Captain!

Matt pinned on Captain yesterday! I couldn't be more proud of him and everything that he's accomplished during his four (!) years of active duty service in the Air Force. Here's to many more!

He had a very nice promotion ceremony which included a nice speech by Matt's commander, the publishing of his promotion orders, me pinning his new rank onto his uniform, and his commander reissuing the oath of office. Then Matt gave a wonderful thank you speech in which he also shared some feelings about being part of the United States military. Matt considers it a great privilege to serve our country, and I'm so proud to have a husband who does not take that calling lightly. We are so grateful to be Americans and to be an Air Force family.

Tractor

We have lots of construction going on around our home, which is awfully entertaining for a certain little boy I know. He watches the "tucks" and "tacters" from the window throughout the day and always points them out whenever we are outside. The other day, we were headed out for a run while a tractor was digging a hole next door. So we stopped to watch for awhile, naturally. The tractor operator noticed Jake watching and pointing, and turned the tractor off. "Would he like to climb in?" the operator asked me. Um, yes! How sweet was that of him?? So Jake and I hopped inside that tractor and checked it out for a couple minutes and Jake thought it was the coolest. He, of course, cried when it was time to get out, but then he talked excitedly about the tacter for the whole rest of the day. Now, whenever we see that nice tractor man, we always stop, smile and wave.

Baby Animal Days

Every May, Utah State University hosts a Baby Animal Days in a nearby town. Jake is into all things fluffy these days, so we made sure to stop by (napless child, pregnancy nausea -- that made me throw up right afterward -- and all) (despite being in the third trimester) (story of my pregnant life) (but I digress).

First, we went to the petting zoo area where we got to hold baby chicks, ducklings, and little rabbits at the petting zoo. Then we wandered through the pens of lambs, kids, foals, calves, and the like. So fluffy, so cute! Seeing and smelling lambs always brings back lots of memories from that one time I raised a lamb for 4-H. His name was Shadow. But back to this story... The highlight of Baby Animal Days was Jake's first horse ride. It was a beautiful horse and Jake got a kick out of it. My guess is that he'll like it even more next year -- we're definitely heading back!

April

A few snapshots from April...