Yuna & Asher

My brother and his family were visiting over Christmas which under normal circumstances would mean a million photos of my favorite sister-in-law (on my side ;) and favorite half-Japanese niece. But poor Yaya was horribly sick the entire time and Yuna wasn't feeling great either. We loved having them, germs and all. My heart only broke a little each time Yuna refuses to come to me. I think a trip up to Utah is in the future so Yuna can get to know her Aunt Margie.

Christmas 2011

Christmas was nearly a week ago and I've hardly had the energy to post about it. In the past week we bid farewell to my brother and his family, got sick, got better, watched lots of episodes of Downton Abbey and played hours (yes hours) of Super Mario Brothers on the Wii both with the kids and without them. What? I was sick. And that game is super fun and nostalgic.

Christmas this year was nice and low key. My kids are at an age where you don't have to get them much for it to be THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER. Booker's favorite gift this year was a mini lego figure sticker book and Ike really liked his dollar store light up stick. Go figure. As usual, Clark got me the perfect gift (more on that soon) and I got him... a pair of pants. Man, I suck. No matter what I try to do, he always outdoes me. It's good that his birthday is one week after Christmas so I can try to redeem myself.

Here are pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.


A shepherd and an innkeeper.












Reading Santa's note.








Doesn't every baby own a Santa suit?




Booker and Ike are THRILLED that Asher finally got a pillow pet. Life without a pillow pet? It's unimaginable. 

Early Christmas with Grandpa G.

This is mostly just a photo dump. My grandpa is at a point in his life where I need to be taking more photos of him and keeping them handy. Yesterday my siblings (all but one) and I gathered in Phoenix to spend the day together and do an early Christmas. Ordering dominos pizza is the same as making Christmas dinner, right? We also hit up the railroad park in the afternoon.






Amara wasn't digging the carousal.






Booker and Ike chose to ride in the cattle car for some odd reason.



 
Asher hung out with me and his great-grandpa.




Check out that bed-head. Yikes.


Ike fighting the bad guys.














Yuna and her anime smiles.






Attempts at a cousin shot...


...were not so successful.




Cutest hat ever, thanks Marie! 

Christmas Yearbook 2011

I've griped before about the pressure to come up with something brilliant for the annual Christmas Yearbook that Clark's family does and honestly, I didn't think anything was going to top last year's patent for our family. But I think I did it. I poured every ounce of creativity into this year's pages and I'm D-O-N-E. Next year, I'm slapping a picture on a piece of paper with our names and ages. If we have any additions to our family, maybe I'll include that too. But that's it.

So since Facebook played such a prominent role in facilitating the start of the Arab Spring back in early 2011 and since the Arab Spring played such a prominent role in our lives back in early 2011, we thought it would be appropriate to make Facebook pages for each member of our family. We present the Proffitt Family Facebook Pages of 2011. Click to enlarge.

Ho ho ho!

The other night my friend Carly texted me and wanted to know how I got my kids to look so good (as in not ridiculous) in a photo. I had to tell her the truth. I'd be doing a disservice to parents of little kids by allowing them to believe that this was a "real" moment in time. This is what I call a Frankenstein photo- five faces pieced together from four different shots. Seriously, boys? We couldn't all face the same direction and smile not make fart faces at the same time for one shot? Thank you, Photoshop.

If you didn't get a card from us, it's probably because you hurt my feelings by giving me some back-handed compliment about the bowling ball-esque nature of my baby's head. Just kidding(ish). More likely, if you didn't get a card from us it's because I couldn't figure out how much postage to put on the envelope to make sure it got to Caracas or Konstanz or Taipei or Katmandu. True story, true story, true story and YES true story. Man, my family is well-travelled. Most likely though, if you didn't get a card from us it's because Facebook doesn't list addresses and I couldn't be bothered or bold enough to track yours down. I wish you a Merry Christmas anyways! 

Christmas Pinning

Have you heard of Pinterest? No, you haven't? It might be because you are male. Or because you have important things to get done. I'll break it down for you- Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can share ideas you find on the web and organize those ideas. You create collections of things you like and want to remember, things like crafts, recipes, cleaning tips, quotes, etc. It can be a whole lot of fun.... until you decide to go on a diet. In one afternoon, I saw recipe pins for oreos covered in cookie dough and an apple pie crust made from flattened cinnamon rolls. It's exactly that type of food insanity that forced me to take a Pinterest hiatus, at least until I'm done dieting. But not before I completed some Christmas pin projects...

First up, a Christmas card wreath. Idea found here.

I guess I was a little optimistic and made three wreaths instead of just one. Come on, folks! Christmas is in two weeks, get those cards in the mail so my wreath doesn't look so bare.
Materials needed- an embroidery hoop, clothespins, ribbon and a hot glue gun. Level of ease- pretty easy.

Next up, pencil monogram for a teacher appreciation gift. Idea found here, here and here, this one's all over Pinterest.

(Responsible parents do things like obscure the name of their kid's teacher on the interwebs, right? Sure.)
Materials needed- a shadow box (Michael's has buy one get one free right now), fabric or scrapbook paper (I used fabric), pencils, pencil sharpener, word strips (from the Dollar Store) and a hot glue gun. Level of ease- somewhat difficult but totally doable, especially if you have a husband who is willing to help saw pencils.

This one isn't really a project but I found the image on Pinterest so it sort of counts, right?

I used the free artwork found here to make Christmas gifts. You can download high resolution images of various LDS temples at that site. Print them, frame them, make a beer cozy. Or in my case, use this site to create ornaments for your tree.

Lastly, Elf on the Shelf ideas found here.

This one is sort of a Pinterest project fail is you ask me. The idea is that your mischievous little Elf gets into things while you're asleep at night. In this case, he's supposed to be taking a bubble bath in the sink. Except I only had half a bag of stale marshmallows in my pantry. The boys didn't care, they thought it was it hilarious.

What Pinterest projects have you been up to this holiday season?