1/5 - A visit from the Hoyts & Brad's LT CMDR promotion

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Grandma and Grandpa Hoyt drove down from Iowa to join us for a couple of days. We forgot to bring a toy with us for Aiden so he got it when we got back to Jacksonville. It's a truck that he can take apart and put back together with an electric drill (made for kids) using different bits. He's already really good at it.

The boys got to open some presents that grandma and grandpa brought with them. Aiden said he looked "pretty" with bows on him from the presents.

Grandma and grandpa bought the boys an add-on set for the marble run and the boys love it. It goes really high and there are four towers to put marbles in.

Aiden had fun getting a little rough with grandpa and climbing all over him.

Eli had fun opening a magnet set and playing with all the magnet trucks.

You'd think this is Eli's toy by how he is holding it. Grandma and grandpa brought the bean bag down that Eli is sitting on.

Eli was pretty excited about this bank that Ms. Jen and Mr. Ryan gave him. Both of the boys got one and it is great because they are plastic. Our boys spend hours putting money in the banks and taking it back out.

Our neighbors also got Eli a Mr. Potatoe Head and got Aiden the Hi Ho Cherry-O game.

On Jan 5, we got to see Brad get promoted. He's always been on a ship or deployment when it was time for him to promote. He just went from LT to LT CMDR! Go Brad. Here he is taking his oath.

Here I am pinning his gold leaf onto his uniform.

His mom pinned him on the other side.

I am so happy and proud for Brad. He is an awesome man.

Here is Brad with his parents. They were so proud of him.

And finally, Brad had some support that showed up to surprise him. The Payne family and Randy (all from church) came to see this big moment. It was so nice of them to come and show support for Brad. We have such great friends.

Also, Brad had a flag flown over Afghanistan when he was on deployment last time and he presented it to his dad. Dad got a little teary-eyed and was very thankful.

By the time we got over to the cake table with the camera, some of the cake was gone. It was pretty yummy.

It was a great day. We are proud of Brad. Brad leaves in a couple days for a detachment for a month. We'll miss him but hopefully it will go fast and the boys will continue to play and behave better.