7 It’s a GIRL!!!!!
Yup, it happened!
Our sweet 6 pound, 10 oz angel arrived at exactly 1:17pm February 13th (just under 11 hours away from Valentine’s day).
It’s probably a good thing that she was not born on V-day for one reason in particular. According to our doctor, there were 5 babies born at the hospital the day our daughter was born. It seemed like we had the entire hospital to ourselves. The next day, however, there were 26 babies born!! The doctors and nurses were frantic.
We’re were relieved to avoid all of that hysteria.
Ok, so let’s get down to it.
We do of course have 2 major bits of business to tie up:
1. Who won the $1,000 CASH prize for telling the most people about HelpNameOurBaby.com through our email system?
2. Well, what did we name her already, you ask?!?
First, please help me congratulate Ms. Sarah All%$$ from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ("All%$$" is used at her request for her privacy). She had happily accepted the $1,000 prize. We are grateful to Sarah and all the participants of our "Tell Your friends" contest.
Second, let me reveal to you what you’ve been patiently waiting for for the past several months.
The name we have chosen for our daughter is…
It starts with a "V" (any guesses?)…
Please welcome to the world——————–Baby VIOLET!
When we first heard of the name Violet, we went absolutely crazy for it!
Over the past four months we’ve received just over 700 baby name suggestions and we really appreciate your energy and passion.
Hugs & Kisses,
-Ryan, Marla, & our special little bundle of joy, Violet 
6 Is the baby dancing?
Hey Gang,
Two nights ago my wife and I were driving home from our date night together. We listened to a CD of a new Broadway show we saw in Las Vegas called Avenue Q. Have you heard about it? Read about it here http://www.avenueq.com/
It’s a musical about people (correction PUPPETS) living in New York. This is not the favorite Sesame Street show you remember. The puppets actually discuss adult, race, and political issues. They swear, they joke, and they engage in just about everything right there on stage in front of you. It is hysterical and life affirming. Check it out if you’re ever in New York or Las Vegas.
Anyway, as we listened to the CD in the car, Marla shouted, "It feels like the baby is dancing!" Could this be possible? Here we are into the 7th month of her pregancy. The baby is supposed to be able to hear. Could the baby also have timing and rhythm? It was a wonderful sensation as we drove into our neighborhood bopping together with our baby. I highly recommened it should you find yourself 7 months pregnant and have your favorite music CD in hand.
Ok, down to business…
This week’s drawing winner is…
Congratulations to Mia L. from Chandler, AZ!
Thanks so much everyone for sharing your favorite baby names and keep them coming!
Every day it’s a great surprise to see what wonderful baby names people have on their minds.
News Flash! We have added a photo gallery for all of our baby name helpers. If you go to the homepage at http://www.helpnameourbaby.com/ and look to the left and right of the baby name list, you’ll see what looks like a grid or graph paper. Use your mouse to move over the boxes. It should say, "Get a link back to your website, CLICK here".
If you have a website yourself or have a favorite charity’s website you like, we’re giving people the chance get a link from our popular homepage back to that website. This is a GOOD thing for you for two major reasons: 1. People will click and go to your website and 2. Google and Yahoo really like it when your website has other websites linked to it.
To see an example of what other people have done, go to http://www.helpnameourbaby.com/ and scroll down the page until you see little box pictures in the grid area. Click on one of the box pictures. It should take you to their website. Very cool!! Also, you may notice the picture they placed in the box is a picture of a person. We would like to encourage you to place a picture of yourself so that we can put a face to our supporter. Also, don’t forget to mention your first name in the "Alt Text" section, this is the text that appears when someone clicks on your box picture.
MOST IMPORTANT! Right now, to get a picture box and link to your website, it’s an optional donation to your favorite charity. All you have to do is upload your picture to where it says "Browse" and fill out the rest of the info, and click "Book Ad". You DO NOT have to paypal us the $100 it suggests. Just drop us a note at helpnameourbaby@gmail.com to let us know what charity you made a donation to and what was the amount (it does not matter how much, $1-$1,000). Just let us know that you donated something somewhere and we’ll be happy to place your picture box up.
We are big fans of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation at http://www.pedaids.org/ , but feel free to donate anywhere you like. This is our way of saying Happy Holidays and our best to your friends and family!
Thanks so much for your support!
Speak soon,
-Ryan
5 Better late than never…
Hey gang,
This past week has been a bit of a roller coaster here on the home front. I thought I had kicked a cold, but it came back with a vengence. To make matters worse, the flu has been going around so I think I picked that up too.
Chills, fever, hallucinations, and crazy flu dreams have been the better part of the past week. The wife has been a trooper, though, looking after me, making sure I was well taken care of. She actually did several late night loads of laundry when I sweated through 7 t-shirts (don’t mean to be gross…but it’s the truth!)
All the while Marla’s belly grows wonderfully larger and rounder. We are sooo excited and just count the minutes until our baby’s arrival.
So let’s get down to business (’Better late than never’)
This past week’s drawing winner comes to us from Newark, New Jersey
Congratulations to Kim J., our third $100 CASH prize winner!
Our email box has been overflowing with your questions about these drawings.
Let me try and answer some of them for you:
Question I’d like to submitt more that two baby names, will that improve my chances in the drawings?
Answer: Yes, actually it will, every time you complete a baby name submission, your name gets added to the drawing an extra time. Go ahead, submit as many times as you like, it couldn’t hurt
Question: I want to win the $1,000 prize, how do I get credit for sending people to your website?
Answer: Good question! Just go to http://www.helpnameourbaby.com/tell_a_friend.php and fill out the form at the bottom of the page that says ‘Tell Your Friends’, each of your friends will get an email from you explaining exactly what to do. For every friend that comes to the website through the link in their email, you’ll get a prize point. Collect the most prize points by our baby’s delivery day, and you’ll win the $1,000.
Check out our live ranking of the top referrers at the bottom of the page at http://www.helpnameourbaby.com/tell_a_friend.php the names are encrypted for your privacy.
See you next week, I feel like this fever of mine is finally going to break any day now… keep your fingers crossed
4 Our Thanksgiving Drawing Results…
What a week!
The wife and I have been busy spending time with our friends and family for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Last Tuesday we celebrated with her family. They like to do a dinner a few days before the actual holiday, so that everyone can then go out of town for a long weekend.
We spent Thursday, with my high school buddies and their wives. My mother joined us and had a blast. We dined on all the traditional favorities including homemade yams, pies, and of course deep fried turkey! As I gazed around the room, I noticed a several pregnant bellies It’s pretty cool. Our baby will have loads of built-in friends out of the gate.
On this holiday we have much to be thankful for. Good friends, healthy & happy family, and of course all of the wonderful people who have helped us in struggle to find a perfect name for our baby.
So here goes. Our second $100 drawing for a lucky baby name helper.
This week’s winner comes all the way from Europe. The Czech Republic more specifically.
Congratulations to Hunter L. from Prague! Hunter will receive a special email from us in celebration.
Remember, the more baby name submissions you make, the better your chances for next week’s drawing. Also, the $1,000 prize is still available. Get on over the "Tell Your Friends" page on our website, scroll to the bottom of the page. We have just put up a ranking of the top referring people. The names are specially encrypted to make sure your privacy is secure. The top refering person right now has only had 28 people come back to HelpNameOurBaby.com. You must know 30 people you could get to visit our site. That would put you in first place. Good luck!!!
3 Our First $100 Winner Revealed!!!
Well, the clock struck midnight just a short while ago. In our first full week of asking the world for help to name our baby, we’ve received 262 baby name suggestions. Wow!
Marla and I have been quite overwhelmed by the love and support we felt this past week. Your emails have been wonderful and we must apologize to all the people who sent us emails we have not gotten to yet. We promise to get back to every single one.
You are probably thinking, ok already, who won the weekly drawing?
So, let’s get down to business…
Drum roll please…
Our first winner of the weekly $100 CASH Prize is:
Ms. Sharon R. of Northridge, California
Congratualtions Sharon! We will be emailing you to get your paypal id so that we may send you your prize winnings as soon as possible.
Thanks everyone for your baby name submissions, and hey, why not make some more baby name suggestions while you are here at the site. Also, check back here next week to see if you are the next lucky baby name helper that gets drawn to win the $100 CASH prize.
Don’t forget! We’re giving away $1,000 CASH to the person who goes to the Tell Your Friends page on this website and tells the most people about our need for their help with baby names by our delivery day.
Speak to you soon (I promise to post more often),
-Ryan
1 The Baby Is Kicking!
The baby is kicking and our time is running out to find the best baby name for our little one.
My wife says it should be easy to pick out a nice name, but we’ve just been having a hard time with it.
How would you go about picking a great name for your baby?
