Much More Merry

I don't have much time or any pictures, but I need to get it on the record that the Grinchiness has passed. Amid two crazy weeks of stress (which I'm sure you all had too) there were some very merry moments that I'll post about later with pictures. And now that we're in Utah, sleeping in until 9:45 (thanks honey, for getting up with Harrison) and relaxing in our pajamas with the Christmas tree in front of me and the snow covered mountains behind me, with snow falling peacefully down, I am feeling much better.

The night I posted the Grinch post, I did have a "heart grew three sizes that day" moment. Elizabeth took a late nap because of our late church schedule. Late naps always make for a very grumpy wake-up. So she was bawling and would not stop. I tried everything and finally couldn't take it any more, so I put her in time out. After several more minutes of her screaming I asked Harrison if he could go in there and try to cheer her up. He went in and sweet as can be started quizzing her on all of her body parts (Sissie, where's you nose? Where's your belly button?) She immediately stopped crying. After going through all of her body parts, he quizzed her on all of his (Sissie, where's Harrison's hair? Where's Harrison's toes?) Then he said, "Okay, are you ready for one more chance? No more crying or mommy's going to put you back in time out." And then they emerged from the room holding hands.

After a stressful week and a long Sunday, it was so nice to have Harrison be so helpful and so sweet to his sister. I remembered my mom always saying she wanted kids who were nice to each other when we asked what she wanted for Christmas, and I totally related. As a mother, there is nothing more heart warming than seeing your kids truly love each other and be kind to each other.

I have a lot of catching up to do on here and unfortunately already down loaded my pictures onto my home computer, so I'll have to do those when we get home in two weeks. I'm looking forward to these two weeks of enjoying family, friends, food, and very few responsibilities. I should have plenty of time to blog about it all too, which will be nice.

I'm also very happy to report that for the first time ever, Elizabeth did a great job on the drive here. She didn't cry like she usually does for hours at a time. She did replaced the non-stop crying with non-stop talking. Every time she saw a semi she said, "fire truck" over and over again until we acknowledged her. Nate was determined to teach her that it was not a fire truck, just a normal truck. We also decided to just let her go and see how many times she would repeat something if we didn't acknowledge her. We got to about 30 before I couldn't take it anymore. She's so funny. She really is at a darling stage and warmed up to Nate's family quite quickly. Harrison was so excited to get here that he asked literally every ten minutes if we were half-way there yet. He kept saying, "I'm so exciting to go to Utah. I just can't wait."

I'm pretty exciting about it too.