7 years later...........
"BEN FINLEY REID WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY KITCHEN AND CHILDREN?" I yelled when I walked into the kitchen. The sight before me was a mess. My husband and my six children in the middle of a food fight in the kitchen.
Blakelyn, Aaron, Declan, Holden and Hudson were scattered around the kitchen flour and eggs in hand with Ben in the middle holding onto our 3 year old Maddox who looked like a ghost, covered in flour.
"Making Christmas cookies got a little out of hand," Ben shyly looked away.
"Yeah I see that," I rolled my eyes.
"We are sorry mommy, but accidents happen." Holden and Hudson shrugged at the same time.
"Haha thats funny cause thats what mommy says about when she had you two," Declan laughed.
"Shhh.... I do say that but they don't need to know that. Now, we have fifteen minutes to get 8 people ready, I will take Blakelyn, Holden and Maddox you take the other 3, ready, set, break." And just like that we were off and getting ready. Its Christmas eve and all of our friends are coming over.
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"I missed you, its been 4 years since I have seen you." I hugged Shane.
"Yeah, well I'm divorced and moving back so your going to be seeing a lot more of me now." He smiled.
"Hey everybody!" Juliet shouted as she walked through the door.
"Juliet, I haven't seen you since your wedding 5 years ago," I hugged her.
"Oh my god, your-your huge!" I stared at her giant belly. "But how? You got divorced 3 years ago."
"Well thats actually why I am here the baby daddy is moving here so, so am I. But I will tell you more on that once everyone is here." She was glowing and I could tell she was genuinely happy for the first time in 7 years.
"I'M BACK BITCHES!!" Mason yelled coming through the door.
"Mason I swear if you yell one more time today, I am taking all your Christmas presents back!" Laurel warned.
"And I would appreciate it if you do not swear around my children." I laughed.
"Ah Lexi its been so long," Mason smirked and hugged me.
"Mase you live 5 minutes away and I saw you yesterday, remember I watched your kids along with my kids and Kristen's and Tenley's while you went shopping?"
"Yes, yes I do remember because you called me after an hour and asked how much longer."
"Ben and I had 16 kids to watch for 5 hours in the middle of winter."
"Hey you volunteered-" he was interupted as Kristen, Jackson, Tenley and Trey burst into the house along with alot of cold air.
"Brrr lets round up the kids and sit down Juliet has something to tell us about how she is pregnant at this moment." Kristen cut Mason off.
"To the living room children!" Mason yelled to all 16 kids and they all ran from where they were and followed all in the same superman position he was.
I sat down on the couch next to Ben and our children all piled on top of us.
"Well since you two know nothing about any of us anymore and have never met any of our children, we will sum it up and introduce you to them." Kristen stated and pointed at Juliet and Shane.
"I am going first since I have the most kids. You were both there when Ben and I got married and Blakelyn is my daughter and she is almost 9 then you were also there when I had Declan and Aaron and they are 7 years old now. However after you both moved I finished nursing school and Ben went to college and is a high school history teacher now. I don't work at the moment and in the summer I stay home and help with the farm and during the school year I watch everyone's kids that don't got to school and work on the farm in the morning. Then after we finished school we had another set of twin boys Holden and Hudson they are now 5, and about 3 years ago I had our last child Maddox. So Mase built us a house and Laurel did the interior design, all we had to do was move in." I finished the story then looked for Tenley to tell her story.
"Well you were at our wedding, then after that we had 2 daughters, Raven who is 3 and Taryne is 1. Trey is still an elementary guidance counselor and I graduated with a degree in child psychiatry. We then moved into a subdivision in the city." She explained while Mason wiggled in his seat and his kids copied him. "Okay Mase its your turn now,"
"So Laurel and I got married but I may have broken my promise and gotten her pregnant before we got married. I have a degree in architecture and Laurel in interior design. We have 4 kids and another on the way. Easton is 6 years old. Haven and Alexis are 4. Harper is 2 years old and we are having another boy and naming him Landon. I have built Lexi and Ben's house along with Laurel and my owns. In both cases I have made sure to make them big enough to hold all 26 of us at anytime." He huffed out of breath. "Now hurry up Kristen so I can hear how Juliet is pregnant,"
"I will cause I am anxious too. Jackson and I have 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. William obviously being the oldest almost 8 now. Then Hadley is 6 years olds, Cora is 5 and Robert otherwise known as Bob is just 2 years old. I became a high school health teacher and Jackson got a degree as a vet and took over the farm and we live in the old farm house. Now tell us about you Juliet." She demanded.
"Well after I got married to John I realized I loved the idea of him and him being a lawyer not him himself. So we divorced and then I was informed that Shane divorced Liz and thats when I realized I was still in love with him. So I found out where he was and I went to meet him. One thing led to another and hear I am pregnant and married again. Yeah we eloped so we are married and we are having a baby girl and naming her Meg. We are also moving back here and Shane is going to teach high school gym while I stay at home and hopefully help Lexi watch all 12 kids that can't go to school yet." She smiled.
"I knew it!" Mason yelled, "I knew he was the one that got you pregnant!"
"Okay thats it! No Christmas presents for you Mason Arden!" Laurel shouted back.
"Geez, pregnant woman is crazy." He muttered under his breath.
"Hahaha daddy is getting yelled at by momma. Keep going momma its funny." Easton giggled.
"Oh your going to get it little man," Mason warned and chased him around the living room.
"I got your back Easton keep going, I'll hold him down!" Shane yelled as he jumped and tackled Mason to the floor. All the kids then started tackling each other or dog piling on Mason and Shane.
"26 years old and they still fit in with the children." Ben muttered loud enough for us all to hear.
"Hey! I am 27! You even came over for my birthday!" Mason informed.
"Oh yeah we did sorry buddy," Ben replied in a apologetic tone.
"Guys! That doesn't make it better, he still acts like our children." Kristen laughed.
"Uncle Mason, Uncle Shane and kids settle down! Now let's open some presents!" I shouted over the noise. All the kids came running and Mason and Shane picked themselves up from the floor.
"How come she gets to yell?" Mason whined.
"Because there was a purpose to her yell and no one would hear her if she didn't. Now sit down and be a good boy." Laurel reprimanded.
"Yes ma'am, " he saluted and sat on the floor with his twins.
Once all the kids opened their presents, the girls went with Blakelyn to her room and the rest of the boys split up into the rooms of my five sons. We have a seven bedroom and five bathroom house, so each of our children have their own room and bathroom except the 2 sets of twins each share a bathroom.
"Kid free! Lets drink!" Trey cheered. Just as he cheered all 16 kids came trampling down the stairs and into the kitchen.
I scooped up Maddox into my arms, poured myself a drink and I looked around and everyone had a kid in their arms whether it was their child or not everyone was holding someone. And thats when it hit me.
"Lets make a toast!" Jackson shouted and everyone slowly shut their mouthes.
"Okay, go ahead." Tenley nodded at him to continue.
"Oh I don't have one I was just saying someone should say something." Jackson shrugged.
"Fine then Lex you make a toast," Tenley answered.
I nodded and began, "Loosing someone is never easy. But through death you receive something amazing. I lost Seth when I was young and because of that I grew closer to Jackson. Then I lost Adrian and I gained a precious baby girl to look after. And then my mom, and I gained all of you guys. It was because of my mom that I met all of you and became as close with all of you as I did.
Until this moment right here and now I never knew what that amazing something was that I received, and now I realized its family. Family is what you receive when you loose someone. And you have all become my family. I mean look around, all of us are holding a child some of which aren't even our own.
So here is to the nights that turned into mornings with the friends that turned into family." I smiled setting Maddox down on the floor, as tears ran down my face as I looked around at my gigantic kid infested family.
Tenley and Kristen crying and being the emotional people they are. Juliet rubbing her stomach and snuggling closer to Shane. Mason laughing at something one of their kids said that was inappropriate, and giving them a high five as Laurel slapped the back of his head. Jackson and Trey laughing at how their wives just keep crying. And Ben just looking around doing the same as I was.
But then after everyone settled down we looked around again, and saw that everyone even Mase and Shane had tears in their eyes.
Maddox tugged on my sleeve and raised his arms like he wanted to be picked up. Everyone was silent as they waited for him to speak and they intensely listened to him.
"Why is everyone crying mommy?" Maddox asked. I looked around one more time while preparing to answer and saw everyone smiling at his sweet little question.
"Because we are happy with our family."
The End!
I hope you like it let me know if there is something you want changed. I would love to know! However I am going to be changing the names of the characters. So....
Parker will be Ben
Lennox will be the same
Laken will be Juliet
Lauren will be Laurel
Mason will be the same
Blake will be Shane
Jackson will be the same
Nicki will be Kristen
Trey will be the same
Payton will be Tenley
Logan will be Asher
Cole will be Jordan