Four years ago today I married my best friend and the person I'll be with forever. I know, this is Emma's blog, but this day and the expression of love we felt that day led directly to Emma! So with that in mind a few wedding pictures for a blast from the past!

That was the second greatest day of my life!

We got some more pictures from the photo session!

Our friends at Photographing Sound gave us another sneak peak of the recent pictures we had taken. Again, he did an awesome job. These pictures really show how beautiful she really is!

Family shot with Mommy and Daddy.

I suggested this pose, and I think it turned out looking pretty sweet! Her legs are so cute

!
Emma sleeping in Daddy's hands...

Emma sleeping in a little basket in the garden. Our own little garden gnome!

A black and white version similar to the one above it...

Emma sleeping inside. Are we noticing a trend here? She sure does sleep a lot, Thank God!
This is Daddy's favorite one so far. The teddy bear hat is just so cute. It makes me want to snuggle and cuddle with her.

Daddy's little angel.....

If you want to see some awesome pictures of other really cute kids, feel free to go to the Photographing Sound blog...

http://www.photographingsound.com/blog2/

Emma's got a belly button!

Her umbilical chord finally fell off, and now she's officially got a belly button! And a really cute one at that!

After some changing and a little play time with Mommy while daddy was at work, Emma was ready to get all dressed up for the day...

Um....I'd say VERY!

First doctor's appointment!

We decided that it was time to get Emma out of the house for the first time since we took her home. Maybe we're just nervous parents, but it just seemed to soon for her to be sporting around town in the car seat! So by nothing other than sheer determination to get her to the doctors office, we swallowed our anxieties and went for her second car ride!

Emma decided to wear her daisy dukes and a cute little green t-shirt to her first doctor's appointment. Daddy thought they were too short, but gave in because they were so dang cute.

Sporting the faux-hawk. It's all natural baby!

Not sure what she's thinking, but those eyes....

She did so good on her second car ride and at the doctor's office that daddy had to kiss her on the nose.

So we had a photo shoot with some friends of ours, and here are the results. This is just a sample he posted for us on Facebook, so I thought I'd make a blog posting of it...They turned out really good! Their website is http://www.photographingsound.com/ so check it out. If you need some really good photos taken of kids, family, or what not, they do it all I'm pretty sure. And as you can see, they do a great job.

Random cuteness from Emma's world

Daddy gives the best kisses! The second picture is from a "photo shoot" she did with her cousin, Lucas, for Granny's mother's day present. The last two pictures are just too precious not to post!

This was Emma's first car ride home from the hospital. Mommy almost passed out from walking instead of using a wheelchair, and daddy almost passed out because....well...He's just like that. It's nerve racking driving with an angel in the car!

Emma's first bath at home!

Emma's first bath at home! She did pretty well considering how cold it must feel to her! She's so darn photogenic, even at the worst of times!

It's the first post, so I'll try to make it a good one...

Brooke and I have been so darn blessed in our lives, and I'd have to say that until recently, I didn't know just how blessed we really are. That is, until April 28th 2010. That's the day we had our perfect little angel, Emma Christine Gray.

Just in case you're wondering or don't know, I'll give you some background. We were high school sweet hearts. I know, cliche! But sometimes things really do work out that way. Heck, my brother and his high school sweet heart are married with a son too! My Dad taught us that once you find a good woman, you stick with her. Well, we both did. I digress.

Brooke and I went through thick and thin together. In my younger days I was a pretty wild child. I know, it's hard to believe it now but I had my rough patches, that's for sure. Luckily, I met the right group of people and spent my college years travelling during the summers and schooling during the year. Brooke and I, and our best friends went from coast to coast for months at a time just wandering and looking for things that we KNEW we'd never find in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Funny thing was I never really found it until April 28th, 2010 and it was right here in my home town, the place I grew up and swore I'd never end up. But now, with a house, good jobs, and a comfortable life we knew something was missing. So yeah, we started trying to have a baby.

When I say trying to have a baby, I mean we "tried" for about 4 days. I knew the second it happened. I think my exact quote was "that was the one babe", and I knew it was. Sure enough a few weeks later I got a text message picture that was a pregnancy test with two pink lines. I almost passed out.

Brooke had an AWESOME pregnancy. She was mostly happy, smiling, and had that "glow" about her. No morning sickness, no sickness at all really. We KNEW it was going to be a boy. Grays don't have girls. That's just the way it is. Well, at least we THOUGHT that's how it is. Like I've done a thousand times before, sometimes on purpose, and sometimes just because the universe lined up that way, I SHATTERED the mold in my family and produced the first girl Gray to come along in a good long while.

We chose the name Emma because we both liked it, but also because there's a String Cheese Incident song called "Emma's Dream" that we both really like, so it was perfect. We waffled around with it of course, but always came back to it. Christine is Brooke's grandmother's name, who passed away when Brooke's mom was a kid, so we thought it would be nice to honor her, and thought it had a nice ring to it.

The hospital visit and labor went AWESOMELY. Brooke's co-workers treated us like royalty. (thanks Jackie and Regina) Brooke was a trooper, and I had to take some oxygen. Well, technically i didn't "have" to take it, but I did because it was there and it helped. Brooke was awesome, and I'll never see her the same way again. Talk about strength, dignity, and graciousness. This girl has it all. I'm telling you, everything I'd heard from other guys about labor was complete crap. It was amazing. Plus, at the end, we had Emma!

I've posted some pictures, so it'll be a start. I'm going to try and post updates for Emma and post pictures and videos as she grows and becomes everything I know she's going to be. I may even let mommy post every now and again!