David is THREE!

Happy Birthday David boy!!!


David's Three-Year-Old Interview

1. What is your favorite color? green like Hulk
2. What is your favorite toy? my Captain America toy
3. What is your favorite thing to eat? pizza
4. What is your favorite TV show? Dino Dan
5. What is your favorite outfit to wear? shorts
6. Where do we live? Iowa
7. What are your favorite animals? tigers
8. Where does Dad work? work
9. Where does Mom work? nowhere
10. What is your favorite book? i don't know
11. What is your favorite thing to do outside? run around
12. Who is your best friend? Jackson (Jack's friend :)
    
13. What do you want to be when you grow up? Spider-Batman (A Spider-man/Batman combo :)
14. What's your favorite game to play? soccer ball
15. What do you like to take to bed with you? dino toys
16. What's your favorite thing to do with Mom? swim class
17. What's your favorite thing to do with Dad? jumping on the trampoline 
18. What's your favorite thing to do with Jack? read books
19. What's your favorite treat? gum
20. What is your favorite movie? The Incredible Hulk
21. If you could go anywhere, where would you want to go? Monkey Joe's (Inflatable play center)
22. What makes you happy? running around
23. What makes you sad? hitting
24. What makes you scared? ghosts
25. What is your favorite sport? football
26. What's your favorite flavor of ice-cream? chocolate

Things I want to remember about David at three:

• He is obsessed with all things super hero. He often calls Spencer "Dad Hulk" and me "Mom Hulk" and expects all of us Avengers to assemble :) On Saturdays and Sundays when Spencer wakes up in the morning and doesn't have to get to work, David hands Spencer Thor's hammer or Captain America's shield and expects Spencer to follow him around the house chasing bad guys with him.
• He knows a lot about dinosaurs and plays with dinosaurs a lot thanks to Jack. He can list more types of dinosaurs on the spot than I can.
• He has quite the bedtime routine. First his "leg hurts" so we have to "squeeze" his leg. Then to even in out we have to squeeze his other leg. Then he lifts up his shirt and we have to rub his tummy. Then he turns over and we have to scratch is back. It can't be slow back scratching; it has to be very fast and vigorous scratching.
• He never makes it through the night in his bed. He always crawls into bed with Spencer and first, must full body, tummy-to-tummy snuggle Spencer before Spencer eventually rolls him over. (I have no idea how Spencer sleeps with that kind of cuddling!) If I try to help David in the night, he gets mad at me and insists that Spencer helps him. (I'm not complaining about this! haha) To sum up the last two bullet points... we are failing in the sleep training department. David has sleep trained us and we total enable his behavior. Somebody help us!
• I could swear David subconsciously prefers to poop in public over pooping at home. He always needs to go in the grossest public bathrooms and he always takes at least 20 minutes. It's torture!!!
• David always wants to "count" Spencer's pills in the morning. He can identify all four of Spencer's daily pills and say what they are for. "This one's for your head, this one's for your body, this one's for your tummy, and this one's for your heart."
• David is very picky about what he wears and insists on choosing what he wears everyday. He always wants to wear shorts. When we go out in the cold weather, he will change to pants but they have to be jeans. As soon as we walk in the door, he takes his pants off and changes back into shorts. Some days when he can't decide what super hero shirt to wear, he will layer them and wear both :)
• He is always climbing on me or Spencer, playing with our faces, putting his finger in our ears, etc. There is just so much touching and he's right up in our personal space all. the. time ;)
• David worships Jack's friends. He thinks they are all so cool and even knows all of Jack's friends from school since he comes with us on Jack's monthly field trips. 
• David is dominant, fiery, intense, stubborn and has quite a temper! He loves pushing Jack's buttons, but most of the time they are best buddies.  

We sure love our David boy and are excited to celebrate him this week!

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Two-year-old birthday post here ....  and here

One-year-old birthday post

David's birth

What's Up Wednesday

Today, I’m linking up with Shay, Shaefer and Mel for What’s Up Wednesday!

What we're eating this week: 

Spencer has been dairy free for quite a while now (he will splurge every once in a while and take dairy pills) but anyway, it is pretty depressing for him for obvious reasons and depressing for me because everything that tastes good has dairy in it and I don't know what to make for dinner anymore. If you have any great dairy free meals please share :)
Last week we tried this grilled sesame chicken and noodle bowl and this lemon tarragon pasta salad and really liked both of them! These easy flour-less peanut butter cookies have been a favorite of ours for a while and they have made their way back into our regular dessert rotation :)
What I'm excited about:
This January has not been too depressing or too long to me, and I feel like that is definitely something to be excited about! I stink at doing January, February and March, but maybe I'm learning to get better at winter??? Or I'm just trying to soak in these last few months of being a mom of just two :)
What I'm dreading:
Nothing at the moment :)
What I'm reminiscing about:
Our December Disneyland vacation with Spencer's family :)

What we've been up to: 
We drove to Nauvoo to visit the temple. While Spencer was in the temple, we went to the Blacksmith and went on an Oxen ride and horse ride. While I was in the temple, they played toys at the welcome center and broke ice on the banks of the Mississippi River. It was a balmy 53 degrees!!!



David was a little nervous and held my hand on both the oxen and horse carriage ride :) I enjoyed every minute of it :)



Some other pics from this week:
 


What I'm loving:
Jack and David quotes this week:

David, when I told him to stop biting his nails, "I'm not biting them just chewing them!"

Jack, after watching this cute music video, "Mom, I love it so much it almost gave me happy tears!"

And I have loved watching superhero-obsessed David show me his "side kick" over and over again. He thinks a superhero "side kick" is a literal side kick so he kicks and kicks and kicks all the time :) He also had a nightmare earlier this month about going on an up-side-down roller coaster. I think Disneyland scarred him a bit :)
I'm also loving these memes :)


What I'm working on:
Spencer cleaned and reorganized our basement while Jack, David, and I were still in Utah. When I got home we reorganized the bedrooms closets too. I've got a list of things I want to get done around the house before baby comes :)

I tried making a goal to do a load of laundry a day so that I didn't get behind on laundry. I stuck to my goal for about a week, but I think I missed the whole point because I never folded or put the clothes away after I did the load of laundry like I was planning on doing. So instead of having a pile of dirty clothes in our bedroom, I had a pile of clean cloths in the basement, which wasn't much better ;) New Years resolution fail!

What I'm watching/reading:

This is Us is my folding laundry show and Spencer and I just finished the second season of 24 last night. We lost a lot of sleep this month because we couldn't stop watching it!!!

I LOVE the books that I read these last two months. 
For book club in December we read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. It is a historical novel about two female 19th century fossil hunters who uncover an "unusual fossilized skeleton" (a dinosaur!) in the cliffs near their home in England. I seriously loved this book and loved telling Jack that I was reading a dinosaur book :)

For book club in December, we were supposed to read the play, "Fences." But since Denzel Washington was acting it out on the big screen, I cheated and just went to the movie with some girlfriends instead and really liked it :)

I read two "polygamy books". I have no idea why I am so disturbingly fascinated with this topic but it is amazing to me how resilient the human spirit is and that it is possible to heal from such horrible abuse and circumstances. After five years of reading and learning and talking about this topic, I finally got Spencer to read some of these books too :) He actually read THREE polygamy books this month. (Spencer did say he felt a little self conscious reading a book titled "Princess" when he went to get his oil changed. haha!) My favorite one:

Princess is a true story of a princess living in Saudi Arabia. It's shocking, sad, horrific, eye opening and riveting. It is hard to believe that women are treated so poorly in Saudi Arabia and how much abuse they suffer. I thought I was reading a book about the Middle Ages, not present day! I know these books are not for everyone as there is a lot of abuse, but I highly recommend it if it is something you can handle. Princess Sultana's fiery, brave, rebellious, resilient spirit is inspiring.
 
Lost Boy is a story about a boy who was kicked out of Warren Jeff's FLDS polygamist community.

And to balance out the heavy books I read, I also read Chip and Joanna's new book, The Magnolia Story. I laughed, I cried, I loved it :)
What I've been listening to:
I loved listening to this podcast episode, "When Life is Less Than Ideal."
What I'm wearing: 
I have been tempted for a while now to splurge and buy LipSense lipstick, but it was just so dang expensive so I did a little research and found a much cheaper alternative that I really like! Rimmel Provocalips is only $6.50 a tube, and while I don't have LipSense to compare, the Rimmel stays on all day and is smudge, kiss, and water proof which is exactly what LipSense claims to do too!

What I'm doing this weekend: 
???
What I'm looking forward to next month:
David's birthday party, valentines day, and Spencer's birthday :)
Bonus Question:

Friday Favorites

Today, I'm linking up with Momfessionals, A Little Bit of Everything, and Grace & Love and sharing some Friday favorites!

• This boy and his new haircut! Spencer has been wanting to cut his hair for a long time and it took a lot of convincing for me to agree to cut David's curls. The only downside to his new do - he looks too grown up... and my baby's curls are gone! haha

•  Getting outside, even in freezing cold January.

 
 I am curious if I'm still getting a dose of vitamin D if my entire body is covered???

We decided to make a goal to go on a walk before church every Sunday this winter if the temperature is above 20 degrees. So far, we've only been on one Sunday walk! haha
 These boys are getting too big for strollers!

 
 

• It is definitely a favorite when Spencer scrapes the ice off of my windows before he leaves for work. He is the best!

• Costumes are Jack and David's favorite. They change clothes too many times every day! I still can't get over David in his Hulk costume. It never gets old and he makes me laugh every time I see him wearing his hulk mask.

Jack was teaching all of his friends about dinosaurs the other day in his dinosaur costume and it was too funny!

The other day, David wanted to play "Disneyland". I had to "wait in line" then take a picture with Captain America and then with Spider-man :)

• Free admission to Monkey Joes!

• Finding a yummy Mexican food hole-in-the-wall that meets my high Arizona Mexican food standards, free entrees at Chic-fil-A every Tuesday night in January, and an endless supply of my all time favorite candy! (Chocolate covered cinnamon bears that do not exist in Iowa. But it seems like as long as I continue to talk about my love for chocolate covered cinnamon bears on my blog and how I can't buy them in Iowa, awesome people in my life keep giving them to me... I'm not sure why this strategy doesn't work with bobas or shrimp mango quesadillas though???) Also, refrigerated chocolate covered cinnamon bears are the best way to eat them.

Utah for Christmas

The day after our last day at Disneyland, we hit the road for Utah! We made it to Kaysville just before the snowstorm.
I loved driving through Southern Utah. So pretty!

My nephew was born that day and the following day (Christmas Eve) we got to drive down to Provo to meet him! A Wirthlin cousin for Christmas was just what Jack and David wanted! We all love Calvin James!!!
Baby Calvin picture overload:


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Wirthlin grandkids

 
 We went to Spencer's uncle's house for Christmas Eve for a delicious Mexican tamale dinner. Jack and David loved playing with their second cousins!
Acting out the nativity:


Pinata!

We stopped by my parent's house (they are living at my Grandma Wirthlin's house right now) on the way home for a bit since we weren't going to see them on Christmas day. We exchanged family gifts and Jack and David were super excited about their Hulk hands and velociraptor hands (and other dinosaur and superhero toys ;)!


I was a little worried that they wouldn't care about what Santa brought them because they were so in love with their new hands! haha
Here were my boys on Christmas morning (they both are in the habit of climbing into our bed at night... I'm not a fan of this!) I was up and ready to go and all three of them were passed out! They slept with their Hulk and Velociraptor hands that night :)

 
 My brother and sister-in-law's family also spent the night so Christmas morning was extra fun! We woke up to a white Christmas with so much snow that we couldn't get our cars out so we skipped out on church.

My in-laws went to Hawaii earlier in December (another thing on my mother-in-law's bucket list!) and so they started the tradition this year of wearing Hawaiian shirts and mumus on Christmas day :)

 
Playing with toys on Christmas morning - Santa brought David some super hero action figures and Jurrasic World dinosaurs for Jack.
Playing with their new toys:



My parent's gave Jack a shark dig similar to the dinosaur fossil dig that he got for his birthday. He loved excavating the shark teeth!

James and Maddie gave Jack and David scorpion suckers!


And they gifted me this amazing onesie ;)

My mother-in-law has a tradition of making orange rolls and breakfast casserole on Christmas morning. She wasn't able to make the orange rolls this year but she coached me and my sister-in-law on how to make them this Christmas. I'm glad I know how to make them now so I can carry on the tradition. They are delicious and a family favorite!


All of Spencer's siblings and families came for Christmas dinner.

They love baby Ashley!

One of my favorite gifts this year was a print of our family that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave us - it got me so excited for our little baby to come this April!


We had a great Christmas and were so grateful to be able to be with family during the holidays.
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Other things we did in Utah:

• Enjoyed my in-laws treadmill! They have the fanciest treadmill ever and I loved using it while we stayed with them. After my jogs, Jack and David always wanted to try it out too :)

• Visited "Grandma Annie" and "Papa Carlos" aka the snail grandma's house. When we walked up to their house the first time, Jack sniffed and said, "Yep! Smells like snails!" haha fyi it does not smell like snails at their house ;) They loved their dinosaur trucks and Utah State sweatshirts that they got from them and they also loved performing on their "stage"!

 
 

• We visited Grandma Wirthlin at my aunt's house in Kaysville

• We went to the aquarium for my cousin, Nate's birthday!

• We went to a bounce-house place with cousins

• We slept over at my parents house for a couple of nights!

 
 

• We rang in the new year a few hours early because our flight left at 6 am on January 1st!

 


 

• Spencer left four days before us to get back to work, and of course, that is when David threw up one night, peed the bed the following night, and stayed awake for an hour and a half straight in the middle of the night the night after that! (And the last night, we woke up at 3:45 am to catch our flight back home!) 

Here we are at the airport (sometime before 5 am). David slept through security until I had to wake him up to get on the plane! He napped on our second flight from Denver to Des Moines and also on our 2 1/2 hour car ride from Des Moines to Davenport. We were all wiped!
 

 

I love this picture of Jack with his pirate eye patch watching the Ipad ;)

(It took us 12 hours total to get home and I am currently in mourning that there are no direct Allegiant flights to Salt Lake City. Our cheapest option to fly to Utah is to fly Frontier where we have to drive over 2 hours to get to the airport and it is not a direct flight.)

We had such a great vacation and Christmas and we are so grateful for all of the memories we made and time we had to spend with family!