say that we are going to church Emma yells, "Temple!" and claps her hands. We lived so close to the Logan temple (our most frequent walk destination), I knew that would be one thing I would really miss. So I am grateful to have a temple close here too. A twenty minute drive is certainly manageable.


(Our first dinner at our new home. The makeshift tables didn't last too long.)

We have been in Ohio now for a month. It's kind of hard to believe that it has been that long, but it is starting to feel like home. Though I think I will always have part of my heart in Cache Valley, I really enjoy it here. We are really excited for these next few years of our life.

Well, there is certainly much more to say, but now you all know that we are at least alive and well.

Some Pictures

Graham's birthday cake, from October:

Emma's from January (Graham got to it before anyone else):

Alex and I had a lot of fun making these cakes, our first fancy cake making adventures (though they're not that fancy).

Halloween:



Graham was a dinosaur (I made his costume), and Emma was a ladybug ( I did not make her costume, but she still looks pretty cute).

Graham and Ryder (my nephew) both love football!

And Nick (my brother), here they are tackling him:

Aren't they sweet?

Emma wakes up with some pretty wild hair some days. Maybe she dreams about hair bands. This is not the wildest it's been, but you get the idea:


These are Graham's favorite faces to make. His "cheese" face:

And his "scary" face:

Handsome grad:

Graduation support from some of the Hatch family. This is one of the last pictures we took right before Graham fell on the stairs and cracked his chin open. We spent the next little while in the ER getting some stitches:

Graham loves these sunglasses. I can rarely get him to leave the house without them. And yes, Graham likes to put his shoes on the wrong feet:

On a recent visit to my parents' house, we forgot the kids' bag. For pajamas they wore these t-shirt. They looked so cute, I wondered why we'd never dressed them that way before. Graham found an old calculator and spent the rest of the night "calculating."

Emma on her birthday with a new toy:

I love this smile:

Emma has a bit of a sweet tooth:


Yum, ice cream!

Well, I suppose this has become a long enough post. Until next time, here's to looking out the window in pajamas that make your legs look super short and cute:

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: