Half Marathon, at the zoo, trunk or treat

On Saturday I ran in the Chosen Half Marathon for Adoption in San Antonio. It was a cold morning so the kiddos and Porter had to stay in the hotel but Porter took this sweet picture of me before I headed off.

Since I didn't have any fans :( I got this one awesome picture of the finish line. Ha.

 The race was so much fun (or at least it seems so now that I am done)! I had a goal to beat my last time of 1:40 and I did it 1:38! I just found out I was 1 minute away from qualifying for the Boston Half! Darn! I also placed much higher than I had expected, all of which makes it all much more fun! I am a bit sore and have a swollen knee but overall I feel pretty good and was so happy with how I did. I am kind of sad I don't have a training schedule to follow anymore :( . ha. I loved having a goal in mind while exercising. Guess I will have to find something new to keep me motivated. I ended up with 7th overall women, and 2nd in my age! Some of the high placers were old ladies. There was a 65 year old women who took 2nd place! Crazy and inspiring at the same time!
My stats (just for me to remember... not that anyone else would care)

Athlete: Domini Caldwell

Bib: 1387
Age: 28
Gender: F
Event: Chosen Marathon
Division: Half
Distance: 13.1 Miles
Age Group: Female 18-29
Chip Time: 1:38:40.285
Pace: 7:32 Min/Mile
Overall Place: 29 / 1069
Gender Place: 7 / 707
Age Place: 2 / 203
Female 18-29
1 1993 Kaleigh Newman 1:37:26.463 7:26

2 1387 Domini Caldwell1:38:40.285 7:32

3 2912 Mercedes Orten1:39:38.948 7:36

While we were in San Antonio we hit the zoo. It rained the whole time and none of the animals were out. It was a total bummer because it seemed like an awesome zoo on a normal day. Here is what we did most of the day... stayed under cover and froze!

 Kaisley was bundled up and actually slept despite being rained on.

Then we went to a dinosaur museum because Mallory is really in to dinosaurs and bones in general. She loved it even though Porter and I thought it was a bit lame for the price. I guess it was worth it if she liked it. We were the only ones there, go to show how awesome it was :)

Last weekend was Angelo State University's homecoming. We hit the parade and football game. Malli loves the games, especially the 2 mascot Rams.. or as she calls them "Big stuffed animals that can move".

 Kaisley at the football game.

 Me and my girl.

 FHE pumpkin carving time. Kaisley loved being involved can you tell?

 Bell and Snow White headed off to the trunk-or-treat.

 With friend Mia.

 With friend Brynlee.

October happenings

I find it hard to find the time to update the blog too often, so when I do it seems overwhelming and I don't know what to post. Life is just always busy. Oh well, I am trying right? We have been busy getting back into Texas life.

Porter is 4 days away from finishing his first affiliation here that the local hospital. He is there full time and has assignments in the evening so he has been super busy… He has also been participating in bike races at the college on Wednesday nights and is not doing too bad considering it is his first time and he is the only one in a t-shirt and gym shorts. I went and picked him up some sweet biking shorts so he should blend right in how! Porter just finished playing flag football too and did awesome as QB.

I have been training for a half marathon. I have been trying to squeeze my workouts in early before Porter leaves or late at night. It has been tough to fit it in to our schedule but I love the excitement of training for another race. I did the breast cancer 10K last Saturday and was so surprised to have my best time yet by far. 42:00! I got 2nd in the women and feeling great about my goal for my half marathon (in 10 days), to beat my last time 1/2 marathon time, until my knee started swelling and my right shin started shin splints. I now feel like I am hobbling around while I try to stick to my training but I am pretty determined so I hope I can make it through and still make my goal. I have also been helping teach Mallory’s joy school and enjoyed being a part of seeing her interact with other kids and learn. Oh, and some of my friends from church have been playing in a city v-ball league and we are pretty darn serious about it! Weekly practices and games! Haha. We are almost finished with the season and I have had fun trying to master the sport even though I am 28… ha.

Mallory has been loving joy school and made so many new friends since we got back. She was liking ballet as well until the teachers cat scratched her face some girls accidently hit her with their wands… ha. Hoping she gets over it soon. She is one funny girl. Loves to be tied up, tie things up, put things in cages, and lock everything up.. ha… Some weird hobby of hers I guess. She is sooo smart too. I have been doing a reading program with her and she is starting to pick up on reading! She is a good big sis and helper most of the time too

Kaisley is our little (or not so little) peanut. We love her to death. She loves animals (real or stuffed) and gets so excited and squeals and extends her legs and arms at the sight of them. She has the deepest raspy voice and Porter thinks it is because she was born in Texas. Ha. She has been pretty healthy for the past 2 months so we are crossing our fingers for that to continue through the winter. She is starting to crawl and scoot around more and cruise furniture too. We just love her and her feisty personality. She laughs all the time and her smile is just like her Daddy’s; sometimes I can’t believe how much they hold their mouths alike. So cute!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up too

 Porter getting ready for the bike race.

 Confrence Sunday was actually really cold! It felt so nice for a change. We went an walked along the river between sessions.

 She looks pretty darn excited about the candycorn colored cupcakes doesn't she! Got an idea of a blog to do a halloween advent countdown. Malli draws a halloween prize, craft, snack, or activity each day and loves it! And I have love having some fun things planned to do with the girls. Makes the days go sooooo much better!

 Make girl. Mid clap. She loves to clap!

 10 months old now! I can't believe it!

 Crawls now too! (kind of a crawl and scoot combo but she gets around)

At the kids kingdom park. Malli loves this park. Right here is is Snow White making apple pies.

 Kaisley and Daddy on the horse carriage ride the other night down by the rivfer.

 Malli felt like a princess in this carriage.

 Malli and her new friend Brynlee went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was so cute and lo and behold... peter pan was there! Malli is in love with him. She things is is sooooo "handsome". ha

 Mallory and Brynlee

 Posing again.

 Little Kaiser!

They loved the little wooden jeep. Kaisley looks pretty darn pleased to be in it with the big girls.

Life

Life is good. Just went to the relief society broadcast. Funny how the inspired words shared at those meetings can make everything seem fine that you might have just previously boobed about. Those meetings are such great reminders of who we are and how we should be. I just loved it and the ladies there. I love our ward and am so grateful we are here getting to know so many wonderful people... Anyway... here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

 Little Kaisley is 9 1/2 months old. Here is is playing at the play area at the mall. At her 9 month apt on Monday she weighed in at 20#12oz and 28.5 inches. About the 76th percentile for both. Big healthy girl! Love her so much. Her new thing is that she loves pointing at things now. It is so cute.

 Made these (fake) canvas pics... thanks to my sis and her brilliance!

 The girls all ready to take bridal photos with our friend Morgan.. Malli was asked to be the flower girl and Kaisley somehow ended up with a white dress too... They are so cute all dressed up.

 My sassy 3 year old. She is acting so much more mature. I don't know if it is her going off to school and dance on her own all the time or what. She is so much fun though. Love her to pieces.

 My 28th b-day "cake". Thanks Mallory for insisting I have a cake on my b-day. It was a nice day... not fun to get older though :)

 Malli's new best friend Sammy has been over a lot lately. They love to play...so sad they are moving in January.

 A few of the bridals with Morgan. Precious!

 They had their little dog Eleanor there that Mallory absolutely loves so we had to take a few pics with her and the dog. You would think it is her dog the way she is smiling so big but I am sad to say we have not buckled yet... Poor girl needs a dog but I don't want to deal with one!

Malli and Morgan. Morgan and their family have been such wonderful friends to our family. Just like family here in Texas. Pretty much adopted our children in!

9 months old

Well, these are the only 2 pictures I can get to upload so this post will be a post just for my little Kaisley. She is 9 months old now and such a big, happy girl. We love her. She can say Mama and stands really well with support. She is just finally starting to pull herself up on things and lurch forward as if she might crawl. We are convinced she might be a bumb scooter again like her older sis. She loves to sit and can move around a bit from there. We like to call her Kais and Kaiser and Grandpa Dayton has given her the name "Kicker". She sure is a fun girl! love you! Oh, love little Malli too... see that sly look in the picture. She often times likes to tease her sis but most the time is a great big sister and helper.

Jinxed

Well, I think I jinxed myself saying I am feeling more ambitious and signing myself up for all sort of extra things. This past week has ended up being awful and I have felt like I spin in circles trying to deal with one issue before I can fix the first one. I am just grateful nothing is life threatening and am still so blessed in so many ways. I only am hoping for things to settle down soon!!! Please!!!!!

On a lighter note this little girl has had a great week. She absolutely loves all of her new activities. First day of Ballet and Joy School were this week and she loves them both.

End of Snowflake Summer and Taylor and Natalie's Wedding up in Idaho

Well, our what seemed like was going to be forever summer in Snowflake has come and gone so quickly. We had so much fun there and loved seeing our families and friends more but are happy to be back home. Malli is even happy to be back at her own house which is a bit of a relief. She had so much fun in AZ I was worried she wouldn't like home anymore but she does luckily. The journey back home was eventful to say the least. We were having trouble with our car starting (on and off) for the few days leading up to the time for us to head off for Taylor's wedding and then drive the long drive back to Texas. We could not get the problem resolved and had some fun mornings being stranded (the most fun one was at 4 AM when we needed to get to the airport). We just have to feel blessed that the car started on the 2 days we made the long trip back her to San Angelo and then on the next day it wouldn't start again. I felt silly but I could see the tender mercies of the Lord so many times on that trip home. Our AC has been acting up as well. When we left Mesa and headed toward Tucson in the 112 degree heat our AC just could not keep up. We were all miserable and the kids (and I) were getting fussy :) I kept praying that somehow everything would cool down because there was no way we could handle a 12 hour drive like that. Within about 30 minutes a small cluster of clowds formed and it rained for just long enough to drop the temperature outside and our AC felt so much better. We made it through that first day and the second day was an extremely cool day for Texas weather. I was so grateful for the Lord looking out for us on those two big travel days that I was so worried about.

Anyway, enough about that... we are now back in San Angelo and busy as ever... (and loving it!)  I finally feel ambitious again and love it! Since my pregnancy with Kaisley was so difficult I started to wonder if that was just the new me.. sick, lazy, and worthless. And then after having a newborn I felt better but was tired and busy with two little ones but finally I feel like I am back to my old self... evidenced by the fact that just this week I interviewed for a nutrition consultant job for a shelter here in San Angelo, signed up for a half marathon in October, am going to be teaching Joy School for Mallory with a few other Mom's, and I am soooooo excited to be busy again and on the go.

Porter has enjoyed his first week in his affiliation at Shannon hospital. He is gone all day and has some assignments in the evenings but likes the hands on experience he is getting.

Overall, we are just so grateful for the blessings we have and for our health. We are so grateful our families let us bum off them for a few months and make so many fun memories. Here's to another year in San Angelo!

 Last day in Snowflake we took Callie to the park. Kaisley really liked Callie. I just love Callie and look up to her so much. We have so many fun memories together.

 The kids at the airport at 4 AM getting ready to leave for Idaho

 Kaisley showing off her curves at the splash pad in Rexburg.

 At the Falls in Idaho Falls and the temple in the background

 Mallory liked the falls.

 With Grandma Zona and Grandpa Gary

My handsome loves!

 All ready to go to the Temple for the wedding!

 Waiting for the bride and groom.

 Yay! Married at last! They were so cute!

 Dayton clan.

 Kaisley at the reception. It was so beautiful. Natalie and her family did a great job decorating.

 At the reception.

 3 Generations of love birds.

Grandma Zona got to meet Kaisley for the first time. Love Grandma so much! (and Grandpa too of course :)

 The next day we went to Bear World there in Idaho. Mallory loved sitting in the front seat with her Daddy and being the co-captain as we looked at the animals.

 Daddy bear was sleeping. It was pretty cool all the bears we saw.

 All the kids that went to Bear World. The Dayton cousins and my cousin Mindy's kids came too.

 The cubs.

And all the kids loved the rides!