Chapter 23

BPOV

…..Two days before…..

"Well don't you look well satisfied this morning?" Liam grinned at me. He was once again lounging on my couch in nothing but his pajamas, eating leftover Thanksgiving dressing.

"Will you ever go home? I love you but I want my couch back." I said.

"I will Booger, but this stuff between Seth and me is just one big mess." He moped.

"You never did tell me what actually went on between you two. Usually it's something simple, but for you to be stinking up my couch for the past couple of weeks means that this argument had to be really big." I asked settling down beside him. I handed him a cup of coffee.

"Oh Booger, this is a mess. Seth wants it all." He sighed.

"And that's a problem because…" I drew off.

"I…I don't know if I'm ready for all of that. He wants us to move out the apartment and buy a house, he wants a family. All that jazz and it terrifies me." Liam admitted.

"Big Bro, you and Seth have been together almost as long as Edward and I have. No offense to you Li, but by now you shouldn't be having any doubts about anything going on in your relationship. Are you unhappy with him?" I ask.

"No Bells, I love Seth. It's just that everything is changing. You're a mama now and no longer my partner in crime, Dad's retiring from the force and leaning on me to take action, and now all of this crap with Seth. It's all taking a toll in me." Liam scrubbed his hands along his face as he fought tears. I settled my coffee down on the table and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Liam I love you and you're my big brother but sometimes you can be really stupid." I replied.

"Booger, I'm trying to vent to you about my frustrations and you are over here insulting my intelligence."

"Hey don't get all melodramatic. I wasn't insulting you and you know it. If I wanted to I'll tell you straight to your face…but hey, I'm losing my train of thought. As I was saying, I meant that you are acting stupidly not that you are stupid. You have so many things going on for you right now. A loving boyfriend who wants to spend the rest of his life with you, a loving family and friends who adore you. Not to mention the best kid sister in the world who is the mother to your nephews and niece who all love you very much and said kid sister will forever be your best friend and partner in crime and will also be very disappointed if you don't resolve things soon and you wouldn't want to disappoint her would you?" I get out in one breath. Liam blinked at me for a few seconds and I mentally high fived myself when I saw him fight a smile.

"No I wouldn't, although I would like said sister to get her head off my shoulder. I have a man to go reconcile with." Liam cheered standing up.

"That's the spirit!" I laughed.

"Yep and besides your head is too heavy. It made my shoulder hurt." He grinned grabbing me into a tight hug. I planted a sloppy wet kiss on his cheek.

….

EPOV

"What are you doing huh? What's my boy doing?" I looked over to see Brayden standing up in his crib, holding on to the bars that framed it. This had become a common occurrence lately with them all grabbing onto things to pull themselves up and I knew it was only a matter of time before they started walking and then all hell would break loose.

"Da!" he babbled bouncing up and down on chubby legs. I walked over and picked him up where once again my face became a teething tool.

"Uh nope bud, Daddy's face is not food. Now what are you doing up?" I asked not expecting an answer.

I checked the other cribs to make sure they were all asleep for naptime and they were san Ethan who was just lying there quietly staring up at nothing. Of course when he saw me, he gave me a one tooth grinned and reached his arms up for me.

I walked over to his crib and picked him up; quickly exiting before those two woke up the other babies.

"Bloogh!" Ethan spit in my ear.

"Gross dude, not cool." I fake whined. I walked back into the living room where Bella was sitting on the couch typing away on her laptop. She had been doing that a lot lately and I wondered what she was up to.

"Are they all still asleep?" she asked, never once looking up from the computer screen.

"Ma!" Brayden squealed.

"There's your answer." I laughed. Bella took a moment to finish typing whatever she was writing and closed the laptop, settling it on the table beside her.

"Hi my baby boys, what are you two doing up? Its naptime." She cooed as I handed Brayden over to her and sat down beside her.

"This guy thought it was playtime; found him standing up in his crib and everything. And the E man over here was just lying there and when he saw me, decided to join the party." I laughed as we both settled them on the floor to let them crawl around a bit.

"What were you up to?" I asked her.

"Nothing really, just writing." Bella replied trying to get up. I rolled my eyes and pulled her down onto my lap. I kissed her shoulder.

"Writing about what?" I asked.

"Just my thoughts really. Nothing important." Bella replied and began playing with my fingers.

"Then it is important. Any thoughts of yours are definitely worth sharing." I stated. Bella smiled and kissed my temple.

"Just rambles mostly. You know my whole pregnancy experience, the struggles, our family; the babies and their upcoming birthday. Just something to document the experience." She said.

"Sounds tedious to me." I laughed and she swatted my hand from going down her leg.

"Okay Edward, say that again when you're old and grey and can't remember what day of the week is it." She huffed.

"Hell, I do that now and holy crap!" I screeched, standing up abruptly and promptly knocking Bella off my lap and onto the floor hard.

"Jesus Edward, what is wrong with you?" Bella asked glaring at me.

"Look!" I pointed over at Brayden. We both looked over to see him huffing quietly on his bottom. Bella turned her attention back to me.

"Really Edward!" I watched as he did it again.

"Now look!" I pointed. Bella turned her head again and watched him crawl along the floor towards the lounge chair.

"Have you lost your mind husband?"

"No I haven't, Bella…just look." I grabbed her face in my hands.

"Edward, what are you doi…oh my god!" Bella gasped as we both looked over at Brayden who was once again standing up against the edge of the lounge chair. He had a look of determination on his face as he stepped forward on one little chubby leg. He wobbled for a second and both Bella stood up to catch him in case he toppled over. Brayden took another step forward on his little feet, before taking three more quick steps to grab onto the table nearby.

The room was silent except for our heavy breathing which soon into chuckles of laughter and joy as Bella ran over and scooped him up into her arms and started planting kisses over his face.

I felt like a proud papa. Of course it wasn't more than a couple of steps and the table was less than a foot away but it was progress.

Our son was becoming mobile and soon it was only a matter of time before the house would be filled with the footfalls of little feet.

I grabbed the both of them in a tight hug and kissed both of their heads.

"Da!" Ethan babbled as he tugged on my toe. I bent down to pick him up.

"Can't forget you either buddy. Did you see what your big brother did? Can you do that?"

"Bloogh!" he spit in my ear.

Guess not.

BPOV

…One Day before….

"This is getting old Booger. You took me from having sexy times with my man to help you run errands. Haven't you learned by now that every time we get together something bad happens?" Liam huffed.

"Liam!" I smacked his arm.

"Hey driving here! I know we all must die someday but I don't want it to be today. Why couldn't you torture Edward or someone else, why me?" he asked.

"Well for starters, Edward's at home with the babies. They were a little fussy this morning and I know I couldn't get anything done if I brought them with me, did I forget to mention Brayden's walking, oh never mind, what was I saying? Oh, Mom has a doctor appointment, Dad's finishing paperwork, Carlisle's on call, Esme has a client…"

"Okay I get it." Liam interrupted. I continued anyway.

"Gran can't handle them all on her own; Max is recovering from a cold so Jasper and Alice are out. Rosalie and Emmett have their own problems so that's a no; Ms. Dora has her own grandkids to worry about, and Seth's at work so that leaves…" I breathed.

"Good ol me." Liam mocked.

"Fine be that way. I'll just do all the running by myself and to think that I was going to bake you your own special cake for helping me." I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest childishly. Liam stopped the car abruptly and if it wasn't for our seatbelts we both would have went through the windshield.

"Jesus Li! Have you lost your freaking mind!" I screeched, raising my hand to my chest to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. Liam lowered his hands from the wheel and looked at me, flashing me a devilish smile.

"Did you say cake?"

…..

"See what I mean? This could only happen to us." Liam sighed.

I looked over his mess filled kitchen and turned to him.

"What did you do?" I asked. I looked over at the counter to see the two sheet pans of cake I prepared for him charred black.

"I wanted some cake okay, and I thought that if I turned the heat up a bit it'll cook faster." Liam whispered.

"So you forgot about it."

"Not exactly, Seth called on his lunch break and he kinda distracted me and…." I walked out the kitchen and began gathering all the stuffed we made including the cupcakes I made specifically for the babies and the sheet cake and party bags, I made for the party.

"You burnt it, you fix it!" I laughed at the look of defeat on his face.

"You promised me you'd bake me a cake." Liam whined behind me.

"And I did, you just sped up the process and finished it all off for me." I grinned kissing his cheek.

"Love you Li, see you tomorrow."

….The Day of…

"Today's the day! I can't believe it!" I squealed, startling Edward who was sound asleep next to me. He looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand and groaned.

"Bella, it's one in the fucking morning. You didn't think you could've waited until it was at least daylight outside and someone other than raccoons and owls were up to start scaring people half to death?" He slurred, rolling over onto his stomach. He tried to wrap his arm around my waist and I swatted his arm away.

"Well excuse me for having enthusiasm on this very special occasion." I huffed.

"I'm excited too love, but can we really do this at a respectable hour when I am alert and my body's not glued to this bed? Someone wore me out." Edward snickered and I felt myself flush.

"You're insufferable." I groaned flopping back down on my back.

"Maybe, but you love me." Edward grinned leaning over me and caging me in with his arms.

"Why do I keep hearing that lately? First Liam and now you." I sighed.

"Who cares about what Liam said? How about you and I get some shut eye, we have a lot ahead of us." He pushed.

"But I'm not tired though." I whined.

"Oh I can make you tired." Edward grinned before shutting me up with a searing kiss.

…

"Thanks for coming!" I grinned to everyone. There were people everywhere. Family, friends, coworkers; all here to help up celebrate the fact that our babies were officially one year old.

The celebration was being held at Dave's Playland which was a huge inside play area that catered to the age groups of children ten and under. They had their own food that you could order to be catered or the option of bringing in your own stuff.

There were spacewalks, jungle gyms, and even a mini train that rode the rails throughout the whole building. It was all basically a mini amusement park for children and infants and I knew it was the perfect place to host the tuplets birthday party.

Dave's Playland even had their own petting zoo, much to my chagrin which is where I found Edward and my father along with a few other guests and their children.

Edward was holding Daniel with one arm while holding a baby rabbit with the other. As cute as it looked, I was still terrified of having it close to my kid.

My dad was no better. He was holding JJ and Auden on one of the miniature horses they brought out while he walked alongside it with the caretaker.

I swear these animals were going to give me a coronary or my brother as he came up behind me while I was talking to one of my old coworkers. I felt something heavy fall on my head and nearly peed my pants as I felt it begin to move.

"Oh my God! What is on me?" I asked. It was taking everything inside me not to freak out. I looked over my shoulder to see Liam giving me a victorious grin as he walked away.

I high-tailed it over to Edward who was now washing his and Danny's hands.

"Edward!" I huffed frantically. He turned to me and a grin broke out on his face.

"Well hello there." He grinned looking at my head.

"Edward, get whatever's on my head off me." I began bouncing on my feet as he laughed.

"Edward Cullen, this is not the time to be laughing at me." I whined. Edward rolled his eyes and reached at whatever was moving on top of my head. I closed my eyes fearing the worst.

I opened my eyes to see that he was holding a little baby chick. It was fluffy and a soft yellow color with the smallest little feet and beak. I admit I almost wanted to pick it up and cuddle it to my face to see how soft it was.

Almost.

"And here you were freaking out. All over a baby chicken." He laughed again.

"It's not funny! I didn't know what it was and I definitely didn't want to touch it and find out." I crossed my hands over my chest defensively. Edward tried to hand it over to me.

"Oh no, I'll take our child, you go give it back to its caretaker or mother or whatever. It's cute but I don't want it on me. Besides, its almost time to sing Happy Birthday. We need to start rounding people up.

I began walking around to gather everyone when I spotted Emmett. Emmett McCarthy; the six foot five, 220 pound man child bouncing in one of the spacewalks with the kids.

"Hey Em, get out of there! You'll break it!" I called out. Emmett groaned and so did the other kids who were using his weight for leverage. All I needed was for him to break something. That definitely wouldn't work out with the owners if he demolished the poor thing.

"Aww man, you're no fun." He sighed. I patted his shoulder and began directing everyone to one of the front tables where the cakes were situated.

I had made a huge three layer sheet cake for the guests while I made six cupcakes for each of the babies to have.

"Come on everyone!" I hollered. Our family and friends gathered around as Edward and I sat beside each other, three kids each in our laps.

The sheet cat was decorated as a miniature farm, with each candle representing an animal with each of their names under them.

Although I was pretty sure the tuplets didn't know what was going on, I could tell that they were definitely excited by all the attention they were getting. They practically bounced on our laps and clapped their hands excitedly at all the grinning faces. Carlisle walked over and lit the candles and the singing began.

"Happy Birthday to you!" They all chorused. "Happy Birthday to you!"

"Happy Birthday dear Brayden, Auden, Ethan, Gavin, Noah, and Danny!"

"Whoo that was a mouthful!" Liam cheered.

"Happy Birthday to you!" They all sang. They all clapped and cheered as Edward and I leaned forward to blow the candles out and kissed their cheeks.

We then stripped them to their diapers, putting bibs on them in hopes of catching some of the impending mess. We situated each of them in their little chairs and settled a cupcake in front of them.

It was only a matter of seconds before their little hands flew and cake and icing was everywhere while they tried to get it into their mouths.

Esme was beside herself, snapping away with her camera while my mother, Angela, Rosalie, and Alice began serving out ice cream and cake.

Within ten minutes those cupcakes were demolished and the evidence was smeared all over their hair, faces, and arms.

The bibs were pretty pointless now.

The games and activities resumed after eating while Edward and I tried to clean our cake covered children.

"You sure some of it actually got in their mouths?" Edward asked as he cleaned off Gavin who was currently trying to eat his arm.

"I think some of it did." I laughed. "Yeah you all need a nice bath when we get home." We dressed them back in their clothes and soon enough they were gone from our hands; off with some various family member or friend.

The party continued on for another two and a half hours and by the end of it, it was nothing left but exhausted kids who were leaning on their parents as they left. I handed each of them a party favor and thanked them for helping us celebrate such a momentous occasion.

The tuplets were sound asleep, sitting in the car with Grandma Swan while Edward and I, along with our parents cleaned up. They helped us pack up the car with all the gifts and left. All I had left to get was the remaining leftover cake and sign off with the manager who had helped us today.

After signing off, the first thing I noticed was that the cake was no longer where I left it on the table. Neither was my brother who just so happened to disappear the moment before.

Feeling suspicious, I scavenged around and noticed a small cake trail leading behind one of the spacewalks.

Low and behold, there was my brother and Seth munching away; frosting all over their faces. They looked up at me guiltily as I approached.

"I don't even want to know." I giggled heading outside. I got in the car and looked over at Edward who was looking at me with an amused expression.

"Do I really want to know why you came back empty handed?" He asked pulling out of the parking lot.

"Nope. Let's just say that someone wanted to have their birthday cake and eat it too." I grinned.

"Such a silly woman." Edward smiled.

"But you love me." I smiled.

"That I do and the six sleeping one year olds in the back, who are going to be awfully angry at being woken up."

"It's the price we pay at being parents. They need to be clean."

"I guess you're right." He replied.

"Oh I know I'm right."

…

EPOV

"Here comes Santa Claus!" I cheered, pulling a large red bag behind me as I walked into the living room.

Bella was sitting on the floor in her little red pajamas while the babies were situated in a half circle on the floor. Their little gummy grins welcomed me into the room as I stared at them in awe.

We had really gone all out this year. Lights were everywhere and we had gotten nearly the biggest tree there was. This Christmas was really important and special to us.

It wasn't our first Christmas with the kids, but it was definitely our first being home and together as an official family. Our families wouldn't be over until later, giving us a few hours to enjoy this moment by ourselves.

Presents were presents. If our house wasn't cluttered now from before and the birthday party, it definitely was now. Wrapping paper and packaging was everywhere. They squealed and babbled at the various toys and stuffed animals given to them and needless to say that they were worn out by the time nap time came along.

Bella and I had exchanged gifts earlier that morning; Bella giving me a new watch, tickets to go see my favorite and new iPad, while I had given her a silver locket engraved with our names, a new purse, and a voucher for her to have a relaxing spa day with the girls.

I was practically bouncing on my feet at the real gift I had for Bella. She had been eyeing me suspiciously all morning but I just waved her off. I had been busy the previous days prior to make sure everything was ready and in order and didn't want to ruin it by giving myself away too soon.

Bella was up in our bedroom lounging on her stomach with her feet in the air. Her head was resting lightly on Jerry's back and both of their eyes were focused on the television where A Christmas Story was playing.

In her hand was a glass of eggnog and I casually took it from her hand as I flopped down on the bed next to her.

"What are you up to Mr. Cullen?" She turned her head to look at me.

"Oh nothing." Bella gave me a curious glance before directing her attention back to the television screen.

Using her distraction as an opportunity, I slid the large manila envelope by her head.

"What is this?" she asked sitting up.

"Why don't you open it and find out."

"But I thought we were finished with the presents." Bella huffed.

"Love, nothing's wrong with one more. Now come on." I settled the glass on the nightstand and turned to her. Bella rolled her eyes at me and slid her finger under the seal. She reached inside and pulled out the small piece of metal.

"You got me a key." She deadpanned.

"Yes, I got you a key." I grinned.

"No offense but what kind of gift is this?" she huffed.

"Maybe you should find out, I mean there is more." She eyed me doubtfully and reached into the envelope and pulled out the few sheets of paper. She read over it for a few seconds and I grinned when I saw her eyes widen.

"Is…is this what I think it is?" she whispered looking up at me.

"Yep, all those long hours of being cooped up at the office finally paid off." Bella grabbed my hand tightly.

"I...just…I don't believe it. I thought it would be gone by now." She fingered the locket around her neck.

"No my love, I did a little research and managed to get a hold on it so no one would get it." I replied, wiping the few stray tears that began to fall.

"Edward you bought us a house. Not just any house but the house we saw last year; my dream house." She whispered.

"I told you I would get it for you love. You deserve it and so does our family. I see how cluttered everything is and with the New Year approaching I thought it was time for a little change." I managed to get out before Bella jumped me, sending us spiraling towards the floor.

"Ooft" I grunted against the floor.

"Ahh! I love you so fucking much Edward Cullen!" she squealed planting kisses all over my face.

"So now we're cursing eh? And I love you too Mrs. Cullen." I laughed.

"How soon can we move in?" she asked excitedly.

"Whenever you're ready, it's all ours." I replied. Bella jumped off me and began dancing around the room; her rambles of her excitement and everything that needed to be done filling the room.

I pulled myself up and just watched my beautiful wife; relishing the changes that came this year and looking forward to what was to come.

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Next chapter we fast forward big time. And it's looking like we have two chapters left so chapter 25 is where we will end.

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Until again,

Xoxox Sylvia Cullen