How My World Changed Forever...Again

Name Reveal

-September 26th, 2019-

Rachel: "I"
Christopher and Jessica: "Z"
Annie and Hayley: "V"
Katie [Donnelly]: "E"
Bailey, Jake, Parker, and Duncan: "T"
Erik's brother (Adam?): "E"
Erik's parents: "H"
Katie and Billy: "L"
Gwen and Tim: "O"
Trent: "A"
Colleen and Erik: "L"

Colleen's POV
     I begin editing the name reveal together.  I had a whole bunch of people who mean a lot to us film themselves holding up a letter and saying it aloud.  Between each clip, it shows a clip of Erik writing the letter on my belly in the correct position of where it would be in the name. 
     By the very last letter, the names are spelled out on my bump.
Through the whole montage of the letters, Everything Changes from Waitress is playing. I sped it up a little and played with the pitch a tiny bit so I wouldn't get copywritted. That song is making the video nearly impossible for me to edit since it makes me cry every damn time I hear it.

     There's one clip following that which is my family finding out.  When they filmed their parts, they didn't know the names.  They only knew their letter.  After we filmed, I got everyone together, including Erik's parents who were visiting at the time.  The only ones who weren't there were the Maryland friends.  Everyone brought their letter.  I gave Annie and Hayley's, Katie and Billy's, and Katie's letters to Jake, Parker, and Duncan, and Bailey kept their original one.  Then I put everyone in order to reveal the names.  They couldn't see what the letters spelled still, so I took a picture on my phone of everyone and showed them that way.  Then, since they were a part of the reveal, I was able to text that picture to the Leblancs and the Donnelleys.

     My bump and the order of my family both spelled out the names.

     "Hazel and Violet"

     -Later that day-
     I have to sit down and film a part to put at the end of the name reveal to explain a few things.
     "Hey guys!" I say, waving my hand in front of my camera.  "So we're gonna have a baby Hazel and a baby Violet!  I'm so excited I'm finally sharing the names with you.  If I waited any loner, I'm sure I would've slipped up.
     The fun thing about the video we made was the people who held and said the letters didn't actually know the names.  They only knew their letter.  The clip you just saw is when I put them in order to reveal the names to them that way.
     Okay, I don't even know what else I'm supposed to say!  I'm just so excited!  Oh!  Middle names!  We don't have them yet!" laughing, "well, we kinda have some ideas, but nothing set for sure.  It's been really tricky since tradition is a big thing.  Spoiler alert, neither girl is getting "Mae".  I've read online of people giving the first twin the passed down middle name, but I don't want to make the second any less important.  I could use my mom's middle name, but that's the same as my sister's.  I wouldn't want to take "Dawn" from Rachel.  So, long story short, we're just using whatever middle names we want.  Maybe if we ever have another girl we'll give her the middle name Mae."
     I ramble for a little longer and close saying, "Thanks for watching!  See you next time!  I love you all!"

Erik's POV
The story behind the twins' names; there isn't really one. We had been looking on every online parenting forum out there about names for twins. Colleen and I both hated the idea of having names that started with the same letter. We also didn't want them to rhyme. However they are twins and they will always share that bond. We wanted names that still went together and sounded good together. At one point, I suggested flower names as something to think about. Colleen immediately pointed out a huge flaw with that; the names Rose and Lily. Those are two flowers that are popularly used for names. We couldn't use either of them. There would be some problems with Rose because it happens to be someone's middle name. The real issue lies with Lily. Colleen had all intentions of naming her first daughter Lily Mae...Evans. Now, as much as hearing that name upsets her.
With flowers out of the question, we were back to the drawing board. One day, on our long search, we thought of color names. A pair we found that we liked was Hazel and Violet. After falling in love with the sheer sound of the names together, we found meaning in them too.
Colleen has always loved the color purple. Between her childhood favorite color, "Purple heart friendship," and Miranda wearing a purple sweater (which is, by the way, something Colleen actually wore as a child), purple is a piece of her. We even used the color purple instead of pink to announce the girls.
My eyes happen to be hazel. Colleen is freaking obsessed with my eye color and always said she wants our kids to have hazel eyes too. Since hazel eyes are literally part of my physical appearance, the color connects back to me.
Between loving the sound and meaning of the names, we decided on Hazel and Violet. The first born will be Violet and the second will be Hazel. They are identical and won't have personalities at birth. We decided the order already just by the sheer fact that we want the youngest to come first sometimes, like on school rosters and other alphabetical stuff.
     So essentially Colleen and I are just a hot mess, and picked two random names we like that happened to mean something to us.

Annie's POV
     Colleen posted the name announcement!  Colleen posted the name announcement!  Colleen posted the name announcement!
     I've literally been waiting since I found out the names for her to post this video.  It's a good thing we edit our vlogs because I would've given it away like four thousand times.  Also, I'm at the gym for eight hours a day with 10 girls who love Colleen and don't know I know.  If they did, they'd try to get the names out of me.  
     As soon as she posts the video, I watch it over and over again.  I'm literally supposed to be doing school right now but instead I'm crying over a baby name reveal so...cool.  I quickly realize that's what the rest of the girls are doing when everyone turns to me at nearly the same time and say, "Annie!  You're in this?!"
     I blush and nod, wiping tears from my cheeks.   Colleen texted me just before she uploaded this so I knew it was coming.  I'm already the whole way through the video while the other girls are only on my letter. "Stop crying!" They all say.
"But it's so cute!" I exclaim.
For the rest of the afternoon we don't exactly get much school done...yeah...we watch Colleen videos. It's technically part of a break for us so we don't have a proctor right now, but we still have school time.
At one point, McKenzie says, "oh, hey, I saw Colleen on tour once. It was a really long time ago. I kinda forgot I guess."
"Was it the Miranda camp one?"
She shakes her head, eating a pretzel. "Miranda was in it a little bit, but not a whole lot. I think it was her...um...Joshleen tour..."
I can feel my face go blank. I didn't watch Colleen while she was still married to Josh. However, I know what happened. Well, not more than anyone else knows, I suppose.
"Yeah, Annie! What do you know about that anyway?" Mia asks.
I throw my hands in the air and back away as if to surrender. "Nothing, I swear. Probably less than you. I didn't watch her back then. We watched Miranda, but not Colleen really. In fact, we went out to dinner for my dad and Shawn Johnson's birthday in...2017 maybe? Rebecca Zamolo was there, who I knew and we can't see anymore but we're not gonna talk about that. Anyway, apparently Colleen's ex husband was out with us that night and I had no idea. Hayley used to do Miranda impressions all. the. time. She was talking like her that night, and my dad yelled at her I think. I didn't know why. Now I do, I guess."
I fidget uncomfortably and I think it's kind of obvious. Completely unintentionally, my friends are making me feel like i know things they don't or that I shouldn't. In reality, that's not true at all. I probably know less because I don't go searching. I don't ask about it, and Hayley doesn't even know Colleen was ever married.
"You guys, you can't talk about this stuff around Hayley. Seriously. She doesn't know Colleen was ever married and my parents want to keep it that way."
     Changing the subject, Arden asks, "Do you like Erik?"
     "Yes!" I say without hesitation.  I remember back to the day he found me in the hall crying after Hayden broke up with me and Colleen was sick. 
     "I'm just so excited!  She's engaged!  And pregnant with twins!  And they're girls!" Kenzie exclaims.
     I laugh to myself.  Being around Colleen is normal for me.  It was a little surreal at first, but now it's like we've been family friends forever.  It cracks me up how fan girly everyone else gets.

Colleen's POV
I go through and read comments on the name reveal. They're so sweet and I couldn't be happier. Towards the bottom, I see one comment that isn't nice. Just one. The one comment punches me in the gut. "What happened to Lily Mae?"
I show Erik and he hugs me from behind, resting his chin on the top of my head. "Guess what? Now you have Hazel and Violet and they're even better" he whispers to me.