Merry Christmas! With our love!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours. May your holidays be filled with peace and love, and your New Year filled with blessings and joy.
Love,
Rodrigo, Rachel, Logan, Matthew, Ethan, Claire, and baby Emmett!

(My computer has died :-(  I hope this post looks right because I am posting from a borrowed tablet and the posting format is really strange on this thing! I'll be taking tons of pictures but I won't be posting again until I get it fixed!)

Adorableness!

I was astonished to realize this week that Emmett is now 3 months old! My goodness how time flies! I took these pictures on Wednesday afternoon. I was hoping to get a good shot for our Christmas cards this year... and yes, I do realize that pretty much everyone else has already sent out their Christmas cards and now the very day is nearly upon us. But I am a firm believer in better late than never!! ;-) I'll share the picture I chose for the cards in a few days.  

This is my favorite picture of little Emmett! He looks so happy and strong! He is such a wonderful blessing for our family. He really is a joy to have around.

 The shirt he is wearing has a special story too. It was handmade for Emmett's Daddy. When Rodrigo's mother was pregnant with him, she and her grandmother (Rodrigo's great grandmother) hand stitched these beautiful shirts for her baby. The embroidery and tiny little pin tucks are exquisite. I inherited 3 of these beautiful little shirts when Rodrigo and I were expecting our first baby and each our children has had a chance to wear them. But only for special occasions because I wold love to pass them on through the generations. Such a sweet inheritance.

 Logan humored me by posing with Emmett and even dressing up for the occasion! He is growing so quickly into a man! Every morning when he comes out of his bedroom, I think he looks even bigger than he did the night before! 

My boys... biggest and littlest. My heart is full.

The winner of my first Giveaway!

Thank you everyone! What a great time I had reading all of your comments. Everyone had such nice things to say. I always feel a bit insecure about the things I make... what if no one else likes them? What if they aren't good enough? What if I think they are pretty and nobody else does?? It is nice to hear that you thought my little Angels were as pretty as I thought they were! Does anyone else feel that way about the things they make?

That is why I haven't opened an Etsy shop.. well truthfully I have opened an Etsy shop! I did it over a year ago!! I just have never listed a single item for sale, just too nervous I guess. Which is strange, because when it comes to just about anything else in life I'm really not very insecure. Well, I have moments I'm sure, but I try not to let it get to me! But I mean what if I put all of this time, effort and expense into making some things to list on Etsy, and then nobody wants them??? Uhgg! I think I'll just go ahead and try to get something made and listed on there in January sometime. If I could get the first thing put up there, I'd probably feel much better about the whole thing. But then I'd have to decide what to make... probably a doll or two.. but what kind? and size? and what about clothes? and hair color/style... see what I mean? The making of these decisions is driving me batty!

Enough of that! On to who won my little giveaway! I used random.org to help me choose the winner and it came up with the number 10! Which happens to be Sandra who said the following in her comment:

"Oh, my...they are beautiful beyond mere words! Getting one of this angels would be a real blessing for Christmas! And yes, please, open Etsy store!"  


(Which was what got me thinking about opening an Etsy store again or rather stocking an Etsy store... since we've already been over the fact that I do have on open already!) Ha! 


So congratulations Sandra! Please email me your address so I can get your little Angel shipped out to you! Hopefully she'll arrive before Christmas!  atthebutterflyball (at) gmail.com 


Thanks again everyone! I really enjoyed hosting this little giveaway and I can't wait to do another one! 

A Choir of Angels and a Giveaway!

I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people! 

And a giveaway!

^{Luke 2: 8-14}

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 
       ¹⁴ “ Glory to God in the highest, 
      And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

I made these little angels for a swap I participated in hosted by the lovely Ms. Bloom of the blog We Bloom Here. I made them in the Waldorf tradition, using all natural materials and giving them simple faces. But since these were meant to be more for Christmas Decorations or for the Winter Nature Table I decided to add some sparkly beads to their gowns. I really do love making this type of doll. Every one is the result of a lot of hard work, but so worth it, as I think each one turns out beautifully! I love how they all look different and each seems to have her (and his) own sweet little personality! 

The little boy angel I made especially for my children. I crocheted his hair out of the same yarn I used for the girl angels. I love how soft and curly he looks. Logan (my oldest son) laughed and said his hair looks like he has an afro... he is an afro baby angel according to him! I love my afro baby angel! And Claire does too! She has not left him alone since I gave him to them. I don't think the beads on his robe will last for very long though!

Just in time for Christmas and celebrating the announcement of the birth of Jesus the Savior of mankind, I am hosting my first giveaway! I've wanted to do this for a while, at first I planned on doing it for my blog's first anniversary, then I was going to do it for my hundredth post... both of those came and went, in a flurry of living a very full life. So now this is my 137th post, about time to have this giveaway already!

This sweet little Angel doll is looking for a new home. The giveaway is open to any and all around the world! The only requirement is that you leave me a comment on this post. If you want to follow my blog, or post about the giveaway on facebook, twitter or even blog about it, that would be great, :-) but not needed to win! Only one comment per person please! Just be sure to leave me a way to contact you, if your comment is not connected to a blog. 

The winner will be selected by a random number generator on next Sunday evening December 11, 2011. I can wait!

Luke 2:15-20

¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. ¹⁷ Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. ¹⁸ And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Doing "School"

Doing "School" ~preschool style. 

We are part of a weekly homeschool co-op that gets together every Tuesday for classes. Besides having a chance to hang out with a whole group of friends for the day, the boys have music classes, and art, show and tell (public speaking) and all kinds of fun stuff. The co-op is in addition to the regular school that we do at home, you know the "important" things, like language arts, math, science...

I often take the little girls to hang out and "do school" with the preschool class. At first both Claire and Little Miss H were shy and didn't really know what to do. But now after a few weeks they really enjoy spending and hour or two in there with the bigger kids (mostly 3 and 4 year olds) while I help out where I'm needed in the co-op. 

 Little Miss H can't play with play-dough yet. She just doesn't get it! She sees all of those plastic knives and cooking utensils, and hears the other children talking about making "cookies" and food and she just tries to eat it. No matter how many times I've explained it to her that we are just pretending, she still tries to eat it. Every. Single. Time. So, I just let her play with something else while the other children play with play-dough. 

 See those adorable hair bows? They are turkeys! My mom made them for the girls last week. So cute! They got lots of compliments on their hair bows this week at co-op.

Doing "School" ~a field trip.

 On Monday afternoon I took the kids on a field trip to the Sequoya Birthplace museum. Matthew and Ethan are studying Native Americans. And Matthew needed to write a report on the first people in Tennessee.  I went to this museum as a child... it is exactly the same as it was when I was in 6th grade!

 I spent almost the entire time chasing the girls down, thankfully baby Emmett slept in his sling through it all. The boys enjoyed themselves and I think they learned quite a bit. Matthew and Ethan both chose to talk about the Indians the next day in their show and tell class at the co-op.

Forest Gnome Babies

On Thursday afternoon Rodrigo and I were talking and we decided to take the kids to the park the next day since he would have the day off. That night after the little ones were all in bed I made gnome hats for Emmett and Claire. I have one in the works for little Miss H as well, but didn't have time to finish it before we headed to the park the next day. 

For Emmett's hat I used a beautiful dark blue felted wool sweater and appliqued a little squirrel out of cream colored wool felt on one side and a pair of leaves and an acorn on other side of his hat. I then made a little running stitch with yarn around the brim of his hat and made the ties out of the same yarn braided. Claire's hat I made out of a warm fuzzy piece of dark grey polar fleece and trimmed it with bright red ric rac and appliqued a cheerful red toadstool out of wool felt on the side of it.  The ties are also made out of the same ric rac trim. 

I think the hats turned out absolutely adorably! The day was quite cold and windy and both babies' heads were kept warm and snuggly! The kids enjoyed playing in the fallen leaves, I enjoyed spotting the cute little forest gnome playing among the trees!  And the puppies also enjoyed their first trip to the park. (We got 2 English Bulldogs puppies a few weeks before Emmett was born, back when we still had 2 more foster children. So there I was, 9 months pregnant with 4 toddlers under the age of 3, three big boys to homeschool and 2 puppies to house-train while Rodrigo was at work all day... I was really really tired! Which was why I didn't post much craftiness or anything else for a few months!) 

I am hoping to post a tutorial of how to make a gnome hat like these in the next few days! It's really easy (even if you are a beginning sewer) and they are so cute! 

Linking up at Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday, The Magic Onion's Friday's Nature Table, Fabric Bows and More and Skip to My Lou's Made By You Monday, and at Crafty Moms Share.

Light Show

The boys were playing around tonight with a flashlight putting on a light show for their Dad. He grabbed the camera and took a bunch of shots of them and their homemade light show.

Light show by Ethan and Matthew, photos and editing by Ro{drigo}

Coffee with Claire

Quiet times with my girl... Claire is my earliest riser. She is up by 6:30 every single morning. So while the rest of the house is still nestled all snug in their beds (Except Daddy, who usually leaves for work by 6:30!) Claire and I get to spend about an hour alone together. This morning she asked me for a cup of coffee, "I want coffee too please." 

So what was a mama to do, but make her girl a cup of coffee! {No, I didn't really give my 23 month old a cup of coffee... I made her about an inch of hot cocoa in the bottom of a sturdy coffee mug. And sat with her at the table, in case she spilled, which she didn't.}

We talk about all sorts of things during these quiet mornings together, this girl of mine and I. Here she was telling me "I love it, my coffee." Then she giggled. We giggle a lot together, she is a very witty conversationalist.

I am so thankful for this little girl. And these moments that we spend just the two of us fill my already full heart to overflowing with happiness and gratitude.