As of this moment, not the one in which you are reading these words, but the one in which I am typing the words into my computer, it has been nearly 313 days since our family was last in front of the cameras filming a new episode of “Quints by Surprise.”  I know that it probably seems like it has been forever since we’ve been on your TV screen, but really, can you believe it has been nearly a year??  We miss filming the show – we miss the crew and we miss the energy that percolates through the atmosphere on filming days.  We miss having a soundtrack playing in the background of our lives and we miss being a front row spectator to the creative process that transforms our daily routines, challenges, victories, and frustrations into something that is at times fun, funny, and faith-filled, heartwarming, uplifting, and hopefully, always very, very real about the very real ups and downs of life with quints plus one…

When we last filmed, Eliot was keeping us all busy with another soccer season and getting settled in to her new school year (2nd grade) as her super-infatuation with all things Taylor Swift was beginning to overtake her life (that’s her in the picture below, head on my shoulder, Taylor’ed out – before the concert was over!).  This time last year, Eliot was ready to rock it in her vampire costume for Halloween, the seeds were being planted for a cheerleading future when she got to hang out on the field with the Baylor Bear Cheerleaders, and she was wearing the “missing my two front teeth” look with pride and warming up to sing about it at Christmas time!

The Fab Five, meanwhile, had Casey and me neck deep in potty training (and life training!) – the grip of the terrible two’s clinched oh so tightly around our lives!  When they weren’t scheming new ways to keep us on our toes, they were enthusiastically taking on every new experience we could think to throw their way - learning how to ride their bikes and how to dance ballet like Eliot, getting their first real taste of football season in Texas and what it means to be a Baylor Bear football fan, and preparing for the ultimate experience of their 2-1/2 year old lives – dressing up as the Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween!

It should now go without saying (though I’ll say it anyway) – the show has been a positive force in our lives and hopefully in yours, too.  It has helped us to create and of course document amazing memories for our family; it has opened our world up to interactions with people all over the world – some who check in just to say they love the show and appreciate our family, others who are looking for advice or encouragement, and still others who simply want to share their story, their struggle, and their joy, and  want to thank us for inspiring them in some small way to keep smiling and to keep the faith.  Judging by these messages and the many others we have received through Facebook and Twitter, the show has had a positive impact on the lives of many others outside of our little clan…truly an answer to our prayers!

Also judging by the many, many messages we get on the subject, I can tell you that there are many out there wondering the same thing you may be – will the show ever be back??!  Well, the honest answer is that we don’t know for sure, that we hope that it does, and that with each day that passes without a call from TLC, the prospects of the show returning grow weaker and weaker.  There are times when it absolutely kills us to not have the cameras around, to know that what we are experiencing at that moment with the kids is not being captured for the show.  The quints’ 3rd birthday party, our attempts at teaching them how to swim, our first family trip to the beach, funny little games the kids make up, Eliot’s development as the best big sister on the planet – Facebook and Twitter are great, but we would really love to share these experiences with you in living color!!

But the choice is not ours to make…it’s not in our hands.  And those whose job it is to make decisions such as these aren’t committing and they aren’t saying exactly why.  Nonetheless, no matter what happens with the show, we are incredibly grateful to have had this experience and we are incredibly grateful to all of you who have watched and followed along with our little adventures…

So since you won’t be seeing us on your TV screens anytime soon, I thought I would fill you in on what defines “these days” for the Jones family…

These days, those “cheer” seeds that were planted at the Baylor football game a year ago have produced a Four Points Pop Warner Mighty Mite Viper Cheerleader!  Eliot’s soccer days are behind her and it’s nothing but pom-poms and high kicks for now…she loves the cheering, hates the Texas heat she has to endure while she’s cheering on her team!  Eliot has also just started her new school year (she’s a 3rd grader!) and in spite of some struggles getting to know all of the new faces in her class, she is completely in love with her new teacher and is off to another great start!  And how about this – only in our family does a cheerleader have her very own cheer section…

These days, we are still struggling to get all five 100% potty trained…grrr!!!  We made a huge push a year ago to get this done and we had pretty good and pretty immediate success, getting all five completely trained has proven to be really, really difficult…and frustrating!  We’re trying to be very, very patient and not push them too hard, but oh my gosh we are tired of cleaning up pee off the floor!!!!

These days, The Wizard of Oz is still one of the faves in our home, but it has serious competition from Peppa Pig, Max & Ruby, and The Fresh Beat Band.

These days, Eliot is still a superstar big sister – both in our eyes as parents and in the quints’ eyes as adoring little super fans!  Eliot loves to take the kids into her room, one at a time, to have special little play dates with each of them which they all absolutely love.  She has also started to join me at bedtime so that she can read to them, help tuck them in, and give them a giggle before she bolts downstairs.  And her maternal instincts have kicked in – she’ll often jump in to help settle disputes, soothe hurt feelings, and correct the kids when they are going astray…Eliot, the caretaker – who would have ever guessed?!

These just-ending summer days, the kids got more than their fill of sun, sand, swimming pools, ice cream treats, trips to the zoo, sprinkler fun in the backyard, kite flying, and all of the other summertime fun you can think of!  The 5 got their first trip to the beach when we made the trek with both sets of grandparents to the Texas coast…they loved it, they wore us out, and now they wear us out everyday asking when we can go back!!

These days we have finally managed to get the whole family to church and Sunday school on a regular basis…hallelujah!!  The quints love going to church and get excited every week to get to see Miss Kelly and Miss Allie who shower them with good love every week!  Eliot thinks the youth pastor, Todd, is as cool as they come and Casey and I are just plain happy to be back to the church we love so much.  We really can’t say enough good things about the warm, loving, and Christ-focused environment that greets us every time we get the opportunity to be on the Riverbend campus…God has been so good to us through our church home!

These days, there is nothing better for me than to watch Eliot and Jack play together…it is endlessly fun to watch these two go at it!  Jack will come out of nowhere to tackle his big sister, catching her completely off guard!  But you know our little spark plug isn’t going to let him get away with it so the chase is on!  They laugh and giggle and tackle and  chase and poke and punch and then do it all again…it’s awesome and it is totally unique to these two!  None of the girls gets after Eliot the way Jack does and though I know Eliot loves it, I really think part of her doesn’t know exactly how to handle this rambunctious little brat that won’t give up, won’t stop messing with her, and won’t stop giggling is curly little head off when he does is coming after her…so so so cute!

These very recent days, The Fab Five have started attending a “Mom’s Day Out” program two days a week…YAY FOR CASEY!!!!!  The program is held at a local gym, 3F Fitness, and the kids learn tumbling and stretching as well as their abc’s and 1-2-3′s…and I’m sure you guessed this part – they LOVE it!!  Thank you so much to the owners, William and Haley, for putting this program together and inviting our family to join!

These days, sleep is much less difficult to come by though we had to go through fire to reclaim the blissful treasure that comes with a full night’s sleep!  Earlier in the year, the quints put us through every trial you could imagine – Britton waking up at all hours of the night in a screaming fit, Lila waking up at 5:00 or 6:00 am day after day after day, Jack waking up everyone in the room at 3:00 am to tell them all that he has to go potty, Ryan waking up at 5 am so she could wake Lila up who would then make sure Britton, Brooklyn, and Jack got the memo that it was 5:00 am and time to torment mommy and daddy….it was BRUTAL!!!

And because sleep is more consistently available now, these days, life has become almost routine in our usual chaotic sort of way.  Casey’s and my morning workouts have become pretty regular and the kids usually don’t get up until about 6:30 which is a godsend to us…though we long for the days that it will be 7:00 or 7:30.  And since we got rid of nap time, bedtime has become much more consistent (and much less intensely chaotic and stressful!) – the kids are in bed, lights out by 7:30 every night and they’re usually all fast asleep by 8:00.

These days, we still have a handful of committed, loving, and totally awesome volunteers who have been with us from the beginning and who continue to provide loving care to our little ones, giving Casey and I much needed breaks from the perpetual craziness that defines our life.  To our volunteers, past and present:  thank you, thank you, thank you….THANK YOU!!!!

To answer the question we get quite often – no, these days are not any easier than the days that have gone before…though we’re hoping that the 5′s 5th year of life will bring some relief to our weary souls!  I’ll repeat:  no, it hasn’t gotten any easier; rather, the challenges have changed.  Gone are the sleepless nights, hello mega-attitude and meltdowns from 5 hyper-sensitive little beings trying to find their place in the world.  Gone is the endless parade of dirty diapers, hello pee accidents by the handful and the joys of taking 5 tots to the bathroom 5 times when we dare venture out of the house.  Gone are the days of bottle feeding and burping, hello knocked over milk cups, protests over what has been provided for a meal, food thrown across the table, and ginormous messes left at the dinner table…and the dinner floor…and the dinner clothes…and the dinner hands and faces…and so on and so forth.  No, things are definitely not easier by any barometer we can measure by…just different.

But as I write these words, I am reminded that in many ways life these days is no different than those that are past.  We are blessed, abundantly so, and that is no different than before; we are challenged, abundantly so, and that is no different than before.  It has been said that to whom much is given, much is expected.  Well, to put it simply:  we have been given much!  This is something that has not changed and will not change – life with quints plus one is a rare and awesome blessing in every sense of the word.  And no doubt, we will continue to be given much as we face the challenges of raising these 6 to be 6 happy, healthy, respectful, caring, well-adjusted, and God-loving tweens, teens, and beyond.  Let the blessings flow down!!

God bless,

Ethan

I never knew love at first sight was real until the day my eyes first settled on this squirming, squealing, slimy, red-faced infant named Eliot McKenna…and for a guy who for many years never wanted anything to do with kids, that is saying a lot!  She came into this world in a flash – three weeks early and after a blinding-fast 5 hour labor and delivery – and she hasn’t slowed down since that day, July 14, 2004.

Since  you are reading this blog, by now you probably know our oldest daughter quite well.  And by now you probably know that Eliot, aka Little Miss Sunshine, aka quint big sis, aka the little spark plug has a little bit of sass and a whole lotta spirit inside of her and that would be putting it lightly!  She has been a fireball from the day she was born and these last 7+ years have done little to temper the flame that burns inside of her!  Eliot loves to have fun, she loves to be the center of attention, she loves to be a total nut, and she sometimes loves to put on a little drama to get even more of that attention she adores so much!

In many ways, raising Eliot has been an incredible challenge – channeling all of her energy and attitude into something positive, slowing her down long enough to get her to eat a good meal or get a good night’s sleep or give us a dang hug every once in awhile has at times been more than we believed we could handle.  No kidding about this – there were times before the quints were born that Casey and I were pulling our hair out because Eliot’s demands were driving us to do so…haha – little did we know!!  But truth be told, in many ways, raising Eliot has been rather, dare I say, easy…?  She is a smart girl and is often very eager to please which means keeping her out of trouble has been much easier for us than it likely will be for Lila…or Ryan…or Britton.  She has done great in school, is super social so making friends is never an issue, and is generally a happy-go-lucky girl with a ready-for-life attitude that can be extremely infectious at times!

Without question, one of our first and most perplexing concerns when we learned that the quints were about to invade our little world was how Eliot would be impacted by the dramatic changes that were coming to her.  How would we have time to commit to her like we had before?  Would she get overshadowed by all the attention the quints were sure to get?  Big sisters and brothers always have trouble with just one new sibling, how could she be expected to welcome 5 of them into her life?

We had our moments, no doubt about it, where our fears were realized.  “Daddy, why did God have to give us 5 babies?  Why didn’t he give us just one?”  I remember Eliot asking me that question as I was tucking her into bed without story time one night, the quints having exhausted the energy I usually reserved to read to her before we turned out the lights.  If you’ve been a parent long enough, you’ve been asked one of these types of questions from your little ones and you know the pain, guilt, frustration, and sadness that results from having to answer as best you can.  “I don’t know sweetheart.  God chooses different challenges for different people and this is ours.  It doesn’t change his love for us or our love for you.  It will all work out, I promise.”  Nothing in this world is more difficult than saying those words to your sweet little one!!

But ask her about that today…about having 5 babies instead of one…I think the question would confuse her.  God has resoundingly answered our prayers and helped us find ways to keep Eliot from getting lost in the shuffle of the quint craziness – she is 100% hooked on being an awesome big sister!  These days the questions are more like this:  “Daddy, can we wrestle with the babies tonight?” and “Mama, can I have spa day with the babies in my room?”  And she absolutely can’t wait for the kids to get fully potty-trained so she can have sleep overs in her room with them on the weekends!  And she really made us proud when she went through her stuff and found special gifts for each of the 5 to give to them for their birthday…sweetest thing ever!  Yeah, I’d say she’s over it, the 5 at a time thing, and actually I think it is safe to say she’s actually loving it!

Life with Eliot has never been dull and as the teenage years slowly creep up on us, the challenges we have faced with her promise to be mere training exercises for what is to come!  Whether we like it or not, our baby girl has started to make the transition to young lady-hood which has been both exciting and frightening at the same time!  But Eliot has been given a great life and we have been given great times in our life because of that and somehow, some way I think things will work out just fine…God willing!!! :)

And it is finally official…part of it at least – “Too Many Babies?” returns July 14th with a brand new one hour special!!    The show airs as part of Baby Week on Discovery Health on Wednesday, July 14th at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central (double check your local listings to be sure of the time).  There is a link to the show schedule and a separate link to the Baby Week website and video in the right hand column of this page under “News Wire.”  This time around, the show is being called “Too Many Babies?  The First 16 Months” and you may also see it as “Too Many Babies?  How They Do It.”

We just got a sneak peek viewing of the show and I can confidently say that if you loved the first show, you are going to love this one as well!!  This episode has a totally different feel from the first one.  It is comprised almost entirely of footage that was shot the first year along with some newer video and interviews.  Consider it a behind the scenes show that goes more in-depth into how we were able to manage to make it through the first year+ without losing our sanity!! :)

As far as the other shows that are coming up on TLC, here is what I know (which isn’t a whole heck of a lot!).  The show that is about to air on Discovery Health has also been picked up on TLC and will air on that channel closer to the time that the newly filmed episodes will begin airing.  We began filming for the new episodes a few months ago and will wrap on those in the next few weeks.  I believe that TLC is working on another name for the series, but nothing is official on that for now.  These new episodes will begin airing later this summer and as far as we know they will only be on TLC.  We have only seen little bits and pieces of the new footage, but I can assure you that the shows are going to be super fun!!  We have been having an awesome time with the filming and all of the events that we have had going on in our lives lately…we can’t wait to update everybody on all of the happenings lately!!  Of course, we will make an announcement here on the blog as soon as we know more about the TLC air dates!

Here are some new photos of what has been going on around here in the last few months on our days away from the cameras…..

This one was taken today!  Lila Bear is wearing some pajamas that were handed down from Big Sister Eliot…

One of the more exciting events for us this summer was being on stage at Riverbend as part of Dr. Dave’s series, Men of Honor!  This time just Jack and I made an appearance, but we had a couple of beauties in the audience cheering us on…..

For our first chapter of “The Adventures of Being Eliot,” we see our little hero knee boarding for the first time…she loved it and did great!!

Chapter 2:  horse back riding – thank you, Ann Marie and the granddaughters!

Chapter 3:  camera girl and big-time TV producer!  She was totally in charge on this day – she told the guy under the umbrella that all he had been doing all day was sitting around…hilarious!

And now for some fun in the sun with The Fab Five….

So, do you think Jack likes the pool? :)

And finally, the sweetest little thing you ever did see…Brooklyn Faith…..

That’s all I have for now!  I hope y’all are enjoying your summer as much as the Jones Family is enjoying ours!!  Y’all take care…..

Ethan

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!

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!!