Sean C. Morgan
The first Sweet Home baby this year, Jace Alex Reed Moore, was born at 3:54 p.m. on New Year’s Day to Kayla White and Jeromy Moore.
He weighed 6 lbs. 4 1/2 oz and was 20 inches long with black hair and blue eyes.
Maternal grandparents are Lee and Judy Taylor. Great grandparents are Dick and Jean Taylor of Redmond and Ruth Trott of Springfield.
Paternal grandparents are Frank and Linda Moore and LeRoy and Toni Hutson. Great grandparents are Janet Thill of Arizona and Jean Moore of Sweet Home.
Jace joins a sister, Teira, 6, the daughter of Moore.
White, 20, and her son went home Friday and are staying with Mr. and Mrs. Hutson temporarily, until they find housing and Moore, 22, can find work. He lost his job with a temporary service just before Jace was born.
White is a 2001 graduate of Sweet Home High School. She has lived in Sweet Home for nine years.
Moore earned his GED in 1997. He was born in Sweet Home, but lived most of his life in Alaska. He returned to Sweet Home in 1994.
The couple settled on Jace’s name over the first days of the new year.
“We were at the library, and I was checking my email, when we came across a website with names,” White said. “I saw it, and I liked it.”
The two couldn’t decide for sure about Jace’s name at first.
“I like the name Alex, and I like the name Jace,” White said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to have the name Alex Jace or Jace Alex.”
“It is different,” grandma Hutson said.
“Reed is dad’s and grandpa’s middle name,” White said.
Jace arrived 17 days early. He was due on Jan. 18.
When White saw him for the first time, she said, “it’s about time. That’s all I said was, it’s about time.”
Moore and White met a little over a year ago, White said. The day after Christmas, a friend of hers was talking on the phone to Moore, then made her talk to him.
When they met, it was kind of like a blind date, White said. They have lived together off and on over the past year.
Plans are “getting a place of our own and actually getting back to work,” White said. She had worked at Wal-Mart until her eighth month of pregnancy when she was laid off. She will stay home with Jace for awhile then plans to go back to work.
Both parents are thinking about going to college.