Promised pictures

Here are the pictures I have been promising.

After 10 weeks of working on our shed, which is actually only Saturdays and the occassional weeknight when Seth gets home before dark, it is finished. This time period also includes 2 weeks of being out of town. Here is my beautiful shed that my husband built with his own 2 hands. It is officially done and we are now trying to decide how best to utilize our additional 200 square feet.


Hannah is growing SO fast. Here are the boys with her.

This is Hannah mauling Jacob. You can see she is just about as long as he is and she had her first vet visit on Friday and weighs 21 pounds at 12 weeks old. I'm SO glad my baby isn't going to grow quite that fast.

Yes on Prop 8

Here's an update for those of you interested.

The Yes on Prop 8 campaign has had about $23 million donated, much to the surprise of the opposition. This weekend, I was able to help deliver lawn signs with Noah. It was a huge boost to go through the neighborhoods and see the support of our neighbors and to say to those who were afraid to have their own sign that they aren't alone. Unfortunately we learned that there was an organized group of opponents who would be going around stealing our signs. Ours was on stolen on Saturday evening. We had been counseled to bring them in but when we went to bring ours in for the night, it was too late. We will be posting a new one and the kids think it is awesome to play find the Yes on 8 signs when we are out and about. I think it's wonderful that we have been able to be involved as a family and that my children understand that there are things we stand up for. They were terribly upset by our sign being stolen. It has been a struggle to help them understand that unfortunately, those who are against Prop 8 are trying to take away our right to freedom of speech.

Anyway, the vote is coming up on election day. I will post results as soon as we have them. Thanks for your support.

Long Weeks...

This week has seemed like it might not ever end. Seth is out of town on a camping trip and the kids have been particularly naughty. My children are mostly well-behaved but it's like something has possessed them this week and I can't seem to keep perspective enough to deal with the battles that seem to rage in our house. Thank goodness for school hours, at least they are getting to do something fun and they aren't with "mean ole Mom" all day. Benjamin has told me numerous times in the last few days that he "wants Daddy". I love that one. what does that mean? Am I really that bad? He has been particularly difficult to deal with so maybe it's because we all are out of sorts this week.

Onto something more entertaining and funny. I am 30 weeks into this pregnancy and now people are bold enough to assume that I am pregnant and not just overeating. People are always telling me how I can't possibly be as far along as I am but I know how I look without my clothes on and exactly how huge I'm going to get at the very end of my pregnancy. Well, Benjamin is always asking when our baby is coming and wonders how big my tummy will get. As I said and most women know from experience, you look much smaller with clothes on. Here is an account of Pico coming to this realization. I was just coming out of the shower when it became an emergency for Benjamin to use the bathroom right then, so in he comes as I'm drying off and he looks at me and exclaims "Mommy, your tummy is huge!" (just the words every woman wants to hear, right? but he's 3 so I try to keep that in perspective)
I reply, "Yes, honey, the baby is growing."
"Mom, you really need to work on getting that baby out."
"Benjamin, the baby is still too small to come out. He needs to get bigger so he can be healthy."
To which he replied, with eyes bugging out of his head, "Just how huge is your belly going to be?"
I then demonstrated the size of a possible belly and he exclaimed, "I'll never be able to hug you if you are that big."

It's fun having a little one in which pregnancy is new for them. I always like to hear what they are thinking since small children don't know how to filter their thoughts.
This is the first picture Noah has taken for me with our digital camera, thus it is a little sideways.

To have a dog, or not have a dog....

That is the question around here lately. My husband has always wanted to have a dog and we have been putting it off for a very long time. Well, with the shed built, why not take on a much longer lasting project? Seth began one night to insinuate that now would be the perfect time to get a puppy so that she would be trained before the baby arrived. I made the mistake of saying now or much later. So after scouring the internet for the best family friendly breeds, speaking with dog owners, and general just puppy browsing. We decided we'd go visit a couple of litters. At this point, I realize the battle is over. If I meet a puppy I like all rational thought will go out the window. And sure enough on Friday afternoon, we went to just "checkout" a litter and ended up driving home with our new puppy, Hannah.



Hannah is a Labrador Retriever. She is adorable, playful and SO loving. She is 8 weeks, 2 days old and very smart. After having her for 1.5 days, she recognizes her name and will respond when called. Potty training is pretty well under control. We are trying to teach her to go in one spot of the yard so that might take quite some time. Wish us luck on this new adventure. I think it will be great for our kids, lots of work for me but hopefully also very rewarding.

Oldfield happenings

We finally got Daddy on a camping trip with us. I have been camping a couple of times on my own with all three boys because of Seth's work schedule. So it was miraculous that his work accommodated and he was able to join us for the 4 day adventure. It was wonderful weather, much cooler than down in the valley of Sacramento. It was a nice respite from our sky high temperatures. the kids had a great time exploring, hiking, playing in the creek and reservoir.
We returned home on Sunday late afternoon and I quickly fell very ill with a fever, chills, coughing, congestion, achy body, and other lovely symptoms. I felt so bad for Seth, he had to unpack and clean up everything by himself but he did it without giving me a guilt trip and kept the kids entertained so that i could rest. He is wonderful.

The other thing my husband has been doing is building a shed in our backyard. It is huge and very much needed. I'm so glad he is so handy and motivated. All that we have left to do at this point it to put the shingles on the roof, and do the final painting. We primed the whole shed this week. I can't wait to have some storage space.

I'll post some pictures of the process and finished pictures soon.