Catch up: November

Ah November...when the leaves all fell in two weeks and the first snow hit. My parents came out for a quick visit and caught the BYU vs. Wisconsin game. We tailgated for the first time and froze our buns off more than we did at the Packers game the week before. Sad we lost, but still fun to cheer for the cougars.

                            

Grandpa helped rake the wet leaves...they were a little tough for this pregnant momma...and the girls were great at helping us bag them. I can always count on my dad to help me out with projects when he comes to town.

 And he's great at entertaining the kids...with his iPad :)

 We got our first taste of a very long, cold winter...

 ...and made even more pumpkin cookies.

At at the end of the month, a party began. All of Paul's family came to our house for Thanksgiving. All 23 of us, with 4 of us pregnant. We smashed one family into each bedroom, threw Christina in the basement, and had a party. I never take enough pictures when family comes to town, but we had a great time together. The 11 grandkids played, the pregnant moms folded moravian stars, and plenty of root beer was drunk. 

We even went on a Sprecher factory tour, where the root beer and soda tastings are bottomless. Sprecher is an Iverson family favorite, and generally accepted (at least in these parts) as the greatest root beer in America.

What's Thanksgiving without tons of food?

And a family photo! Grateful to photoshop to knock out the water treatment facility in the background, and turn a few baby heads. It was about 30 degrees outside that day...hence Anna's open mouth smile.

Another Iverson family obsession is Moosejaw. No, not the city in Canada, but the quirky outdoor equipment store. Erika sent this picture to Moosejaw last month and it was featured on their Facebook page for a week, and all 23 of us...well, 27 of us since there are 4 new babies counting mine...got free t-shirts for next years' photo. No wonder we love this company! The Moosejaw photo will be a new Iverson tradition.

Day trip to South Bend

Being only 3 hours from South Bend, how could we pass up the BYU vs Notre Dame game, especially since two of my sisters, three brother-in-laws, and my parents would be there? I guess that's what you get when two brother-in-laws received their graduate degrees from ND.

Outside the administration building. We arrived hours before game time and wandered around campus to kill some time. It was a perfect fall day. Even with the game loss, Paul and I enjoyed having an entire day without children.

 Yes...both of our hair is getting long!

And surprise! Paul's brother Michael was there too! So we smashed 2 mini-family reunions in on the same day.

Thursday Night Football

On Wednesday, I was all geared up for yet another trip to Dallas...eventually I'll stay home for a month at a time, but this time my parents were here for some business and the BYU vs. TCU game today. My flight was set to leave at 12:30, but due to a hydrolics problem, they said it would be 4 hours late. So we went back home (after being there for about 2 hours already) so that Hattie could get her afternoon nap. We went back at 4:00, since it was supposed to take off at 4:30. But they said NOTHING for another hour and a half. Finally at 5:30, they said announced that they would be able to fit all of the remaining passengers on the 6:30 flight. So 6 hours after we were supposed to take off, we were finally on our way. The worst part was the hour and a half when the attendants wouldn't tell us anything, even though it had been over the 4 hour limit. Grrr. Without that midday nap, the day would have truly been a nightmare.

But Hattie did pretty well. She's the next Bobby Fisher, I'd say. We start 'em young at our house.

Sadly the game was very disappointing. I won't go into details, but it was still fun to be at an away game. There were a lot of BYU fans there.

Dad, Mom, and I with Aunt Carma and Uncle Steve