Blessed

I have had time to do new posts!!! School was super chaotic for a moment there but now I have had two weeks off and almost feel like I am going crazy with all of this extra time! My house has been "deep" cleaned one to many times and I am prepared for my next semester of classes! A few weeks ago I was so fortunate to go home to Michigan. My boss had said she was going to New York to visit her family and that I would have a week and a half of no work. So I decided to go spend it at home, which was so great because I was there for my nieces and nephews birthday party. All four kids birthdays are within two months of each other and since it would be crazy to plan four birthday parties with my sisters schedule she has one! With no preplanning of my trip I was feeling super blessed to not have missed it! I was also feeling super lucky to be able to witness my second niece Belle get baptized. I might of lost my marbles had I missed that!;-) My Grandpas sister had passed away a few days before I had arrived in Michigan, so even though it was a not-so-wonderful event I was able to be there for my Grandpa and family and attend the funeral. A plus was my Aunt Deb came up from Tennessee to make it to the funeral so I was able to spend time with her as well! The rest of the week was great, my mom took the whole week off and we spent ALOT of time together! My favorite day was we woke up and went antique shopping and thrift store shopping! We found some awesome places all around Michigan!

My cousin Amber is getting married next August and I am her Matron of Honor. I sound so stinkin old being called a Matron. She said she is going to call me her "old maid" from now on! While I was in town we went shopping for her wedding dress. I thought it was going to resemble the time I picked out my wedding dress. I tried on about five and chose one, bought and left with it from the store. Took about a total of an hours worth of time. Not Amber, she tried on about twenty and didn't chose ANY of them. The best part of trying on dresses with Amber is Chelsea my little cousins commentary. :-) Funny how close Amber and I have been growing up but yet we are so different! She will find her perfect dress one day, I know it!!

Ultimately I felt really loved by the Lord this whole week. I think he knew my heart and that I would have been a little heart broken to have missed the baptism, birthdays, funerals and being there for my cousin while she prepares for her special day! How crazy was it that it all happened in a week and my boss happened to chose that week to go out of town when normally she visits her family the first or second week in July!

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

July

Im doing this backwards because I forgot about posting this! This happened before my trip home!

The beginning of July my Mom had planned on coming down to spend a long weekend with me! She was bringing my Grandma along with her! They came in on a Thursday and to my surprise my nieces popped out of the van! This is extra special to me because growing up I would always go with my Grandma and Grandpa down to Tennessee to visit my Aunt and Uncle. The road trips were always so fun and the time in Tennessee was always so great. I hate living away from my nieces and nephew because I feel like I miss out on so much stuff. However, I think back to my relationships with my Aunts and I felt just as close to my family in Tennessee as I did family in Michigan. It was just a treat to get to see them. So this was great, now it is a treat for them to come to Iowa!

We decided to use the weekend to make a Park Passport and hit up all of Des Moines great Parks! If there is one thing Des Moines has it is great parks!! We documented it and put our pictures into the passport to remember our time. Here are our pictures.....

LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THE WEEKEND!

Colorado

Our Colorado trip was probably one of the craziest weekends I have had in a long time!

We started out on a Thursday when we left Des Moines with our friends Ryan, Andrea, and Andy. The car ride was quite adventuress. Our friends soon found out about my fear of riding in cars as soon as we took off and what felt like a tornado was happening. Driving down I-80 pitch black in the rain and lightening storm was quite terrifying. My nerves were calmed by Ryan's sarcasm and our car ride sing alongs to ghetto old school rap! We arrived in Colorado to stay the night in a hotel next to a prison, this created some great commentary from everyone. We awoke and headed to Idaho Springs! This was one of my favorite parts of the trip! This little town reminded me of the town from cars, Radiator springs! It was a cute little old mining town. We ate and went white water rafting, our tour guide was from Michigan and knew some of my friends, so that was fun to chat about while we were dodging rapids! Really there were only two rapids that frightened me but lucky me I have a strong husband that knows his wife really well and made sure I didn't fall out of the boat!

We drove to our huggggge house that held all thirty of us to eat and get about three hours of sleep! We woke up and went to hike a mountain at one in the morning. Nick and I loveee sleep which made this decision to get up at 1:00AM really hard! We are super thankful we did, there is something really unifying about hiking up a 14,000 foot mountain with some of your closet friends. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done. You literally cant breath at the altitude your at. We lost a few on the way up the mountain, some people got sick from the altitude sickness, and mostly your muscles get so tired from lack of oxygen. It was the weirdest feeling of getting your breath back, walking three steps and being out of breath again. I thought I lost Nick a few times along the way but ultimately it was so fun to do as a group together. Next time I am going to train for it!

We went back to the house and slept for around four hours, woke up and went to Longmont to go SKYDIVING! This was soooooo fun and I think everyone in their lifetime should try it once. Nicks uncle is one of the crazy guys that jumps into the Broncos stadium at every game and his full time job is jumping out of airplanes. He is CRAZY! There was five of us that went to Longmont to jump, Krystina, Stephen, Lindsay, Nick and I! Here are pictures.........

After our Saturday festivities, we slept and woke up Sunday morning to leave! Such a fun weekend with fun people! Thanks to Kate Altmaier for planning the shenanigans!! Also I stole some pictures from Jill...Thanks Jillski!!:-)

New Family Member

Nope not a baby but a sweet little girl pup!

Meet Eden....

She is the sweetest puppy, she is lazy and loves to snuggle!

Nick has been an excellent puppy dad and has really taken over
taking care of her! I think he enjoys having company when I am at school!

Im excited to experience the joys of being a puppy owner!!

The first time...

Last Wednesday was the first time I met my father inlaw!

He came down the escalators to greet nick and I with a hug and lots of tears.
Nick hasn't seen his dad in almost five years so this was kind of a big deal.

If anyone keeps up on world news you all know how bad Greece is. So it looks like Nicks dad, step mom, sister, step brother and half sister will be moving over soon!!

We had great dinners the whole time he was here and I learned how to cook more Greek dinners!!

Opa

Christmas

I am only two months late...

She is just priceless!! 

Christmas was a really great two weeks for Nick and I! We started it out with a Christmas night with the family I nanny for. Tuesday December 20th was my last day working for a two week vacation. Nick came over after work and Ting had a Thai dinner for us and we distributed gifts! Austin the seven year old even spent his own money on a horse book for me and a Iowa shirt for Nick. (Sweet boy)

That Wednesday, and Thursday Nick had to work so Nyador and I were able to spend a lot of time together. We had such a great two days, we woke up and chilled around the house, went shopping for last minute gifts and worked on her school projects. We then took her to HuHot my favorite restaurant and had such a fun dinner.

Friday night we had Nicks family over for a low key Christmas. his aunt, uncle, little cousin, our little brother from BBBS, Nyador and his mom and step dad. We had pizza, played games and did presents! It was so nice for no one to cook and just actually get to hang out and spend time together.

Saturday we left and headed for Michigan, we made it in time for Uncle John and Aunt Maries house. Sunday we had dinner at my Uncle Toms, stopped by my Grandmas, then made it to my sisters inlaws to play games with them.

Monday we woke up and went to Christmas at my sisters for breakfast to open gifts with my dad and the kids. This has been what we have done for the past 7 years however Josh preached on Sunday and they had to be up and at it early so we switched it to Monday! This was so fun because I got to give my sister a pinterest project I made! It was also sweet to finally have Nick join us for our ritual family Christmas!!

The week home was so relaxing and nice for Nick to get to be around my family more. We woke up and had coffee with my mom every morning, met my dad for dinner most nights and had a date with Jen and Josh to Greek town and made countless trips to animal shelters with Chelsea to pet all the puppies!

Friday we had Christmas at my Grandmas and Grandpas house with my moms side of the family! With a surprise visit from my cousin Adams family! Always nice to just relax and get spoiled at Grandmas house! I am so thankful for this Christmas to be able to have it with my Grandma after her stroke in December!

Saturday, New years day Nick and I headed back to Iowa and had such a fun night together! We went to a hotel in Chicago, ate some good Greek Food and sat in the hot tub and pool then watched the ball drop together! I loved kissing my husband when the ball dropped (first New Years married)!

Highlight from the week was my Christmas present from Nick, a wedding band!! :-)


I just loved this time home!

Elyse

One Year

Loved every guest at our wedding fully embracing the Greek Dances!

NICK AND I HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR A YEAR

I can't believe this!!

I seriously have been so blessed by this man in my life!

I am blessed by his daily sacrifices, his love for others and myself, his determination,his patience with me and his hard work.

My friend Haley and I have gone through the Help Meet book by Debbie Pearl and I have enjoyed learning how to be a good wife and love my visionary man.

Nick and I went to Lincoln Nebraska this weekend to see the Gatlack kids and take Nyador back to her mom. We then dressed up and went to a cute part of town called the Haymarket and had Mexican dinner. We decided to have Mexican so we could pretend we were back in Mexico! It was soo fun!

I have been told your first year is always the toughest but I must say I have loved loved loved this past year so I am pumped to see how this next year will go!

-Elyse

Far Away Family

When Nick and I were home over the Holidays we left in a hurry because my mother was convinced there was a huge snow storm coming. My Brother inlaw was preaching on Saturday and so we were unable to say goodbye!

We love skype though!!!!!!

We don't usually chat over Skype but use it as a time to have a funny face contest and for the kids to stare at themselves on the computer!