Sevark Central

Here we are on the brink of another new year...2016!  I remember in 3rd grade talking with some of my friends that we would be 30 years old when it was the year 2000!  That seemed so far away and here we are now in 2016 and I'm much older than 30.  :-)  But today was a lot of fun...we let everyone go home from work after lunch to get ready for the celebrations.  Lexine and I on the other hand had to be at Schnepf farms for our volunteer assignment to get ready for the Stake New Years Eve party.  We pulled pork and setup the serving areas from 2pm before everyone started to arriving at 4pm.  Our boys had been playing video games and watching football on TV non-stop for days on end, so we had them all come join in the preparations as well.  At 4pm, we had Grandma & Grandpa Clark join us along with Grandma Glasgow for some of the festivities.  Grandma Glasgow is quite adventurous and attempted at least one of the rides -- the swing ride, but then we all joined her on the train ride which was more of our pace and speed.  Of course the boys were bored, so we told them they could leave around 4:30pm and going continue being video game & football bums if they would go help Kirk & Keta unload their Uhaul as they began their moving -- surprisingly, the boys jumped at that opportunity and were off!  The rest of us hung around the party until it started to get dark and cold, then we went home and lit off our own fireworks.  I think this was the first year ever that we were in best on New Years Eve by about 10:30pm.  I'm starting to develop old person habits!  Regardless, it was a great evening and I'm excited to see what 2016 has in store for our family!  

Rod loved snow and water skiing. We had Rods snow ski's in the attic of the Abby house. When it come up for rent again, we took them home. Today Noah found them and tried them out. Though we are missing the boots, they look pretty good on him! :) Rod would have been so proud! He wanted to teach our kids these sports that he loved so much. Noah will get to go skiing with the priest in January, so we'll see if he finds a new love for the sport.

We love being able to go to the temple as a family. So with it being Christmas break we decided to go. Nothing's better than being in the house of the Lord with your children. I can wait for the day when they all have gone through for their own endowments.

What a fun day after Christmas to be with family and play in the snow!  Originally we were going to head to the cabin on Christmas day, but due to talking to Bentley & Porter on their missions, we didn't get done until later in the afternoon, so we decided to leave today.  That worked out perfect because Tim & Kami were able to go with us as well.  It was a lot of fun, we had Tim & Kami, Noah, Jonah and Caleb join us and we drove up and back in the very same day.  We left by 7am getting to the cabin around 9:30 and it was snowing heavily that the roads were caked with snow.  But we made it safely.  Not more than a few minutes after getting there, the boys were already throwing on any snow clothes they could find to get out in the fun...so we all decided to join them!  Lots of sledding, snow angels, snow balls, snow men, etc...until we were too cold to take it any longer and came in to rest and enjoy hot chocolate.  By 2pm it was looking like more snow was in the forecast, so we packed up and headed back home.  Caleb was a little bummed about heading home so soon, but lucky for him JuLee & Darren invited him to hang out with Jake for another night, which opened up a little more room for our drive home.  The roads were much nicer on our way back which made the ride quick and smooth.  What an awesome day for family fun in the snow!

We got to talk to Porter as well on Christmas day from Buenos Aires, Argentina!  He's doing great and is sure happy as you can see in the pictures below.  We couldn't believe it, because Porter talked...a lot!  He just kept talking on and on, telling us about things on his mission and asking about the kids.  It wasn't the Porter we remember from before his mission who never really said much.  This Porter was interested in each and every kid, asking them about how things were going in school, etc.  It was fun to talk and hear him.  I love seeing the man and wonderful missionary had has become! He just finished training one missionary and must have done a great job, because his trainee was now called to train and Porter was called to finish training yet another missionary -- his mission president must sure have a lot of confidence in Porter.  But he's still the same Porter in many ways...his mission president's wife posted this picture of him on the mission facebook page making a face at their Christmas party.  He must sure be comfortable there in the mission!  You're doing awesome Porter, we sure loved getting to talk to you...keep it up the great work!!

We've ejoyed having Tim over at our house a lot lately! He fits right in with all of us and the kids adore him. His parents gave us a new game for Christmas. I'm not sure what it's really called, but it involved corks and beans, so that is how it got its name. It was so much fun to play with and the great thing is LOTS of people can play at the same time, so it's perfect for our family of 10.

Christmas day again...wow, this is our family's 6th Christmas together...where has the time gone, and also the presents!  Each year it seems the kids want smaller, more expensive presents, so they have gotten few and fewer and there's been a lot less around the tree, to where it seemed we didn't have that much this year.  But what we did have, the kids seemed to love -- they better have, because they picked them out!  :-)  It was a fun time though...we decided we we all wake up around 7am and open the presents, but at 5:30am when I got up to sneak Lexine's present to the tree, Noah was already up waiting...by 6:30am everyone was trying to get us up.  It was a fun morning though ...Lexine got a Chandalier from me that she's been wanting, Kami got a bunch of Work and Glory series books and and an iPad, Garrett got mission luggage and a camera, Maizey got her iPhone 6, Noah got his clothes and Madden video game, Caleb got the new bike he's been wanting, and Jonah got his iPhone 5c -- the boys got their Playstation 4 they've been begging for!  It was a fun morning to receive gifts, but also to remember the gift of the Savior on this special day that we celebrate his birth.  We're excited to talk to Bentley & Porter soon!

What a wonderful evening at the Severtson Christmas party that was at JuLee's house this year.  But there was another special surprise and announcement that showed up just about half way into the party.  Kami & Tim came and announced their engagement!    They looked so happy together.

I guess Tim had originally planned to propose to her at the party itself, but being a wise man and already getting to know the Severtson side of Kami (and Cindy's side) that doesn't like attracting a lot of attention, he decided to do it at the Gilbert temple instead.  They were there the evening before with all Tim's brothers taking a picture of all of them holding their missionary name tags now that the youngest has returned from his mission.  Very cool idea!  So Tim told Kami that one of his brothers left something there and they needed to go find it.  When they got there, Kami said Tim kept looking around acting like he was trying to find something, then when the moment was right, he turned to Kami and said, he wasn't really there to find something, then asked her to marry him.  Of course Kami said "yes" and he then presented to her Cindy's ring -- which he had gotten from me the day before...he had asked if he could give it to her since it has significant sentimental meaning to her.  The only problem, it only fit on her pinky finger as you can see in the pic below!  :-)

Afterwards they came to the party.  Kami had texted me and told me to start telling everyone -- again because she didn't want to attract the attention.  I told her I could not...it would make me cry -- which it was already doing just thinking about it.  I've become such a babe and it gets even worse at times like these when I just think of how much Cindy would have wanted to be there in that moment and how excited she would have been -- I'm sure she was thrilled, oh how I wish I could see her.  But it was even more sentimental to me because that was the ring I gave her, that she proudly wore throughout her life, only to be removed from her finger just because her casket closed as the kids and I said our last goodbyes and the kids each put in a letter & family picture. Boy those are hard memories, even to think of them now...but I couldn't be happier for a wonderful, amazing daughter who is so well prepared to be a mother herself, just like the mother whose ring she now wears.  I sure love you Kambo...

December 24th evening is the Severtson traditional family Christmas party and gift exchange.  Its what each one of us kids grew up so excited for and what has not turned into the exciting highlight for all the grandkids as well!  It was a fun evening with lots of excitement -- especially from Kami & Tim, which you can read about in the next Blog post, but a fun time to spend with all the cousins.  I didn't know it, but this year mom & dad provided steaks for everyone and kirk was at the grill working his magical cooking skills on them.  Betsy chopped off the tip of her finger with the grater preparing her chipotle sweet potatoes which were yummy -- so she was in a lot of pain later on that evening.  But all in all, it was a great time to visit with Nick, Linda and Karen and all the Severtson crew...although we missed Gary being there this year.  It was a wonderful Christmas Eve evening...

Tonight is the Glasgow Christmas party. It was our families turn to do the nativity this year, so that made Toby MC for the night. We had a yummy dinner of ham and potatoes. We had a talent show. One person had to performs from each of my siblings families. Jonah performed "Oh Holy Night" on the piano. After that we had the nativity. Luckily Kami and her "really good friend" Tim were there. We had them be Mary and Jospeh. Maziey was an angel and the boys were shepards and wise men. Grandma Glasgow handed out her famous gifts of money rolled on candy canes. It was a nice night being with family and being reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. 

I love this tradition of making gingerbread house for FHE. They don't always turn out that great, but the kids has a fun time doing it. Tonight we had 2 extra kids join us. Calebs friend Cade and Kami's "really" good friend Tim. We also delivered Christmas cards to our ward. We all split up and took different route! Divide and conquer! Love this time of year!

Love going to see the temple light every year. Since Toby and I grew up very close to the Mesa temple, it's always been a tradition. We have both carried that on with our families. It's amazing to see and I love the addition of the navaities from around the world.  

Well, today we were finally all able to get together to celebrate our Familyversary! It's been over a month, but that's okay. We've all been real busy. We went to Chilis to have lunch! It was nice to be able to go out together as a family and to think of how blessed we've been since becoming a family.

Lexine and I had the privilege of going to Hong Kong for me to attend CineAsia and meet several customers there.  This was the first time for Lexine to experience Asia and that she did.  We spent a good part of Saturday and Sunday on tour buses seeing the beautiful scenery and busy city!  We rode the subway everywhere and even went to Disneyland there.  It was a blast of a trip, but my favorite part was simply going to church at a local Cantonese ward there and then going through the temple the night before we left.  Such a wonderful peaceful spirit in these places compared to the hustle and bustle of the busy city life.  The conference went well also and I was able to accomplish my mission there seeing the customers I came to visit and more...  It was a great trip!