After watching Toy Story 3 last night I had difficult time leaving Oscar at soccer camp. I can’t believe how old he is getting. I ran in to an old friend today at camp – Jenny Ogden (Cannon). That was nice to catch up and talk. It was also fun to have seen quite a few old acquaintances during the 4th of July Festivities in Delta.

Oscar will have fun I think. I hope. The coaches seemed pretty great. The men’s and women’s BYU soccer coaches were running the camp and many of the soccer players for both teams were the coaches.

Oscar invited friends over for his birthday party last weekend and had a great time. Grandma Scoville, Aunt Sarah, and Spencer and Jonene and the girls came as well. We had a lot of fun. Oscar had a great time.

The Darth Vader pinata to light saber relay racing to Luke, Luke, Vader (Marlene’s idea for Duck, Duck, Goose). We had lots of fun with the girls and boys that came. Thanks for making it a special day for Oscar.

This pictures was taken awhile back but I think it is great. We bought a bike for Oscar from Wal-Mart the week after we moved into our new house. We bought the bike but he wanted to ride his bike as soon as possible. So since we now live only about 4/5 blocks from Wal-Mart, I got to walk home with Oscar as he rode his bike. He loved it. We passed lots and lots of puncture weeds.  They don’t help your tires; but we made it home without a flat and he loved the bike.

I tried to get him to buy a Mongoose bike with pegs but he didn’t want it. He wanted the Huffy that his best friend from Provo had. We got his choice. Underneath it all, the price was better so I didn’t fight it. I said okay and he loves biking around since then. He has been riding and riding around our driveway and up-and-down the sidewalk in front of our house and the neighbors. He is so happy. I love seeing the kids happy. He is beginning to love the neighborhood and it is so great.

I miss the family already and its only been an hour since I dropped them off at the airport. I hope they fly and drive safe to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Roseburg.

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.