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HIGHLAND — They were born Dec. 10, 1999, and the four of them have kept their parents busy ever since.
“The girls are really fun,” mother Jennie Godwin said in an interview in 2002 when the quadruplets were 3 years old. "They have personalities. It has a lot of rewards. It’s challenging but very fun.”
On Thursday, Jade, Jordyn, McKenna and Mikayla Godwin will all graduate from American Fork High School.
The four girls were born 30 weeks and two days into the pregnancy after Jennie Godwin spent two months in bed at University Hospital, buying them precious "extra" time inside the womb.
They were born naturally, with Jade coming along first at 3 pounds 4 ounces and 15 ½ inches, followed by Jordyn, 3 pounds 5 ½ ounces and 17 inches; McKenna at 3 pounds and ¼ ounce and 16 ½ inches; and Mikayla at 2 pounds 4 ounces and 14 ¾ inches.
That’s when the Godwin family of four became a family of eight, with six children under age 4. They already had a 2-year-old daughter, Madison, and a 4-year-old son, Kalin.
The babies came home in January 2000. From that point on, life’s been the kind of challenge that brings as much reward as it does demand.
The Godwins had a lot of help along the way. They also relied heavily on a routine to get them through the hectic days. In the first six months, the Godwins changed roughly 5,400 diapers and filled 5,760 bottles.
Fast forward 18 years and the girls are getting ready for a big milestone — high school graduation.
“It flew by honestly, like in the blink of an eye,” Jade said. “We’re graduating and ready to move on.”
McKenna agrees. “It’s bittersweet because I’m ready to move on, but I’m going to miss what high school has taught me.”
They have been busy making memories and growing closer.
“We only fight about clothes,” Jade said.
“I don’t know what I would do without them. They know everything about me,” Mikayla said.
Jade says the four sisters tell each other everything.
“We’ve played soccer for many years,” she said. “We played high school soccer and just hang out with friends, party."
They have all been involved in typical teenage stuff, including a few challenges.
“Me and Kayla tore our ACLs, so we were out for nine months,” Jordyn recalled.
“I tore my ACL three times, so I’ve been out,” Mikayla said. “I didn’t play high school soccer with them, but we played soccer growing up together.”
They have been there to help each other with schoolwork over the years, too.
“I would help Kenna, I mean, Kenna would help me with math,” Jordyn said.
“We’re all really good at different things,” McKenna added. “She (Jordyn) would help me with art, I would help her with math."
Each sister has a different strength and a different hobby.
“I’m a huge shopaholic,” Mikayla explained. “I kind of force them to go shopping with me most of the time, so I would say one of my favorite things is going shopping. They give me advice and stuff.”
But it always comes back to being home and together, with each other and their older brother and sister.
“My closeness with Kenna, is my closeness with my brother and my older sister,” Mikayla said. “We’re all so close. We call ourselves 'the sixlets,’ so we’re all best friends.”
"Just three built-in best friends — forever," McKenna said with a chuckle.
When asked if they have their own bedrooms, they answered in unison while shaking their heads, “Oh no!”
The girls share two bedrooms. “We switch about every six months or a year, just so that we can stay close with all of us,” Mikayla said.
“And we share the same bathroom, which gets really crowded,” Jordyn added.
“But it’s a really big bathroom,” Mikayla interjected, which had all the sisters laughing.
The high school experience for the girls has been a part of life their mother says will be hard to see end.
“I’m gonna miss 'em,” she said. “They’re phenomenal girls. I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy this stage of life.”
But she holds on to many precious memories.
“I had to bring the fun to us. I couldn’t take them out. Six in car seats, I didn’t have enough hands to take care of everybody,” Jennie Godwin said. “We had a little swimming pool, trampoline and backyard fence, and I was out there one day and all four of them were hanging on the fence, trying to get over the fence.”
Godwin knows though it's time for her girls to pursue their dreams.
“I have no doubt they will do very, very well,” she said. “They’ve been taught, and they’re independent, goal oriented, have great work ethics … have lots of goals. I just know they’re going to meet them.”
“They grow up too fast,” she added. “Way too fast.”
The quadruplets have plans to attend Utah Valley University together in the fall.
McKenna and Jordyn say they would like to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in January. Mikayla and Jade are still undecided.
Editor's note: In earlier version, the headline said they were from Lehi and the photo captions listed their home in Spanish Fork. The girls are actually from Highland.
