Teething for my Gerber baby ... Oh Joy!

Maddox cut his first tooth!! It happened June 24th! A couple days prior to that, he randomly started getting very fussy! He was even up off and on all night, crying... and this was not a "whine" cry, this was "Something HURTS mommy!" cry... I felt awful for him! I tried tylenol, that only made it worse cause it made him more tired and cranky... he was literally crying in his sleep. We finally got him to sleep for the night by around 3 AM... then he got back up at 6AM. The following day his gum had a white dot... i thought.. could it be? And I convinced myself... No, it's too early for a tooth!
Next day, I look in Maddox's mouth... there it is! a tooth popped right out!!!!!! I can't believe my baby boy is growing up!!!!!!!!!! I teared and felt like everything is going too fast... everything seems to be happening one right after another!

*** Let me tell you... I'm not real used to Maddox crying a lot.. we got so lucky with such a good baby! With Justin working 7 days a week, sometimes it can be hard, I feel horrible for my baby boy cause there is nothing I can do, besides slapping on tons of Orajel and giving him Tylenol occasionally. WHICH, I'm not a fan of giving him Tylenol... sometimes it makes him pass out so hard, it freaks me out! But while he has a second tooth he's cutting now, he's happier if I give him Tylenol and Orajel right before he goes to bed... still wakes up a little but not as much as off the Tylenol.... I wish I could teeth for my boo boo... I hate hearing his pain cry!!!! But I think he's being a trooper because most of the time, it's only night time he gets upset.***

The next day, he was at his Mimi's house (Justins moms) and she called me... said she walked out of the room, came back in and Maddox was all the way across the room. She thought, "How did you get there?" She moved him back on his mat... then noticed he scoots on his back, pushing with his strong legs!
I couldn't believe it! He's figuring out ways to get around already! Next couple days I put him on his back and he's scooting like crazy!!!!! WOW, How time flies!


I took this pic when I found his tooth.. it was too hard to get a pic of the actual tooth.. but i will, eventually!

NOW, On to GERBER BABY! My lil chunky monkey has been entered into the Gerber Baby generation contest. He could win a $50,000.00 Scholorship!!!!! I'm so hoping... there is 129,000 babies entered so far... today is the last day for entries... We'll see if he has a chance :D
Considering, to me, he's the cutest baby on this PLANET!!!!!!!

I love my baby boo!


Below is a copy of the entry!

AND, The pic I used:

Working out.. feeling good... let's try running!

I've been working out every day at lunch time... I'm feeling good! I've been doing weight watchers for a while now and it's been working great as well. I just felt like my weight was stuck and I stopped losing it so quickly so I needed to add working out.
Of course I'm losing weight again... YAY! BUT... I feel like I'm not losing it fast enough... SO, I had decided I wanted to start running.. on top of working out at the gym 5 days during the week, I will add in running, 3 times a week.

I was actually telling my friend Hila that I was beginning to run... she is a big runner, so I thought I'd ask if she had any tips for me. She has got me thinking about training for a 3K... I'm not sure I can do it yet... we'll see how my foot holds out running 3 times a week.

Last night was my first time running outside... I made it 12 MINUTES... Haha... wow, running is HARD. I used to run with my dad.. in my skinny days and more in shape days... I don't remember it being so... awkward? Guess I need to get used to it and guess as I lose this extra flabby skin still hanging around from Maddox's birth, I'll feel better about running as well.

Of course, i need to work on my self esteem a bit... As I was running, every single person I see all I can think is, they look at me and say, "ha, look at that flab bouncing up and down... she's not going to last long". I know, it's pathetic... why should I care what they think? I'm doing this so I get rid of the flab!!!!! I'm doing this so I feel better, not so other people can feel better! So while working out and working on my figure, I'll be working on my self esteem and worrying about me and not what other people think.
I should be proud of this flab! This is from the miracle baby my husband and I created, I should wear it with pride................ but not for too much longer ;)

Something I've heard... 10 Months to put on the weight, 10 months to take it off... let's see if I can take it off in... 7 months!

Full time working mommy with a part time job to add?

Tired mommy... is an understatement!

This is how my days have gone lately... Wake up, 6:00AM to my wonderful little guy, Maddox. Happy boy, playing, feed him, change his diaper and play some more! Get him ready to go to Mimi's house for the day. Give him lovies, then rush to get myself ready, out the door by 8:15AM to go to work. Lunch time comes, go to the gym... then back to work :/
I get home, to play with my little love bug some more. I cook dinner, feed Maddox dinner, eat dinner (Justin and I take turns with who eats dinner first)... Then, play with Maddox while Justin enters all his work for the day into the computer...
*Side note: My husband owns a pest control business, this is his 4th year and going strong! *
Then, I give Maddox a bath, give him his night time feeding, then off to bed he goes around 8:30 / 9:00PM.
Afterwards, I get onto the computer and continue learning Quickbooks and all about Accounting. Yes, I'm teaching myself right now. Justins business has been getting so busy, it's time to do the accounting correctly.. time to figure out how to budget each month and save so he can hire someone SOON... he works 7 days a week currently and that's NO fun for me and Maddox to go to all the weekend cookouts and parties all by ourselves.
I mean don't get me wrong.... I love having Mr. Maddox all to myself ;) but he loves his daddy too and wants to see him more during the weekend!

So last night I spent a very late night working on JK Pest ... only to wake up EARLY with Maddox, 5AM this morning ... I fed him and prayed he'd go back to sleep... NOPE.. He's wide-eyed and ready to play!!!! Oh how can I be grumpy when such a beautiful angel is looking at me, cooing and smiling, begging me to play!? He instantly puts me in a great mood... although, as soon as I'm out of the door, on my way to my full time job... extremely tired... I'm put into a not so good mood anymore. Until I get home later and see my boo's face once more :)

We've decided to finally hire a financial planner to help us get everything together! I met with one yesterday and he seems sincere. I hope this works out! He's offered to clean the accounting up then show me how to maintain it. So I'm very excited to get started!

We have goals... we just need a PATH to get to the goals we've set. So the financial planner will hopefully be the guide for this!

Wish us luck and... if you or anyone you know needs pest control... Give us a call!

JK PEST & TERMITE
www.Jkpest.com
703-622-2450
jkpest@live.com

CONGRATS NATALIE BROWN.... SOON TO BE GOODMAN!

First off, shout out to NATALIE BROWN and CHRIS GOODMAN, on their engagement! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for Miss Natalie :D

What an AMAZING proposal story :D Good Job Chris!



He even thought of having photographers there to catch the whole wonderful moment!




BEAUTIFUL ring!!!!!!!!!!!!





Now... I miss my wedding! Ha.. why does your friends weddings do this to you? I wish I could plan another wedding for myself! I mean... don't get me wrong... I LOVED my wedding but why can't I have another? I keep saying to Justin... we need to have a 5 Yr, renewal of vows... like every 5 years... then we can have a party. Ha... as long as there is open bar.. I'm sure no one will mind!

Do you ever wonder... how many times the guest list will change every 5 years? Let me ask you... would you have all the same people at your wedding now... that you did back when you got married? Our lives change SO often... it's hard to keep all the same people in your life! I think I've done a pretty good job with keeping most people in my life... but there is a few people I would probably not invite now... and a few that I didn't invite that I would now! Our lives are ever changing.

Natalie, if I give you any advice at all... without your request, it's this... Don't put too much thought in your guest list... you never know who will be there in the future... stick to family and friends who have always been there for you. And, if anyone gets upset for not being invited OR if they get upset they can't bring a date... screw them! They aren't a real friend then. Have FUN planning this wonderful day and take the stressful moments with a grain of salt. You only get this day once, so enjoy everything running up to... don't close your eyes for this fast ride... keep them wide open! Take breaths and look around... it's just one more moment in your life and cherish it while you have it!

KING BED!

We got a new bed!... A KING BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!
We just got the mattress and matress pad today :) We'll get the bed frame (below) in about a week and a half.. which I can't WAIT for because I HATE mattresses being on the floor... SO TACKY!




Well, there's my tid-bit for the day... I'll have more next week... until then, have a GREAT weekend everyone!

Being a mommy ALWAYS comes first!

I love my baby... I'm pretty much obsessed with him... I can't get enough of his sweet smiles, joyful giggles and even his sour face pouts! He's the light in my life! As I always sing to him... he's my sunshine. I'm pretty sure I'm good at putting Maddox first... the problem is, I'm having trouble putting myself anywhere!
As soon as I get home, all I want to do is play with him, love him, hold him! On the weekends, I spend as much time as I can just playing with him and making him smile or laugh... I find I don't eat as healthy as I should and it's been SO difficult to get to the gym ... the main thing on my mind is being a mommy!
HOWEVER... I do look in the mirror often and say... ew... look away! I can't stand that skin dangling from my belly where it was stretched to the max and ruined my beautiful flat tummy... Then I tell myself... DUH, it was totally worth it! And I go back to my baby.... the problem is.. what am I going to do to get my body back?
I'm tired of people telling me.. "You'll never get your previous body back", well I want to prove them wrong! PLENTY of women get there body back.. it just takes hard work... BUT how do you put in that hard work when in your free time you just want to be with your baby boy?

So I'm currently doing weight watchers diet... which I am loving. I feel fulfilled AND they have a "Nursing Mothers Diet", so I still produce plenty of milk for my guy. Now ... the tricky part, gym... finding the time! Well, I already know, the ONLY time I will go to the gym is when I dont have Maddox, which is during my lunch time during the week. Well, I planned on starting as soon as I got back to work.... that was... a month and a half ago ... oops :)
I just got so used to running errands at lunch time, because that's the only time I don't have Maddox, so it's easier to get things done!

The procrastination is done with... TODAY, I went to the gym at lunch and worked out for an hour... I feel rejuvenated! You know that feeling, like you HAD to have lost some weight cause you feel so good! Really??? You worked out ONCE... so I look in the mirror... sure enough.. still, EW.
Yes, I knew that I wasn't going to be happy with myself right away, but don't you just wish you could, PROMISE to continue to work out and the weight would come off as soon as you decided to do this? Then, if after a week, you didn't work out, you would gain the weight back.

Yea... I know, isn't going to happen!

So until miracles can happen... or we become rich and I can get lipo... I guess I'll stick with weight watchers and the gym.... I need to look decent in at least a one piece by July.. and I need to look damn hott by the end of August! I have tons of weddings to go to after August!

MADDOX LEE KIMMEL is born :D

Our beautiful son was born on January 20, 2011 @ 6:35 PM. He weighed 7LBS. 2 Oz. and 19.5 Inches of total perfection!

So... I went through over 30+ hours of labor... I got to 8 cm. dilated and Mr. Maddox decided to tilt his head to the side... which forced him to stay right where he was and couldn't come down anymore... so I had to have a C-Section. I was SO upset... I wanted to have a vaginal birth for him so badly, I wanted to experience it. I guess that just wasn't the plan for us. So, after being SO tired from labor... I went into have my C-Section... which I won't even tell you the BAD experience I had.
I've heard C Sections are better then a vaginal birth from some people... but c section SUCKED for me.
My husband was amazing through the whole process though. He was there for me , as I lay on the surgery table simply crying and saying... " Owy, owy, owy, owy" and the anethesiologist saying, " Can you feel it?" While I have no energy to answer or listen other then to say "Owy, owy owy"... I felt like I was 6 years old again and couldn't articulate how it hurt. THEN... All of a sudden I felt a huge pressure, I felt them pull him out... I hear a cry, I'm looking around and Justin says, "Honey, he's over here!" ... I look in the warm light and the nurse is holding him up so I can see him.. I see this messy, pale, screaming baby... with... BLONDE, CURLY HAIR??? All I could say was... "OMG, He is so beautif....." then, the shot of morphine put me out.
Next thing I woke up and my husband was sitting in the chair next to me, holding our baby boy! It was amazing... although I noticed... this baby has BLACK hair! Later, when I saw the pictures, I realized the light was shining so brightly on him, it reflected off of him... which that in turn with all the drugs I was on, i just saw blonde hair. ha.
So, for the first hour, I kept trying to fight the morphine, I still hadn't held my son! I was shaking profusely from all the meds and I kept passing out every 5 minutes, then forcing myself to wake up... I begged to hold him but Justin says..."Honey your whole body is shaking... you can't hold him yet..." So I finally got my body under control and he gave me the baby... probably 2 hours after he was born.
I will never be able to explain the feeling I had... there is truly no words. I loved this boy more then anything that could EVER exist in this world. How could he be SO perfect?
And so began, the wonderful journey of becoming a mother... and I've fallen more and more in love with my son EVERY DAY since then!

Some main pics of family and Maddox :)


Happy Mommy with baby Maddox


I'm so happy to see Justin become a daddy!

My sister, Sabrina... the long wait over. She was so happy, she was BALLING!

Beautiful pics my sister took at the hospital.

Maddox Lee Kimmel

My sister, Justin and Maddox

My friend Michelle Wells took these beautiful pics at the hospital!


Justin, so happy to be a daddy... I love them both so much!

My besty, she was there for the whole time!


Paw-Dad, (Justins dad)
Mimi, (Justins Mom)
Nana, My mommy

R.I.P. Rockie

Three days before I was scheduled to be induced, Rockie ( our wonderful Lab/ coon hound/ shepard mix) took a turn for the worst. He had been going through a lot of issues for the past 6 months but had been getting better.
Well, all of a sudden we noticed bruises on his belly.. with in a week his whole tummy was like a huge black and blue bruise... it was internal bleeding.

We had done everything we could to make Rockie better but it was now time to make a choice... How could this happen??? Rockie is the best dog in the world, the most loyal, he's been here for me through thick and thin, the one that listened to me when I needed someone to talk to. He gave amazing hugs and he was an AMAZING dog. I just wanted Maddox to know Rockie. I had been praying that Rockie would get through his sickness and be there for Maddox, atleast for the first 5 years... was that too much to ask? Rockie was only 8 years old... I wasn't ready to let him go.

But, we had to, I couldnt watch him suffer and be in pain, he couldnt get up anymore and he was only holding on because I couldnt let him go. We took him to the vet and said our goodbyes. Justin ( my husband ) couldnt stay in the room. My father was there with me and also my friend Brent (which was my ex boyfriend who originally got Rockie with me).
I held Rockie and gave him so much love and pet his ear, the way i always do, i held his paw and I told him it was okay. I promised I'd see him again and I promised Maddox would know about him. I told him how much I loved him. He looked up at me as I kissed his nose, he finally fell asleep. In moments he was gone. And I was heart broken.
I walked out of the room and my husband held me as I cried. We finally got to the car, I didnt want to leave Rockie... My mom pulled up from Va Beach just in time... she got there to be there for me.

Though this was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through, my mom did make an astonishing discovery for me... she told me, "Amanda, do you realize what Rockie did for you? He waited, he spent all the time he could with you, then he decided it was time because he didn't want to be a burden when you were reaching a time in your life that is the hardest. He chose this time, so that you wouldn't mourn for him but instead be happy with your baby, your family that you hoped so long for. He loves you and he did this for you."
Of course at the time, it angered me, I'd rather have him hear with me... I miss him. I love him. But I do truly believe he knew the right time to go, if there is one... because though I mourned heavily for him for the next couple days, I was quickly distracted by nervousness and excitement for the new life that was going to join our family.

I know Rockie is somewhere running in a field, loving life, with all the toys he can imagine!

It's been a while!

Hey everyone! It has been a while.. I'm so sorry! Of course you understand... I've become a mom and I've been incredibly busy! But I've had quite a few emails and requests to update my blog and get back on it... so here I go!

So let's get caught up a bit!

Pregnancy... what an AMAZING experience... yes, I still love that word, AMAZING. :) It was wonderful, well up until the last 2 months... oh wow, I was huge! And T-I-R-E-D! Back aches and feet aches... tiredness, swolleness.... just plain ugliness! Ha...

I was induced two weeks prior to 40 weeks... I won't bore you with all the details other than to tell you... I was done... and this baby had to get out of me because there was NO MORE ROOM! :D

I put some of my prego pics below :) First pic is a comparison of how big I got!