Giardiais... aka... a pain in the behind!

Well we have finally determined the cause of Carter's bowel issues... he has Giardia. Giardia is a parasite that lives in the intestines and causes diarrhea and abdominal cramping. Fortunately it is usually treated easily with medication. We are not sure how he got it, it is usually contracted from contaminated water sources, but it is carried in feces so he could have contracted it from playing in the dirt or somewhere else that could have been contaminated... pretty nasty if you think about it. Carter has finished his meds and now we get to do the stool sample AGAIN to make sure he no longer has it, as it is sometimes resistant to the medication. (I can hardly wait!!) The fact that Carter hasn't grown at all in the last year can probably be attributed to the parasite, so hopefully we will see a growth spurt in the near future. I feel really bad that he had to suffer for so long! I took him to the doctor at the end of last summer because he had had diarrhea for weeks and weeks and it was often really explosive (so much so that he couldn't always get to the toilet on time.) WELL, I don't know if my doctor just wasn't listening to me or what, but she told me that he was probably constipated and that I should give him a laxative! (Since when do you give kids with explosive diarrhea a laxative?!?) I seriously couldn't believe it, she was dead serious too... Needless to say we switched doctors!! Well we are happy to have it figured out and I am Really glad that it wasn't a gluten allergy or something terrible like that! (I had been bracing myself for the worst.)

CoMMeRciALs!

I bought Carter a new pair of flip-flops and he wore them for the first time to school yesterday. As we were driving to school he looks down at them and says, "Mom can my next new pair of shoes be Skechers?"

"Skechers?!?" I said wondering how he even knew about skechers, "Carter, your church shoes are Skechers."

"No, I want a real pair of Sketchers, not church Skechers," he contended.

"Why do you want Skechers?" ...

"Because they breath!" he replied emphatically.

"Where did you learn that?" I asked in wonderment.

"From a commercial, " he answered nonchalantly.

CoMMeRciALs are already brainwashing my 5 year old!

Sunrise Picnic

Since moving back to Tempe there are some old friends that lived at the Sunrise Apartments with us that I have been wanting to get together with for some time. The apartment complex that we lived in right after we got married was kind of in the ghetto but it was great because it was a little mormon community, our little safe haven amidst the craziness that surrounded us. When we moved in 19 of the 20 apartments were filled with members of the church, most of which were newly married - it was a lot of fun! In our ward the apartment complex was known as the "Mormon Dorm." We had a lot of fun while we were there and we made some good friends, especially since a lot of us became first time moms while we were there... We experienced a lot of firsts together.

Well, since I'm moving soon I decided that I would put together a picnic at a park we used to go to together when the kids were just little. Of course there aren't too many of us that still live close but a few of us got together for a picnic and it was so fun to see each other, the kids and how our families have grown!

Back in 2004, from left to right: Remington (Remi) Norton, Carter, and Erin Bueler.

Remi, Erin and Carter 4 years later... look how they've grown! They still had a lot of fun together even after all these years!

Look how our families have grown, I think we're even missing a couple in this picture. It was sure fun to see everyones little crops of kids. Remi has 2 little sisters now (not pictured), Erin has two little sisters and Andrew has a little sister. Am I the only one without girls!?! Well Carter is there in the middle with Gage (the two making funny faces!)

Our picnic at Kiwanis Park, everyone brought yummy treats to share!

The Sunrise Mommas: Myself, Marsha Bueler, Siboney Norton, and Esther Ostler. We wish the rest of you Sunrise gals could have been there to share the afternoon!

The Sweet Prayer of a 2 Year Old

The other night we tucked Gage into bed only to hear him cry out moments later, "my pwayers, my pwayers!" Since Carter is in a new independent stage and wants to be alone while he says his personal prayers I guess we had forgotten to let Gage say his own prayer. I love that my two year old was so distraught at not praying before going to bed. I love being a mom, it's moments like these that I cherish. I also love listening to him pray for the things that are important to him. I think his prayer this evening went something like this... "thank you for mommy, thank you for daddy, thank you for Carter, thank you for Rustin, thank you for popcorn, thank you for cake, thank you for my toys, thank you for Carter's toys, thank you for huge temples, thank you for little temples, thank you for my Jesus." So sweet and so sincere. I LoVe my bOyS!!

Rim to Rim yet again!

Although I grew up in Arizona and have lived here all but two years of my life I had only been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times and had never hiked it... until this year! In the last year I have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 4 times! This weekend marked our 3rd time hiking with a group of people put together by a man in our ward, Ed McMullin, which has become known as "Club ED." (Ed is amazing as he puts together transportation, arranges shuttling of vehicles and sometimes even provides dinner on the trail!) I also made 1 trip down to Havasupai Falls for a girls weekend (I know not your typical girls weekend - a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon but oh so much fun!).

This weekend was amazing as we hiked down in the afternoon, had a little BBQ in the bottom with brats and smores (thanks to Ed himself), and hiked out by moonlight. The hike out was AMAZING! The canyon is always beautiful and amazing and this trip was definitely no exception. On the way down everything was so green and lush, the water was running high from the winters snow runoff, there were frogs croaking in the creeks near the bottom, the gentle breeze rustling through the trees. I wish I could have brought the sounds of the canyon home with me. The way out was particularly amazing. We started hiking out right after it got dark, however the moon had not yet come up. As we were hiking along the trail and the moon peeked over the rim it was as though a big spotlight had just been shined down on the canyon and it was awesome. The shadows from the south rim peered onto the canyon walls of the north rim. I wish that I had a good camera and tripod so that I could have captured it. Hiking out was so serene and peaceful as there were no other hikers on the trail, it was spectacular!

I have really gained a love of the Canyon this last year and I am sad to leave Arizona and miss the bi-annual rim to rim trips with "Club Ed." However, we have had a lot of fun times with old friends, made new friends and have created some really good memories and we will be back!

Such awesome scenery, if only my camera could really capture the awe of it all.

On the bridge that takes us across the Colorado River.

This is a picture of the switch backs that we went down the first time we hiked the canyon. This picture seemed a little bit more significant after this trip as these were the switch backs that we hiked UP this time!

Keepin it real! We took some funny pictures with Julie and Travis at the bottom before starting our steep ascent upward. This one was my favorite (except my eye looks really scarry). Julie suggested making a face that you would be afraid to see at night in a dark alley. Who do you think wins the prize for the scarriest?

This is us with Ed at the end of the hike, and look we're all still smiling! Such an awesome thing to do every year. What a great guy - we love you Ed!

Tricky and Lucky... our first PETS!

While Jared and I hiked the Grand Canyon this weekend Carter and Gage stayed with my cousins. These are not ordinary cousins, these girls have adopted my boys as their nephews - and they spoil them as such! The boys get so excited to go to the Walker's house and they get especially giddy when they get to spend the night. Carter was counting down all week, 5 more days, 4 more days, 3 more days... til Mommy and Daddy would leave to go on their hike and he would get to stay with the Walker's. It's no wonder that they love being there, all of my cousins and my aunt and uncle dote on them and there is never a dull moment. After Carter's soccer game on Saturday they managed to fit in a trip to the pet store, the park, a picnic, a game of baseball, the dollar store, swimming, pizza at Nello's and popping popcorn in the big old fashioned popper! Well my cousin, Julie, got the bright idea to go to the pet store to get frogs and take them to the park and race them. Carter and Gage each picked out their own frog and named it. I'm not sure where Gage picked up the word "tricky" but they said that he was saying it the whole time he was at the pet store and that is what he decided to name his frog while Carter named his frog Lucky. With Tricky and Lucky in tow they headed out to the park for the BIG RACE. I got to watch the video footage when we got back and all I can say is that I am surprised that Lucky and Tricky are still alive! Although they had good intentions my boys were not so gentle with those frogs, they were batting at them to get them to go, picking them up, dropping them, and holding them by their legs; it was all very comical. It was so fun to see their excitement and watch them hold the frogs for the first time (Carter had to be the brave one because my cousins didn't want to touch the frogs). Well, Carter's frog won the race and needless to say we have now acquired our first pets. It's a good thing we are moving across country in 7 weeks and we will be able to give them back! (Assuming they SURVIVE that long, but with names like Lucky and Tricky they just might!)

The froggies with their breakfast, yep they eat live crickets! (I'm super excited to go to the pet store once a week to pick up a new batch.)

Carter and Lucky, this little guy is a wiggler and a pretty high hopper.

Gagers with his frog Tricky, he gets so excited every time he gets to hold him and giggles with delight as he hops up his arm.

I don't know what kind of frogs these are but their under side is fluorescent orange and black, pretty cool looking!

Wisconsin Winter Wonderland

A friend of mine who grew up in Wisconsin emailed this to me... I can't wait for winter this year (will we be going outside at all?!?) Wisconsin here we come!

"A curious fellow died one day and found himself waiting in the long line of judgment. As he stood there he noticed that some souls were allowed to march right through the pearly gates into Heaven. Others though, were led over to Satan who threw them into the burning pit. But every so often, instead of hurling a poor soul into the fire, Satan would toss a soul off to one side into a small pile. After watching Satan do this several times, the fellow's curiosity got the best of him.
So he strolled over and asked Satan what he was doing. "Excuse me, Prince of Darkness," he said. "I'm waiting in line for Judgment, but I couldn't help wondering. Why are you tossing those people aside instead of flinging them into the Fires of Hell with the others?" "Oh those ...... Satan groaned. "They're all from Wisconsin; they're still too cold and wet to burn."

Everyone Poops

Everyone poops... but not everyone bags it and takes it home from the grocery store. So, to give a little background info on the situation Carter has been having some gastrointestinal problems for about 9 months now and he is currently undergoing some testing to try to figure out what the problem is. Well, one of those tests includes 5 stool samples. Well we got the first 4 pretty quick but I had been waiting for a day for the last one so that I could get all of the vials of poo out of my house and back to the lab. Well of course we were at the grocery store when Carter suddenly had to go. Since I was about to bag a bunch of asparagus I decided to take the produce bag grabbed another and off I went with Carter to the restroom. We collected the sample, double bagged it and dropped it in my purse. (I know nasty.) As we were walking out of the bathroom Carter looks up at me and says, "Mom that's pretty funny that we are taking my poop home with us!" I looked up in horror to see if anyone was within ear shot and this lady was there giving me a really nasty look and another guy was laughing at us. Ahh the joys of motherhood!

I have to add that we also went to Sonora Quest Lab today for the boys to get some blood drawn. Carter for the same problem and Gage's for a lead screening. Carter got up there and didn't even flinch when they poked him and he gave his 3 vials with a smile on his face. No tears, no whining! Gage was so excited when it was his turn that he got up in the chair and gave his vial without a whimper. I was sooo proud of them, they did better than I do when I have to give blood. They were more annoyed with the bands that they wrapped around their arm then they were with the needles.

Maxwell David, the newest member of the Mangum Clan

Well I lucked out again! When my sister, Tiffany, had her first baby, Turner, I happened to be flying into Salt Lake the day he was born so I got to see him right away. With Max I was in Montana so we were able to stop by on the way home to see the little guy and boy was he precious. There's nothing as sweet and precious as a newborn baby - almost makes me baby hungry. Gage loved the little guy and has been talking about him ever since. He had a perma-smile on his face the whole time he held Max and I loved every minute of watching his excitement. Carter wanted absolutely nothing to do with Max (sound familiar? - he acted the same way when Gage was born). I wanted to get a picture of all of the boys together so I asked Carter if he would hold Max for a picture but he absolutely would not budge on his indiference towards this child. He finally agreed to support Max's head while Gage held him for the picture. Well that worked out okay until the picture was over and Gage wanted to get back to playing with Turner. He exclaimed, "All Done!" and proceeded to push Max off of his lap, which would have resulted in a big thud onto the floor from the couch if Jared hadn't yelled,"Grab the baby!" from across the room. No worries though, Max was not injured in the making of this memory.

...The Rest of the Story

Well, the rest of our trip was spent visiting and spending time with friends and family that we don't get to see often enough! We were able to go to the Rexburg temple which was fun since Jared and I went to school there and that is where we met and fell in love (awww). We also went to Craigo's and got cheesy bread, still great bread but not the same nostalgic feelings since the restaurant moved to the old China Buffet building. The boys got a kick out of feeding the ducks in Idaho Falls and boy were those ducks and geese friendly. Gage about had a fit when one of the geese came up and snatched his whole piece of bread out of his hand, he started crying "My bwed, my bwed!" and Carter wasn't so ecstatic when one of the geese bit him but still a lot of fun. We had some more fun pictures that we wanted to share so I guess the rest of the story can be told via picture.

Let's get ready to rumble! The Robbins' vs the Gugelman's Laser Tag. (Don't shoot your eye out)

Our little monkey climbed all the way to the top of the climbing wall, over and over again.

I don't know if these geese were starving to death or just super friendly but man were they bold!

"Jump goose, jump." Jared is an exceptional wild animal trainer.

If only the picture were big enough to show Gage laughing hysterically

With Grandma and Grandpa Robbins

West Yellowstone, Montana... Let it snow!

People typically flock to warm places like San Diego, Mexico, or Arizona for Spring Break. Well, not us! We left the beautiful 70 degree weather we were enjoying in Tempe and headed up north to the snow. We vacationed with Jared's family for their Spring Break and when we chose West Yellowstone as our destination we had no idea that we would be vacationing in 8-10 feet of snow. When reading the Yellowstone website prior to planning this trip we found out that there are a few weeks the end of March and beginning of April where the park is not open to motorized vehicles, but that you can ride your bike through the park at this time. We thought it would be a great Spring Break spent bike riding through the National Park. Well, a few days before departure, after the time share had been booked and travel plans arranged, we were back on the website only to find out that the Park road from West Yellowstone was closed due to construction - there would be no bike riding. We were disappointed and left the bikes at home as we headed to Montana. As we drove into West Yellowstone I think we were all laughing out loud at the thought of even bringing our bikes as we looked around at the 10 foot snow drifts that lined the streets. It was more snow than I have ever seen in my life! Although our efforts to ride our bikes through Yellowstone were thwarted we still enjoyed a great vacation. There were several firsts for me as we spent time snowmobiling and went snowshoeing into the Park. Carter enjoyed snowshoeing for the first mile or so but I think we wore him out. Gage felt pretty comfortable in the backpack as he drifted off to sleep as we waded through the snow. They both enjoyed the snowmobiles; Gage was so disappointed that he had to get off that he cried himself to sleep in Grandma's arms. We saw a wolf, a bald eagle and even a buffalo while we were there in addition to the bears and wolves that we saw at the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center. The boys really enjoyed watching the bears wrestle and play with one another.

We're just glad that we didn't get snowed in and we were able to get back to the beautiful Spring in Arizona! Check out how deep that snow is!

Icicle sword fighting, it's a new sport in Montana.

Gagers totally zonked while we were snowshoeing, all that riding in the backpack must have really worn him out too!


Snowshoe racing, it's a lot harder than it looks :) Definitely a good work out!

What an awesome view, we couldn't have picked a prettier place to go snowshoeing.
Yellowstone is amazing in the winter too!


The gang!


Rex and Paige taking a photo pit stop (Jared nicknamed me the
photo Nazi because I always had the camera snapping)


Look at him go! He was such a trooper, it really was tiring for all of us and his
legs are about 1/2 the length of mine. He's such a good sport!


Watch out for that bear! Is he going for the fish or go for Gage?!?

Snowmobiling was a blast (and no we didn't ride 3 to a machine - I think I would have fallen off the back - just another photo op!)

Check out how pretty it was, I love snow dusted pines. (I don't know about pines but I am sure there will be a lot of snow dusted everything in Wisconsin!)

The little guy LOVED the snowmobiles and couldn't get enough!

We saw a buffalo while we were out on our snowboarding excursion, sorry no pics it was pretty far away.

Surrendered!

Well I was finally forced to surrender to Jared's love of wrestling. Jared and his family ganged up on me when we were in Malad. We were only there for two nights but as my luck would have it our first night there was the big elementary school wrestling tournament. Since Rex (Grandpa Robbins) is in charge of the tournament they decided this would be a great way to initiate Carter into the world of wrestling. I have tried to convince Jared that there will be no contact sports until junior high, but once I saw how excited Carter was at the idea of wrestling at the tournament I couldn't say no. Besides even if I had I'm sure I would have been overruled. Before we headed out to the tournament Jared was giving Carter a few quick wrestling lessons since it was the end of the season for all of the Malad kids and Carter has never wrestled anyone but his dad. I made the comment to Jared that Carter was probably going to get hurt since he has no idea what he is doing and he was just going to end up crying. Before we headed out the door I overheard Jared telling Carter that no matter what he couldn't cry because "wrestlers don't cry and besides it will just make me look bad." Well at the beginning of Carter's first match he took the other kid down and for one reason or another the other little boy started crying. The ref called a time out and Carter looked over at the boy and said, "Wrestlers don't cry!" I am embarrased to admit that I was a little bit excitable while watching Carter wrestle, I hope I don't catch the wrestling bug.

The newcomer wins! Carter tied his first match and won his second one.

Carter with his cousins, Taysun and Whyett, at the end of the wrestling tournament.

SLC Children's Museum

Although I never really enjoyed going to museums growing up I have definitely been converted since marrying Jared. Jared loves museums of all types and I think that must be where Carter gets it from. I must say I really do enjoy a good museum nowadays (we have a membership to the Arizona Science Center). Maybe I never appreciated a good museum as a child. It seems that we end up going to some kind of museum or another anytime we go anywhere. Well this trip it was the Children's Museum in Salt Lake City. We went with my sister, Tiffany, and her son Turner. The boys all had a great time, there were a million things to do around every corner. I was feeling a bit over stimulated after just a few minutes.

Making Music together (or noise at least)

Singing "Row Row Row Your Boat!"

Natural shopper, he must get that from his Mom

Stay off the sidewalk!

Hard at work, he must get that from his dad.