In the last post I said that we were painting the outside of our house (is that a nesting project or what?). That decided, now it's on to the colors. Right now our house is a faded, ugly blue with light yellowish-tanish brick. My sister and I went over samples for far too long and picked out a couple favorites that were mellow, neutral tans. Then we compared it to our neighbors house, and unless we want one of those matchy-matchy neighborhoods, we decided to go another direction. We settled on two colors, Dusty Miller (Glidden) and Shady Willow (Behr). Here's what the colors look like on the Home Depot website:

But that's not at all what they look like in real life. Unless your computer monitor is better than ours and since ours is about ten years old, it probably is. The Dusty Miller is a light greenish-gray and the Shady Willow is a medium tint sage green. Farris picked up some samples ($2 for an 8 oz can is a bargain to see how the paint is actually going to look on your house) and I painted about five spots with the two colors. Whoa. The Dusty Miller almost completes blends into our blue house. Ummmm, I thought is was supposed to be a green color? and the Shady Willow is pretty...but I don't want to be the house that people drive by and say "Wow, that color is just a bit off." Or worse. The third option would be something like this:

This is Something-Something Suede (just make up a name that sounds suede-y) and I like it with our yellow brick, but it is a lot like our neighbor's house color.

As you can see, we need help. Feel free to walk around our house and vote on your favorite color. Depending on what we decide for the main color, we'll paint our trim, doors, and shutters, a contrasting color, right now we're thinking black or a deep, deep brown. And if it ever stops raining and we finally decide on a color, we'll be able to paint our house. Hurrah! Then on to the rest of the nesting projects. Hmmm, take down the shower doors, a mantel for the fireplace, built in book shelves around the fireplace, beadboard ceilings in the bedrooms, new paint color in our bedroom and family room... this could take awhile. Maybe I'll just settle for the paint.

Good news all around!

The first good news is that it is Easter! What could be better news that our Savior lives and lives still and we will be forgiven and live again because of Him! I need a good Southern Baptist Choir behind me. Or Mo-Tab, we enjoy them around here. I am grateful for the gospel and the Truths we have in our lives.

Good news #2: My nephew Tanner got his mission call! The first grandkid on my side to go, and the oldest in his family, so we were all hanging on the last couple weeks trying to guess where he was going. It's a little more high tech now, the Stake President e-mails everything to Salt Lake, then they e-mail back to him when it is getting mailed out so you can get a pretty good guess on what day it will show up. It came to his house on tuesday or wednesday this week and Tarilynn managed to keep herself from steaming it open until Friday when Tanner got home to open it himself. I guessed Scotland, but his mom and dad were praying for a stateside location, they apparently hold more sway because he's going to Cleveland Ohio. Tarilynn was singing "Cleveland Rocks" from the Drew Carey Show, and Tanner didn't know who Drew Carey was (you know, that guy on the Price is Right, the one without the fake tan). Hmmm, feeling old. His mission covers Kirtland, which will be really cool. Rob went to Independence Missouri and served around Adam-Ondi-Omen (How do you spell that?) and Liberty Jail and lots of other Church history sites, so it'll be cool for Tanner to be around the Kirtland Temple. We also spent time trying to remember the tune for that Erie Canal song, I guess we'll have to google it. We had stake conference this weekend and they had all the people who just came home or were leaving soon on missions come up to the front and tell where they were going. All those wonderful enthusiastic young kids! I am so proud of Tanner, how he is excited to spend two years of his life for others and for his Heavenly Father, and how glad I am that he kept himself clean to go and that he's such a good person. I'll stop blubbering now and I won't even tell about how I used to change his diapers. Well, I don't think I ever did anyway.

Other fun news is that Cindi had her baby! Little Shailey was born on August 21st. Her due date was April 7th, but that's ok, Cindi got through Sam's wedding! When one of my other nieces was born late it was said that it was because she wanted to get her hair done before she was introduced to everyone. Is that your excuse, Shailey? She has cute curly dark hair, so there you go. Congrats Cindi, Scott, Tennessee, Addi, and Parker! Can't wait to meet the sweet bundle!

Other good news? Hmmmm, we're painting the outside of our home, very excited because I've lived in the Ugly Blue House for the last four years. We're going to try a couple samples to see what looks good and then paint away! Well, I'll paint as much as my waddling allows. 21 weeks, and I'm already huge. Also, I finished the kids' crayon rolls for Easter so they could take them to our Stake Conference today. Yes, I try to bribe my way through Stake conference because two hours sitting on a church bench for the kids is pure torture. We didn't do too bad today, I had to lead Joseph out during the closing song, which is really pretty good. Seth went out earlier, but he made it past his regular time of "want to go to class now." And he didn't throw his socks or shoes, just his bow tie and it didn't go far. Ohhhh, I love Stake Conference, but my favorite meeting hands down is the adult meeting, I can hear a lot more of it. Our stake president told about how he was visiting his sister's family one weekend long ago, and when they left he counted out seven noses that should belong to his kids, they all got in the car and were cruising home when he found out he was one daughter less than he should have and one niece more than he should have. All the kids were promptly grounded until they were 40 and never allowed to get drivers licenses. His point? Don't go through life just counting noses. Remember what is really important and who in your life is really important. I know some days I get in bed and I think, "well, at least I fed my children today." It's hard to get beyond the keeping everything pristine ('cause that happens everyday--sarcasm implied), feeding everyone enough fruits and vegetables to satisfy the food pyramid, and doing all I can for my callings, plus all the other stuff that for some reason seems so important. When I can forget all that, and sit down and snuggle with the kids or play games with them or read stories to them, I feel cleaner at the end of the day, if you get my drift. And it doesn't happen as much as it should. Anyway, all around a good stake conference with good reminders of things I need to concentrate on.

Happy Easter everyone! Count those "good news" things in your life!

Updates and Announcing...

Whew! A lot has happened since I last posted, which is the reason I haven't posted for awhile. So just quick updates:

#1. This is the pattern that Felicity picked out for her dress (see & sew #B5443, it's a Butterick pattern, and we bought it at Joann's). It's the three tiered one, but we added sleeves, made it a little longer and then added some shimmery tulle for a ruffle on the bottom. Instead of a ribbon around the waist, we used the tulle and made a gathered sash. She picked out a pretty purple satin for the fabric. I liked it...but it's a lot of ironing! She'll only wear that dress for special occasions, I'm thinking.

#2. Sam and Kolleen's wedding and receptions were beautiful. Everything was simple, and the colors, deep purple and teal, looked great together. The sealing in the Idaho Falls temple was wonderful, what's better than the spirit you feel at a temple sealing? Nothing like it.

#3 After the receptions were all done, we spent a day and a half at my parents house, how much fun can my kids have at Grandma and Grandpa's house with cousins everywhere? If we're judging by noise level, an awful lot.

And on to the Announcement! (Yes, I'm changing the color of this post for a reason)

Yesterday we went to get an ultrasound of Little Baby Caboose. Again, I'm amazed at all the things they can check to make sure the baby is growing properly. Heavens, I can barely see a foot or a hand most of the time. We were looking at the stomach (the tech said) when Joseph declared that he could see the baby's eye. Everything is growing well and looking good (again, the tech said, I couldn't tell anything) and she's healthy, so glad. The night before I had a dream it was a boy, but I've posted about how I've been wrong with each baby, so I shouldn't have been surprised that the kicker is a girl! I would have been happy either way, I'm excited for my two Bookend Girls. And now I'm planning: baby quilt, clothes (I want to try some of those baby legs, they're adorable), shoes, hair things, and all that ruffly stuff I've been denied for eight years! Have to admit, I'm not usually all for pink--with Felicity I stuck with green and yellow as much as our slim college budget would allow, but there are some cute pink things I've seen lately--and ruffles--but there are some tasteful ruffly things out there. Not to worry, floral prints are still way, way low on my list. But I'm excited to experiment with all the girly baby things. Not toooooo girly, but girly enough.

Farris wasn't able to come to the ultrasound because of work. This is the only one he has missed, and I have to say I was a little bummed out about it, but I understood, he'd just taken four days off work right before graduation. So we stopped at a grocery store on the way to his office and picked out two pink balloons and two blue balloons (then Joseph stuck an orange balloon in his mouth and we ended up getting that one, too. Stinker) so we could make Farris choose which one he thought it was. Of course, he pulled Joseph to the side as soon as we asked him to guess:

Farris: "Hey Joseph, will you tell me if it's a boy or a girl?"

Joseph "NO!!"

Farris: "OK, can you tell me if it's a boy?"

Joseph: "No, it's not a boy."

Amazingly enough, Farris guessed correctly on the first try. I should have had the ultrasound tech. tell the kids it was twins, just to surprise them all.

So now we're finishing up Spring Break by the "Semi-Annual Changing of the Clothes to Match the New Season" going through clothes fun. And finishing laundry. And a girls night with just Felicity (ice cream, strawberries, Tangled, and a little sewing). And catching up on the cleaning that was neglected while working on Felicty's dress and the boy's bow ties (they turned out way cute, by the way. That tutorial I linked to a couple posts ago was very easy, I might have to do it again). Maybe a park trip and a library trip? And of course staying in pjs until late in the day. I love Spring Break!