The MMMMiley's

Naming children is TOUGH!  Everyone has their own opinion whether it be good or bad.  You spend weeks or months arguing with your spouse over it.  My friend, Tyanne, said it best:  God should tattoo your name across your rear end so when you are born there is no question.  I spent many prayers asking God to tell me what to name my kids, after all - He already knew their names.  That's fascinating to me.

Matilyn Claire AKA Mati Claire.  Being our firstborn, I decided to do a mix of Matt's name and my middle name Lyn.  Madelyn.  Matt gets credit for changing the spelling and the middle name.  We originally were going to call her Matilyn.  I was picking up some monogrammed stuff and when I handed my credit card over to the cashier, she said "ooohhh you're going to have a Mati Miley!"  A.WHAT???  It was too late.  She ruined it.  I was determined to keep it Matilyn.  Then about a month after she was born, my brilliant sister and niece, Kerigan, kept calling her Mati Claire... and it stuck.

Mattox William Wesley.  When I decided on his first name, I had never heard of another Maddox/Mattox.  The only one I "knew" of was Angelina Jolie-Pitt's son, Maddox.  And then I came across it in the baby name book.  The week I had him, I met 3 other Maddox's in ONE week!  Again, give credit to Matt for changing the spelling AGAIN against my preference.  It was either that or Andrew.  Being the first boy, we wanted him to have a family name and his own name.  It wasn't fair to give a family name from just one side (being the first boy) so we gave him one from each side.  William is my dad and grandfather's name, and Wesley is Matt's dad and grandfather's name.  Long name that people say doesn't flow.  oh well- its not your kid! lol!  He has been called everything from Matrix to Mat-TOX.  And plenty of people thought I was turning into George Foreman (who named like 7 of his kids George Foreman also).  They thought we were going to name all of our kids after Matt or some variation of it.  We did NOT plan that.  lol!

Merritt Chandley.  She was originally suppose to be Morgan ... then it was Micah ... and final answer was Merritt.  Chandley is my first initial + maiden name.  Also a long-term email address I have used that a friend gave me the idea of using.   I have never heard of another Merritt.  Again, came across it in a baby name book.  Today I'm searching for ideas for Mati Claire's mermaid birthday party and came across this:

Weird.  and no, not using this for her party, but thought it was funny.  My sister called me from Florida a few days ago, and said they had just passed a sign for Merritt Island.  HA! who knew???   I see a family vacation in our future!  So anyway, it's official now - I picked up her first monogrammed item:

We went with the eco-friendly way this year, and planted real grass in the Easter baskets.  It was fun, I will post pics of the experience in another post.  But I thought it turned out cute!!! As you can see, I am ready for Merritt to get here! :)