Merry Christmas!!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday!

Ours was fun, but busy.

We had the chance on the Saturday before Christmas to meet up with our newly married friends Kerry and Cameron for a quick lunch. It was very nice to catch up a little though there is never enough time.

We traveled to Cedar Rapids to celebrate with the Foley family on Sunday. Kerry hitched a ride, so I got to spend a little additional time with her.

Everyone was able to make it on Sunday for Christmas (with the exception of Austin who lives in Colorado). Bruce and Willie were even in town from Memphis TN!

Here is the lovely Christmas tree with the kids' haul underneath!

Cathy had the kids participate in an interactive nativity story - it was really a good thing to spend a little time concentrating on the reason for our celebration...and fun too!

Here are Ben and Alex anxiously awaiting the "go ahead"

Ms. Samantha and Julie all decked out for the occassion as always!

We were able to spend the night and take our time on Christmas Eve day at the Foley house which was nice and made Sunday night slower and more relaxed.

On Christmas day we spent the day at Tim and Nicolle's house for our McClure Christmas celebration. We started with breakfast and hung out for lunch and even dinner that night.

Here is Colin's FatHead of Batman we got him....all up and ready to defend! Looks like Colin is ready to do his part too;)

Congratulations to Tim and Nicolle that are newly engaged!

Steve and Colin doing a little stargazing in the evening

December 10-14

Hello!

I am writing at the end of December for the middle of December since these are pictures I set asside at the time of our ice storms to share and as usual got too busy to finish an entry.

We were not affected as much as a lot of people in Iowa. We had no loss of power - just some trees that looked like they shouldn't survive, so we were lucky.

Here is the ravine in our back yard...you can see the poor bent over young trees at the bottom of the picture:( They have since recovered.

Steve decided the week of his Birthday (the 7th of December) that he was too old to shovel all of the time and outfitted his riding lawn mower with a blade and snow chains:)

Zeus and Ollie were not slowed down by the nasty weather in the least - in fact they seem to enjoy it

I just thought this one was kind of pretty

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:)

Trip to CR, Aunt Betty's Benefit and a very long week!

Betty and Mom
I started this post at the beginning of this last week, but worked most hours of the day and evening throughout this past week...so am just getting it out today.

Last Friday night I left Steve and the manimals at home and headed for CR.
On the way, I stopped and had the chance to visit with one of my very best friends Jen and her new little one Owen. I guess he is not so little anymore, they grow SO fast, but he did wake up long enough to give Aunt Lori some good smiles and cuddle time:)

On Saturday Mom, Dad, sister Julie and niece Samantha headed to Wisconsin for a cancer benefit in honor of my Aunt Betty Bird. Cathy, Kobe and Zoey came as well. The benefit had a great turn out and we got to see a lot of family we don't get the chance to see often.

cousins Brianna and Kayla

Jeanie and Sharron

Cathy and Zoe

Some of our Feye cousins

Therese and Dan

Even a few of our cousins from California were able to be at the event Diane showed above, and Don in the center below with Bob and Greg (more cousins:)

Karly, Zoe and Bella

Some of us stayed around for some dancing and Karaoke later on in the evening