Sara having her “Spring Spa Day at Elizabeth Arden”.

One of my most favorite shots of Luke ever.

There is nothing better than walking into a room and seeing your oldest reading to the younger three.

Sometimes the kids squish their faces onto the window.

Sometimes the kids play with the water hose.

Sometimes Danielle & I prove we are cool parents.

And… the most exciting photo of all.  Our “Saving for DisneyWorld” chart is almost full.  :)

Thanks for sticking with me while I bored you with photos of my people.  We’ll return to our regularly scheduled wedding goodness later this week.

A few days ago, we were all outside playing and we had an impromptu “family shoot.”  I set up my camera and let the kids go nuts with a water hose.  They had fun. I had fun. We had fun.  AND, awesome pictures came of it.

If you are anything like me, sometimes it seems like life is moving at like 4,391 miles per hour.  Regardless of how much you try to slow down, things just keep piling up;  that is part of the reason that our family practices a Sabbath once a week. But even then it’s like we don’t get enough breaks.  More and more we are realizing that we have to be intentional about stopping.  We have to “plan” to do nothing.  Maybe it’s just us, or maybe you struggle with this too.  If you find yourself seeming to never have time to “play,” you may need to just schedule it.  Put it on the calendar.  Make it the most important part of your week.  The cool thing is, the more we have time to rest and refuel, the more ready we are to get back to work or let our creative juices flow.   I LOVE some of the images we got and can’t wait to work this idea into an engagement session.  You know you want to be cool like my kids.  Email me if you are brave and want your engagement session to be H2O-wsome!!!

Try not to be too impressed.  Enjoy.

Huge shout out to La Tee Da Flowers for hooking me up with the fabric for curtains.
(They just launched their new website today so go check it out.)

Then I was like… wait…. you totally need to draw my whole family.  How awesome is this??!!??!!

Then I was like… wait… I have an idea.  Draw these people.

And she was like.  Bada bing, bada boom.

How great is that?  You can get anything done, I had her do a wedding portrait, but how fun would it be to have a drawing of where you became engaged?  You can use these everywhere, Facebook profile pics, a print to frame and hang in your new home, wallpaper for your iPhone.  How about as custom stamps for your invitations?!?!

So here is the deal.  You need to give her a call, she is hooking you up with a discount for being a blog stalker.  She normally charges $50 for a couple but is giving you 20% off so it’s only $40.  (That’s like what you’ll spend on 1 person to eat at your wedding.

Email her here and mention my site.
(eightyniner89@gmail.com)

Ready…. GO!

Side note: I’m totally looking forward to being a kick butt grandparent by around 2032.
(I’m also looking forward to finally getting that flying car.)

So, back in the day I used to do a bit of video work.  My company was cleverly called. The Video Guy.  Like any new business I had t-shirts made and one day I took Jo, our only son at the time, out and did few photos.  For some reason we also worked an iPod into the shoot.  Partly because it was cool, partly because listening to music was one way he would stay still while I photographed him.  The video business is long gone but the t-shirt and tradition have stuck around.  A few weeks ago it was Eli’s turn to rock the shirt & iPad 2.

And, because I KNOW you want to see more photos of my kids, here are some of their TVG shoots along with links to the latest and greatest Apple gadget at the time.

Jo | iPod

Sara | iPod (w/video) (I can’t begin to explain how much easier the tiny tiny video screen made road trips.)

Luke | iPhone 3GS (Luke never had to “suffer” watching a 2 inch video screen like Sara & Jo did.)

Yes, I realize it’s just a drill and most 5 year olds could run it.  Thank you.  Anyway, by the end of the project I had promoted myself up to full manhood and rented and operated one of these bad boys.  Check it.  I’m a man.

Not bad eh.  I started with a smaller auger.  Rental places know you are a manly man when you hook something up to the back of your minivan.

Each of the 50 fence posts had to be set in concrete. So you buy a bunch of bags of concrete and carry them over to each post.

Concrete bags that weigh 80lbs each.

I am not that strong.

This is how we ended up moving them.

Some of the ground was too hard to the little auger so I ended up having to rent the little tractor looking thing.  Here is photographic proof that I can operate heavy machinery.

And finally, here are a few before and after photos of the backyard.  I’m basically a mix between Bob Vila & Ty Pennington.  (A builder who is old AND good looking.)

HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to Danielle who not only encouraged me to do the project, but carried every single fence picket to the backyard while I nailed gunned those bad boys up.

Side note:  Working like a real person made me love my fake job that much more.  Thank you all for paying me to take photographs.