Whirlwind

Our lives have been a bit of a whirlwind lately. We have been so blessed to be so busy with work, school, interviews for  physical therapy schools, and a beautiful little girl keeping us on our toes. The past 5 weeks have included trips to San Angelo Texas, Provo Utah, and El Paso Texas, and Flagstaff for interviews. Verdict: Accepted at Midwestern in Glendale, Accepted at Rocky Mountain in Provo, Accepted at UTEP in El Paso, on the Alternate list for Angelo State in San Angelo, and Denied at Flagstaff :(

So, our top choice, Flagstaff was the only school to not accept Porter :( It is super competitive there and I am just so proud of Porter for getting an interview their. I have really felt that it must not be meant for us to go their. We have been weighing the pros and cons of all of the other schools. As of now it seems we are leaning towards Provo. Big dicisions coming the next few months. Most of the schools start in May so we will be leaving Snowflake so soon. I can't believe how fast this year has flow. We have been so blessed and we are so grateful for family helping us out so much.

Here are a few random pictures of "life" over the past few weeks.

Mallory. We love you!

Porter had the day off on Valentines day. We had a nice day picnicing outside.

Mom and Dad celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! What great examples they are to me! Love you guys. (Mallory had so much fun serving them a candle lite dinner.

When we went to Utah we had fun visiting cousins and family.

Our sweet baby girl.

She is one good Dr. (a very serious one too)

So... you know we must be sisters when we get ourselves dressed in the morning and our little girls and we all match. No kidding! We had no idea we had matching clothes let alone what each other were going to wear! Love you sis! Don't know how Mallory and I will live without you and Bryn when we move.

Mallory's first time bowling. She loved it.

Yes, yes, that is a strike you see with my name! :)

What a good grandma. The kids loved playing "Troll". Silly.

Grandpa's attempt at the troll game was pretty successful too :) Love ya Dad.

Mallory is in LOVE with Brynlie. Thanks for being such a good big cousin Bryn. Malli shourd does look up to her.

Ice cream with Cooper and Brewer, Aunt Marti, and Grandma Marsha. "Allejlue!!!" (mallory's language when she gets ice cream)

And "crunch time" working off all that ice cream :) Mallory loves to lay on the floor with all of us each night to do our crunches. She follows the video and acts like it is a breeze compared to us. haha.

"Mommys here, Daddys here"

On Sunday night when Porter got home for his PT School interview in San Angelo, TX, Mallory was so relieved that we were all together again that she would not fall asleep. She happily chatted in her crib for a good 45 minutes saying over and over, "Mommys here, daddys here". This little one has had a crazy ride with us these past few weeks and was so happy that we were all together again and just knew that things felt right when Mommy is home and Daddy is home. I love the sweet little reminders this little gal gives me of the importance of being together forever. We have not seen each other much for the past few weeks because I went to Mesa to attend a week long Certified Lactation Educator course for a week and then just a few days after returning Porter was off to Texas. I am so grateful that my AMAZING sister was nice enough to watch Mallory for me everyday while I was in my class. I don't think I could have left her otherwise. She had lots of fun with her Aunt Britt and her cousins. Brittney was not feeling well that week and had the 3 kiddos all week by herself while trying to plan Dayton's birthday party and deal with her own kids getting sick toward the end of the week. I am so grateful for her help!
So, to say the least we have been on the road a lot and life has been super busy. It looks like it is not going to slow down for a while either. Porter has 3 more PT school interviews this month: Provo, NAU, El Paso. We are grateful though that he has so many interviews and feel so blessed.
Well, this is a random post but I have not posted for so long there is so much going on. Here are a few pictures of the past months happenings.


In the snow with Uncle Taylor.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

Porter's b-day celebration went on for a week since I was not going to be home on the actual day! He got even more spoiled this way! B-day dinner at his Moms.

 The Sunday B-day dinner before Mallory and I headed off for Mesa for a week.

 We went to Chuck-e-cheese on Dayton's birthday while we were there. The kids had so much fun.

Malli doing what women do... pushing Dayton off of his new toy and she was off! Dayton was so nice to share his new powerwheels.

 Mallory and Dad braving the mound of rocks (to her it seemed like a mountain.. she is so timid). She loved seeing him again after a whole week.

 Loving the valley weather.

 Cheese !

 Dayton's "Toy Story" birthday party was a blast!!! Games, pinata, food, you name it! Thanks Britt!

Porter is a lucky man to have a B-day close to Daytons. It seems every year Brittney makes Porter a cake too. Thanks sis :)

 Partaaaa!

And last but not least! The ultimate BUM WAR!!! I had not done this since I was a kid and it was so much fun, not to mention I was sweating bullets! :)

It cracks me up how Mallory is sitting and watching her parents acting like kids. She is so mature :)

Christmas & Disneyland trip

We enjoyed Christmas so much this year. Mallory was finally old enough to really get in to all the fun the Christmas season brings. We had Christmas with the Dayton side this year and it was lots of fun to all be together again since Taylor is home from his mission this year.
We were also able to go to Disneyland. We wondered if Mallory would be too young but she sure loved every bit of it. She was trooper. We went with my parents and Taylor and Gunner came with us too. Our 3 day trip turned in to a 6 day trip though, due to the huge winter storm on our way back home. Thank you to Britt and Aaron for letting us crash at their house since we were "trapped" (as Gunner put it) there for 3 days.
We really enjoyed spending lots of time together with our loved ones. Here are a few slide shows with some pictures.

Getting Ready for Santa...

Leading up to Christmas is so much better than Christmas day itself. It seems so short lived once it actually gets here. I love the Spirit of Christmas and all of the happiness it brings. Here are a few pictures of the past week or so. Malli was not too fond of Santa but she did agree to giving him a kiss later that night. She is one fun girl and has loved having her cousins around for a few days! We can't wait for more fun to come. So... until I have time to post more of the fun.. here are just a few pics.

Silly girl loves books. She is our little bookworm!

We had a outdoor nativity at the Caldwell Party. It was pretty awesome but it is scary to think these 3 were our wisemen :)

Love the hair Porter!

Santa arrived to the party!

Malli... not to thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap.

And these last few pictures are of my little Christmas Gift that I get to play with every day! I love her so much!!!!! Can't wait for Christmas with you baby girl!

Merry Christmas...

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this Christmas Season finds you healthy, happy and surrounded by your loved ones. We have a lot to be thankful for this year and we feel blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. We are thankful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and are enjoy this season when we can reflect upon the things that matter most in life. We hope to keep in touch with you better and thought we should start by sharing what we have been up to in 2010. Here are a few highlights:
The biggest change for our family this year is that we have moved to Snowflake, AZ! Porter graduated from Arizona State University last May. He has decided to pursue physical therapy school next, but first he needed to gain experience working in the field. We were lucky enough for him to get a job working for White Mountain Physical Therapy back in our hometown. We were excited at the idea of moving back to Snowflake for a year while Porter worked at the physical therapy office and wait to hear if he is accepted to physical therapy school. He has really enjoyed working in this field so far. We are starting to hear back from some schools he has applied to requesting an interview, so that is a good sign. We are praying he will start school somewhere this summer!
Domini has been busy taking care of little Mallory and just started working a few hours a week for Head Start as their Nutrition Consultant. She couldn’t have a more perfect job for a stay-at-home mother. We are so grateful for this new opportunity.
We are team teaching the 17 year-old Sunday school class and have enjoyed doing that together.

Mallory is our little sunshine! She is now 17 months old and keeps us going. She loves reading books, 4-wheeler rides, and making crafts. She has quite the vocabulary already and can talk our ears off. We are so grateful to have her sweet spirit in our home.

We had a fun trip to Utah for a family reunion in October and have had the chance to spend a lot of time with family and friends this year. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all this Christmas Season.

Love,

Porter, Domini, and Mallory Caldwell

Acceptance!

We just found out that Porter was accepted to Midwestern University's Physical Therapy Program here in Glendale, AZ! This was his first school to interview at so we will see if he gets any better offers at others schools but for now it looks like we are going to Glendale this June! It is such a relief to know that all of the hard work, and taking a leap of faith to move here so Porter could build his resume working here at White Mountain Physical Therapy, has paid off. I know this has happened because the Lord is looking out for us and helping us along the way. This is such a blessing and we are soooo grateful!

 I am so proud of you babe! You have worked so hard on for our family over the years. Working and school everyday for 5+ years is not easy but you have done it without complaint while being an amazing father and husband. We love you! Congrats!!!!!! You will make a great PT!

"Da Zoo"

This past weekend we went to Glendale for Porter's interview at Midwestern University. This was his first interview and we have another one lined up in January in Connecticut! We are hoping one of these two schools work out or that he gets more interview invitations in the next few months from other schools we applied to. The school was so nice though and Porter felt pretty optimistic after interviewing so now we will anxiously wait for a thumbs up or thumbs down. After the interview we went to Tucson to spend the rest of the weekend with Monty and Kendra and their kids. It was so fun. The highlights was "da zoo", as Mallory called it. The Tucson Zoo is perfect size and so nice. Mallory walked the whole zoo. She loves animals so it was well worth the trip. Thanks to Monty and Kendra for a good time!