west wing tour

outside the oval office, overlooking rose garden

we made it through a white house west wing tour today -- so now shane says the baby can come any time. ;) i think he was just nervous that my water would break while we were scoping out the oval office and he'd be blacklisted from ever working near the white house again.

i wasn't sure i'd be up to the task after the past few days of being so sick but everything went much better than i imagined. it probably didn't hurt that it was simply a gorgeous spring day -- complete with blue skies, sunshine and a pleasant breeze.

here are just a few pics of our adventure. sadly, the one i was most excited about (me posing with a cnn microphone) didn't really turn out.

new podium and backdrop (all redone since i was here last time with actual press credentials)

chillin' in the white house press seats

the due date...

...came and went. it's actually quite the blessing -- for reasons i won't explain here and now i wasn't quite ready to go into labor. somehow i think little baby larsen knew that.

so, now we wait. not too anxiously, just because we know he'll be here soon enough. in fact, the midwife yesterday said he's totally in position and i really just need to relax and keep hydrated so that my body can be ready to go when the time is right.

any guesses on his size, weight and birth date? i won't weigh in yet myself just because i don't want to skew the numbers but it would be fun to see if anyone gets it just right.

nesting

shane: i think you are nesting.

ivy: oh yeah? what makes you think that?

shane: you want to spend $8 on peach branches.

ivy: okay, maybe so. but if that's the case, i think you are getting off easy.

thus, my feeble attempt to recreate the easter tree i saw in pottery barn.

happy birthday, chad

march sure is a big month for birthdays in the sellers family. my brother chad turned the big 1-9 on friday. his mission papers are in so he's just waiting for a big envelope to come in the mail.

thanks for constantly cracking me up, chad. i'm so excited for all that you will learn and do on your mission. you will grow so much and i can't wait to hear all about it. love you!

lds church goes youtube

a couple of weeks ago shane and i logged onto lds.org and were quite excited to see that the church is now hosting a youtube page with official "mormon messages" posted to balance out the misleading anti-mormon videos constantly drifting across the internet.

messages like this one from president hinckley are truly inspiring:

little indulgences

confession: "tummy rub oil" and other products from mama mio have become my little indulgences over the past several months. the oil and "tummy rub butter," are part of my daily routine. not only do the products have the most soothing smell (especially the oil), they really do appear to increase skin elasticity and have saved me from the dreaded belly itch. i'll definitely be turning to more of mam mio's products to aid my recovery after baby larsen arrives.

in fact, i've liked the products so much that i've already picked up a third to get me through the next several months -- after all, who doesn't need help defying gravity?

happy birthday, chels

i'm a little late in getting this up but i wanted to let chelsea know how grateful i am to have her as a sister. i didn't always show that gratitude growing up (we shared a room for years and definitely didn't always do the "sharing" part very well) but i sure am glad to have her in my life.

happy birthday, sis. wish you were still on the east coast so we could see each other more often.