...and she shall be called...

LEIGHTON FLORYN LINDSEY

we absolutely adore it! russ and i were having trouble with girl names...who knew that bad construction companies, weird ugly classmates and old girlfriends could ruin so many beautiful options?!  i love our last name, but it seems to rhyme with other first names (ie, mackenzie lindsey) or to cause a prolonged EEEE sound & an awkward cheek workout (ie, ashley lindsey). and, as much as we vowed to avoid being uptight about the meaning, after we both liked 'kennedy' and realized that it meant deformed head/helmet head...we were both a little more leery in our list making. the boy name was easy for us (and, hopefully, someday we'll have reason to use it!) but we really struggled with naming our little girl. i kept a running list on my iphone and, admittedly, i would try to sneak my favorites back into the mix after russell nixed them (to no avail). 

we had agreed on a short list of contenders, but nothing overwhelmed us. until...we were eating dinner with the hogans, and cissy suggested the name leighton. russ was making pizza across the kitchen and when i yelled it out to him, he gave us a "yeah, it's cute." none of us could tell if that was his polite dismissal or if he really liked it.  but, in the next few days, he always used leighton when he texted or talked about the baby, and i knew that he was hooked. 

russell has been so precious about the baby, and so i finally told him that i thought it would be sweet if her daddy named her...so the first name was his choice. leighton.

we've been set on the middle names for years. floryn is in adoration & memory & honor of our beloved grandma. her real name was flora darline moore, but she went by 'fussy' her whole life (really...so named because she was the fussy twin). she actually hated her real name, and she would be sassy and obstinate about us using it; that's why we tweaked the 'flora' just a little. but, she was my world--my dearest friend, my inspiration for the kind of person that i would like to become, my ideal--and so it's special to me to pass on a piece of her. if leighton floryn has one ounce of the love, the humor or the servant's heart that her namesake possessed, she will be blessed and beloved.