Victoria shook her head as she recalled Nick's broken arm while he was covered in feathers. They ended up throwing away Nick's clothes and boots and had to shave his hair. She thought Tom was going to skin both boys alive when he found out what happened. She also thought after that the boys would calm down but all it did was delay more adventures since Nick had a broken arm.

Melanie asked Victoria, "I take it then that they did not calm down after that?" She did her best to hide her smile from Nick.

Victoria shook her head, "No, if anything they got braver with their adventures as they got older. Then I had Audra and less than one year later here comes Eugene so I had my hands full taking care of them. Tom had a heart to heart talk with Jarrod and Nick explaining to both of them how important it was to help out around the house."

Nick mumbled, "I wouldn't call it a talk; more like a warning." Jarrod nodded his head in agreement. "But we did help mother with the little ones before we would go outside."

Maggie asked, "So Nick helped with Audra and Eugene when they were babies?"

"Oh yes," Victoria answered.

Maggie glared at her husband, "So you help with your mother with your brothers and sister but you can't help me?"

Nick frowned and tried to calm his pregnant wife down, "Now honey in my defense I didn't have a choice but to help. And I do help you with Tom and Maddy."

Maggie huffed, "Now you do. Where were you when they were sick or needed their diapers changed?"

Nick mumbled, "Well this is a working ranch."

Maggie folded her arms on her expanding waist line and said, "Well we'll just see about that once this one makes their appearance."

Nick frowned as Jarrod laughed at him. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," was Jarrod's only answer.

But Maggie wasn't done and asked Melanie, "Does Jarrod help with the boys?"

Melanie smiled widely as she snaked her arm through Jarrod's, "Oh yes. He is a very hands on father. If it hadn't been for him when the twins were born I'm not sure I would've made it." Jarrod puffed his chest out as his wife bragged on him.

Nick rolled his eyes as he looked away from Jarrod and to his brother-in-law Carl. "Do you help Audra with Torie?"

Audra answered for Carl, "He certainly does Nick."

Nick frowned and decided it was time to change the subject but Silas spoke up before Nick could.

"The boys did calm down some but then Heath came and the ruckus started all over again." Silas shook his head as he remembered some of the antics the three of them pulled.

Susan asked, "My Heath? He's so quiet."

Jarrod snorted, "Ha, it's the quiet ones you have to watch." Nick nodded his head in agreement.

Heath defended himself, "I was only doing what you two told me to do."

"You should have known better than to listen to us," Nick replied.

Eugene laughed as he spoke, "He's got you there Heath."

Heath frowned at Eugene but didn't say anything. Audra asked, "What did they get you to do Heath?"

"You name it. My brothers have a very active imagination."

Jarrod and Nick laughed at Heath's statement. Silas spoke up and said to Victoria, "Remember when they ate all the honey and tried to replace it without telling us?"

"Oh good Lord yes." Victoria rolled her eyes at that memory.

Maggie asked, "What happened?"

Silas answered, "They snuck into the kitchen one day and ate all my honey after I told them to leave it alone..."

Victoria interrupted and looked at Jarrod, "Sound familiar?"

Jarrod rolled his eyes but decided not to respond as he thought silence was his best option right now.

Melanie laughed, "Oh my I thought you were such an angel and now I find out I have married a hellion." Melanie laughed as Jarrod frowned at her.

Audra said, "Please tell us about that Silas."

Silas looked to Victoria who nodded her head yes. "Your momma was busy with you and Eugene so I tried to help keep your brothers corralled but that was a lost cause most of the time. Anyhow I had made biscuits one morning and theys ate them up but I told them to leave the rest for their momma and papa. While I was doing laundry those little rascals snuck back into the kitchen and finished off the biscuits and honey. I wasn't too worried about the biscuits but the honey was something different."

Nick spoke up, "Father loved honey on his biscuits and he had gone into town earlier for a meeting so Silas saved him some but we found it and ate it."

Silas added, "Making more biscuits was not a problem but the honey was. So I told them boys their papa would be furious with them for eating all his honey. I never dreamed they would have tried to get some more on their own. I just wanted to scares them so they would behave."

Maggie giggled, "It didn't work did it?"

"No. All it did was cause even more trouble and pain."

Melanie asked, "Pain?"

Silas nodded his head and said, "Pain, they came hightailing back to the house after they tangled with some angry bees."

Susan asked, "So you tried to get honey from a beehive?"

Heath answered quietly, "Yes"

Jarrod shook at the memory as he had gotten over ten bee stings, "We thought if we could get some honey from the beehive before father got home we wouldn't get in trouble."

Maggie asked, "And how in the world did you plan on doing that?"

Nick rolled his eyes and said, "We got a blanket from the barn to throw over the beehive so we wouldn't get stung." Nick shook his head as he continued, "We didn't know the bees would be able to sting us through the blanket or in the water."

Carl asked, "In the water?"

"We knew of a beehive close to a stream and figured once we got the beehive out of the tree we would take it to the stream and drown the bees before they could sting us and get the honey."

Carl and Audra laughed together. "Nick I knew you had some crazy ideas but that is a doozy," Carl laughed.

Nick protested, "It wasn't mine alone. Jarrod knew where the beehive was and he was the one who came up with the idea of throwing a blanket over it once we knocked it down."

Melanie asked her very quiet husband, "Where in the world did you come up with the idea of throwing a blanket over an active beehive?"

Jarrod shrugged his shoulders, "I thought if they couldn't see us they couldn't sting us."

Heath added, "It sounded like a good idea." The family started laughing at them again.

Melanie spoke again, "So I take it you learned bees can still sting in the dark?" She giggled.

Jarrod glared at his wife, "Yes we learned that the hard way." Jarrod shuddered at the memory as he knew he been stung well over ten times that morning.

Eugene asked, "So what was the plan?"

Jarrod, Nick and Heath all looked at each other but Nick was the one to speak. "We got a heavy blanket from the barn and rode as fast as we could to the beehive. Jarrod was able to get a huge limb down from another tree and once me and Heath were ready he started swinging at the beehive..."

Maggie interrupted Nick, "Why was Jarrod the one swinging the limb?"

"He was the tallest. Anyhow we noticed the bees were starting to buzz around and they were getting real mad."

Jarrod interrupted and said, "And you yelling at me certainly didn't help matters."

Nick rolled his eyes as he continued the story, "He was finally able to get the beehive down so me and Heath ran to cover up the beehive but by then it was too late as those bees were mad. We couldn't get close enough to cover it up with the blanket and then they started coming at us. We took off running and Jarrod pointed to the stream so we all jumped in the stream but they followed us in the stream. Jarrod was the only one who could swim so he was able to swim underwater and get away leaving me and Heath to fight off those bees. I saw Heath was taking off his clothes because some of the bees were stuck in his clothes so I started to take mine off too." He heard his wife laugh beside him.

Sally asked, "So you two were buck naked in the stream?" Nick and Heath nodded their head in agreement. She looked at Jarrod and asked, "Where were you?"

Jarrod laughed, "I was half way down the stream fully clothed. By the time I made it back the bees had left but Nick and Heath refused to come out of the water for fear of being stung again course I can't say as I blame them on that."

Nick said, "And all big brother did was laugh at us."

Jarrod replied, "It was funny Brother Nick."

Heath said, "You never should have taken our clothes."

Melanie gasped and said, "You took their clothes Jarrod?"

Jarrod defended himself, "Nick started yelling at me calling me names and blaming me for everything. So I figured I would show him and took their clothes."

Heath said, "Why did you take my clothes?"

"Because you were laughing as Nick was calling me names." Jarrod watched his expression and said, "Didn't think I saw you did you?" Jarrod cleared his throat and finished the story, "Since Nick didn't want to apologize to me I rode off with all their clothes and the honey." He grinned proudly.

"When Mr. Jarrod showed up with some honey and wet clothes I done knew something was up and when I asked him where his brothers were he said they were swimming and would be back shortly. He went to change into some dry clothes and do his chores like nothing happened." Silas shook his head as he remembered when Nick and Heath finally came back to the ranch. "When Mr. Nick and Mr. Heath came home the only thing they had on was their boots and a blanket wrapped around the both of them. They refused to tell me what happened but I knew it had something to do with the honey since I saw all the welps on them."

Maggie asked, "So what happened then?"

Jarrod laughed, "As far as I know mother never did find out exactly what happened until sometime after that. And father was none the wiser since he had honey for his biscuits when he got home that day."

Maggie asked Nick, "Is that why you don't care for honey, honey?"

The family started laughing again.