Names for the Twins

Before Claire was born we went back and forth on names. I made a list of names I loved and Justin kept saying no to every single name. I was annoyed and so was he that we couldn't agree. We went on a vacation to Kauai over Christmas/New Year time and he randomly said the name Claire. It wasn't on my list of names and wasn't even one I was sure I liked. I finally liked how it sounded once we threw in my middle name to it and so she was named.

I made one thing was for sure: I got to name the next baby!

Here we are, just short of 3 years of that trip, and we are ready to name two more little ones! It was cute that he thought that he would get to name one and I would name one. Nope, not how it's going! My thoughts are this- I'm just a super lucky person who gets to have two more girls, I get to carry them around with me for roughly, if we are lucky, 34-37 weeks, I get to birth them- so I get to name them...both.

When we found out they were both girls I pulled out my list. The list literally had just girls names on it. I've never imagined myself to be a mom to boys so it just wasn't something I ever thought about. I marked off names I knew Justin had and would say no to and started giving my suggestions. It sounded like this would be a battle of the names again, but he gave me one stipulation, one of them had to have his Mema's middle name, Josephine. Easy enough and now they have names!

Their names are Kennedy Elizabeth and Kinley Josephine. Both of the first names are names that were on my list of names, but the middle names come from two special women in our lives that will never get the chance to meet our girls.

Kennedy's middle name is my Aunt Liz's name that passed away from breast cancer my senior year of college. She is my mom's sister and someone that I wish could meet all of our sweet girls. This summer I visited my cousin in Dallas and while we were talking she said that sometimes it just hits her that she is gone and that she would have loved to be around to see all of our kids grow up. I figured there is no better middle name. While we were moving, I found a letter that Liz wrote me shortly before she died and it sealed the deal. Kennedy Elizabeth was named and I love it.

Kinley's middle name comes from Justin's Mema's middle name. She was someone that was always loved by their entire family and still is. She welcomed me into her home and when she suddenly passed away, right around the time Liz did, it was hard. It was the one request Justin made in the naming process and I agreed to it. Kinley Josephine will be so loved and I can't wait until she's here.

Both of the girls have names that hold special places for us and we are so excited for them to get here. Claire is practicing saying their names, loves to point to their pictures on the fridge, and loves to give them kisses. Today I'm 24 weeks and I feel like a tank :) We are going to the doctor every two weeks and we love getting to see them move around. Last week we took Claire and she was interested for all of 30 seconds. We have an ultrasound and doctor appointment on Wednesday so I'll write an update about how they're growing!