behind the name | joa caroline

I firmly believe that the more babies you have, the harder it is to name them.

When we found out we were expecting Joa, we went to our old name lists to see what good leftovers there were. Right away we picked out Murphy for a girl. We both loved it (really, I'm not sure why Rusty didn't love it the first time around but he was on board this time!) and it just sounded right. I was pretty excited that we had a name so easily for her it wouldn't take months of soul searching like Arley's did.

Ha.

Fast forward a couple months and one thing after another and R decides he's no longer feeling it. He vetoes Murphy and we're back to square one.

We toss around several names and land on Mavis. (He really liked Maeve but we decided a Mavis could go by either.) We totally name stole it from a client- her Mavis is 6 and is the cutest, sweetest thing you ever did meet. I've always loved her name and had tucked the name away, anxiously waiting for Rusty to love it too. I emailed Mavis' mom a million times just to make sure she was okay with us name stealing it. I even asked our friends with a Maeve if they were okay with us name stealing because R was pretty sure he'd be calling her Maeve (or, you know, Mavy wavy). 

Mavis! We had found the perfect name! I designed a nursery and shirts and picked out the Christmas stocking around sweet little Mavis' name. Beckett, Arley & Mavis. BAM! We had the perfect trio. 

Fast forward a couple months and one Mavis born after another (really, how did the name become so popular?!) and all of a sudden I'm backing out! Our friends with new baby Mavis' say to use the name anyway (and Rusty agrees) but I couldn't help but think if I knew of multiple Mavis babies already born this year, how many more would there be?! Beckett's name has grown in popularity a ton since he was born and I didn't want Arley to be the only one with a weird name. (Ha. Just kidding. That's not really why I backed out. Sort of. Kind of.)

And we're back to square one.

We have nothing. No leftovers. No reserves. No names floating around as maybes. 

I draft a completely new list. Elowynn is at the top. Seriously, I've always wanted a Wynn/Winnie. And the name means Elm. (The street of our first apartment. Coincidentally, our other two babies have names that mean Meadow and meadow brook, also streets where we've lived.) I fall in love with the name and convince my friends to convince Rusty to do the same.

He's not sold.

We add to the list. Josie is close to the top. I've always wanted a Jo too (we actually talked about Mavis Jo before Mavis got vetoed- which is actually the exact first and middle name one of our friends used this summer!). I love the idea of a Jo name.

We keep searching.

We land on Joa. It's cute. I've only heard of a couple. Ever. 

We look up the meaning. Hebrew. Variant of Joah. Meaning family of God.

It's cute. Has great meaning. No real personal connection but we'll take it!

Fast forward to the Cubs winning the world series. You can't have a baby in 2016 and NOT have a Cubs related name, right?! I google Chicago Cubs Joa and find out that Joa is the name of the first live Cubby bear mascot! SOLD! That was when we decided we had to stick with it! (Sorry your name meaning isn't more awesome, Joa!) ;)

Caroline was a little easier. We liked Jo (but couldn't use with Joa), Lu (short for my grandma Helen Luciell's middle name), Kate (my sister's middle name, also after my grandma Kathryn) and Caroline (the girl variant of Charles- my brother Todd's middle name).

We liked all of them but I didn't want her name to be super short when the other two kids had to learn a lot of letters so we went with Caroline. She ended up being born on my other brother's birthday so she shares a birthday with my oldest brother and a sort of middle name with my other brother! (And shares a nickname- Jo/Joe, with my step-brother!)

Joa Caroline, I know there isn't a super amazing, give ya goosebumps type of story behind your name but we do absolutely love it and six weeks in we think it fits you perfectly! I can't imagine you with any other name!

(That's saying a lot considering I wanted to change Arley's name for at least the first 6 months!) ;) 

We hope you like it too, sweet girl! 

Joa's Nursery

Can I admit that Joa is 6 weeks old (tomorrow) and her nursery still isn't 'finished?' I just can't figure out what I want to do in the corners and I'm still not sold on the furniture arrangement but third baby means you don't have a lot of time to sit and think about the nursery design so you plop a crib in a room and call it good. Knowing that would likely be the case, I stuck as many special pieces in as I could to make up for my lack of planing and prepping.

Anyway, in case you were checking my blog daily for a nursery post (ha! does anyone still stop by this corner of the web anymore because I rarely do?!), I present to you- Joa's nursery!

We started by moving B to the basement. His brick wall was left behind. I didn't want to take it down but I didn't want it to look so rough and tough so we painted it white to tone it down but keep the texture. I wanted to add some color on the walls but didn't want to on the brick wall and didn't want another wall competing for the accent wall so we slapped it on the ceiling instead! (It's Behr's MAUVE IT. I know it looks purple in that lighting but it's mauve. I promise.) We wanted to move the chandelier out of B's new room (because it didn't exactly scream boy room) so we moved it to the nursery. I didn't want to move Arley out of her crib so we bought a new crib. I searched and searched for the perfect chair. My mom bought this beauty for us (and apparently it was a popular choice because it took MONTHS to arrive). It was worth the wait. From there I couldn't decide if I wanted to go classic traditional, trendy, boho, a little girly or what so I did everything! I stuck a bunch of pieces I loved together and called it good.  Sources below.
Crib. WayfairChair. Baxton Crib skirt/sheet. Bella NotteJOA letters. AnthropologieMacrame above crib. Knitting WondersMacrame mobile above chair. a.moiler.fibreartDresser. (Found on our neighbors curb, painted in Behr Mauve It)Shelf. (Made following this tutorial.)Bench and Bookshelves. IKEAPillow. Rug. and Lamp. Urban Outfitters
Rocking Horse.