5 Beautiful Babies!!!

Wow, what an experience that was! I can hardly believe they are here. I was in the delivery room and it was awesome to see one beautiful baby come out after another. I took a bunch of video but I don't know if I will have time to put it up here yet but I just wanted to let everybody know that the babies are here and they are beautiful. Although I might not have enough time to put it on YouTube, I have some video that I am sending to the local Austin TV stations so look for it there. If I don't post it tonight, I should for sure have it by tomorrow. Something else, that I have to mention because it was so cool is that the doctor that actually performed the c section (Dr. Park who is really awesome) actually baked five little cakes for the birthday! I will put a picture of the cakes here:


Here is the video (I will try to put up pictures of the babies for those that can't see the video):

Final Post Before the Big Day!

One other thing I wanted to do was get one final post in before tomorrow. I am not sure when I am going to be able to post anything tomorrow but I will do it as soon as I can. I wanted to just thank everyone again for all the support and prayers you have given us. This has been something truly remarkable. In the beginning, I would never have guessed that things would be like they are. In the beginning, I was so nervous and unsure of what the rest of my life was going to be like but, for some reason, I feel pretty good about things now. We are surrounded by people that are sincerely concerned for us and really want to help us out. We still have such a long way to go but I really feel like angels are watching over us and a lot of that is due to the prayers from all of you.

If I can get it soon enough, I will hope to get a post in tomorrow. Also, if everything goes well, KVUE should be doing a follow up story tomorrow night on the news. There is also a decent chance that the Austin-American Statesman (the main Austin newspaper) will be doing a story about us for the Wednesday paper so look for it. Whatever they do, we will be sure to put links to it up on our blog and web site soon afterwards.

Again, thank you all for all your support and keep praying for us. I am sure we will keep needing it.

The spelling of the names

I think there were a few of you out there (like Jeanette Nielson in Thailand) who can't view the video (which is a shame since my kids are so cute) so I thought I ought to write them out. I also want to do this in case one of my kids was less articulate than he or she should have been. Here are the names spelled out:

Rustin
Ryder
Kyndall
Kaydence
Kassidy

There is a very real danger that I have spelled them wrong so I will have Rachelle check this to make sure they are all correct. Also, keep in mind that something strange could happen and we could completely change our minds.

Something someone pointed out to Rachelle yesterday, that I thought was funny, is that July 31 is Harry Potter's birthday. OK, so Harry Potter is a fictional person that some think is evil but I still thought it was funny thing especially considering the last book just came out a week ago. We still won't be changing their names to match Harry Potter names though. Personally, I think that would be kind of funny but it probably isn't a very nice thing to do to your kids and Rachelle would never go for it so we will probably stick with the names listed above.

Riley and Kaiya discuss the names

OK, I think we are ready to disclose the names with the understanding that these could potentially change. To do this, I have engaged the services of two adorable kids who discuss it in the video.



So that is it except for the spellings which we will supply later.

The names

OK, I am getting ready to post the first names. Stay tuned and I will post them later today (unless we change our minds).

Rachelle's Story Featured on our Local News!

Update: I heard just today that my dad also worked it out so that his side of the family will be helping with the washer and dryer as well. I am actually really glad that we have the opportunity to do something that will bring the families together.

Last night, KVUE, a local ABC affiliate showed a story about Rachelle that was really nice. They used some of the video I put on yesterday's post as well as a bunch of other stuff. It was really good and you can check it out at by clicking on this link:

KVUE news story

It was a really busy day for Rachelle yesterday actually. Originally, a news crew from one of the Phoenix stations (Channel 3) was going to come and get some video of her here for a local Phoenix news cast. Unfortunately, right before they were going to come, they had a really tragic helicopter accident where their helicopter ran into another news station's helicopter and killed both the crews from each. After that, they called Rachelle and told her they probably wouldn't be able to do the story yesterday.

Something else that I wanted to mention was that more and more people are stepping up to help us out. My uncle Ken is a graduate of West Point (Class of 66) and sent an email to all his graduating class about us and many of them responded very generously. Also, my mom's side of the family (The Nelsons) got together and decided to buy us a really nice washer and dryer! When I say really nice, I mean super nice. That is really so generous of them that I feel kind of bad but people keep telling me that I need to stop feeling bad about that kind of stuff so I am working on it.

Anyway, I visited with Rachelle a lot last night and we went to take a tour of the NICU. It was amazing how little those babies are in there. While visiting the NICU and seeing those babies, the reality of what is about to happen set in (it does that every once in a while) and I felt just a little overwhelmed. However, that passed fairly quickly and I got back to just thinking about what is going on today instead. I realize, however, that in just 72 hours from now, I will have 5 babies and a tired, but recovering, wife. I guess I had better read that Harry Potter book soon.

The tightness of the belly and some video of Rachelle

Update: There is a decent chance that Rachelle's story will be on KVUE in Austin tonight at 10:00 so check it out if you get a chance (we will have to hear from others how it went).

I visited Rachelle for a long time yesterday evening and we had a good visit. A few weeks ago, she started telling me that her skin felt tight. Almost every day since then, she says that it feels tighter than it did the previous day. Yesterday, she said she felt like it was going to burst any second. I put my hand on it and it was amazingly tight. I don't know how those babies are going to be able to grow any more! It looks like if you put a pin in her, it would all pop (not that I plan on doing that).

We also discussed names yesterday. We have had a pretty good idea on names for a while but had a small disagreement on a few of them. I think it is resolved now but I will wait for Rachelle to actually announce them. I have to admit that at first, I honestly couldn't remember all of the names we had come up with. We discussed a lot and I had a hard time trying to remember the ones we settled on. I remember them now but will wait until I get the OK from Rachelle to share them all.

We also took more video the other day that I wanted to share. This is a video of Rachelle posing for photos that her mom is taking. She looks pretty good as you can see. If it were not for that big thing in the middle, she would probably look fairly normal. While we were there the other day, the dietitian came in talked with her about what she should eat. Although the dietitian was serious, the things she recommended were kind of funny.