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.

Our Baby Girl

Laura gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 2:00 am January 18, 2010. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. Her name is Emma Rose Hatch. We'll give you a more detailed account of her birth, which is quite the story if you haven't heard it yet, but it will explain why Dad here is wearing the scrubs.