Last Saturday we got to hang out with my awesome cousin Allison to shoot her senior portraits.  It was so much fun and I am so proud of her for turning into the beautiful person that she is both inside and out.

Just to show you how much she’s changed over the years we thought we would throw in this picture that was taken a long time ago.  Here’s on old school shot of my Aunt Linda and her kids (my cousins) Jeff, Steven and little tiny Allison.  Even back then, Allison kinda ran the show.  Good lookin’ family huh?  (Yeah, that’s right . . . we’re related.)  Over the years, we’ve had so much fun hangin’ with the cousins.  We did a lot of running around in their backyard swimming, fencing, and jumping on the trampoline while singing/yelling the theme song to friends at 11:00 at night. 

Now my little tiny cousin is all grown up.  On top of the good looks, she’s is so much fun  :-)

We love this little alley.  It’s so funny to shoot there because every time we come out from between the buildings we get the strangest looks from people.

Allison totally rocked the serious face.

Aunt Linda came along too for some photos of mom and daughter.  They are so cute together and have such a wonderful relationship.

The cousin’s have always been big into their extra curricular activities.  For Allison, it’s always been dance.  The things that she can do are incredible.  We saw her at a show one time and she stood on the very tips of her toes for like, a really long time.  We were amazed!

Showing off her hip-hop kicks :-)

Ok, ::laughing:: so I just googled “gangster names” and the first site that came up was The Original Gangsta Name Generator.  I typed in Allison to see what would come up . . .

everyone, I’d like you to meet “Head Monkey Smuggla”!  (I also tried our names and came up with “No Pants Indian” for me and “Old Killa” for Denise.  Awesome.)

Love her eyelashes in this next one.

We absolutely LOVE the contrast of taking someone gorgesous and putting them in front of something that is so not gorgeous.  In this case Allison and a dumpster.

Absolutely love this next shot.  One of my favorites for sure.

As we were walking around, we passed by this dirty, grungy alley.  Almost simultaneously, all four of us stopped and thought that it would be a great place to shoot.  Loved both of these – just couldn’t decide between them so I had to post them both.

Here’s the sassy side of Allison.

One of my favorites.  Love how the background really brings out her eyes.

I don’t know which of the next two I like better.  Both good.  Both favorites.

Loved the purple hat.  Adorable.

Now there’s the Allison I know.  Silly little “Head Monkey Smuggla”.

One more of Mom and Daughter.

Thanks Aunt Linda and Allison!  We had so much fun with you guys.  Hope we can do it again soon!  Lot’s of love!

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On Saturday, we spent the day hangin’ out with the family and took advantage of the time to get some more recent shots of our adorable niece Makena.  They turned out SOOOO cute I just had to share a few!

She has grown up so much in these last few months.  As you can see from the above photo, she’s got teeth coming in.  She’s crawling like crazy and standing up on her own.  We were making bets on how long it will be before she’s walking and poor Amy is chasing her around the house.  You just know she’s gonna be TROUBLE!

She’s looking more and more like Amy every day, but there’s still a lot of my bro-in-law Jim in her too.  Exhibit A: the pouty face :-) ha ha ha!

Peek-a-boo!

My absolute favorite :-)  Does it get any sweeter than this face?  I think not . . . love it!!!!

On Saturday, we got up nice and early to meet the Combs family at Freestone Park in Gilbert.  Afton and Jake contacted us a few weeks back about doing some photos of their little boy Merrick who had just turned one.  Since the whole family was available to come along, we decided to get the whole bunch involved!  It was a lot of fun getting to know all of them and playing with the kiddos.  Here are a few of our favorites from their session:

We found out pretty quickly that 6 year old Zia was quite the ham :-)  Check out the pose as she hugs her little bro . . .

And Merrick was such a cutie pie!

He REALLY wanted to go for a swim with the ducks in the lake, but Mom and Dad had a little different plan in mind :-)  He looks pretty determined though doesn’t he?

Zia was rockin’ her favorite sunglasses.  Afton told us that she never leaves the house with out them.  (Sounds like someone else I know . . . uhm, let me see . . . RYAN!  Ha ha ha!)

Merrick looked like he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to try out the swings with his sister, but he warmed up to the idea pretty fast.

Kids and swings – endless hours of entertainment!

The swings were fun, but I think Merrick could have sat and played in the sand all day!

We did manage to pull him away for a few minutes to hang out with his big sister on the slide.

Did I mention Zia was a bit of a ham?  This shot cracks me up!

A few more of the little man:

He seemed to be having a pretty good time hanging out with his Mom & Dad :-)

Grandma & Grandpa came along to help out and got in on a little photo fun too!

Thanks to the Afton & Jake for getting up so early to spend a lovely Saturday morning with us!  We had a great time with you guys and really enjoyed capturing your sweet family.