snap snap snap

Alright thats it give me camera mom!!!!!!

Everything happens for a reason... I have always somewhat hated that phrase; it just seems like the catch all comfort phrase, able to fit in any situation for any reason. I have heard it many times and am just as guilty as saying it. It got my wheels spinning and thinking one night. Does everything happen for a reason? Can you really trace everything that happens to the thing that happened right before that and so on and so on? Well had I never known how to drive a stick shift I would have never met Jer. True story, we were both deployed to Kosovo at the time, almost ten years ago. He was in another unit and we had not a clue who the other one was (even though we had both been at Ft Jackson, Ft Hood, and Germany at the same exact times) Jeremy had a job working in the TOC which is some abbreviations that I don't remember now, but basically the hospital headquarters. I was in an ambulance platoon on the opposite side of the hospital. At our 1st formation our platoon was to supply a driver for the Sergeant Major, usually this honor is given to a top notch soldier because they are always around higher ranking people so naturally I was not in the running. I was a bit of a wild child and the army had not settled me down much. So they picked this gung ho solider whose boots were always shined and uniform always pressed (and who Jeremy would have had no fun working with at all) Little did our platoon sergeant know that the sergeant majors truck was a stick shift and she was clueless on how to drive it. At our next formation they asked who there could drive a stick shift and would you believe that I was the only one! And so with a bit of hesitation I was selected and when I wasn't driving the Sergeant Major to and from chow I was hanging out in the TOC where I met and got to know the one and only Jeremy. Thinking back now to all those hours my dad and mom spent teaching me how to drive a stick at the lake, little did they know that one thing would lead me to meet my husband. But that's just one of many things that lead me to him, not to mention all the things that lead him to me. I mean the list is endless of all the things that needed to happen in order for the outcome or "reason" to be for us to meet and fall in love, get married, have four dogs, and best of all make Olive. Jeremy and I had a conversation one night about all the possibilities of life, one of which, the theory of parallel universes. How every endless possibility to everything is already mapped out in a parallel universe. So any decision I ever make is being played out in some other universe. There could be a version of me that is sitting and typing this but drinking coffee instead of water and listening to Olive sleep only her name is Layla instead. Or on a grander scale a version of me who never joined the army and stayed in Lincoln. It makes my head hurt and seems all above my level of consciousness. I guess now I can see why the phrase everything happens for a reason can be of comfort, to leave it to a man in the sky who has a plan for it all, but I am just not one of those folks...A point..I had one when I started typing, but lost it along the way... Ahh yes, so our buyers lost their financing. It was too good to be true, selling the house in one day, being done with the cleaning, showing, and having folks walk through our house trying to see their own lives in our house. Buying a house was so much easier when we didn't have one to sell 1st! But alas, we still have time and an awesome realtor. We are still under contract with the house we are planning on buying, it is just not fun to be at the mercy of packing up the four dogs and the baby anytime someone wants to come take a look...

...Speaking of that baby she is getting bigger and bigger by the day which, although breaks my heart, is a good thing. A growing baby is a healthy baby!!! She is smiling more these days. Somehow her changing table has turned into the playing table. It takes a good 20 minutes to change her because as soon as you lay her down she is all smiles and sticking her tongue out, which is her way of saying "please play with me" So we change her and play with her and I'm starting to think that she cries like she needs to be changed just to get up on that table cause there have been a couple times I lay her down and her diaper is clean and there she is sticking her tongue out at me, little stinker!!

...She is still sleeping well and giving us lots of rest which we are gladly taking because I'm sure that once she starts teething we will be in for some sleepless nights. We took her to her 1st party. It was Camren's 1st birthday so all morning I was telling her how excited we were for out 1st party at Uncle Kevin and Aunt Johna's. So we put on our party dress and headed out. She was really good and hardly fussed, I think it had a lot to do with he fact she was surrounded by boys!!! The middle Koelzer boy, Braylen who is about 2 came right up to her and was stroking her cheeks saying "Hi baby" in his crazy low voice and then popped a kiss right on her lips! So not only did she go to her 1st party, but got her 1st kiss from a boy!!! I wonder at what point in life you really stop celebrating all the 1st? I am gonna try and make an effort to celebrate the next time I or me and Jeremy have a 1st of something. I guess the older you get the rarer those 1st moments are. Just another reason we should all just stop getting older. But time is contagious and everyone is getting old!!!

(We were hanging out outside in her stroller and just at this time a gust of wind hit her and her eyes got all big like "what the heck is going on mom!!")

Well that is my weekly update to the Fam, love you all!! Talk to you next week!!

Into this endless race for property and privilege to be won, we must run, we must run, we must run...Woohoo, so Jeremy and I sold our house and bought a new one all in the span of about 30 hours!! And just as exciting if not more Ollie has been sleeping through the night!!!

(our new house above)

We had been looking for houses for awhile now and found ont that we fell in love with. Its not in the country with some land like we had wanted but it does have a pretty big lawn and the best part it has a 22 acre park right on the other side of our fence. We are so excited and only have to tie up the loose ends of buying/selling, but should be all moved in at the end of April. Our realtor was really amazing through everything and really fought hard for us to get the most out of our house and the best deal on the one we bought.Man oh man I feel so grown up! We finally have a grown up house with plenty of room for people to come visit and more than enough room for all of our 100 dogs (4 dogs = 100, or at least it feels like it) and of course more babies to come someday. We even talked about getting a couple chickens, since we didn't get the land we had wanted to have our little farm we figured we still have enough room for a couple chickens...

...So Ollie has been sleeping through the night which to say the very least is freaking awesome! It's been about 5 days in a row that she's done it. She's only 7 weeks so I'm sure that we will still have some...a lot of sleepless nights ahead but I'm enjoying what I can get! We went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Fey this weekend and she had a great time and even gave them a bunch of smiles. She's just now starting to realize that she can make noises outside of screaming bloody murder. So we are sarting to get little squeaks and coos out of her. I had a really bad day the other day and was away from her for a couple hours when I finally got home Jeremy brought her to me and she busted out a big ole smile as soon as she saw me, it made my entire day better and all the bad things go out the window. Babies are the best medicine, well a happy baby that is...



Jeremy and I are doing a Warrior Dash in july with a group of friends. I am pretty excited. Its a 3 mile run where you crawl in the mud, climb walls, and jump over fire. Me and Jeremy will get to relive some of our Army days, plus the friends that we are doing it with are just funny so it's gonna be a really good time...



Motivation is a strange thing. It can come in all these different forms, but every since Olive was born there has been a flood of motivation in the Giardini house!! To get in better shape, eat better, save money, clean the house, buy a new house, be smarter. I feel so full of all this energy it's great! But sadly I understand that this comes along with the excimenet/hormones of having a baby and will soon all be a distant memory, but i'm milking it for all its worth until I collapse!!!



And there is my weekly update and a whole lot of pictures!! Love you all!!!

Pictures Pictures Pictures...

Olive is already 5 weeks old. How time can move both fast and slow amazes me (a little Bright Eyes lyrics) But truthfully I cant believe how fast time is moving and how fast she is growing up and changing. I am just so happy that I get to be around for all these moments with her!! She had a pretty big week. Things finally started to get a little more routine. We even started to introduce her to her crib, which has got mixed reviews. She does good during the day sleeping in her crib but some how she knows its night time and won't have anything to do with that crib at all. She will scream like a crazy person, but as soon as you pick her up and sit on the couch or the rocker shes as clam as a clam...

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that she started smiling for real and not just the reflex smiles we had grown used to...


Daddy had bought her a stuffed Eeyore that she adores. I was playing with her the other day and she just started busting out the biggest smiles...

It was the greatest feeling to see her smile. To see her happy...

Now I can't wait for a laugh to go along with the smile...

We also took a bath in the big bathtub with the jets this week. Olive really enjoyed it. She didn't want to get out and was very upset with me when we finally did...

The weather was so nice this week that we busted out the stroller and went for a jog. That put her right to sleep. I am running a 5k in April and decided to push the jogging stroller during the race. Im looking forward to it...

Last but not least Olive finally got to meet all the dogs. So far they have pretty much ignored her, I think because we would not let them really near her...

But they seemed to really enjoy finally getting to get all their kisses in, and it didn't seem to bother Ollie any...

Brocklee has seemed to warm up to her and is always right next to us when he gets the chance...

Well that was the big week here at the Giardini's house.

Talk to you next week!!!