Finally, another video and another blog post

OK, it has been a really long time so my guess is that nobody reads this anymore. Even so, I decided to post something anyway since I have finally made a new video. We have been having trouble making new videos because they only take one nap a day and we have a hard time making the commentary. Because of that, we decided to go with a simpler format for now. We do still have some quint olympics ideas going but they are going to take a little while to actually make. We have a friend, Ally, who recently won American Gladiators that we are hoping to have come out and do a baby gladiator episode with them.

Anyway, here is a new video:

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.

My second trip to Europe

Well, last week I was in Europe again. While I was there Rachelle had to briefly go to the hospital just like last time. Fortunately, this time was much more brief and she was out in just a few hours. Unlike my last trip to Europe, I actually got to see something interesting. I went to Aachen Germany and Ge,neva, Switzerland and in th first part of the trip I went one night to the church in Aachen where Charlemagne was crowned. It was built in circa 800 and was pretty interesting.

In Aachen, I was there to make a video about an application from a company called FAG. Apparently, in German, the acronym FAG doesn't have the same meaning when you say it as a word. Well, they were very nice there and I didn't have any of the strange light problems because I had done my homework and had prepared myself with European voltage compatible lights. The big problems didn't start until we went on our next leg...

After Aachen, we then drove to Frankfurt and flew from Frankfurt to Geneva, Switzerland. When we arrived in Geneva Switzerland, we got off the plane but my luggage never did. I had three checked bags and, fortunately, I had one of the others traveling with me check one of my bags (the one with the camera and camera gear). The bags I checked never arrived. To make it worse, I had accidentally left the little luggage receipts at a security desk in Frankfurt. These pieces of luggage had all of my clothes, toiletries, and all of my lighting stuff. So, again, despite all of my careful preparation, we still had issues. Fortunately, one of the others traveling with us, Darcy Dement, had a lot more European experience and a cooler head than I did and called someone we knew from Geneva and was able to find a company that, for some strange but wonderful reason, had 24 hour service for renting their lighting equipment. The video shoot in Switzerland was at CERN, home of the worlds largest super collider and was much more significant than our video shoot in Aachen so I was so glad that we were able to find something that worked. I think we were really lucky to find a lighting company at all and one that offered 24 hour service (with a really nice guy named Oliver) was truly a miracle.

Unfortunately, although we were able to solve the problem with the lights, we were not able to solve the problem with my clothes. I only had that one change of clothes so I washed them in the sink (with shampoo) and dried them with the hair dryer in the wall. This actually worked surprisingly well but just took a long time.

Something that ended up making me feel a little better was that when we got to the hotel, I looked at the building right next to ours and noticed that it was a church with a familiar looking steeple. I walked over to it and, sure enough, it said (in French), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On my last night there I went over to it and tried to get in just to find some comfort in a familiar setting but it was locked. Then someone from inside saw me and came over to open the door. He turned out to be the bishop of the local English speaking congregation and we chatted for about a half hour which was fun and comforting after the stress of the previous few days. I told him about my babies and he, like most people, was a bit shocked. Anyway, it was nice to just sit and talk with someone for a while and made me feel much better. I think it is amazing the way that God works to help us in our times of need. I decided that as long as Rachelle was OK, then the stuff I was dealing with just didn't matter that much. Now that I am back home, wearing clean clothes, and getting word that my luggage is, apparently, making it's way back from Europe, I can see a little clearer that it is all unimportant relative to how well Rachelle is doing. She continues to exceed the doctor's expectations and it is just amazing to me. For me, the events of the last few months, weeks, and days are clear evidence that there is a God and he cares about us even enough to help me find a little comfort in a church in Switzerland over something as minor as lost luggage.

Last week, our friend Natalie Woods went to visit Rachelle and took some pictures. Below is one of the pictures. I noticed that her face is actually starting to get much thinner but her belly is getting much bigger. I assume this is normal but at first it made me nervous because I wasn't sure if she was getting enough to eat. Rachelle was visited by a ton of people this last week. My Sister Alicia and her husband Mike were there to bring Riley and Kaiya back to Arizona. My uncle Larry and aunt Gloria along with their son Danny and his wife also visited. People ask me if she is just going crazy with boredom and I have to say that I don't think she has enough time to go crazy with all of the people there to hang out with her. It is just amazing to me that we have been so blessed with all of the things we have had and seen. We have received so much from many people who seem excited to get the chance to help us out. Without all of the help we have received from so many people, I don't know how we would have made it. There is still a long way to go but I think, based on past experience, things will work out fine.