Sevark Central

Let the fun begin!!  Summer is here and we just returned from our family camping trip.  For the first week of summer, both Kami and Bentley are going on separate trips to see their aunts.  Kami is going with Grandma and Grandpa Porter to see Holly in South Dakota, while Bentley is flying on her own to visit aunt Jen in San Diego.  I know they'll both have a great time.  They both return next Monday...we'll miss them!

In addition to Kami & Bentley, we also have Caleb & Jonah who have Primary Softball this week and then all three of the youngest boys begin Basketball Camp at Queen Creek High School for the next two weeks.  Lots going on in the Sevark home!!  :-)

Rarely is there ever a lite-day at our house, and today was NOT one of them.  :-)  This Memorial day we woke up to 6am to do scout flags, Kami went hiking, Lexine and I cleaned out the garage, picked-up Caleb & Jonah from Micah's, nice visit with the neighbors, weekly chores, lunch, went to see Avenger's Movie (which was awesome by the way), then to take a little time to visit & remember Rod & Cindy's graves at the cemetery, pizzas for dinner, picked-up flags, got a few things at Walmart, then finally home, prayers and now to bed.  I'm exhausted!  :-)

This weekend we decided to go camping!  We had been planning this trip for several months. Originally we had all kinds of friends and brothers/sisters who were planning to come,  but in the end it turned out just to be our family, Danny and his kids (while Micah stayed at home with new baby Cody), and uncle Kirk's family showed up.  It was probably a good thing not too many came because the Kehl Springs campground was packed and we were only able to get two camping spots.  In addition, the weather was a little cooler than normal in the valley this weekend, which made it cold and windy in the mountains!  But that didn't stop us from having a great time as you can see in the pictures below!

We left immediately after the last day of school on Thursday (which was a half-day).  Kami had to work, so she came up with Bentley and Maizey on Friday morning.  By Friday evening they were ready to go home.  :-)  On Saturday, we sat around the campfire and froze which made kids want to go home even more.  By mid morning, a white suburban pulled up with an old trailer -- I said, that looks like my uncle Kirk.  As they drove by, they noticed us as well -- luckily they did, otherwise they would not have been able to find a camping spot.  Later in the afternoon, we took naps and froze more, then finally told the kids that they could go home if they wanted.  All of them wanted to except for Caleb & Jonah, so we told them if they could get the van packed up by 5pm, then they could leave (so they would get home before dark) -- you've never seen kids pack up so fast -- we'll have to remember that tactic in the future!  :-)

Caleb, Jonah, Lexine and I stayed another night which was really nice -- very cold (below freezing), but still nice & peaceful!  We drove up to General Springs cabin that evening and almost got ourselves stuck on the steep, rugged road.  We ended up finally having Lexine and the boys walk up the road while I gunned it in the truck, barely making it to the top...whew!!  The next morning we slept in, taking our taking packing and enjoyed a nice quiet drive home!  It was a great family trip!

Report card time again!  That's an exciting time at our house because the kids know they get paid for good grades.  $5 for each A, $2 for each B, $0 for a C, -$2 for a D, and you lose the entire pot if you get an F...and a $5 bonus if you get all A's!  :-)  Its one of our motivators for the kids to work hard and do their best.  This quarter both Porter and Caleb got straight A's, so they each got $35!  Maizey & Jonah were almost there with all A's and only one B, and Garrett only had two B's with the rest A's, but all the kids did awesome!  You all are awesome!

The end of the school year is a crazy busy time with all the activities that go one, but one of the events I always like to go to is the awards assemblies to see the kids get honored for the great achievements and accomplishments throughout the year.  This year was the year for Maizey, Caleb and Jonah -- who all three did some pretty great things!  Maizey received awards for Honor Roll, Language Arts & FACTS.  Caleb received 4 awards for PE Student of the Quarter, Principal's List, Honor Roll all year and Perfect Attendance.  And Jonah got 2 awards...honor roll and a national PE award. Great work guys -- your hard work is being recognized!

I should have sensed something was going to happen when I received a voice message from a member of the high counsel in my old stake -- but I decided to call him back to make sure he realized that I had moved out of the stake over a year ago.  However, he already knew that I had moved out and then he said, "Your name has been recommended and we would like to ask your and your wife to speak August 12 at the area single adult fireside which get together every couple months from 5 or 6 stakes".  Gasp!  :-) The topic which we've been assigned is Doctrine & Covenants 6:36 -- "doubt not, fear not".  I'm excited for the opportunity since I feel I've been richly blessed through the challenges of the past few years and am more than grateful to share our stories of how we continued to move forward.  My only issue is, now I just have to figure out how to contain my emotions whenever I talk about Cindy. Not going to be easy...  We've got a couple months to get prepared...guess we better get started sooner than later!!

For the past month or two, Bentley have Maizey have been participating in the Queen Creek Parks play "Anne of Green Gables".  And would you believe that Maizey was chosen to play Anne, and Bentley as Murilla.  Well, they've been practicing and memorizing their lines for a while now, but last night and this afternoon that all came to a close as it was time to perform it!  They did wonderful -- quite the actresses!  Grandma Glasgow and Grandma Porter came out to watch them perform with us today, as well as Noah, Caleb & Jonah.  I guess we'll have to wait and see where their acting careers go from here -- Great job Girls!!

Its the end of the school year and time for all the year-end assemblies and concerts.  Porter, Noah & Caleb all had band concerts Monday night and tonight that I had to miss due to having to be in Chicago this week for work.  Lexine said the boys did great!  Porter's high school band joined with the orchestra and played an amazing rendition of Phantom of the Opera.  Noah was unsure whether or not he wanted to do band next year, but his 6th grade band joined with Newell Barney's Junior High band -- I guess he really like the band teacher because he came home wanting to switch his classes immediately so he can take band next year. And Caleb had a speaking part tonight where he introduced one of the pieces of music they played.  They all did fantastic...its amazing to watch how good they are getting!  Good going guys...we're proud of how you're magnifying your talents!!

Bentley & Porter's 2nd prom of the school year -- Mormon Prom!  This is a church prom that many of the congregations of the area participate in for the kids to have a nice and inexpensive time -- and a second chance to wear their expensive prom attire!  They had an absolute blast...starting their day out with a nice San Tan Mountain hike, then later in the afternoon/evening taking the pictures below, dinner at Serano's, then some time socializing and dancing at the prom banquet.  They returned home pretty excited about their day.  I guess Bentley wasn't feeling so great after the big dinner and ended up throwing-up at the prom -- but then felt much better after that thank goodness!  All-in-all we're just glad they had a good time and were with with other great kids!  You guys are awesome!

Finally a new bed for us! We've been getting things little-by-little for the kids and home, so today Lexine and I went out to look for beds for the boys, and came back with -- a new bed for us!  :-)  We couldn't find anything we liked for the boys, but we found one we really liked for us and it seemed like a descent deal so we bought it.  Its about time, we've been sleeping in our piece-meal bed for the past year and a half.  It will be delivered on Wednesday!  Guess we better keep looking for beds for the boys now...  ;-)

Today was the boy's flag football tournament and very last game of the season!  They played better than ever before!  They were versing one of the better teams in the league.  Noah played quarterback most of the game and both Caleb & Jonah scored touchdowns.  But it just wasn't enough to beat the other team.  They beat us by 2 points...14 to 12.  They did their best and made a lot of progress this season.  Caleb  & Jonah should be back next season...while Noah will be off to Junior High school -- yikes we're getting old!  Great season guys!!

I've mentioned before how much I love when teachers send home "family projects"...fun <sarcasm>! But hopefully this is the very last project Caleb had to bring home.  This time he did most of it himself...thank-goodness, but I do know that Lexine helped him out quite a bit as well while I was in San Francisco this week.  His project was on Apolo Ohno...and he had to dress like him as well (thus the headband, medals and roller blades).  :-)  He did really good researching his topic and dressing the part.  I didn't get to see him present to his teacher, but he said he did really good -- guess we'll see how well he did once his grade posts!  But he's done...5 major projects this year!  Great work Caleb!!

As of tonight Garrett is officially an Eagle scout!  All those hours of work have finally paid off and he's finished! Tonight he had his Eagle board of review which he passed, so it is official...next step is his court of honor in a few weeks.  I couldn't be more proud of him for this great accomplishment and I know Cindy is beaming every bit as proud of him as she was Porter when he received his. Afterwards we went to Cold Stone Creamery (Ice Cream Shop) as a family...Garrett of course got the largest!  I was a nice way to celebrate his hard work as a family. Great job Garrett --you're a great example!  And I'm one proud Papa of his two Eagle scout sons...3 more to go!

One of the many amazing things about Bentley is her mad design and graphic abilities.  Even though she attended Queen Creek High School this year, her influence at Desert Ridge holds strong.  Last year she outlined and designed their 2011-2012 yearbook, so today she went to the signing party to see her finished product!  She found that she is even mentioned as "Editor in Spirit" which was really nice of them to remember her and her work.  Below you can see the picture of he with Mr. Hern who was her Yearbook teacher, along with some fellow yearbookers...  What a wonderful, talented young woman Bentley is...and what a great start to a possible future career!  :-)

The boys had their final flag football game of the season before their tournament next week and believe it or not they finally won a game!  They did great with all 3 of them scoring at least something.  Noah and Caleb haven't had too many opportunities to score this season since they've been playing Quarterback most of the time.  But this game Noah scored both a touchdown and the extra point, Caleb scored a touchdown, and Jonah scored an extra point.  They obviously came home as excited as could be...must more so than all their previous games that they lost this season.  This is possibly the very last time these three boys get to play on the same team together...at least until high school...Noah is now 12 and too old to play another season with them, so guess next time it will be just Caleb & Jonah -- but both of them say they want to try a different sport this time.  Caleb wants to give Soccer another try and Jonah wants to try baseball!  :-)  We'll have to see...but until then, Great job boys!!!