Wow, this never happens…and I mean NEVER! We actually had snow – not sleet, not ice – SNOW…in Austin! We have lived in Austin and 20 miles down the road in San Marcos before that for more almost 15 years and it has only snowed one time (and we were in Colorado at the time…bummer!). The snow hit after the kids were in school and did not do much to make the roads dangerous so life proceeded mostly as normal. From what I hear, most of them got to go outside for recess and have snowball fights and the kids of Austin did get plenty of fun in the fluffy stuff after school let out…awesome! And in typical Austin fashion, after a day of nearly constant snowfall and blustery winter weather, we were greeted by blue skies, sunshine, and highs in the 50’s the very next day. Got to love livin’ in the ATX!!  For more pics of the whole gang, fan us on Facebook by clicking the JonesLife on Facebook link in the sidebar!

Too Many Babies?

Alright, it’s official…apparently.  You know your life is not quite what it once was when your day starts off with a friend from another town posting a message on your Facebook wall saying they just saw you and your family on TV…

So yes, the show is officially going to happen and I can officially tell you when and where.  Not that there has been any doubt about it happening for some time now, but it kind of becomes very real and undeniable when you see a promo for it on the tube!  Discovery Health is the network, March 4th is the date, 8 pm (ET) is the time…oh yeah!!!  Our show is the fourth and final show to be aired during Discovery Health’s Baby Week.  Baby Week kicks off on March 1st and each of the four shows is featured on consecutive nights, with ours “batting cleanup.”  Apparently, the fact that we are last in line is actually a good thing – it means that ours will be promoted the whole week so they are expecting good things from it.  The commercial that is running now is not specific to our show – it is a promo for Baby Week – but there we are, upstairs hanging with The Fab Five then later is a shot of three of them in the backseat of our car…too much fun!

Oh yeah, I’m leaving out one very important detail:  the name of the show!  Let me just throw this out there before I let you have it – we really, really do not like the name!  “Too Many Babies?” is the name, at least for the pilot, and its only saving grace is the question mark at the end of the title which thankfully takes the edge off just a bit.  The words “too many babies” may have crossed our minds at some point during the pregnancy, but never once has it come up since they were born.  Seriously, thank God for the question mark though I believe the content of the show will answer the question…definitively!  The name actually makes sense from a marketing and business standpoint – nobody knows who we are and they need something short, punchy, and descriptive to grab people’s curiosity and get them to watch – but we do not like it, nonetheless.  We are hoping that if it goes to series, the name will be changed, which is fairly common, or so we are told.

Here is the copy of the actual press release that hit the web today:

“TOO MANY BABIES?

NEW SPECIAL! Premieres Thursday, March 4, at 8 PM (ET/PT)

Casey and Ethan Jones had the perfect life – high school sweethearts turned man-and-wife, with a successful family business and a darling daughter to boot. They thought that one more baby would make life complete – but instead, they got the surprise of their lives when Casey found out she was pregnant with quintuplets. Today, their lives could not be more different – and this hour-long special shows how the family is adapting to a whole new ballgame.”

We are also being told that they will be setting up a website just for our show, which I’m assuming will be linked off of Discovery Health’s website.  This will be pretty cool as the production company has been sending us “webisodes” that will be loaded on the site once it is up and running (I think after the show airs) to help people get more familiar with our story.  They’ve been really fun and cool!  I’ll be sure to pass that info along once I know more about it.

And one final, cool little tidbit that got confirmed today as well:  TLC will definitely be airing the show at some point in the future after Discovery Health airs it!!  That is a big one…TLC!!!!!

Oh, I just remembered I never mentioned anything about the production company so let me hit that subject really quick.  Their name is Megalomedia and they are an Austin documentary filmmaker (technically, our show is a documentary).  The biggest show they have done to date is “Half Ton Teen” which is about morbidly obese teenagers and their struggles with their weight, surgeries, and everything else going on in their lives.  There are other versions of the “Half Ton” theme and they are all done by Megalomedia.  The guys are really awesome people and have been great to work with!

I’ve got to tell you what just happened…I just took  a short break to watch one of the webisodes that I had not seen yet and I’ve got to say, y’all are going to LOVE this show!!  We have not yet seen the final product, but everything that we have seen from Megalomedia has been dead-on accurate in how our lives really are and the emotions that we have encountered along this path!  We are hoping to see the finished version in the next few days…yay!!!

I guess I should explain the title of this post before I go…and just so you know, Casey is going to kill me!  She was in the office as I was starting this post and I asked her what the title should be.  She jokingly said, “My Sexy Wife” and I typed it in.  We had a good laugh about it, but not as good as the one I’ll get when she sees it posted………if there is any way possible to video her reaction, you know I’ll post it!! And since we are talking about video of our family, I’ll end this post with a few short clips that I shot this afternoon while I was hanging out with the kids…

Y’all take care!

Well, we did it…the babies’ birthday bash went off without a hitch…hallelujah!!  The turnout was great, the mood was electric, the babies did awesome, and the hosts survived (and so did our home)!  We had all of the usual birthday fare – cakes and candles and crying and crazies – and we threw in a bounce house for the older kids who otherwise probably would have been overwhelmed by the spectacle of it all!  Thank you to everyone who helped in planning the day and making it a success, to everyone who came and brought gifts, and to everyone who could not be there, but kept us in your thoughts!  Here is a small sampling of the pics we captured of the festivities…there are more photos on the JonesLife Facebook page so become a fan and check them out!

As you might imagine and as the pictures can attest, Christmas at our house this year was…what else…chaos!  Five not-yet-one-year-olds, three others under age seven, and seven adults made for some interesting yuletide times!  I believe we (meaning Casey and I) hit every one of the major Christmas emotions several times each – joy, contentment, excitement, and of course the lesser celebrated, but ever present buzzkills – stress, frustration, and irritation (fortunately those didn’t stick around long!).  All in all, the day was very different, very chaotic (the adults didn’t open any presents until 5:00 that afternoon because of everything that was going on with the kids!), and in the end, very fun and memorable!

In other news, Jack and Lila got fitted for their DOC Bands on Monday and we are scheduled to get them in early January.  What you see in the pictures is a pair of pantyhose stretched over their heads which smooths out the features of their scalps so that a very accurate 3-D picture can be taken.  The picture is then used to create the shape of the band. Once we get the bands, they will be worn 23 hours a day for 3-4 months (Jack is likely to get a new band at that time and have to go for another 3-4 months with that one).  We will take them into the office every two weeks to have the bands adjusted to the babies’ changing scalps and we will also be doing some stretching exercises with both babies to help loosen up their neck muscles.  It will be a little bit of a hassle, but we are happy to do it so that we can avoid all of the problems that could pop up later in life if we did not go through this.  Plus, we’re really excited to decorate the bands!! :)

And finally, a cool little follow up story from our Thanksgiving trek to Denton.  When we stopped for lunch in Waco, a lady came over because she, “just had to see the triplets!”  Imagine her surprise when she discovered that there were two more babies in the bunch!  Well, her husband came over to see the babies as well and we chatted a bit with them, making a fast friendship there in the tiniest restaurant in Texas.  They were a really sweet couple…they even helped Eliot wash up after her meal as Casey and I had our hands quite full!  On our way out the door, they asked for our address and said they would like to send us some gifts for the babies and, sure enough, when we got home five days later, there was a package on our porch.  As it turns out, these folks own a small manufacturing company in Waco that produces Critter Pillers Neck Pillows and other travel cozies of all types.  What they sent us was one of each of the different animals in their collection of Critter Pillers…I think there were eight in all, of which Eliot quickly claimed six or seven of them! Anyway, I just had to pass on the story because they are such cool people and hopefully they can receive a little business in return for their kindness (they did not know about our website or ask for any type of publicity when they offered to send us a gift).  So if you like doing business with good people and need a cool gift for the travelling kid crazies in your world, check out their website at www.wolfmfg.com!

Merry Christmas everybody!! We have had lots of fun getting ready for the big guy’s arrival on Friday – decorating the house and playing around the Christmas tree, but today was the big event – taking the babies to meet Santa! The babies did awesome, but more on that in a minute…

First, I have to tell you about the tree! One of our helpers, Pam, decorates houses for the holidays and buys lots of trees as part of her services. She got the nursery that she buys from, Pots and Plants Garden Center, to donate a tree to us this year, delivery included…so awesome!! On top of that, she came out to the house and decorated it for us, leaving the star on top and many of our family favorite ornaments off for us to decorate with Eliot! Thank you, Pam and Pots and Plants Garden Center, for sharing the Christmas spirit with our family!

Ok, now to the big story of the day…Santa Claus! The alarm went off this morning at 6 am and it was time to hit the ground running. We had to get the whole gang fed, dressed, and loaded up by 7:45 to make it to the mall by 8:30 and it wasn’t easy…just loading the babies in the car is a 20 minute operation! We managed to hit the road by 7:55 and still made it on time. Santa was waiting for us at the mall entrance and escorted us inside to get acquainted with the crew. The babies did GREAT!! There were no tears, no screaming fits, and no major blowouts (moms – you know what I mean!)!! We even managed to get the whole crew on the little kiddie train that runs just behind Santa’s station! Many, many thanks to Simon Properties and Barton Creek Mall for arranging everything for us. Santa opened up 30 minutes early so we didn’t have to unleash the fury of five screaming babies on the rest of the families waiting in line, saving our sanity and theirs for another day!

Merry Christmas!!

Alright, so here it is…the big one, the announcement – that thing I referred to as GINORMOUS about three weeks ago.  The long-awaited, much-anticipated, breathtaking…ok, wait a minute…I’m taking this a bit too far.  Actually, it’s not that big of a deal to about 99.9% of the world, but it certainly is to our little pack of crazies here in the Jones house!

Judging by the many, many comments we have received from lots of different people over the last year-plus, you may have already guessed what the big announcement is – we are going to be on TV…again. But this time, it’s not the nightly news that will narrate our story.  Rather, it is a local production company behind the cameras and this time we will be taking this tour nationwide! Unfortunately, I cannot be too forthcoming with the details yet, but I’ll tell you all I can (I can’t even say what network is carrying it!).

The production guys (I can’t mention their name, either)  found out about us from the Statesman article that hit the papers about a week before the babies were born.  They tracked us down through the website, met with me in the hospital cafeteria to explain their background and vision for the show, interviewed us in Casey’s post-partem room, and accompanied us to the NICU the first time Casey held one of the babies.  They have followed us on date nights and they went with us to the park; they were at the babies’ dedication to the church, they joined us at the Thanksgiving table, and they were in the operating room last week as Casey had her surgery.  And they have been with us at all points in between.

So they put together a little clip which was sent out to several networks in June and while many expressed interest, only one committed.  And after nearly six months of negotiations between the producers and the network, the deal has finally been inked!  There will be one show, at least, I guess technically it is called a pilot.  It will be one hour, though they are currently discussing turning it into a two hour show (which would be really, really awesome) and it will air some time in the spring (yes, I know a more precise date, but I cannot say what that date is)!  If the show does well (hint, hint – tell everyone you ever thought of knowing to watch it!!), we will do a second or third show and if those do well, there is a possibility that the network will commit to a series.  Again, that would be really, really awesome!

We have made it no secret that we believe it is our responsibility as Christians to share our story with as many people as care to listen.  We told you about our attempts to get “A Baby Story” to do a show on the birth.  And we have made our lives as public as possible in pursuit of our goal of “letting our light shine” for all to see the power of Christ in the world today.  So while this announcement we are making today may not come as much of a surprise, I imagine that it is being met with some level of disappointment and disagreement by some folks out there who are not pleased by our decision to do a TV show.  How can you exploit these babies?  Is the money and recognition really worth it?  How can you betray their privacy?  Aren’t you taking this a bit far?  Etcetera, etcetera…we have actually heard much of this already.  So allow me to address this briefly…

This is a decision that we made prayerfully and after much discussion with our family and other Christian friends and mentors.  If we had ever received a hint that this was not the direction we should go, we would have stopped everything immediately.  We never received that hint.  It is our intent to continue along with this process in this exact same way and we ask for your prayers along these same lines.  As each new opportunity and challenge presents itself, we will need the clarity that only our faith can provide as to how to proceed and we believe the prayers of our friends and family will be critical to receiving that clarity.

Obviously, if we felt as though this were some sort of exploitation of our babies, we would not be doing this.  The babies and Eliot are not asked to do anything other than what other kids and babies do – the only difference being that there is a camera capturing their activities.  Believe me, we do not withhold bottles from them to create ratings-grabbing drama!  And the money?  Well, it has not come and likely will not come unless it goes to a series which is not highly likely.  The income we will earn from the pilot is insignificant to say the least.  In other words, the money, if it comes it will help, but it has never been part of our discussions with the producers and is not at all why we are doing this.

It boils down to this – we believe that this is a blessing that we have been given.  And as most blessings tend to be accompanied by much responsibility, this one is no different…we happen to know a thing or two about that whole blessing/responsibility combo!  We are taking it one step at a time and doing everything we can along the way to allow God’s hand to do the heavy lifting through this experience!  Let me put it to you in another way…

I found out back in August that the JonesLife site had received 45,000 unique visitors since its launch less than one year prior. 45,000 people from all over the world chose to log onto our little website and check in on the tales of our family’s population boom…45,000 people!!  What they got when they logged in was not just a few cute pictures and some funny stories about baby poop.  No, we believe they got plenty of pictures and poop stories, but that they also got much more than that – a story of faith and of love and of a family holding onto both as they encounter the greatest challenge they have ever faced.  And I believe this is why our site has grown as it has.  We started the website and went public with our story to allow God’s light to shine through this experience in the hopes that his work in our lives would impact others in a positive way.  We never imagined that 10,000 let alone 45,000 people would be touched by this…and that is what we get for underestimating the Big Man!

The company producing the show for our family averages 1.2 million viewers on the shows they produce.  I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but here I go again…1.2 MILLION people!!  It is mind-boggling to think that by the time the Fab Five reaches their second birthday it is wholly possible that their story will have impacted over 1,000,000 lives.  And what those 1,000,000+ people will get when they tune in is that same story of faith and of love that has defined our lives and promises to define yours as well if you allow it to do so.

When you look at it in this light, we did not see how we could say anything other than this…It’s Showtime!!