Photo Shoot

A friend in my ward offered, for her baby gift, to take pictures of Cami before she got too big. I took her up on it. She photoshopped a few of these, but here's my favorites.

All smiles

I got a few pictures of Cami smiling recently. It's seriously got to be the cutest smile in the world, but then maybe I'm just biased.

The Few. The Proud.

So, for those of you who haven't heard yet, Sterling is joining the Marines. He's actually applying for an officers spot through an Officer Selection program. He wants to be a pilot, and they only have 3 pilot spots open for Utah candidates, but despite that his chances are really pretty good of being selected. They look at a whole bunch of things, like academic achievement (you have to have a bachelors degree), leadership experience, extracurricular activities, etc. The application process is basically just like a job application, except that there's a physical fitness test and a written exam, which is similar to the ACT, but includes naval and flight questions as well. He's currently finished everything except for the written test, so once the whole application is complete, we should hear back from them within a month or so. If he doesn't get accepted, there's still time to bring up any scores that disqualified him the first time and try for a pilots spot again.

Once he's been selected as an officer, he's guaranteed a pilot's spot in Pensecola, FL. So next summer he'll go to OCS (Officer Candidates School) for 10 weeks in Quantico, VA. Cami and I won't be able to go to that with him, sadly. Then he'll graduate from there in August and receive his commission at which point he'll start making a 2nd Lieutenant's pay. Then in Oct or Nov of next year, we'll all move out to Quantico for TBS (The Basic School) which is six months long. That's where they learn all the leadership skills they'll need to be an officer. Then we go to flight school down in Pensecola, FL. Flight school is two years long. Sterling is thinking he wants to do fighter jets, hopefully an F-18.

In order for him to be a pilot, he had to get corrective eye surgery. None of the branches of the military will let you get Lasek because of the flap they cut in the cornea for Lasek - they're afraid that the G-forces will pull the flap back, though that's not possible - so Sterling had to get PRK surgery, which is a much more painful recovery process. He was in serious pain for three days, whereas with Lasek, you're good to go the very next day. I got a picture of him, though he probably won't want me to post it. His eyes were really red and swollen for about a week or so. He's better now thankfully and his vision is getting clearer every day. There was a brief period of time there that I wondered if he thought it wasn't worth it. He says that despite the pain, he always felt it was. He's very excited about being in the Marines, since the military is what he's wanted to do since he was young. I'll keep you all posted on whether or not he gets accepted.

Then and Now

Ok, so Krista (and others) have been asking me for more current photos of my little girl, so here's a few of her when she was just born and what she looks like now. There will be more posted later, but this is just a quick blog for those who have been asking.

The first is one that a 'professional' took of her in the hospital and then wanted to charge me $25 for a copy of it, but I got creative and managed to save it off the internet. She's one day old. The other is one mom took of her today at one month old.

Sterling and I both think that she's gotten much, much cuter as she's gotten older.

As for the next pictures. Mom had the idea to use the blanket as a marker of how much she's grown. You can notice how much she's lengthened out, and how much she's filled out, especially her cubby little legs and arms. But she's still so cute. In the first she's a week old (or so), the second is one month old.

The last two I just thought were cute because she at least has her eyes open in both. Her head has gotten so much bigger and her eyes have lightened to a brighter blue than they were when she was born.

Cami comes to the family

Well, I guess that we will start with the beginning. Erika had us take a few pictures of her to show the progress of the baby. I would also like to note that in the first picture, she thought that she was getting really big! Little did she know what waited in the dark!

On July 15th she had been feeling contractions off and on all day, but at about 10:30 p.m. they came pretty hard and regular. We thought her water broke at around 11:00, but we later found out that we had no idea what we were talking about. We got to the hospital at about 12:00 a.m., and the nurse checked her out and confirmed very emphatically "you're in labor!"

Then the contractions really came on. She was in a lot of pain, and the only person she wanted to see was the anesthesiologist. Now Erika has a very weird fear of needles; she has to see them go in! She was really worried that she wouldn't be able to not see the giant needle going into her back, but she was in so much pain by then that all of that fear seemed to melt away. As soon as she got the epidural, she was in heaven.

Erika's water broke officially at about 3:30 and then she started pushing at about 5:00 a.m. Cami was born at 5:50 a.m. From here on out Kelly started taking pictures on her camera, so when we get those, I will add to this, but here is our little girl, Cami Lilly Fenwick. Oh, the last few pictures are from when we got home. Erika went with her mom to do some shopping, so I was at home with Cami alone. She got a little fussy, so I called Sadie to the chair and put Cami down on Sadie's side. She went right to sleep, and Sadie just sat there like she knew what she was doing.




Is it bad that I think that using my dog as a baby sitter wouldn't be a bad idea? (just kidding, don't call child services on me). Erika is doing great, but is a little sore and tired. Cami weighed in at 7lbs. 1 oz. 19". She is doing great and doesn't really cry much. Hopefully that is a good foreshadowing of things to come, but I won't get my hopes up.