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We've recently added some pictures from Mara's baptism.  Here is an idea of how the ceremony went...

From January 2009

Reese has been amazing me lately with what she knows about technology.  Karl and I are always on the computer, so she has been exposed to a lot of technology.  She completely understands how to have a web call with both sets of her grandparents.  She always wants to watch Elmo on the computer.  Her favorite game is Peek-a-Boo Elmo.   A friend recently introduced us to the Fisher-Price website, too which has some great games.  Recently I've noticed that she'll move her little finger around on the mousepad of the laptop and watch as the cursor moves on the monitor.  She says, "mouse" as she watches it move.  She has been very into daddy's iPod as well.  Mara's bassinett has a little music machine attached to it and Reese calls it, "Baby iPod."  Her latest is to come up to me while I'm on the computer and say, "I type Nannie e-mail."  Perhaps I am on the computer too much, but I think it's pretty cute.

We had Mara baptized today.  I think we had her successfully baptized anyway.  It was hard to tell what Father Jack was saying over all the screaming.  She screamed from the beginning of the ceremony until about 30 seconds before being baptized with holy water.  The second the water hit her head, she screamed again and continued until the baptism was over.  My mom took her right after the sacrament and she stopped crying immediately.  What special power do grandmas have?  How do I get it?  It was a beautiful, yet loud, ceremony.  Welcome to the church Mara Grace.  We love you!

Last Christmas, we didn't know that we'd be celebrating the birth of Jesus with 2 daughters this year.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with family and friends.  We did manage to get out a Christmas card, but I didn't send out a Christmas letter, so I'll try here.

From December 2008

2008 was a fabulous year for our family.  We grew from a family of 3 to a family of 4 with the birth of Mara Grace on November 23rd.  Mara is a beautiful and happy girl.  She doesn't do much yet other than the standard eating, sleeping and pooping.  She is spending much more time with her eyes open lately and we are looking forward to getting to know her.  She was born weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces.  Yesterday she weighed 10 pounds, 6.5 ounces!  That's a full 3 pounds in 5 weeks.  She is supposed to gain 6 to 8 ounces a week, so in 5 weeks she should have gained between 30 and 40 ounces.  She's gained 48 ounces!  That's our girl!  

Reese continues to be the light of our lives.  She is learning to share the lime light with her sister fairly well.  She is learning what it means to touch the baby gently and has only attempted to hit her on purpose once.  Reese continues to be at the top of the charts with her statistics.  She is in the 75th percentile for her weight (28 pounds), the 90th percentile for height and she is in the "greater than 97th percentile" for head size.  Big head = Big brain.  Reese runs around and plays like crazy.  Lately she has enjoyed trying to jump which is quite funny to watch.  She has established an enormous love for drawing.  She spends at least an hour every day drawing.  Her vocabulary is increasing every day.  She is beginning to speak in sentences quite often.  Yesterday she said, "I put hat back on my head."  She is very interested in doing things "myself."  She says "bless you" when someone sneezes and has begun to say "thank you" even when not being prompted to say so.  We look forward to what the coming year brings for her.

Karl continues to stay busy at Dell.  He works way too many hours, but we love it when he is home!  In his spare time he enjoys making beer.  His latest, "extra special bitter" is a tribute to Mara (her name means "bitter").  I am keeping busy by spending all my time with our two girls.  In my spare time, I sleep, shower, and dream of traveling.  

We hope your Christmas was blessed.  We wish all of you the very best in 2009!

Love,

The Hamands

The other night, Reese said, "Star Wars"!

From December 2008

We went to the Trail of Lights last night and had a great time.  Thank God we chose last night with a lovely temperature of 70 degrees!  Tonight's low is 29!  Brrrrrr.  We planned to get there right as the trail opened at 7:00, but long lines and lots of traffic kept that from happening.  We didn't start the trail until 8:30 and then weren't on our way home until 10:30.  Reese enjoyed herself anyway.  She liked riding on Daddy's shoulders and seeing all the lights.  Mara could have cared less where she was, but enjoyed cuddling with Mommy in her sling. 

From December 2008

 Reese was getting cranky toward the end.  As we boarded the bus to go back to our car she insisted that her diaper was dirty by screaming and crying "I poop!" over and over again...loud enough for the whole bus to hear.  She even went so far as to pull her changing pad out of the diaper bag and lay it out on the seat of the bus and beg to be changed.  I convinced her to wait until we got back to the car.  After getting back to the car and changing her diaper, she hadn't pooped at all.  She does this a lot lately.  She insists that she pooped until you take the diaper off, then she looks at you and laughs and says, "I pee pee."   Silly girl.