our tiny kitchen while i try to make dinner dancing around these babes.  several other rooms in this apartment they could be in right now, all of them considerable bigger than this kitchen.  And yet here they all are.

With the emotional ups and downs of pregnancy and just life in general being a girl, I'm very glad to say that I've recently identified an outlet I have that I never realized made me feel so good.

this is an unfinished map of the US, hand sewn (while I had myself a Downton Abbey marathon).  i still need to add Hawaii and Alaska, as they are two states that are actually important to our family.

we had some very large extra pillows from our couch that we didn't use, so i made these patchwork pillowcases, one for audrey and one for hannah to sit on for this "learning time" we sometimes do.  they love them! they always make me feel so good.

original picture

this painting of hannah has taken a long time and i still don't feel like it's really done yet, but i'm pretty proud of it.  my friend beth helped me do most of it and taught me sooo much about oil paints and techniques.  i'm hoping to get around to doing one of each of the kids...someday someday.

the credit for this one goes to my cousin natalie- all i did was stick the giant sticker on a piece of paper i liked and put it in the frame.  she has made several of these for friends and as gifts and she is very talented at what she does.  i love the way this looks in our living room and what it tells our kids about the temple.

andrew and i did this one together- he built it and i painted it.  it was such a fun project and we love how it turned out. thank you pinterest!  i look at it every day and think of home.

So in case you haven't heard yet let me just tell you I got a sewing machine for Christmas!!  I assume you've already heard because I've been telling everybody.  Don't think now that I'm a super good sewer (seamstress?  sewer?) or have any ambitions of becoming one.  But please DO know that I am having fun owning my very own sewing machine!  And that is what a hobby is for, right?  Being happy!  

My friend Kaylee is helping me make onesie dresses for my girls and I am loving it!  I'm making matching dresses for the girls and one extra dress for Audrey (because the white onesies we could find at the store only came in packs of three).  Turns out I really enjoy sewing....who knew?  Not me.  I feel like my hobbies are getting more and more 'little house on the prairie-esque' as I go along in stay-at-home-mom life.  My role model is Janet King from the show Avonlea when it used to be her daughter Felicity.  Now when I watch movies and shows I pay particular attention to what the homes look like, the furniture, the decorations, where things are kept, thinking about what things I like about it and want to be a part of my home.  Oh my goodness I can't wait to have a house!  That is dream on my mind these days.  I used to dream about leaving home and being on my own, then I dreamed about my future husband and wedding, then I dreamed about my kids and life as a stay-at-home-mom.  Now that I've realized all of these dreams it feels like the only thing left to dream about is my own home now!  When I get to that point I'm going to need to find something new to daydream about.  Someday I'll be dreaming about my kid's weddings, my grandkids, and a mission.  That's the thing about life though, isn't it?  There's always something coming next!

Anyway, here are some pictures of my onesie dress project.  I love working on it so much.  I'm so proud of myself for it, I feel like a little kid bringing home an art project to show my mom.  So here it is, Mom!

onesie from walmart

two cute fabrics from joanns.  this ones for audrey's own dress.

this ones for the matching dresses

cut

sew

gather

pin

this onesie we already had for hannah and it came with the bows on the sleeves.  it was so perfect!