!JAKE'S POV!
"Hey Jake, could you bring the macaroni out here?" Audrey asked from outside on her deck. We were all having dinner at the Clark's house. It's something we do just about every month, alternating houses. "Yeah. Hold on." I pick up the macaroni as Cayden runs past me with Rylee not far behind. "Hey! No running in the house!" Audrey's a neat freak and her house still looks as nice as the day Alyssa first had done the house. I heard something crash. I set the macaroni down and run into the living room. I got there to find Rylee and Cayden standing over a smashed vase. I sighed and Cayden shoved Rylee. "Dude, that was all your fault." "Nu uh! You knocked it off!" "Well, that's because you pushed me!" They started pushing each other harder, so I went and pulled them apart before they broke anything else. "What's going on?" Audrey asks as she walks into the room, wiping her hands off on a towel. She looks at the broken vase and at Cayden and Rylee. "We're sorry," Cayden says. Audrey sighs and brushes some hair out of her face. "It's all right. It's fine. Just go outside so you won't get cut on anything," Audrey says waving her arm toward the door. The twins run outside, while Audrey bends down to pick up the broken pieces. I sighed again. Those kids were always getting into trouble, not necessarily on purpose though. They were actually good kids. They obeyed for the most part and even when they didn't, they were too cute to stay mad at for long. I turned to Audrey "I'm sorry. We'll pay for it." "No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I didn't like this vase anyway. It was a gift from Kevin's parents," she said as she got the pieces up into the towel. "You can go take the macaroni outside, though." "Oh, right. The macaroni," I say. I walk into the kitchen and pick up the macaroni and walk out onto the deck. The sun was starting to set. I trip over Eve and Crystal's fake high heels and almost drop the macaroni. I finally make it to the table and set it down safely. I sat down next to Alyssa as she asked "What happened in there?" "Rylee and Cayden broke a vase." She let out a sigh. "They were running in the house weren't they?" "Yeah." She shook her head. "I don't know how many times I've told them not to." Just then, Kevin got our attention and said "Ok. I can't take it anymore. Audrey and I have some good news." "Well, wait for Audrey to get out here before you tell us," I say. Kevin looks around. "Oh, right. Audrey! Come out here! I want to tell them!" Kevin yells. Audrey comes out, carrying a bowl of something. "I think that's all of it. What did you say Kevin?" "The news. I want to tell them the news." "Oh. The news." Audrey smiles. "Yeah, we have some news." There was some silence "Well? Are you going to tell us?" I say. "Do you want to tell them?" Kevin asked Audrey. "You can tell if you want" "No. You should tell them." I guess Sarah got sick of it. "It doesn't matter who tells us. Just tell us." They started turning red and then Audrey spoke up "We're going to have another baby!" "Oh, Audrey! That's great!" Alyssa said, standing up and hugging her sister. After we all hugged and congratulated, Audrey spoke up again. "Ok. Enough about me. Let's eat. Kids! Time to eat!" A herd of kids make their way over to the deck. Luckily, we had a separate table for the kids. That way, the table wasn't as crowded and we adults actually got to talk without as much interruption. I actually looked forward to when we had these things. Everyone got so caught up in what was happening with them that we didn't get to keep up with our friend's lives as much. These get togethers actually gave us a chance to do that.
!KEVIN'S POV!
Everyone was over for dinner and Audrey and I were planning on telling them the good news. I was so anxious to tell them I couldn't wait any longer. I got everyone's attention and was about to tell them but I guess I was so excited about telling that I didn't notice that Audrey wasn't even outside yet until Jake reminded me. We finally got the news out and everyone was happy for us. We started dinner as the sun was setting. I really love our backyard at this time of the day. Sarah told us how she didn't have any plans for work right now, but she's thinking of some things she could do. Kyle tells us how his soccer season starts soon and that everything is going good with the whole advertising thing. Jake says he's going to start working for a promotion he's had his eye on for awhile. Alyssa says she doesn't think she wants to start interior designing full time yet because she still wants to stay home until the kids get a little older. For the most part, everyone seems pretty happy. It's really weird though, things for us are either really bad, or really good. There's no in between. And usually when things are bad for one of us, they become bad for all of us. I'm thankful that we all have each other to go through those times with. Otherwise, I'd probably end up killing myself. "Uh oh..." I can hear Eve's voice ring. I look over and she has spilt grape juice all over her white shirt. "Aw, honey!" Audrey said while standing up. "I told you to be careful." "I'm sorry, Mommy," Eve says, looking down at her shirt innocently. I started thinking; we were going to have to go through this again, with another kid and everything. Sure, it will great having another one but there were times raising Eve that I felt like I was going to explode. Most of those times were in her infant years, where all she did was cry. I snapped back into reality when I heard Alyssa ask me to pass the mashed potatoes. Audrey took Eve into the house, to change her shirt, I would guess. I pass Alyssa the mashed potatoes. Rylee runs over to Jake. "Daddy, Cayden called me a baaaaad name." Jake stands up. "What?" He walks over to the kids' table. Alyssa smiles painfully at me. I laughed. "Kids" she said shaking her head. "Yup." I started thinking even more about having to raise another kid when Audrey came back with Eve and sat down "You ok honey?" I smiled at her. "Yeah, I'm just fine." I think this is an area Audrey and I will disagree on in the future. She wants to have a big family and I will be perfectly happy with two kids. I tell myself not to worry about it now and worry about it when that situation gets here. "Can you pass the macaroni?" I ask Sarah.
!AUDREY'S POV!
Well, I had broken vase and white shirt stained with grape juice. I hope things won't go any worse. Kevin and I announced our news of expectancy and everyone was excited for us, of course. The rest of the night was full of conversation and catching up. At around 9:00, everyone was finally left. Eve was already half asleep by the time we got her to her room. Now the house was silent. I walked into our bedroom, where Kevin was just sitting on the bed in a daydream-like mode. "Are you all right, Kevin?" He looks up. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking." "What are you thinking about?" "Oh, work and kids and stuff." I get a giddy feeling all over. "Are you excited about having another baby?" "Oh yeah. Definitely." "Funny. It doesn't seem like it." "What are you saying, Audrey?" "I don't know. It just doesn't seem like you're excited about having another one. At least not as excited as you were when we had Eve." "I don't think it's sunk in yet." "Oh. Well, all right." "Don't worry Audrey. I'm excited." "Ok. I believe you." But on the inside, I didn't believe that statement myself. The next morning, I woke everyone up, made breakfast, got Eve dressed and got her to daycare. I love my job, I really do, but I don't really love how demanding it is. The hours are early and sometimes I end up staying back late finishing up work. Today my first client was a little boy who's just gotten out of a broken home. Now he's living with some foster parents who have entered him into our program. He sits on a couch across from my big arm chair. "Hi Christian. How are you this morning?" He doesn't look at me. "Good." We go on from there and I ask him about his favorite food, colors, and movies. Pretty much anything and everything and then I gradually ease into his home situation. "Did you love your mommy?" He doesn't look at me anymore. "No." After he says this without hesitation, I feel as though I want to be his mother for him. To show him what a loving home could be like.
!SARAH'S POV!
We were all over at the Clarks for our monthly get together I guess you could call it. Hanging out with everyone is a lot different now then it used to be. We have kids now and hanging out with everyone is a lot rarer, which is sad but true. We always pick up where we left off last, though. The night was great, filled with broken vases, fun, and good news. The next morning we have to go back to reality, though. I'm still at home, chasing after Dylan. He's very hyper. It's a tiring job. I still have a lot of thinking to do if I was every going to open the cafe I wanted to open. I had barely thought of anything and opening your own store, even just a small cafe, is a lot of work. It was hard though, balancing being a mom and working and still being able to spend time with friends. I could ask Kyle about it since he's in advertising. I decide to ask at dinner that night. "Hey Kyle, do you think you could give me any help with my business?" He eats a piece of salad. "What could I do?" "I don't know. You're in advertising. That has to do with businesses, right?" "Well, I guess it does some. But what exactly do you want me to do?" "Well... I don't know... whatever you can I guess." I was desperate for help. I would certainly need it if I was going to open this cafe by the time I'm 30 and I would take any help at this point. "Well, I could help you with... advertising." I look at him. He really is trying to help. "I guess that's a start. I mean, I need to find a place I can actually have the cafe'." "Yeah, that'd be good. I'm sure there's a place for lease somewhere." He assured me we would look for a place soon and he would help but right now I just wanted to get the dishes done, and crawl into bed early because like I said before, being a mom is definitely tiring.
!ALYSSA'S POV!
When we all got caught up and when all the kids were falling asleep in various places Jake and I decided to leave. After we put the kids to bed and got ready for bed ourselves I sat down next to Jake on the bed and closed my eyes. It had been a long day and I was ready to sleep. I opened them again when Jake started talking. "Oh yea, I almost forgot. I'll be coming home a little later than normal next week." "How much later?" "Not much later. Maybe around 7 or 8." He had told me a few days ago that his boss was going to start looking at him for a promotion. I didn't really understand a lot of the terminology he had used (I'm not a computer geek) but apparently, some guy who was pretty high up was fired and his boss is looking for someone to replace him. All I know is that this whole staying later thing better not last long because it's hard enough raising 3 kids WITH him around, it'd be even harder if he was gone a lot. I tried not to think about that now though. I focused my attention tonight and how Audrey told us she was going to have another baby. It was kind of funny that when we were growing up she had a set plan for everything and she wanted a lot of kids and I didn't really think about it and I was the one with the bigger family so far. Then THAT got me thinking if Jake and I were going to have any more kids. I really didn't know. We never really talked it before. I mean you would think that with 3 kids, we would have talked about it before but we haven't really. None of our kids were planned...they just kind of...happened. Oh well, no need thinking about it now. I need sleep.
!KYLE'S POV!
Our get togethers were fun. I never really enjoyed them when they were at our house, though. Good thing it was at Audrey and Kevin's house this time. The next night Sarah started asking me about businesses and advertising. I didn't want to tell her that I didn't know anything about businesses. I just know about advertising. I mean, she was the one who got the degree in business, she knows more about it than I do. But I agreed to help her with whatever I could though. I told her I could do all her advertising and I would help her find a place to rent. "Son, sit down and eat your food," I say to Dylan who is dancing around the kitchen. Tyler is sitting down quietly, eating his food. I don't know why Dylan is so much more hyper than Tyler. I guess Tyler has my laid back persona, which comes in handy sometimes. He's hardly ever getting into trouble. The only time when he does is whenever Dylan drags him into another one of his schemes. After dinner, the boys watched a little TV while Sarah and I cleaned up and then we put them to bed. After both were asleep, we went back down to our room. "Kyle, I need to get out of this house," Sarah says, heaving a huge sigh. I could understand. Sarah is such an active person. "Well, you're going to be starting your business soon." "I know." "Well, that will give you some time to get out of the house." "Yeah but that seems so far away. I need to get out now." The solution seemed obvious to me. "Well, then... I guess... get out of the house." "I wish it was that easy."