Recap: "Addee & Ellie's Pool Party"

Bringing Up Bates, "Addee & Ellie's Pool Party"

• Gil fulfills his promise of giving Josie a private tennis lesson.
• “Sometimes we…treat the family like a herd or a flock, instead of like individual people that are valuable, special, important,” shares Gil, as he emphasizes the importance of spending one-on-one time with each child.
• Gil grew up playing tennis and says that his “claim to fame” was when he finally beat his dad on his dad’s 50^th birthday. He is proud of Josie for wanting to learn a new skill.
• Meanwhile, Kelly takes Trace clothing shopping at a local thrift store.
• “All of our boys are probably just as picky about clothes as our girls are,” shares Kelly. “They know brands, they know what they like, they know what they think looks good or doesn’t look good. So I feel like I’m the old lady out of style when I’m shopping with the kids.”
• Trace will graduate high school in December. Kelly asks if he plans to continue working with Gil, but Trace says that he “really ain’t big into that tree business.” 
• The mom of 19 encourages her son to experiment with a few classes at The Crown College of the Bible and reminds him that she and Gil will pay for his first semester, but she assures him that she will be happy with whatever choice he makes.
• Trace thanks his mom for taking him shopping and says he “had an amazing time” with her.
• Addallee and Ellie’s birthdays are in February and April, but the girls have been holding off for an outdoor pool party. Now that summer has rolled around, Gil and Kelly decide it’s time to fulfill the girls’ wish. Whitney’s mom, who has a pool, invites the family over to her house.
• “My parents have always really tried to make every birthday really special, especially for the younger children,” says Lawson. Gil and Kelly make a habit of taking the birthday kid out to a restaurant and then allowing him or her to have a party.
• After the Bates arrive at the pool, everyone jumps in the water while Kelly prepares lunch. “Where’s the birthday cake?” asks Zach. Turns out, Gil was in charge of picking up the food on Kelly’s list, and he bought two boxes of cake mix and brought them to the party.
• “Who’s going to cook a cake mix while we’re in the pool?” Lawson asks his dad. 
• “What about all the things I got right?” says Gil. “You did good, you did good,” Kelly assures her husband.
• Michaela saves the day when she arrives with a store-bought cake. Before chowing down, the Bates take turns sharing praises about Addee and Ellie, which is something they do at every birthday celebration.
• “If you’ve ever heard of constructive criticism, it doesn’t feel too constructive if you’re the one getting it,” says Gil. “But praise, or encouragement…is a powerful, powerful thing.”
• “Affirmation from other people, when it’s real, means so much,” shares Nathan.

Recap: "The Quest for the Dress"

Bringing Up Bates, "The Quest for the Dress"...

• Kelly and Michaela meet with Kim, Kelly’s older sister, to discuss flowers for the wedding. Kim has a flower shop in Mebane, North Carolina, called Gallery Florist. She has done flowers for each of the Bates kids’ weddings, as well as for Kelly’s wedding.
• Michaela wants cherry blossoms, but since they aren't in season in August, she settles for silk flowers.
• After Kelly married Gil, her mom adopted two daughters. One of those girls, Beth, is getting married the month before Michaela, so Kelly and Michaela meet up with the rest of the family for Beth’s wedding shower. Michaela and Beth are only a year apart in age and are close friends.
• For one of the shower games, guests divide up into teams and create toilet paper wedding dresses. Afterwards, Gil the penny pincher gathers the leftover toilet paper to take home. “Man, look at all this savings!” exclaims Gil. “This is the soft kind.”
• Later, Erin and Chad have a photographer take newborn pictures of Carson. “I have never known why people want to go take pictures of itty bitty babies,” says Nathan. “And then the next thing is, why they always want to take their clothes off and put them in a little bucket or something."
• Michaela, accompanied by her mom, sisters, and sister-in-law, heads to White Lace & Promises in Knoxville, Tennessee, in search of the perfect wedding dress. The bride-to-be wants a simple gown that makes her look skinny and has a train and sleeves.
• As expected, Michaela is hit with an onslaught of opinions each time she tries on a dress. “I’m going to tell you something about the Bates,” says Josie. “They are not scared to say what they think. They just blurt it out. Whitney doesn’t do that, but we do that.” 
• “It is good to be honest,” agrees Whitney. “But you have to do it in a loving kind of way.”
• Tori and Carlin turn out to be the biggest critics.
• After trying on a bunch of wedding dresses, Michaela admits to feeling discouraged. “I was thinking, ‘Maybe we should just elope or have a tiny wedding that nobody is going to see,'” she shares. 
• But before long, Michaela finds exactly what she has been looking for. The gown will need extensive alterations to remove some of the poof and add capped sleeves, but everyone agrees that it is very “Michaela.”
• The only catch is that it will cost nearly $2,000, which is significantly more than Michaela had allotted for in her wedding budget. She resolves to pray about it and make the final decision in a few days. 

Recap: "Boating with the Bates"

Bringing Up Bates, "Boating with the Bates"

• Now that Erin and Chad are home from the hospital with Carson, Chad’s mom, Tammy, is staying with them for a short while to help out.
• Carson arrived one month early, weighing 6 pounds at birth, but miraculously, he was healthy and did not have to be admitted into the NICU.
• Tori goes shopping at Burlington Coat Factory using a gift card that Mama Jane, Gil’s mom, sent as a reward for earning straight A’s in her first semester of college.
• When Tori returns home, the entire family gathers around to admire her new clothes. “Mom, she got a tractor load full of clothes!” exclaims Carlin.
• “Is this, like, my money?” Gil asks his daughter. When Tori assures him that she used the gift card from “Janey,” Gil smiles and says: “I love shopping with Janey!”
• The family begs Tori to model her clothes. “Her outfits were awesome,” says Carlin. “So all you guys out there, don’t mess with my sister.” Tori covers her eyes in embarrassment. “Carlin, stop,” she says, laughing. “She don’t want me to chase them off,” replies Carlin.
• Gil calls a family meeting to discuss plans for the week. Nathan announces that he is going to the lake for a day, and Kelly suggests bringing the entire family. Kelly grew up on a lake. Gil grew up close to one, and he also proposed to Kelly on a lake. Needless to say, the Bates family loves lakes.
• Everyone pitches in to gather supplies, including swimsuits, life jackets, a jet ski, and a lot of towels. (Gil suggests sharing towels, but the girls refuse.)
• The next day, as the family is about to leave for the lake, Michael’s bridesmaid and flower girl dresses arrive. Naturally, some of her sisters have to try them on immediately.
• The Bates arrive at the lake around lunchtime. They are thrilled to have Zach, Whitney, Bradey, Erin, Chad, and Carson join them.
• The Bates ladies swim in stretchy skirts and leggings, but according to Whitney, it really isn’t a big deal. She says you hardly notice it.
• Partway through the day, the skies open up and pour down rain. A strong bolt of lightening makes the girls scream.
• After the storm passes, Gil shows off his extreme waterskiing skills. “Dad is the coolest guy on the planet,” says Carlin. “My dad is an outstanding skier,” boasts Nathan.
• “My children are the funnest people to play with in the world,” says Gil. “They make me feel special, even thought I am just an average person. I hope I can encourage them as much as they have encouraged me.”
• Gil even dives off the top dock. “The problem with me trying to keep up with those kids; I hurt so much more after it’s over,” says the father of 19.

Recap: "Erin's Little Miracle"

Sorry for the delay in posting the recap of Thursday's episode. The technical difficulties were finally resolved, so I (Ellie) woke up early this morning to finish it off before leaving for church.

Bringing Up Bates, "Erin's Little Miracle"

• As Carson's due date grows closer, Erin and Chad make the finishing touches on the nursery.
• Chad surprises Erin with a night away at The Oliver Hotel in downtown Knoxville. Erin is in shock as they walk into a beautiful hotel room and Chad presents her with a gift basket filled with her favorite things.
• "It's my job to make sure that, occasionally--at least every day--that she gets pampered somehow," says Chad, who takes his wife for a mani-pedi, something he is clueless about but knows Erin will love.
• Later that evening, Erin and Chad browse through furniture and decorations at a small vintage shop downtown. Chad works eight hours a day at a metal recycling company, but on the side, he enjoys refinishing furniture and hopes he can turn that hobby into a full-time job someday.
• Chad treats Erin to a romantic dinner and gives her a long, sentimental letter.
• Meanwhile, Michael and Brandon continue preparing for their wedding.
• Kelly's sister Kay, who is a baker, brings over different flavors of cakes for the bride and groom to sample. They choose strawberry and plan to do a small tiered cake for pictures and larger sheet cakes for the guests.
• Brandon suggests a white cake with cherry blossoms. (He and Michael got engaged in Washington D.C. when they cherry blossoms were in bloom, so that is the theme of their wedding.)
• Michael's bridesmaids are Erin, Tori, and Alyssa; Jana Duggar; and Angie, Becky, and Christy Keilen (Brandon's sisters). She is having Kelly as her maid of honor because her mother is her best friend and she doesn't want to have to choose between three sisters.
• The Bates ladies browse DaintyJewells.com for bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. Michael's plan is for the flower girls to wear the Dreaming in Vintage gown and the bridesmaids to wear the A Night in Paris gown.
• Tori, Carlin, Josie, and Katie head to a local thrift store with Judson and Jeb to buy baby outfits for Carson. “Jud and Jeb are a handful to handle in a public place,” says Gil.
• On the way home, the crew stops by to deliver the clothes to Erin, who is thrilled. She and Chad cannot wait to meet Carson. “Anytime I see baby clothes now, I get so excited,” says Erin.
• For several nights leading up to Carson’s birth, Carlin sleeps at Chad and Erin’s house because she wants to be there to support her sister and brother-in-law.
• Erin wakes up one night with painful contractions about five minutes apart. Dr. Vick instructs Chad to bring her to the hospital. While they are leaving the house, Erin’s water breaks, and her contractions become even more intense.
• As soon as Erin is checked into the hospital, she starts insisting on an epidural, but at that point, she is only 1 cm dialated.
• “The one consoling thought to me during the whole labor was, ‘I’m about to see Carson,’” says Erin.
• Kelly joins Erin and Chad in the delivery room, and Gil stands on the other side of the curtain, pacing and praying.
• “I think that was probably the most helpless I’ve ever felt in my entire life,” says Chad. “All I could do was hold her hand and just try to talk to her.
• About 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital, Erin stats screaming, “I’ve gotta push! I’ve gotta push!” Before long, she is 7 cm dialated, and Kelly tells her that it’s time to have the baby. “And at that point, I think I realaized that, ‘I don’t think I’m getting an epidural,’” she says.
• Carson arrives less than two hours after Erin’s water breaks. Both Chad and Erin cry tears of relief and joy. “I really can’t put it into words, to have something that we hoped for for so long,” says Chad, as he holds his son soon after delivery.
• “You guys, I thought I was going to die,” shares Erin, looking at her mom. “If you did that nineteen times…”
• After the delivery, Dr. Vick explains that Erin had a placenta abruption, which means the placenta lining had separated from the uterus. That was the reason she had such intense contractions. If Carson had not arrived so quickly, the Paines could have faced serious complications.
• “God worked it out,” says Chad. “God knew there wasn’t time for an epidural.”
• It isn’t long before several of the older Bates kids arrive to meet their nephew. Erin had told her mom that they could come as soon as she got an epidural, but of course that never happened.
• “Holding Carson was just literally overwhelming,” says Michael.
• “I’m just so grateful that God answered our prayers, and Carson’s here,” says Erin. “I can’t wait to see him grow up.”