Merry Christmas!!

on christmas morning the kids were angels and "slept in" until almost 7am! they all excitedly got the presents under their mini trees in their rooms and even gave seth his while still in his crib. kent then helped them all to build their various lego things. 

then we watched the nativity video in our room and said morning prayers before lining up in the hall =o]

seth wouldn't stay put lol

kent went downstairs and called them each one by one. it is always so fun for the anticipation to build as i hear the squeals of delight as each new kid enters the room. maybe that stems from growing up being one of the last to go in after all my siblings. good times!

jenna got frozen figurines from santa.

natalie hoping beyond hope for her christmas miracle...

WINNER! she got the american girl samantha doll and couldn't have been more thrilled about it!

caleb got a remote control r2-d2!

jenna got all things frozen! she immediately started putting elsa band aids all over her body lol

seth got a tricycle!

after opening stockings and their one present from santa we stopped for breakfast. since the world's best cinnamon rolls from costco were not available, kent got cinnabons the day before (he said it was a mad house and i was once again so grateful for a husband who will brave the crowds so i don't have to!) then kent got out a little stack of gifts and told the kids he had an important surprise for the family and that the presents we were about to open would be clues. the first clue was salt water taffy. then a hiking/camping book for utah. then a map of utah. then byu shirts for everyone... the kids didn't really get it. i mean, they were excited about the stuff but just thought maybe we were going on vacation to utah or something. so when he said that he was being transferred for work and we would be moving to utah it was pretty anticlimactic. they looked confused and asked some questions... but as the day went on they got more excited about it as we discussed all the positives. as you can see jenna was on board from the start and changed into her byu shirt on the spot =o]

the rest of the morning was filled with opening presents and playing with our new things =o] my favorite part was watching how excited the kids were to give their gifts to each other and to me and kent. it was adorable to feel their love for each other in that way. 

caleb was especially excited to give kent his present- a soccer board game!

we got to see the la verne firemen again- such a cool tradition!

and the kids had to show our kind neighbors some of their gifts.

after lunch i put poor little sicky seth down for a much needed nap and the opening of gifts continued. 

see what i mean about the frozen christmas jenna was having?

jenna got an anna doll with a matching costume. she was so ecstatic that we couldn't get the scissors out fast enough and she BIT open the box!!

she also got an elsa doll and matching costume but was able to contain herself and wait for assistance this time around =o]

the biggest surprise that kent gave to me was this glass flower decoration he had made for me on one of his business trips. it was just so unexpected and beautiful!

when seth woke up he was most like his normal smiley self for a little while. he happily played with the bows for like 20 minutes =o]

we finished opening presents (except for seth who finished the next day!) around 4 o'clock. we talked to our families and told them our exciting news about the move and they were of course thrilled for our family. it was all and all a great day!

i'll close with this picture of jenna who by the end of the day had opened every last one of her frozen band aids.