AFV Results and Watch Party, Plus Some

Well, those of you that watched America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday, January 11th already know the results. But for the rest of you........Drumroll, please .................

The Graf Quads took 3rd place (AKA last place) with their video, "Quads for Cash"

walmp, walmp, walmp (man, that "let-down" sound is hard to type!)

Yes, we knew we didn't win that day back in November when we filmed the show in L.A. It was a little disappointing, but you just can't complain about an all-expenses paid trip to LA, PLUS $2000 prize money (less taxes, of course). It's about time our babies started pulling some of their own weight around here! Now maybe we can wait until they're three before we send them out to get a real job.

The 2nd place, $3000 winner was a video of a dog running trying to run on a slick linoleum floor.

The 1st place, $10,000 winner was of a little girl (2 at the time.....20 years old at the show filming) who ate a radish thinking that it was a "little apple". They were both very good videos and deserved to win. However, I don't think the studio audience really understood what was going on at first in our clip. When they finally DID catch on, the clip was over. Much of the humor was lost in translation. Oh well.

On the day of the filming, we weren't allowed out onto the set with the babies until AFTER all voting was complete. The moment we stepped out onto the stage with all the babies, everyone just melted and we heard ooohs and aaahs (some gasps), giggles, and lots of awwwwws. The babies were the stars of the show from that point on. I can totally understand their rule about letting the audience see them before voting. We probably would have swayed the votes in our favor.

We were able to meet the host, Tom Bergeron, that day. Stupid me...I forgot to ask for a picture with him! He really was just as funny and lighthearted off camera as he is on. At one point, Pius or Forrest started getting squirmy and fussed a little. Tom did his best to impersonate Johnny Cash's song, "I Walk the Line", but to no avail. When he asked why it wasn't working, I promptly responded that the babies accept NO imitation! The audience got a kick out of that. Then, he asked about the Gerber Puffs we were giving them to keep them distracted and calm. He referred to them as "Baby Xanax". That was pretty funny and everyone laughed again. At the end of the show, Tom came up and started talking to us about the kids. He paid us a HUGE compliment and told us our babies were, by far, they best kids they've ever had on the show! I'm sure he says that to all the contestants. It was a nice gesture, anyway.

All in all, it was a GREAT experience and something we will always remember. We never would have survived the trip without our 2 helpers/baby wranglers Aunt Lainie and our good friend Ashyn. Thanks for tagging along, you two!

We had a GREAT turnout for the "AFV Watch Party" at Oscar's. Billy and I were guessing somewhere between 100-150 people showed up to cheer us on! Have we mentioned before how great our family and friends are?!?! It was pretty much "standing room only".

We also had a reporter there from a local news station, KAKE TV Channel 10, who interviewed us and stuck around to get a little video sampling from the party. They aired our segment that night on the 10:00 news, then again on the morning 5:30 news and AGAIN at 11:30 on Monday. Must've been a S-L-O-W news day here in the Dub! Oscar's was really noisy and packed, so it was hard understanding what was being asked. If you notice us looking a little discombobulated.....we were! KAKE was able to air a short segment of the AFV clip, and it is now on their website. I have a link to the video, but you have to HURRY UP and view it. It will probably get removed from their flashplayer sometime in the next few days.

To see our news clip with the AFV clip in it, click on this link: KAKE TV News Clip and AFV Video (be patient...it takes a minute to load).

Due to legal mumbo-jumbo, we will never be able to post that video again on our blog. It now belongs to "The Man". Don't worry....we still have a copy in our back pocket for safe keeping (wink, wink).

I'm hoping the video will be up on the AFV website sometime soon. If that's the case, I'll be sure to post a link to it at that time.

In other news, Pius and Forrest have been taking more and more steps this week. I caught a little of it on camera. Laine, I think, has a little jealousy bug that bites him every now and then when the other boys are getting attention for their walking. He'll see that everyone's clapping for them, get up, and run right in front of them and then to Billy or me. It's like he's saying, "Big deal...I've been doing that for 2 months now. It's about time they started doing something besides clapping and making eyes! Sheesh."

I'm also including some video footage of their newest tricks. I swear, they're like little sponges. They pick up EVERYTHING. Forrest already says, "Wass sis and wass sat?" (what's this and what's that?). Guess we better start choosing our words more carefully around them. I can already picture them getting sent home from school with notes that read:


Dear Mr. and Mrs. Graf,

Pius, Forrest, Danna and Laine hosted a cussing contest at school today. Unsurprisingly, they all tied for 1st. Please instruct them that this is not appropriate behavior and discipline them as you see fit (preferably NOT with high fives). They have corrupted 90% of their class and even some from the upper grades while at recess. The only one not affected was the deaf child (but he can read lips). Even I learned some new words from them.

They will be serving detention for the remainder of the year.

Sincerely,
Miss (insert name here)


Like I said.....we'll be choosing our words carefully.





I apologize in advance for my annoying repetition. That's probably the only reason the babies pick up their new tricks so well.....because they just want me to shut up!





Hope you enjoyed the videos. Until next time, keep your cameras rolling America...........

Love,

The Graf's


P.S. I didn't want to cut Laine's post short by putting this up yet. However, due to the video not being up for much longer, I had to. If you haven't already, please still leave Laine a comment under his Laine Day post! Thanks!

P.S.S. - Oh my gosh. This is making me SO mad. I keep trying to edit this post so there are spaces between paragraphs and it's easier reading. When I "Preview", it all looks good. Then I publish post, and you get what you see here. SO FRUSTRATING! Anyone have any ideas? I've tried to edit the HTML and it's still not working. HELP!