The kids and Marlene went to Pumpkinland and had great time. Here are some pictures.

See Marlene’s post about Pumpkinland.

Then we also took some pictures of the kids before they went trick-or-treating. Marlene did an amazing job making Henry’s Frog Prince costume. She always makes one costume at least per year. Oscar wanted to be a Knight and Lily was Cinderella. You can’t see it in all of the pictures but Lily was devasted when I said she needed to wear her coat. It was going to ruin her outfit; it didn’t matter how cold it got. She was hysterical and stubborn. She may have been tired before we even went. Oscar was a good sport and was only able to trick-or-treat the closest houses in our block because he had cough so we didn’t want to keep him out long. Henry as well was upset that he had to wear the costume; especially the hat, however, when we put him in front of the mirror, he got a huge smile on his face. Enough talk and here are some of the pictures.

For more pictures of the family please see our Flickr photostream.

We had a great visit to my parents last weekend for Easter. First off, Marlene and the kids went down on Saturday and were able to play and rest while Juliette and family played with Oscar and Lily. And Juliette loves holding Henry, as you can see below.

Marlene and the kids were also able to get to know and play with Uncle Earl and Aunt Celanie, Uncle Bob and Aunt Jane, Aunt Mary Ann, and Uncle Stewart and Aunt Gail. Stewart and Gail returned home before I got to see them, but then I arrived on Sunday morning after going to Moab to ride mountain bikes with my cousins, Dave and Rob Patterson. We really had a great time riding. Then I went to Spencer and Jonene’s in Richfield to caught a ride over to Delta with them on Sunday morning. Spencer and I had a good time trying to fix a problem with his sprinklers (didn’t fix it but Spencer did a few days later).

I then went to Delta on Sunday morning with Spencer and family. We arrived in time to go to church and we were able to see Grandpa Rodger Scoville give a talk on the Holy Ghost and the influence that we can let it have on our lives. (Dad (or anyone in attendance) you can comment in more detail on your talk if you like).

Here is a picture taken on Sunday evening before our kids went down to bed with their Aunts and Uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Scoville. From left – Front row (Aunt Celanie Scoville, Uncle Earl Scoville [holding Henry], Henry Scoville, Oscar Scoville, Aunt Jane Milner [holding Lily], Lily Scoville, Uncle Bob Milner). Back Row (Aunt Mary Ann Lewis, Grandma Mary Scoville, and Grandpa Rodger Scoville).

We watched Dan in Real Life with the family and it was a lot of fun. We laughed and laughed. Good show and soundtrack if anyone is interested in a funny and fairly moral movie.

We went to Oregon for the Christmas break and the New Year Holiday celebration. We had a great time. We were able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Schaefer for a long while. We ate wonderful meals and had a good visit with the Roseburg missionaries from their ward on Christmas. Oscar looks forward to becoming a missionary. He loves the elders.

Some of the highlights from the trip:
1. The kids talk incessantly about their dog, Nikki. She was hit.
2. Holiday lights – we went to see Christmas lights for a Family Home Evening on New Year’s Eve.
3. Spending some wonderful time with Marlene’s parents. Marlene was able to continue in doing family history research and learning about her dad’s youth and recording it on tape.
4. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Oscar and Lily felt at home by the time we left and were running around like they usually do (I don’t know if Marlene’s parents really loved that) but they were able to get a real glimpse of what life is like for Marlene on daily basis. I always gain substantial appreciation for her as she stays home with the kids when we go on vacations or I have time off from school. They are on the go constantly. I wish I could reign in some of their energy and take it as pill or something.
5. Oscar and Lily love their grandparents
6. The pleasant Oregon weather. It didn’t rain too much, but it was also 50 degrees. So nice. Reminded me that Utah is so cold. It was hard to come back.
7. Walking down the lane in front of their house and seeing the horses and petting them.
8. Phil finished up grades and worked on a few papers while there and also catching as many College Bowl Games and Professional Sports as I could without making everyone upset with me.
9. Oscar and Lily loved playing games with Grandma and feeding Nikki dog biscuits and playing with their toys from Santa Claus.

Another huge event was Lily’s 3rd Birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Schaefer. It was great. She loved her cake that looked like a big Strawberry and her icecream. Oscar loved the sorbet.

I’ll have to ask Marlene if she has more.

This is well overdue but I thought I should mention our 2007 Thanksgiving experience. We went to Delta and celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. Most of my family came. It was nice to see my brothers and sisters and their kids. Oscar and Lily just love their cousins. They adore their respective older cousins, especially those of their gender. Kind of like they decide what they hope our new little baby will be. Oscar wants a Boy and Lily wants a girl.

Oscar went on his first gun shooting experience. Well he didn’t actually shoot a gun but he did enjoy picking up bullet casings that fell to the ground. He loves his Grandpa and Uncles.

We had a wonderful time. We ate well. Thanksgiving Day dinner was wonderful. My mom made excellent food and I’m sure I gained 10 pounds from the pies/ice cream and other delicious foods. We have so much to be thankful for.

Here is my list of thanks for the year 2007. I am…
1. Marlene and her enduring love for me.
2. Oscar and Lily and their wonderful hugs and kisses (when I wake up, when I leave for school/work, when I arrive home, and again when they go to bed). I am one lucky Dad.
3. Opportunity to get a PhD at Brigham Young University. For a chair that pushes me when at times I don’t want to be pushed because I’ve put up barriers or walls to my own abilities. Also for a department that encourages us to produce scholarly work and present it around the country.
4. Learning about my own strengths and weaknesses and ways to address them with more direct and straight-foward candidness.
5. Thankful to have been able to come back to Utah to finish my degree and be near family.
6. Thankful for my parents and my in-laws and all the many things that they do to help us from gifts for us or the kids to financial help to watching our kids when we are in binds.
7. Thankful the the Lord Jesus Christ and his ability to make up for our deficiencies when we repent and do all that we can to return to live with him. He will make up what we cannot.
8. I’m grateful to be member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
9. I’m grateful for music and photos. Our kids take some pretty good pictures, if you ask me.
10. Thankful for family (siblings, cousins, and aunts and uncles, and others) and friends. They help us make meaning out of our lives when both good and bad things happen to us. I’m grateful for all the support we’ve received over that last year whether by babysitting, or talking us through our problems, or by visiting with us.

I’ve more to say about other holidays but I’ll be posting a couple of posts today on different topics so that this wasn’t going to be too long.

Grandma Schaefer and Lily – Happy Birthday, Lily. You are indeed 3 now.

Originally uploaded by Blueberry Muffin

Lily is so excited to be 3 and not 2. Ask her about it. She’ll gladly tell you and show you that she is three with her fingers and say “I’m free”.

It is so cute. This is picture with her Grandma Schaefer a few days ago (an early family party before we came back to Provo, UT).

The last few weeks have been pretty busy and fun at the same time. October and Halloween we lots of fun and I just barely put on the pictures on Flickr that we took.

Marlene went with the kids (neighbors and preschool kids) to Pumpkinland for Preschool one morning and that was a lot of fun. So you’ll see some pictures from that.

Then we all went to Gardner Village to meet the Cahoons (Brandon, Dayna, and Kellen) for a good time just hanging out. Oscar and Lily had a great time playing with Kellen and Brandon.

Next, the Monday night before Halloween we carved pumpkins for FHE and you can see our doings there. Oscar and Lily enjoyed picking out the designs and then helping to pull out all the seeds from the pumpkins. Lily was methodical and just “kept on going.” She’s our little trooper. Oscar had fun but was a bit more lackadaisical about it, but he still did work and had fun. He has learned to say things like “I’m tired. I don’t think I can do that.”

Then for Halloween night we went to the Trunk-or-Treat for the ward and that was fun. We had some pictures taken of us all in our costumes. Oscar was Peter Pan and loved it. Marlene made the costume and I am very proud of her. It looked fantastic. She received many compliments on it. She received help from some of her ward member friends and they were a blessing so she got it done on time. Sewing…I don’t want to try to do more than repair a small hole. Too hard. Or my special froggy bean bags that Grandma Scoville showed me how to make for Christmas one year when I was a youth. That was pretty fun and I made them for everyone in the family. My mom made one for our kids for Christmas one year (it is made out on M&M material. It is a family favorite). Feel free to check out these photos and more on flickr.

View Larger Map

We will have some great pictures from our trip to New York and Philadelphia. I’ve posted the map of the journey from New York to Philadelphia. We fly on a Thursday night “Red-eye” into New York City because that was the best flight. Then we are driving a rental car to Philly for my conference (we are just staying the day in Philly but I hope to see some of the historical sites (e.g., The Constitutional Congress and Liberty Bell) since Marlene has already seen them) and then we are back to NYC. We bought tickets to “Cyrano”, a play with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner, but we’ve heard that Broadway is on strike so we probably won’t be seeing that. Sad!!! We’ll have to figure something else out.

Many thanks to our parents who are going to be watching our kids for the 5 days we’re gone. This is the second time we’ve left them for this long and we’re a little nervous. Not that our parents are watching them but that Lily may decide she wants to pull her hair out more. (Any suggestions for trichotilimania – please send them our way). We are doing some behavioral interventions that have been working to help her stop, although it isn’t perfect yet. We are trying have her stop sucking her middle fingers at the same time and she just resists that part, but she hasn’t pulled her hair as much. Which is nice, because her hair is growing in and we can do little pony tails. They are so cute. I must say Lily and Oscar are very excited to see Grandma Schaefer and Grandma and Grandpa Scoville. They will miss Grandpa Schaefer and made him some cards that we’ll be sending soon. Lily said yesterday can you write “Dear Grandpa” for a card that she made. She is adorable.

Here are a few random honorable mentions from flickr.

We’ll post the pictures from back east (NY and Philly) as soon as we get back, which is just before Thanksgiving.We are headed to Delta for Thanksgiving. It will be fun to see all the family and cousins (Oscar and Lily are so excited).

Well our 2007 Scoville Family Reunion was loads of fun. We were very much involved in reading the new Harry Potter 7 book. I finished it and loved it. One of the best book series that exists.

The whole Rodger Scoville family was there. Dad and Mom. Juliette & Aaron and their children – Alex and Shaelea. JP & Mary-Ann and Max. Spencer & Jonene and Abbie, Kenzie, and Ellie. Amie and Mat. Marlene & I and Oscar and Lily. Sarah. Rachel and Josh.

The reunion was at Spencer and Jonene’s house in Richfield. We all stayed in their house and had a great time. We road lots of four wheelers. Mat & Amie and Rachel & Josh took some great pictures of us on four wheelers and bikes. We enjoyed BBQ food, Dutch oven dinner by the parents, and other good foods. The kids had a great time with all of their cousins. Lily and Ellie were unseparable. They loved each other. Shaelea and Abbie spent a lot of time together. Oscar played with all the girls and also with Alex. He enjoyed watching Alex play the video games.

Spencer and I took a nice bike ride up the side of the mountain. We played Phase 10 and watched a few movies – Casino Royale, The Holiday, and Scarlet Pimpernel.

We had a great fourth of July holiday. It started on the Saturday before when Oscar and Lily got to be in the Provo Freedom Festival’s Kid Parade. They loved it. I don’t know why we haven’t done this before. I don’t recall hearing about it in Loma Linda, however. They loved it. Here are some pictures. See the rest on Flickr.

Monday night, July 2nd we rode around town to see the farmer’s market type exhibits that were on display in downtown Provo. We rode our bikes (borrowed the neighbor’s for Marlene to ride). The kids rode in the bike trailer. It was fun. The memorable exhibit was the Crandall Historical Print Museum’s series of exhibits by the museum. Oscar and Lily had fun touching the old artifacts on display. Oscar stubbed his toe and it was bleeding so the medical staff looked at it and bandaged it up for him.

The next adventure was that I went to Loa to work for Tuesday and then came home really late on Tuesday night with the intention of leaving bright and early to arrive in Delta for the parade at 9 am. However, I didn’t wake up in time and Marlene wasn’t feeling too well. So we waited. My sister, Rachel stayed the night and we all drove down at about 10 am. I ended up driving Rachel’s car so I could do work on the way to Delta with the confidentiality that I needed since I was talking about my wilderness therapy clients and to their parents. It worked out and we went to Delta. It was fun. We played at the Main Street Park where the festivities were happening. Oscar and Lily had a good time. We then went home and the kids played in the sprinker, took naps, we bbq’d, Rachel’s friends came over, prepared for the derby and fireworks, (didn’t end up going to derby b/c kids wanted to play with grandma in the sandbox), went to and watched the fireworks, then put the kids down to bed, and lastly watched the Patriot on Turner Classic Movies. I thought it was edited but after watching it I am not so sure. The film is pretty real in its description of what happened.

Fireworks

Oscar and Lily clammered for popsicles and more popsicles throughout our visit in Delta.

We then woke up the next morning and had a good morning with the grandparents and Rachel. We got our adjustments from Dad and made our way back to Provo for the rest of the week.

Oscar and I picked up the iMac yesterday and that was pretty fun. We enjoyed the Apple store and playing with iPods and iPhones. Only one alarm went off because of us. We left and Oscar wanted to play in the sprinklers but then decided against it because he was afraid that one of the bigger kids would be mean to him. There were a lot of people there. We went to lunch and then drove home. It was fun driving him around SLC to see some of the old buildings and to see work on the new Mall’s in downtown being done. I hope that they look good when they are done.