packing

I washed the twins' clothes last night and began packing today. Babies take a good chunk of stuff, two take even more. Ugh, I have even went through and tried to figure out what I might not be needing and eliminated one blanket. I wish you could hear me laughing at that!!!!
Anyhow, I did divide it out, one warmer outfit in this suitcase and the other, one cooler outfit in this suitcase and the other. Ends up I have two half full suitcases and have yet to put in bottles or meds yet. I was really hoping to only check two bags (these are carry-on size, so we can take them carry-on if we would want to), but read the above and remember there are two more adults and 2 children coming along. I wonder if we can all pack a weeks worth of clothes into our carry-on backpacks? I do plan on having laundry done at least twice while there and I am also bringing Woolite single-uses so that we can wash underwear and baby-stuff on demand. We really do not want to over pack as we are going to have our hands full of kids and babies, let alone needing everyone to drag a couple pieces of luggage! Maybe one more checked bag would be ok. Then I have to think that my husband will be needing to return home with a chunk of this....anyone ever shipped items home, including their own clothes?