Bringing Up Bates"A Very Medieval I Love You Day"
- The Bates women are setting up for the family Valentine’s Day (aka I Love You Day) celebration. Kelly has chosen chivalry as the theme. “Chivalry caries the idea of…treating a lady with class,” says Nathan.
- “Valentine’s Day is just one of my favorite times of the year,” says Kelly. “I can count on all of the family coming back in.”
- While Michael and Brandon are in town, they plan to tour a duplex that is 20-25 minutes from the rest of the family. “Me and Michaela have always been very close,” says Erin. “Growing up, we’re just a year apart, so we really did everything together.” The Bates are looking forward to having the Keilens in East Tennessee.
- While the girls set up for the couples dinner, they discuss rumors they have heard about Trace and a possible female friend. “Trace is a quiet guy,” says Whitney. “You never really know much about him unless you just really ask him.”
- Josie and Kelton have their ultrasound, but they don’t want to find out the gender until their gender reveal party. “There’s something about seeing your child moving and alive, it makes it so real,” says Kelton. “I’m a little bit at a loss for words.” Josie wants Kelton to guess, but he protests, saying he has nothing to go off of. Josie has decided that it is a boy.
- As part of the Valentine’s Day festivities, Gil and some of the kids go skiing in North Carolina. Nathan is a skier, but his brothers try to convince him that boarding is cooler. Nathan challenges Lawson to a race, and Nathan the skier finishes first. “Skiing is very ,very fun,” says Ellie.
- “You watch Trace and Warden and Jackson and all them, and they’re just flying down the slopes…no fear in mind, no thought of, ‘Oh, I’m going to fall off this cliff and die,’” says John. “All of a sudden, all my girls are counting on me. If I don’t come home, I’m like, maybe we’ll just go a little slower, we’ll hang out with Judson. Even he was passing me.”
- Kelly and some of the older kids gather to cook a few different recipes. Zach makes one pot chicken with pre-diced meat. The girls give Kelly the easy job of opening packages of pre-breaded chicken and putting them in the oven. “I have to admit, I was a little bit skeptical when the kids suggested doing prepared food because I admit, I’ve never done that before,” says Kelly.
- Carlin and Erin make artichoke dip on the stove, but when it starts clumping together, Zach has to step in and save the day. “My family is picky,” says Zach. “We eat two kinds of meat, beef or chicken. This was a chicken night because we want to go light. Nobody wants to be fat for the day tomorrow.”
- All the couples start to arrive, including some of Gil’s extended family. “Is Trace going to bring a girl?” wonders Zach. “Is Lawson going to bring a girl? Is Nathan going to dress up like a girl? You just never know.”
- The food is delicious. Michael and Brandon are the last to arrive when they come in from Chicago. “We feel like all the little chickens have come home to roost,” laughs Gil.
- None of the guys show up with dates. “I’m going to surprise them next year and invite somebody for them,” jokes Kelly.
- The next day, all the Bates gather for the costume party. “Everybody’s version of chivalry, the time period that they chose for it, is very different,” says Lawson. There are a lot of great costumes from a lot of different eras.
- “I personally picked a Robin Hood costume, and it did not fit, so I decided not to wear that,” says Zach.
- “Trace up and did what all of us thought he wouldn’t do,” says Carlin. “He showed up with this female girl, and she’s gorgeous.” Trace and Chaney arrive at the party, out of costume. They met on a family ski trip in Colorado and have kept in touch via phone. The couple is still just getting to know each other. “I know they’re friends, and that’s where it is right now, so you little matchmaker, you’re just going to have to hold your horses,” Gil tells Kelly.
- Kelly chooses Taryn Yager (the Bates’ photographer friend) and Chaney as judges. “That is not a good thing to do because if you don’t pick the right people, some people get upset, and so you could make a couple friends or a lot of enemies,” says Trace.
- “I have tried every year to win, and I’ve never won anything,” says Michael, wearing a poofy princess dress that she made by hand. “The competition is so steep.”
- Some of the couples have stories that go along with their costumes. Chad introduces Erin as Princess Bootyfull. The judges pick Mama Jane and Papa Bill as #3, Zach and Whitney as #2, and the Keilens as #1.
- “I’ve never won first place for anything!” exclaims Michael. “I was so happy!” “She couldn’t stop telling me, ‘We won, we won, we actually won,’” says Brandon.
- The party games are jousting, putting a cookie on your face and trying to get it into your mouth without using your hands, and using a bow and arrow to shoot apples off someone’s head.
- Later that weekend, Josie and Kelton host a gender reveal party at their apartment complex. “I made a statement without saying anything,” says Jackson, wearing a bright pink suit coat.
- Josie holds a black balloon, and Kelton pokes it with a knife to release pink confetti! It’s a girl! “I’m like, totally expecting to see blue come out of his balloon, and he popped it, and it’s like pink everywhere,” says the mom-to-be. ”And it honestly took me a second for it to register. I was over-the-moon excited because I wanted a girl so bad.”
- “I’m so glad I voted it was a girl,” says Erin. “I voted it was a girl for all my kids, too, so I got extra candy bars.” “You stinker,” says Chad, chuckling.
- After the reveal, everyone receives a bag containing the letters of the name and has a minute to guess what it is.
- “The name Willow means graceful, and Josie absolutely loved that name and wanted to name her daughter that so bad,” explains Kelton. “And then Kristy is of course after my mother.”
- Tears are shed by Kelton’s dad and extended family when they hear the middle name, in honor of Kelton’s late mother. “Kelton lost his mother as a child... but to see the Balka family over there, rejoicing and hugging, that this baby is going to carry the namesake of [Kelton’s] mom, and it’s their first grandbaby, no doubt I know God‘s got big plans for this special little girl,” says Kelly.
- Carlin’s wedding is just 100 days away, and she is feeling the planning pressure. “I’m very thankful that I allowed myself plenty of room in this engagement,” says the bride-to-be. “Thank you, Evan, for that. I need it, doing school, and then working and then trying to plan a wedding.”
- Unlike most of the other Bates, who have had church weddings, Carlin will get married at a wedding venue. “I could pick any old church, and that would be great, but that’s just not the style or setting. I want it, like, elegant and quaint.”