Day 17 and carrying some babies

Ok, is there anyone out there who didn't do a "bedtime routine" at this age?  What about at 4 months? 5 months?  I'm having mini panic attacks every night about our lack of bedtime routine...but we do have a routine, it's just not a good one.  See, we play with them when Ben gets home, feed them when they need to be fed (usually around 3 hours after the last feeding), then play a little more, try to get them to sleep (this is usually around 5pm), then feed them again (usually around 6-7pm)... and this is where the problem begins.  I'd like for this to be their last feeding of the night before "bedtime".  However, our children find this time of night to be the perfect time for fussiness, super big smiles, or just general awake time.  So we end up holding them, trying to calm them down, or putting them in the swing until the next feeding, usually around 10ish (unless some cluster feeding needs to go down because they are going through a growth spurt or just didn't eat enough the last feeding, etc etc- at which point we feed them around 8:30is and 10:30ish).  After this last feeding, we keep things super quiet, swaddle them cuz they aren't kicking and screaming anymore somehow, and then put them in their cribs awake but drowsy.  Then, they put themselves to sleep and continue to do so until usually around 8-10am (with a couple of wake-ups for food) - like magical wizards!!!

I don't understand why they can put themselves to sleep without total massive meltdowns after 10pm in their cribs, but anytime before that and it's like we've physically hurt them or something.

So we've just given into their schedule rather than creating one that works for "us".  Therefore, we aren't really eating dinner per say very often...unless they actually nap during that in between time before the 10pm feed, but they're out in the living room and we have to be super quiet.  What do you all think about this?  Is this a big problem? Are we setting ourselves up for major disaster when they get older and need to go to bed earlier or when I go back to work and have to get them up earlier?

Everything I've read says that you need to start a routine of some sort (i.e. bath, pj's, swaddle, bottle, story or song, bed). We're so not doing that.  We're like "shhhhh, don't talk to them or make eye contact cuz they'll for sure wake up and think it's the middle of the day and they need to scream or play and shhhhh don't mess this up...ok, hurry put them down - their eyes are getting droopy!!!"  It's a huge horrific mess of just following the babies' lead.  Thoughts?

Anyway, tonight we found success in avoiding too much of that in between fussiness/screaming by putting the babies in baby carriers and taking a family walk around the block.  Awww, how cute! Go ahead, say it.  It's true. Here, here's proof of the cuteness:

How Ben ended up with the tiny and petite "I'm watching my girlish figure" baby and I wound up carrying the ginormous "I need to eat everything in the house" baby...I'm not sure. But Mr. Caleb and I had a wonderful time- he fell asleep right at the end of the walk (I think he was a bit bothered by the chilly breeze on his chubtastic cheeks), and Miss Grace fell asleep about 32 seconds into the walk as Daddy basically stuffed her entire body, baby bjorn and all, into his sweatshirt for added warmth.  Love.  PS- THANK YOU NICOLE for letting us borrow the awesome bjorn! Love it.

Ok, the babies are performing their magic wizardry in their cribs right now- so it's time for me to try to do the same...but not in a crib, that'd be strange.