Sevark Central

At noon today we got to talk to Kami! She is doing great and looks as happy as ever!  It was so nice talking to here...it almost felt like she had never gone, but its so hard to believe that she'll be home within 8 months (only 5 transfers left).  It was such a wonderful time, only an hour then it was her companion's turn to call home. I didn't want to hang up and I hated saying goodbye for another few months until Mother's day, but we love getting her letters every week! We got a couple video clips below of her wishing Grandmas & Grandpa a Merry Christmas and bearing her testimony in Spanish. What a great example you are to us Hermana Kambo -- we love and miss you!

Around midnight, when we thought all the kids were fast asleep, Lexine and I got up and started putting presents around the Christmas tree.  Lexine had to set the out just perfect as she does every year -- silly girl!  :-)  Then this morning around 5:45am we started hearing kids waking up and running to look over the stair rail to see all the present.  Lots of excitement -- next they were in our room trying to get us up too!  Garrett was naughty and turned on our light to wake us up -- he's so big now we don't dare spank him!  :-)  For the next hour we spent opening presents.  2014 is the year for Bentley & Porter to go on missions -- so you know what they got for Christmas:  Luggage & Digital Cameras.  Porter, Garrett & Jonah got Android tablets.  Maizey got her iPhone she's been wanting. And Noah, Caleb & Jonah go Freedompop phones (free service plan phones) that didn't come in even though we ordered them a month early!  It was a great morning and hard to believe this was our 4th Christmas together as a bigger family!  Merry Christmas!!

This evening was the Severtson Christmas party - this year at our house! Severtson Christmas Eve get-togethers have been a tradition for as long as I can remember -- ever since I could remember Christmas.  It was a lot of fun having everyone over (but missed Gary, and Lee & Tiesha who had the Adam's Family party this year).  Great food and lots of presents!  It was nice getting to see everyone!

We've been richly blessed with so many friends and family -- hopefully everyone received our Christmas card this year.  But here it is again just in case.  We've had the most amazing 2013 and looking forward to an exciting 2014 with Bentley & Porter planning to leave on their missions!  Merry Christmas everyone!!

This morning we got up fairly early to get Garrett to his 9:20am appointment to have his wisdom teeth removed.  He was our fourth kid this year to get his wisdom teeth out, at least now he doesn't have to worry about it in preparation for his mission!  He did great though...really fast and not too loopy!  :-) Good job buddy!

Bentley has been busy will school finishing up and working at Cafe Zupas..but if she thought things were going to slow down at all, she was wrong!  Her plans were to reduce her school hours next semester so she could work more, but in the interim, the ward is going to keep her busy.  She now has not one, not two, but three callings -- yes, three callings!  She's been a primary teacher which she'll continue to serve as, but now she's also been called as a youth family history consultant on top of that.  But in addition, she's also been called to help fill in for the next month with the Sister missionaries in our ward.  One of them just received their visa and is finally leaving to her mission in New Zealand...so that will leave one of the sister's alone until the next transfer.  So Bentley will get some great experience to help prepare her for her mission in just a few month!  Fun times for Bentley...great job, we're proud of you!

Today is Noah's 14th birthday!  He's been awaiting this day for the past month...checking the mail for cards, figuring out what he wanted as his presents and deciding where he wants to go for his birthday dinner!  Now the time has finally arrived!  On Friday evening, he had about 15 of his friends over for his party -- they had pizza,played Capture the Flag and other games, then opened presents. Today on his actual birthday, we had Grandma & Grandpa Clark, Porter and Grandma Glasgow come over -- then I guess I forgot to invite Grandma & Grandpa Severtson (oops).  :-)  Grandpa Clark ordained Noah a Teacher in the Aaronic Pristhood, then it was home one of Noah's favorite meals -- Poppyseed Chicken Cassarole!  Afterwards we watched family videos and Noah open his presents.  He got some new Nike skater shoes and sports socks -- plus cards from the grandparents.  It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon.  Tomorrow we'll take him out to Texas Roadhouse where he's chosen to go for his Birthday dinner.  It'll be a fun couple of days for him...Happy Birthday Noah!

Maizey did it...she's been working hard to complete her Young Women's award before the end of the year and she did!  Today she was called up in Church as the Bishop recognized her great accomplishment and said some very nice things about her.  Maizey is a wonderful young woman and has grown a lot as she's worked thru the various requirements of the award over the past few year.  Great job Maizey, we're sure proud of you!

With me preparing to leave Motorola, Lexine and I decided to purchase a new smaller home that we will rent out to provide some income for when I leave.  We were able to get a fairly good deal on it, so hopefully it will prove to be a good investment.  Its right near the new plant Apple just purchased near Signal Butte & Elliot, so hopefully that will help as well.  The home is in fairly good condition, just needs some painting...so we've been paying the kids to help us get it ready. Hopefully it was a good decision!  :-)

Its that time of year again, all kinds of Christmas parties and get togethers!  This morning was the Glasgow Christmas party at our house.  We got up early and all the kids did their jobs to make the house presentable after Noah's birthday party last night.  Then around 9:30am, family members started showing up!  It was a breakfast, so we had just about every kind of breakfast item you could think of -- from hash browns to Egg McMuffins, donuts, breakfast burritos, etc.  Everyone was nice and stuff after gorging themselves.  Then it was off to the Nativity and talent show!  Our boys contributed to the talent show this year.  Jonah, Caleb, Noah & Porter each played a musical number on the piano as their talent.  Then it was once again time for Grandma's counsel to the family and to hand out her "special" candy canes with money wrapped around them!  :-)  We had a wonderful time -- its great to have so much family to celebrate the Christmas season with!

Jonah's end of quarter awards assembly today.  Unfortunately we were unable to go as we closed on our new little rental property at that exact time.  But we wished we could have been there and he came home having received two great awards -- Honor Roll and Student of the Month!  Jonah is a great kid -- always willing to help out and friendly to everyone!  Great job Jo!

Jonah's Christmas band concert was this evening!  Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend as I was in flight back home from Chicago, but Lexine told me all about it.  Jonah is the first chair trumpet player, so he got to sit right on the end where it was easy to video him playing.  He even got to perform a small solo part during the concert.  He's sure getting good and enjoys playing the trumpet!  Great job Jonah!

This morning was Noah & Caleb's awards banquet breakfast for cross-country.  They had a great season and did their best -- which is all that matters.  Both of them worked hard and improved, even though they both were sick at some point during the season which really took its toll on them.  They were recognized for their great effort and for being part of the team.  Great job guys, we're proud of you!

Today Caleb spoke in Church!  Surprisingly he spoke on Charity -- the topic Garrett was supposed to speak on last Sunday, but he confused it with "Chastity", so they changed it to "Service" -- Caleb got to give the Charity talk today.  :-)  He did great...he spoke with confidence and even looked up several times rather than just look down at his written talk the entire time.  He even gave a funny story at the beginning that I don't think many people heard since it was very noisy right after the sacrament today for some reason, but here it is:



He spoke for almost 9 minutes which also met the requirement for his Public Speaking merit badge that he's been trying to complete.  Great job today Caleb, we sure are proud of you!

Its not been a lot of fun for Jonah these past couple weeks...first he unexpectedly gets braces, then to top it off, he has to get two teeth pulled!  Well, at least he got to get out of school for a couple hours, but still no fun!  :-(

Garrett spoke in church today… Again! It's funny, but for some reason Garrett has spoken in church five times already and he's not even 16 yet! Poor Caleb has been trying to speak in church for over a year now to finish a merit badge, but for some reason they never call him even when he asks. :-) Garrett did a great job though, confident and starting to sound like a future missionary. His talk was originally on charity, but he had forgotten the topic and started to write his talk on chastity. Imagine how tough that would be, a youth giving a talk to the congregation on chastity. :-) I think he would've done a great job with that topic as well though… Anyway, after confirming with the bishopric he ended up giving a great talk on service. Good job buddy… I'm sure proud of you!

He did it!  His studying spelling words all week paid off today when Caleb received 2nd place in Newell Barney Jr. High School's Spelling Bee!! It wasn't easy and I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the entire time as he correctly spelled word after word.  But in the end he missed the word 'ensuant' -- spelling it with an 'i' rather than rather than an 'e'.  But he did great and received a nice certificate and trophy!  Now he also gets to go to the District Spelling Bee in January!  Great job Caleb...you definitely have Mom's spelling talent...I'm sure proud of you!

Tonight Lexine held her very first piano  recital with all her students and their parents. She did amazing as you would have guessed! It was a Christmas theme, so lots of different Christmas tunes by each of her students. She had them get up one by one and play their pieces and then at the end sure their name and age. It was a great evening to have so many people in our home! Great job babe… I'm sure proud to be married to you!