2008 Wilkinson Quints Calendar!

We are excited to announce a Wilkinson Quints Calendar for 2008. The calendar features 12 beautiful photographs of the Wilkinson quintuplets taken by some very talented photographers. The cost of the calendar is $20.00 plus $2.00 shipping and handling. The calendars will begin shipping the first week of December.

To order, visit http://www.wilkinsonquints.org/calendar.html

We have had a lot of fun putting this calendar together! In addition to ourselves, some great photographers have donated their time and talent to this project. These include Kristen Duke, Lanae Monson, and Rachael Olson. To see more of their work, check out their websites:

http://www.kristendukephotography.com/

http://www.lanaekay.com/

Here is a sneak peak at some of the pictures included in the calendar:

2008 Wilkinson Quints Calendar!

Blessing Day

This week was full of "firsts" for the quints. First Thanksgiving, first restaurant outing, first visit from Uncle Colby and Uncle Ryan (my brothers), first giggles, and first time to church. Because of the threat of RSV and other illnesses, we had not taken the babies to church before. This Sunday, however, there was a special event in the lives of the quints that took place at church.

In our church, new babies are given a blessing within a few months of their birth. This is a very special occasion. The babies are typically dressed in white and the blessing is often given by the father. To find out more about baby blessings, visit:



http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/priesthood/ordinances/blessing_children.html

This past Sunday was the day that we had our babies blessed. The girls were dressed in beautiful white gowns that were made by Jayson's mother, Sylvia, and his aunt, Linda. The boys looked equally handsome in their little white outfits. Several family members from out of town came for the babies blessings. My parents and Jayson's parents were here to witness the blessings, as well as my Aunt Jeanie, Uncle Rick and cousins Ashlyn and BrieAnne (whom I lived with while I was in Arizona). My sister-in-law, Tobi also drove in from Killeen to be there. In addition to family and ward members, some of our other friends: Cassaundra, Ellis, Troy, and Kelly, were also present. It was so wonderful to have so many family members there for this occasion!

The blessings were given by Jayson. There was such a sweet feeling that was present during the blessings. After the blessings, my mom, cousin Ashlyn and Riley and Kaiya sang a song written by my Aunt Jeanie. The song was so beautiful and it was overwhelming to hear Riley and Kaiya singing the chorus. When I looked around after the song, I noticed that I was not the only teary-eyed one in the congregation. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

Friends and family who came to the blessings.

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

The quint's first restaurant outing to Rudy's BBQ (for more details, see Jayson's Blog)

Blessing Day

Why I Have Five Babies

I think I have finally figured out why God sent ME five babies. I have never considered myself great “mom” material. I am not the favorite mom on the block. In fact, I am probably the least favorite mom---At my house, I don’t allow finger painting (too messy), climbing on furniture and counters (too dangerous), or running around barefoot outside (messy and dangerous). Video games and TV watching are off limits until rooms are cleaned and beds made. At my house, kids are required to eat a fruit or vegetable before they can have something they really want (pretzels, popcorn, goldfish, etc) for snack. No one is allowed to have dessert without at least trying everything I serve for dinner and chewing gum (before you are sixteen) is a punishable offense. When it took us so long to get pregnant the third time, I actually thought it could be God’s way of telling me that my talents lay elsewhere, and that I was supposed to do something else instead of have a big family.

Don’t get me wrong---I am not a bad mom and I love my children, I am just better at analyzing data than I am at dreaming up kid’s craft projects or playing with cars. When I found out I was pregnant with quints, I thought for sure God had made a mistake. The five babies were supposed to go to someone who majored in Family Science (I have a Masters Degree in Statistics) and who always wanted to run a daycare out of their home.

Now that the babies are here, I realize that God did know what he was doing after all. He knew I was a “numbers” person and was just trying to give me a bigger sample size! There is an amazing amount of data involved when you have quints. We keep track of what time they eat, how much they eat, when they take baths, what medications they take, how much they weigh, how often they puke and what type of messy diaper they have. My house is the ultimate test site for baby stuff. I have tried several baby products many times on multiple babies. With all this data, I could do some great analysis and make some terrific looking graphs….If only I had the time!

A Day with the Quints

"By the Numbers"

3 baby girls
2 baby boys
30-35 bottles
120-150 ounces of formula
40-50 dirty diapers
1-2 loads of baby laundry
5 baths
10 ears to wash behind
2 swings
3 bouncers
2 changing tables
3 rocking chairs
5 cribs
40 burp cloths
10 blankets
10-15 outfits
15 pacifiers
5-10 daytime volunteers
2 night nanny volunteers
50 fingers
50 toes
5 beautiful smiles

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

Why I Have Five Babies

The Quints First Halloween

Halloween marked the babies three-month birthday. In some ways it seems like it has gone so fast, and in other ways the pregnancy seems like it was ages ago. All of the babies continue to do amazingly well. Three are over ten pounds now--Kassidy, Ryder and Rustin. Kaydence is around 9 lbs and Kyndall finally broke 8 lbs yesterday. They have finally started to sleep for some pretty good stretches at night (by pretty good, I mean 4-5 hours). Because of the time change, they actually went to bed early last night, around 9:15 pm, and it was great!!! We sent home our volunteer and watched this weeks episode of "The Office". It was wonderful to be able to sit down (no bouncing, pacing or swaying!) and watch a TV show without pausing it every couple of minutes to attend to fussy babies! I am hoping that we can keep the babies on this sleeping schedule. We have been following a good bedtime routine this week and rubbing them down with lavendar lotion before bed, which I think has helped.

For Halloween, we didn't take the babies out, so we didn't get them actual costumes, but the Halloween sleepers with the "Boo" accross the bum were too cute to pass up! Riley and Kaiya dressed as Harry Potter and Cinderella and brought home way too much candy.

Harry (aka Riley) and Cinderella (aka Kaiya)

Rustin

Kaydence

Kassidy, Kaydence and Kyndall

The Whole Crew

The Quints First Halloween