Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!!!

We have been so blessed by God's grace this year, and while there have been ups and downs, challenges and obstacles and new paths presented, we are so thankful for all He has done for us and pray that 09 will be just as fruitful.

Here are some moments that have been captured over the last few days of some wonderful Christmas Magic.

McKenna was so excited when she saw Santa in line, but would not have anything to do with him when it was our turn, so this year turned into a family pic with Santa. Griff did great and laid out both his and Kenna's list...

Making Cookies for Santa...

Waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven...

Images around our church on Christmas Eve and one of the kids after service all dressed up...



Christmas morning, all the cookies and carrots had been eaten, proof of Santa visit. He brought Griffin a clone trooper helmet and a shaving kit in his stocking (so he could be just like daddy), Santa brought McKenna a kitchen...but they did had so much fun this Christmas...




Here are just a few more playing in our new dress up shoes and a Lego construction set...

Black and White Love

Because I can't get enough of these images and most of you know my affection for black and white prints, here are some more prints for your viewing pleasure...

Beauty...

I am so blessed to be able to photograph families, I get to meet so many wonderful people, and this family is no exception. I met Josh from my networking group, he works for Arizona Exterminating, and let me tell you Tim and I have used his services. If we hadn't we would not have known that we had termites, yes that's gross, but we feel lucky Josh came out and found them before the problem got worse. So...I was extremely excited when he said that he wanted family pictures and that his sister in law, niece and nephews would be joining in. The kids had such a good time and think that we got some amazing shots, I just wish that I could post them all here, but I did want to share some.

This darling beauty was just so excited to explore and follow her cousins around, isn't she just gorgeous...

Even more beauty...

These are the siblings...

These are these just more that I love...

The whole crew...

Thanks for letting me capture some of your most special moments...

Health Update...

Diana, this is for you :)...

Griffin has been doing really well for the most part, until this weekend. He had a really rough Thursday night and couldn't sleep, so we were up doing breathing treatments all night. I had a feeling that we might end up in the ER this weekend. In hopes of trying to avoid that I took him to Dr. Lauren, our most favorite chiropractic ever and that worked great for Griffin. It loosened whatever was in his lungs up enough to save us from the hospital. We did a few more treatments on Friday but he slept like a champ...however, never underestimate the power of a mother's intuition. We ended up in the ER Sunday night, just not for Griffin.

This little one decided to pull down one of the stockings that we had hung on the mantle and the stocking holding came crashing down as well landing on her forehead. It bled for only a few seconds but it was a deep cut so off to the urgent care we went, only to find it closed so we headed to the hospital. They were able to just glue it shut and no stitches. I was excited for that since it is not as traumatic. Our stockings will be taking a little break even though I think that she has learned that if you pull them down it won't feel so great. Oh well, just add it to the ever growing list of hospital visits for us!

Prayers

As I said that I would get back to posting about my family and the happenings that are going on...I was hoping not to start back off in a less than glorious light, but it is what is. As most of you know my sister is a RA in college. With that comes extensive training in preparation of every situation that you may encounter when in reality that you don't have to deal with it. Unfortunately, my sister had one of those moments with a situation in her hall, a situation that will forever be with her engraved in her heart and soul. While I cannot share what the situation was or what happened here on this space, it was one that she had to handle as a professional (which she did amazingly), but was shaken to core on the inside. My mom drove up to spend a couple days with her to be a support as she continues dealing with what is going on. But my prayer is that she continues to find the strength within herself as she continues to serve her residents, along with the others involved with this situation...

Family Love

I can't wait for you to meet this family. The Higgins are our neighbors and Melinda asked if I would take her family pictures to help my portfolio when I started doing this. So we went back up to my favorite spot and had such an incredible time. This family is wrapped in love. It was so amazing to see the interaction between them all, and they were up for just playing and posing and being natural and fun. I think that we were able to capture images that represent the boys personalities and displays the family bond that they share. I hope that you can see it through this pictures.

Thanks for such a wonderful afternoon...you all were so great and we are so glad you are our neighbors!!!

Heritage Makers

You can check this amazing book that Ashley made with Heritage Makers with all the pictures from our session. Just click here. It is amazing!!! Or you can just scroll down to the bottom of this page...

And so it continues

One day I will get back to writing about what is going on in our family, but I still have so many wonderful pictures to share from the sessions that I have been doing. We had a great Thanksgiving, very relaxing, lots of food and Tim and I were a couple of crazy people and went out shopping Friday morning.

One of the session that I had a few weeks back was with this wonderful family. I met Ashley in my networking group, besides being a miracle worker with her own business and connections that she has, she is an amazing person. We have become fast friends that talk almost every day. The great thing is that she is a Heritage Makers consultant. This is such a great product because they make online scrapbooks, calendars, personalized decks of playing cards and so much more. So we have been able to begin working hand in hand since what we do compliments each other so well. She is currently making a book from all the pictures from our session and I am so excited to see it. If you want more information about what this company is all about check her out on her blog. Here are a few of my favs from our session...

This is Hailey, isn't she so cute, we have become best friends. Every time I see her now she just gives me a big hug and tells me all about her day...she was so fun to take pictures of...

This is one of my favorite pictures of all my sessions. This is Ashley's husband, Kelvin, can you just tell how much love there is...


This is Peyton, what a cutie...he is so precious. We were on a golf course for this session so there was a great deal to explore and he had fun following Hailey around and finding new things to get into.


This bridge was over a man made lake, so we were looking for mermaids. I think that we found a pink and blue mermaid :)

Thanks Ashley for such a great time and all the wonderful images that we were able to capture. I hope that you love them as much as I do!

More Photo Shoots

I know, I know I have been saying that I have so much to update here and I do!!! So I am going to try and get that done by the end of the week :)

I am in a networking group with Tim and many other wonderful small business owners and entrepreneurs and this has been just wonderful for me to expand my own photography business. One of the people in our group is Jaime, she own and operates a sign shop with her brother. This shop has been in her family for several years as her father used to own it. They do all types of banners and a-frames, magnets for you car, shirts, hats, etc...Her work is amazing and I was so privileged to take pictures of her family several weeks ago. Here are a few of my favs at my favorite place to take pictures...

And how about this...meet another Griffin. Jaime's oldest is a Griffin too. Her boys have such great personalities and had a great brother bond.

Thanks for the opportunity to take your pictures Jaime!!! And for everyone else in the valley if you need signs or banners Jaime is the place to get them from!!!