Ruthie woke up the next morning, to the phone ringing.
"Hello?" Ruthie answered tiredly. It was a long night last night. A very long night. (If you know what I mean. If you don't…just…never mind.) She stuck her tongue out at her husband, who was still sleeping, then turned her attention to the phone.

"Hi mommy!" said a little voice on the other end.
"Lauren?" she asked.

"It's me!" she said, sounding very hyper.

"Oh dear…did grandma give you chocolate again?" she asked, putting her free hand on her forehead.

Lauren laughed. "Yes…" she said.

"Oh no…can I talk to her?"

"Sure. GRANDMA!" Lauren yelled in the phone, causing Ruthie to pull the phone back, wincing at how loud she was.
"What was that?" Martin asked.

"Your daughter." Ruthie said, putting the phone back up to her ear.

"Hello?" Annie answered.
"Why did you give her chocolate?" she asked, once again.
"I love her…" Annie said.
"I love her too, but we know better than to give her chocolate, because she gets all…well you heard her! That yell woke Martin up. And we were up late last night."
"I'm sorry dear. The kids and I are going to hang out all morning. Is that ok?"
"Sure. Keep them. Forever." Ruthie joked. "They're all hyper anyway and I'd like some more time alone with my husband if that's alright."
"Sure it is. You know what? How about you just meet us over here for dinner tonight?"
"Mom…" Ruthie whined. "Why do you use EVERY excuse to get together and eat? You can come over if you want, I guess. I have an idea! Why don't you and dad go out?"
"I guess we could." Annie said.
"Go! You guys haven't been out in ages!"
"Ok. I'll talk to your dad and see what time he wants to leave, and we'll drop off the kids."
"Great. Thanks mom."
"Love you."
"I love you too. Bye." Ruthie hung up, turning to her husband.

"That was…Lauren?" He asked, sighing.
"Yep. Your daughter."
"Our daughter…"

"Right. I keep forgetting that!" Ruthie joked, playfully smacking herself on the head.

"How are you?" he asked, kissing her gently.
"Great. Feeling a little sick this morning."
"I'm sorry I did this to you…" he said, blushing.

"Oh stop it. You know I wanted a baby too! And I helped!" she said.

"I know. Duh!" he said, jokingly.
"Did you just call me dumb?" she asked.

"What? Where'd you get that darling?"
"You said 'duh'!"

"…and?"
"That's calling me dumb."

"Ok…ok. I'm sorry dear…for…calling you dumb." He said, having a puzzled look on his face.

She smiled, looking satisfied, and kissed him.

"I'm going to go start on breakfast." She announced, swinging her leg over the side of the bed, getting out, and walking downstairs.

"Oy. Pregnancy hormones…here we go again…" he said, sighing. He got out of bed, and went downstairs to help his wife.

She already had a ½ carton of eggs sitting on the counter and a gallon of milk, and was trying desperately to reach the pancake mix. He came up behind her, and got the mix out of the cupboard, putting it on the counter.
"Oh. I knew I married you for some reason." She said, jokingly.
"Yup. That and I'm the father of your children, so I'm sticking around." He said, kissing her cheek, and wrapping his hands around her waist.

"You better be sticking around."

"You have nothing to worry about Mrs. Brewer." He said, kissing her.

"I was hoping you'd say that." She said, as Martin started mixing the pancake batter together. It splattered as Ruthie was making scrambled eggs. She gasped jokingly. He took his index finger, putting it on some batter on her face. He took his finger away, looking at the batter, and then sticking his finger in his mouth.
"Mmm…tasty!" he said.
"Oh you're going to get it now Brewer!" she said, running around the house after him. She laughed, slipping on the floor and falling on her butt. She cracked up and Martin came back, looking concerned.

"Are you ok babe?" he said, kneeling beside her, and she rolled over on her stomach, her face beat red from laughing so hard.

"Yeah…I'm fine." She said, trying to catch her breath. He kissed her, and then pulled away.
"Oh crap. The eggs…" he said, sighing and getting up. He put them on a plate, along with 2 pancakes for each of them, and even a slice of bacon. He got 2 glasses of milk, then set them on the floor beside Ruthie.
"Where were we?" he asked, sitting beside her again.
"Right about…here." She said, grabbing his shirt, pulling him closer to her. He kissed her passionately, and then pulled away.
"Gosh Ruthie what you do to me." He said, leaning in and kissing her again. She pulled out of it, taking his face in her hands. "I love you Martin." She said, kissing him again and he hugged her. "I'm hungry." She said, grabbing a plate.
"Geez Ruthie…way to ruin a moment." He said, grabbing his plate and eating.

After breakfast, they cleaned up, and then watched a movie and took a nap. It was getting close to time for the girls to come home, so they just laid on the couch and talked.

"So you're really happy about this baby?" she asked, looking up at him, and he wrapped his arms around her, taking her hands in his.
"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I can't wait." He said excitedly.
"Me either. Should we tell everyone tonight?"
"Sure. We'll call mom and dad later and tell them. And your dad! And put them on speaker phone! Oh I love three way calling…and then we can call Lucy and Kevin, and Matt and Sarah, and Simon and Sandy, and Sam and David…" she said and he laughed.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"You know what I think? I think we should tell the kids first."
"I think you're right. But they might kill us."
"As long as it's not a boy, I think we'll be ok."
"I kinda wanted a boy…" Ruthie said.

"Me too…but I sort of want all girls more. I thought before that I'd want all boys. Then Madison got here and changed everything for me."
"Do you want to know? Whether it's a boy or girl?" she asked him.
"You know what? We found out for Maddie, Allie, and Lauren. I think I want this one to be a surprise. Pick out a boy's name and a girl's name…we haven't picked out boy's names. Ever."
"Well we will this time, if that's what you want."
"That's exactly what I want." He said, kissing her. The kiss got deeper, and pretty soon, they were making out on the couch. Of course, this had to be the exact moment that Annie and Eric walked in with the girls. However, they managed to do so very quietly. So quietly, that Martin and Ruthie didn't even hear them.
"Eww…" Allie said, as they shut the door.
"Have they been doing this a lot lately honey?" Annie asked jokingly.
"Yes!" Allie said, totally serious.
Eric cleared his throat. "Hello!" he said, as Martin and Ruthie quickly pulled away from each other.

They blushed, wiping their mouths, and Ruthie fixed her hair.

"I thought you were going to call mom." Ruthie said, through clenched teeth, obviously upset.

"We decided to stop by. We had no idea…" Annie started laughing and Ruthie put her hands on her hips, looking up at Martin and smiling.
"Well…we're allowed…right? We're over 30 years old. Mom." He said jokingly and hugged Annie.
"Thanks for bringing them home."
"No problem. We're going out for dinner." Eric said.

"We'll call you later!" Ruthie said.
"Ok. See you later!"

"Have fun!" Martin called as he shut the door. The girls were already going upstairs to put away their clothes and such from the night before.

"Girls! Don't be too long! We need to get dinner. Ok?"
"Ok mom." They said in unison, not looking back at their parents.

"That certainly was embarrassing." Ruthie said, sitting on the couch, laughing.
"We love each other. What's wrong with that?" Martin asked, sitting beside her, laughing with her.
"Nothing. I just didn't expect my parents and our children to walk in on us making out."
"Me either but hey, it happens." He said, kissing her again.
"Knock it off already!" Maddie said, coming downstairs. "Do you ever stop kissing?" she asked, sounding a lot like Annie years ago, after catching Martin and Ruthie making out on the couch.
Martin looked at Ruthie and smiled. "Nope." He said, kissing her again.
"Stop it mommy!" the girls said, all jumping on their parents.
"Boys have cooties!" Allie said.
"Nonsense…I got the cootie shot years ago. I'm immune."
"You're what?"
"Immune. I can't get the cooties."
"Ohh I don't like shots." Lauren said, scooting closer to her mother. Ruthie laughed, getting up off of the couch.
"What does everyone want for dinner?" she asked.
"CHINESE!" the girls said together.
"But mom…" Martin whined jokingly.

"Now little Martin…if you're bad, I'll make you go to bed early." She said, shaking her finger at him.
"Oh fine." He said, picking up the phone and ordering Chinese food.

Martin picked it up, they ate, then cleaned up. Ruthie got ice cream sandwiches out of the freezer, and each of them had one. Once they were done, Ruthie called them all in the living room.
"Girls. Daddy and I have something to tell you." Ruthie said, as Martin stood beside her.
"What is it? Disney World?" Allie asked hopefully.

"No…we'll go in a few years." Martin said.
"Then what is it?" Maddie asked.
"Girls…mommy and I are having a baby." The expressions on the girls' faces immediately turned to that of pure excitement.
"YAY! Go mommy!" Allie said, making Martin and Ruthie laugh.
The girls ran over to hug their parents. "A little sister?" Maddie asked hopefully.
"I don't know honey. We're not going to know until it's born." Martin said.

"But, didn't you know that Lauren was a girl before she was born?" Allie asked, confused.
"Well…yes." Ruthie said. "But we want it to be a surprise this time."
"Oh. Ok." Allie said, satisfied.

They called everyone else, telling them the good news, and everyone was very excited that in eight months, there would be a new baby in the family. Then, the whole Brewer family watched a movie and fell asleep in the living room after a very long day.

A/N- OK guys! REVIEW PLEASE! Did you like it? Or not? I'm skipping ahead a month to when the kids go back to school…just so you know- Maddie's in 5th grade, Allie's in 4th, and Lauren's starting kindergarten. PLEASE let me know what you think!

Renee