Names

So life has been good for us. We are happy to have Hyrum home. He's been home for 2 months now, and the time has just flown. He's currently 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long-at 5 months. =) Samuel was 8 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, so Hyrum has a ways to go to catch up, but he's doing great. We've avoided most sicknesses so far; he did have the beginnings of an ear infection, but we hopefully caught it before it turned into anything else. Hyrum got his first RSV shot (a shot that helps infants not get RSV); he has to get one every month, but if it keeps him from getting RSV, it's worth it.

We had a good Christmas. We opened presents on Christmas Eve morning so we could go to the Herbert Family Christmas party and spend the night in Orem. My grandpa Herbert has been fighting cancer for about 3 years now. He was given a clean bill of health earlier this year. He seemed fine while we stayed at his house in October. He gradually started hurting more and more, so he went back in to get tested and his cancer has returned with a vengeance. He went back to the hospital the Saturday before Christmas to start treatments. They released him from the hospital on Christmas Eve, but he had to stay within 15 minutes of the hospital, so for our family party, we all went to the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake. Grandpa was staying there so we were all able to see him, and he was able to see our Christmas program. He spoke to us all at the end. It was very sweet and very precious. He's currently in a medically induced coma at the hospital, so I don't think he'll live much longer. It was definitely a tender mercy that we were all able to spend one last Christmas Eve with him. I've never lost a grandparent before, so this is new territory for me, but having experienced loss quite a bit last year, I feel somewhat more at ease with loss. My grandpa was never one to speak a lot, but for quite a few years now, he has sent out a monthly journal detailing his day to day activities, and also his testimony. I will miss him, but I am happy for him. His mom died when he was quite young, so that will be a very happy reunion. One of his sons, Brent, died in 2004, so that will also be a happy reunion. He will also get to meet Joseph, so I can't be too sad about his passing, when it happens.

Now, onto the point of this post. =) When I found out I was having twin boys, one of my first thoughts was "Great, I don't even have any boy names picked out". I had plenty of girl names, and considering that Eli is an only boy with 4 sisters, I kind of thought I would have more girls. I felt really strongly that I needed to have names for these little boys well before they were born. We didn't name Samuel or Claire until after they were born. I did not want to wait that long. I always tried to get Eli to talk about names, but he never wanted to until they were here. With the twins, he once again didn't really talk about names, except in joking. He has two sets of boy twins on his side of the family; they were named Omer and Comer & Sod and Clod. He kept telling people that we were going to name our twins one of those names. One day I was thinking once again about names, and the names Joseph Steven and Hyrum Daniel came to me. I had never even thought about the names Joseph or Hyrum (side note: those names particular names come from Joseph and Hyrum Smith, early leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so they weren't totally random; see articles here and here for more details). I was looking for 6 letter names that had an 'e' in them (all my other children have 6 letter names with an 'e'; I'm weird like that). Joseph fits that, but not Hyrum, but when those names came into my mind, I knew that was what they were supposed to be called. I even knew which twin was to have which name. I just kept the names to myself for awhile, and then I told Claire and she really liked them. I then told Eli and Sydney. I can't remember what Eli's response was, but he was probably just glad that I was going to stop asking him about names. I told Eli on a Monday the names, and the next Wednesday was when I found out that Joseph had died. I was so glad to have them named. At first I thought that Hyrum was the one that had died because of the position of the babies in my tummy. Hyrum was always down low, and Joseph was higher. When Joseph died, they switched positions. I didn't bother asking my doctor which one had died because I was just wanting to get out of there. He told Eli later, when he called, which one had died. After Joseph died, Eli talked about naming Hyrum, Daniel Steven (so he would have a part of Joseph's name). I thought about it, but I really felt like Hyrum should be his name, so that's what we went with (another side note: Daniel is Eli's father and Steven is my father, so the middle names were easy).

Last week I spent New Year's Eve at my brother's house. They had a baby name book that I was randomly looking through. I really like looking through name books, but everything happened so fast with the twins, that I hadn't even touched a name book since I had Samuel. I was curious what the name Hyrum meant, since I had never looked it up. I almost couldn't believe it when I read "My brother has been exalted". I could not have named Hyrum a more perfect name if I had tried. In this same book, Joseph's name meant "God will add", which also has special meaning. So that is the reason and meaning behind their names. They were named correctly and it just goes to show, once again, who really is in charge. Thank goodness it isn't me.

Claire's birthday was on the third, so I need to do a post on her, but until then, here are some pictures.

I insisted on stopping at all of my grandparent's on the day we brought Hyrum home. I'm so glad we did. Here is Hyrum with my grandpa and grandma Herbert. They both turned 80 this year.

Here's our big guy. I think he looks more like Eli's side of the family.
He doesn't really look like my other babies. He did get the chin dimple from my mom.

Samuel, Claire and Sydney. The girls let me put curlers in their hair the night before. Now Sydney has me do that every time she washes her hair. Claire prefers the straight, messy look. =)