More craziness/excitement coming our way!!!

The Verdict & Conference weekend.

And the verdict is:
San Angelo, TX!

We were sooo shocked when Porter recieved a call from Angelo State Univerity in Texas last Wednesday offering him a position in their Doctor of Physical Therapy program. He was an alternate but they decided to increase their class size and accept 4 more students! How crazy is that! On top of that surprise, they then proceeded to tell him that because his GPA was high he was going to be awarded a scholarship which included him playing in-state tuition instead of out-of-state, and $6,000 per year to help in tuition costs. So, after the scholarship the whole doctoral program will be about $8,000 plus books! I normally wouldn’t bore anyone with the numbers and money part of this but it is just crazy how cheap this program will be. It is a really great program too and fully accredited to. From what we hear San Angelo is a beautiful place to live and we can’t wait to go. The money savings is more than we could have ever dreamed of for him to become a PT. We feel sooooo darn blessed. We have to be there May 20^th so we will be moving mid-May. I hate the idea of moving so far away from family (12 hours) but we are excited to get started on this adventure!

We really enjoyed last weekend relaxing and hanging with family. Monty and Kendra and their kids came to Snowflake for a visit so we had fun spending lots of time with the "Caldwell Cousins" before we move. It was so nice to hear from our church leaders and spending time with loved ones.

 Mallory showing off her new "chick" Grandma gave her.

 Her new "eyes-closed" smile.

The brothers. Oh brother!!!  :)

Silly kiddos. Mallory think she is as old as Reagan and Krew and Cooper. She likes to hang with them instead of the "babies". ha.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Love ya-all. (I am preparing to be a Texan!)

Breastfeeding soapbox

Well, it seems every spare second I have in the day, while Mallory is sleeping, I am studying about lactation for my big exam to become a consultant coming up in July. I figured I should blog about it since I stay awake at night thinking about what I learned that day or even dream about test questions. To say the least, this is what has been consuming me lately. I never thought I would be a "breastfeeding freak" haha but I am. It is soooo darn amazing and I am not embarrassed to say that I still nurse Mallory. I was just getting close to weaning her at 15 months when I started pulling out my old books and reviewing material from previous breastfeeding courses I took while working at WIC to start studying for the exam. After re-reading and learning about the benefits of breastfeeding for toddlers I was so amazed and recommitted to nursing Mallory longer. If you are thinking, how much could there be to study about breastfeeding? Well...there is so darn much to learn, even the leading scientists have not scratched the surface. I feel a bit overwhelmed to know all that I need to for the exam but am so grateful to have had the knowledge I have started to gain about lactation thrown in my path. I had not thought of becoming a lactation consultant until I started working at WIC and worked with so many wonderful breastfeeding advocates and I had so many great opportunities to attend amazing trainings! I am really excited about becoming a consultant and hope I will be able to put in the time to learn all I need to in order to pass. These next few months will be busy with work, a Flordia trip, and moving to another state for Porter to start school. Wish me luck.
p.s. If any of you have questions about breastfeeding please call me! I love to help and it helps me get better prepared for the test. There are soooo many darn issues and situations with breastfeeding... don't feel "unusual" if you are struggling. Breastfeeding does not come naturally.. it takes a lot of work and help from others providing helpful information....
p.s.s. don't feel guilty if you didn't breastfeed long. It is super hard at first and there are different things we all face. Just feel happy you tried and your baby got that most important early milk. :)
Okay. .... I know... that is enough! Have a good day!

2011 Family Pictures

Click here to view our new family pictures.

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.