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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. 

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

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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.

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Allison totally rocked the serious face.

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

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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!

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Showing off her hip-hop kicks :-)

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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.)

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Love her eyelashes in this next one.

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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.

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

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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.

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Here’s the sassy side of Allison.

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

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

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Loved the purple hat.  Adorable.

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

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One more of Mom and Daughter.

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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.

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Our niece Makena is six months old!  I can’t believe how fast time has flown by and how much she has changed since the day she was born.  On Sunday, we met my sister Amy, her husband Jim and Makena at Freestone Park in Gilbert to take some family photos for them.  My mom Nancy also came along to help us keep Makena entertained.  She was so funny making ducky noises and jumping up and down with us to get her to smile!  At one point she even did some reflector work for us – thanks for all your help Mom!  We know who to call next time we need an assistant :-)

Here are some of our favorites from their session:

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LOVED Ryan’s perspective for this shot of them on the bridge :-)

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Makena and her proud Mommy & Daddy . . .

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This one of them playing makes me smile and I super love the colors! So cute!

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At one point, I JOKINGLY suggested that Jim hold Makena upside down for a few shots – I should have known better!  Ha ha ha!  She looks a little confused, but seems to be having a pretty good time . . . .

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“Nana” got in on the action too :-)

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Some fun shots of little miss Makena :-)  What a cutie!!!

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LOVE the colors in this detail shot Ryan grabbed while she was modeling her blue hawaiian dress :-)

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And this last one is just too cute for words!

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Love you guys!

If there’s one thing Ryan loves, it’s his hometown sports teams :-)   Anybody who knows my hubby knows that he tunes in (or at least Tivo’s) every Suns, Diamondbacks AND Cardinals game that comes across the airwaves.  And he’s no front runner people!  He’s a die-hard loyal fan even when a team is no good – and we all know that the Cardinals have spent A LOT of time being no good over the years.  At the beginning of every (and I literally mean EVERY) football season, he says to me, “This is gonna be the year baby!  The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl!”  So this year, when his prediction ACTUALLY CAME TRUE, he was pretty psyched to watch the game.  After they beat the Eagles, we went right out to stock up on Cardinals apparel and other various goodies . . .

My favorite game day treat . . . CARDINALS CUPCAKES!  Yum.

Ryan even sent me some new wallpaper for my iPhone . . . Now, I admit that I’m what you’d call a “Fair Weather Fan”, but when somebody’s THAT excited about something, you get on board!

Here’s a shot of the whole silly gang before kick off . . .

It was tough to shoot and pay attention, but I did catch a couple fun game time reaction shots . . .

This one makes me laugh :-)  It was taken sometime during that awesome Larry Fitzgerald touchdown . . . check out Ryan’s face!  He looks so INTENSE – he was probably yelling “GOOOOOOOOO!” when I shot this.

Even though we didn’t walk away the winners, it was an AWESOME game full of fantastic memories.  Don’t worry Cards fans – according to Ryan, we’ll be back again next year.  GO CARDS!!!!

On September 4th, our adorable little niece Makena was born!  It’s been so crazy I haven’t had much time to look through the zillions of photos until now so I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but I’m just going to warn you that it was really hard so there’s a lot :-)

Couldn’t resist including this one.  I shot this just after Jim came into the waiting room to tell us she had been born – the proud new Grandparents full of smiles! 

She was born at 6:54am – 8 lbs, 5 oz and 21 inches long

My beautiful sister and her brand new baby girl :-)

Here’s one with the new Daddy too!  They look just a little exhausted after being in the hospital with no sleep for more than 24 hours.

A Daddy-Daughter moment :-)  SO CUTE!

A few new baby details:

Nice and comfy all snug in her blanket . . .

Another shot of mommy and baby:

Makena decided she needed to open her eyes for just a little bit and check out her new family.  SO CUTE!

And of course, the proud new Uncle & Aunt!  We were seriously soooooo excited :-)  And we still are!

Amy and Makena went home from the hospital on Sunday and after giving them a week to relax, we decided to come by and visit.  Since I’m so behind in posting these, I figured I’d throw in a few new ones while I’m at it :-)  (Wow – I just realized I’m using A LOT of smiley faces in this post!  What can I say – I love being an Aunt! ;-)

Amy had her all dressed up in a purple dress for us . . .

Here’s a shot of her Daddy kissing her goodnight – so sweet :-)

Makena pretty much slept the whole time we were there, but she did wake up for a little bit to get changed.  I totally love both of these :-)

And then of course, she ate some dinner and returned to her “milk coma” as Amy called it.  Looks pretty relaxed, huh?  Love it!

Congratulations Amy and Jim!  We love you guys so much and are so excited you’ve brought such an adorable blessing into all of our lives.  To Makena: we are so proud to be your Aunt and Uncle!  Can’t wait for you to get bigger so we can all go out and play and do all kinds of fun things together!  Oh and try not to run away every time you see us with a camera – we’re going to be taking ZILLIONS of photos of you for a long, long time :-)

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Yesterday, I shot a baby shower for one of my favorite clients – my sister Amy :-)  She’s due to deliver our first little niece in September and Ryan and I could not be more excited about it!  One of Amy’s good friends Corina, hosted the shower on Saturday at the Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe.  Probably the largest baby shower I’ve even been too, the group pretty much filled up the private party room.  Here’s a shot of the room before all of the guests had even arrived yet.

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The gals did a wonderful job of organizing and decorating for the celebration.  Here are a few of the fun details!  Everything they used for decor where items that she can use when the baby comes.

Amy loves turtles so the diaper/turtle toy center pieces were especially appropriate :-)

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Loved the purple flowers – and the fact that the vases were baby bottles off of Amy’s registry!  So clever :-)

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Some happy party guests . . .

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Here’s a shot of Amy and Corina – the party planner extraordinaire!

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And what baby shower would be complete without a couple of cute babies?  These kids got passed around so much I’m still not really sure who they belong too!

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Here’s the Mommy to be getting ready to open gifts – doesn’t she have that adorable “pregnant woman glow”?  She looks so happy :-)

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 So cute!!! Notice the turtle theme?

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Apparently the “Diaper Genie” is a MUST HAVE new mommy gift.  Gotta love Amy’s reaction to the cheering and applause of all the experienced mommies in the room.  Who knew something with the word diaper in it could be such a crowd pleaser?

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And last but not least, MY favorite baby gift - tiny pink Cros!

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They’ll match Amy’s perfectly . . .

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Loving that baby belly!

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Thanks to everyone for creating such an awesome shower for my beautiful sister!  And to that little girl in there – we can’t wait to meet you, but you’re not allowed to be born until I get to feel you move!  (She’s always quiet when I’m around - so stubborn already!  Guess it runs in the family, ha ha ha!)

On Sunday, Ryan, Molly and I headed over to my Dad’s house to have a little BBQ in celebration of Father’s Day!  Ryan shot this one of me and Molly as we were getting ready to head out.  Aren’t we cute?  Couldn’t resist posting it . . .

Ryan made his SUPER YUMMY mashed potatoes.  My favorite!  While the boys were out at the BBQ my sister Amy and I decided to do some pre-dinner sampling.  She’s 27 weeks pregnant so she has a pretty good excuse for being impatient!  I on the other hand just really love mashed potatoes . . .

 Some deliciously colorful veggies ready for the grill.

Here’s my bro-in-law Jim hard at work on the BBQ.  Careful - those are some hot peppers! 

There was a bit of Father’s Day drama when we discovered a nest of baby birds in a nearby bush.  My Dad’s dog Sassy proceeded to snatch one of this little guys brothers out of the bush.  It was so sad!  The whole group was horrified! 

Here’s a shot of the whole group watching to see if the mommy bird would come to the rescue of the other baby bird.  Doesn’t it look like the scene of a serious accident or something?  Everybody looks so worried!  Don’t worry though – the little bird was okay :-)

Poor Sassy was in the “dog house” for the rest of the evening . . .

Ryan and I are both SO excited about becoming an Aunt and Uncle!  All night long, I was trying to feel my little niece move.  She never did co-operate, but I guess I still have a few months left to get my sneak peak.  Stubborn little girl!  What can I say – it runs in the family :-) 

And of course, we have to close with a shot of Dad with his daughters, son-in-laws and grand-kids (one grand-kid is in Amy’s belly and the other one, of the furry variety, is on the right)!

By the way, Jim hates having his picture taken so he always feels the need to make a face or do something else equally silly . . . way to contribute bro :-)

Happy Dad’s Day everybody!

Just after new year’s, Ryan and I found out that we’re going to be an Aunt and Uncle!  My sister Amy and her husband Jim, who’s wedding we shot back in May of 2007, are expecting  their first child in September.  Today, they had an ultrasound and found out that they’ll be having a little girl!  YAY!  The whole family is SO excited. 

Amy is only 18 weeks along so she’s just got a little bit of a baby belly so far.  Despite this, there was a lot of this going on from the boys (Ryan & Jim) . . .

She called me earlier today to tell me the news and I couldn’t help but run right out and buy little girl Granata her first pink outfit :-)

Looks like it fits!

You can all look forward to TONS of pictures of our new little niece when she joins us in September!  Congratulations Amy & Jim!

Phoenix Wedding Photographers ring in the New Year!

Our last few hours of 2008 were spent hanging out over at my Dad’s house with our super fun (and super silly) family. The evening started at about 9 o’clock with a yummy dinner and the five of us watching TV coverage of all the block parties. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather watch all the madness on TV than be there among the crazy crowds! That is of course unless I could actually be in Times Square in New York. I’d brave the crowds for that!

Anyhow, our low key New Year’s Eve fit us just fine! Here’s some shots of our preparations for midnight.

And here’s a few of the puppies . . . Sassy was definatly enjoying her party hat more than Molly.

Our next order of buisness was to select our post midnight movie. After narrowing down our choices, Ryan was kind enough to facilitate the process by having each of us submit a secret ballot.

And then came the moment we’d all been waiting for . . . midnight arrived and we celebrated the arrival of 2008 with a champagne toast and LOTS of noise!

Wahoo! Happy New Year!

After all the noise, we settled in to watch our movie vote winner “Keeping the Faith” and pretty much after that everybody fell asleep. It was a great way to ring in the new year!

However, no New Year’s celebration would be complete without at least a couple of photos from the morning after . . .

Yummy . . . waffles . . .

Happy 2008 to everybody! Best wishes to all in the coming year!