First Professional Photos

Emerson had her first set of pictures taken about three weeks ago and we had to share one of our favorite pics. This one was used for her birth announcement. Susan Brewer was our photographer and did an amazing job - check out her website at www.susanbrewerphotography.com

Emerson Grey At Home

Bath Time and The Bear : we loved this picture of Emerson after her bath

Daddy-Daughter Time: Brad and Emerson during naptime

Pure Contemplation

First Week Home

Well, today marks the end of the first week that Emerson has been home from the NICU. She is doing great - she had her first doctors appointment and is growing strong. The house definitely seems so much more full now that she is here - we just LOVE having her home finally. She has such a distinct personality already and has her father and I wrapped around her little finger! Everytime we look at her, we are reminded of what a blessing she is and how fortunate we are to be her parents.

EARLY ARRIVAL!!!!!!!!!!

Well, some of you may know, but Miss Emerson Grey Clark decided she was ready to come out into this world and was born this past Thursday, March 4th at 11:48am! It all started at about 4:45 a.m. that morning. Mariam awoke with some "cramps" which we initially played off as Braxton Hicks contractions. She got up and walked around, mostly in the bathroom, while I slept off and on until 6 a.m. At this point she comes out of the bathroom and tells me that it isn't getting better and to get out of bed NOW! We ended up calling the "Oh Crap!" hotline at the hospital and after I got a shower, yes I showered, we decided to take her in for a closer look. Right now I'm still thinking she will get checked out and sent home while I stay at work, that's why I got the shower, y'all. We get to the car and immediately hit DEFCON 1. Mariam almost ripped the doorhandle off, and the contractions started coming every 4 minutes. We arrived at the hospital in 2.7 seconds and Mariam was hooked up to the monitor. She was then examined by the nurse who gave us an awkward look and said there was a good reason for the pain, SHE WAS 8cm DILATED!! The anesthesiologist went ahead and put in the epidural, and almost instantly I had my wife back. After 1 1/2 hours of letting her body do the work she was told to start pushing, and 15 minutes later Emerson was here! She was 6 weeks early and weighed 5lbs. and was 16 3/4 inches long. She is the sweetest little girl with a FULL head of black hair - she is definitely our child! Because she was 6 weeks early (born at 34 weeks), she is required to stay in the NICU until she can take in a certain amount of milk and regulate her own body temperature - these are the two main things. We feel truly blessed to have this amazing gift come into our lives and cannot believe how much we LOVE her already!! To all our family and friends who have stopped by, called, emailed and prayed - THANK YOU THANK YOU! We love you all and cannot wait to introduce each of you to Emerson. Until then, here are a few pics of our sweet little lady and there are more in our photo gallery to the right.

Texas Baby Shower

Brad and I just got back from an awesome weekend in Texas with our family and friends who celebrated the upcoming arrival of Emerson Grey at our baby shower. It was such a blessing to be back home and get to see so many friends and family we had not seen in a long time. We received such amazing gifts from all of you and cannot begin to express how much it meant to the two of us to have each of you share in this special time. To all our friends and family that traveled a long distance - thank you! We love each of you and look forward to introducing Miss Emerson to everyone during our next trip back home. To Tom & Cindy - thank you for a beautiful shower that we will always remember. Here are a few pics from the evening and there are more under the Clark Photo Gallery (see link to the right).

**INTRODUCING...**

After much thought and pouring over endless baby name books, websites, suggestions from family/friends, etc., we have chosen

Emerson Grey Clark

as our daughter's name. We both loved the name and kept coming back to this name. For those that may be curious, there is no family connection to the name, we just loved it and felt it would suit our daughter. We are rounding out the 25th week of pregnancy and cannot believe that we are more than half way through this initial journey. We are getting ready to start all our prenatal classes and are in the process of putting together Miss Emerson's nursery! It has been such a blessed journey so far and we cherish each day as we await her arrival. Here is a picture of the belly at 25 weeks!

Christmas In Texas 2009

This year we spent Christmas in Texas and it was so great to get back home and see family. My sister and her family came to Brad's parents house for a few days and it was awesome to see how much our nephew, Crew, has grown. We also took some time and visited my mom's side of the family in Dallas - it had been a long time since we had seen everyone.

We even got snow (and mostly ice) on Christmas Eve, which would have made for a wonderful white Christmas had we not decided to go to Church, change our minds and turn back around because of the weather and learned that there were too many cars that had slid off the road that the local police shut down any viable route back to Brad's parents house. We essentially were locked out of the neighborhood for several hours and ended up having our Christmas Eve dinner at a nice Italian restaurant that luckily was open!!

Finally, we learned that from this Christmas on, that everyone is more interested in the baby and that she will always get more presents than any of us!! We are so grateful for the time we had with everyone and hope that all of you had a blessed Christmas and New Year.