Its not easy to relay appreciation & gratitude to the extent of how much you truly mean it.

Our joint & co-ed baby shower for Allison & Olivia was this past Saturday and it was such an amazing day! Karen and I ideally wanted a "field day" type of shower that was fun for all guests (kids and adults) as a pre-thank you for sharing in this experience with us and the girls went above and beyond to make this happen for us. From beautiful diaper cakes, personalized onesy's, an amazing melt-in-your-mouth picture cake, delicious food, outdoor & indoor games, moon bounce, pool -- you name it we had it and in such an organized fashion too, makes mama proud!

I've attended baby showers and provided gifts in the past but being on the receiving end of this is a whole new experience. I couldn't believe how much we received for Allison (and future babies) and I don't think people realize collectively how much it truly helps Danny & I. Opening up each item that was specially wrapped, colorful tissue paper, reading thoughtful cards, and seeing an item that our baby will soon use aroused such an overwhelming & happy feeling. Gratitude like that just can't be expressed in a small "thank you" card and I wish I could do more to show our appreciation.

*To the girls that are like my family-- THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR EVERYTHING.

*To all of our generous guests-- We are so grateful and can't wait to pay it forward (and back) when the time comes for each of you to grow your families.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose..."

So I wanted to dedicate one specific entry to how we named our baby girl. Its not an exciting story or anything but naming your child is one of the biggest decisions a parent will make (pre-birth). A name is something the child will carry literally for the rest of their lives and you want it to be special and meaningful. Even as little girls, mothers have often dreamed or thought of how many kids we may have and at some point selected favorite names we would hope to one day use. That is why finding out the sex of the baby (whether in advance or when you give birth) is such a momentous occasion. The waiting does not start when you conceive but as a young girl dreaming of her future family.

There are many beautiful, popular, interesting, and trendy names out there right now. However Danny and I are on the conservative side and really wanted a more traditional name that may be common (that's ok!) as long as it has substance and meaning for us. We know that our baby will make her name special in her own way.

The entire weekend after we found out our baby's gender we had discussions revolving around potential names. After serious consideration on a few names each of us liked we came back to the only one we could agree on. We also definitely wanted to choose a Korean middle name for our child to not lose our heritage, especially since our last name is "John". =D

We made sure that his parents gave us their blessing on the name we chose and so here we have it:

Allison Nara John

Allison meaning: Noble kind; of the noble sort
Nara meaning: Happy

{어떤 세계} a world;a realm 달나라 the lunar world;the moon 동화 나라 a fairy-tale world;{(a)} never-never land 꿈나라 a dreamland

Allison means "kind" and one of the meanings of Nara (pronounced Nah-La) means "a world" in Korean and "happy" in other languages. If our baby girl is anything like papa, she will be kind & happy through & through and of course already means the world to us. <3