We all live in separate houses in Las Vegas. While we were looking for our houses we wanted very specific things; Robyn needed a house first and luckily on the first day we went looking, she found one she liked. It had 5 bedrooms, open floor plan, and a great neutral color scheme. Janelle really wanted a pool and 4 bedrooms, her children really wanted a different floor plan from anything they had seen while looking. Christine wanted 5 bedrooms, close to Robyn’s house, the balcony off her bedroom and a light, open floor plan. Meri wanted open spaces where the family could all meet and a home to entertain in. Luckily we all ending up getting what we needed and wanted within a short amount of time and they within a mile of each other.
So, we all got what we wanted in our homes, but what we miss most is being close together. Kody has to move from house to house to house to house, it is very unsettling on our family life. The children used to have easy access to each other and now it really takes an effort to hang out with each other. The wives mostly live separately on a day to day basis; the biggest thing that keeps us communicating with each other is our children. We constantly have “our” children over, not just “my” children. Christine has Janelle’s kids over, Meri’s daughter is at Christine’s, Robyn has Christine’s kids over, Meri has Christine and Robyn’s kids over, kids hanging out together all the time.
We get together a few times a week, the sister wives all go out to lunch once a week, and there is a family get together most Friday nights and Sundays are usually spent together. We have pool parties in Janelle’s yard almost once a week during the summer months.
Our children all attend the same schools. Logan, Aspyn, Mariah, Madison, Mykelti and Hunter all go to the same high school (where they are referred to as the Cullens in Twilight because they stick together). Garrison, Paedon and Dayton attend the same middle school. Gabriel, Gwendlyn, Aurora, Ysabel, Breanna, and Savanah go to the same elementary school. All our children love that there is no discrimination against them because of their plural family. They embrace each other as full brothers and sisters openly and hang out with each other. Truely and Solomon stay home, or course.
The children have busy things going on in their lives too. Besides all the school functions they are involved in piano, football, tennis, wrestling and lacrosse. There are always parties and dances and hanging out to be done. With so many children it is impossible to attend every function so we rely on each other as much as possible and attend whenever we can. All of the children invite all their moms to their activities and light up when they see who makes it, they are proud of their big family. We do our best to meet their needs, and hey, our ratio of 17 children to 5 adults is pretty good.