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

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A few days ago, I decided to take some pictures of the babies in their matching, bunny-feet jammies. I took several pictures, hoping to get at least one picture where all the babies looked good. Ryder however did not want to cooperate.

Finally, Ryder decided that all this picture taking made him want to puke. As luck would have it, I caught the action shot of this decision on camera.

The projectile vomit actually made it all the way to Kassidy (on the end all the way to the left) and required her to have a complete wardrobe change. Once it landed, Rustin and Kaydence got it all over their face and hair--only Kyndall made it through unscathed.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Adventures in Craigslisting

This week we have had "Auntie V" staying with us. For those of you in blogland who have been following our story over the summer, Aunt Victoria is one of the fabulous aunts who came to Austin for a week in July to help unpack and decorate the house. She is amazing. After moving, we have a lot of things that we no longer need. Aunt Victoria has been helping me to rid the garage of many of these items. Over the past couple of days, I have listed several things for sale on Craigslist. As people have come to the house to pick up items, it has been quite comical to see the different reactions to the babies. I wish that we could have had a hidden camera to capture them all. It usually goes something like this:

(I answer the door with a baby over my shoulder.)

Craigslist Person: "Oh, you have a baby! How sweet!"

(Craigslist person steps inside the door and looks around. They give a look of surprise and confusion.)

Craigslist Person: "Oh, you have lots of babies.....are these all (gulp) yours?"

Me: "Yes, we have quintuplets!"

Craigslist Person: "Quintup..oh wow...that's..."

Me: "Five"

Craigslist Person: "Oh!! …OH!!! Are you the ones???"

Me: "Yep, we are the ones."

(Craigslist person then proceeds to make several comments about the babies and eventually we complete the transaction and they leave.)

On the weekends, we have less outside help than on other days. Saturday evenings we typically take care of the babies by ourselves. Tonight the babies seemed to realize that we were a little shorthanded and decided to react by all screaming at the same time. Jayson, Aunt Victoria and I were all going from baby to baby, trying to console them, but we were having little success. At the same time, we were also trying to put Riley and Kaiya to bed. Right in the middle of all the chaos, a very nice gal named Amanda showed up to look at the TV we had posted on Craigslist. After the initial shock and questions (see above dialog), she asked if she could bring in her mother who was waiting in the car because she just "had to see this".

When Amanda and her mom came back in, all five babies were screaming, so we passed out sanitizer and put them to work holding babies. With Jayson, Victoria, Amanda, Amanda's Mom, and myself each holding a baby, things finally started to settle down. It was at this moment that Kyndall, who was being held by Amanda's mom, had a major reflux moment. This was no small spit-up. This was a huge projectile, all-the-way-down-the-shirt throw-up. I felt awful about the whole thing. It is not everyday when your kid pukes on a complete stranger. (Amanda's mom: if you are reading this, I am so sorry about your clothes!!) At this point Amanda and her mom made a quick get-a-way, generously offering to find people to help us out with the babies. As we closed the door behind them, all five babies resumed crying at the top of their lungs. We decided there were only two options: laugh hysterically, or cry hysterically. We chose to laugh. We laughed for a long time. Then we thought of what Amanda and her mom were going to tell their family when they got home, and we laughed some more.

Eventually, we did get all the babies calmed down and peace was restored. Later, as I sat in the rocking chair holding two of my beautiful daughters, I was overcome by the awesome blessing I have been given. Despite the fact that there are "moments" (and I am sure I will have many more of those in my future), these babies are such a wonderful gift from God. They are so perfect and healthy. I have been amazed at how much my capacity to love has increased since they were born. Not only have I been given these five precious little ones, but I have also been blessed to have Riley and Kaiya, who have brought so much joy into my life.

A rare moment when all five babies are content!

(Clockwise, starting from the left: Kassidy, Rustin, Kaydence, Ryder & Kyndall)

Aunt Victoria holding Kaydence and Rustin.

On another note, this weekend, Riley (our 7-year-0ld) wrote, directed, starred in, and edited his very first video. The video was for a school project called "Reflections". The theme for this year was "I can make a difference by...." Riley's subject was "I can make a difference in my family by helping with the babies." Check out Jayson's blog (http://www.wilkinsonquints.org/blog/jaysonblog.html) to watch the video.

Adventures in Craigslisting

Two-Month Doctor Visit

Last week was the babies’ two-month doctor visit. Normally doctor appointments are not something I look forward to, but this one was actually enjoyable! Things went very smoothly---due mostly to the army of help I took with me. Besides myself and my mom, three friends (Liz, Patti & Halli) joined in the adventure.

This was the babies’ first ride in then new van (affectionately nicknamed “The Beast”). Me, the babies and all of our helpers fit great, with room to spare. The doctor’s office was not very far---I think it took longer to load the babies into the car then it did to drive there. I have to admit that it was fun to be taller than everyone else on the road. Changing lanes and parking the Beast can be a little scary, but I am sure I will get used to it over time. We do plan on having a back-up camera installed soon, which I think will help a lot. It is awesome to have a vehicle that will hold everyone!!

The Babies First Ride in "The Beast"

When we arrived at the doctor’s office, the nurses took us straight back to the exam rooms, so we didn’t have to wait in the lobby. As we walked past the other people in the lobby, someone said, “What happened? Did they have a sale at Babies R Us?”

The boys were taken to one exam room and the girls were taken to another. The nurses came in and did measurements on all the babies, then two doctors, one for each room, examined each of the babies. They were both impressed by how wonderful the babies are doing. There are no real concerns with any of them---the biggest problem any of them has is reflux. Rustin, Ryder and Kassidy even made it on the height and weight charts (around 5^th percentile) for two-month olds.

Finally it was time for the immunizations. They each got four shots and one oral immunization. Of course, no one liked those, but by the time we got home most of the babies were sleeping, and all were peaceful. (An hour later it was a completely different story, however. Thank goodness for Tylenol!) The entire adventure took less than two hours, which is not much different than when I have taken just one baby to the doctor. I am very impressed with the pediatricians office for being so organized and ready for us and of course I am so grateful for all my helpers that came along!

This picture of Rustin pretty much sums up how the babies felt about getting their shots.

The Girls: Kaydence, Kassidy & Kyndall

The Boys: Rustin & Ryder

Riley and Kaiya pose with the quints for the Austin Family Magazine article.

Two-Month Doctor Visit