Birthday Anyone?

Let's see.......November is Turkey month, cold weather, football season, fall leaves....and of course.....when you look at our combined families......Birthday Month! Lets review:

Nov. 4th: Niece Haddy
Nov.11th: Aunt Kristin
Nov. 13th: Aunt Britta
Nov. 17th: Pete
Nov. 18th Niece Riley
Nov. 19th: Uncle Tom
Nov. 28: Uncle JP

Wow! That's a lot of phone calls, cards and cake. Sure hope I didn't miss anyone. Test will come later. Happy Birthday to all!

So yesterday was my birthday (no...I don't feel old), we celebrated last night with some Chicken Enchiladas and Cheesecake. Ally's good friend Nicole was in town from Phoenix, we laughed at Riley who put a show on for all, next time you see her ask her what a wolf says........That kid can sure howl!!!! Among the gifts I received was season 2 of The Office on DVD (7 hours of DVD's) and my own personalized engraved flask. Elli and I spent the afternoon watching Ohio St. beat Michigan for the 4th straight year. After getting phone calls and text messages from friends following the victory, Elli said the word 'Michigan', I said let's call them........the team from up north, to which she quickly replied by saying ......How about the Losers? Love that kid!

Gabe packed up the drums and went to a friends for the day and night, they were starting a new band. He is optimistic about this one sticking, saying this band plays the music he likes. Elli spent the night at Marissa's house and Abbi just went to church, she is headed to Cedar Rapids today with a friend to see a show or something, I can't remember. Party at the Millers....Riley's 2nd birthday party starts today at 3pm. See you there!!!!

And now...your moment of zen:
This picture was taken as the sun was setting at Brady St. Stadium at halftime of Gabe's last Freshman game 3 weeks ago. It is the baton class group, they performed at halftime of the game. Click on the photo (or any photos on the blog) to enlarge it. The shirts say....everyone loves a Twirl Girl!!!! Their next gig is this coming Friday at the Festival of Trees, 1pm.

Random Stuff.........

Our busy Fall sports and school seasons are winding down, Elli closed out the flag football season last week and Gabe is now preparing for the spring soccer season at Central by competing in an indoor soccer league at the Brady Street Sports Dome. He sprung the soccer thing on us a couple weeks ago, he has not played since 5th grade...maybe 4th grade? It's been so long I don't remember. I couldn't talk him into track, he has some soccer friends, and the spring season will lead him into baseball tryouts. Here is one last look at Elli, weaving her way in and out of defenders.



Abbi and Elli are still taking baton lessons on Monday night and have been going to a Bible school night on Wednesdays and have been attending a Sunday school at a friends Baptist Church. They enjoy going, some friends from Garfield attend. Both girls will play basketball after the Xmas holiday, I think Tiff is coaching one of the teams!

Because vacation time at work does not roll over into the next year, I have time to kill, taking each Friday off in November, then around Xmas I have quite a few days off too. This last Monday I was the featured person in the Argus/Dispatch 20 questions column. Here's the link:
www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=362186&query=pete%20ivanic .....if that doesn't work go to www.qconline.com and search my name.

Last Friday was a sad for us, after seeing Dakota get weaker and weaker we decided to put our beloved dog of 11 years down. He wasn't moving well and looked very confused, pretty much staying in the same spot under the front living room windows for the last few weeks. It wasn't easy taking him in, but we knew we were making the correct decision, we loved Dakota very much, this week as been difficult without him. I'll try and look for a picture of him to post soon.

Halloween Baby!!!!

As you can see it was Halloween time for the Ivanlams and all had fun. The girls trick or treated around the neighborhood with Tiffany while me and Gabe and Uncle Jamie and Cousin Brule and Grandma Marcia held the compound down....or should I say spooky graveyard....Our house was by far the biggest hit on the block. Credit goes to Tiffany who put the decorations up and to Jamie whose bright idea brought laughs. Jamie brought home some big 'casket' like shipping crates from work and put them in the yard, positioned near the candy. Gabe and Jamie climbed in the crates and scarred some unsuspecting kids and adults, some of which I caught on tape. I'll try and post some scenes, it was taken at night, so it may not work well, even though I was using the night vision feature on the camera. Elli went as a pumpkin, Abbi went as Kit Kitteridge, her American Girl doll, you can see they dressed alike. Elli also took her American Girl doll, dressed like a pumpkin as well.

Gabe's hand sticking out of a 'casket'.

Pete, Jamie and Brule, enjoying a drink following trick or treat time (just kidding).

Ivanic Finds Endzone!!!!!!!!!

If flag football games were covered by our local newspapers, the title to this post would be the main headline on the sport page. During the fourth quarter of her game today Elli took a snap and went around the right end for a long touchdown run. It was very exciting, I did capture the moment on tape, which is below. The game wasn't going very well, the other team had scored 3 touchdowns, we had none. Each kid on the team normally sits out half the game because the team has a lot of kids. Elli started the fourth quarter on the bench, but a kid got hurt and she got called into action, setting up the touchdown run. Elli also tried 2 passes, but both went incomplete, one was almost caught.


The 'El Belle' also had a long run in first quarter, notice who is watching at the end of the clip.



Gabe's freshman Central team lost another game this week, this one out at North Scott, they are now 1-7 and play West Tuesday to close the season. Gabe sat out the first half and then entered to play the whole second half. He was thrown to 4 times, making 3 catches, one was a big gainer up the middle, and another was a 2 point conversion. We didn't take the video camera, we were not expecting Gabe to play much (sorry boy!). It was great to see Cousin Brule and Uncle Jamie attend the game, Abbi decided to stay home.

Happy Birthday to David, who is now 30! Last night we had a big bash for him at their house, about 50 people attended. Next time you see him, ask him how the mud pie tasted the girls made for him (he actually took a bite of a flower). Hopefully he'll remember what you're talking about!!!!!!

Lovely Riley

My niece Riley Miller showed up for dinner this evening, I've been saying for the longest time I ought to get her on tape saying hi to me. She says my name so clear it's unbelievable that Riley is not yet 2 years old! I think it's a testament from all the time spent reading to Riley that she gets at home by parents David and Ally. Posted is a clip from today as Riley swings with Elli and Abbi outside on our swingset. You can hear Riley say 'smile' when she knows the camera is on her, followed by a 'Hi Peter" and then she says....'love you Peter' ..........just as cute as anybody ever had.