Today’s post is gonna be quick.  I just wanted to share a few of my favorite books dealing with marriage.  Being married is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life.  It’s about giving more than you take, listening more than you talk, and basically deciding that someone else is more important than you every day of your life. :)  (Sounds’ romantic right?)

Anyway here are 4 books that both Danielle & I LOVE and that have helped keep our marriage together.

The 5 Love Languages (Ignore the cheesy cover.)
This book is a fantastic look at how you can communicate with your spouse and “show” them that you love them.

A quick example.  Danielle’s love language is Quality Time.  The best way for me to show her love is by spending time with her alone. (That’s one reason the kids go to bed at 7:30 in our house.)  My love language is Words of Affirmation.  I need to be told over and over that I am valued and loved. (*cough* comments *cough*)  If all I ever did was verbally compliment Danielle and never spent time alone with her she would not feel loved.  If all she ever did was want to hang out with me, but never told me why or how she loved me I would not feel loved.  This book teaches you how to communicate “love” to your spouse.  Get it.  Read it.  Do it.

Boundaries
This is a book about keeping your in-laws out of your marriage. :)  It’s about more than that, but hey, that’s all I needed to say to get you to buy it right?

The Total Money Makeover
You may have heard Dave Ramsey on the radio yelling and screaming about how dumb debt is.  This is that same guy.  His principles about money are spot on and totally worth looking into.  I’m doing a superpost on this topic soon so stay tuned.  For now, read this book.

Sacred Marriage
I’ve talked about this book here before.  It’s still a good idea to read it. :)

All of these are also on iTunes as audiobooks if you are not “into reading” so you really have zero excuse.  Anyone can get married.  Not everyone stays married.  These are all tools to help you stay married.  You do wanna stay married right?

I can’t even begin to explain how much fun we had at Disney World.  I’m consumed with getting us back there.  I tried to pan a return trip for this September, but Danielle vetoed it.  One side note.  I didn’t take my “real” camera to the park with us.  Everything you see was shot from our iPhone 4s.  I didn’t want to be one of “those dads” constantly stopping to shoot photos and missing the whole experience.  It blew me away with how great it is as a camera.  We took tons of photos and HD video and loved loved loved not having to cary anything around.  On to the images.

Here we are 1 minute into the park.  (Keep this in your memory as a reference photo.)

Some boudoir photography of Minnie’s bloomers

Sara was so excited to ride the Dumbo ride…
…because she knew Danielle rode it when she was about her age.
Here’s a great shot of the kids with the mice while Eli plummets towards the earth below.

We love us some Buzz Lightyear in this house.

Luke made us ride the Buzz ride about 10 times while we were there.

This was the 1st time Jo & Sara ever rode a roller coaster of any kind.  I didn’t tell them what to expect and you’ll see at about the 23 second mark that Sara is holding on for dear life. :)
Once the ride ended they were both hooked.  They then went on to ride everything they could at the park.

Sara was right at the hight requirement for Space Mountain and she loved every minute of it.  Jo was a bit more “cautious”.

Remember that happy photo?  Here we are at the end of the day. :)

Sara fell asleep during the night parade.  Jo kept shaking her trying to wake her up to see the princesses, but she would have no part of it.
I didn’t take this photo, but Disney, E-mailed it to me so I figured you would like looking at it. :)

Last week we took a little family vacation.  The idea for this vacation came about 8 or 9 months ago when I first saw this video by Jon Rawlinson.  It’s footage from the worlds 2nd largest aquarium located in Japan and it’s fantastic.  My kids loved watching it and I jumped right to Google to see what we had here in the states.  Well , as it turns out Atlanta is home to the worlds LARGEST aquarium.  The have whale sharks!!

Vacation Destination Achieved!

Somewhere on the road to Atlanta Danielle mentioned that DisneyWorld was only 7 hours away, but she figured I was to “old” to add that in as a spur of the moment vacation stop. :)  Well, I showed her. :)  So, after about 2,500 miles of driving we are back and I present you with photos.

Sara really enjoyed the front facing camera on the iPhone4.  At one point she filmed a 15 minute monologue.  It’s riveting.

From the moment we had out trip planned I knew I wanted this photo at the aquarium.
I can’t explain how giddy I was when I actually saw it on my big computer screen.  We are ordering the biggest print we can and hanging it in our house.

This was Elis’ 1st trip to the beach.  He felt “safest” on the sand.  You’ll see why later.

Sara the mud model.

Here is Eli’s first trek out into the ocean.  :)

Check back tomorrow for Disney photos.

Our last guest post and wedding planning tips come from Ronda at the Villa di Felicita in Tyler, TX.  This is the place to get married in Tyler, in fact they are constantly booking brides from Dallas and other areas.  Ronda & her staff often work 2-3 weddings per weekend so they know quite a bit about planning your day and the best way for it to flow smoothly.  Here are a few shots of the Villa followed by her tips.

1. Book your wedding with Villa di Felicita!  :)

2. Have professional vendors the day of your wedding..

Photographers that can work quickly and on a timely manner – if you have someone who isn’t use to working fast, then it can cause your reception to not run as smoothly,  Also, there is no good substitute for a dj or band… trying to do music yourself or have it done by a friend does not usually work well.  Dj’s will make the announcing very clear and will help keep everything on schedule!

Same goes with florists, videographers, cake, ect!

3. See each-other before the wedding starts (have a First Look).

This will ease the nerves of both the bride and groom when they are standing up in front of 200 guests!  It can be done very private where the two of you are together alone seeing eachother for the first time (with your photographer).  It gives the two of you time to really take each-other in and see what he/she looks like.   It also helps with the time line of the reception so that you don’t spend extra time after the ceremony taking 45 minutes worth of pictures and have guests waiting on you to get into the reception!  It really has nothing to do with bad luck! :)

4. Stay calm and have fun!  Don’t look back on your wedding day and think… why did I get so upset about that?? Don’t sweat the small stuff and enjoy every moment of your big day!

5.  Have fun!  It’s a day that is dedicated to you.. the bride and groom!

Villa di Felicita
7891 State Highway 110 N
Tyler, TX 75704-4927
(903) 597-0002

Today’s tips are on choosing your wedding cake.  Who better than the amazing ladies from Edible Art to help you with this choice. :)  Check out their work.

1)  Plan early- there is nothing more disappointing than to wait until March to plan your June wedding cake to find out the date is already booked.

2)  Have ideas- research/look at pictures on the internet, magazines, do you like square, round cakes, flowers, no flowers, etc..

3)  Make appointment with wedding cake designers-  Have designer look at your picture ideas, listen to your ideas, sketch out your design so both of you have the same vision of your dream cake. Be sure to ask to taste the flavors of cake.  Taste is as important as the design!

4)  Once you have chosen your cake designer- pay a deposit asap and get you wedding date of the books. Brides are so disappointed when they wait 3 months and come back to find another bride booked her wedding date and now the designer cannot create her cake.

5)  Confirm everything 30 days before your big day- Make sure the designer reviews your dream cake and both of you have the same vision.

(A note about Edible Art’s payment plan.  We work with families on these large cake orders.  We have “Cake Lay-a -way” available for wedding/large events.  Once a deposit is made, we are all about working with our brides.  Payments can be made in any amount at any time for the months leading up to the big event. Our only requirement is the cakes be paid in full 10 days before the wedding/event. If their choose to pay a deposit and wait until then to pay that is ok too.  Ask your bakery about a payment plan to help you get your dream cake.)

Edible Art
504 West South Street
Longview, TX 75601-7052
(903) 234-2114
Give them a call today!