Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Cold Weather=Crafts

I have always been a child of the wonderful season of winter. I was born on a cold winter day in December. If you ask anyone in my family, they will say that I've always loved cozy weather; comfy sweats, hot chocolate, blazing fires, and soft blankets. I love snuggle weather. I love cold, dreary days. I even converted my hubby into a winter child.

Don't get me wrong I love the other seasons too; seeing everything come alive in spring; lazy summer days at the lake (I'm also a fish when it comes to water, just ask my mom!) and my second favorite season fall, with it's crisp colors and excitement that comes with that time of year. But winter will always have a special place in my heart. I've just always loved winter...

until I had kids...or more specifically, until my first child reached toddler-hood. Now, I know, we live in Texas and very rarely get real "winter weather." It rarely snows and is still fairly warm in December. But the last month or so it has been either rainy or too cold to go outside. And even trips to the store or play area have been limited because I don't really want to get little Rowynn out much. And my outside-loving, born in the summer, rough-in-tough darling girl longs for warmer weather. She LOVES to be outside. And it breaks my heart to have to tell her it's too cold. Especially when she doesn't really understand why all of a sudden she can't play outside. All in all though, she's handled it pretty well. Much better than her stir crazy momma!

So we've decided to combat our cabin fever with some fun crafts. And we are getting out more, we are a family that loves to be out and about!

Anyway, here are some fun crafty things we've done. I'm not a crafty person at all. Well, not an original crafty person. So me an idea, and I can recreate it. Show I've scoured blogs, and pestered fellow mommas for some fun activities!

I cut out some cars from some foam paper and made a pretend car wash for Finley. She used markers to make the cars dirty and then she cleaned them! Water and cleaning, two of her favorite things...and no I didn't come up with this on my on. I found it here.

As you can see, it was a big hit!



My sweet friend Maile, who blogs here, sent a bunch of fun poems and we turned them into crafts and have them displayed around the house.


There's one about the sun. I let Finley paint (yellow and orange) two paper plates and then I placed card stock triangles int between the plates and stapled. We attached our poem about the sun.
Now it brightens up our play room.

We also made a cloud. I let Finley tear up some tissue paper and glue it to some card stock. We then glued cotton balls to make our cloud:

There's one about colors that I just changed the font color and printed out. And one about a rainbow that I attached to a outline of a rainbow and let Finley use glue and glitter to decorate. And one about water that I put on the mirror in her bathroom.


And then we put this one above her bed. She loves to hear it every night. And if we forget, she points to it!


I love having little poems around the house for us to say together. They're short, fun, and teach her all about God's wonderful creations. We've also started learning scripture together. She repeats it after me, word by word. It's so important to lay a solid, biblical foundation when they're young.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
                                                  -Proverbs 22:6

Some other fun craft projects:

We made an igloo. Basically I let Finley cover an entire piece of blue construction paper with white labels. And then I cut out a shape of an igloo and glued it to some bright blue card stock. For detailed instructions go here.

We also made a salt snowman. Easy-peasy. I drew a snowman and had Finley "paint" it with glue and then she covered it with salt. Oh and small tip, I reused a spice container for this and all glitter-involved crafts. I can control how much glitter or salt goes into the container and then she can sprinkle it without dumping the entire container of glitter. Live and Learn! Although we did sprinkle some glitter over us and fly around the house! Messy, but hey, they're only young once!

And then we made a butterfly! Probably gonna do some more and use them for decorations at her Eric Carle-themed birthday party!

So while I can't wait until warmer weather so we can play outside, I am enjoying winter weather once again, snug inside, crafting the day away!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Well, Hello 2011!

I can't believe that 2010 is already over...how did that happen? Where did that year go???

Here are some highlights of 2010:

10. Play groups with some awesome mommas and neat kiddos

9. Watching my sister graduate with her nursing degree in May. I'm so proud of you Stacy!

8. Celebrating a year of Finley! Our girl turned One in June and took her first steps! Thank you God for giving her to us. She is such a joy and I'm amazed at how much she's grown this year...I love that she loves to pray and I pray that as soon as she realizes she's a sinner, that she will ask Jesus into her heart.

7. Celebrating 4 years of marriage in March with my sweet husband and having a kid-free weekend! I sure do love that man of mine. No one can make me laugh like he does!

6. Watching Finley enjoy this Christmas season, celebrating Rowynn's first Christmas, it was such a precious time! My prayer for them is to know that Jesus is the true mening of Christmas and that they will seek to honor Him. Spending time with our amazing family and awesome friends and having some down time to just relax!

5. Finding out in January that we would be adding to our family with baby #2! What an aweome/surprising way to kick off 2010!

 4. Loving my husband more each day, watching Finley go from a baby to a toddler, and seeing Rowynn's personality develop.

3.Enjoying the beauty of spring and all that goes with that: parks, picnincs, and rainstorms; lazy summer days spent splashing with my girl, dancing in the living room with my family, and spending the fourth of July at the lake; crisp fall days at home with my precious girls; and snuggling with my hunny on cold winter nights.

2. WELCOMING OUR SECOND PRECIOUS BABY...ROWYNN FATIH DAVIS ON SEPTEMBER 27!!!! Thank you JESUS for another bundle of joy!

1. Experiencing God's love and grace through it all!


So another year has come and gone. Hard to believe. I'm trying to enjoy this time, because it is fleeting and flying by oh so fast. Thank you Lord for this year! I'm so thankful for all the giggles that flow freely at the simplest things from my two girls. I'm thankful for our health and for Kyle's job. I'm thankful for our home and for our church. I'm thankful to all the friends and family who cooked meals, sent notes, and bought gifts when we welcomed sweet Rowynn into our home. I'm thankful that I get to be married to my best friend, someone who makes me laugh, is so kind and self-less, is loving, fun, and dances with me in the middle of our living room. I thankful that God shows me grace every second of every day. I'm thankful that I'm forgiven, and that I know where I'm spending eternity. I'm thankful that Jesus loves me fiercely.
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Here's how we rang in the New Year at the Davis house:


We ate Chocolate Chip Pancakes...well Kyle & I did..Finley preferred blueberries!


We enjoyed sweet gigles


We were gross at Subway....


We popped confetti poppers


We tooted our own horns



We did a winter art project that I found here.





And we LOVED every minute of it!





HAPPY 2011!!!

MAY THIS YEAR BE FULL OF LOVE, JOY & LAUGHTER.
THANK YOU SWEET JESUS FOR ANOTHER YEAR.