Sevark Central

With all that we've been thru this year, and just finishing up all the hard work of getting ready for Christmas, Lexine and I felt it was time for us to take a couple day break to get some much needed Rest & Relaxation.  Nothing too extravagant, just a weekend getaway to Payson, AZ in the Majestic Mountain Inn hotel.  It's a very nice place to stay, especially this time of year when its gets cold.  We took a drive up to the rim where there was lots of snow, saw a movie (Mission Impossible 4), out to eat, etc.  It was a great time...definitely much needed and we'll have to do it again real soon!  Now, back to reality!  :-)

It was a good thing I took some time off of work this week, because Tuesday and Wednesday were completely booked days at Mayo this week.  Tuesday was my day -- the dreaded colonoscopy! :-(  And yes, I have managed to earn myself a couple new ulcers in my small intestines...the same place the last one was. :-(  Wednesday was Lexine's day, Liver ultrasound, EKG's of her hear and meeting with the Liver doctor.  No new news...still trying to figure out what she has.  We'll have to see how many more ulcer's I can get until they get her all figured out.  Until then, I'm sure enjoying that she's feeling much better and gaining some weight! I guess I better start figuring out how to take care of me, so I can be functional when she's back to normal!  :-)

Well the weeks of shopping have finally come to and end as of 3am this morning...and of course the kids were up at 5am enjoy it all!  I was surprised that they were quiet and patiently let us sleep until 6:30am when we all agreed we would get up to unwrap presents.  Christmas was wonderful for the Severtson-Clark's this year.  Santa brought all kinds of presents: bikes, trampoline, Playstation Move, 7" Android tablets for Kami & Porter, Bentley got a laptop, bikes for Garrett, Maizey, Noah and Jonah, and Caleb an electric drum set (yikes).  Lexine got me some nice shirts and vans, and I got her a couple DVD's she's been wanting (Friendly Persuasion & Anne of Green Gables).  We even managed to give the right presents to the correct kids this year!  After presents, we got going on breakfast -- Ham & Cheese Puffs and Sausage Pinwheels.  We also started on lunch of Ham and Potato Casserole for the grandparents who will come over after church for Noah's  Aaronic Priesthood ordination.  But today among many things, I'm so thankful that Lexine is doing so much better.  That's the common phrase I hear multiple times per day and I love it, "Lexine, you look great!".  Trying to cover everything while she was sick the past few months left Christmas an overwhelming and insurmountable task, but together we pulled it off one more time!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Every Christmas eve I can ever remember since I was a little boy has always been the Severtson Christmas dinner and opening presents.  As if it was just yesterday, I remember scarfing down dinner then begging Nanny (grandma Severtson), parents, uncle's & aunt's to hurry so we could open presents.  Now, the next generation of Severtson grandkids are the ones anxiously begging us to open the presents.  This years we had Christmas at JuLee & Darren's home.  It's always great to see everyone and to exchange gifts.  Grandma & Grandpa Severtson supplied steaks for the dinner's main course, and the rest of the family brought side dishes and desserts. All the usual suspects were there...all of us with our kids, Linda, Karen, Gary, Ryan's brother...but this year we also had the pleasure of having William attend with us -- William was a student of JuLee's many years ago that some how we've reconnected with. It was great to see him and the grandkids all gathered around for his autograph since he's going professional with his boxing career next year. We stuffed ourselves, then opened presents and departed so we could all get our individual family Christmas's prepared.  Next year I owe something real nice to all my brother's & sister's who all gave gifts to each of us siblings -- except for me who some how missed the memo (oops!).  :-)  So much going on this year some how I missed it!  Oh well, "its better to receive than to give" -- as my version of the saying goes...  :-D

Each year the Glasgow's (Lexine's family) get together for a huge Christmas party!  This year it was held at the Tri-Stake center on Christmas Eve morning.  Lots of family and friends in attendance.  The event kicked off with a very nice potluck breakfast, then played the "get to know ya" game since the family is so large not everybody knows each other.  Next moved into one of the rooms where there was a talent show and nativity -- Noah & Caleb represented our family's talents by playing Jingle Bells on their trumpet & tromebone, but there were also many others who shared their amazing singing and musical instrument talents.  Grandma Glasgow followed by sharing some of her impressions of the next year and talked about setting goals.  Last but not least was the white-elephant gift exchange.  The kids loved this game which started out with everyone receiving a present, then handing it around the circle a couple times until nobody knew whose they got.  Then we all opened them and sought others who wanted to make a trade. It was a great time seeing everyone and getting to be together as a family at this special time of year.  Below are just a couple pictures of our family at the event, but you can click here to see all the pictures Lexine took of the party.

Porter is one of those rare-species of kids who don't show much emotion, but when he does he goes all out!  Bentley caught on film for the first time ever is Porter expressing his excitement to have a break from school and for the soon-to-come Christmas day!  Enjoy these pictures while you can...you might not see this much emotion from Porter until his wedding day!!  ;-)  Love ya buzz!

Hopefully we didn't miss too many people with our Christmas cards this year.  Lexine did such a great job designing it, ordering them, reordering more when we ran out, and all the sending/delivering of them -- no small task at all.  We've been reminded this year that when you both have lost spouses, the result is four wonderful families that you are a part of...not just two any longer.  Lexine started recording all the addresses in a book, so hopefully next year will be even easier.  Regardless, if we failed to send you one or it got lost in the mail...please let us know -- it was not intentional, we've just had so much going on the past few months.  Regardless, here it is as well!

Noah's 12th birthday was this week.  He was only 10 when our families came together.  Now he'll be made a deacon, join the 12 year old boy scout troop and officially be our 5th kid in mutual again (we dropped down to 4 kids in mutual when Kami started going to the single's ward).
Noah has a birthday party with friends at the Gilbert Recreation Center where they all climbed the rock walls and played wall ball -- and had a great time crank-calling members of the ward as we drover there and back.  :-)  Then today on his birthday we opened up his presents -- NCAA 12 Football video game, iTunes Gift Card, ASU pillow pet, and more -- then took him out to dinner at BJ's Brewery.  On Sunday we'll have all the grandma and grandpa's over to be part of his priesthood ordination to be a deacon (performed by Grandpa Clark), then home for a luncheon!  Happy 12th Birthday Noah!!

Noah also had an awards ceremony for the end-of-the-semester.  Noah performed playing his trumpet in the band as well as received a Perfect Attendance Award for not missing a day yet this year.  Way to go Noah!

Caleb's 5th Grade end-of-semester awards assembly was today.  He got to play in the band for the event, as well as receive a couple awards:  Honor Role and Perfect Attendance!  Keep up the great work Caleb!!

Finally...this has seemed like the longest flag football season ever with everything we had going on the last few months. But the boys did did great, improved and had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately we lost our first two games in the double-elimination tournament, but the boys snagged a lot of flags and Noah scored our only touchdown of the two games we played.  This was a great team with Bro. Eberhard (from church) as their coach.  All in all, this season they ran a lot of yards, pulled a lot of flags and even scored several touchdowns.  Caleb was the high scorer on the team this season with 4 touchdowns, Noah scored 2 and Jonah didn't get a lot of opportunities since he was so much younger than the others, but even he almost made several touchdowns...so close!  Now to figure out what sport to get them in next...it may be time to build their confidence in something else, perhaps basketball!  We'll have to see.  Below are a couple end of season pictures and you can also {click here} to view a wonderful collection of pictures taken by one of the parents on their team.  Great job Noah, Caleb and Jonah...you did your best and had a lot of fun doing it!!

"Band of Brothers" or "Brothers in Band"...  :-) This evening was Noah and Caleb's band Christmas concert.  Noah started playing the trumpet this year and Caleb the trombone.  They performed at the Queen Creen High School Performing Arts Center.  Both of them did great...they're getting pretty good!  They're final number was  "Up on the house top" and the sixth grades played their part standing in the isles of the audience with the 5th graders on the stage.  Below are a couple pictures and video of each of their performances.  Great job guys!!

Having four families has it perks with always some party or activity going on...but it also has its challenges because there always seems to be a conflict with something else.  We always try to do our best to attend as much as we can.  Tonight was our Stake Christmas Concert that Bentley sang in and spent many hours practicing for, as well as the annual Reed Christmas Party.  So Lexine and I tag-teamed...she, Maizey and Grandma Glasgow went to see Bentley sing in the Stake Concert, while I took Kami and all the boys to the Christmas party.  Lexine said the concert was amazing and Bentley's choir was wonderful -- I'm really proud of Bentley for being a part of such an uplifting and spiritual event. The Christmas Party was fun...Grandma Reed told stories of her getting to go see Grandpa during World War II, just before he was sent overseas.  Then we ate snacks and Santa made a visit.  It was a wonderful evening for all of us...

Tonight we decided to catch a family movie with as many of the kids who were at home (Kami had to work, Bentley babysitting, and Noah had a birthday party...so we brought Trevor with us).  Grandpa Severtson made the screens for this theater, so they gave him some free tickets which he passed on to us.  Its a new concept...where you eat dinner while you watch the movie, which is why you see the seat trays in front of us.  Pretty neat idea actually...we had nachos and french fries while we watched "Hugo" (which I thought was a fairly good movie).  We had a great evening together as a family!

Caleb's had an exciting week...not only did he win his class spelling bee, but he also had his big country research project and presentation due!  So this morning I took a break and went to watch him as he presented his country Norway to his class.  He prepared a great poster board (below) with the help of me, Lexine and Maizey.  Kami helped him make a great Norwegian treat called Lefsa -- which is kinda like a pancake with butter, cinnamon and sugur.  Then we also dressed him up the best we could like the traditional Norwegians did.  He did an excellent job with his presentation and spoke loud and clear.  He told all the kids that he picked Norway because that's where some of his ancestors came from and his last name tells he's from there as well.  Then shared information about the country and their holiday traditions and finished up with a game where he would tell them a Norwegian word, and the class would have to tell him the english word for it.  I was sure proud of how well he did...great job Caleb!!