yindra's legal!

our friend yindra just received her green card a couple weeks ago, so of
course her husband johnny, my travel companion, had to throw her a welcome
to america party!!! it was wonderful & tacky with wayyyyyyyyy too many
american flags :)

she had no idea what we had up our sleeve!


goodlord, this boy loves his rum :)


ari & ben take the prize for the most american pride! we were not very creative
& wore red jersey shirts & blue pajama pants. which accurately portrays american's
on sundays, i think.


necco was fighting for it with his flag & spiderman pajamas.


and now he's really after my heart with that camera.


yeah congratulations yindra! & johnny!!

joanne & keith

are having their first baby. it's so exciting to watch people go through their
first pregnancy. the nervousness, the excitement, all the fun new stuff!
diapers are so cute before you have to start using them :)

i have several good friends right now- all expecting new additions to their
family. i'm so excited for each of them that i wish i could throw them all
showers!!! but they are all over the country, so i happily throw them for my
local friends. joanne & keith's shower was this past sunday. we had probably
40 people here (us frisbee people travel in tribes!) playing foosball, bocce
ball & eating a ton of yummy snacks. it was one of the greatest pot lucks
i've been too!

here's the soon-to-be mama & papa opening their huge mound of gifts!


joanne & pete.


these ladies, peggy (keith's mom) & diane, tricked one of the youngsters to
make keith say baby. which was the magic word you weren't allowed to say
(think peewee's playhouse). if you said the b word you lost your clothes pin.
the one in the end with the most, wins. since i call everyone baby or babe i
didn't have a prayer.


jeff trying to eat his son's yummy cheeks!


the boy's playing bocce ball.


some gigglin'


nicole & joe.


ken throwing the kids around :)


isn't this almost a dream-like image of childhood. sweet whisper in your ear.


3 peas in a pod.


skye being shy.


evelyn (not bryan's niece) and her daddy.


joanne (second to left) & her party planners: me, sarah(who is due any day now! & nicole.)


goodluck you two! lba is so loved, can't wait to meet him!

salt river.

a few weeks ago i met up with monika & josiah at the church they are getting
married at (on march 29th!) & then we headed to the reception site so i could
see how beautiful both were. there's some time in between the ceremony &
reception so we decided that we'd have more than enough time to head over
to the salt river to take their formal portraits. i'm so glad we went to check it
out because i've never seen the area look more beautiful. i've kayaked several
times down this river & it's always pretty, but it's soooooo green since we've
had a wet winter- it's shocking. really. that's my biggest complaint
about this area, but i was shut up that day.

here are some of the photos. definitely check back to see their wedding- it's
going to be fantastic!!!




we had to play around, since it felt like an odd fantasy version of phoenix!


yeah weddings!!! i can't wait you guys!

speaking of birthday parties.

nathan & isabelle turned 1 in january!!!! so their parents threw them a really fun
seaseme street themed birthday party!

here's the birthday boy, ready to party.


& here's the birthday girl, getting all dressed up for the festivities.


all of their friends came!




this is a phoenix kid for ya. this cute little guy was terrified of the grass!!! his
mom kept getting him to touch it & play with it & eat it already, but he wasn't
having it. so funny :)


i thought this was such a cool picture of nathan.


mouth is up here mom ;)


cake time!!


everybody watching.


dad helped a little.


isabelle was a little reserved at first. but she soon learned the art of messy cake face.


meanwhile nathan was a natural.


the other babies attacking because they want some cake too!


dad & isabelle near the end of party & almost ready for a nap.


what a fun birthday party!

sebestian's 1 month bday!

we didn't get sebestian's baby shower together in time before he was born...
so, we decided to have a birthday/ welcome to the world party for him!

here's our birthday boy! it was a really hard party for me, because i was sick &
didn't want to get him sick too. so, i didn't hold him the entire time. humphf.


there were maybe 15 people hanging out on the patio, enjoying the lovely
saturday afternoon.


stan teaching sarah-anne to catch. she's so cute- she closes her eyes right before
she catches the ball!


bryan was wearing his lance armstrong shirt & sebestian was fascinated by it.
his parents both love cycling- so bike will probably be his first word.




isn't this the most adorable little girl you've ever seen.
shameless advertising!!! :)


can't wait for your next birthday party!!!!!

brooke and brandon

i photographed brooke & brandon's wedding last sept down in tucson. they are
such a sweet couple & i knew they would be the kind of client i kept in touch with.
josiah, is their sweet little baby boy. he's 6 months old. they were in pine
vacationing so it was the perfect chance to fit in a portrait session on their way
home. we met at the mesa arts center (where i go for my ceramic studio time).

this place is so beautiful.
the architect who built it really had great concern for color & shapes. i may have
to do a post on just the architecture at some point. here's a cool cactus shot, that
i nabbed before they arrived.


& here is josiah. he is sooo cute. we started off inside with this cool blue wall.
& poor josiah not even 10 minutes into the shoot takes a nose dive & hits his
lip on the floor. it got a little fat, but i think it makes his lips look even more
luscious!




just starting to walk.


and pretty good at crawling.


he was pretty tired from a week long vacation so he wasn't his usual giggly
self- he gave me this serious, very smart look quite a bit that day.


dad could get him to giggle if he jiggled him on his head.





& this was my favorite shot of them all together.


it was so nice seeing you all again! let's not wait this long for our next time :)