Lily and Ryan fought in the car and I told them they need to repent. The night was amazing! Lily and Ryan were having so much fun playing games, were so polite and nice to each other, they had an awesome time playing legos with Max and Lily was sad she had to go to school because they wanted to play more. Lily confided to me that she came home and prayed right away and repented behind the couch.  I told the kids how good it feels to repent and move on and they agreed.

I am reading Book of Mormon with Lily each night and Ryan wants to read too. I read some verses and explained and then he wanted to read a verse. I helped him out with some words and then made a big deal about him reading his first verse in the Book of Mormon. He was very proud. After that I read a verse and it had "and it came to pass." He said, "oh, I wanted to read "and it came to pass." I told him there's lots more of that phrase in there :) I read about Lehi throwing himself on the bed and Ryan said how he cried in his bed one night while praying. He had prayed because he had a nightmare and wanted help. But he can't remember if the prayer worked or not, but I assured him that I'm sure it helped because Heavenly Father listened to his prayer.

Max had lost blue lovey for several days. He finally found him in the big lego bin. There was a big celebration and both Max and Ryan were saying things like, "it's so good to see you lovey! We have missed you! Froggy, say hello to lovey. Lovey, tell froggy where you have been, in the lego bin." Then they played on their beds with their long lost friend and I heard Ryan say, "party in Ryan's bed!"

Lily finishes a book a day if she takes one to school. She just flies through these fairy books. She got a new music book and is playing it before she even goes to class, she loves learning and playing.

I got the book "Wonder" for me, but Lily took it without me knowing and started reading. She loves it. 

Lily and Ryan are obsessed with playing Sleeping Queens and Slapzi, which they both got for Christmas. It is so fun to see them bond over that and to just love playing. Jeff of course loves how much his kids love games, as do I.

Sleeping Queens

It is so neat reading verse by verse in the Book of Mormon with Lily. I am learning so much and understanding more, or rather it is becoming more clear to me as I have to explain it to her. I really feel my love for The Book of Mormon is growing and growing and I just love it. I get so excited to read and have insights and learn new things and to make connections. It is so fun.

I started exercising and listening to good books. One book, The Power of Habit kind of helped me get out of my head the idea that I can't do things or that I need a switch to go off in my brain to be able to change. But really it's a whole habit loop I have gotten stuck in and I can get out of it. When you think about it very objectively rather than emotionally, it feels like it's possible to make changes. Jeff has been so supportive of me right now and working on my goals. One night when basketball didn't work out he told me to go to a movie with friends. I texted some people and Anna Ingold and Brittney Probst and I went to see "Wonder." It was fun to go out last minute and I enjoy a movie so much more when I'm not also paying a babysitter!

My life has been consumed with working on ward history. Who would have thought it would take so long? It has just been hanging over my head and every waking moment I feel like I need to work on it. When I finally got it done it was 130 pages so I had to whittle it down to 100. But Jeff helped me a lot and when I sent it in to the stake she said it was amazing and she could tell how hard I had worked. That made me feel good and I think going forward next year I will be able to do more on an ongoing basis so it's not quite so overwhelming.

When we got our tickets to go to Colorado for Sarah's wedding, we had my parents tell the kids that they were giving them the gift of going to Legoland and a week in California. At first my dad told them they were going to Disneyland (he figured they may as well go to both) and they had no response. They weren't excited or anything. I then prodded my dad to tell the kids they were going to Legoland and when they heard that they were overjoyed! Afterward Ryan said, "I don't think I need to go to Disneyland because I like legos more and Lily's already been to Disneyland. Lily then said that since she had been when she was 3, she didn't need to go again. Well alrighty then, Legoland it is!

Max didn't quite get the concept of going at a later date so he proceeded to get his swimsuit on after we spent a long time looking online at the park and map. Jeff looked up how tall they need to be for the rides and Max is an inch short for some of them. So he is asking to be measured often and told me he is eating lots of Minion grahams so that he can grow tall for the rides.

Checking out Legoland

Seeing if he grew an inch in the last day :)

They are supposed to be in bed, but love looking at legos by the hall light.

We finally put up lego tape the kids got from Nana for Christmas. 

It was so funny to discover that we can walk faster to the preschool than we can drive. So on a pleasant day Jeff walked over with Ryan. 

Ryan likes to make creations with "Brain Flakes"

Ryan's monster

Max had fun setting up superhero for Liam to knock down. 

Ryan worked hard to make an octopus out of the brain flakes. Those were some hard instructions to follow. 

For Christmas Ryan and Max got Jeff a picture they could color together. They finally got to do it and Ryan hung his right next to Jeff's bed. 

Max opted to hang his next to his bed.