Holiday recap

I've had several people tell me recently that they follow my blog. I never knew about any of them. But thank you! to all of you who do read this blog. It gives me an incentive to actually make time and post once again.

As I sit down to recap the holidays, I'm experiencing a peculiar sense of deja vu. I seem to remember about this same time last year, when I finally blogged about the holidays after they were all over. Just like right now. Well, at least I'm consistent.

For Halloween, Sterling had a party at work and they invited the families of the employees. Each department had decorations up. Sterling's was Sleepy Hollow. One guy was the headless horseman and just walked around with a pumpkin on his head staring at people. Weird. Sterling went as a cowboy. The kids both went as pirates. (I was trying to get Cami to smile by making faces, but she copied me instead.)

 

I didn't know what to go as, so at the last minute I dressed up as a pregnant lady. Sterling's face when we walked in was priceless. He did a double take at me, then said "You weren't pregnant when I left this morning". Several of his co-workers asked what we were having. Guess I made it look real enough. Some who were a little wiser saw the 7 month old on my hip and figured out that it was a costume. That night we went to a Halloween party that my friends from Price set up. (I have the fake pregnant belly. My friend Caitlin has a real one.) Thanks Mindy for letting me steal this picture.

 

Just before Halloween, we carved pumpkins. Mine was a bit of an embarrassment, so I won't post it, but here's Sterling's. Isn't he amazing.

 

Thanksgiving we went to Colorado with my brother Ryan to visit my Grandma Peggy. I brought my camera, but didn't take any pictures. Gigi did, but I haven't gotten them from her yet. Nothing special, so I don't think you'll mind no pictures.

On Christmas Eve we went to Sterling's mom's place for dinner. It's a family tradition we do every year. Have meat and shrimp cooked in a fondue pot and cheese and crackers and veggies. Love this tradition! I plan on buying a fondue pot for us so we can do it next year, wherever we are.

We went home that night and opened up presents with the kids the next morning. It was Austin's first Christmas, though he's still too young to care much. I thought about taking Cami to go see Santa, but she's also still a little young to appreciate it much. Next year though. The kids, like most kids, seemed to have more fun ripping the wrapping paper off their presents than they did actually playing with them.

It just supports what I've always thought. Why buy them presents at all, just get them a box. They seem to have more fun with that anyways.

For New Years Eve, we had a couple from our ward come over. Sterling and I usually just go to bed, or watch a movie and don't even watch the ball drop. This year we decided to do something. The Thompsons came over and hooked up their play station? nintendo? I don't know. Anyway, they hooked it up to our TV and we sat down and played Mario Cart and Mario Party and a shooting game that I was really bad at. Okay, let's face it. I was bad at all of them. Sterling used to play Mario Cart all the time, so he did awesome at that, but me, well, I came in last every time. But somebody's got to lose, right?

We ended up playing straight through the ball dropping, which was okay, since I always thought it was anti-climactic anyways. If they call it a 'drop' then it should actually drop, not just slowly slink down the pole.

So, now that the holidays are out of the way, here's what else has been going on.

Austin started crawling several months ago (like September). At first it was just the army crawl, but now it's a full-fledged, very fast crawl. He's such a sweet little boy. He's also walking with support (furniture, fingers, whatever) and he'll stand on his own, but can't yet take a step. Soon though.

He's got quite a few teeth in and unlike his sister, Austin's came in normally. The two bottom first, then the two top, one right after the other and now the two side top. He won't let me get a picture of them, though I have tried. But I guess nobody really wants to see the inside of a baby's mouth anyway.

He also got his first haircut. Cami didn't get hers until she was two, but she's a girl. It's okay for her to have a mullet for a little while. Austin, not so much. It was a relief to get it off. Sterling had been threatening to give him a Marine haircut if I didn't do it soon.Sterling also complain about the hair just over his ears that sticks out. He said Austin looks like an old man with the little tags there.

Before:

After:

As for Cami, she got moved into a big girl bed on New Years Eve. She actually hasn't had much trouble adjusting. I've heard horror stories from other parents, but she's done okay. We've had to further Cami-proof that room, but it hasn't been too bad. The only problem is that every night she climbs into Austin's crib and keeps him awake for hours. I'll have to figure out a way to keep her from doing that. No ideas yet. But some of my readers have kids. Little help?

The rest are just some random pictures.

Now, what kind of parent would I be if I didn't get pictures of my children together in the bathtub?

And then torture them just a little. You know these will end up in their wedding videos.

 Last of all, I got a letter from Sterling so I now have his address. He's doing well so far. He made weight at 173 lbs, but it didn't matter because they measured him at 5'9". Go figure. We kinda knew it was going to happen, so not a huge shocker. Just further proof that he was suppose to go in January. If any of you are interested in writing to him, which I would recommend doing, I will post his address. He's pretty much a missionary out there. He can't call or email or anything until the end of January. All he can send or receive is snail mail. The only thing they ask is that you don't write 2nd or 1st Lieutenant on the outside of the envelope (he's still just a candidate until he gets commissioned) and also, don't write, put stickers, or anything on the outside of the envelope. Just keep it bare.

Also, if you go to the OCS website (I posted the link on my last post, see below) and click on the "Images" tab on the right side of the screen, they have posted some pictures of the candidates at OCS. I've checked very thoroughly and Sterling is not in any of them, which is disappointing, but at least we get to see what he's been up to.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers on Sterling's behalf. I'm sure he appreciates them and so do I.

Candidate Fenwick, Sterling T

C Company, 4th Platoon

Officer Candidate School

2189 Elrod Ave.

Quantico, VA 22134-5033