Hobo In The Dumpster

You know, a couple of months ago Bryce and I were convinced that there was a homeless person who took refuge in the dumpster behind our apartment at night. There were many reasons we believed there was a hobo in the dumpster. The first being that we heard strange sounds coming from behind our apartment at night. Now, Bryce's work schedule is a little different. During school he's working part time as a package handler at UPS. For this job Bryce goes into work anywhere between 3 and 4 in the morning and he returns after 8 am. So, Bryce leaves for work pretty much in the middle of the night and he noticed that whenever he left for work the dumpster lid would be closed (probably for protection from the cold; although I don't know anyone who would be able to survive the smell) and when he returned from work the lid would once again be open. Bryce also reported that he heard strange sounds coming from the dumpster on these early morning commutes.

Bryce wasn't the only one hearing strange noises, though. One morning after Bryce had left for work and I had gone back to sleep, I was awoken by what sounded like someone whisking something in our kitchen. I was frightened by the sound, but I was also half asleep. Soon the sound passed and there was no homeless man standing at the foot of my bed with pancakes (or any other delicious breakfast food that would require a whisk) so I thought I was ok and I went back to sleep. When Bryce came home I told him about the noise I had heard, and how it had sounded like someone was in our home, or at least right outside our bedroom window. When I had gotten out of bed that morning though, I checked all the doors and everything was locked and safe. We were both a little freaked out by what had happened. We decided to wait it out and see if we heard anything like it again.

A few days later we realized that the sound was actually those garbage cans on wheels rolling in the gravel that is our "backyard." It seems as though our neighbor woke up nice and early to take the trash out on that one creepy night.

So now whenever we hear one of our neighbors rolling their garbage can out to the front we joke about the hobo whisking past our window. Now that the weather has heated up, though, I am proud to report that we no longer hear strange sounds coming from the dumpster and I am pretty sure that the homeless man found himself a nicer place to stay. Thankfully.

Getting To Know Little Olivia

One of my favorite things about being pregnant (besides how fast my hair grows and how for once in my life my nails actually look nice as they grow out) is getting to know my baby girl while she still resides in my ever expanding tummy. During the last few months I have been slowly but surely finding out a little more about my Olivia. I have tentatively come to find three things that she loves, and one she absolutely despises (and she's just like her mommy with these things!)

Olivia's likes:

1. Music ♫
There are many times when I find Olivia kicking along joyfully to music. For instance, last week Bryce and I went to his friend's concert. Jay and his band "Hydramat" were playing along with two other groups. Never in her life had Olivia been so lively as when those bands were playing. Not to mention it was probably the loudest thing she had ever heard. Olivia is also always kicking when Bryce and I are singing along to the radio in the car. And one thing that never fails (which I find hilarious), Bryce and I have this app on our ipad we sometimes play called "My Singing Monsters." In the game you slowly hatch more monsters that, well, sing. As you add more monsters the sound gets louder and more parts are added to the song. Whenever we play this game, even if our little olive had been sleeping for hours, Olivia starts stirring and kicking along happily to the beat. So pretty much, we already have a lullaby that we know she loves, haha.

2. The calming and touching feelings of the Holy Ghost
Lately I have been noticing that whenever I am feeling the spirit strongly, so is little Olivia. Whether it be during one of our temple trips, during my brother-in-law Spencer's patriarchal blessing, General Conference, or a touching Sacrament Meeting, when I feel the spirit stirring inside me, I also feel the precious stirrings of my baby girl. I believe she is very akin to the promptings of the spirit and I hope that stays with her throughout her life.

3. The voice of her daddy
I will never forget an experience I shared with my husband a couple of weeks ago. After I read Olivia a bedtime story, I mentioned to Bryce how Olivia was kicking up a storm. One of my favorite things ever is when Bryce talks to our little olive through my tummy. Well, at this time that is exactly what Bryce decided to do. He put his face so close that as he spoke his lips graced my belly. Bryce said something along the lines of, "Be nice to mommy. I love you Olivia." and just as he finished he received a loving, yet quite strong kick in the mouth, haha. Bryce jokes that Olivia "punched him in the face." What a tender moment. Our little girl recognizes the voice of her father and find comforts in it so much that she just wants to be nearer to the voice of that great man.

Already Olivia is so much like her mama. She loves music, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Bryce! But the next similarity is uncanny!

Olivia's dislikes:

1. The cold.
Usually at our doctors appointments the gel they put on my belly before an ultrasound or to check on our baby's heartbeat is nice and warm, but this last appointment it wasn't. After a little bit of poking and prodding from the doctor to feel her size and position, he squeezed out a glob of cold gel onto my stomach in order to find the heartbeat. Almost immediately Olivia kicked, hard, right at the exact spot where the cold gel landed. As we heard the heartbeat of our precious little one, we also heard her kicks (as well as me feeling them). They were ferocious! Haha. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Olivia really likes to be cozy and warm. Oftentimes I am cuddling under a blanket and I can feel her soft and reassuring movements. Lately as she moves and kicks I am able to visibly see my stomach move. Bryce hasn't witnessed this quite yet, so whenever I feel her kicking I remove the blanket and tell Bryce to look. Always, every time, without fail, she stops kicking as soon as the blanket is removed and starts up again when it is replaced!

It is so neat to see how our little one already has a personality of her own. I love her so very much and I absolutely cannot wait to get to know her better as we introduce her into this world and she grows bigger (in a home that's not my stomach).

Our New Apartment

As some of you may know, Bryce and I just recently moved. On and off, for the duration of our marriage we lived in BYU married student housing, also known as Wymount Terrace. We absolutely LOVED our stay there. The ward was amazing, the neighbors were nice, the playground was right in front of our apartment, and visiting/home teaching took almost no effort at all since everyone lived within a hundred feet of each other, haha. There were a couple of downsides, though. The following are things we will not miss about Wymount:

• Cinder-block walls
• No dishwasher
• The teeny tiniest little bathroom ever (without counter tops)
• The "carpet"

All in all, though, our stay at Wymount was a blessing for the both of us. We made some great friends, found out a super fun dish washing routine, and got plenty of exercise taking groceries and laundry up three flights of stairs every day. 

The reason we moved from Wymount was because you have to be a "day continuing" student to live there. I am the one who attends BYU (Bryce is currently studying at UVU), and since our precious little Olivia will be making her appearance soon, I will probably not be a full time student again for quite some time. We moved early in the pregnancy so that I could actually help a little bit with the moving and so it wouldn't be so unbearable later on. 

For weeks Bryce and I looked for apartments that were pleasant and in our budget. We visited the ksl webpage often. We probably made appointments to visit 25 different apartments, some of which would fall through the day of as someone else had "just purchased it." After all the research, visits, and paperwork though, there were about three apartments that Bryce and I were considering. One of which we definitely wanted, but the landlords simply would not get back to us with a certain yes or no, another which we decided would be ok (if the first place didn't go through), and another which was our fallback plan. We really wanted a two-bedroom apartment so the baby (and my mom when she came to visit and help with the baby) could have their own space. The last apartment was a one bedroom, but it had a spacey living room. 

Anyways, it was super last minute, but just as we were making our decision the landlord from the first (our favorite) apartment called me and set us up with an appointment to come fill out the final paperwork! HOORAY!! And so the next day we got our new apartment and started moving in!

And here are some pictures for you!

Walking through the front door

Our living room/entertainment area

Our living room / computer corner
(We sorely need a desk, haha)

The Kitchen

Our little dining area

Our utility corner

The Hallway

Hallway closet

The bathroom (with counter tops!!)

Master Bedroom - the left side

Master bedroom - the right side

The baby's room
AKA
The unpacking room 

Well, we absolutely love our new little apartment. The walls are still bare and we have hardly any furniture, but with some time this place will look  more and more like home. I'll leave you guys today with a little virtual tour for your viewing pleasure.

It's a Girl!

Bryce and I were able to find out the gender of our precious little baby at 16 1/2 weeks, two and a half weeks earlier than most OBGYNs will tell you. This was possible because of the study we participated in called NuMom2B (if you're a first time mom in the Provo/Orem UT area, I recommend looking into it!).

If it was up to me, I would have just found out during the sonogram, but I have an awesome sister-in-law (shout out to Kristen!) who was sweet enough to plan a little gender party for us. So, when the doctor came in to do the sonogram and asked if we wanted to know the gender we answered, "Yes, but not right now." Haha. We asked her to put the precious information into a folder that we could deliver to our family and they would then surprise us with the gender. When the time came we were asked to close our eyes-- it was SO HARD!! But I did it.

Driving home, I had the envelope in my purse. It was as if heat radiated from the bag on my lap! The knowledge was so close!! But I was determined to be patient. Unfortunately we had to wait until the next day to find out. The. Next. Day. Ahhh! Somehow, I was able to not touch my purse for an entire day and it was well worth it.

The day before Valentine's Day we visited with my in-laws. I gave them the envelope and went to the other room, in case someone had an audible reaction. After a moment of deadly silence, we heard from the other room, "We can't tell!" What?!?!?! You can't tell? It wasn't as if Bryce and I could look and say, "Oh, here. It says it right here." So we tried to give them directions from the other room. "Do you see it say either boy or girl in the print on the top of the picture?" Those few minutes seemed to last forever!! Finally my mother-in-law found where it said it and a huge sigh escaped from my lips. A few minutes later this is what happened.

And the truth was revealed!! Both Bryce and I thought it would be a boy. We even had a boy's name picked out, but the news that it was a girl was exhilarating! We'd have to find a girl name! Many times people had asked me, what do you want? I always answered that I wanted it to be healthy, mostly because it's true, but also because I didn't really know. Once I found out it was a girl, though, I realized that was exactly what I wanted!

After we found out the exciting news we had cake (which was delicious to my pregnant belly)! The pink on top means it's a girl. They weren't going to be able to wait to make the cake until they found out the gender so they got creative by making a cake that was both blue and pink and just flipped to corresponding side. 

What an exciting day! I'll be able to do pigtails and cute little dresses! Not to mention adorable bows!! After we found out the news, Bryce and I picked out names for days! We had a list of about 20 names that we liked and we just couldn't narrow it down! One day, though, all of the sudden Bryce was looking at our list and pointed out one of the names on it. "What about Olivia?" he asked. I said it a few times out loud, "Olivia. Olivia. Olivia Allred." I fell in love. I piped up, "What about Renee as the middle name?" Olivia Renee Allred. Bryce said he liked it. The next Sunday as we were sitting in church  we were both doodling on a piece of paper writing down the name over and over again. Olivia Renee Allred. We couldn't get it out of our minds. And so we decided! But it's still tentative, we don't want to say that's it for sure until we meet her, to see if it fits her. As I speak to her through my tummy, though, Olivia Renee Allred seems to fit perfectly. I'm pretty sure that's what will go down on her birth certificate. What do you guys think?

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