Lily and I were playing around with the Disney.com iPhone App. This was one of our creations.

Lily and Oscar went to a Pirate party on Saturday. Oscar was off to the races and I didn’t get a picture but Lily waited and I got a shot of her in her dress. Isn’t she lovely? Reminds me of the Stevie Wonder song. Marlene introduced this song to me. It is beautiful.

This has been a great week. We loved Conference weekend. There were several talks that really struck me and inspired me. I loved the Priesthood session. I was able to attend with my father, a friend from the ward and a friend of his came along as well. I loved President Uchtdorf, President Eyring, and President Monson’s talks. I also enjoyed hearing Elder Bednar’s talk on Sunday (improving our prayers to be more meaningful and effective).

The kids and I took a walk around the neighborhood and took some pictures. Here are some photos we took at an old LDS meetinghouse. I’ve wanted to take pictures for awhile. It is on 500 West 200 North in Provo. It is now Discover Academy (a school for troubled youth — I think). Anyone else know?

Mom and Dad came up for Saturday afternoon and evening so that Dad could come to the session with me. It was nice. I enjoyed having him there. Maybe we’ll be lucky and I’ll get the privilege of having Dad and Oscar with me at the same time; however, I don’t think that will be likely since Oscar is only 5 years old.

We bought some bunk beds this weekend and we started to paint them. We’ll have to show some pictures. The person we bought them had painted them halfway from red to white. It looked funny so we decided to paint them all white. Which is taking a few layers of paint. I think maybe one more good paint job. I did another this morning but I think we need one more. It will be nice to have them up. I know Oscar and Lily are excited about having them up (hopefully Oscar doesn’t fall from the top bunk too much).

Other news from the week: we are planning our trip to Disneyland for April 25th to May 2nd. We are going with Marlene’s mom and it should be a great time. I hope that Rachel can get away and come with us. Also we are looking forward to the Scoville Family Reunion in Richfield. We should plan a day of fishing or hiking as family. I know Marlene doesn’t want us (guys) to be gone exclusively on the 4-wheelers and (the ladies) get to watch the kids.

I am almost done with classes here at the Y. My last semester. I am excited. I still have to finish these classes, my comps, my dissertation prospectus and defense and then hopefully officially graduate in April 2009.

I am thinking that we’ll be staying around here for the next year doing my internship. If things can be arranged to work for one of the companies I worked for last summer I think I’ll be staying here.

Henry has passed his 2 month checkup. He is growing and happy. Here are some nice little pictures of him. Oscar and Lily love him (to death) almost. Or least he needs lots of space when they are around smothering him with loves, kisses and hugs. Big H (Henry) is a whopping 12 pounds and 6.5 ounces and 23 inches long. He is a beast compared to our two other kids when they were 2 months old. I’ll have to find some pictures and put them up.

Oscar at around 2 months. He looks so skinny. Marlene will have to comment and tell us his weight and height as I can’t find it and can’t remember. He was 6 lbs 11 ounces when he was born and 19.5 inches long. Then at the two month check-up he was 8 lbs and 21 inches long. Big difference.

Lily seemed to be health and okay at this time, but she also was born 6 pounds 9 ounces. (Mar found from our baby book for her that she was 12 pounds 6 ounces and 22 inches long). Wow! Just about identical to Big H. We’re hoping the trend continues well after the 3 month that he continues to gain.

The weight for both Oscar and Lily normalized and stabilized over time and now they seem to fit in with their peers, but their is so much pressure when they are young to make sure they are growing and developing in weight and height as they should.

In MFT School News:

I presented two posters at a BYU Research Conference, Mary Lou Fulton Mentored Student Research Conference last week. It went well. I’ll link my posters here.

Perceived and Used Work Flexibility and Work-Family Fit: Personal, Workplace, and Marriage-Family Vitality Outcomes

Costs of Treating Anxiety Disorders: A Structural Equation Model for Individual versus Conjoint Therapies

Let me know if you have any feedback.

Dr. Crane just sent his to me. How many kids can you take on? If you so dare, you can see how many you kids you’d fight.
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And I haven’t even mentioned it but what about the NCAA Final Four games last Saturday. Total surprise by both teams that lost. I thought North Carolina and UCLA would win and play much better. I hope that Memphis plays well tonight.

**Note at 10pm (Memphis almost won in regulation. I thought they had it, but Kansas tied the game and won in overtime. Excellent game. Proof: That it’s not over until the fat lady sings (or in-other-words, until the buzzer sounds). Never give up. Persistence.

We’ve been enjoying Eli Stone, especially since Lost hasn’t been on the air for a few weeks. You can watch many of the episodes for Eli Stone at the ABC website that I linked above. You can also see all the episodes of Lost at the above link from all 4 seasons, thus far.

We had a great day yesterday with friends and family. Henry was blessed in church. It was great to have my father, Rodger Scoville, my brother Spencer, my brother-in-law Aaron, and Brother Chris Pelissie assist me as I gave him a name and a blessing.

Those that attended from our family: Grandpa Rodger and Grandma Mary Scoville; Uncle Aaron, Aunt Juliette, Alex, and Shaelea; Uncle Spencer, Aunt Jonene, Abbie, Kenzie, and Ella Scoville; Aunt Sarah Scoville; Aunt Rachel Scoville. It was wonderful to have them all there. Many from the ward are friends that we wanted to be there as well.

I was happy to see that our friends and neighbors were blessing their baby girl, Cadence (I hope I spelled this right), as well

Henry was a good boy as we blessed him. He was dressed in the little outfit that Oscar wore for his blessing, although Oscar was smaller. Henry filled it out nicely and wore it more like shorts than pants like Oscar.

Many indicated that the blessing was “nice” and “beautiful”. Marlene took notes that we’ll have to write down in his journal for him. I enjoyed giving the blessing and loved having my dad next to me in the circle. I feel that I am bit long-winded and slow when giving blessings and I felt bad for Dad, but he said that he was happy to be there to assist in blessing Henry.

We are trying to decide what the best thing to do for our internship is (do we go out-of-state or do we stay here so that we can be close to my parents and family). Because we don’t know how much time we have left with my dad and I want my kids to have the opportunities to be around him as much as possible.

I must confess that it is sad to see Dad in pain and we hope that he is feeling better soon; I don’t know if it is the chemotherapy that is having the biggest effect or if it the actual pain from the pancreatic cancer.

I want my parents to know how much I love and appreciate them and their concern for us and children. They have been a standard of truth and an example to follow for the rest of our lives. I hope that our kids can remember always the example that their grandparents on both sides of the family have left for them.

We took some pictures but I haven’t posted them on flickr yet. I’ll update the blog when we have the pictures available to see.

We missed having JP, Mary Ann, Max, and Ian there but glad to know that they made it safely to Delta on Sunday evening. Marlene and the kids are actually in Delta and having a great time with the family there. Maybe Jonene and the girls will be coming over. I’m sure that they are having fun and that my parents love having them there. Oscar and Lily love going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. There is so much room to run-around and play in. It wears them down. We need to get into a house that is larger than what we have. We’ve been waiting for the warmer weather to appear and happy that it has come and Oscar and Lily get to play outside a lot. They love it. They have been asking to jump on the Black’s trampoline all winter long. “Daddy, can you jump on the tramp with us?” My response: “No, Lily, there is a foot of snow on the tramp. We’ll get soaked.” “Why, Daddy? Let’s go jump on the tramp.”

Another great quote from Lily. “Dad, what are you eating?” “Gum, Lily.” “Mmm. Can I have some of your gum, Daddy?” How can I say no. Although it isn’t too sanitary to share already chewed up gum. What do I do? I give her a little from my mouth and she says. “Mmmm. Thanks, Daddy.”

Oscar’s quote of the week: “Daddy, can you play with me this morning?” He asks this about every morning. He is a great kid and loves to learn. He has so much energy. I wish I could just bottle it and put it into an energy drink so that I could use some of his energy. I love him so much. He makes me so happy. He has been enthusiastic about his gifts from his birthday, washable Cars markers and coloring laminated coloring sheets and Spider-man coloring book and marker brushes. He can color and draw for hours on end.

We’ve had a great week. Henry Rodger Scoville was born just over a week ago on Saturday. We have had a great week. My parents were here until Monday taking care of Oscar and Lily until we got home from the hospital. Then Grandma Schaefer arrived and we had nice week with her helping us out (especially with Henry and the kids). I really appreciate all the help that she was to us this last week. Henry was really good but the other kids were a bit stressed about the new arrival. We’ve taken some great pictures. Check them out on Flickr.

Here are few.

I also took Lily to a Disney’s Princess Party (it was supposed to have breakfast and play) but the play was cancelled; regardless, Lily loved it. Here are a couple pictures of her.

I took the kids out on Saturday. I don’t remember where but these were some great shots of the two of them.

I know that many have felt that we were jumping the gun, but Marlene has had many days of contractions and we’re still without a baby at home. Arghh. We are excited that Lily and Oscar are still very excited to have the baby come. We’ll continue to keep you posted. We’re now coming on 2 weeks before the due date (we’ve been 2 weeks early with both Oscar and Lily). Maybe he/she just wants to come when on time. Wow! What a newsflash. Both of the kids have been getting a little nervous, probably because we are about the upcoming change and what that will mean to them.

This week has been fun. We’ve been to two BYU Basketball games this week. Mar didn’t come to the first one. Lily yells out “Go BIU” of course meaning “Go BYU.” Oscar wants to wear his BYU cap to bed everynight. He loves it. He also liked Navy blue clothes. He wants to play BYU all the time (football, basketball, soccer). Oscar and Lily said tonight that they too wanted to BYU Cougar fans for the rest of their lives. Oscar also said “I like BYU more than I like the Wisconsin (meaning Green Bay Packers).” Oscar had attached to Brett Farve and the Packers and wanted them to win. We were able to watch two Saturday Playoff games a few weeks back and he loved the colors (yellow and green).

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.