Finally, a new Quint Olympics video!

OK, so it has been a really long time since I have posted a video. I finally found some time a few weeks ago and we started one. It honestly isn't my favorite but it will do for now. I really want to show a few with them running around and stuff because it is pretty funny. I have some time off coming up in a few weeks so I will plan to do another one at that time.

Also, today is the last day for the lower prices on the calendars so don't forget to buy a whole bunch.

New Calendar

I still don't have a new video but I plan to very soon. Right now, we just finished our 2009 calendar. This year, Rachelle actually took and edited most of the pictures herself and they are really pretty impressive. We also reduced the price a lot from last year because we wanted to make it easier for more people to get them. They will be about 12 dollars before December 1 and about 14 dollars after December 1. However, if you get 3 or more, then they are only about 10 dollars. Rachelle will have some pictures of it on her blog I think but I thought I would go ahead and mention it here.

Fireproof Movie

Tonight Rachelle and I had a great opportunity to get a night out (thanks to my mother-in-law and a few friends) so we went to go see a movie called "Fireproof". I really thought it was a great movie with a really good message. It was about a firefighter named Caleb (played by Kirk Cameron) and his wife who have issues in their marriage. Caleb is about to give up when his dad gives him a book called "The Love Dare" and challenges him to follow the instructions in the book every day for 40 days. Anyway, it was a good, clean movie with a good religious message that nearly every married couple could use. It was low budget but when you have a good story, that can usually carry the movie even when the acting isn't perfect.

Anyway, I just thought I would put a plug in for that because we need more movies like that. I have read statistics (can't remember where I read it so I might just be making it up) that claim that couples who have multiples are much more likely to get divorced. I really can't imagine that happening but I know that to avoid that kind of thing I need to work at it. We need the help of God in our marriages and we need to recognize our own weaknesses. Anyway, it was a good movie. Also, if you have seen that movie and liked it, then you might also like a recent book I read called "The Peacegiver" which pretty much has a very similar plot and message at the end. I recommend both of them because I think both have helped me be a better husband and father which would really come in handy right now.

Some things that put our stuff in perspective

As you know, if you are reading this, I haven’t had many posts lately. There has been a lot that has gone on but I haven’t really wanted to write about it. There are so many things that are just crazy lately. The babies are all doing really well and they are growing. They all walk and so I have no excuse for not doing a Quint Olympics walking race with them except that I am tired. I am actually thinking that things are going to get harder in some respects because they are all getting smarter. However, the little things that we have been dealing with are truly minor in comparison with the stuff going on with some others that I know. We found out a few weeks ago that my uncle Kirk has cancer. My uncle Kirk is one of the uncles that I know the best. We all have a lot of hope for him and he is one more person that we are adding in to our prayers. He has always been one that is quick to laugh so I am hoping that he can use that sense of humor to make it through this.

Something that happened a few weeks ago was that I attended a funeral for the baby of one of my coworkers. I have never been to a funeral for a baby before but it was hard. It really made me feel extremely grateful for the health of my own little ones. It was the first time I had ever attended a Catholic funeral as well and I was glad I went. Overall, I felt a spirit of optimism during the funeral. I had a strong feeling the whole time that the parents would get a chance to see their daughter again and that she was not gone but merely waiting for them. This was comforting to me and I really wish I could have transferred my assurance to them as I watched them grieve but I knew I couldn’t. I also think that even knowing that you will see the baby again doesn’t fully relieve the pain and I hear that it is something that never really leaves you. However, it is very comforting to know that there is a God and that in the end, we can put our trust in him and know that things will turn out well.

New Videos - Episode 12 Part 1 and Part 2.

I decided to break this episode into two episodes. We are taking a brief break from the Quint Olympics. This is partly because we haven't had time to make one but it is also partly because we are waiting for them all to walk. The only one that doesn't like to walk yet is Kaydence. As soon as she walks, then we want to have a walking race. The first video is the BYU Football video we made for the contest. Here it is:



The second video is a lot longer and is a basic overview of our family and what things are like on a daily basis here:

Gracie

Today I wanted to take a bit of my blog and talk about something that really affected me over the last few weeks. One of the families in our ward (church congregation) found out a few weeks ago that their nearly three year old daughter has cancer in one of her eyes and is going to need to receive a lot of treatment. Here is a picture of her that I got from their web site at http://welovegracie.blogspot.com/:

When I first heard about this, I was really shaken. I had a strong need to go and hug each of my own children and give thanks that they were all well. I really hate thinking about the suffering of little children. Gracie has a disease called retinoblastoma. You can read more about it on their blog. Today our ward had a special fast for Gracie with prayers that she will be able to overcome this disease. As I was reading their blog, I felt a bit of kinship with her father, James Smith. He commented in his own blog that the purpose he was writing the blog was not as a solicitation of sympathy or money or other things but to share his experiences so that others going through the same situation would feel comfort. I originally started my own blog for the same reasons. I wanted to give hope and comfort for people dealing with situations that seemed way beyond them. My own circumstances have changed since this blogs creation and it has become more of a celebration of what I consider to be one of the greatest miracles to happen in my life. I hope and pray for something similar to eventually happen with the blog about Gracie.

I saw her family in church today. It is so amazing to see the strength and faith of some people who can continue in the middle of such difficulties. I have thought in the past that it would be nice if God just took trials away from us. However, I know he doesn't do that. He just makes us able to bear them. I will contine to pray for Gracie and hope that she and her family receive the same type of miracle that we received.

Quints video on byucougars.com

A few weeks ago, we entered a BYU football video contest. We had to make a video about their theme this year which is "The Quest". We ended up being one of the six winners which means they are going to play the video on the jumbotron at the football game on Saturday. I think that is all we get which is kind of a bummer since we can't actually go to the game. Anyway, here is a link to the site where they are showing the video. The videos are all in the All Access place on the right side. Our video is Fan Commercial Contest Winner #4.

http://www.byucougars.com/

Here is a direct link to the video that will open in Windows Media Player:
Quint Commercial


I will put it on YouTube after the game on Saturday.

The Quint Olympics 10 foot crawling race competition video

OK, now that the real Olympics have officially started, we thought it would be a great time to post our most highly anticipated video, the 10 foot crawling race. We couldn't do this one in the beginning because when we started these videos, only one or two of the babies could crawl. Now, all of them crawl (and a few of them walk) so it was the perfect time. Some time in the future, we plan to do a cart pushing race and then a walking race as well. We also videotaped a lemon eating contest (if I can find the tape we put it on) that we are thinking of putting up as well.

Video coming soon...but not yet

Well, although I don't have an Olympics video yet, I do have a link to a podcast with Mommycast.com. This is a website made for mommies by mommies and has a regular podcast that is really popular. The reason we ended up on it was that I met one of the mommies (Gretchen) at a conference I attended back in May. The session was about successful podcasts and was given by the husband of one of the mommies. After the session, I went up and told Gretchen that I thought we might be someone interesting they could interview for the show. Anyway, they thought it might be interesting and had us on their show. Our podcast ran a few weeks ago and here is the link:

Link to Wilkinson Quints Podcast at Mommycast.com

WQ+2 Episode 10: The Cheerio Eating Competition

OK, it is finally ready. For some reason, this one took me a really long time to finish. One of my favorite parts is that in one scene, Riley is really sad because he was having a hard time remembering what to say and in the very next scene he is really happy. My second favorite parts is where Kaiya talks about the "Roman Incident".

Here it is:

Cheerios Eating Competition Coming Soon

I am in the process of editing the Cheerios competition right now but we have had a lot going on lately and I haven't had as much time as I would like.

This morning, we had some people from News 8 Austin come over which was fun. They did live broadcasts from our house every half hour starting at around 6:00 AM. I don't really know how they turned out but it was pretty fun. They did do one that they put on the internet here:

Link to News 8 story about the babies

These babies are really getting to be a lot of fun. Kyndall started clapping on command yesterday which was fun. She is just so little but full of spunk. It will be interesting to see how she fares at Cheerio eating. Rustin is just such a little bulldozer. He usually goes around with a big grin on his face, even when he is pulling somebody's hair. Ryder seems to be good at showing the extremes of happy and sad in a very short amount of time. Kaydence just loves Kaiya. Kaiya can get her to laugh like nobody else. Kassidy is really a sweet girl and despite the fact that she was one of the worst sleepers in the beginning, she is really good at sleeping through some of the loudest noises.

Something that people ask us frequently is if we have ever seen the show, "Jon and Kate Plus 8". I will go ahead and answer that, yes, we do watch it and it is a great show. We actually are amazed at how similar our situation is. When we watch it, however, we are not so much entertained as educated. We see things in there that we will have to deal with in a few years (their kids are about 3 years older than our kids). It is actually really interesting to have a view of what to expect with things like potty training and getting them in big boy/big girl beds and see how they deal with it.

One last that thing I just want to remind you about is that we expect to have the Cheerios episode done very soon so look for it in a few days.

My Last Grandparent

Last Thursday, my grandpa, Victor Nelson, died at the age of 90. He was my last living grandparent. He was also one of the ones I knew the best. His funeral is today and, sadly, I am not there. I feel really sad about this so I want to devote this entry to him.



Some of my earliest memories of Grandpa Nelson come from our visits to his house in Sandy Utah. He was a carpenter and a great craftsman. When we would visit, he would often give us a block of wood, a hammer, and some nails which would keep my sister and me occupied for a long time. He had a great reading voice and could captivate an audience when reading just about any book. He also had a great singing voice. He sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a number of years and instilled in my mom a great appreciation of beautiful music.

He had a good sense of humor and liked to laugh but he also had a sadness that always seemed to be there under the surface. I think this was because my grandmother, who I never knew, died of cancer when my mom was about 13 years old. This was extremely difficult for him and my mom thinks that he never really fully got over it. I assume that he is now over that. What a great reunion that must have been.

When I was 19, I stayed with my Grandpa and My Step-Grandma for about a week. This was because, for some reason I can't remember, I had been officially made a missionary a week before going in to Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. When you are made an official missionary in our church, you have to obey certain rules. One of those rules was that you had to have a companion with you wherever you go (partly to keep you from getting into trouble). During that week, my Grandpa was my companion and I got to know him a lot better. He told me stories about things that had happened in WWII, things that he had learned in his life, and some stuff about my mom growing up. Spending that time with my grandpa was probably one of the best things I could have done just before embarking on my two year, trail by fire, entry in to manhood. Talking with someone who had been through a lot gave me confidence that I could make it too.

In more recent years, my Grandpa suffered from dementia and didn't really remember me. I visited him a few years ago and talked with him about his childhood. I found out that he grew up in Brigham City Utah and that his father died when he was very young. His mom had to feed the family by cleaning clothes and apparently barely scraped by with little money and little help from other people. He did not look on his childhood with fondness and I think it was really frustrating for him during his last years to not recognize anybody and not understand what exactly was going on.

I take comfort in the thought that he is with his wife Louise and that they are finally reunited after all these years of separation. The posterity he helped create, includes some incredible people and I hope he recognizes that now. Many of his children and grandchildren are some of the most faithful, talented, and resourceful people I know. I assume they are watching over my family and having a good laugh right now over all the craziness at my house.

God be with you til we meet again Grandpa,
Jayson Victor Wilkinson

Quint Olympics and Fathers Day

First, I have to write a little bit about my dad. One of the things that we have said in the past is that we feel we were greatly helped by our parents in preparing for these babies. This applies to my dad as well. One of the most important things I learned from my dad was to relax and be patient. At least, that was what he usually did. When he was here a few weeks ago, Rachelle was amazed at how he could patiently help one of the babies while there was complete chaos going on around him. One of the things noticed early on was that he looks a lot like Kyndall. This is fitting since Kyndall is usually the one who sits there calmly and waits for stuff.

When I was a kid, I remember one time when I had done something really bad (not sure what it was) and he had to spank me. I remember that he the patience to talk with me about the bad thing as well as the spanking for what seemed like hours before actually doing it. If he had just got really mad and spanked me on the spot, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. However, after calmly talking to me about what I had done and saying that, by the rules, the punishment had to be a spanking, it made the whole thing infinitely more memorable. So much so that I remember really not wanting to do whatever it was that I had done.

I was also always impressed that he bravely participated with my mom in a whole lot of things that he didn't have much experience in before they got married. Before getting married, his life was mostly sports. He played football and ran track in high school and then also ran track briefly in college. I also remember him once playing basketball with my friends and I during my high school years and watching him make something like 19 free throw shots in a row...and I didn't even know he liked basketball! Anyway, after getting married, he started doing stuff that my mom had always liked such as singing. He played Judah in a church-sponsored production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and even had a solo. I was always just really impressed that he was humble enough to jump right in and try new things like that without having a whole lot of experience. This is something similar to what I have been having to do myself (with these babies) and what almost all fathers do when they have kids. I am glad he was a good example in the area of bravely trying new things.

Like I mentioned earlier, my dad was into sports. On that note, we have decided that we need to start training our kids now. There is going to be some rivalry and they are going to have to work some things out between them so we thought we would start their training with some friendly competition. This episode of WQ+2 is the the first event of the Quint Olympics hosted by Riley and Kaiya. The event is Toy Wrestling and involves putting two babies in a square on the floor and having them wrestle over a toy. If they give up the toy or leave the square, they loose. We thought of this event because we noticed that Rustin just likes to take toys and some of the other babies have started to fight back:

New video coming soon...I think

A lot has happened since I last posted but none of it seemed interesting enough to actually mention. Before I mention any of it (assuming I can remember it), I need to mention that I have some great plans for some fun videos. Now that they are all crawling and also because the summer Olympics are in just a few months, we have decided it is time for the Quint Olympics.



This is where the babies compete in various events. We have noticed that some of them compete a little bit already. Rustin feels like it is his duty to take any toy that any other baby has. Often he will crawl over whatever is in his way, including the faces of other babies, to fulfil his duty. He almost always does this with a big smile on his face. I have found that they almost always have big smiles on their faces when they are doing naughty things. Many of them can't resist pulling the hair of the other babies while wearing big smiles.

Now, what else has happened? My dad spent the week with us last week which was nice. Rachelle made the comment that it is amazing that he would be willing to take a week off of work to go and babysit a bunch of babies. Here is a picture of him with them:



Riley is doing swim team right now. They compete every Saturday in a meet and I was nervous the first time I went because I hadn't actually seen Riley swim all the way accross the pool. When I saw him swim all the way accross I was so excited for him. He usually swims 5 events and I was really impressed because last week he did the butterfly which is not an easy stroke. I was in swimming in high school and I didn't ever actually swim that stroke in competition. He never comes in first...or second...or third but I am totally proud of him. My dad took some shots of him jumping off the blocks. In general, he does really well at this. At the sound of the starting buzzer, most of the kids just kind of roll off the block or else jump in feet first. Riley actually dives although he has that pesky leg that sort of sticks out underneath him:

Something else interesting that happened was that I got a facebook thing from someone that I graduated from high school with (Standley Lake High School Class of '92). I had actually known her since second grade but it was a long time. Her name is Amie Walton and I actually knew her since 2nd grade. Here is a picture of second grade:Here is a closeup of Amie and I (two of the shortest kids in the class):



She started an organization called Hope House of Colorado that helps teenage moms deal with pregnancy which I think is really admirable. It is good to hear that there are people I graduated with that are doing some good things.

Aside from that, I had my 34th birthday a few weeks ago. When I got to work, Jessica, one of my coworkers, brought me a cool badge that said birthday Jedi on it. I wore it all day.

Well, that about sums things up. I hope to be making the first of the Quint Olympics in a few days and have something by next week if I can.

Another reason why we were a good choice for quintuplets

I have thought of another thing that helped Rachelle and me to be more prepared for quintuplets. It is our mothers. Both Rachelle and I have great mothers. Rachelle is a really great mother she owes much of that to her mom whom she wrote a tribute to in her blog. Following Rachelle's example, I decided that I would use this post to talk about some of the things my mom did to help me out.

First, my mom, Sylvia Wilkinson, sought to find humor in just about everything. This is something I definitely inherited and it has come in handy many times. Of course, it has also got me into trouble at times because I have been known to laugh at things that probably aren't supposed to be funny. However, for the most part, it has really helped.

Something else she taught me was thriftiness. Growing up, I took great pride in the fact that almost everything we owned came from a garage sale. She taught me from a very early age that you can save a ton of money if you either make it yourself or buy it from a garage sale and fix it up. Most of our furniture came from my mom's (and her siblings) weekly trips to the various garage sales around Denver. Before we were married, Rachelle actually was a little nervous that we wouldn't have anything new because I once made a comment that implied that I thought it would be ridiculous to ever buy a new couch. OK, it wasn't implied so much as directly stated. However, I have since decided that it is some times worth it to buy new things.

Over time, I have learned that the reason my mom got stuff at garage sales was often because the quality (at least the garage sale stuff we found in the 80's) was actually better than what you could typically buy at the store. For example, the furniture we found at garage sales was often made of real wood. Of course, it would some times take hours to scrape away the paint to find the real wood but it was usually down there. From this, I learned that just because something is expensive and looks good on the outside, doesn't mean it is worth anything on the inside. Being good on the inside it 100 times better than looking good on the outside.

On a side note, before Kaiya was born, we wanted to buy Riley a bed that had drawers underneath it. We looked around at a few stores and I kept looking on the inside of everything and found that they were all made of particle board or MDF (not real wood). Stuff made out of particle board is really heavy and breaks easily. I decided that I would be better off just making it myself and we ended up with a solid oak bed that cost the same as the particle board beds (unless you include the cost of the tools I had to buy to make the bed which I don't count).

Another thing that my mom taught me was an appreciation of classic movies (as well as "girl" movies). When I was about 21, she made me sit through the six episode A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. To be completely honest, I found that movie to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Now, you may be wondering how that would prepare me for quintuplets. Well, most of the people that come and volunteer at our house are female. If I only knew about typical guy stuff, it would be rough. However, because I am conversant on things like the Twilight books as well as the Jane Austen movies, it helps me to not be so uncomfortable around so many women.

One final thing that my mom taught me is an appreciation of the absurd. Throughout my life, my mom has involved us with things that are basically absurd. When I was a sophomore in high school, she convinced my sister Alicia and I to dress in chicken costumes to go and perform a rap at a rival high school to help my cousin ask a girl to go to prom with him. This was fairly uncomfortable but I realize now that if you can do something like that, then there is a whole lot of other things you can do such as take intermediate clogging at BYU, do a break dance routine wearing a Star Trek uniform, or enjoy raising quintuplets. By the way, the background design for my mom's crazy Granny blog says a lot about her appreciation for the absurd.

Anyway, these are just some of the things that continue to help me as I deal with the situation we are in and I am grateful for them.

Thanks mom.

Jayson

Local NBC station visits Rachelle for a little Mother's Day Story

Yesterday, the local NBC station, KXAN here in Austin, visited Rachelle and the babies to do a little story about them.
Here is a link to the text of the story:
http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8286638

Here is a link to the video from the story:

Answers to some questions

First, if you haven't seen Rachelle's blog, you should check it out because it gives a great update of everyone. Here is the list of questions that Buggles asked in a previous post. Some of these are answered in Rachelle’s previous posts but I don’t mind answering them again (because it lets me take up some time without having to think of some other post).

Question 1. Are the babies all sleeping through the night now?
This is a very frequently asked question. The answer is: sometimes. They were doing really well until they got sick a few months ago but have slowly been getting better. In the beginning, we would put them down without pacifiers. Now, we use pacifiers on a few of them and that means that they have a harder time getting back to sleep when they wake up. Now that they are not as sick, we usually put them in “solitary”. “Solitary” is a set of isolated “pack and play” cribs where we can stick them so that they don’t bother the other kids. We have one in our closet, one in the future Ryder and Rustin room (now a storage room) and one in the future Kassidy, Kaydence, and Kyndall room (except when Rachelle’s mom is here using it to sleep for sleeping).

This works pretty well and normally, we only have to use two of the solitary rooms. Lately, we don’t even hear much from them until about 5:30 so that is pretty good. Even when we do have to put one in solitary, he or she usually only cries for a few minutes and gets back to sleep.

Question 2. On the video of Riley & Kaiya announcing the names (which has to be the cutest video I've ever seen), Riley mentions he thinks Ryder will be his "favorite". Is this the case?

No, I think he pretty much likes them all the same. He initially liked Ryder best but now he seems to like all of them pretty equally. He might actually like the girls a little bit more because they are smaller and easier for him to hold.


Question 3. How often do the babies wear the same/matching clothes?

They have a few outfits that match and some that are exactly the same. I would say we probably do it at least once or twice a week if not more. Keeping them clean has become a little easier now that Kyndall isn’t throwing up as much. She used to throw up at least once a day and that would spoil the matching clothes. Leaky diaper is also something that causes the matching thing to not work out very long.

Question 4. Do you still have a lot of help during the day?
We have a decent amount. There are some real die hard ladies that just keep coming back and we really appreciate them for that. One in particular was hear nearly every day (sometimes all day) before she had to go and help one of her relatives for a few weeks. We are also occasionally experimenting with doing it with just Rachelle or just me. That doesn’t happen very often but the times when Rachelle has done it, it has worked out well. I usually only do that when they are either asleep or while she is in the shower (so it hasn’t been too bad).

Question 5. What do the babies weigh now?
Rachelle has all the accurate measurements on her blog so I will refer you to that.


Question 6. Which two babies look the most alike?
Not sure on this one. They all look so different with Kyndall probably looking the most different (because she looks just like my dad). I would say that Ryder and Kassidy probably look the most alike. Rustin looks almost exactly like Riley did at his age (but with red hair) and Kaydence looks a lot like Kaiya did at the same age.

Question 7. Are any of them crawling yet?
As you will see in an upcoming video, Rustin and Kyndall are crawling. Kaydence and Kassidy do a sort of army crawl and Ryder is on his hands and knees rocking back and forth a bit.


Question 8. How many teeth do they all have?

Kaydence has two and she is the only one that has any so far.

Question 9. Do Riley & Kaiya help out a lot?
They do help out a bit. And it is nice. They are getting pretty good at entertaining the babies. They also are good at helping clean things up and getting stuff ready for the babies. However, entertainment is their specialty.

Question 10. Do you have any pets?
No, and we probably never will. We aren’t really “pet people” but even if we were, we probably wouldn’t have time to take care of an animal. We have friends that lives near us who breed Labradoodles so we hope the kids get their pet fix by visiting them.

Well, that is about it for this post. Let us know if you have more questions and we can answer them either in the video or in the blogs.

Cheap LASIK and one of the reasons why we were meant to have quintuplets

A few days ago, an old friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU told me she just got LASIK and it reminded me of when I got LASIK and that reminded me of how cheap I am which reminded me why we were perhaps a good choice for quintuplets. To help you understand what I mean, I think I will need to explain a little.

About 5 years ago, I started thinking I wanted LASIK. LASIK is an eye surgery that is supposed to fix your eyes such that you don't need to wear glasses or contacts. I wore glasses and didn’t really like contacts (even though I had only technically tried them for about a minute and 30 to 45 seconds). The only problem was that LASIK is pretty expensive. The lowest cost I could find at the time was about 1400 dollars per eye. Not only that, every time I would go to the eye doctor to get a LASIK evaluation, they would always tell me that my pupils were really big and that I would probably see halos around lights if I got the surgery.

Well, one day I found an ad in the paper that caught my attention. It advertised LASIK for 500 dollars an eye. The ad was actually on the back of the comic pages so that should have clued me in that something was wrong. Anyway, I decided that because of my cheap nature, I needed to check it out or I would always wonder if I could have got a better deal.

I made an appointment with the place that was doing it and when I got there they first told me that my pupils were really big and then told me that they didn’t actually do the surgery there but at their temporary facility in San Antonio. They also said that I needed to agree to the surgery and give them a 100 dollar deposit that day or I wouldn’t get the 500 dollar/eye deal. I decided to go ahead with it even though I was bit nervous.

Well, the day of the surgery arrived and I was pretty nervous. I had actually expected them to call or something to confirm but they didn’t so I went anyway. When I got to the address, I realized what they had meant by the “temporary” facility. It was actually a big semi trailer. After seeing the semi, I just about had a panic attack. We sat there for a few minutes and I debated whether I should go through with it. On one side, I would save about 2000 dollars. On the other side, I could loose my vision. It was an easy choice. I decided to go ahead with it and save the 2000 dollars.

When I went in the little waiting room, I was greeted by about 6 other nervous looking patients sitting in line waiting for their turn. I went to the receptionist person and told them who I was and they didn’t have any record of me coming but said they thought they could fit me in. Well, I waited about an hour until it was my turn and they took me into the prep room. In the prep room, they had a look at my eyes and told me I had really big pupils. They then took me into the actual surgery room which was at the back of the semi. There they had a big LASER crammed in and I lay down in the chair. At this point I was extremely nervous by trying to pretend to be calm. They sort of clamped my eye down and told me to look at the red light. I looked at that red light as hard as I could because I kept thinking that if I didn’t, I might be blind in a few minutes.

Well, the surgery ended and I could still see. They gave me a bunch of stuff to put in my eye and some goggles to wear when I slept and told me that I needed to be really careful. Over the next few weeks, I followed the instructions as exactly as I could and things turned out pretty well. About six months after the surgery, Rachelle reminded me that I had a free checkup through the original eye doctor that I should go take advantage of. I made an appointment and when I got there and sat down with the doctor he said, “So, did you just get this yesterday?”

I said, “No, it was actually about six months ago.”

At that point, I saw the color drain from the optometrist’s face. Apparently, I was supposed to go in the day after the surgery and have them look at me. They actually were supposed to call me right after the surgery and make sure I came in. They forgot I guess. When the doctor was checking me out, I could tell he was really nervous. However, when he got done, I saw him relax and tell me that everything looked good.

The moral of the story is that I saved 2000 dollars. The same personality trait that helped me save the 2000 dollars has helped me save money at other times. I have a feeling that same personality trait will also help save money in the future as we deal with the various difficulties of raising quintuplets. I just hope I don't have to risk anything else on my body to do it.

WQ+2 (or Wilkinson Quints Show) episode number 8

I have a new video update on the babies! The thing I like most about this one is the smiles of each of them. It has footage from early March so it is a little old but it was fun enough that I thought I should share it. I really wish I could have had Riley and Kaiya do it but they were already asleep so I simply decided that if I wanted to do it, I needed to do it without them this time. However, I really hope to have them next time because they are really the best at it.



In addition, even though it doesn't have anything to do with babies, I'll include a fun (and really nerdy) video I made for work that was recently used to announce my company's participation in the FIRST Robotics league for high school age kids. The First robotics competition was started by Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) and helps kids get excited about engineering and science. My company is donating a whole bunch of equipment and wanted me to make a video that would, "Get the high school kids excited about the new control system they would be using to build their robots." Well, it is kind of silly but this was the result:

Why do it?

Well, here I am again. I don’t have a video just yet but I have two in the works. A lot of things have happened to the babies and I have been dutifully videotaping these things. I just haven’t found enough time to go and actually make real videos out of everything but I plan to soon. I have decided to blog a little bit more and see if I can get in one video a month. I think that ought to be just about right.

Today, I was in the airport on my way back from a conference in Las Vegas and I went to a store in the airport to get a smoothie. I really like smoothies and have a really good recipe that Rachelle and I came up with but that is another story. In this smoothie store was a sign that read:

If it isn’t fun, why do it?

As I read that sign, I decided that it may have been one of the most profoundly stupid things I had ever heard. As I was waiting for my smoothie to blend, I sat there and pondered all of the things that were not fun but were definitely “worth it”. Some of the ones I thought of were:

• Exercising regularly (at least I assume this is worth it since I don’t really do it)
• Getting a root canal when you need one. (Again, I have to assume on this one)
• Have ANY kind of surgery when you really need it. (I have been a witness to this one so I at least know it is accurate)
• Repairing your car (Have had to do this many times and it is painful but better than walking)
• Learning to do math (Riley is currently going through this one and I keep trying to tell him it will one day be worth it.)

And one of most important not-fun-but-worth-it things is raising kids. I had been at the conference for about four days and I was really missing Rachelle and the kids. It is times like that when you can look and see that it really is worth it. Most of the time, a mom or a dad like Rachelle or me is just trying to get by from day to day and keep from going insane. However, when you can step back and see how wonderful your kids are and how wonderful it is to have kids, you realize that it is all worth it.

A little later I started thinking that maybe the sign in the smoothie shop was actually meant to make me think of all the things that ARE worth it even though they are not fun. If so, it was effective because I started thinking about how I really appreciate many of the difficult things I have gone through because of what I have learned from them. I think I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that their true intention was to make me a better person and not to suggest that I simply should be buying more sugar-filled smoothies (because they are fun) instead of eating healthy and bad tasting food (because it is not fun).

Now, I did say that I am planning on having a video, and I really will just as soon as I can find time to stop having so much fun with my cute but runny-nosed babies.

Quints Visit to the State Capitol on Texas Independance Day

OK, it has been a really long time since I have posted anything but I am going to start doing more now that I have a whole lot more time due to the fact that they are sleeping through the night. I want to start with episode number 7 which is where we take the kids (all 7 of them) and Rachelle's aunt Kathy to the Texas state capitol on Texas independence day. I actually only knew that it was Texas independance day because Riley told me. He is studying Texas in school right now. We now know where all of the big Texas pride comes from. It turns out that it is instilled in them during elementary school. He has come home twice in the last few days and said, "Dad, do you know what is so cool about Texas? It has a cool shape. Some states are just squares but Texas has a cool shape." Anyway, he has been telling us Texas facts for the last week so we thought it was appropriate for us to go to the capitol. Rachelle's aunt Kathy was visiting from Arizona and we also thought it would be a fun place to take her as well.

The babies all did really well and seemed to enjoy it...right up until we got them all back in the van for the 40 minute ride home. It was getting close to bed time and we really didn't want them to go to sleep because we didn't want to mess up their sleeping schedule. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about that because most of them just screamed the whole way home. It was still worth it because it was nice to get out and do something with them. We had to take the two strollers (the three baby stroller and the two baby stroller) because we haven't received the mount for the big stroller. When we do get it, we should have lots of fun going places and being gawked at.

Anyway, here is the video:

Really good KEYE Segment on the Quints

Last night, we saw one of the best segments we have ever seen on these babies. Ron Oliveira and Judy Maggio, the anchors for the local CBS affiliate, came and did a 3 hour shift a few weeks ago. Both of them have older children so it had been a long time since they had held babies. They seemed to do a good job and enjoy their time there. Rachelle said it was really fun and I was amazed at how awesome the segment turned out.

Here is the link to the article:
KEYE Story

Below I have embedded the video itself so check it out:

6 Months Old Today!

Today, the babies are six months old. KVUE, the local ABC station, came over and shot some video that was pretty good. KEYE, the local CBS station, also came over and videotaped something a few weeks ago and that is supposed to air a week from today. The KVUE one is below. Check it out because those babies are pretty cute:

http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/013108kvuequintsupdate-cb.7926d68a.html

A great man

Last night, Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died. He was a great man. Here is an article about him: article.

He was 97 years old and was one of the best men I have ever had the chance to be in the presence of. The reasons why he was great are many. One of my favorite was that he was funny. Anyone who knows me knows that I really value humor. In our church, we have a biannual conference that we usually watch on TV where various people from the leadership of the church speak. With President Hinckley, you were almost always guaranteed to have a really good laugh some time during his talk. You were also almost always guaranteed to leave the meeting with a desire to be a little better or try a little harder. I had the opportunity to hear him in person several times and he actually seemed to have a light about him. His humility, his love for people, and his amazing wit were a few of the things that were really inspiring about him. If everyone could be like that man, our world would be a much happier place.

I just wanted to mention it today because I feel like, nowadays, there are very few people in the public spotlight that are really heroic and deserving of respect and serious admiration. Most popular or famous people lead lives that are filled with really bad stuff. Gordon B. Hinckley was someone that we could truly look to for an example of what a good man should do. He loved his wife, he loved his family, he loved God and was true to what he believed. I will forever remember the things he taught me through his example and his service.

Here is a video of Glenn Beck's tribute to him:

Some non-baby related sad events and an update on the sleep training

Well, I don't have a new video yet but I do have an update on a few things. First, I want to devote a few lines to my Grandpa Wilkinson who died yesterday. I think he was ready to go but I was a little sad that I didn't see him more often before he died. He is actually the reason why my first name has a 'y' in it (his first name was Jay). Anyway, I really think he is a lot happier now so that is the good part.

Another thing I want to mention is that my Uncle Ken, my aunt Victoria's husband and the driving force behind a lot of the donations we have received, recently found out that he has cancer and will began treatment very soon. We are all praying for him and he is writing a blog that you can read here at http://kennethcarlson.blogspot.com/.

Next, I would like to give an update on the babies. I mentioned in some of my last posts that we are doing sleep training. This was a very unpredictable task for us since there isn't a whole lot of data or books out there to tell you what to do with 5 babies. However, things are going pretty well. We started off in December with just doing a strict routine and putting them down at night awake and letting them fall asleep on their own. This took a few nights but now is very nice. In the beginning, a few of them, Ryder in particular, cried for a few hours before finally giving up and falling asleep. Over time, they cried less and on the third or fourth day, there really wasn't much crying at all. Now, we just do the big routine and then put them in their beds with smiles on their little faces and they go right to sleep without making any sound and without us doing anything more.

The next big step will be to actually help them sleep all the way through the night. More on that later...