VERY Busy time of the year.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

~Meister Eckhart

The last few weeks have been a crazy mix of lots of work, lots of school and trying to have a life in between! This didn't leave a lot of time for blogging, so I fell behind.

A few weekends ago (well, since I am so behind it was several weekends ago now) I got the chance to catch up with some of my good girlfriends - Amy, Amy and Beth. We have a long running tradition of going to John Melencamp concerts together and he was in Des Moines - so we got together to continue this tradition! The concert wasn't the best we'd ever seen, but it was really nice to see Amy from the twin cities and everyone else who lives close, but I get to make time for way too infrequently.

Amy, Beth, Amy and I
Thanksgiving has now passed and before we know it, it will be Christmas! It will be very nice in a week when we can get into the spirit. We both really love Christmas, but haven't had a lot of time to think about it yet :(

We had a Thanksgiving celebration at our house with Steve's Family the Sunday before Thanksgiving and one on Thanksgiving in Cedar Rapids with my family. It was nice to get together with both sides since it had been a while.

Tim, Nicolle and Colin at our McClure Thanksgiving

Brett and little Jenna at our Foley Thanksgiving


As you can see below - Steve never fails to entertain the nieces and nephews

Poor Steve ;)

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to Arizona for a visit with Steve's Grandma June and his Aunts. We had a nice relaxed visit with them and though the weather wasn't Arizona nice, it was definitely warmer than here in Iowa.

Steve's Mom Madeline and Jack, Steve and Grandma at Seguaro National Monument

Steve's Mom, Aunt Teresa, Aunt JoAnne, Grandma and Aunt Diana

Aunt Sue and Cousin Jamie

Here is a nice shot when we took a Rhino(ATV) ride out at the ranch

I got to meet Ollie's Mama, Little Miss

You know these two:)