Project 52: 5 Weeks Old

Sweet Tayler turned 5 weeks old yesterday (May 5th, 2011)

She is getting SO long! 
She was wearing those bibs in her 2nd week picture and the pant legs went a lot further down, haha! She's starting to look like she's wearing high waters.... darn it, LOL!
And oh my heavens, you all have to check out this video of her. I was tickling her earlier this morning and she's still not sure how to smile/giggle/laugh yet.. so you get all sorts of facial expressions from her LOL

We spent a lot of time outside today because it was finally nice and NOT raining :) Here's Tay "watching" her daddy play ball LOL

 When we got home, we took a walk, had tummy time, and talked a lot!! Tayler must have been extremely tired!! See here, haha:

Didn't even need a blanket OR bink to put her to sleep LOL
And wanna see her newest face? It says--- I'M ORNERY!! and she is ;) 

She is 10lbs now..... my little chunker LOL I love seeing her learn new things! She's starting to see things and grab them with her hands (i.e the monkey hanging on her car seat!!) Such a smartie! And she's really getting good at lifting her head and holding it there :)
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And now for an American Idol recap.....
THANK GOD JACOB IS GONE!
That is all! Well, actually-- it broke my heart to see Lauren crying, but see, Ryan fooled us! He said "You'll be surprised.." which I think led everyone (including Lauren) to think Lauren was getting voted off. I say top 3 will be Lauren, James, and Scotty.... guess we'll see!Enjoy that, haha! ---- Also, glory to God-- my husband got a new job. Right now he works about 1.5 hours (one way) away from home and now he's working IN OUR CITY!!! God is sooo good to us! I am sooo happy! This will definitely help save money considering we were spending about $400 a month in gas JUST on his vehicle! Whoo!
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And blog challenge today:
14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
That's a toughie.
I guess I don't really ever see insanity in someone (unless they are like totally freaking out about something, haha!) I think I always see creativity... even in really weird things (paintings, poems, books, statements, etc.) I guess as a writer, you see things differently, you know? You see symbolism. You see a heart that was either loved, scarred, etc. which led to their 'creativity'

SCENTSY UPDATE

My Scentsy Launch Party is May 14th! 
That being said-- if you can't make it, please still make a purchase! Scentsy will change the feel of your home. Try out Perfectly Pomegrante... Route 66... Sugar Cookies... Cinnamon Bear...
You can find all of this (plus warmers, travel tins, Scentsy buddies, etc.) HERE:
https://alyssabay.scentsy.us/Buy?partyId=35870341
ALSO..
are you interested in making money and not having to leave your home/kids every single day? are you tired of the 8-5 work schedule? Then come join my Scentsy team! Message me for details or click this link:
https://alyssabay.scentsy.us/Join


GET STARTED TODAY!

American Idol Recap & Blog Challenge

Last night was an impressive night on American Idol-- lets all be honest here. But here's the thing...
JACOB HAS TO GO.
I know that sounds terrible of me, but he totally made me want to delete "No Air" off my I-tunes and never play it again. That was just wretched. (His last song was good, however... I'll give him that!) But he just shouldn't sing high ALL of the time. No thank you!! :)
Scotty, Scotty, Scotty... Amazing. I think he is the next American Idol. How about you?
Lauren tore it up last night as well. She had fun and still had that nice tender moment. She's safe for sure!
James got me all choked up last night... and I'm not even pregnant anymore, haha! When he started crying during that last song, my heart just broke. For a man to do that on stage of a national competition.. that speaks volumes. 
And Haley. Now, as you all may know, I haven't exactly been a huge Haley fan (although my husband would trade me in for her in a heartbeat, hahahaha) but she did amazing last night. Yes, she sang a song that we all weren't familiar with (You and I by Lady Gaga), but I'll tell you what-- she made me want to go out and buy it! :)
So, that being said.... JACOB NEEDS AND SHOULD GO HOME :) I hope America agreed!
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And now for the Blog Challenge Update. I may not be getting this done on time, haha, but at  least they're getting done, right? LOL

11.You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do?

I speak up. I will not let one of my friends that I truly respect and admire go through criticism like that ESPECIALLY if he/she is not there to defend themselves. I think if you go without saying anything, that is just as bad as you carrying on the conversation WITH them.

12.If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?

Never grow up. I know they can't really follow that advice, haha, but it's what I would offer. I listen to that Taylor Swift song "Never Grow Up" quite often and in it she says: 

 To you, everything's funny
You got nothing to regret
I'd give all I have, honey
If you could stay like that

I don't want my newborn to ever have regret (although I know that comes with the territory of being a human being..) In a perfect world, she would just be innocent... forever.

13.Would you break the law to save a loved one?

Yes. Sounds bad huh? Yeah.. I have a wild side, haha!

Crazy Coupon Ladies???

So here's the deal.
This new mommy has joined the madness. What madness am I referring to? 
THE COUPON MADNESS.
I'm not aspiring to be a crazy coupon lady. I just want to cut some money off of our weekly grocery bills. I currently shop at Wal-mart. I do clip coupons (only a few however...) and I try and buy the cheapest things (i.e the off brand of soups, cereal, etc.) However, I still find myself spending about $100 a week on food. (Not including formula because we purchase that at Sam's Club...) I buy things for our lunches each week (it seems cheaper than having Ethan eat out) and I buy things for breakfast as well as enough stuff to make for dinner each week. Our breakfast consists of 1 Equate Shake a piece (we are both on diets..) and our dinners are usually something like: stuffed peppers, stuffed shells, stir fry, soup, etc.
I'm not sure if I'm making things that are too extravagant? I don't want to cut our bills by starving us OR by making us eat things we don't want/like. I want to eat what I enjoy and STILL save some cash. Can I get an 'Amen?' :)
So, my question to all of you bloggers out there is this:
HOW MUCH DO YOU SPEND ON GROCERIES EACH WEEK?WHERE DO YOU SHOP?WHAT ARE YOU PURCHASING FOR MEALS?
HOW MANY COUPONS DO YOU CLIP/USE?
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR COUPONS?
Looking forward to hearing your responses!!

Blog Challenge-- Day 10

10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things? Aren't those the same thing? At least, I feel like they're the same thing. If I'm doing things right, then I would assume I feel like I am doing the right thing. 
But in answer in the question, I'm consistently worried about doing the right things. I don't ever want to get caught up in greed, no compassion, selfishness, etc. I want to always be able to say I followed my heart and took the higher road.

Project 52: 1 Month Old

My sweets is officially 1 month old :)

And there she is! :) Do you see how her feet are hanging off the couch?? Oh my lanta, haha! This was her when she came home from the hospital (And NO, her feet are no where near the edge of the couch in this picture *sniff sniff*)

Hard to believe the month difference.
And here is my pretty girl's facial features at 1 month old. I know, I'm one of those moms that takes a picture of everything, but I want to remember it all....

I don't know that I've ever seen something SO beautiful :) And to think... she's my baby!
My friends have been encouraging me to let her go stay with my parents for one night so that I can have some 'fun' but I just can't bring myself to do it right now. You know why? Well, I'm obviously going to miss her, but SERIOUSLY... even those late night feedings... I look forward to. I LOVE walking into her bedroom, looking down at her crib, and seeing those eyes light up. I love watching her eat. I love snuggling with her while burping her. I love it all. Of course, I wouldn't mind 8 consecutive hours of sleep, but gosh, my heart just aches thinking about leaving her.. Maybe I'll get to that point some day.. 
And I have come to the conclusion that my daughter does not have fussiness or colic...
she has...
NOSY-NESS AND BOREDOM.
Yesterday, we went to a ball game with her, went for a walk, sat outside on the porch swing, came in and gave her a bath, swaddled her, fed her, and she was ready for bed with no fussiness at all. It was amazing! She just wants to be stimulated... consistently, haha! She was worn out too! I put her down for bed at 10PM, she woke up at 1AM, 5AM, and then not again until about 10:30AM. Insane, right? She's such a good baby! :) I love her soooooo much!

A Look Into Our Life!

Oh, I know.. don't look at me like that, haha! I have seriously been slacking on my blog! It has just been sooo busy around here lately! 

What's going on in our lives??

Ethan and I had a date night last night :) We went to see 'Fast Five' and I have to admit *sigh* It was actually a good movie... I even felt little bits of an adrenaline rush, dang it, haha! :) I even suggested to Ethan that we have a 'Fast & The Furious' weekend so I can actually understand EVERYTHING about the new movie. (Note: If you haven't seen all of them, you will be lost at first, haha!) Yes, Ethan and I were that couple that talked through the movie because he was filling me in on who certain people were. I've seen the 2nd one and Tokyo Drift so I knew a little bit, but I was still lost... especially when people like Ludacris and Tyrese were walking into the picture.... 

Tayler is officially one month old! (Actually, she doesn't have a '1 Month Birthday' as I previously said!) but I'll get to her being '1 Month' old in another post once I get her 1 month picture :)

Mother's Day is coming up and I do believe that Tayler and I won a photo session for Mother's Day thanks to Jessica Barber Photography on Facebook. She takes amazing pictures, so I'm STOKED for this!! We are working on a small project for our mothers for mothers day! I'll post pictures of that once it's done :) 

On a side note, it has been raining consistently and this momma is TIRED of it haha! I hate the heat, but I am so ready for nice weather! I'm so ready to be able to grill out, go sit on the porch swing, go for walks, walk to the pool (when I find an appropriate bathing suit for this post-preggo body hahaha!) I said it today and I'll repeat it-- get a move on April Showers and bring on the May Flowers! 

Scentsy is going good! I have been praying so hard that I can make a good income off of this! I really want to help out with a few of the bills around here and still stay home with Tayler :) (What a blessing, right??) If you're interested in purchasing something... check out: https://alyssabay.scentsy.us/Home

And yes, I need to update my blog challenge. I'm 3 days behind, so here goes!

7.Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

I am doing what I believe in! I am being a mommy and a wifey (this is what I've always wanted!) I am living a life that some only dream of. I have so many opportunities. God has blessed me with the ability to get my Bachelor's Degree, my Master's Degree, write a book, sell Scentsy, get married, have a beautiful baby.. what more could someone ask for? I live a life that seeks after God and that loves Him and wants more of Him!! 

8.If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?

 Eek! That would mean I only had 16 years left! :( I'm so thankful that the average life span isn't that short because Tayler would be so young when I passed away! I have SO much left to do in this life... which means, if I knew I only had 40 years to live.. I surely wouldn't live it worrying about making a lot of money, getting degrees, etc. I would have had a baby earlier. I would have gotten married earlier...  Not to rush things, but just so I had more time with them. I would have also encouraged my family to live with my parents or closer to them! I hate living so far away... I would have wanted to spend as much time with all of them as I could! 

9.To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?

  Hmmm.. That's a tough one. Do you really have the option to 'control' the course your life has taken? I don't really think so. I mean, I had an idea of what I wanted to happen. I went to college hoping to graduate with a degree. I fell in love hoping to get married to that man. I had a baby praying to God that everything would go according to His plan with it and that He would have His hand on us. I followed my heart in every area of my life, but it was up to Him to bless those paths! I won't say I controlled anything, but I took some roads hoping and praying that they would lead to certain places....