The Name Game- Winners Revealed!!!

At VERY long last, I'd like to present you with the winners of our Baby Girl Cox Name Bracket Challenge of 2012!  Holla! 

I must say first that the INTENTION was all brackets would be compiled and ready for tallying when I arrived at the hospital for delivery.  When I had my son, I labored at home for about 4 hours and then at the hospital for 15 long hours...so AMPLE time for those in the waiting room to review and grade 50 or so name brackets, right?  In fact, part of why we thought of this game was to give our family sometime to do while we labored since I heard that last time, they were all a tad bit bored.  The plan was once I was safe and sound at the hospital, we were going to release a new round of results every couple of hours, hoping that we were only at the hospital for about 8 hours this time, so by the time Baby Girl was born, everyone had seen the rounds progress beautifully to the "Big Dance" which would have been the final two names.  When Matthew came out to announce that the baby had been born, he would then announce the first and last name of the baby.  We had everything ready- blog posts pre- written with the bracket stages, a lovely friend that was going to be in charge of posting it to Facebook, two trophies sitting in our hospital bag and all of the game pieces artfully pieced together and ready to administer as soon as Baby Girl made her first attempt to contract anything. 

But as beautifully choreographed as that was, we failed to factor in one thing: nature.  Or more appropriately, God- He definitely had another plan for this labor and delivery.  And for that I am VERY grateful.  I won't bore you with the details here (I'll save that for another blog post), but let's just say while 15 or even 8 hours is more than enough time to tally and grade 50 brackets, 25 minutes most certainly is NOT.  My wonderful brother-in-law tallied them all over night the night after our baby was born...and I have been sitting around twittling my thumbs ever since, keeping you all in unspeakable suspense while we waited to release our winners! 

I'll start with some very relevant information.  Our baby who we previously called Wilma now has an offical, legal name!  Our baby's name is:

HarperAddison Cox

(Notice the Wilma toy Harper is pictured with above has been in my family since about 1986 when Arby's or McDonald's or some fast food chain did a promotional with Flintstones characters in the kids' meals. I believe we were supposed to collect all four, but Wilma was as far as we got. She has however lived a long and happy life at the Jeffers home in the "junk toy drawer" and has spent the past 5 months have her hair sucked off by Gavin, who quite enjoys the taste of the top of her head)

We are SO excited to finally be able to call her by her new real name- Harper! Harper! Harper!  And if ever there were a Harper born into this world, our little girl is one.  We love her full name because it means "Awesome Musician".  While we hope that she does exhibit some musical capability in her life, we will certainly love her whether she is tone deaf or has the musical prowess of a her century.  What we hope more than her capability or talent though is a heart that will want to worship and honor her Maker and a life that is pleasing to God.  

And now for the winners.  Early on in the game we decided to have a "family division" of winners and a "friend division" since so many people participated.  Also we graded with a grading scale that for every name correctly advancing in Round 1, 1 point was assigned, every name correctly advancing in Round 2, 2 points were assigned, and so on. 

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, without any further ado- the winners of the most Awesome Name Game challenge of all time:

Family Division:  

1st place- Libby Jeffers (she won by the Tie Breaker by the way!)

2nd place- Alice Cox

3rd place- Rachel Hsieh

Friend Division:

1st Place- The Engelman Family!

2nd Place- Katie Fox

3rd Place- The Bushell Family

And for the record- we had 5 people that guessed the name correctly as Harper..but no one that guessed the full name of Harper Addison.  Also, the most guessed final name was Madalyn...so if you're having a baby girl any time soon, this name is not only up for grabs, but it's also very well liked!

We have already awarded my mom with her most cherished and honored trophy made of authentic fake plastic gold, knock off marble and a gold plated..er...plate....and we anxiously await to bestow this honored symbol of awesomeness on the Engelman family at our earliest convenience. 

Many thanks to all who played our little game.  It was so fun to watch each bracket come in and have people guess what her name was.  As corny as it was we felt very loved and it helped the days go by faster as we waited for our little girl to come into the world.  We are loving getting to know Miss Harper Addison and can't wait to see what the rest of our lives looks like with her...

The FINAL bracket is below:

Baby Girl Cox's Name Bracket
Elizabeth	1					Pink Division
		Sutton
Sutton	16
		1		Sutton
Faye	9
		Faye
Preslee	8
				9		Addison
Karsyn	12
		Karsyn
Hazel	5
		2		Addison
Addison	11
		Addison
Londyn	6
						13		Addison
Claire	7
		Paige
Paige	10
		3		Mallory
Natasha	14
		Mallory
Mallory	3
				10		Mallory
Parker	4
		Natalie
Natalie	13
		4		Channing
Channing	2
		Channing
Marshall
Lucy	7					Purple Division		15		Harper
		Lucy								Champion
Wilma	16
		5		Paisley
Paisley	9
		Paisley								Tie Breaker:
McKinley	8
				11		Paisley				7
Vivian	12									Lbs
		Adley
Adley	5									6
		6		Adley						Oz.
Brooke	11
		Brooke
Sage	6
						14		Harper
Bridget	7
		Peyton
Peyton	10
		7		Madalyn
Atalie	14
		Madalyn
Madalyn	3
				12		Harper
Harper	4
		Harper
Piper	13
		8		Harper
Morgan	2
		Morgan
Campbell	15