New Quint Olympics

Here is the latest Quint Olympics---the Quintathelon! The TLC documentary "Multitude of Multiples" showed some behind the scenes footage from this Quint Olympics Episode. Enjoy!!

New Quint Olympics

Pics from the Quints 2nd Birthday...Finally!

Two-Year-Old-Trouble times 5: Kaydence, Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin and Kassidy

We kept the quints birthday celebration pretty low-key this year, compared to last year. We set out their presents the night before, and they opened them throughout the day. In the evening, several friends came over for cake and ice cream. It is hard to believe they are already two! Everybody keeps asking me when I am going to potty train them, and the answer is NOT YET!!! I am going to have to work up a lot of courage before I attempt that one!

The stash of presents---it almost looks like Christmas! It seems like a ton of presents until you divide by five.

Since we already had a Little Tikes kitchen, we figured we needed to even things out with a tool workbench. We found a great one on Craigslist and the boys loved the hard hats!

Kassidy was more excited about holding the gift bags than she was about seeing what was in them. Of the five, she is the one that I think looks and acts the most like me, so it is only fitting that she looks like she just got home from the mall :-) I am going to have to train her in my bargain shopping ways...

Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson got smart and gave all five babies the same thing so that there would be no fights----they each got a toy camera. If the cameras were real, we would have lots of pictures of foreheads, since they all (including Ryder pictured above) held the camera up backwards.

Kyndall

The most fought over gifts were the baby doll strollers. We got them three, thinking that would be plenty, but we were wrong :-) We even brought down Kaiya's old baby doll stroller, but we were still one short.

Kaydence makes her move

Kaydence is victorious, Kyndall is not happy about the defeat

Kassidy and Kaydence--Eventually they got creative and started pushing each other around in the strollers

Rustin and Kaiya with another favorite----Baby Elmo

The Birthday Cake

I made cupcakes in each of the babies colors so they could each have their own cake to eat.

Ready for Cake: Kassidy, Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin and Kaydence

The crowd of onlookers as the babies blew out their candles

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

The girls didn't care much for the cake, but the boys sure had fun with it! Rustin even started stealing cake from nearby siblings!

What a mess!

I'll post pictures of our trip to Arizona in a few days. In the mean time, watch us on TONIGHT (Aug 30th) in "Multitude of Multiples" on TLC at 7:00 pm/8:00 pm eastern. After the program, check back here to see the Quint Olympics episode featured in the show!

Pics from the Quints 2nd Birthday...Finally!

Multitude of Multiples

TLC just published a blog post about the upcoming show. The blog gives a good preview of what the show is going to be about. Check it out HERE.

Set your DVR's....the documentary, entitled "Multitude of Multiples" airs this Sunday, August 30th 7:00 pm central/8:00 pm eastern on TLC!

Multitude of Multiples

New WQ+2 Episode & EXCITING NEWS!!!

I'm sorry I have been MIA on the blog lately! We took our first big road trip since the babies were born and drove to Arizona for a couple of weeks. We got back a week ago, but I am still playing catch-up! I have lots of great pictures of the birthday and beyond which I hope to post soon.

In the mean time, here is the latest WQ+2 SuperShort video--"Baby Dance Party".


We also have some EXCITING NEWS! Our family will be featured in a new documentary on TLC (The Learning Channel) entitled, "Multitude of Multiples". The documentary features three families with multiples---The Tabb family, from San Antonio with quads, our family with quintuplets and the Carpio family, from NY, with sextuplets. Our part depicts "a day in the life" and goes behind the scenes of the Quint Olympics. The other two families have more dramatic stories---I think they put us in to be the comic relief :-) If you have ever wondered what goes on in a house with five two-year-olds, this is your chance to find out!!

Watch us on TLC THIS SUNDAY, AUG 30th 7:00 pm Central/8:00 pm Eastern!! (check your local listings--it may be different where you live)

New WQ+2 Episode & EXCITING NEWS!!!

Happy 12th Anniversary!

Today Jayson and I have been married for 12 years! In honor of our anniversary, I thought I would share the story of how it all started...

Jayson and I met at BYU (Brigham Young University) where we were both going to school. I was the Teaching Assistant for an engineering statistics class that Jayson was taking. All thost numbers can be soooo romantic! About a month into the semester, Jayson started walking me home from class (it was a night class). Then he started coming to all the other lab sections that I taught and walking me home on those nights too. Half-way through the semester he asked me on a date--or rather he asked me if he was allowed to ask me on a date. Since I just taught the labs, and didn’t have a lot of influence on the actual grades for the class, I figured it was okay.

On our first date, we doubled with Jayson’s roommate. Jayson made an authentic Thai dinner (he lived for two years in Thailand while serving a mission for our church). It was awesome! He even used a tablecloth and a centerpiece. I was highly impressed! After dinner we went to see a production of “The Secret Garden”. When he took me home, we were walking past some shrubs on the way to my apartment and he reached his arm into the shrub and pulled out a beautiful purple iris that he had hidden there earlier. I was so surprised! That pretty much did it for me---I was hooked.

From that night on, we were together as much as we could be. I felt like things were moving fast, but Jayson didn’t seem to think they were. The end of the semester came quickly. I was graduating with my bachelor’s degree in Statistics and my parents came for the graduation. The night before graduation, Jayson went to my dad and asked him for my hand in marriage. Before my dad gave us his blessing, he made sure Jayson knew what he was getting into. He warned Jayson that I am a lot like my mom---very opinionated. He also told him that my room was always a mess when I was in high school (which it was---my organizing obsession didn’t kick in until later), so he wasn’t sure what kind of housekeeper I would be.

The next day my graduation convocation was in the morning. After it was over, Jayson asked me help him run a few errands. First we went to see Karen, his old boss when he worked as a janitor at the Tanner building. I had never met her before, but she was so bubbly and friendly that it didn’t totally surprise me when she said she liked Jayson so much that she had gotten me a graduation gift. She then pulled out two cows---a girl farmer and a boy farmer. At this point, I didn’t suspect a thing.

Jayson and I on the day of my graduation with my Grandma and Grandpa Curtis

The Farmer Cows

Next we went to say goodbye to Jayson’s cousin, Chris, who was leaving on a summer internship. As we were leaving, Chris pulled out a gift---a BYU Cheerleader cow. As you can guess, the rest of Jayson’s “errands” led us to different people who all presented me with a cow. By the evening, I had six cows.

The BYU Cheerleader Cows

The Goin' to Church Cows

That night, my Grandma and Grandpa Rappleye were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a big reception. When we went to my grandma’s house to get ready for the reception, she handed me a box--another “graduation gift”. In the box was a bride cow.

Of course by this time I knew exactly what was going on. “Johnny Lingo” was one of my favorite church movies as a kid. In the movie, Johnny pays eight cows for his wife, which is more than anyone in the village had ever paid. So I knew that there was one cow left. (To read a short synopsis of Johnny Lingo, click here. To watch the movie on YouTube click on the following: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)

Jayson asked if we could go for a walk. Since we were already running late, we walked to the church where the reception was being held. Jayson took me to a secluded spot, then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. In his hand, he held a groom cow (the 8th cow) with an engagement ring tied around its neck. Of course I said “YES!”

The Bride and Groom Cows

Our four-month engagement was spent almost entirely apart. Jayson went to Illinois for a summer internship, and I went to Arizona for an internship. We racked up some good phone bills that summer!

Rachelle and Jayson Engagement Photo

Our Wedding Announcement

We were married on August 14, 1997 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. My parents and grandparents were married in the same temple, and I had always wanted to get married there. The Salt Lake Temple is a popular place to get married—our ceremony was scheduled for 8:20 in the morning, and we were the 7th couple to get married there that day. We were officially pronounced husband and wife at 8:45 am. To read more about Mormon weddings, click HERE.

Rachelle and Jayson outside the Salt Lake LDS Temple

After the ceremony, the rest of the wedding party headed to a luncheon that Jayson’s mom and aunts put together. Jayson, my mom and I stayed behind to take some more pictures. Somehow, communication wires got crossed and when we were done taking pictures, we realized that no one had left a car for us. This was back in the day before cell phones, so we were stranded at the temple, unable to get to our own wedding luncheon! Fortunately, some family members got hungry enough waiting for us that they decided to come back and see what was taking so long.

Just Married!

That night we had a beautiful reception in a friend’s backyard. The next day we boarded a plane and headed off on our Honeymoon to beautiful, tropical….Wisconsin! Yes, you read that right! Jayson is an engineer, after all, and although he was quite romantic when we were dating, his sense of practicality kicked in when he was planning the honeymoon. We had another reception planned at my parent’s house in Chicago a week later, so he figured Wisconsin was nice and close. We went to a place called “The Dells”, which is a little tourist town nestled among beautiful sandstone formations on the Wisconsin River. It actually has quite a lot to do—from museums, to water parks, to shows and we had a great time!

The receiving line at our reception

Old-fashioned photo taken on our Honeymoon in exotic Wisconsin

After the reception at my parent’s house, we headed back to BYU, where Jayson had two years left of his undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and I started working on my Master’s Degree in Statistics. And the rest, as they say, is history!!

Even though we dated for only a short seven weeks until we got engaged, the past twelve years have only reinforced that Jayson is the perfect man for me. He is so patient with all my shortcomings and he is a wonderful father to all of our children. He steps right in and starts helping the minute he gets home from work and is always willing to let me have a girl’s night out whenever I need it. He has a great sense of humor and a laugh that is infectious. He happily watches chick flicks with me and he can tear up the dance floor with his amazing disco moves. I can honestly say that the past twelve years have been the best! We may not have the typical "fairy tale" story, but we are living "happily ever after!"

All because two people fell in love......Kaiya, Kaydence, Rustin, Jayson, Kyndall, Rachelle, Kassidy, Ryder and Riley

Happy 12th Anniversary!