Gage's First Dental Visit!

My Dad retired from being a "full-time" dentist the end of May and since we were moving I decided that although Gage wasn't even two and a half yet we better get him to the dentist so that he could have his first dental visit with Grandpa Mangum. He did sooo good. Carter had his cleaning and exam first and Gage is always so excited to get to do the big boy things Carter does. All during Carter's cleaning he kept asking, "My turn now? My turn now?" He was ecstatic when it was his turn and climbed up in the chair and opened wide! Grandpa even let Carter be his assistant and work the suction. After Carter got Gage's tongue a few times we decided that maybe Gage had suffered enough torture for one day. Hopefully they'll be just as excited to go to the dentist when it's Uncle Brett!

"Gage look how EASY this is!"

Balloon animals at the end of a dental visit are a MUST!

Is that wide enough??

This is a piece of cake...

"When I grow up I'm going to be a dentist... that is after I'm a paleontologist and a veterinarian." (This was right before he almost sucked Gage's tongue out of his mouth.)

Slip n' Slidin' with Daddy

I came across these pictures from May and thought I would post them. I missed a whole month of blogging when we were traveling and getting ready to move and found some pictures I wanted to post. Jared and the boys whipped out the slip 'n slide while I was out running errands one day. Jared called and told me to come home quick because I was missing out on ALL the fun. Sorry guys but someones got to get stuff done! Although I missed slip n' sliding with the boys I managed to get home in time to take some pics. I wasn't too upset about it... while slip n' slide was a blast as a kid I find it somewhat painful these days! While looking at these pictures I was thinking about how much I miss our big fenced in backyard but at the same time I was laughing at our pathetic area we called "grass".

Math Whiz

Gage sat down the other day and started counting the toes on one of his feet: 1...2...3...1...2! "How many toes do you have Gage?" I asked. He got all excited and announced "I have 5 toes!!" I had him count my toes next. Same thing, 1...2...3...1...2. He gasped, "Mommy has 5 toes too!!" I don't know but I think I might have a little math whiz on my hands!

Mommy's Little Helper

Oh my goodness! Tonight we were getting ready for bed and Carter, being the great little helper that he is, offered to change Gage's diaper. (He really LoVeS his brother... although not enough to change a poopy one and quite frankly I'm a bit afraid of the mess that might result, so no worries here, just a little bit wet.) He has done this a couple of times and has done quite well, all the right parts of the diaper in all the right places. I was really impressed the first time he changed it because it was better than our most recent babysitter who somehow managed to diaper Gage up backwards... seems like it would be hard to do. Well tonight Gage was a little bit on the hyper side and was a bit wriggly and gave Carter a run for his money. I wish I would have had the whole thing on video because it was HiLaRiOuS watching Carter struggle to get that diaper on... it either wouldn't cover the front, or the back, or it was too far to one side! I was laughing so hard I was crying (it really was that funny). Well below are pictures of the final product...

Well it withstood the handstand test!

Happy Birthday America!

Although I missed all of my favorite festivities back home in Prescott - the rodeo, the bootrace, frybread, water balloon fights and hanging out on the square - we had a pretty good 4th here in Wisconsin. The fireworks over Lake Michigan on the 3rd were the best fireworks I have ever seen. A big group of people from the neighborhood all got together and rode the city bus into downtown Milwaukee (to avoid the traffic and parking hassles) and watched the fireworks together. There were probably 40-45 of us in all, so much fun! Carter had a blast playing football, catch, tag, building human pyramids, driving all of the older kids crazy, etc while we waited for the show to begin. Gage got super excited about the fireworks although he may have been even more excited about riding the bus. Friday we had an event filled day with a parade (which was VeRy entertaining), 2 BBQ's, and more fireworks. So, although it wasn't our traditional 4th of July and we missed being with all of our family and friends, we had a GrEaT time, experienced something new, and made some new friends along the way! More importantly we were given the opportunity to remember our independence and how grateful we are to be American!

Riding the city bus to the fireworks! We managaed to get a seat - barely. I don't think they could have fit another person on that bus!

The kids and their human pyramid. We got there over 2 hours before the fireworks started, yet there was never a dull moment!

Yes, it really was COLD enough for hoodies (I stole Jared's and wore 2!) It was 50 degrees outside!!

Gage's first 4th of July fireworks (he fell asleep last year). He was very excited... for the first 7 minutes.

Watching the Wauwatosa Parade, there were some pretty amazing stunts!

Gage came up to me, took my glasses and said, "I need these!"

Our New Neighborhood!!

Our new neighbors are fantastic. There are lots of kids, most of which are older, but they are so cute with my boys. There are quite a few younger kids but we haven't gotten to know them as well yet. It's so fun that the older kids (ages 9 - 15) will include Carter in their football, soccer, kickball, or whatever games they play and they even let him score goals and touchdowns. (There are a couple younger kids that play sometimes too.) There are some really great kids here and Carter has absolutely LoVeD it!!

Playing soccer in our front yard with some of the neighborhood boys.

We had a warm day a couple days ago (it was 82 degrees... but it was humid too) so the kids made the best of it and had a good time running through the sprinklers... the water was sooo COLD!!

My sister requested pictures of the neighborhood, so here is one taken in front of our house looking down the street... I wish you could see all of the fun houses around here, especially the red brick houses... my all time favorite!

We also had a chance to go to the Milwaukee County Zoo. It was a fun day together as a family before Jared starts his crazy schedule. We rode our bikes there, took a picnic lunch and spent a good portion of the day animal and people watching. It is a great zoo and we bought a membership so hopefully we will get back often. My favorite part was all of the different kinds of monkeys that they had, the spider monkeys were particularly entertaining. The boys loved everything that was new... hippos, polar bears, seals, gorillas, penguins, sharks, the reptiles - especially the large snakes and iguanas, and the alligators.

Our Pictures!!

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures that we had taken almost two months ago by Janelle Joy Photography. She did a great job and was really fun to work with, best part is that she was really inexpensive! I think Gage had had his picture taken by a photographer like once so I decided it was about time. She did a great job of capturing the boys personalities. She is in Gilbert so if you are in that area and looking for a great photographer at a great price her website is http://www.janellejoy.com/, check it out!!

Here are a few of our favorites:

I love the candid shots!! This one was taken at the end of the session when the kids were playing at the park. I love that you can see Gage laughing in this one!

Brothers and Best Friends!

He looks so sweet and innocent here!

This is such a Gager face!!!

Seriously, this one makes me laugh everytime I look at it, they really do think they are so Tough!! So Fun!

Carter was having a really hard time not making faces in the pictures, he really did NOT want to smile, so Janelle humored him and took some pictures of him making faces. Who says you always have to smile on picture day??

Now there's the sweet boy that I know and love!

And this was probably my all time favorite picture, we were laying on the grass while Janelle was taking care of her daughter and the boys started tickling us, she didn't miss a beat and caught it on camera. Like I said, candids are my favorite!

Whirlwind!

The last month has been a whirlwind for us! (Hence I haven't had time to blog about it.) Between Jared's graduation, packing, and getting ready to move Jared and I also took a trip back east where he presented a poster as a finalist at a national convention in Washington DC.

We also ventured up to NYC and saw some sights, hung out on Time Square, did some shopping, got up early one morning to go running in Central Park, did sealings in the Manhattan temple, enjoyed a Yankees game, and were able to score great tickets to see Wicked! We had a fabulous time and it was great to have a trip together without the little kiddos!


We came home, packed a few boxes, packed our suitcases again and were off with my family to San Diego where we stayed in a beach house for a week with all of my family. We had a wonderful time on the beach, at the Scripps Birch Aquarium, at the beach, at Sea World and more time on the beach. The boys were in heaven with lots of sand, mud and water. A little boy couldn't ask for more. The best part though was just being together as family. The boys particularly LoVEd spending time with all of their cousins!! We were also able to have a retirement party together for my dad as he retired just before the trip. It was nice to be able to pay tribute to him and all that he has done for our family over the years. As the week came to a close it was bittersweet as we had to say goodbye to my family and probably won't get home much to see them during our time in Wisconsin.



(My favorite part of Sea World was feeding and petting the dolphins, although I am sure that Carter would argue that the rides were the best part, even if he did get soaked from head to toe! Shamu's show was pretty impressive as well.)

When we got back to Tempe we put our rears into gear and finish getting the house packed as we had less than a week before the truck was to leave with our possessions. We spent the week packing, saying goodbye to family and friends and then venturing off on a 1900 mile journey across country. The boys did surprisingly well and I am forever indebted to my parents for making the trek with us and making it A LOT more bearable!! The highlight of the trip was stopping in Nauvoo where we were able to do a session at the new Nauvoo temple which is absolutely amazing!! We were able to do a few fun things with the boys in Nauvoo and we got to see my cousin perform in a play(he is in Nauvoo for the summer as a young performing missionary).

Rest stop entertainment... guns from the dollar store! Grandma's are brilliant. The last pic is of me and my dad in front of a sign for a "Mangum" exit (my maiden name)... we had to stop!

The things you come up with to entertain your kids while driving cross country! This bought at least 20 minutes of entertainment!!

Nauvoo was great, how do we look as a pioneer family? The boys got a kick out of riding in a wagon pulled by oxen and Gage particularly enjoyed it when they pooped (what a boy). The thought that went through my mind was "I cannot imagine riding in one of these right after giving birth"... and we weren't even going through rough terrain!

I thought these little stick horses were so cute, and don't the boys look adorable riding them in their little pioneer getup. Yeeehaw!

Well we arrived safely, as did our things, (whew - sigh of relief) and have since been unpacking and trying to get settled in our new place. The neighborhood we live in is very friendly, has lots of kids, lots of grass, and lots of big mature trees. I think it will be easy to make this place home for awhile!

Introducing...(drum roll please)...Dr. Jared Rex Robbins!

Believe it or not Jared finally graduated from medical school. I know it's not that hard to believe but I must admit there were moments during the last four years (a lot of moments) when I thought this day would never come, but looking back now it actually seemed to go by pretty fast (in retrospect). There were definitely tough moments, weeks and even months but we made it through!! And now onto internship and residency. Somehow I think that during the next year when Jared is living at the hospital I am going to look back on the last 4 years and laugh at how hard I thought they were!

Jared is an amazing man! He was extremely successful during medical school and I am extremely proud of him for the sacrifices that he made to make medical school and having a family work so well. He would get up at 5:00 in the morning if he had to in order to get his studying done so that he could come home at 6:00 for dinner at night and then spend the evening with his family. Additionally he excelled in his school work. At the awards banquet associated with the graduation festivities he was awarded the class of 2008 Outstanding Acheivement award. He was also inducted into the medical honor society during his Junior year, an honor that only 6 of his classmates received. I am so proud of him and all of his accomplishments! He is truly dedicated to his family, his school work, maximizing his learning, being the best doctor that he can be, and serving in the church. He is a wonderful man and I am so blessed to be married to him, he continues to amaze me more and more every day. Jared, you are my world!

Me and my Star!!

Jared with his folks.

Jared's fam, it was awesome that they could all be there (minus Brady who's on a mission)!

Jared and his siblings.

With his two biggest fans!!

Jared with a group of buddies from school.