Nights like this

Tonight was cool and rainy so we had the windows open and the breeze coming in.  We ate dinner.  The boys wrestled and laughed with each other on the couch.  Charlotte danced with her daddy and squeezed his cheeks between her chubby little palms and told him how much she loves him.  I made chocolate chip cookies.  We ate (tons) of cookies.  The boys played a video game and when Porter got to a part where he needed help he yelled for his brother.  Paxton responded with, "A brother's work is never done." We listened to everyone's best and worst parts of their day.  We heard all about "the kisser girls" on the playground.  We laughed.  We tickled each other.  We picked out a few things to take to the hospital for the baby.  We read books.  We listened to music.  We prayed. We meditated.  We did the same things we do every night, pretty much.  Nothing exciting, nothing different, nothing unusual.

After the kids went to bed and I was cleaning up, I had this overwhelming feeling to stop and be so very thankful for nights like these.  Life is already starting to get hectic with school, and soccer, and gymnastics, and piano, and family and friends.  I want to remember these nights when our family had the chance to just BE.  Be together.  Be bored.  Be friends.  Be silly.  Be lazy.  Be cozy.  Be stuffed full of a yummy dinner we got to all eat together.  Be whatever we wanted to be.  Together.