Hand Family Thanksgiving

Emmie's first Thanksgiving was also our first without my dad. We missed him so much at dinner. We had the cranberry sauce out of the can just for him. He is never far from my thoughts but we did our best to introduce Emmie to the holiday right. She was a blast. She sampled her first green bean casserole, sweet potatoes (with the marshmellows), mashed potatoes and gravy, and her new favorite a soft roll.


Here is Emmie showing the Hand Family Pride

Give us a smile Lady!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The clean plate club

Gnome-- here she is.....

Happy Halloween from Emmie, herself the ...gnome

Emmie is wearing an outfit a la Aunt Anne. It says "So cute its Scary" which is a true statement. We watched her first parade, Cary Band Day, in the morning and went trick or treating that evening.

Frankenbaby

Even with bolts she is adorable!

Fall Fun with Emmie

She is the best "punkin" we picked from the Farmer's Market. This fall Emmie learned about pumpkins, costumes, and cold weather. She is growing by leaps and bounds, literally! She is crawling up a storm, pulling up, and trying to stand. There have been an appearance of four teeth-- which I cannot get a picture of and there are gentle (yeah right) sounds of da da, ba ba, llllll, hi, and MA! when she is mad. All in all we are thrilled with our little punkin.

Sideways Cowgirl

Here is a bit of a taste of Emmie...only sideways because we haven't learned the art of rotating video yet. Her DiDi bought her boots long before she was born, and her Pops and Gigi bought her the onzie in Dallas. They all work together, so here, resting on its side, is a video of the munchkin modelling for you.

Baptism Weekend

Emmie's Baptism Celebration

Family portrait of Emmie and her Rents

Emmie and Saffren and their rents

Emmie and Saffren playing together

Emmie's baptism was great.

Emmie and Saffren host the innaugural Hand Family Cousin's Reunion

This is Emmie, playing for the first time with her cousin Saffren, who is a mere month younger and even a bit bigger. They have, so far, had a big time. Emmie just looks at her and belly laughs. When Saffren laughs, so does Emmie. When Saffren has to have an aspirator to the nose, Emmie hides her face in sympathetic pain. She....just....can't....watch!

Uncle G, Aunt Jen, Saffren, Pops, GiGi, and soon DiDi have all come to town for the baptism on Sunday and we are hosting quite the baby showdown. Emmie is cuter by all accounts, but they do have fun together. Aunt Kara, Uncle Cody and Emmie are enjoying playing host.

Uncle G took a moment to pose with the cousins, Emmie got a little tickled.

More photos soon. Pops brought the official reunion onzies and the photo shoot went well. Stay tuned!

Peaches for Emmie

Breakfast........I have tried sweet potato (ok) I have tried peas (yuck)
What has mom got for me now?

Movin' to the country gonna eat a lot of peaches

Millions of peaches, Peaches for free

Millions of peaches, Peaches for ME!

Emmie Playing

We promise to post some photos and video from last weekend, Emmie was a rockstar for the camera.

Just to let her fans know, Emmie's baptism has been rescheduled for August 16 at 8:25 am at the First United Methodist Church.

Stay tuned for photos...

2 First Father's Days

It was a sad irony that my first Father's Day as a Father was Kara's first without her's. The wounds of his very recent death are still very fresh, so I was unsure how today would go. I wanted to celebrate my first, but did not want to impose my joy on those who weren't ready.

But Kara made today very special for me. I awoke to her talking and laughing with my very talkative daughter in the nursery. I love baby monitors on these days. As Emmie becomes more "vocal" it is easy to get lost in conversation with someone whose vocabulary consists of coos and squeals. Beginning my day with the sounds of mother and daughter having a ball is, well, indescribably awesome. Kara had a stack of presents for me at the bottom of the stairs when I came down to the smell of coffee and home made monte cristo sandwiches. My favorite was this photo in a frame:

We went to target to buy some supplies for Emmie's first time in the pool. We bought an itty bitty swimsuit, a giant floaty boat, and some baby sunscreen.

We had some folks over for a cookout and then tried out the pool. Emmie LOVED it. Just for your enjoyment, here are some photos:

The later is post swimming in a tube top that her Aunt Jill (one of Kara's fellow Chi Omegas) made for her. Not that I want her in sorority garb just yet, but she did seem to like wearing the thing.

Children, especially perfect ones, can bring joy in the midst of sorrow. Check this out. Yesterday I let Emmie try out her Jenny Jumpup. She could not get enough. She is by far too small, but has enjoyed every minute (and taste) of it. Here is a video for your viewing pleasure:

We miss Papa Jack and each day we try to remember the good parts of a great life and not the tragedy of his death. Today, Father's Day, I remember what an amazing job he did raising my wife and strive to give some guy, some day (in other words...60 or so years from now) the gift of a well grounded and brilliant woman who knows what she wants and how to get it, just like he gave to me.

To all the dads out there, especially Papa Jack, Uncle Garrett, Pops, and Daddy Bob, happy Father's Day.

Papa Jack

As many of you may know my father was killed last Tuesday June 9, 2009. It is a very hard time in my life but Emmie is helping in ways that I can't even describe. She makes me get out of bed in the morning and see a little piece of God's goodness everyday. I have posted the one of the only pictures I will ever had of these two together but I thank God that my dad got to know her and she for a short time knew him. He loved her and was so excited about her...I am going to have a big job describing him to her. Emmie has gotten off of her routine because of all the people and all the commotion but luckily her Pops and GG were her to give her a constant. Thank you to you both for helping us in such an awful time. Please pray for my mother, Cody, and I that we can endeavor to keep Papa Jack alive for my little girl who he loved.

Poopita the Great

O'h Poopita and her schemes..... This is Ms. Emmie's new nick name. Before it was Grump Grump but she is not so grumpy anymore. Ms. Emmie, unfortunately, inherited my difficult tummy and has some trouble in the number two department. BUT we are working on that. She is the best of babies. She is pulling up with her Grandma ( NANA), rolling over -- although she can't roll back yet, and singing/talking all the time. Everyday she is becoming more precious to me and I thought that I loved her more than I had ever loved anything the day she was born. She makes me happy to race home everyday and be with her. She also makes me so thankful for my partner in life (yes, I mean Cody) and partner in the ever new and wonderful adventures of Poopita.

We were hanging out at the house today while mommy went to work. When she gets home, she and daddy will do a tradeoff and he will go for the evening session of the State Senate.

After the morning nap and daddy rushing to do some work while Emmie slept, we got dressed and took some photos on what has turned out to be Emmie's happy spot...the changing table.



The is going to be a busy month. The baptism is a few days away (the 14th) and the invites and birth announcements are still in my briefcase. Sorry Kara. Everyone, consider yourself invited!

Emmie is proving to be a trooper and thankfully makes us all better people after stressful days.

Until next time...happy dreams!

Two Months Already

In answer to your first question: Yes we are copying Garrett and Jennifer in creating a blog about Emmie.

That said, they copied us in having a baby so we are one up.

I cannot believe it has been two months since Kara met me at the car after swimming to say she "thought" her water had broken. A week overdue, we were quite happy to welcome such an event, even though it turned out to be a 1:34 am c-section.

(Cody writing) Emmie Reed has been magical to be around. I have never laughed so much, or loved so greatly in my life. I thought I loved Kara to no end before we had Emmie, but seeing her as a mother just adds a new dimension to the love that I have.

Even when the conversation revolves around poop. Which, for all you parents, happens to be a frequent topic.

In the next few weeks she will surely get her Harvard acceptance letter, as she is brilliant, but in the meantime we are looking ahead to her baptism on June 14, and her visit from her Pops and Gigi, who are flying all the way from Odessa, TX to spend a week ignoring mommy and daddy.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the last two months:







One month and two month birthdays!