My blog is MOVING!

So I think I have come to the point where my fashion blog and my personal blog are at odds with one another, and at this point in time my personal blog is losing. I spend all of my computer time nurturing The Dime Diary so it can take flight someday, and my poor family blog has been seriously neglected. I don't want to ignore my family blog, but I do realize that it is too time consuming to try and manage two different sites at the same time, so that is why I have decided it is time to merge my 2 blogs together! I have put in a considerable amount time trying to figure out how I am going to merge the 2 while still appealing to my fashion readers. I have noticed that a substantial amount of my readers come over here after visiting my other blog, and I think because of that it will be simple transition and one that makes it easier for my readers to not have to go hoping around from page to page! I have chosen to move my family blog over here and from now on you will see fashion and makeup posts as usual, mixed with my family life! I think it will be good to show my readers a more personal side of my life, and so all of you can feel like you know me a little bit more personally. I have decided to still call my blog The Dime Diary. I think the name is still very meaningful for my personal life as well as fashion related. Here we are, a young, fairly newly married couple, living life as poor college students, learning how to make it in the world. The Dime Diary is going to showcase our lives (and fashion of COURSE) the way that we live them, and I think that is great:) The switch will probably be totally complete by mid August and I will have a new design (yet again). Until then I will no longer be updating this blog and you can see The Dime Diary for all things pertaining to my personal life. I hope you are supportive of the changes I am making! I'm really excited and I hope everyone agrees! Please follow me over HERE

6 months old

My sweet little Ava is now 6 months old! I seriously can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital, but here she is half a year old and loving life. She is the happiest baby i have ever known, Im not being biased just cause she is mine, but this baby is always smiling. Its pretty funny because I get compliments on how cute she is almost every single day when I take her out. Old people especially love her, and when people stop to look at her, she always starts smiling at them. They usually are super excited and take it as something like "she must like me!" I don't have the heart to tell them that she smiles at everyone:)

Little Ava bug sleeps in her own bed now, which is SUCH a blessing, but if we don't get her in her bed by about 8 pm, she mutates into the Hulk. For how sweet she is, she also can be miserable come night time! It sure does make doing anything in the evening outside of TV at home almost impossible. Ava has a very bright personality. She is sweet but strong willed, and she is incredibly resilient. If that little girl wants something, she stops at nothing to have it, but the opposite is true as well, if she doesn't want something, she is NOT gonna have it. One night Scott and I tried putting her to bed a little early, and she cried for a while, I told him that she would just cry it out and eventually fall asleep, she has to learn when her bedtime is! Well 45 minutes later she is still crying, almost to the point of gagging herself with tears. So we got her out, and she was immediately all smiles with a puffy face and all. 10 minutes later? She's asleep. That girl is something else I tell ya.

right now Ava is getting ready to crawl! She has figured out how to sit up and rock back and forth on all fours, she army crawls right now, kinda just scooting herself along...she hasn't quite mastered the coordination, but I bet its coming soon!

Scott and I have been doing really well, of course we have our trials like every family does, but we have done such a good job handling every obstacle that has been in our path lately. Im so proud of Scott, he is just such a great husband and such a great dad. Im so glad I married him, I love him more and more everyday! As for me I have just been enjoying being home with Ava, some days can get a little repetitive or boring, but I love every day I get to spend with my amazing daughter, I learn so much from her everyday. I love watching her grow and learn new things!

With the summer coming up its going to start getting pretty busy! We are trying to plan at trip to Las Vegas this summer, just Scott and I, to see our friends Craig and Steph, and then we have to get ready for my sister Courtney's wedding in August in San Diego! Im super excited to spend a whole week in sunny California with my family, going to the beach, going to Disneyland, and of course being a part of Courtney and Taylor's wedding! We also have my birthday coming up next week, and Scott and I are going to Lagoon while Grandma Allen watches the baby! So much fun stuff to look forward to!

Break from Facebook

So today after looking around at my pile of unfolded laundry that I have been putting off for a few days, I decided it is time for some changes; and those changes start with a break from Facebook. I has spent entirely too much time on there, precious time that I could be doing something much more productive. So I deactivated my account for a while until I feel like I don't need to check it so much. It's not that Im spending all day on it or anything, but I do have the app on my phone, and with a push of a button I read thew my news feed all day, when honestly, I don't really care what is happening on Facebook all that much. In reality I'm just filling my time, when I have SO much stuff I should and need to be doing. So I deactivated my account, deleted my app, and Im thinking about doing the same for my Instagram, my fashion blog, and all the game apps on my phone...we will see! haha So in the meantime, check back here for updates on our lives:)

I'm seriously almost in tears!!!

This is amazing haha, next time I'm pregnant I will be doing this to random people in the store.

Updates!

It's been a while since I've posted! The Dime Diary has really been taking up most of my blogging time, but I am updating about a few things, and will fill you in on life through my Instagram photos!

Lately we have been having a lot of fun with Ava, she is so big now. Last time she was weighed she was 18 lbs, and 14 and 1/2 inches long! She is in the 99th% for her weight and 80 something for her height. She is as big as some 1 year old babies! Her hair is also getting really light, like so light its blonde now, which is really crazy since Scott and I both have very dark hair. Scott was a little blondie as a baby, but her hair started out dark, so that's why I thought it was weird that it has gotten lighter!

Ava has finally made the transition into her own crib. It was very very hard on me at first considering she has been sleeping in our bed for 4 months now. The first night we attempted it, I hardly got any sleep, she cried for an hour, and I ended up bringing her back to bed. The next time we tried it, I was so worried all night that I never slept since I checked on her all night. The thought of leaving her alone in her bed was terrifying to me since Scarlett died of SIDS in her own crib, and I think I have some post-traumatic stress from it, making me into a psycho freak mom! But then Scott let me get the Angel Care Monitor. Any soon to be mom's, this is a must have I've decided. It gives me absolute peace of mind, and I get AMAZING rest in my own bed since Ava sleeps in her crib now.

This monitor has a sensor pad that you put under the crib mattress, and it detects the baby's every movement, from a twitching finger to a tiny breath, and if there is no movement at all from your baby within 20 seconds, it sounds an alarm for you to go check on them! It's amazing. I can now put Ava in her crib, go to sleep, and rest assured that if anything is wrong, it will let me know. And even better, Ava is sleeping through the night completely now. I'm so happy I finally got her in her own crib! Anyway there isn't too much else going on. We might be moving again this summer, probably still in Orem, even though we REALLLLLLY want to move to Salt Lake. Our carpet in our current apartment is pretty crappy :/ and our landlord is pretty lax on replacing it, but I'm not having my baby crawl on this sick carpet!!! hahaha anyway, enjoy these photo's of everyone recently!

So as it goes for my blog, Im really really going to try harder to update more frequently. It doesn't have to be a long post or anything, as long as I don't wait too long, putting up a small post a couple times a week shouldn't be a big deal!

The Dime Diary, go look at it!!!!

K so I thought I would put up one more thing. This is another reason I haven't blogged much lately, I started working on a new project, a new blog. I used to do make-up reviews and such on a blog called The Beauty Blog, but I never put much effort into it, so I decided to start a new one. It's a fashion/make-up, and lifestyle blog about how I find cute clothes that don't cost very much. I felt that some blogs that only put up designer outfits are kinda impractical for the average girl, since most of us can't afford them, and i want other girls to know that they can still find cute and INEXPENSIVE clothes and look just as good. It's just starting out, but if you could take a look and follow it, I would LOVE it. This is the first time Im debuting it, so I don't have any followers yet, and honestly it makes me kind of nervous, just cause I don't like to put myself out there in this way; but I think it will be a fun blog and people will enjoy it! Let me know if you like it!
Love you all!

http://thedimediary.blogspot.com/

long time no post...

So I haven't actually blogged in a long time. I think I feel like its gonna take forever every time I sit down to do it, and then I put it off some more, and the long i put it off, the more I have to blog about. It's a vicious cycle.

Anyway, a lot has been happening lately. I went on a trip to Colorado to see my family, Ava has gotten HUGE and Scott got a new job. So basically life is full of exciting things right now, especially that Ava got RSV this last week, and now I'm pretty sure I have it. Most exciting for sure. So my Colorado trip will have to wait for another day, but I will just update on Scott.

Life has been really good lately. My best friend Ashley introduced Scott to her work at a place called Clearlink. He was a little concerned at first about leaving his present job, just since he can make so much money in a month, but he had only been able to come to church about 1 to 2 sundays a month. It was killer. This new job opened up a lot of doors for us, and after much consideration he decided to take the job! I was so proud of him, and very excited that he would be able to come to church with me from now on, every sunday. He is LOVING Clearlink and he is very happy he made the switch.

As for me, Im just still loving being mom, working on some new projects, and spending a lot of time with friends. Ava has been doing amazing! She is getting so big and so strong that it actually makes me really sad. I don't want her to grow up! Ava now can roll completely over on to her tummy, and she has started taking some jarred food. Everything is going so well in the Allen home, and I really can't complain. Life is good.

Pretty soon, I will sit down and really document some of the stuff we have been doing, but first I need to kick this cold so that I don't feel like death anymore! In the meantime, enjoy some of these recent photos of Ava bug:)

No longer private!

YUP. I was private for a while, but there was one specific person who wasn't able to see my blog, and that was my mom. She said that she never could see my blog anymore because every time she logged on it said that she wasn't allowed to view it without a google account (my mom isn't super internet savvy) and since its most important that her and my dad are able to read about what happens in our lives, the blog is no longer private. Boo for lack of privacy, but YAY for mommy being able to see it again!

2 year anniversary!

Well the 20th was a special day, it was Scott and I's 2 year anniversary! Wow time has flown, its kinda crazy that we have been married that long, it seems like we just got married yesterday, and then again it seems like we have been married FOREVER!

Last year was a very hard time for us right around our anniversary. We had both been laid off from our jobs, we had NO money, and we had just dealt with the miscarriage, so things were not going that great to say the least. So this year when we had money to spare I was excited to do something very special with him. We had to celebrate our anniversary 2 weeks ago on Valentines Day weekend because Scott had to work this last weekend. But we had a wonderful time because my mother-in-law took Ava for the night (by the way I cried like a baby when we gave her to them. It was my first night without her since she was born and I was a bit emotional) and then we headed over to the Marriott City Center hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, where we had our wedding reception and spent our wedding night. This is also where we spent Fathers Day weekend this summer. This hotel is very very special to us, and every time we get to stay we like to remember the day we got married.

We of course didn't get as nice of a room as our wedding night, but hopefully someday we can afford that haha. After we checked in we got ready for dinner at The Melting Pot. Neither Scott or I had been there before, but let me tell you...if you haven't been, you MUST in your lifetime. It is quite pricey, so some saving up may be required, but we decided to let loose and spent $150 bucks on dinner! YIKES! hahaha but it was amazing amazing food. Scott even ordered a second dessert.



After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got our chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider. We slept so good that night that we didn't even wake up till 10:30 am when room service brought us breakfast in bed. It was awesome to get that great of sleep, since I haven't slept good since long before Ava was born. Having a baby literally sucks the life out of you.




After we checked out of our hotel that afternoon, we headed over to the Gateway to do some shopping and have lunch. We ate at this place called Ztajas I think? it was a mexican place and the food was AWESOME! I would recommend for sure if you are at the Gateway.


After spending a wonderful little trip together, we went up to Huntsville to pick up my little baby, we enjoyed our time alone, but I was so excited to see that little face that I ran into the house when I got there. Thank you so much to Scott's parents for watching Ava for the weekend! It was so nice to enjoy ourselves baby free!



I am so grateful to have been married to my favorite person in the whole world for the last 2 years. He was the perfect match for me and makes me that happiest person in the world. Now here is a little video I made for Scott for our anniversary:) Enjoy.

Breastfeeding in public?

Lately I have seen this little gem floating around Facebook:


and I kinda wanted to express my feelings about it. As a mother who breastfeeds I TOTALLY understand the need to feed a hungry baby at the drop of a hat. I have had to feed Ava during a lunch date at Chili's with my girlfriends, during a dinner date with the hubby, during 3 separate movies at a theater, during game night with friends, and I even had to leave my entire full cart of groceries at customer service while I went to the bathroom and fed her. The one thing I always did though was cover up.

I completely believe that women have the right to breastfeed their babies in public. Babies need to eat just as much as adults, but I don't agree with being completely shameless and whipping out your boob at a restaurant or any public place for that matter, and exposing yourself too much, and exposing others to your bare breasts. Something not everyone wants to see. My friend Brittany bought me this awesome Udder Cover so that I could breastfeed in public without being indecent. I use it everywhere, and it makes me feel much more comfortable about having breastfeed in public. It has a little tie that loosens and and tightens, and has a band up top that allows you to see in and see your baby while he/she is eating.

So if these are available to people, why then are some mothers throwing a huge fit about it being unacceptable to pull out your bare breast in public? It so easy to put on and gives you privacy, and is respectful to others as well.

The LDS religion so highly stresses modesty and keeping your body a sacred protected place only to share with your spouse after marriage, yet this photo I am referring to was actually reposted by an LDS woman I know on Facebook. I guess I don't quite understand why people find this ok, yet can also believe in modesty and preserving those sacred parts for only your spouse.

To be honest, I think its more of a feminist outlook of equality, that women should be able to breastfeed in public uncovered because its "natural". There are a lot of things that are natural in life. Burping, farting, sneezing, but we don't do those purposefully in public, and if we do we make sure to excuse ourselves because it is rude and inconsiderate to others around us. Even having sex is natural, but we don't do that in public... I think some people consider it intolerant if we don't just accept someones lifestyle and person choices, even if they are being pushed upon us with no choice in the matter. Consider this: lets say you were on a bus filled with people, with your husband and your teenage son, and your 6 year old daughter, then an attractive woman across from you who has a baby, pulls down her shirt, pulls out her boob, and adjusts her baby to eat from it. All right in front of all of you with no decency to cover herself. Would that concern you? I know I would be concerned with my husband seeing another woman's breast, my teenage son, who regardless of whether the woman is attractive or not, cannot control his hormones and is exposed to thoughts he may otherwise not have had, and my young daughter, who's innocence has been compromised by another person. And yes the human body is natural and yes at some point they will need to learn about it, but they can learn about it from me, not by being subjected to it without my consent.

I guess what I'm saying here is that I think woman should have more pride in themselves and more respect for themselves, their spouse/significant other, and for others around them by simply covering up their private parts in public. Breastfeeding is fine by me, just have some respect. Don't be inconsiderate of others and make others uncomfortable.

I kind of want to know what others think about this issue! What do you think about breastfeeding uncovered in public? Let me know!

It's been so hard to blog

Let me just start off by saying, I still haven't made my blog private. Honestly I'm just being lazy. I have a lot of e-mails to put in, and be be frank with you, I really don't even know how to put everything in to make it private and haven't had the time to sit down and look and figure it out. Kinda dropped the ball on that one. Anywho, somewhere in my delusional mind I thought I might get back on track with blogging after the baby was born. Nope. Just like I thought a baby was going to be more similar to a silent doll that just looked cute and I toted around as an accessory, than a living, breathing, demanding little creature who requires almost every minute of my time.

...But that's ok. I love dat little bum. Well, Ill update with a little story. This weekend we went to my Uncle's house for our monthly FHE with all my extended family members. While in the kitchen my cousin Kylie was talking to me and we were comparing babies, you know the usual, and she tickled Ava's chin telling me that she loves her little double chin. As she pulls her hand away Ava projectile vomits into her cupped hand. Like it went right in there perfectly like a nothin' but net shot at a basketball game. Talent I tell ya.

Well anyway, pretty soon I will sit down and write a genuine post about what has been going on and all the super exciting stuff in our lives than everyone is dying to hear!!!! (not). But for now, I am typing this with one hand, while a baby wrapped in a towel straight out of the bath, with no diaper on might I add, is sleeping on my lap. I don't know how long its going to be before she pees on my lap, and Im not interested in finding out. I've got a feeling I'm playing with fire.

Toodles!

My favorites of Baby Boo

Ava has been growing SO much the last couple weeks. She is now 7 weeks old, and she is a TANK! She started off at 7lbs and 14oz, dropped 7oz in the hospital and then was up to 9 lbs by her 2 week appointment! Well the growing didn't stop apparently, cause she had a bit of a nasty wheezing going on the other day and I took her to her doctor to see what was up and she was now a whopping 12 lbs 2 oz at only 6 weeks old! Im not totally sure if that is normal...she is in the 93rd percentile for her weight and 72nd percentile for height. She has the craziest little double chin. We have affectionately dubbed her "the iceberg baby" because when she is covered with blankets her head looks so tiny and she looks so young and little but under the surface you have no idea how big she really is. She also holds up her head on her own with no support what so ever and looks around, also lifts it off the ground during tummy time, and puts a substantial amount of weight on her legs when put standing. We have decided that she is probably super advanced and will eventually end up on the show Super Humans. We are ok with that, as long as her super human-ness makes some sweet moolah.

Ava is SUCH an amazing baby. She is the sweetest thing ever. Seriously. I sometimes worry that since she is such a good baby, my next might not be such a pleasure. But only time will tell. In our home we hardly call Ava her name. Its a variation of Bug, Buggy, Buggy Boo, Baby Boo... I worry that she might grow up not knowing what her real name is!

Anyway, in my short time having her she is already expressing her personality and what she likes and does not like.

She Likes:
-Bath time (surprisingly)
-Her swing more than her bouncer
-Being in her car seat (for some amount of time)
-Staring at lights and patterns
-sleeping unbundled


She LOVES:
-taking showers with momma (seriously, I take her into the shower with me, let her breast-feed, its her favorite most calming thing EVER)
-going for car rides (puts her out in minutes flat)
-the song "Sweet Dreams" by Jewel (she falls asleep to it every time without fail)
-getting kisses (she smiles every time)
-sleeping in our bed (we might have a battle getting her out later, but for now she sleeps like an angel with us)

She Hates:
-Laying flat on her back or flat on her stomach
-getting her diaper changed
-wearing clothes (she would rather wear just the diaper)
-putting clothes on
-sleeping in her bassinet
-being swaddled (she can't stand her arms being restrained


I have learned and continue to learn something new about her each day. Here are some things I have learned about motherhood:

1. Huggies are THE WORST diaper ever made. She soaks through or has a blow out every single diaper.
2. Parents Choice wipes from Wal-mart are terrible.
3. When crying, if all else fails, try burping again, or letting her eat a little more.
4. She is super sensitive to dairy and I can't eat too much of it without it affecting my breast milk.
5. Ava is the most happy when she wakes up in the morning
6. Crying is the most painful thing to listen to ever, but sometimes it is needed and its ok to let her cry for a few minutes if I need a break.
7. Its ok to ask for help and its ok to tell people they can't hold her (when it comes to making sure she stays healthy)
8. Note for next time: newborn clothes are a waste of money, they grow so fast they will hardly be in them.
9. Getting compliments on a cute baby is the best ego boost ever.
10. Motherhood is hard, but is more fulfilling and rewarding than I ever expected.

Im excited to see this little lady grow and change. I love her so much!

Here are some of my favorite pictures as of recently!










also my blog is not private quite yet, Im not done collecting emails yet, so probably by the end of the week, the switch over will be made! HOORAY for privacy!

Going Private

So I have come to the point where I think I'm going to make my blog private. I did some cleaning of my Facebook friends already and now Im ready to limit the access here too. There are people out there who manipulative and no matter what happens in life they don't change, they just keep doing the same things they have always done, stirring up trouble and trying to create problems for no reason, living the same life as they always have, and that is not me. I'm not interested in that kind of life, haven't been years, and never will again. I live a different life than I did a year ago, and a much different life than 5 years ago, and unfortunately I am not interested in hardly any people I knew in the past and have never cared to introduce those from the past into my life now.

Its simply a personal choice, and so I decided to make another personal choice, that I only want those that I care about to know about my personal life. I have already received a ton of peoples e-mails in comments and Facebook messages, but if you want to continue to read my blog and haven't already done so, send me your e-mail and I will add you to the list! It won't be private for a few days I think until I get everyone e-mails, so there is time!

I don't know that my blog will stay private forever, all I know now is that its the best choice for me and my family to keep those who should not be involved in our lives out. Im sad I might lose some of my readers, but for now this is best :)

The Holidays

The holidays this year were pretty jammed packed, regardless of having a brand new baby we didn't let that slow us down!

First of all my best friend Ashley finally moved here from San Diego, and I couldn't be more excited! I love having her around. When she first got into town her and I went to lunch with our good friend Karli who was visiting from Louisiana. She is currently halfway through her pregnancy with a little boy, so we were very excited to see the little bump :)





That same weekend I had attended Karli's baby shower and got to also see my dear friend Jill, who I dearly miss seeing at work all the time.




We went to lights at Temple Square with BJ and Aubrey of course...




We took Ava to meet Santa for the first time. It was her favorite!...Not.



We also got to attend a super fun Ugly Sweater party thrown by our friends Mike and Tara. It was nice to see a bunch of our friends and finally hang out with them after being cooped up on the house for so long. We had the MOST delicious food and got to play Minute To Win It (Christmas style) The Christmas balls were a huge hit, and provided for some fun conversations haha










...We finally went out to dinner to celebrate Scott's birthday


and Aunt Katie came to visit baby Ava







The whole month leading up to Christmas was very hectic and very busy, but we got to spend valuable time with the people we love most, and we are extremely grateful to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives :)

*Christmas with the Allens post to come soon!