December 2011, Happy New Year 2012, Coop's First Day of School, and Scot's Cheer

Scotlyn started cheerleading in September. She had her first performance Jan. 17, 2012. We are so proud of her and how hard she practiced. She came home everyday and practiced her splits and jumps. She is 8 years and 5 months.

She was the highest jumper out on the floor. She had so much fun and loved every minute of it.

One week after the new year, I was told that we had one spot open in our preschool program. So with that little news we quickly got kicked into high gear and potty trained Mr. Cooper. He was fully potty trained in two days!!! Yahoo! He was also completely without diapers, even at night, by 4 days. I was so proud of him. Here he is in his first preschool performance at Barnes & Noble singing his little heart out. Cooper is 2 years and 8 months. Parker is 3 years and 9 months.

Scotlyn cheering again!!!

First day of school pictures. He was so happy to be able to carry his own lunch box. He called SRMS "Parker's School" for so long that that name stuck and now that's still what he calls it. He still loves going everyday and tells me when I pick him up what a big boy he is now.

Grandchildren with Grandma & Grandpa Mikkelson at New Years

Happy New Year 2012!!! G&G Mikkelson were up visiting with us. We also had Debbie and Logan over for the night to play games and eat lots of junk food. The kids had a blast playing Wii, Skip Bo, letting off poppers, and just being silly.

Such hams these little boys are...

We were able to take the kids ice skating over the break. It was really hard for the boys. I had Parker and Wendy had Cooper and it took us both about 30 min. to get around the whole rink and that was it. The boys were tired and their feet hurt so, they sat up in the window gallery with Matt and watched us all skate the whole time. Then Scotlyn hurt her ankle so we ended up only being there about an hour total time.

Christmas Time!!! I was really short on taking pictures during Christmas. There was so much going on that I forgot and spaced it. Nana & Papa Novak came up from down south and spent some time with us. We had fun and the kids did some baking with Nana. We all watched for the first time "It's a Wonderful Life".

Apple Picking at 65th Street Apples and Cider Pressing...

The kids were able to go pick many boxes of apples and have some fresh pressed cider at a local Apple Field near our house. They had so much fun and Grandma Wendy was able to make lots of jars of apple pie filling for us to use. This was actually in early October before Halloween when the weather was just barely starting to turn cold. The cider press was very messy and sticky but it was neat to see how many apples it took to make a small glass of juice. All the kids got to turn the cider press and catch the juice coming out the bottom.

My Favorite Monkeys...

Happy Halloween 2011

Cooper was a penguin this year...shh..don't tell him Parker wore it last year. He still thinks it's cool to wear Parker's hand me downs. I hope he continues to think that because he has another few years ahead to get those.

The gang: Scotlyn (the fairy/gogo dancer/ballerina), Parker (the dalmation), and Cooper (the penguin)

Scottie and Parker outside

Here is Parker at school in his Fall Parade. He was a little embarrassed, but gave me a big smile anyway. He had to walk past my classroom and all my students were saying hi Parker to him.

Outside with our pumpkins the kids carved.

Nana and Cooper hard at work picking out all those pumpkin seeds that Nana ending up burning in the oven.

Miss Scotlyn

Daddy helping the boys.

Auntie Sarah looks thrilled to be carving pumpkins this evening.

This was taken on the first day of school. Scotlyn is in 3rd grade and Parker is in preschool still.

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Over Labor Day weekend we went to the Idaho Falls Airport for some old World War II airplanes that had flown in for the weekend. I think they were B-15 or B-17's. The kids enjoyed taking a tour of them and being out at the airport. Above is a picture of Parker looking down below from the airplane.

Here is Scotlyn looking down below at me so I could take her picture.

Cooper wasn't much into climbing through the airplane but he sure enjoyed walking around it.

Parker and Scotlyn posing nicely for me. Cooper wanted nothing to do with this picture.

He did pose for this picture though.

The next day, we decided to take the kids to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Scotlyn wanted to do this water bubble thing where they run inside a plastic bubble on water. She had a great time and it tired her out. We had a lot of fun watching her make her way across the water.

While Auntie Sarah and Scotlyn went on the rides, the boys were content with riding in these free cars provided by a local hospital.

Here is Auntie Sarah asking about owning a bunny. She is thinking that since she isn't going to be getting a dog...a bunny would be the next best thing. Will someone talk some sense into this girl?