Show and Tell: Wedding!

I'm linking up today with From Mrs. to Mama, to talk about our wedding.

1. Are you married? If so when did you get married, and tell us about your special day.

Yes, I'm married. (You can read our story here.) I got married to my wonderful husband Jake on July 14th, 2007. We started dating in 2001 and got engaged in 2006. We were married at the church we attend in a lovely ceremony, surrounded by our closest friends and family. It was a wonderful day!

 2. Show us some wedding pictures.

Click on the collage to view larger.

Our Reception

3. How about the engagement? Tell us your story.

Jake proposed down at the Gateway Arch grounds on his 21st birthday, which also happened to be Thanksgiving that year. He got me down there by saying he wanted to check out one of the casinos, since he was turning 21 that day. LOL. I was pretty stubborn about it because I thought he should just wait, with it being Thanksgiving and all. It was so cute, once we were down there, we were walking towards the river front when he stopped to tie his shoe. I turned around to look at him and he was down on one knee with my beautiful ring. :-) I was so proud to show it off that day to our family at our Thanksgiving dinners.

Jake and I, the day he proposed.

4. Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! 

I didn't have a digital picture of our rings, but I did have a picture of our rings from our wedding scrapbook that I made. ☺

5. Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last?

I would say that when a marriage doesn't work out, it is probably because they haven't made God the center of their marriage. They haven't put Him first and foremost in their lives or their relationship. I also believe communication is a huge factor in making a marriage work. If you're not communicating your wants and needs, how do you expect them to be met? On the same token, we need to communicate the love we have for our spouse. Even though you may know your spouse loves you, its so important to hear that affirmation as often as possible and see it in their actions. 

B is for...

...Binkie and Blankie,

and for Ball.

Its for Bath time,

and for Batman jammies.

Its for Beautiful Blue eyes,

and also for Bottle.

Its for Bedtime,

and B is for Boy!! My sweet sweet boy!

Being this sweet boy's mommy is such a blessing.

My Mother-In-Law sent me this in an e-mail, and I thought it was so sweet.

10 Rules of Being the Mother of Sons

1.       Be a cheerleader for his life.
There is no doubt that you are the loudest person in the stands at his t-ball games. There is no doubt that he will tell you to “stop, mom” when you sing along to his garage band’s lyrics. There is no doubt that he will get red-faced when you show his prom date his pictures from boy scouts. There is no doubt that he is not telling his prom date about your blog where you’ve been bragging about his life from his first time on the potty to the citizenship award he won in ninth grade. He will tell you to stop. He will say he’s embarrassed. But he will know that there is at least one person that is always rooting for him.

2.       Make sure he has examples of good men who are powerful because of their brains, their determination, and their integrity.
The examples of men with big muscles and a uniform (like Batman and LaMarr Woodley) will surround your son from birth. But make sure he also knows about men who kick a$s because of their brains (Albert Einstein), and their pen (Mark Twain), and their words (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and their determination (Team Hoyt), and their ideas (The Wright Brothers), and their integrity (Officer Frank Shankwitz), and fearlessness (Neil Armstrong), and their ability to keep their mouths closed when everyone else is screaming (Jackie Robinson).

3.       Teach him that there are times when you need to be gentle
like with babies, and flowers, and animals, and other people’s feelings.

4.       Teach him how to do laundry
..and load the dishwasher, and iron a shirt. He may not always choose to do it. He may not ever have to do it. But someday his wife will thank you.

5.       Teach him to have manners
because it’s nice, and it will make the world a better place.

6.       Let him ruin his clothes.
Resolve to be cool about dirty and ruined clothes. You’ll be fighting a losing battle if you get upset every time he ruins another piece of clothing. Don’t waste your energy being angry about something inevitable. Boys tend to learn by destroying, jumping, spilling, falling, and making impossible messes. Dirty, ruined clothes are just par for the course.

7.       Let him lose.
Losing sucks. Everybody isn’t always a winner. Even if you want to say, “You’re a winner because you tried,” don’t. He doesn’t feel like a winner, he feels sad and crappy and disappointed. And that’s a good thing, because sometimes life also sucks, no matter how hard (as moms) we try to make it not suck for our kids. This practice will do him good later when he loses again (and again, and again, and again, and again…..) Instead make sure he understands that – sometimes you win – sometimes you lose. But that doesn’t mean you ever give up.

8.       Always carry band-aids and wipes on you.
Especially the wipes

9.       Give him opportunities to help others.
There is a big difference in giving someone the opportunity to help and forcing someone to help. Giving the opportunity lights a flame in the heart and once the help is done the flame shines brighter and asks for more opportunities. Be an example of helping others in your own actions and the way your family helps each other and helps others together.

10.   Be home base.
You are home to him. When he learns to walk, he will wobble a few feet away from you and then come back, then wobble away a little farther and then come back. When he tries something new, he will look for your proud smile. When he learns to read, he will repeat the same book to you twenty times in a row, because you’re the only one who will listen that many times. When he plays his sport, he will search for your face in the stands. When he is sick, he will call you. When he really messes up, he will call you. When he is grown and strong and tough and big and he feels like crying, he will come to you; because a man can cry in front of his mother without feeling self-conscious. Even when he grows up and has a new woman in his life and gets a new home, you are still his mother; home base, the ever constant, like the sun. Know that in your heart and everything else will fall into place.

Insta-Friday

Here are a few of my Instagram pictures from the last week or so. You can click on the collage to view the pictures larger.

Happy Friday!

1. Jackson decided to clean out Daddy's closet. ☺

2. A pretty rainbow.

3. Blue Orchids in the lobby of the building next to where I work.

4. A nice walk up to the grocery store Saturday evening.

5. Watching Little Einsteins with Jackson.

6. Bath Time. I love that his little toy is right in the perfect spot.

7. Jackson was laying his head down on the couch. He was getting sleepy.

8. Hanging out with Jackson on my day off this past Monday.

9. A bowl of Frosted Flakes for dinner. ☺

10. Jackson loves the show Chuggington on Disney Jr.

11. Swinging Jackson in our back yard.

12. The Gateway Arch out of my sunroof! ☺

The theme for Photo Friday this week is center, so I thought I'd use this photo.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Grant's Farm

This past Sunday, we took a family trip to Grant's Farm after church. Jake and Jackson had never been. The weather was perfect and we had a great time!

Jake, Jackson and I on the tram that takes you around the farm.

Jackson on the tram. He really liked it!

Jackson sitting on Daddy's lap on the tram.

General Grant's Home.

Horses and Geese.

Texas Longhorn

Once we got off the tram, we walked around to see some other animals. Here is a very large tortoise.

And an elephant.

 And some geese.

Jackson looking at all the geese.

And some pink flamingos.

Next we saw a cute little donkey and pony.

And then a Bald Eagle.

Then we decided to feed the goats. Unfortunately we didn't think this through very well. You see, you feed the goats with a baby bottle and Jackson thought this bottle was for him! Major Fail on our part. He was not very happy to share this bottle with the goats but we got a few pictures before the major melt down. 

These goats were CRAZY! One was behind me trying to eat my skirt and another was chewing on Jackson's overalls!

Then, I looked down and saw that one of the goats had Jackson's whole hand in his mouth!! At that point I said WE ARE DONE!! Ha.

After all that excitement, we decided to take a break in the garden and have a drink and some snacks. Jake and I each had a complimentary beer and Jackson had some veggie straws.

After that, we walked around the courtyard and saw all the horses and donkey's in their stables.

 Then we took the tram back to our car.

Jackson waiting for the tram.

Jake and Jackson waiting for the tram.

The bridge you cross to leave the farm.

We had a great time at Grant's Farm. Jackson was a little more into it than he was when we went to the zoo this past Spring, but I still think he will enjoy it more when he's a little older. We'll have to go again next year. ☺

What I'm Loving Wednesday

♥ I'm loving my new car!

♥ I'm loving that Jackson only woke up once last night, which is great since he woke up 3 times the night before. 

♥ I'm loving this new blog I found. Her photography is amazing and her children are adorable! Go check her out here.

 ♥  I'm loving these cooler temperatures that we've been having here in the mid-west.  I will gladly take upper 80's and lower 90's compared to the 100 degree weather we've had most of the summer!

♥ I'm loving the new show "United Bates of America". Not sure if you all watch "19 Kids and Counting", but the Bates family are friends of the Duggars and they are another family with 19 children. They live in Tennessee. I love watching how they raise so many well behaved children and how they all work together as a family and seem to all get along so well. I really don't know how they do it. I would be pulling my hair out!

♥ And I'm loving my two sweet boys!

I hope you all are having a great week!