It's A Party In The USA

Every year my entire Greek family gets together for one week each summer.  Here is a short three minute video that we filmed that week.  Thank you to my son Landon for filming and editing and to my niece Abbey for editing also.  Enjoy!  

Family Reunion 2018

Starting A New Season The Empty Nest

30 years ago we didn’t do beautiful pictures with baby shoes announcing a pregnancy. 🤰🏻30 years ago we didn’t have gender reveal parties 💗🤰🏻💙 30 years ago we didn’t have baby photos on a blanket with a circle around a number showing how old they were. 🤱🏻 💙💗💙💙💗 We did drive our babies to Sears Portrait Studio or Olan Mills to get their monumental portraits done though. 📸👶🏼 I birthed five amazing humans - Jordan Daniel, Alexia Nicole, Taylor Christian, Landon Thomas, Sierra Michelle - and we’ve had children in our home for the last 30 years....... until this month. 🙋🏻‍♂️🙎🏼‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️💁🏻‍♀️ So in honor of our next chapter .......here you go .....Empty Nesters August 2018. 👫

Prom Night 2018 The Final Chapter

It was a huge evening in our home this past Saturday.....it was PROM NIGHT for our youngest Sierra. 💙 We have five children and she is our baby girl. 💙It’s hard to believe that this phase of our life is quickly coming to an end. 💙 Sierra looked absolutely gorgeous tonight when she and all 9 of her friends and their dates loaded up in a limo to head to prom after all the parents too a million pictures. 💙I shed a tear as they drove away. Why do they grow up so quickly? 😪💙 I linked Sierra’s dress and my look too under the bottom photo.  

The Original SIX!

I like to call us the "Original Six"   This is how, as my dad likes to call all 28 of us, the "The Whole Catastrophe"  This is where it all began!  I am the oldest of the four siblings.  My parents had two boys prior to me that they lost to miscarriage.  My mom had incompetent cervix and wasn't diagnosed until after she lost the second baby.  I always say thank the Lord they finally caught it because if not I might not be here typing today.  We were all born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana where were lived  for most of our childhood but when I was a freshman in high school we moved year round up to our lake house at Lake Tippecanoe.  

Let me introduce you to my siblings.  Stephanie, who is standing next to my dad is next in line as far as age.  She is married to my brother in law Todd and has 3 children and one sweet daughter in love.  They all live in Indiana where I was born and raised.  Then is my sister Michelle!  She is married to my brother in law Joe and they have 3 children.  They currently reside in Apopka, Florida.  Also, my two sisters are both Lip Sense Distributors so if you are interested in learning more about lipgloss that never rubs off let me know and I can put you in contact with them.  

 Then finally is my baby brother Andrew.  I remember before he was born praying for a brother.  I told my mom that I was praying for a brother and she said to me, "Emily, we are not having anymore babies."  Well, I told her I was still going to pray and I did.  I'll never forget the day about a year later when she came to me and said, "Emily, either I am dying or I am pregnant!"  Well, you can see she wasn't dying but was pregnant with my brother Andrew.  It's been rumored that when my dad found out that he had a son after my mom delivered Andrew he was running through the halls of Parkview 

Memorial Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana yelling, "It's a boy!  It's a boy!"  :-)  

I am very close to all my siblings but my brother and I have always had a special connection.  The Lord used me during his time growing up to save him from injury.  I remember one time he was just about 9 months old.  He and my mom were in the kitchen and I was in the family room.  All of a sudden I felt the urge to go to the kitchen.  When I walked in I saw my mom had the fridge door open and she was taking out things for breakfast.  Andrew was trying to climb up into the fridge.  I picked him up and as I did my mom was pulling out a Cranberry Juice Cocktail glass container.  (Back in those days they were glass and not plastic)  As she pulled it out and as I walked away with Andrew in my arms the bottle of cranberry juice broke at the neck and fell right where Andrew had been.  There were other times too that the Lord protected Andrew from death or injury.  The Lord has had His hand on his life!  My brother is married to my sister in law Heidi and they have 3 children.  They reside in Clermont, Florida where my brother is a financial planner and advisor with Edward Jones.  

I was blessed to be raised by two amazing parents.  They taught us so many things such as the importance of family, being organized, determined, saving money and having the perseverance and determination to live out our dreams.  They also instilled in us a love for the Lord and the importance of having a relationship with Him.   My dad is full blooded Greek so when we were little we attended the Greek Orthodox Church.   We eventually switched to Blackhawk Baptist Church were Pastor David Jeremiah use to pastor.  My parents were born and again and that is where I asked Jesus into my heart too as well as the rest of my siblings.  We eventually ended up at Calvary Temple in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  

Fast forward to today and all of my siblings are or have been in ministry.  The Lord has used us in many ways.  Now, some are back in the marketplace and others like myself still in full time ministry. But either way, we all still love the Lord with all heart, mind, soul and strength and try to be a witness to others of the amazing love the Lord has for each and every one of us.  

Independence Day Fashion and Dessert Inspiration plus a few family pics from our 4th of July!

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays.  I love celebrating America's birthday and our freedom.   We are so blessed to live in this nation.   One of our sons, Landon, flew in from California to spend the week with us.  Also, our daughter Sierra was here and our daughter Alexia and our grandson came over too.  We just hung out at the pool and eating some fun patriotic desserts.  I have included below 3 different style inspirations and pictures of the desserts we had during our day.

Top:  ROSS  Shorts and Shoes:  TJMaxx Watch:  Oceanaut Watches

Tank:  TJMaxx  Shorts:  STS Blue Shorts  

VEST and Clutch:  Target  

Dab into the pool :-)

Our grandsons Isaac and Caden

My attempt at dabbing into the pool :-)

The boys are ready for the fireworks!

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My Family!

This is my family and this is the last family picture I have of all of us ....it's over a year old.  It is very hard to get us all together because some of our kids live all over the country.  For those who don't know me well let me introduce you to them all to you.

Starting at the far left is Landon Thomas.  He is 21 years old and is living in Anaheim, California where he is doing an internship at Influence Church.  He has attended Bible School and did a Missions School with the missions organization YWAM in New Zealand.  

Next to me is my husband of 30 years, Carlos!  He and I have been in full time ministry for 31 years and together founded and are the directors of the Orlando House of Prayer  We are one of three Houses of Prayer in the US that operate 24/7.  We never close our doors.  Carlos and I also travel all over the US and South America teaching and ministering at different churches and ministries. 

Then next to Carlos is our son Taylor Christian who is 24 years old.  Taylor was living in Los Angeles where he was pursuing a career in acting and post production for the last 4 years.  Recently, he made a career change and recently moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where he lives with his cousin Travis.

Next to Taylor we have our oldest, Jordan Daniel, who is 29 years old.  Jordan lives in Anaheim and is in the music industry.  He completed music school and now tours as a keys player with many worship leaders from IHOPKC and Bethel.  He also is on staff at Influence Church and plays an active role in song and music writing with Influence Music.  

Next to Jordan we have Alexia Nicole who is 27 years old.  Alexia is currently working for Disney and a t-shirt company.  She is also the mother to our grandsons Caden and Isaac and lives in Ocoee near OHOP.

We then have Sierra Michelle who is 17 years old and is the baby of the family.  She is a senior in high school and is the only one of our children living at home.   Sierra is a varsity cheerleader, soccer player and swims on the swim team.  She also has an incredible voice, plays keys, electric, acoustic and bass.

On the far right is our son in law Matt.  He and Alexia were married about 7 years ago.  Matt was worship leader at IHOPKC for ten years.  That is where he met Alexia and they fell in love.  About 4 years ago they moved to Orlando where he became the worship director of OHOP.  Matt is a very anointed, talented and gifted worship leader, vocalist and pianist.  He also travels all over world leading worship at churches, conferences, camp and other ministries.  

Then in the front we have the two cutest of the bunch - our grandsons - Caden Samuel and Isaac Matthew.  They are 5 years old and are going to Kindergarten this fall.  They are the absolute sweetest little boys I have ever met.  They call me Gemmy and my husband Papa. 

 On a sad side note, my daughter and son in law are having marital problems.  Please keep them all four in your prayers.  We are believing for God to restore their marriage and family.

Well, that just about does it.  That is my family and I love them all very much.   

The twins graduate from preschool!

The Lord has blessed my husband Carlos and I with the two sweetest grandsons ever Isaac and Caden!  They are five years old and they just graduated from preschool.  Caden and Isaac were born 10 weeks premature but you couldn't tell that today.  They are both thriving, smart, loving and loving little boys who are so excited to be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  

To the twins I am known as Gemmy.  When I first found out that my daughter and son in law were going to have a baby (and then later found it was babies) I was a young 46 years old so I wasn't mentally prepared to be called Grandma :-)   So, I started thinking of other names they could call me. I didn't want to be Nana, Mimi, Grammy, Granny etc.  . .  So my niece Ashley came up with the name of Gemma short for Grandma Emma and that is what I originally went with.  Well, two years after the twins were born and were starting to really talk Caden all of sudden started calling me Gemmy.  At first I said, "Caden, I'm Gemma" but he was pretty consistent in calling me Gemmy.  So I let him . .I had one calling me Gemmy and the other calling me Gemma.  Eventually, Isaac started calling me Gemmy too so I became Gemmy to both of them.  I love that name not because it's the cutest name but because they named me that.  

I can't believe they are already 5 1/2 and getting ready to start elementary school.  Time has flown by but it has flown by even sweeter with these two in our lives.  

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