Family Time

Many of you know that my mother passed away on October 14, 2015 at 5:45pm.  I am working on a post to share later that goes into more detail.  It has been a tough year.  We were away from our home for a couple of weeks around mom's last days and got out of our routines.   So, since we have been back home, we have been trying to get back into routines, get our pantry and refrigerator re-stocked with our staple ingredients, start extracurricular activities back up, etc.  Having a full plate though has helped me a bit through the grieving process.

Along with the regular routines, we have decided that another important thing we want to make sure we fit into our "schedules" is family time.  As busy as we were recently, we have not had a lot of quality, laid back, family time.   Thankfully, we always have dinner together at the table as a family--so there's that.  But other than that, family time with all four of us has been pretty limited.  We had to be intentional about family time:  that meant instead of leaving to run errands, go workout, etc. after Drew got home from work, I needed to let the task lists go for a bit and just relax and enjoy time with my family.  One night recently, after we had some rain, we decided to take a walk down our street and let the kids splash in some puddles.  It is one of Abbey's favorite things to do--I think the rarity of rain here in Central Texas where we live contributes to her love of the puddles. 

Silly girl. She reminds us a lot of Luke being silly in this photo.

With all the rain we got, there wasn't much else we could do besides take a walk and jump in puddles outdoors that evening.  So, we brought the fun indoors with a game of "Uno."  The kids love this game.  Our kids like to win though.  I know...what kid doesn't, right?  But seriously, our kids are very...very competitive.  It was inevitable, really, that they turned out that way.  I mean, Drew and I are just a tad bit competitive.  Our kids' hands are still too small to hold all their cards, and Abbey still needs some help deciding which card is the best to play.  So, they lay their cards out in front of them so we can help.

Notice that Drew and I do not share which cards we have though....  :-)  There's that "competitive" thing again.

Daddy was the dealer.

Abbey got a great card!

But, it was the dealer's lucky night.  He won two times in a row.  The kids were not happy about that.  Of course, the competitive and "rule follower" side of him couldn't "let" either of the kids win either.  Here is where you see another side of our sweet kiddos.  The competitive...not happy about losing twice in a row...side. 
 

Luke was very disgusted that he lost again.  So, we agreed to play one more time.  We probably should have made it two.  Luke ended up winning.  This was the outcome....

And....it was time for bed. 

Ha!   Although there were tears, they will tell you they love to play.  It's just the losing part that is sad sometimes.  Winning or losing though, it was still some quality family time.  Memories that we will always cherish.  Abbey may not cherish the fact that this photo is on the internet someday though. (Although she giggles every time she sees it now).