grateful living

Spurred on by stuff I'm reading and people I admire (TY, Melanie), we are discussing each night something for which we are grateful to God.

The M's have a tree of gratefulness spreading across their kitchen wall and when we babysat the other night, we were introduced to the concept of writing something nightly, then sticking it to the tree. I cdn't find leaves or flower petal post-its, like Melanie did-- I cd only find butterflies-- so, since we have a beautiful butterfly bush out our back door w/lots of blossoms and butterflies on it, we made a butterfly bush (on the fridge, since we haven't got wall space).

Here is our "Grateful Butterfly Bush" as it went up..

and as it is currently...

And here are some random shots of the summer activities--it's been a busy summer!

Neighbors and friends watching Franklin together one summer night...

Common sight on grass cuttin' day

Sam's 1st dentist visit--he was so cool, calm and collected!

Couple of days we got to watch our neighbor's son while she worked. Little Josiah loves Sam's antics, and Sam enjoys having someone to impress. Been fun for us to tell Sam that right now, at 5 mos, Josiah is Sam's age when he came home to us-- so hard to believe he was ever that small--wow.

July 4th in Marlton--our illustrious pastors ran a 5K for charity and we went to cheer them on.

Dressing like daddy [used to...]

Hanging out at Aunt Peg's pool a couple days--one was for her 80th bday! Sam made new friends there, Matt and Michaela, A. Peg's little neighbors on either side.

I love the action of this pic.

A Peg's party--mom, her buddy since nursing school, Peggy P and aunt Pam

A Peg's buddy, Grace, and A Peg

Sam sitting at the gate with "the elders," Uncle Tom and daddy. :- )

Church camping trip-- we have sooo much fun, even tho it rained and thunderstormed most of Monday... me-- I do all that planning, meal prep, packing, unpacking and laundry just for the fellowship and s'mores around campfires at night! :- )

Tom doing devotions w/the kids the morning it rained, before it started. Sam loves a chance to hold someone's ear.

These umbrellas, stationed at the M's campsite, were indicative of the day.

Our campsite was right next to theirs so Sam and Zachary got to play together the minute their eyes were open. Sam LOVES camping. :- )

We basically took over most of the beach at the lake at camp. So nice to have everyone hanging out together.

Bryan took some cool pics of the sunset one night and how it turned the trees to fire.

Looks like it could be Moses' burning tree!

Dinner w/our friends, the W's, meant a visit from another of Sam's little buddies, sweet Eden.

Thanks for dropping in on our summer --ttfn, mb for WeThree