Recap: "Love is in the Heir"

Bringing Up Bates "Love is in the Heir"

• Nathan, Jackson, and Warden return from spending Thanksgiving with Nathan’s girlfriend Ashley, who is from the Bronx. Because of the distance between them, Nathan and Ashley are not able to see each other very often, so they decide to spend the holiday visiting family and friends together. 
• Nathan invites his parents on a lunch date at a local BBQ joint to have some “large talk,” which means he has a very important matter to discuss.
• Nathan shares that he has talked with Ashley and her parents and that he feels the Lord’s guidance in their relationship. He plans to ask Ashley to begin an official courtship, although the two have been boyfriend and girlfriend for several months.
• “For our family, courtship is kind of like what other people would call going steady,” explains Kelly.  While Ashley loves New York City, she has said that she would be happy living in East Tennessee. Nathan admits that he would not want to move to the Bronx.
• That evening, everyone helps decorate the house for Christmas. Kelly and the girls decide to go with a more rustic, country theme, so Gil brings a rusted metal lampstand in from the barn. Using greenery and lanterns, the gals are able to turn it into a festive decoration.
• Nathan calls a family meeting and announces his plan to ask Ashley to begin a courtship just before Christmas. His siblings are ecstatic. “I do have some opposition, but that’s just for selfish reasons,” shares Lawson. “We’ve been free men forever, and I know how this thing goes…I’m going to be the lone survivor here at the house.”
• “[Lawson] told me that he’s read some studies that show that once a guy gets a girl, his career goes downhill,” says Kelly, laughing.
• Zach and Whitney head to Dr. Vick’s office to have their first ultrasound with Baby #2. At 1.5 inches long, Baby is very active, unlike Bradley, who, according to Zach, was lazy while in the womb.
• Whitney elects to do a blood test to find out the gender, as it is still too early to tell on the ultrasound. She guesses that the baby is a girl, and, as we know, she is correct!
• The kids prepare a special meal for Gil and Kelly in honor of their 28^th wedding anniversary. They set up a small table in the master bedroom and serve salad with strawberries, blue cheese, and walnuts; rolled chicken breasts with ham and cheese in the middle; fries; and green beans.
• “My mom and dad’s marriage is very important to us because you don’t see many marriages that are that well off,” says Isaiah.
• According to Kelly, having the kids involved in their anniversary made it more meaningful than it would have been if they had gone out to celebrate. 

Recap: Bringing Up Bradley

Bringing Up Bates "Bringing Up Bradley"

• Kelly and Carlin visit Once Upon A Child to shop for birthday presents for Bradley. Kelly goes all out, and Carlin tries to convince her to take it down a notch or two. “He don’t need no more toys,” Carlin tells her mom. “Y’all spoil him.”
• The rest of the kids agree. Now that Kelly is a grandmother, Zach says she is in “full spoil mode.” “We all wish we were grandkids,” adds Josie.
• Looking back on the shopping trip, which was more of a shopping spree, Kelly admits that she may have gone overboard. “When I got to the register and heard the total, I thought, Gil is going to absolutely die when he hears how much I spent!” admits the mom of 19. The tab is $176.97.
• Later, Carlin accompanies Lawson to a photo shoot for his upcoming album, to be released this spring (if everything goes according to plan). Taryn Yager, a friend who has become the unofficial Bates family photographer, takes the pictures inside her in-home studio.
• It takes a little while for Lawson to loosen up, but by the end of the photo shoot, he’s posing like a pro. Taryn’s pictures turn out great!
• Lawson hopes to do a tour for this album. Since fall 2013, he has released one CD and two singles.
• The Bates family heads over to Cove Lake State Park, which is where Zach and Whitney began their courtship, for Bradley’s first birthday celebration.  Whitney goes all out with decorations, arriving five hours early to set up.
• “I found out real quick in this family, you don’t let them know what your skill is because you’ll be recruited to do that from then on for all the events,” says Whitney, smiling. Until now, she has kept her decorating expertise a secret.
• For the younger kids, the highlight of the party is kicking plastic balls filled with ice cream around the room. If you have ever seen a hamster ball, they look similar to one of those. All you do is load ice and a few other ingredients into the ball and then kick it around until it turns into ice cream.
• Surprisingly, the ice cream balls work! “Best thing ever!” says Judson.
• The gift table is quite overwhelming. During the party, Chad looks at Erin and says: “Erin, we can’t do this for Carson. We wouldn’t have a place to put it.”
• Towards the end of the party, Zach and Whitney invite both sets of their parents, as well as Zach’s grandparents, up to the front of the room and give them each two wrapped frames, containing two pictures from their maternity photo shoot.
• Gil and Kelly don’t have their reading glasses on, so it takes them a few moments to realize what’s going on. Everyone starts screaming when the announcement is finally made that Zach and Whitney are expecting baby No. 2.

Recap: "Time to Reno-Bate"

Bringing Up Bates "Time to Reno-Bate!"

• Now that three of the ten Bates girls have left the nest, the remaining seven sisters decide to give their bedroom a makeover. The room had previously been decorated with all of Michael's pictures and love letters from Brandon. 
• "We are definitely going to make some rules about boyfriends being on the wall," says Josie. "My rule is that they can have one picture by their bed."
• "The problem with trying to come up with a plan or idea in our family is that there's so many opinions," says Tori, as she and her sister sit down with Kelly to make a plan.
• Josie chooses a dark gray shade for the walls and is able to convince a few of her sisters to support her. Tori and Kelly, on the other hand, are a little skeptical, even after the girls paint the room.
• Josie, the head interior designer, assures them that the curtains and decorations will tone it down. She's right! When the room is finished, everyone loves it. Kelly says the girls did a great job combining what she calls an "urban" wall color with rustic, colorful decorations.
• While the girls are in the middle of their redecorating project, Lawson and Nathan return home from a trip to New York to visit Nathan's friend Ashley, whom viewers met last year on "Blessings...And New Beginnings?" Ashely comes back with the boys to spend a week with the Bates. 
• Nathan and Ashley having been getting to know each other for the past several months. "Something's up, I think," says Trace.
• Meanwhile, Zach and Whitney work on a redecorating project of their own. They are at the tail end of modernizing their house, a process which has included knocking down walls, repainting, and installing trim. 
• Whitney has decided that their pure white couches no longer match with their white walls and black picture frames. She and Zach head to a furniture store to pick out a brand new black leather couch and love seat.
• When the couch and love seat are delivered, Zach and Whitney are both very pleased. "I love it," says Whitney. "It just makes the whole room feel like it's finished."
• Later, Tori, Carlin, and Kelly try out a new recipe, honey-mustard chicken. (Tori is currently on break from college, where she is pursuing an education major.) Now that Michael is gone, Tori and Carlin say they are spending more time cooking.

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Recap: Back Seat Bates

Bringing Up Bates "Back Seat Bates"

• Chad shows Erin the design he has created for the cover of her upcoming Christmas album, which she recently recorded in Nashville.
• The Paines reveal that this is not the first album cover that Chad has designed for Erin. Before they were "together,' Erin enlisted Chad's help in designing her Down Home Gospel CD cover, but she was secretly just looking for an excuse to spend time with him.
• "I jumped at the chance," admits Chad. "I saw an opportunity, and I was like, you know what, I've never done this before but I'm going to find out how."
• After finishing his training at that Blount County Regional Training Academy, Zach asks his instructors if he can bring his family back to give them a taste of what he went through. 
• The first item on the agenda is pursuit driving. Everyone grabs a helmet and piles into old Sheriffs cars. "They don't know what they in for," laughs Zach.
•  Carlin screams the entire time, as do many of the others. 
• " It was better than any roller coaster in the country," says Lawson. "These guys can drive."
•  Callie is quite upset to see her mom take part, as she's afraid that something is going to happen to her. Zach, the driver, promises to be careful. 
• "I should have gone to the bathroom first," comments Kelly. "Mom, please don't say that," responds Lawson. 
• Kelly reveals that one of her greatest fears is car wrecks. "I've got a house full of bad drivers," says the mom of 19. "I've got certain kids I won't even drive with."
• Kelly holds Whitney's arm and screams for Zach to let her out, but Zach keeps driving, laughing hysterically. "It's too bad he's too big to spank," says Kelly at the end of the ride.
•  The next activity, for the older ones, is target shooting, but first the instructor lectures them about gun safety.  
• Next, Zach leads the guys through an obstacle course, which leaves Gil on the ground trying to catch his breath. "My dad's probably the toughest 50-year-old I know," says Zach. "But man, it pushes you to your physical limit."
•  A day at the Police Academy leaves the Bates feeling very appreciative of their law enforcement officers and the instructors who train those man and women.
• Later, Lawson takes Kelly, Carlin, and Josie to the local children's hospital where he has been visiting sick kids. 
• The child who is most excited to see Lawson is AJ, a little boy with a tumor pressing on his optic nerve who has become a close friend of Lawson.
• Everyone fights back tears as Lawson plays guitar and sings with AJ and several other young children at the hospital. 
• "We've tried to encourage all of our children to be involved in some kind of ministry outreach that would be a blessing to other people," says Kelly.

Recap: "Beaches, Boats and Bates"

Bringing Up Bates "Beaches, Boats and Bates"...

• The Bates clan (everyone but Zach, Whitney, Bradley, Michaela, Brandon, Chad, and Tori) head down to Cape San Blas, located along the coast of the Florida Panhandle. “Let's just say, our family loves water,” shares Gil. “They like to get in the water, throw the water, play in the water.”
• When the family arrives at the rental condo, the kids are eager to head to the beach, but they must first wait for Kelly to assign bedrooms.
• At one point, the Bates vacationed in Cape San Blas four years in a row, but weddings and grandbabies have prevented them from taking their annual trip.
• When they finally hit the beach, Carlin helps the younger kids build a sandcastle. “Going [on a] vacation is not just getting away and relaxing,” says Nathan. “It’s building memories and investing in the little guys…”
• How do the Bates dress at the beach? The boys wear swim trunks, while the girls wear skirts made of swimsuit material that come down just above the knee. Both genders wear either a regular shirt or a swim shirt.
• Jeb throws a temper tantrum when his turn on the ocean kayak ends, so Gil takes him back to the condo to have a chat.
• Gil tells Jeb to look him in the eyes and asks him to apologize. Then he does what he and Kelly call Obedience Training. To make sure he is listening, father of 19 instructs his youngest son to clap once, then twice, and then three times.
• “There are always opportunities to help Jeb have a good attitude,” laughs Kelly. “He makes sure we get plenty of practice.”
• On another day, the Bates venture out on a boat to go snorkeling on a sandbar. The younger kids are wary of the creatures in the water and are shocked when their guide catches a horseshoe crab, which Kelly refers to as a “mega ocean roach.”
• The family is thrilled when Alyssa, John, and Allie arrive. While Kelly steps away to take Erin and Carson to the airport, Gil and the boys attempt to catch fish off the shore. 
• Meanwhile, the gals head to a grocery store to buy food for dinner. “For some reason, them girls ain’t got no faith in our ability,” says Lawson.
• The boys’ fishing excursion doesn't turn out to be as fruitful as they had hoped. They only end up catching one fish worth keeping. “Guys, we’re going to be some real skinny people if we live off our fishing,” Gil jokingly tells his sons.
• The week comes to an ends, and it's time to head home. “I hope the one thing the kids take away from the vacation is really the value of their relationships,” says Gil. “Make every moment count with every child every chance you get.”