We were starting to think that our photo session with the Tom Family was never going to happen!  We had scheduled a photo shoot with Chad, Sandra and their sweet little girl Ayla in late July, a couple weeks before Ayla’s first birthday.  The day of the session came and the sky was filled with some pretty mean looking monsoon clouds, so we called and they opted to reschedule for the next weekend.  The storm ended up blowing over and we were all pretty bummed that we hadn’t risked it.  The following weekend came and another storm reared it’s ugly head!  Come on now!  We live in Arizona!  The land of perpetual sunshine!  (Sigh)  We decided to head out to the park anyway in hopes that it would blow over like it had the previous week.  Well, in spite of the crazy winds and thunder, we got in about 15 minutes of shooting before we ended up taking cover in a Ramada and trying to wait for the rain to let up . . . which it didn’t!  As they say, third times a charm because on attempt number 3 everything was just perfect!  It was crazy hot, but hey, at least it wasn’t raining, right? LOL!  Through it all these guys were just awesome to work with and total troopers!  Seriously, they are the most adorable little family and we LOVED our time with them (even if a good portion of it was spent huddled under cover during a downpour!)  We could not be more excited to share how their photos came out, because it’s seriously one of our favorite family sessions ever!

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Even though we didn’t have much time on attempt #2, we still managed to get in some great shots of these guys!  And you’d never even know by looking at them that we were all surrounded by chaotic weather!  Our very first shot was a total keeper :-)

How cute is Miss Ayla?  Seriously, she is so adorable!

Love this mommy-daughter portrait!  Sandra, you look gorgeous!

A little snugglin’ under the Ramada, as we were waiting out the rain :-)

Love Ayla’s shoes!

On to day three!  We set up a fun little backdrop with pink & purple balloons in honor of Miss Ayla’s birthday! It was a total hit! Ayla loved it and we loved the images that we got from it.  As soon as they arrived at the park, she was really interested in it!

One of my favs!

SO cute!

Their interactions are so sweet in these next few!

This t-shirt is all kinds of awesome :-)

We got so many great shots of the three of them playing in the balloons!

Peek-a-boo!

There’s something about this one that I just love :-)

Time for a daddy-daughter portrait!

The light coming through the tall grass was just gorgeous!

At the end of the session, we gave a bunch of balloons to Ayla and just let her play.  The results were all kinds of adorable!

Love this sequence . . . Bye Bye Balloons!

We were a little worried she’d be upset when she let go and they flew away, but we all just waived good bye and she was totally fine with it :-)

 Chad & Sandra: Thank you for being SO amazing and incredibly flexible!  You have the most precious little family and we loved hanging out with you guys.  Can’t wait to do it again soon!

PS – Thanks so much for the Pita Jungle Gift Card! We’ve already used it! Yum Yum :-)