The story of how I named my babies

Mikayla. My first baby. I so very much wanted to name her Adeline Grace. Brad despised the name. After much debate, we finally decided on Mikayla. With an I not an A. And not Michaela either. But we could NOT decide on a middle name. Brad's step dad finally picked a winner for us. And Mikayla Paige was born at 37 weeks. She has so many nick names it's not even funny. From Kayla, to Mickey, to Crayola. Even Kayla Mae (from Grandpa).

A one month old Mikayla with her G-mom (great-great Grandmother)

Bryson. My first boy! And I so knew he was a boy from the beginning. We weren't really even discussing names seriously as I was only around 16 weeks, but I had the baby name books out and was thumbing through them. One evening while I was in the bathroom (bathing, not going!) I was making fun of the names. Telling Brad we should name our boy Napoleon or Chevy or after some Greek god. And then, I found it. BRYSON. staring at me from the baby book. I KNEW that was his name. And his middle name had to be Lee after his father, his grand mother and several great grandmothers as well. Bryson also has several wonderful nick names. The most interesting of which is Baby Bart.

Bryson in the potty...after attempting to climb it with the lid up!

And then there was David. Our surprise boy whom we were told was a girl. My mother in law had been re-diagnosed with cancer. We knew it would be her last fight. And my grandmother had recently passed away. I wanted to honor both of them in some way, but didn't want to name baby Sally or Lillian. So I worked with just the initials and came up with Lilah Shane. I loved it. My extended family loved it. My husband was coming around. And then, I gave birth to a boy! A at first very healthy little boy, but then a very very sick little boy in need of Life Flight. I was NOT having my unnamed baby fly away from me. I felt the push to give him a name before he flew away. Brad and I settled on David Shane. And even though I did not like David at the time and felt for the first year that David was not his name, he's settling into David nicely. I call him David Shane about 90% of the time. The kids call him David, and my dad, my dad calls him Virgil!

My almost two year old, mischievous David!

Just so you know...

Sometimes it is easier to bribe a 23 month old with cake at 8:30am that it is to pack him up to run the older kids to vacation Bible school.

Tempered glass WILL shatter into roughly a million tiny little pieces at the hands of a 23 month old.

Getting up at 5am leads to a cranky 7 year old around 5pm.

My niece is a LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY girl. She's leaving for a two week educational trip to AUSTRALIA tomorrow!

Sour cream also works as hair gel. See?


Four year old boys derive immense joy from sending themselves to the moon.


And even though she's seven and knows everything there ever was, is or will be to know.. she still plays with her food.