Why Carolyn Jo?

Unlike most couples, our baby name (for a girl at least) required little discussion. When I first told Seth he was going to be a dad, out of excitement we decided right then and there. I've always loved family names, and we have so many special people in our lives!

For a boy we knew we wanted to use the name James. To any siblings reading this, we might have a boy one day and are still staking claim to the name! My father and grandfather are both named James. Seth's father and both grandfathers have James in their name. Clearly it was a no-brainer. The other boy name was a toss-up between Ralston (my other granddaddy's middle name which I love) and Otto (a well-respected mentor and friend of Seth's). It's probably a good thing that we have a little bit more time to think on the boy name as we were not ready to come to a compromise just yet.

As for the girl name, Carolyn was my #1. That was the name of my grandma who I much admired and lost her battle to Breast Cancer when I was in elementary school. Read more on her in this post. Coincidently, it is also Seth's mimi's name! Crazy I know! Seth lost his other grandmother when he was young and wanted to use her middle name, Jo. So Carolyn Jo it was. Simple as that! We did toss around using my other grandmother's name too-- Lily. We are pretty blessed with some amazing family names, right? But there is already one Lilly in the family (Nick and Samantha's dog) and the verdict is still out if my mom will go by Lily for her grandma name!

Shout out to my cousin, Carolyn Ann, also named after my sweet grandma. Happy Birthday Carrie!!!

Picture of my Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa loving on me as a baby!

Some of the first items in our nursery-- Baby blanket made for me by my Grandma and my favorite book she used to read to me at our sleepovers!