Never Give Up (IOBILY3) [COMPLETE] (JM)

chapter 22

L A U R E N

It's christmas! We're with the Maynard family again. All of us are here except Molly. She couldn't come as she has to spend Christmas with her family.

So far, we've opened stockings, opened presents and played a few games. All of us are dressed and looking amazing as ever! The kids are having fun playing with their new things although Ava is sleeping. It's been quite hectic. This is our first christmas with four kids. We've had a very mental day.

Everyone decided to go outside, since it's sunny. Me being me, and wearing leggings on christmas for once, I decided to get on the trampoline. I bounced a little bit and showed off.

"Let's see what you can do." I started off with just a normal front landing then a back landing.
"Well you're clearly no good..." They know thats not true as they've seen me doing it before. I decided to do a front somersault next.

"Conor... Watch and learn!" I did a back pullover. It was a fairly messy one but still looked quite neat.
"I can do that though."
"Yeah... Messily!"
"How do I make it look neater then?" He questioned. I got off the trampoline so he could get on.

"Just start off by doing one." He did one and his arms were all over the place.
"Tuck in your arms. It might help your legs to be tucked in too. They seem to be very outwards facing." He tried again and this time sorted his legs out. They still look a little messy but that's because he isn't using his arms.

"Remember your arms!" Again, he did it without the arms.
"If you don't use your arms, you'll never get it right!" He tried again and got it close enough.
"That's fine, whatever! I don't care any more."

Conor got off the trampoline and went to sit back down with everyone.
"Seriously though, you could be an actual coach for that!"
"I'm professionally trained to be one!" I got the qualifications when I was 16-19.
"Since when?"
"Since a long time ago!"
"Yeah but when?" It may take a while to explain. There's a whole long story to it.

"So I started trampolining when I was 10 and living in England. We, my dads family, then lived in Australia for 7 years. I started to get my qualifications when I was 16. My last qualifications were achieved when I was 19. For a little while, I was a coach. When I was 20, we came back and I stopped trampolining altogether. Then I met Josh. He was trying to encourage me to carry on but it wasn't going to happen." I've never noticed how long that story actually is.

"So you were a coach at one point but now you're not?"
"Yeah."
"And you've got all the qualifications?"
"Exactly." As much as I'd love to start again, I couldn't. I have kids now and because I have kids, it would make it impossible!
"Visit your old coach then..." Jack's idea isn't actually that bad!

I could visit her but I don't know if she's still there. Her daughter would be.
"I suppose I could. That would be pretty cool."
"We're doing it then. We're going back to... Wherever it was you used to live!" It's settled, were going.

~

At about 2, the food was ready. We all sat down at the table to eat it. I still think Helen's food is the best! I was seated in between Jaspar and Aliana and Jack was the other side of Ali. Caleb was seated in between Anna and Conor. Now might be a good time to mention the name thing of the kids.

"I thought I should tell you now just to see all your reactions..."
"Don't tell me you're pregnant again?" Anna shouted out. Jack looked at me with an alarmed face.
"No! Nothing like that. It's actually about the kids names."
"What? Their names?" I nodded.
"Yeah. I wanted to see if you noticed anything." None of them realised what I've done.

"So the first child out of you three if Conor. The first child of ours is Caleb. Your second child was Jack and ours is Jaspar. Your third child is Anna and ours is Aliana. Ava doesn't count in this one."
"So what's the thing that were supposed to notice?" Gary questioned.
"Just think of the first letter of each of their names..."
"C, J, A. Then there's C, J, A. Oh yeah! I never noticed that."
"So that's why you always wanted names starting with those letters. I get it now." Jack finally understands!

~

This christmas has been good. The kids have all had a very good time! It's also been a good year. We've now got a four year old, 2 3 year olds and a little 3 month old. I've had a good year!

(A/n) I'M MEETING JOE TODAY!!!!!!!! I actually cannot wait! I'll be telling you all about it when I update later (it is Saturday after all, which means double update) hope you're enjoying it!! Xx

(Meeting Joe was so good! I wish i could do it again but I'm on holiday during his next tour...)