Civil Air Patrol Dine In

This years CAP Dine In Banquet was real special. Tanner was surprised by receiving the Mitchel Award. This is a very distinguished award, which not every CAP Cadet earns.(only 15% of CAP cadets do..) Its really as the Captain said, "...equal to receiving your Eagle in the BSA".(Tanner is currently working on his Eagle and hopes to have it complete in April 2012) Below is a description of the Mitchell Award....

The General Billy Mitchell Award is earned by Civil Air Patrol cadets who have successfully completed the second phase of the cadet program. It marks the end of the enlisted phase of the cadet program; cadets are promoted to Cadet Second Lieutenants upon receipt and, by extension, Cadet Officers. The award is given in honor of Maj Gen William "Billy" Mitchell, former Deputy Chief of the Army Air Service and military aviation visionary.

In order to earn this award, cadets must pass a series of leadership, aerospace and physical fitness tests and attend character development training for each achievement from Cadet Airman Basic through Cadet Chief Master Sergeant. In addition, cadets must attend a military-style encampment before this award is made, and have maintained active membership in the Civil Air Patrol for at least 18 months since joining. 15% of Civil Air Patrol cadets achieve the Mitchell Award.

Mitchell Cadets who chose to enlist in the United States Air Force or the United States Coast Guard are promoted to E-3 upon enlistment and completion of Basic Military Training (BMT), instead of E-1. Mitchell Cadets who enlist in the Marine Corps, Navy, or Army are promoted to E-2 upon completion of BMT. A silver star is worn on the ribbon to denote successful completion of Cadet Officer School.

By regulation, this award should be presented by a group commander (or higher), the wing director of cadet programs, a state or federal official, or an elected local official.

To top it off, Tanner will be put in charge of the entire Cadet Squadron(12-18yrs) for an entire year, as part of his training to become 1st Lieutenant. (Whoa....)

Sierra advanced too and did a great job of going up and receiving it. Such a amazing change from where she was last year when she started Civil Air Patrol. She has stuck with this, even when its been hard and sometimes challenging her to do new things. Way to go sis.

Here are some pictures of the event.

Weekend fun-Goaty's, A surprise, Roosters Harom and Kitties

Here's some pics and videos of our fun this weekend. I don't think I've posted anything on our cats yet, so here they are at bottom of post-Boo and Mimi. Can you guess which one is Boo?

BAAAHAAAAAHAAAHAAAAHA! says Momma Grape!

My new ride! JK..its Tanner's!!!!

A great family just up the road that my daughter baby sits donated this car to us! We can't thank them enough for thinking of us(and Tanner). Its a old Jetta, with 159,000 miles on it. Its a 95', so not too shabby for being that old and still kickn'. I let Tanner try out the stick shift tonight on our dirt road. He did pretty good considering he hasn't been driving all that long.

Roosters Harom...lucky dog..I mean chicken

Boo!

This clone is a crack up!

Little Goaty Goat Goats

Went over to a friends house that has a HUGE farm. He just had his most recent batch(? not sure what they call a whole bunch of goats being born..) Here's some pics, they are soooo cute and fun to hang out with.

Daddy Daughter Dance

It was a very special night on friday. The Daddy Daughter Dance for the 11 years and below was held at our church. Mom made special pies for us to take and we danced the night away. It actually felt good to dance and sing to Sinatra's- NEW YORK, NEW YORK! Savannah and Sophia looked beautiful, I can only hope and pray that they have great husbands that love them as much as I do...or as much as our Lord and Savior does.(they better or else!!!!!!!!) Thanks to my wife who organized the whole event, I know it was not easy to do in the background with all other things going on. Mosiah was there "helping"mom set up, so he wanted his picture taken as well. He danced too until someone didn't see him behind them. Dad picked up daughter, swung her through the air and then ....

SMACK! Girls feet hit Mo in the head.

Ouch! ....

No MO dancing(ok bad joke), he walked/cried off the dance floor with a head ache.(don't worry, mom rescued him..he's ok)

Tanner becomes 2nd Lieutenant

This was a amazing achievement for Tanner, he was in the process of getting this done when his event happened. Its so amazing just under 2 months afterwards, that he was awarded this. Captain Besse mentioned that this award is equivalant to Eagle Scout in his speech before Tanner came up. Here's a video of him getting his new "metal" placed on.

Here's a couple of other shots of him in previous times..in uniform

Mo turns ONE!

It seems like yesterday that he was fresh in our arms, but now he's covered in cupcake for his first birthday!

Pre cupcake.....

Gettin' after it....

Fun picture playing with our new cat Boo, just outside the door. Looking a little pensive.....

Chip, Fufu and Patches

Here's the latest in animal additions. Chip is the miniature horse, Fufu and Patches are the Lion's Mane Rabbits. Its hard to get a good pic of the rabbits, they move around once you get close and most turned out really blurry.