After Charlotte turned 3 months old, we thought it was time to throw her a soirée and officially welcome her to the world.  It gave some family and friends the opportunity to meet Charlotte for the first time and, for those who had already met her, the chance to see her ever-growing sparkling personality and adorable face.  It also gave us an opportunity to express our gratitude to the village that will help raise Charlotte and share some of our thoughts and experiences from the time I found out I was pregnant to Charlotte at 3 1/2-months-old.  We thought it necessary to include the important people in our life on the incredible journey of parenthood so far.  I’m not sure you can ever put it into words, but we gave it our best effort.  We truly feel blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share this beautiful day with.

We definitely wanted to share how we decided on the name Charlotte.  We started thinking of names as soon as we found out I was pregnant. We had agreed on the perfect name if it were a boy, but we weren’t having much luck with girl names. For Christmas, John’s mom gave us the movie 17 Miracles which is a dramatization of the Martin Handcart Company that emigrated from the British Isles to Utah in 1856 as one of the Mormon handcart companies.  We were reminded that John’s ancestors made that journey – James and Mary Ann Mellor and their 7 children. The second oldest child was a 15-year-old girl named Charlotte Elizabeth Mellor who carried a heavy load for the family as they crossed an ocean and a continent to get from Leicester, England to Utah. We fell in love with the name Charlotte.  What a great role model for our little girl to follow.  If she ever complains about life being hard, we will buy her a handcart!