This is Ridiculous

I know that there are thousands of blogger backgrounds out there, but for some reason I can not pick one! This morning Nick was even trying to help me, and even though I really liked a lot of his choices, I just don’t feel like they’re right. Maybe eventually I’ll just go back to my brown background.

I’m not a perfectionist by any means, you’d think that would make this easy for me! I want to make a final decision before I add all my widgets back in. Maybe I'll just tough it out with this one for awhile? You'll just have to wait and see I guess!

Lil Mower Power

Lucy has decided that naps don't really apply to her this week. I still put her to bed, and we both pretend that she is sleeping. Of coarse I know better. I know she's in there playing dress up or reading her books, and after an hour she'll come out and ask to play. Since she isn't getting too cranky in the afternoon/evenings it works for us right now. The other day she came out wearing her bathrobe! It was so cute I had to take pictures! This is the first time she's ever actually worn her robe too! It's always been a battle so it hangs in the corner untouched until she decided to put it on. This is the face she always makes when I'm trying to take a cute picture. She's our cute little "Rocky". Nick put together this little poster for our Tough Lil' Mower Power. I'm glad he's creative!

The Circus came to town...

Last week we had the opportunity to go see the circus up at the Colfax Fairgrounds. Lucy was so excited all day to see the Elephants! We got there just before it started, and got a great parking spot. As we were waiting in line to pay for our tickets we realized they only take cash, of coarse! So, we had to go drive back into Colfax to get some money. We got back in good time and found a decent seat. They were having the bears performing when we first got there. Lucy had a great time and was very focused on the animals. During intermission they had pony rides, elephant rides, and some stuff for older kids. I asked Lucy if she wanted to ride the elephant or the pony. She just said over and over "I want to ride the pony, not the elephant!" So for $6 she got to ride the pony for about 3 minutes! She loved every second of it! Man, one of these days she's going to have to make friends with someone who owns a horse :)

I realized that although my life does not revolve around being an animal activist it really does break my heart to see animals living in small cages and being used just for our amusement. Although I try to remember the words or Jack Hannah who says something similar to the good things about Zoo's (and the circus) are that it helps kids fall in love with animals, and we grow up wanting to protect those things that we love. I know Lucy will want to grow up wanting to protect horses! Man, she loves them!

Three kids and a bus...

I watch a little girl named Karli full time and I take Lucy & Karli to the library for story time with Miss Kathleen each Wednesday. Miss Kathleen is the most amazing, animated story teller I've ever seen! She is just fabulous with the kids and she reads books, sings songs and does flannel board time with them. She even remembers all of the kids names, and there are always at least 30-40 kids in just our time slot (there are 2 time slots to choose from). She is just my hero! Well this week I started watching Karli's brother Kurtis full time too who is 4 years old. Since we can't fit three car seats/booster seats in the car I thought we would try taking the bus. It just takes 10 min to get there on the bus. The kids were so excited! Lucy points out every bus we see driving around so I knew she would be very excited. They were all so well behaved. We took the bus there and really enjoyed library time, read some books, played with the puppets, and farm animal toys and then waited for the bus to come home. Over all it was a great morning, and I'm excited to do this each week with the kids!

I love Kim!!

This is a surprise post to publicly tell Kim how much I love her. Today has been a busy day for her as she has cared for 9 children from 9am to...well, there's still kids at our house. To top it off it's not exactly the best time of the month for her, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong she hasn't complained, I just know I would have been charged with child abuse if I had been in her shoes. I love you very much Kim!!

Nick

My Little Animal Lover

Saturday was just a fun day for our little Mower family! We started the morning out at the Farmers Market over in Moscow and Lucy saw lots of big dogs. Then we went to the Appaloosa Horse Museum over in Moscow because they had horseback riding for the kids. Lucy was SO excited about this! She had to wear her pink skirt, at breakfast she said "I want to show the horse my pretty pink skirt!" And you know the first thing she said when she got on the horse? "Look at my pink skirt!" Nick & I thought that she may get scared once she got on the horse, but she didn't even think about it! The guy put the helmet on her and lifted her up and she grabbed on and looked as though she was the Queen of Egypt. It was so cute! She was so proud of herself the whole day! Then later that night we went to our friends house who had baby kittens. Lucy played hide and seek with the kittens running around for as long as I would let her! She just loves animals! At dinner she said "They have lots of animals here dogs, horses, kittens..." It was just a FUN day for all of us!

Candy Store

Yesterday Lucy & I went to swimming class. The class she was supposed to be in was canceled so they let us go in the more advanced class. Lucy pretty much clung to me the entire time. Then after class was over we went to the baby pool and played for another 40 min. We practiced kicking, and paddling, and blowing bubbles. She does great as long as she can touch! I know that as we continue going every week that she will get more and more comfortable.

Since she did so great I asked if she would like a treat, of coarse she said "yes!". I asked her what she wanted and she said she wanted "Candy Store"! Ever since we went to M&M World in Vegas she calls M&M's "Candy Store" and they are her favorite candy - I think it's so cute I just had to share.