Yay!! The networks have just loaded two “webisodes” to their sites!  Both TLC and Discovery Health have loaded them up.  Webisodes are short little videos that the production company put together to tell little bits and pieces of our story that did not make it into the final cut of the show.  I think they made a total of six or seven of them…the two online now are “Helmet Fitting” and “Baby Proofing.”  They’re really fun and cute videos so check them out here:  Too Many Babies? Webisodes.

And if you have not been to the Discovery Health website, check it out here:  Discovery Health.  We are on the front of the website and if you click on that link it takes you to the new Baby Week site.  This is all so exciting!!

Strange title, huh?  No worries, I’m not getting cryptic on you and speaking in code; there is an explanation…please read on, my friends!  On Wednesday night we got a sneak peek of the show that is being produced to document the first year of life for the Jones family, AFF (After Fab Five).  And what a year it was, right?  From the birth of five babies in less than five minutes all the way to the first birthday party – 12 months which at times seemed like 12 eternities – it was all there as if we were living it again…only this time set to music.  Most of the important parts were there, at least.  The chaos that ruled our lives was as evident on screen as it has been on our hearts during this topsy-turvy whirlwind of a year.  And watching the drama unfold on-screen, watching these five little lives profoundly transform all of the bigger lives around them, and knowing that this was your reality was…..

Difficult…at times.  Fun at other times.  Absolutely jaw-dropping in others.  I’m not making this up – though we lived this and felt this and knew exactly the ins and outs of these lives we were watching, there were times that my jaw literally dropped in disbelief and the memory rolodex in my brain whirred into action as it fervently flipped from record to record, verifying what I already knew to be true.

There are those who knew in advance that we were going to see the show for the first time and they were eager to get our impression of what we saw.  Because there were no raves and likewise no rants, unfortunately, I think we let them down.  Do not get the wrong impression – there is nothing wrong with what we saw and we have no issues with the show.  But we honestly had and are still having a tough time describing how we feel about what we saw during the 00:42:00 in which we were glued to the TV.  Minutes, that is.  That’s what the title means – our 2009 was condensed down to 00:42:00 for the sake of a reality TV show…technically a documentary.  Can you imagine telling the story – the whole story, for better or for worse, holding back few intimate details – of any of your years past, hitting all of the highs and the lows and some of the in-betweens?  Now pick your best year and tell that story.  And after that, pick your worst year, your most stressful one and your most joyful and tell those.  Now can you imagine combining all of that, the best and the worst, the high and the low, and doing it in 00:42:00?  And one more thing – can you imagine taking all of that and giving it to relative strangers and asking them to tell the story instead?  Only this time set it to music…

I really think we will end up loving the show.  After we watch it a few more times and we get to see the final version (we were watching a cut that was maybe 90% complete), I think it will cease to be a bit overwhelming and I believe it will become a bit comforting, if not very much so, especially as the abstract tempest of our times slows to a summer breeze with occasional showers.

These relative strangers who are telling the story of our 2009 (who have become good friends, by the way) accepted a difficult task when they signed on to tell the story of this 2009.  At least in our eyes it was a challenge.  00:42:00 – That’s all they were given to tell you the story of a family population explosion and of all of the ups, downs, ins, and outs that came along with it.  Make no mistake about it – they clearly presented the reality of our life; there is little time for fluff and cutesy baby stuff.  And drama?  Absolutely…more than enough (cute little rhyme I just wove in there, huh? ;-)).

To the casual observer who knows little about us, I think you’ll like the show.  To those who know us best, I think you will too, but your initial reaction is likely to be as mixed as ours.  It was a great year, it was a tough year and as such, ‘Too Many Babies?’ reflects that reality very, very well.

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!