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: 

I have no idea. Our eating has been pretty dysfunctional lately. Jack and David are picky, Spencer is now diary-free, eating super healthy plus he went off of sugar for Lent (why?!!) and I am just pregnant and picky and sensitive to smells. So basically everything Spencer cooks for himself (I should just be grateful that he cooks and proud that he's being so healthy!) smells awful to me. (He seriously eats three different types of curry weekly and pretty much just turkey burgers on the other days and the thought or smell of those foods now make me want to puke! So we usually make four different meals for dinner. It's bad and I wish we could just eat out every meal :)  
What I'm loving:
 I just discovered this candle scent at Bath and Body Works and I LOVE IT. Usually I like the fall/winter candle scents over spring/summer but this might be my favorite ever.

I also bought Target's Island Moonlight candle because it smells just like the Anthropology candles that I can't justify buying and love it also, though the throw isn't super strong so I just burn it in smaller rooms.
What I'm reminiscing about:
Yesterday, I blogged about my top five most ridiculous  photos and that had me reminiscing quite a bit :)
What I'm dreading:
Being pregnant for three more weeks. I am HUGE - way bigger than I was when I was pregnant with Jack and David and I'm ready to be done and meet this sweet baby! 
What we've been up to:
Jack had spring break last week, and even though that's not a huge deal when he just goes to preschool for half the day for three days a week, we played pretty hard and did some fun new things!
Spring break highlights - fire station tour, exploring the tiny geology museum at a local college (because - dinosaur fossils! ;) and driving an hour to Iowa City with a friend to stock up at Costco. (Ok, this list makes me feel like my mom life is kind of pathetic ;)




The geology museum exceeded my very low expectations ;) There were more dinosaur fossils than I thought there would be and the kids were really into it because there was a box full of cards with pictures of different things in the museum that you could choose from to go search for.
 
 

Other things Jack and David have been up to - playing with dinosaurs in fake snow (for hours! It's amazing!), going to a friends birthday party, and playing outside. (The high was 77 degrees and sunny on Friday and Jack yelled from outside at me and said, "Mom, you gotta come out here and try out this sun!!!")

My friend texted me this picture from her daughter's "Trolls" birthday party and it cracked me up :)
 
What I'm working on:
Growing a baby and surviving my last month of pregnancy ;)

What I'm excited about:
Meeting our baby boy or girl!
What I'm watching:

 
Poldark!!! Oh man, this may be one of my favorite shows ever! It's on Amazon Prime and Spencer and I finished both season 1 and 2 and LOVED IT!
What I'm reading:
I read this book for a professional development class I took to renew my teaching license and while it had a lot of good ideas and concepts about compassion, it was pretty dry. I recommend reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown over this one - same principles, but WAY more engaging.

 
"In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are." This beautiful story is about two sisters fighting to survive during World War II in their own horrific and inspiring ways. This book has received a lot of praise and now I know why! It's one of my very favorite books I've ever read.

My grandma gave me this book back in September for my birthday and I finally got around to reading it this month. I couldn't put it down! I loved it and I can't wait to see the movie now!
 
A friend recommended this book and I joked that it was my self help book for living in Iowa ;) I actually didn't read the entire book, but loved the "love where you live principles." I also loved the chapter that talked about how walking and biking places helps you to love where you live and I couldn't agree more! Some of my happiest memories and most sacred moments happened on my favorite running/hiking/biking trails in Logan, Birmingham and Davenport.
 

What I've been listening to:
Disney Pandora station :)
What I'm wearing: 
Stretch7 pants. My maternity jeans don't even fit me anymore. Whaaaah!!! 36 week baby bump pic:

What I'm doing this weekend: 
Hanging out at home and listening to General Conference
What I'm looking forward to next month:
BABY!!!!!
Bonus Question:

Show and Tell Tuesday - Top Five Photos

Today, I'm linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesday and showing my "Top Five Pictures." I decided to share my top five most ugly/ridiculous pictures because I am just so dang proud of them ;)

In chronological order:

1. Kelly Clarkson photobomb - I have shared this photo a bajillion times on social media because my goal in life is to make sure that nobody forgets this moment ;) For my high school graduation trip, I went with some of my girlfriends and our moms to NYC and had the best time ever! One day, we found out Kelly Clarkson was going to be on the Today Show (I think???) and decided to check it out. Anyway, as she was walking onto the stage to perform, a bunch of paparazzi started taking her picture as I was trying to get her picture and autograph. I found this picture of me and Kelly on a fan site :)

It got even better a few years later when my mom found this picture of Bill Clinton and Kelly Clarkson! hahaha!

 2. It is no secret that I am a fan of LOST. It is my favorite TV show of all time. My freshman year of college, I spent over an hour in my dorm room with my roommate perfecting this picture of me and Jack Shepard :) Does it surprise you that I went on maybe 3 dates that entire year??? ;)

3. After my first semester of my sophomore year of college, I took the semester off and spent six months in China teaching English. I had the time of my life, but I have to say, I was not in my prime :) I weighed more than I ever have in my entire life and was constantly hot and sweaty and bloated because Chinese food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for six months just did that to me. Here I am attempting to take a cute picture up close with a giraffe, but then it moved and freaked me out which resulted in this lovely picture here aka my ugliest picture of all time.
 
 4. Another candid China picture - we took Kung Fu lessons and I was the only one by the end of the six months who still couldn't do the splits (thank you, dad, for my horrible flexibility). The instructor was really trying to get me to the splits position so that they could put the picture on one of their Kung Fu pamphlets (teaching Americans was a really big deal to them and great for recruiting) but I didn't make the cut ;) He was pushing down so hard and almost killed me!
 
5. This wedding picture of me and Spencer. Our photographer wanted a cute, cheesy "twirling" picture, but it looked like Spencer was hurling me like he did with the weight and hammer throw! hahaha (He was a thrower on the Utah State Track and Field team)

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And I thought I'd share some of my favorite family pictures since this is our last month as a family of 4!!!
Summer 2015 - Our Iowa "corny" family pic

Fall 2015 at the Lincoln park Zoo in Chicago - I miss David's curly blonde baby hair!

December 2015 at my brother's wedding reception

Summer 2016 in Disney World

Things I'm Loving

•  Waking up to this face still asleep (in my bed... grrrrr) at 8:30 this morning. Jack was still asleep too! A sleeping-in miracle only made possible by daylight savings and going to bed after 9 last night!

 

•  My view while doing the dishes

I love Jack and David's friends just as much as they do!

• This quote by C.S. Lewis

•   Naps! Jack and David were a little under the weather last week and so I got a few naps out of them, which hardly ever happens these days.

 

•  Jack, who found face paint while I was cleaning out a closet and decided to be Maui from Moanna :)

•  Sugar cookies from my favorite local bakery from my awesome friend :)

•  Playing in the snow! (Actually, the thing I love about this is that it was hopefully the last big snow of the season ;)

 
 
 
 
 Eating yellow snow ;)

• My district award winning 4th grade essay that my dad texted to me yesterday. FULL DISCLOSURE: I wrote a HORRIBLE different essay and when my dad went to edit it while I was asleep the night before it was due, he botched my entire essay and wrote a different essay instead! He accidentally wrote it too good for a 4th grader and so my dad ended up beating all the other 4th graders in an essay contest. Oops! haha I'd like to think that somehow I still became a decent writer watching my dad edit/rewrite all of my papers over the years ;) He's pretty great. So here is my (dad's) essay, posted here for posterity and stuff:

• Imagination Station! The Quad Cities has an annual free event where you can visit all of the PBS characters in different rooms, play games, watch the PBS shows, and do crafts all centered around the PBS show. This was our third year going and Jack and David love it.

 


They had a live turtle, snake, hawk and owl at the Wild Crats station - Jack was in heaven!

We packed the crafts with us to do at home so that we would have time to hit more characters and stations. As soon as we got home, Jack dumped his bag and got to work :)

Chicago Day Trip

On Saturday, we went on a little outing to Chicago to see Sue the T. Rex. at the Field Museum. Jack decided over a month ago that he was going to take Spencer to see Sue for Spencer's birthday party since Spencer had never seen Sue before. (Jack, David and I have seen Sue two separate times while Spencer was in conferences, but it was a couple of years ago before Jack was obsessed with dinosaurs) Anyway, it was very selfless on Jack's part to give Spencer an opportunity to see Sue ;) Jack had been anticipating and prepping for Spencer's "birthday party" for weeks - he checked out Sue books at the library, he watched a Sue documentary on Netflix, and he picked out what Spencer and David were going to wear to see Sue days in advance (see their dinosaur shirts? ;)  
 
Side note: the only thing more boring than reading nonfiction dinosaur, turtle, shark, and reptile books is reading nonfiction books about one excavated dinosaur fossil named Sue. Fun fact: It is estimated that Sue died at the age of 29 years old. Spencer just turned 29, and Jack made sure to point out that both Spencer and Sue were 29 years old for Spencer's 29th birthday party! haha
Jack woke up at 4 freaking 45 am on Saturday morning because he was sooooo excited to head to Chicago. I'm pretty sure he was more excited for this day than Christmas :) We got to the Field Museum around 10 am and headed straight for Sue and to see the other dinosaur fossils.

Sue and Jack pretending to be a dinosaur:

Sue's real head is too heavy to display in the lobby so the real head in a display upstairs.
 
 When we went to through the dinosaur fossil exhibit, Jack skipped, smiled, and had his hands in a T. Rex claw position almost the entire time. He was very thorough in his touring - we couldn't skip one display or sign. David lost interest because Jack's pace was too slow ;)
Funny quotes from my dino nerd ;)
- "MOM, I SEE MEGALODON TEETH!!!!" (Prehistoric shark teeth) Then I read the sign and saw that he was correct :)
 
 
 
- "Mom, is that a compsognathus?" And I'm like, "???????" Sure enough, it was :)
- "MOM!!!!! DAD!!!!  DAVID!!!!!! I FOUND THE ARCHELONS!!!! (prehistoric sea turtle)

Half way into the exhibit, David took a seat in the stroller. He was over it :)

 
Jack and David had saved their birthday money from my Grandma Wirthlin and I brought it with us to the museum because I had a feeling that they were going to want to spend it at the dinosaur store :) Jack chose a "cozy" dinosaur egg with four different baby dinosaur stuffed animals and David chose a scary T. Rex shirt. Thank you Great Grandma Wirthlin!

We toured a little longer (the museum is HUGE!!! We didn't even scratch the surface) then headed to the car to head to the next museum. We picked up some sushi to go at a restaurant nearby before heading south to the Museum of Science and Industry. We hadn't been to this museum before but it is another museum that we can get into for free with our local family museum membership so we decided to check it out.
Kai Sushi - yum!




mirror maze

 
By about 3:30, we were all SOOOO TIRED and ready to go. We stopped at Giordanos in Hyde Park to get some deep dish pizza before heading back home.

Museums are not really me or Spencer's thing - I think we both prefer doing something outside - but we both agreed that the dinosaur exhibit was our favorite part of the day.  It wasn't because of all of the dinosaur fossils, but because it's just so dang fun watching your kid have the time of their life :) Jack already decided that he wants to go see Sue again on his birthday. We all LOVE Chicago and we're glad that we live close enough that we can take some fun day trips every once and a while.