ILEY MAY

"Move on over Wynn..... it's time to talk about me."

Little iley was "Unknown" for a while and quite honestly I assumed she was going to be named "Inessa". It was a name Brooks liked a few months earlier. Three days before they were born he said he no longer liked that name.....and he started suggesting some "big-fat-NO" names.

He got on a 1 syllable kick since he liked Wynn so much and liked the names: Vale and Kare. Like I said, I wasn't a fan. Then "Ivy" was his suggestion. Great name, just won't work because we have an Iris and we call Everly, "Evie". Then he liked Riah (as in the last part of "Mariah")...but none of our kids, except Aleeya, could say their "R"s. So the twins would we "Wynn and Wiah". Ummm, no. 

You can see why she was "Unknown" for a day..... And how Inessa was the best of the options presented.

Then when he said Iley (pronounced: Eye-Lee), it just sounded sweet. It sounded like the youngest of the family. It sounded like the snuggliest little girl she is.

Plus, the kids voted and liked it best too.

#nobrainer

The second morning I was holding her and got some spontaneous smiles newborns sometimes do.

The smiles slowly started getting bigger....

Until the GRAND finale!

And then back to the skeptic look.

I love the name May anyway. But it has significance to our family.

Ever since we knew they were twins our family prayers never went without the kids asking for the babies to "stay in until May" (when I was full-term...after 37 weeks).

I hope every time we say her name "ILEY MAY" that the kids will remember that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and always will.....and will listen every time.

Side note: Brooks was ALSO not a fan of this middle name because "it sounded like a servant-name". Then he would use a southern accent and say, "Come a here Iley-May and iron mah shirt". Real funny. I said he does sound SOUTHERN, not servant-like! Plus she was BORN in the south. 

It's perfect.

Here she is throwing up her hands in surrender....... To sleep

The kids were all loving on ILEY before they went to school whle they were waiting for the bus. Then when the "lookout" kid yelled "BUUUUUS!!!!" ILEY was quickly discarded and I found her on the couch like this. hahaha

If there's someone that has a magic touch with babies, it's Aleeya. She can burp them and get them to sleep easy-peesy! But this day I found them BOTH asleep on my bed. They had a nice hour nap together.

I've noticed lately that the girls' eyes are starting to look just a liiiiiiitle bit different. ILEY'S eyes remind me of the shape of Camden's. Here's a sweet picture of them.

Here is my most recent picture of Iley at almost 4 weeks old. The little princess, sleeping on my princess (Snow White) pillow with the blanket Grams made her.

As I walked around the halls yesterday at church trying to calm Wynn down someone said, "Which one is that?" Instead of saying her name I said, "The fussy one!" As a joke he said, "That was nice of you on Father's Day to take the fussy one." 

I replied, "Not really, because Brooks has the PUKING one!"

Iley is quite the spitter-upper. IF someone spits up, it's her. And 70% of the time if someone starts the crying, it's Wynn. 

We each have our specialties don't we?

We are SO grateful to have Iley in the family. As loud as things can get around here, there also is an obvious extra dosage of love that came too.

We love our ILEY MAY.

(spotaneous picture I didn't mean to capture. Talk about the most perfect picture ever!)

WYNN MARY

Individual girls should get their individual posts, right?

This post will be all about Miss Wynn

Brooks came up with her first name. He suggested it back in February (via text) and I thought he was kidding since it was included on a list following the name, "Championa".... which I KNEW was a joke. Or at least I hoped it was.

Then later he said, "I'm serious about Wynn, I really like it." After that I got on the internet and realized it's a legit name. It means "fair" and "white" which the white-part is GREAT for my family. The more I said it in my head, the more I liked it. Which was a nice since Brooks was already dead set on the name.

I KNEW she would be the first twin to come out because....afterall.....Wynn DID "win".

I picked her middle name though of "Mary".

All my girls' middle names I picked (actually ALL my kids I picked their middle names since Brooks doesn't care about the middle names at all).

Aleeya's was after my great Grandma and which my middle name was after her too: Lowrie

Iris' was after my Mom, since her middle name is Ann as well.

Kellyn's middle name is after Brooks' mom: Pat

Everly's middle name is after the Biblical "Esther"

When I thought of another woman I wanted my girls to be like it became pretty obvious to me in my scripture study. Mary was it!

A woman who understood her role in Heavenly Father's plan SO well, that EVEN when the angel came to her with news of something that could've socially damaged her for life and possibly ruin the engagement to Joseph all she responded was, 

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to they word."

Luke 1:38

Yes, the name Mary is perfect.

(Even if it doesn't "flow" like Brooks said)

(I LOVE new baby's hands and fingers!!!!)

Wynn had a VERY eventful and life-changing first 24 hours.

According to Brooks' clock she was  born on May 22nd at 11:59pm. So the girls would have different birthdays. At first I thought it was super cool then I saw that my clock had a different time on it putting them on the same birthday. Which seemed more pratical and less of a head ache explaining everywhere you went.

And her name was originally spelled "Wynne". I thought the "e" made it more feminine but Brooks wasn't too big of a fan. But I won that battle. Then after announcing her name when she was born, people kept asking if her name was pronounced "Winnie" I about DIED! Oh. My. She will NOT be called "Winnie" so I exshneyed the "e".

Like I said, in her first day of life she had a possible birthday change AND a name change. 

That's enough to wear ANYONE out!

Wynn started out the smaller of the twins.... see?

And ILEY's chubby cheeks was one way we could tell them apart. Well, NOW Wynn is bigger and ILEY's cheeks are gone.

We also could tell who was who by Wynn's crooked nose....which no longer is crooked. Great.

So she has one big toenail painted yellow.

THEN the next day we discovered a TEENY bump on the top outside of her ear, that her sister doesn't have.

YES! Finally something to distinguish the two besides their binkis.

(you can barely see the little lump on the outside of her ear (she's in the brown).

(I just love their hands touching again!)

Actually now at 3 weeks old it's easy to tell Wynn from Iley since Wynn looks like this right now.

Yep, I just KNEW the yeast battle would come soon. Thankfully since they each have their own "side" to eat that it's not passing to iley YET. But the purple mouth is a pretty big give away that it's Wynn.

For the first week and half of life she was known as Miss Piggy being a little snorter when she ate and burped. 

She loves and prefers to be on her belly snuggling.

I loved this little smirk she was giving in this picture after their first time going to church.

Wynn is a girl that knows what she wants.....to eat...and even sounds like she's drowning when she does. She usually is the first to wake up at 3a.m. to eat....then I have to wake up her sleeping sister to keep them on the same schedule. Thankfully now, they both fall back to sleep super easy.

Just like her sister, Miss Wynn has a special spirit. 

I'm so grateful for this little angel.

YIPEE and a BIG FAT HORRAY

YAY!!!!

Yesterday we heard some news that our application was accepted and we FINALLY have a home when where we move!!!!

And it's only two and a half weeks before we leave. 

Nothing like cutting it close.

That wasn't our INTENTION and believe me, we've tried to snatch up other places before.... but apparently that state has this weird and foreign thing to us called

"Occupancy Laws".

(Translation: "Lame Laws")

For a family of 12 to find a house with "Enough bedroom square footage" for each person in our family was super-DUPER fun. *sarcasm*

I guess we should've known when every person we talked to would ask who is living in the home? We would say, Brooks, me and our kids.

Then they would ask, "No, we need a NUMBER of occupants in the house."

Me: "Oh, okay.... 12...........hello?.............hello?.........hello?"

Thankfully we have a place now. Albeit not AS close to Brooks' work as we wanted, this MUST be the house for us, since it's the only one we could. 

The kids actually are SUPER excited. Moving from our 1700 sq.ft. home to that will be fun for them and they can't stop talking about the red roof. It's the only one in the whole neighborhood with one when I looked on google maps. So already, we'll be sticking out.

The first of MANY times there, I'm sure.

First Week

The morning after the twins were born I was up around 5 or 6 anyway. Our family reads scriptures at 6 a.m. so we decided to see if the kids would notice anything different about me. (They had no idea I was actually going to HAVE the babies the night before) They were all sleepy laying on the couches waiting for it to start and I walked in with my belly still pretty big. Obviously it wasn't AS big as it had been (I DID just lose 26 pounds since they last saw me. haha) but still definitely looked "pregnant". 

No one noticed until I walked past Camden and he sat up fast and said, "Did you have the babies last night?" I grabbed my big belly and said, "Does it LOOK like I had the babies?!"

"YES!!!!!"

Then they all ran into my room and found these two fast asleep in the port-a-crib. Here are their faces.

THEN the passing around occurred. This picture pretty much sums up their first encounter with their older siblings.....and a good summary of their WHOLE life so far.

The very proud oldest sister (with Iley).... but her name was still "Unknown" at the time

Iris and Iley

Emerson: "What's her name?"

"It's Wynn"

"That's not even a name. But oh well."

Here is Emerson and Wynn....the name that really isn't a name apparently.

Bronson has held a lot of babies in his lifetime and I love what a good big brother he is.

Speaking of, Bronson has to give a talk in church this month on "Why I love my Family". (I'm OOOOOH so curious to hear what he says!) He gave us the introduction of his talk and in it he said  at school  people ask him how many siblings he has (expecting the 1 or 2 answer) and he tells them 9. Apparently no one believes him. Then he tells them everyone's name and then they finally believe him. haha. 

It's hard being the oldest in a circus.

Royce.....still in his church shirt from the day before #dontjudge #IwasinLABOR....... with "Unknown"

Wynn, Camden.....and his bed-head

Shell-shocked.

You are NO longer the baby Everly, SORRY!!!!

8 crazy kids crowding two newborns. 

They have been officially welcomed.

You would THINK that having two babies would be enough.....but I guess when there are THREE kids at home during the day and only TWO babies, that SOMEONE is going to be baby-less.....and throw a fit.

While the kids were gone at school and Brooks quarantined me and the twins in my room I decided to do what every mom that needs to rest does...... she poses her girls for a picture of course.

Aren't they cute?

Wynn in the white bow and "Unknown" in the pink.

I sat and tried to figure out the whole feeding-at-the-same-time thing. (I really hate nursing at the beginning!!!!) They both usually ended up snuggling and sleeping after.

They DID start out super hungry though and sucking their hands...... they just look so identical to me. 

There was a small difference though in that Iley had chubbier cheeks and Wynn's nose was a tad crooked if you look at it in the right angle.

Actually, while resting in my room I couldn't help but be surprised at how DIFFERENT the recovery was with the twins. It seriously was NO JOKE. Everything was fine in the "birthing area" and emotionally and hormonally I felt great...and FINALLY normal. I even breathed and and curled up in a ball better! But I guess if your body is blown out to crazy sizes it has never been it will ACHE (to HIGH heaven) because you now have nothing to hold up the flab and loosened muscles. My stomach, sides and back fat hurt SO bad that I had to wrap myself really tight in what USED to be my belly belt. I didn't even have uterine cramps worth noting but my belly fat just hurt!
AND I started swelling. (actually I stayed swollen for the whole first week) I even had to take off my wedding ring that I never had to take off during pregnancy. And my toes looked like little sausages. So weird.

ANYWAY......When the kids got home from school Camden busted through the door yelling, "I get to hold Wynn!" with Emerson behind him, "I get to hold Unknown!"
bwhahaha.

"The babies" even brought them all gifts. Yes, we bribe for love and acceptance here. (Emerson still holding Unknown. :) )

That afternoon Brooks came home from running something to work and told the kids about the name Iley. That was the VERY first time I had heard of that name. The kids liked it better then the other names he told them, they took a vote and Iley won. So that was that. Iley FINALLY had a name.

Aleeya got her treat for winning the guessing competition when the twins would arrive and she was THRILLED

They asked me to take pictures of them with the babies for me to email to their teachers at school.

This picture is lovely......Iley gets a headlock from Everly, but still it was emailed to their teachers.

Emerson wanted a picture holding both of them. He's clearly a proud older brother.

One more feeding on my HUGE twin-nursing pillow before bed. They fell asleep exhausted after.

Our first FULL night with the twins I sent Brooks out on the couch so I could have the room to myself with the girlies. It doesn't do us ANY good to have both parents tired the next morning! I actually had high hopes that they would do just as well as the did the night before right after birth.

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!!

I laid them down and riiiiiight as I was falling asleep (isn't that when it ALWAYS happens?!) Wynn woke up and was just mad. I nursed her and snuggled her and rocked her thinking how just 24 hours ago it was just me and her working together. It was kind of a sweet moment. Then Iley woke up as I laid sleeping Wynn down. 

I did the same thing with Iley and treasured that one-on-one time even though I had heard from EVERY twin-mom to keep them on the same eating schedule or you will be dead. 

After snuggling and sticking her back down Wynn woke up, then Iley again. Then it was kind of a Rinse-Wash-and-Repeat type thing. Then they were both crying but for NOTHING. I had fed them, changed them, snuggled and there was nothing to calm them down. 

All I could picture was that scene in Nacho Libre with those two midget wrestlers. And how they would tag-team the other one to go start the smack down. I was totally being tag-teamed....BY LITTLE PEOPLE!

It was 3:52a.m. when I felt my nose start stinging. 

The sign that the tears were about to start.

Then I thought, "WHAT?! The FIRST night and you can't even handle it?!?!?! You're going to let one day old babies BEAT you and show you who's boss?!?!"

Then I put on my big girl panties (actually it was closer to a diaper, but I digress) and just dealt with it. Calmed one down and then I could calm the other down.

The next morning Brooks came in to shower before scripture reading and asked how my night was. All I could mumble was, "They double-teamed me...."

 When I finally was awake in the morning I went searching for the binkis I had bought a while ago.

And WHATDOYAKNOW...... they sucked them perfectly and held them in by themselves. I've actually NEVER had babies take to binkis like they had. I should've sat there and thought it was so cute.....

But all I could think was, 

WHERE THE HECK WERE THESE LAST NIGHT?!?!?

We assigned Wynn the purple binki and Iley the pink one. This way we knew who was a littler faster.

Because without a binki showing in the picture, it's hard to tell who it is. Like this one...... I have ZERO clue who Brooks is snuggling here. 

Is there ANY better feeling then a baby asleep and snuggling on your chest?!?!?

Yep. 

Actually there IS.

It's TWO babies snuggling asleep on your chest!!!!!!

Bronson took the above picture and I DIED when I saw it. I had no idea their little hands were touching. It's like their holding hands!!!!!! So, so PRECIOUS.

They really are kind of like a double dosage of heaven in home.

I tried really hard to keep capturing their newborn chubby cheeks and all those tender moments. 

(Wynn on the left, Iley on the right)

I couldn't always sucessfully feed them at the same time, but I DEFINITELY could snuggle them at the same time. I know it won't be long when I can't fit both in my arms at the same time and I will probably cry when that happens.

Not that I'm usually short on arms wanting to hold them. Someone is ALWAYS asking.....and when they're done holding the baby, I might find the baby being "held" by something else.

(again, no binki showing, not sure which baby this is)

It's funny when they use eachother to hold their binki in. I find them always leaning in their heads towards each other. Such a sweet bond already.

I still can't figure the best way to do things. Here I am trying out the burping two at a time method....which doesn't really work. I DID master the nurse one while burping the other thing though.

Every baby (or babies) have their "witching hour" and my girls just happen to NOT like the 9-10pm time. It happened to be during a NBA game and while they were watching it on the laptop Bronson got Iley to FINALLY calm down by walking around doing some bouncing thing. I didn't even ask him to hold her, but he was the only one that could calm her down that night.

Brooks was home two days with me before he had to go back to work but he promised the ladies there that he would bring the babies by. When they were four days old he took the twins like this to work.

Next thing I know, I get a text from him asking "Which one is which?" 

BWHAHAHA.

He had zero clue. I had to tell him that Wynn had the purple binki and Iley the pink and to NOT take them off. I'm sure the ladies at work got a kick out of that.

Shortly after Brooks headed off for a Friday-Saturday Man's Trip to kayak down a river for a few days. We assumed the babies would come earlier so didn't see a problem with him going. Then with the babies being born that week Brooks wasn't going to go, but I made him. He NEVER does this stuff and I know he was looking forward to it.
I'm SO glad he went, he seriously had a BLAST.

He came home late Saturday night around 11. With early morning church the next day with 8 kids by himself he came home pooped. All he really wanted to do was come home and have a newborn lay on his chest for a quick nap...... I had the other one on my chest. It was the best.

Thankfully Sunday was the first day I woke up and started feeling normal and my body didn't hurt. The swelling had gone down too. I couldn't help but think, "That was fast!" as far as getting back to feeling at a functioning level. I also thought, maybe Heavenly Father allowed my body to have a fast (but FURIOUS) horrible time after birth so I can be ready and productive in helping for the move coming up at the end of the month.