What's in a Name?

We found out yesterday that the two little snugglers in my belly are both BOYS!!  I was shocked...I could have SWORN at least one of them was a girl...but I am THRILLED to death!  I really wanted them to be same sex twins, so I got my wish.  They are already SO unique!  Their profiles look totally different.  Deacon Paul looks like a carbon copy of Greysen.  Dakota Mitchell looks more like Jonathan in his profile.  Deacon is super wiggly and a bit of an exhibitionist ;), and Dakota is more subdued and likes to find the perfect snuggle spot and stay put.  Deacon is the smaller of the two by about a centimeter, and Dakota likes to stretch out his whole body when he reclines.  Two precious boys with two different body styles and two different personalities!

We chose their names separately.  Deacon Paul has been in our name arsenal since just after Greysen was born.  Dakota Mitchell we chose just a few months ago when we decided we definitely needed two boy names on deck in case they were both boys.  Glad we did!  So how did we come up with Deacon Paul and Dakota Mitchell?  They each have special stories:

Dakota Mitchell has a fun story.  We have had the hardest time arriving at boy names that we like.  We've kicked around SO many names for a LONG time, but every time we arrive at the "right" one, it's always an immediately unanimous decision.  So we knew we wanted to use Mitchell as the middle name for our third boy name.  Our "tradition" is to give our kids middle names with family ties.  Greysen's middle name is Neil which is Jonathan's middle name, and Jonathan's great grandfather's middle name.  The name Mitchell is my sweet Mimol's maiden name.  So we knew we had to use that one!  Dakota was a name that was nowhere on our radar.  But when we needed another boy name on deck, we decided to take some inspiration from aviation.  My dad is a single engine pilot and the plane he flies is a Piper Saratoga.  So we decided to cull through the names of Piper aircrafts to see if any of them, past or present, would be a cool baby name.  We obviously didn't get far.  When we scrolled through the D's and saw Dakota, that was a done deal.  Dakota Mitchell Womack.  Pure perfection...

Deacon has been a name we've liked for a long time.  Once Greysen was here, we both said "If we ever have another little boy that looks anything like Greysen, he could totally be a Deacon."  Both of our dads and all of our grandfathers were/are deacons in the church,  and Jonathan will be officially ordained as a deacon this fall!  So we felt like Deacon was a beautiful little tribute to the men in our lives and the men our Deacon will look up to!  Such a special heritage.  Paul is my father's middle name and his father's middle name.  We've known for a while that we wanted to use Paul somewhere in our name mix.  We felt like Paul was the perfect compliment to Deacon. Carrying on that beautiful patriarchal heritage with a name that gives a nod to so many generations of men in our lives! 

These little boys are SO loved already.  There is LOTS to do to prepare for their arrival, but I can't help but start dreaming of snuggling them and watching them grow up and seeing Greysen be their big brother.  He's SO excited about his brothers!  Our cups and our hearts run over with gratitude.  How in the world did we get so lucky???  THREE handsome boys.  I'm a boy mom though and through and I am thrilled to death to have that title...