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10:43 AM

"Guys, we have to put the eggs in!"

"One more taste, please?"

"Please, one more?"

Ava, James, and Mason crowded around the counter, begging for one last piece of cookie dough before it became inedible. Rochelle and Leigh still gently refused, but decided to let two of them be able to crack the eggs into the stand mixer.


Off in the dining room, Brian, Leighanne, Nick, and A.J. were deep into a round of Scrabble.

"Dude that's not how you spell that," Brian argued, pointing to the tiles.

"Sure it is!" A.J. insisted. "Look, right here!" He held out his phone and they all glared at the screen.

"That's not even the word you tried to spell!" Nick exclaimed.

"Yes it is!"

Leighanne sighed, putting her head in her hand.


In the living room, Lauren watched Odin and Sasha as they played on the floor. Baylee sat near the coffee table doing some sketching and writing, and Howie was on one of the couches with Max sitting next to him and Holden in his lap reading them a picture book.

Kevin, though, had gone upstairs to check on Kristin. It wasn't unusual for her to sleep in late during pregnancy, but everyone knew how caring and concerned he was as a husband and father.

When he came back, Max jumped up from the couch and ran to him. "Dad! Can we watch something, please?"

"Aren't you reading with Holden and Uncle Howie?" Kevin looked at his son, puzzled.

"I finished!"

Sighing, he gave in to the kid and hoisted him up to look on the DVD shelf.


As the cookies were going into the oven, the rest of the children wandered over to the living room. James joined his dad and brother reading on the couch, Ava went with her mom to play with Odin and her little sister, and Mason sat next to Baylee and started his own drawing.

But in a few minutes, as the DVD player started Kung Fu Panda 3, he joined his little brother in front of the television. Soon after, so did Holden and James as well, and the ripple effect slowly continued and roped in Ava halfway into the movie.

Even Rochelle and Lauren brought over Odin and Sasha to watch for a few minutes before their nap.

Eventually Brian and Leighanne came in and found Leigh sitting in the kitchen with Kevin and her husband.

"How'd the game go?" Howie asked.

"Still going on actually," Brian smirked. "Bone's still fighting Nick on some word."

Just then, Nick was heard shouting from the next room. "Okay! You win! I surrender!" Then he burst in, collapsing onto the nearest couch.

"So, you win?" Kevin called over to him.

"Shut up."

After the cookies were out and cooled, the moms passed out paper plates with two each and cups of milk to the kids, and then went in the kitchen to have some for themselves and the guys.

Nick and Lauren were skeptical at first to indulge, giving the healthy lifestyle they upheld, but they remembered they were on vacation and joined in.

"What the heck?" Lauren shrugged, taking a big, chewy bite and then offering a little piece to Odin.


12:17 PM

Kristin had been awake for a while now, with that same discomfort again from the last two days.

Just ignore it, it's nothing, she thought to herself.

Coming downstairs, she shuffled through the doorway and into the kitchen and living room.

"Hey, look who's up!" A.J. announced, looking up from the couch with Ava and Sasha.

"Mommy!" Max ran right over with his dad right behind him. He hugged her at her belly, then gave it a long, sweet kiss. "Hi, baby!" he said to it softly.
Krisitn smiled.

Kevin wrapped his arm around her shoulder, kissing her forehead.

"I didn't miss too much, did I?" she asked Leighanne, as she and her husband joined her behind the kitchen counter.

"Nothing that can't be done over and over," her cousin-in-law shook her head. "You must be hungry, though. Want me to fix you something?"

"Just eggs is fine," Kristin sighed. "I'm not really so much right now."

"Mom, come see what I drew!" Mason called out to her.



After being cooped up inside the cabin for a long time, the kids were starting to get restless.

"I wanna go in the snow!" James whined.

"I know, buddy," Howie said gently. "But even if we try, it's probably not safe."

"Definitely not."

A.J. was back by one of the windows, trying to see his way outside through the fogged up glass.

"More snow's starting to come down pretty fast," he informed them. "Might be a blizzard heading in." Instantly, all the kids dashed to the windows to take a look.

"I guess we better get some more wood for the fire," Brian said, pulling off a log from the storing rack.

"We're stuck inside all day?" Ava groaned.

"It's okay, sweetie," Rochelle comforted her daughter. "We still have a lot of fun stuff we can do."

Leigh nodded and opened the cupboard, taking down some mugs. "How about some hot cocoa? Perfect for a day like today." She smiled handing two of them to her sons.

Ava grinned and ran into the kitchen with her mother right behind her, and in a moment the rest of the younger kids.

"Another movie?" Nick suggested.

"Maybe some TV shows now instead." A.J. jumped up from the floor, where he had been watching Sasha and Odin.

"I've got the perfect..."

"Please! If you even think about bringing your Friends boxset in here!" Nick groaned.

A.J. rolled his eyes.

Kristin had been pretty quiet since she had come downstairs. She was on the larger couch, sitting with her head in Kevin�s shoulder and her hands cradling her baby bump.

Kevin was scrolling on his phone, or at least trying to.

"Think the phone service is down," he announced. "I'm not getting any signal to access my email."

"Dude, we're on vacation remember?" Howie said looking over at him. "Why try to read your emails?"

Kevin sighed and put his phone back in his pocket.

"Anyone over there want some cocoa?" Leigh called from the counter, where the children were standing around with Rochelle and Leighanne putting mini marshmallows and whipped cream on top of their warm frothy beverages.

Baylee got up and joined them, followed by A.J. carrying Sasha with him and Nick and Lauren with Odin.

Kevin stood up from the sofa and looked down at his wife. "Kristin?"

"You go ahead, I'm fine," she said softly.

As her husband walked away, a sudden sharp pain struck her and she gripped the arm of the couch.

Crap! she thought, sucking in some air.

This wasn't good.