I came across this on a few photography sites I visit and figured you all would enjoy it.  Here is a teaser image.

Visit Donnan Photo for the full scoop.  It will make your day.

I had such a great shoot today with Bethany & Nathaniel.  I can’t wait to give them a full posting of blog love later this week, but could not resist sharing a few images. :)  Enjoy.

A quick Monday post about Dinosaurs.  Just what you would expect to find on every great wedding photography blog. :)  Last week was Kids Week at our house.  We swapped boys & girls with our friends and then one night they all stayed at our place and the next night they all went to their place.  The last day all 10 of us went to Dino World in Glen Rose, TX.  There was no birthday or particular reason for going.  Kids Week is just something we started a few years ago.  A chance for them to celebrate being kids.  We eat lots of junk food, stay up late, play lots of video games, build a fire, camp in the living room.  Crazy stuff kids want to do all the time. :)

Kids week is about embracing who these little people are right now.  It’s about ice cream with cherries, pineapples, whip cream, and cookie crumbs.  It’s about finding the joy in driving 3 hours to look at life size dinosaurs.  The older we get the more we look towards the future as “better”.

Once I graduate high school and go off to college…

Once I get my degree and get a real job…

Once we finally get married…

Yeah that’s right. I totally turned a post about dinosaurs into a post about how you are missing the joy in your engagement. :)  Enjoy the process.  Live it up.  Flirt.  You have the rest of your life to be married.  You only have the next few months to be engaged.  Find ways to make it something memorable and not something you just check off your wedding planning list. :)

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. :)