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It seems to me that all of our past Simply Knot brides & grooms have a way of bringing incredibly cute children into the world :-) I like to think it has a little something to do with the fact that they’re all born knowing we will be photographing their cute little mugs sometime in the future.  LOL!  Thanks kids!  ”Uncle” Ryan and “Aunt” Denise appreciate it!  We met up with Amy & Bryant and their sweet little girl Liliana at Desert Breeze Park in Chandler to capture some one year photos. It was actually Miss Lily’s first birthday party the day of the session. We were very blessed to share in her special day.

(Click here to be notified with the rest of the images from their session are available online!)
AND don’t forget to click “love” under your favorite images along the way!

Check out these baby blues!

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Loved that Miss Lily’s was sporting such cute, bright colors!

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Piggy back rides from Daddy are fun!

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Bryant’s expression just cracks me up in this next one.

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She’s on the move!

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Such a sweet little family :-)

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Tee-hee! Love the tongue sticking out.

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After some time at the park we took a short walk over to Amy & Bryant’s house. Lily’s party preparation were well underway! We we able to borrow some fun b-day decor for a few shots. Doesn’t she look proud of her fun party setup!

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Isn’t she just too cute!

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I think she might just be having a good time :-)

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Loved both Ryan’s shot (above) and mine so I just had to post them both.

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Lily wanted to show us her room and all her fun toys.

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LOVE!

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And LOVE!

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Thanks for a fun session guys! We had so much fun and can’t wait to watch your little cutie pie grow up!

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We had the pleasure of shooting a super fun family session with the Fryberger family a couple weeks ago in Chandler! Family sessions are always an adventure with little ones and you never really know what to expect when working with a 1 and 3 year olds. We were lucky enough to have such a great group who were totally up for going with the flow and letting the kids “guide” how the session would flow.

(Please click here to view the rest of the photos in our online gallery.)
AND don’t forget to click “love” under your favorite images along the way!

We got the standard portrait stuff done right away while the kiddos were the most likely to be cooperative.  (With the help of a few rounds of “Simon Says!”) Pretty impressive posing skills for 1 and 3 if I do say so myself!  We just loved how the whole family’s fall colors complimented the back drop of the trees.

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It’s far to early to tell from the photos, but Nikki & Fabian are planning to add another little one to this bunch in 2012! Congrats you guys!

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After some of the formal stuff was done, it was time for a play break! We had so much fun shooting Danielle & Nick playing with their little ones Nathan & Ryan in the wagon!

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Nathan loved the idea of he and daddy racing little Ryan and mommy!

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The expressions on both the kids faces crack me up in these next two shots! TOO CUTE!

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We asked the whole family to go for a little walk together.  Nathan had other ideas, but we LOVED the results! Too funny!

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This sequence goes from “CHEESE!” to “TOUCHDOWN” to “Simon says: Imitate your sister!”

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What a doll :-)

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For the next little while we just let the kids play on the playground so we could capture some fun candid shots.

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Boys, trucks and sand . . . seems pretty appropriate to me!

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The last thing on the agenda was to get a posed shot of the kids in the red wagon. The following sequence is too funny for words! Nathan was just trying to be helpful by pulling Miss Ryan a little closer for the photos, it just didn’t quite turn out as planned. LOL!

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The money shot :-)

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One last shot of Miss Ryan and Grandma enjoying some laughs together!

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Our first stop at the farm was a huge bounce house type structure that they refer to as the “Extreme Air Pillow.”

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Love this one! She totally looks like she’s having a blast, doesn’t she?

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Makena’s best friend Greyson and her mom came along to enjoy the fun.  How cute are these two bouncing away together?

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A little bestie love :-)

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Simon says, “touch your shoulders!”

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While Makena & Greyson bounced the day away, Kaleb was hanging out with his “Papa” Dan and Helen.

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The kids loved checking out the animals!  Makena was a total crack up because she kept making the noise of each animal and tried to talk to them.

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It’s hard not to take a million pictures of this little guy!

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Tee-he! Who could possibly resist this face?

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The adults got in on a bit of the fun too :-)

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That’s right, even I got to put down the camera and enjoy some fun on the swings.  Love this girl!

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We took advantage of the pumpkin patch for a few posed shots too.  I seriously couldn’t choose just one of Kaleb.  He’s such a little ham in front of the camera :-)  This first one just may be my favorite shot of the day!

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And boy does this little man love his Papa (Grandpa)!

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Miss M doing an excellent job of modeling her little pumpkin.

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The task of picking out a big pumpkin clearly took some very intense thought.  And pumpkin hugging apparently.

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YAY! Check out those happy smiles!

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One more with Mommy (my awesome sister Amy.)

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Such a fun day!

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On Friday, June 10th something pretty momentous happened.  Julie, my oldest and best friend in the world had a beautiful baby girl!  Lovely little Emma was 7lbs, 7oz when she was born and I think she’s probably just a little bit more than that now, just over a week later.  What a cutie pie!  Julie & Jimmy, we couldn’t be more excited for you guys! Congratulations on bringing such an adorable little person into the world!  She’s one lucky kiddo too – nobody in the world is as giving and selfless as the two of you.  You’re going to be such amazing parents to this sweet little girl.  It was such a joy to be a part of your wedding just a few years ago and now, it brings us so much joy to capture this precious little one for you guys.  We heart all of you so much!  (Okay, enough gushing – let’s get on with the pictures!)

Emma was so good for the whole session!  It makes such a huge difference to be able to shoot little ones within their first week.  She pretty much slept through all the individual stuff of her.  Such a cutie!

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Love the shadows in this one. She looks so comfy and peaceful with even a hint of a smile :-)

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Every once in a while she’d show off her little toothless baby grin.  Love it!

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Showing off one of her many cute outfits.  All of Jimmy & Julie’s favorites were in the 3 month range.  Most of them barely fit her tiny little frame, but we managed to find a few!  She’s gonna be one well dressed chica when she grows a little bit more.

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Next it was time for the new Mommy & Daddy to get in on the photo fun.  The very first of many, many family photos in this sweet threesome’s future :-)

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I think this next one is my absolute favorite :-)  Love, love, love!  There’s just such a great connection between all three of them.

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We figured that someday Jimmy would need some evidence to prove that Emma’s feet were once this tiny.

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This is one baby girl who looks completely content wrapped up in Mommy & Daddy’s arms.

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One last shot of that sweet little smile.  Seriously, it doesn’t get much cuter than this, right?

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Welcome to the world little Miss Emma!  What a perfect little family :-)

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“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”  No, no silly – it’s not holiday time just yet – it’s time to share the annual Smart/Collins Family portrait session!  As all of your probably already know, we shot Meghan & Matt’s wedding back in 2009 and an awesome family session with the two of them and Meghan’s three awesome sisters last summer.  We met our favorite five-some in downtown Phoenix a couple weeks back to create a whole new year of photo goodness.  We can’t brag on these guys enough – they are such a wonderful example of love, friendship and creativity AND they’re absolutely hilarious to be around.  Matt, Meghan, Erryn, Molly & Lydia – you guys are SO much fun and make our jobs super easy just by being yourselves.  On to the photos!

(Please sign the guestbook if you’d like to be notifed when the rest of their photos are online.)
AND don’t forget to click “love” under your favorite images along the way!

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This group knows what’s really important :-)

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Things got a little WILD . . .

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Love this shot :-)  I could probably do an entire blog post that was just photos of these guys laughing together!

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They took some artwork out of this frame to bring it along for the shoot.  Matt looked pretty darn cute walking around downtown like this for a couple hours!

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YAY!  Props are fun :-)

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Rockin’ it Gangsta’ style.

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I have no idea what was happening here, but it’s adorably silly – like so many things that Meghan & Matt do!

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Oh how we do love the silliness :-)

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The sisters.

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Erryn just graduated from NAU the weekend before the shoot, so she brought along her cap & gown for a little photo op.

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Ryan told Matt to sneak up behind Meghan and pick her up – her expression is priceless!  And Matt looks so proud! LOL!

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Adorable!

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I love that each pair of shoes has a totally different style, and yet they compliment each other so well – just like their family!

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Workin’ It.

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We wrapped things up with an awesome “Friends-esque” dancing in a fountain sequence.  All of these crack me up!  Can anybody else hear the Friends theme song playing in their head?

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To Matt, Meghan, Erryn, Molly & Lydia – you guys are the greatest family EVER!  We absolutely love that we get to hang out with you guys every year!  Thanks for blessing us with your friendship and allowing us the honor of capturing your awesomeness once again  :-)  We already can’t wait until next time!

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LOVE this family!  About a year ago we photographed David and Nerina’s Las Vegas Wedding.  Last weekend we got to hang out with these guys again and we had a blast!  We absolutely love it when we can keep in touch with our couples and their families after the wedding day.

Don’t forget to click “love” under your favorite images along the way!

This session was such a great example of a lifestyle photo session.  Rather than taking a whole bunch of stuffy posed shots, it’s so much more fun for us and for our clients just to let the family interact and have fun doing the things they would normally do together.  These guys spend a lot of time outside at the park and playing softball, so that became the backdrop for the session.  We started off by just letting the kids get some energy out on the playground.

This is Noah – he’s the big brother :-)

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And this is Gabriel – he’s the little brother :-)

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Boys will be boys – there’s always got to be at least a little wrestling between brothers.

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Ryan hung out with David & Noah while they played catch under the shade of the trees.  Love how the sun is peaking in.

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This kid’s got some serious softball skills.

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I was hanging out with Nerina & Gabriel on the playground.  Love the fun bright colors – and the “tongue sticking out” action.

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Such a cute shot of mom & son.

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What fun day at the park would be complete without a little bit of tickling?

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A-DOR-A-BLE!

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Love the fun interactions in these two.  In case anybody’s wondering, David & Gabe came out ahead, even though we gave Nerina & Noah a bit of a head start :-)

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Cute! Cute! Cute!

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Time for a little bit of family softball action.  The kids traded off hitting/catching while mom & dad pitched to them.

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We’ll let you in on another secret – we played quite a lot of “Simon Says” on this session.  The boys just ate it up and it made posing for photos so much more fun!

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It took a few rounds of “Simon Says – hug your brother” to get this, but it was totally worth it!

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LOVE these last ones!  The boys look so mischievous :-)

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What a fun session!  Thanks for the fun afternoon guys.  It was so much fun to catch up with you and see the whole family a year after the big day!

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We met the Komatsu/Ong family last Sunday at Scottsdale Civic Center for a family session.  They told us that the last time they all had pictures taken together was when the girls (Lauren & Michelle) were just kids!  So it was high time for some updated photos of the group.  We really enjoyed our time together!  They were such a fun, laid back group and really seemed to enjoy spending time together.  There was lots of happy smiles and even a little silliness here and there.  Good times, with good people :-)

(Please sign the guestbook if you’d like to be notifed when the rest of their photos are online.)
AND don’t forget to click “love” under your favorite images along the way!

Here’s the whole gang: Brandon, Michelle, Lauren, Billie, Diane, Warren, Jeannie & Gary.

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Grandma Billie with her kids.  What a sweet family :-)

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Love the big wintery tree in the back ground of this shot.

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Rather than “say cheese!” they liked to say “SUSHI!” instead – it was pretty cute and totally made us laugh!

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We asked the guys to give us their most “manly” pose and this is what they came up with!  Gotta love Warren’s little improv on the end :-)

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And of course, the three of them had the ladies in stitches off to the side.

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The lovely ladies.

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The Komatsu clan.

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They requested some shots with the big “Love” sign.  We had to wait in line for a bit, but I have to say, these turned out to be some of my favorites from the whole session.

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Love that each of the pairs personalities show through in these.

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Meghan & Matt recently came to us with a complaint about their wedding photos.  There were so many photos that they loved that they had a hard time choosing which ones to display in their home.  So they kind of ended up EVERYWHERE, to the point where their family and friends started to give them a hard time about it!  (Terrible problem to have, right? Too many adorable photos of yourselves! LOL!)  So to help remedy this very issue they decided that they needed to get some updated family photos done.  Enter their favorite husband & wife photography team – US!  So last Sunday we met Matt, Meghan and her sisters Erryn, Molly & Lydia at the Mesa Center for the Arts for a super fun photo session!  It’s not too often that OUR sides hurt after shooting a portrait session, but this was definitely one of those times.  Talk about a fun group!  Lots and lots of laugher and love in this very special family.

(Please sign the guestbook if you’d like to be notifed when the rest of their photos are online.)

Don’t forget to “love” on your favorite images along the way!

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Training for the silly face championships is a lot of work, but sometimes a family’s gotta do, what a family’s gotta do.

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Great lines + adorable subjects = awesome photo

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Every time we’d tell the girls to put their hands on their hips, Matt would do it to and we kept giving him a hard time about it.  It’s fun to make Matt feel silly :-)  We love that guy!

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Time for some sisterly love :-)

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How cute are they?  I just love all the interactions happening in this one.

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We said “fierce” and they pulled it off, big time.  Ryan mentioned that this shot could work for their album cover and suddenly . . .

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… a pretty serious “Air Guitar” band was born!  HILLARIOUS!

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They came up with the super cute idea to do a bunch of “Brady Bunch” themed headshots.  It was a bit of a challenge since we were about 3 family members short of a traditional “bunch”, but the results are pretty fun regardless.

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This is one group that can laugh their way through anything.

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The Beatles fans of the world will appreciate our little Abbey Road throwback :-)

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Love the colors in this next one :-)

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Meghan & Matt also wanted to do some updated shots of them.  How cute are they?  Just as adorable and in love as their wedding day (sigh).  Man, we’ve got an awesome job.

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It doesn’t get much better than shooting these two.

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Showing off a little rawr on the catwalk!

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Thanks Matt, Meghan, Erryn, Molly & Lydia for such a fun time!  We had a blast hanging out and laughing with you guys.  Can’t wait to see lots of these up on your walls :-)

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On Sunday, we met up with Carrie and her daughter Lindsay at Mesa Center for the Arts for some family photos.  Carrie & I worked together a long, long time ago, so it was so much fun to catch up with her.  And the last time I saw Lindsay, she was just a kid.  Now she’s a gorgeous (almost 17-year-old) woman!  It was so much fun observing their relationship during their time together.  You can tell just by looking at them that they’re much more than mother and daughter . . . their also best friends :-)  It’s all very “Gilmore Girls” if you ask me.  Ha ha ha!

(Please sign the guestbook if you’d like to be notifed when the rest of their photos are online.)

Here are some of our favorites from their session.

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We discovered right away that making these two laugh was going to be pretty easy :-)

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They had some very interesting posing ideas.  Both of these just make me laugh!

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Adorable!

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So many great laughs!  You just can’t help but laugh along with them!

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And what mother/daughter combo doesn’t walk down the street together while skipping?

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Love it!

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Peak-a-boo!

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They joked with us about how people always think they’re sad or mad when they’re not smiling because they both tend to stand with their arms crossed.  Of course, we had to test the theory.  Not quite as easy to be serious when you’ve got two cameras pointed at you, huh?

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What a cute pair!  Love the colors in these next two.

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Carrie said that the last time they had photos taken Lindsay was about 10 and this was their favorite pose.  You’re never too grown up for a piggy back ride, right?

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So at the end of our session, we attempted to do one of our notorious jumping shots, but we quickly discovered that there was going to be a little wardrobe issue.  Every time they jumped the neck of their sweaters would fly up and totally cover their faces.  So we went with this instead.  Love it!

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Thanks for the fun session you guys!  And happy almost birthday Lindsay :-)

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith came to Arizona!  Meet Christina & Matt and their kids McClellan and Varity!  They live in Kansas and were traveling through AZ to get to California on vacation last weekend.  Christina and I met way back in our high school years at Grace Community Church.  Later in college she used to come to our thousands of parties that we had over at the old “bachelor pad”.   We stayed friends ever since and through facebook she let me know that the whole family would be back here soon and wanted some portraits together.  HOW FUN!

They wanted the photo shoot to be at a nice little ice cream shop in Old Town Scottsdale called The Sugar Bowl.  They seated us in the arcade room so the kids had plenty of stuff to play with.  We started off by getting some ice cream.  At times it got kind of messy. :-)

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It was so cute, every time McClellan took a bite of his ice cream he turned and posed for the cameras.

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I love this one of Father and Son.

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Matt gave McClellan some cash for the arcade.  He made him work for it!  Awesome!

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Now time for some FUN at the arcade with the kiddos!

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I don’t think they allow this but hey when your this cute you can do pretty much anything you want!

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McClellan’s winnings! YAY!  He knows he’s good.

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McClellan and Mom teamed up on Dad in air hockey.  Dad still won though.

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SO CUTE!!!

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We were able to get a few posed shots in there too.

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But it’s usually what happens in between the posed shots that adds some comedy. . .

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This girl loves her sugar!  Here’s a few of Verity.

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What an adorable shot of Mother and Daughter.

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We had some fun with this cool mirror.

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While Denise was taking some portraits of Matt, Christina and Verity, I was able to snap this shot of McClellan playing some games. I love that they’re all in the background!

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One last shot of the whole family.

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Thank you guys so much! We had such a great time with you and your family! We hope you had a great trip and are now home safe!  Come back out and visit soon!!!