Tayler's Christmas Pictures

It's nap time in the Bay house, so I thought I'd sneak a blog in right quick! :)

First of all-- I was finally right for once concerning X-Factor! Marcus went home. I'm not hatin' on him. He's amazing and has incredible talent. I just knew that he'd been *lucky* for far too long. The end of the road had come. If y'all remember correctly, his mom told him this was it. If he didn't make it this time, he had to go to school and get a job and do all of that fun stuff we all know and love, haha! Well, I think it's safe to say that Marcus has arrived. He might not have won X-Factor, but there's no doubt in my mind that someone will give him a record deal. And yes, I will purchase that album! That boy can SING, y'all! :)

And on to other news...

We got our Christmas pictures of Tayler back from our photographer "Jessica Barber Photography" (an AMAZING woman... if you're in the area, check her out on Facebook!) Anyways... I had to share a couple with you bloggers because, well, I just think my kiddo is too cute! Hope you all enjoy!

Doesn't she melt your heart? *sigh* You can see her teeth in the bottom one.. and gah, I LOVE the top one. I can't wait to get it blown up so it can be above our couch in our living room. She's our princess :)

Did any of you mommies out there get your babies pictures taken for the holidays?

Rough Times... But His Mercy Covered Us!

I haven't really posted about our life in awhile.

Things have been extremely stressful here lately. I'll explain...

We STILL are not in our house. There have been some frustrating circumstances that we have encountered along the way. For some reason we were denied the loan at first because of "shock payment" since we have not rented a place since June. I didn't know you could be denied a loan because of that, but... we were. So we had to work hard to get to the point where the loan was approved. And guess what? IT WAS! :) We close on the house Tuesday, 12/20. We are planning on moving in Wednesday and Thursday. I want that Christmas tree up and our first Christmas there! I'm so excited. You all know there will be tons of pictures! I'm just so thankful for God's blessing on this! It has been a long, devastating process, but we are ALMOST there!

My car broke down. Even more devastation. I worked so hard for that sucker! And it just... died. Well, it started overheating while E was driving it and now it just continues to do that and suck the antifreeze completely out of it. I could have cried when the mechanic said he thought it was the headgasket. A $1500 fix for a $2000 car? Not likely. So that only meant one thing-- scrapping it. Yes, I felt sick to my stomach. BUT, we took it to a Dodge mechanic and he believes it is the radiator. He said he'd put money on it (we are holding him to that ;) haha) so E ordered a $70 radiator and as soon as it arrives, we are going to try that. Lets all cross our fingers that it works, so I can have a car again, haha!

While that was broke down, we only had one vehicle: a 1998 Dodge Ram. My husband drives 75 miles to work ONE WAY, so you can imagine what our gas bill was looking like each week, right? $40 a day X 5 days= $200 a week. Once again, I felt sick. But God had mercy on us and a family up the street from us was selling a 2 door Cavalier for CHEAP. We got a check in the mail for a grant E received from school and we bought a new car for him!

Through all of these financial difficulties, we still hadn't bought any presents for Tayler. It was so sad because it's her first Christmas and I know she won't "know" but goodness-- we still wanted to get her things! I got paid on Thursday and it took FOREVER to get deposited, but we finally got the money this week.. after all of the good things happened, so we used my pay check to buy Tayler presents!! I'm going to tell you.. being little is awesome, haha! We aren't to the stage in life where her Christmas list consists of a laptop, cell phone, and all those other things that suck a bank account dry. We got her 5 toys, a DVD (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-- favorite!), 5 summer outfits, 5 winter outfits, and 3 sleepers... all for a little under $100! THAT'S AMAZING!

God has been SO good to us this week!! We had a rough month, but he showed more mercy on us these past few days then we could have EVER asked for! We get to celebrate Christmas together in our new house! What more could we ask for? Now I just cannot wait to put up that Christmas tree!! And put the presents under it of course! :)

Thank You Lord for all of Your goodness!!

X-Factor... The Semi-Finals!

I know, I know. I had Josh pegged as the winner, but after last night, I am seriously not sure. Melanie Amaro TORE IT UP (as usual..) and Chris Rene won me over with his sincerity. America loves him. After sitting with my husband last night discussing the singing and what he thought about who was getting off, we decided that America loves Chris Rene because he is REAL. He has went through turmoil. He has went through one of the hardest things someone can face: addiction. He lost his father to cancer. All of the things he has battled hits home with a great deal of people in this country. He connects. And as Paula put it last night: He is real. He doesn't get on the stage trying to be ANYONE but himself. After last night, I will say that my whole outlook changed. I think Chris Rene is taking this home with him. 

I love Melanie and I think she has a very strong voice, but she confused me last night. Did anyone else think she seemed really 'off' during "Hero?" She seemed like she could care less after that performance which was weird from her normal power-house mentality she has after a song (like after singing "It's a New Dawn.." That's the Melanie we all know and love.) I wasn't sure what was going on after Mariah Carey's "Hero"....

Marcus did great as usual, but I'm going to be honest. I think he's been the underdog for far too long... I think he's going home tonight.

Which will then leave Melanie, Chris, and Josh (who I thought gave a VERY honest performance last night with "Hallelujah.") I will be honest... I was dreading it at first. For as long as I've watched reality singing competitions, someone has ALWAYS done this song. It gets old for me, but I LOVED Josh's performance of it. Beautiful and honest.

So, there are my predictions. As I always say... they're always wrong, so don't go bet on them, haha! What are your thoughts??

Teen Mom 2-- Another Week!

Yep. I'm here for my weekly 'Teen Mom 2' update.

I'm addicted. As one of my friends put it last week... most of these shows are like car accidents. You really don't WANT to look, but you HAVE to look. I fell asleep early last night, but DVRed the show. At 5AM, I found myself wide awake with a tummy ache, so of course... I turned it on. I need something to distract me from the terrible pain I felt. The sad thing was-- once I turned it on.. it was on. I was so tired and feeling better, yet I opened my eyes with toothpicks and continued on. How could you stop? It was intense.

Leah: First of all, this couple absolutely breaks my heart. I got teary-eyed watching Aleeah 'walk' to her Mommy as Ali just sat there. As a Mommy, that just gets to you. I can't imagine watching my sweet baby girl that I brought into the world struggle... and us, have no idea why it is happening. I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone. However, it was nice to see Corey and Leah actually getting along last night. The hard times are when you need each other the most. I hope they continue to remember that.

Chelsea: Oh, Chelsea. She hurt her ACL and Adam is back for round 3,423. I might be off a bit on my counting, but seriously? I'm not going to post about how I can't believe she's back with him because I understand how it is to love someone. My husband and I had a rough patch at first and I stuck by his side when everyone in the world told me to leave him. It'd be the pot calling the kettle black if I sat here and criticized her decisions. It just breaks my heart for her because she seems like such a sweet individual and for him to just keep coming back into her life BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE CAN is ridiculous. He knows he has her right where he wants her... I just wish for once he'd treat her with the respect she deserves. She's the mother of his child for crying out loud.

Kailyn: I'm proud of that girl. If my mom's boyfriend (she doesn't have one, fyi haha) wrote me a terrible letter.. I would have let both her AND him have it. But she kept her mouth shut and did what she knew was best. I'm so happy she is getting her own place and it was SO kind of that non-profit organization to help her. I wish I had the funds to help individuals like that! I hope she continues to do as great as she is! It's amazing to see ZERO drama in Kailyn's life for once. I'm sure that's a relief to here!

Jenelle: Do I even need to continue writing about her? Drop that terrible excuse of a man and be a mother. I think that pretty much sums it up. If he's doing crap you don't like (such as becoming an alcoholic..) why waste your time with him? I don't care if I LOVED the man or not. If he's doing actions that could cause me, himself, or other people... let him go. Either he'll man up or he won't. But that's his decision. I wish she would just grow up..

So there you have it! I'm already anxious for next week :) What are your thoughts about this past week's episode??

CIO.... I'm Stuck

I'm failing in the CIO department.

We were doing SO good. It was taking her about 20 minutes to fall asleep. I was being strong. We were even doing it through naptime!

And now?

She screams bloody murder if I even take her in her room. I don't want my child being fearful of her own bedroom. That literally breaks my heart. I have started to try and put her in there through the day time and just let her play on the floor so she knows it's not a "bad" room... and she's doing better with that...

but if she's anywhere else, it's an ugly scene.

I can't handle the crying. And I'm not saying I can't handle the crying in the "it's-so-annoying" way... I'm saying I can't handle it because it literally breaks my heart. She has the saddest cry ever and mix that in with the "Mommma..." and I'm done.

The past two nights, I have let her fall asleep on the living room floor with a blanket, pillow, and bottle and then once she's out, I put her to bed. She does good with that, but not good with going to bed "in her bed."

I'm at a crossroads. I thought I had this whole thing handled. We were doing so good... then she just started freaking out. Nothing will calm her down. I put her favorite blanket in there, a bottle, and turn her favorite show on. I know everyone that reads this is probably saying, "You leave her in her bed and let her cry." Yeah, yeah.. I know. I'm just venting about how hard it is.

No parent wants to hear their baby cry... especially knowing they're the ones that are making the crying happen. It's a tough situation. We'll get through it... but not without a few whiny blog posts first.