I choose to praise!

*** It is crazy how God works. I was doing dishes and the kids were playing on the back porch and I heard another voice on the porch. I went out to investigate and it was a neighbor of mine who I have barely met. She knew we had babies and her granddaughter had just outgrown some diapers. She gave me two packs of diapers. Nice Pampers Crusiers diapers! I've barely met this woman! God provides, in ways I would've never suspected! Who would've thought, diapers from a neighbor I've barely had a conversation with! He even knew what kind of diapers I prefer!

The title speaks for itself I choose to praise! That has been difficult for me lately. I get overwhelmed with the circumstances of our present situation and I feel like I am grasping at straws to find something good to praise God for. I guess it is just part of my personality, maybe I tend to look at the glass half empty, I just feel like we've been picked on enough by God and I don't have anything good to praise Him for, but I am wrong.

I was rocking Cooper to sleep tonight and the thought occurred to me, I have to make a conscience effort to praise Him. He is doing great things all around me, and for me, and I have to choose to praise Him.

So I praise Him for healthy, happy children. For an incredible, out-of-the-blue job transfer for my Mom, that gets her a lot closer to my Granny. For $50.00 left in my fridge, for packs of diapers that friends have bought us, for family that takes care of us when we can't seem to take care of ourselves, for a beautiful home, for a car that runs, and I praise Him in advance for things to come. For money to pay the bills, for continued happy, healthy children (I've been reading McMama's blog and I can't hold my babies tight enough), I praise Him for helping me keep perspective. He is a good God, whether I feel it or not. His timing is perfect!

Butterfly Garden

We took a trip up to the Butterfly Garden in Gainesville today. The McDonald Family and The Windham Family went as well. MawMaw (Craig's mom) also came. The kids had a blast using their magnifying glasses to search for butterflies. We saw some gorgeous butterflies, I think my favorite was the Blue Morpho. Connor says his favorite was the Monarch. I learned something neat today, Monarches and Queens are toxic to birds. Caroline looked so . . . cute carrying around her magnifying glass, she didn't know how to use it so she held it so close to her face. She was sporting some cute butterfly sandals and Josie had an adorable butterfly tank top and Connor had a caterpillar shirt on. All the kids looked fantastic in their theme related garb.

We stayed around for the butterfly release. That was interesting. A staff member brought out a metal cage that held about 10-15 butterflies. When she opened it most of them flew out but a few stuck around long enough for her to talk about.

We also got to see a display of the other stages of the life cycle of the butterfly. Connor says that was his favorite part of the day. He loved looking at the chryalis'. It was really neat.

The museum was nice too. I want to bring Connor back when we can spend more time. The boy has a gazillion questions to ask and I want to be able to explore more.

We bought a plant on the way out of the museum to aide in the attraction of butterflies to our own garden. I've been planting seeds of flowers that are suppose to attract butterflies so we'll see if it works.

My 100th Post

This is my 100th post! Wow time flies when ya got three kids!

In preschool today the kids learned about butterflies! They were so cute trying to describe the different stages of the butterfly. They made a little diagram with pasta and rice to help them learn the stages. We read some books and watched two shows. We played a game and had to feed our hungry little caterpillars. We colored a big butterfly and even ate a caterpillar/butterfly sucker. As always I wish I would have had more time with the kids to get everything finished there just isn't enough hours in the day. Nevertheless, the day was a success and tomorrow we are off to visit the Butterfly Rainforest Museum in Gainesville to culminate our activities.

This and That

I thought I would do a little catch up on what's been going on around the Cannon house. Cooper just got his two first teeth. He's been sitting up without support pretty good lately. He has also started saying, "Dada." It is too cute!

Caroline & Connor have been very busy outside since the time change. They've been enjoying the spring weather and their swings. Craig has started planting our garden again so they've been helping their Daddy dig in the dirt and plant seeds.

Connor went fishing with Uncle Brant and Craig on Saturday. PawPaw brought over a fish and some minnows from his fishing trip and Connor just played with that fish. I found the whole thing pretty gross but he loved it. We asked him if he was going to eat his fish for dinner and he said, "I can't eat my friend!"

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Today we met for preschool again and the theme was kites! It is March so I figured it would be windy enough to fly kites. I guess I should've checked the weather report - not so much on the windy side but the kids still had a blast! First we discussed the letter 'K' and the diamond shape since most kites are in the shape of a diamond. We sang the song from Mary Poppins, "Let's Go Fly a Kite!" and we decorated a kite with markers and sparkles. We even helped Dora and a kite make it to the Rainbow Kite Festival on time. After all the indoor activities we headed outside to fly our kites. There were a few gusts of wind that allowed us to fly our kites temporarily. No matter the weather the kids enjoyed themselves. They ran their little hearts out trying to get their kites into the air. We untangled a gazillion strings just to watch the kids run right back into each other and tangle it all over again. For lunch a few of us even had the pleasure of eating kite sandwiches with strawberry bows. Even though it wasn't very windy it sure was fun!

There is such a difference between the girls pictures and the boys!

Josie

Austin

Haylee

Caroline


Caleb & Travis

Jake

Connor & Daddy

Kite sandwiches

Spiders

Craig was getting Connor to sleep last night and the conversation went like this:

Connor: Who made spiders?

Daddy: God

Connor: Do spiders bite God?

Daddy: No

Connor: Why not?

Daddy: God is too big for the spiders to bite.

Craig said he could tell Connor was geniunely worried about those spiders biting God. Isn't it funny what their little minds are thinking about.