Danielle & I have been married close to 8 years.  We have 4 kids.
We both absolutely love our lives together and could not imagine any better way of living.

Danielle & I have been married close to 8 years.
We have 4 kids.  It has been the hardest 8 years of our lives and never dreamed marriage could be this hard.

It may seem like those statements cannot co-exist, but the reality is that a good healthy marriage can and should be both of those statements from time to time.  Marriage is a process of unpacking and discovering the person you married.  The person you are currently dating is not who you will end up living with.  Little by little they will show you their true self and you will eventually realize you are living with a complete stranger who looks like the person you dated.  (I know I was on my best behavior as I “tricked” Danielle into marrying me.)

The thing that many people do not realize is that to have a healthy marriage you MUST change who you are, you  MUST change your behaviors and habits.  When you commit to live selflessly and give to one another it’s about a lot more than sharing a checkbook or mortgage.

You are committing to picking up the house when you would rather go out with your friends.

You are committing to staying up with a kid when you are tired.

You are committing to bringing in groceries when the game is on tv.

Marriage is a commitment that we commit to, but really don’t even know what we are committing to.  That’s why the preacher says through “good times & bad times.”  If he were to go into detail and describe every known marriage scenario to man, you would NEVER get a guy to stand up there and nod his head.  :)

OK, so you get it. But, why the buzz kill on this happy wedding photography blog.  :)  The reason is I want my couples to understand what they are getting into.  The BEST book Danielle & I read before we were married was a book called The Sacred Marriage.  It looks at marriage from the perspective of “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”

I cannot recommend this book enough.  You can get it at Amazon, Barns & Noble, your library.  You can even be lazy like me and get the audio book from iTunes. In fact, because we liked it so much, Danielle and I have both started re-reading this book recently.
Get it.
Read it.
Work really really really hard.
Live happily ever after.

Apparently the theme for the blog the last few weeks has been snow and Legos.

So, since I know all of you are so into my little family, and would much rather keep up with us rather then the Kardashians, I thought I’d fill you in on the last week or so of our lives.

Back when we had the great snow storm of 2010, I had my friend and excellent photographer Lane Davis shoot a few of us prancing around in the snow.  I love what he got.  Take a look.

Ladies & Gentlemen, give it up for the lovely Danielle!!!

Also, if you are interested in Missions, God, or photography, you’ll have to follow his new site.  He’s leaving for Africa, Asia, and 14 other countries and will be gone for 9 months documenting and photographing what God is doing in other parts of the world.  I can’t tell you how proud and honored I am to call him my friend and demand that you all follow his blog To Tell A Story.

In other news, yesterday was Jo’s 7th Birthday.  He wanted a Power Miners themed Lego party and here is what he got.

Cake.

Candles = Dynamite

Here is the toothless wonder himself.

One of the games we played was having the kids guess how many Legos were in the jar.

The first client who guesses the correct number in the comments gets a free 8×10 print.

We also had a random bag/build contest.

An impartial judge declared Jo’s contraption the winner.

How about Luke!  He built this bad boy on his own.  Not bad for a 2 year old right?

I’m also shooting Eli’s 1 year old photos today.  If you beg and plead, I might blog those soon. :)

Thursday is “Move That Bus” day.  If there is any way possible, you should to head out to Mineola, TX for the big reveal.  Everyone will be parking at the Wal-Mart in Mineola and get shuttled from there.  You will want to get there by 10:00AM-ish if you hope to get on TV.  The actual reveal will be around NOON and you won’t want to miss it.  Visit KLTV for more info.

See you there.

AlexM

[Warning: if you are not a fan of bright, colorful images, you may want to skip this post.]

I had so much stinking fun with Christina & Josh.  I don’t even know where to begin.  How about no talking from me and we get right to the images…

When they mentioned that they both loved Legos, I knew right away I wanted to head to a mall with a Lego store.

Some people update their Facebook relationship status, but Christina & Josh knew this was the real deal when they merged their Lego VIP Points.
True story.

I’m not sure what the store behind them is going to sell.  My guess is children’s shorts for 20 foot tall women.

Fun with mannequins.

The on camera chemistry these two had made my lenses happy.

I love this one.

Another favorite.

This may be my favorite from the day.

These two also love Nintendo stuff, so they brought a few little props for the end.

In case you have not figured it out yet there were so many great images I could not just blog 10 or so of them.  I decided to show you them all… That’s right… Congrats Christina & Josh you guys are a Same Day Edit! Here are all your images less than 24 hours after your session!!

I had a great time getting to know you guys and can’t wait for your wedding.  Cheers.