Scottie and I are at the age when everyone around us has babies… and second babies… and toddlers… and third babies!

And with all these babies comes baby pictures!

A lot of my cousins are having kids now and we’ve been doing a lot of photo sessions for them to capture this period in their lives.

We’ve been doing so much of it, that we’ve gotten behind blogging about all the sessions so I’d figure I’d catch us up all at once!

First we did photos for our cousins’ Jamie and Lindsey’s baby, Jameson. 

We took Jameson out to Scottsdale Civic Center where she had her first experience with grass!  She wasn’t too thrilled with it, but we were glad we got to be there for that first in her life!

Next we did our cousin Kelly & Jim’s baby, Madeline.

Madeline has an amazing bedroom… …pretty much the room I dreamed about having when I was a little girl, complete with hot pink walls and a chandelier!

Madeline’s big brother Jack is having to get used to having a new baby in the house so we made sure to make him feel included in picture day and get a few shots of him as well.

Awhile later we did photos for my cousin Amy and her little girl, Tatum.

Tatum is the ultimate girly girl…

…so we thought a super girly tea party was the way to go for her picture day!

As you can see, Tatum LOVES the camera.

She also loves spinning in flowy dresses (including her special pink “princess dress” she wore that day)…

…and pretending to be a model so we got quite a few shots of her teaching her mom the runway walk.

I could hardly take the pictures I was laughing so hard!

Our whole family always tells me (Breanna) how much Tatum reminds them of me when I was little.  I have to admit that I too was an ultra girly girl.

Only the pinkest pink and the shiniest of everything would do for me!  I was also a pro at dress spinning, tap dancing (only Tatum is lucky enough to have REAL tap shoes), and model walking.

So of course as soon as Tatum and I get some camera time together, we take full advantage to have a little super model photo shoot. ;-)

Recently we did a session for our cousins’ Ashley and Tyler and their baby, Cayden.

We combined the session with our cousins’ Bethany and Brandon’s baby girl, Rylie.

We had people talking, kids yelling, dogs barking, and babies crying.

It was a mad house with so many of us there… but it was SO much fun!

We were so glad we combined the session because we were able to get photos of the kids together.

(I love this one!  Someone there said, “Look!  He has the same panicked expression that every guy gets when a girl starts crying!”).

There is one family member left that we still have to schedule a formal session with (although we take plenty of pictures of her when we’re just hanging out)… that’s our niece, Kylee.  Even though we haven’t done a session with my brother Paul and his wife Anna’s beautiful little girl, we have had our fun with her!  We were testing out some of photobooth props one day awhile back when my (Breanna’s) mom happened to be over with little Kylee so of course we had to do a little experimenting with them!

More to come of Kylee soon… especially since she’s way older now than in these pictures!

In fact, there will be many more photos of all the kids as they continue to grow (at quite an alarming rate I might add!).  We are so blessed to have a family that we love so much who all still live in the same city!  We’re so thankful that we get to be around to watch everyone in this next generation grow up! Thanks for so many fun sessions guys!

When I got the email from James and Heather to do baby pictures for them, it took me a second to realize where I recognized their names from.

Oh yeah!  We worked with them through Apartment Life awhile ago!  If you haven’t heard of Apartment Life, well then just keep reading because I’m going to tell you about it!  Apartment Life is an organization that trains up teams and pairs them with apartment complexes where the team lives and plans community events  as a way to assist the management and get to know the residents, with the ultimate goal of extending help and care to the residents in whatever way they need it at the time.

We made so many good friends through Apartment Life and Heather and James are 2 of them! Scottie and I were a team at an apartment complex in Mesa and Heather and James were a team at the same time as us at a complex just down the road.

The reason we got to know them as well as we did is because their complex was very similar to ours (low income families) with similar challenges so we did a lot of idea sharing back and forth with one another.

Scottie and I fulfilled our commitment awhile back and the only contact we’ve had with Heather and James since then was in the Facebook realm (they’re big fans of Radiant’s page) so we were totally excited when we got their email asking us to take pictures of their newborn (whom we didn’t even know existed!).

Their baby was beautiful!  She was a great little model too since she mostly just laid their all cozy on her blanket…

… with the occasional screaming.

Which is not a big deal because I’m pretty convinced that babies have a secret code of honor amongst each other that says they have to cry for a certain amount of time on picture day… it’s just the law.

I always like to sneak in a few photos of crying babies anyways just because that’s part of life and it’s something parents will never get to see again once their kids are grown up!

(Treasure this moment guys, ha ha!).

But for the most part, she was an angel…

…and she was even patient while we sat around in the middle of her session, talking with her parents to get caught up on life!

Heather and James, it was great to see you… congratulations on your new baby girl!

Click to see the rest of the photos of Heather and James’ new little addition!

Ever since we shot her sister’s wedding a couple of years ago, we’ve been trying to schedule a family session with Lisa.

Things get complicated fast when you’re planning to get together and you live in different states!  But alas, the time came for Lisa and Jeff’s family photo session!

We met up in the LA area (Lisa and Jeff drove from Northern CA and Scottie and I came from Phoenix) at Griffith park for a day o’ picture time fun!

Once we finally found each other (Griffith Park is REALLY big), we first got re-introduced to their 3 boys…

…and their little stuffed animal friend “Puppy Breath” who kept trying to sneak his way into pictures…

… then we picked up our cameras and began shooting away!

We had bouts of family playtime…

…intermixed with a few moments where we were the bossy photographers and made them look at the camera and smile…

…and then we’d go back to playtime!

We had some wrestling adventures…

… some karate time….

… and then back to the “sit and smile for the camera” shots!

Aside from trying to sneak Puppy breath into our shots in a”Where’s Waldo” fashion, the boys had another prop they were itching to use, and that was their very cool hats!

They were so excited about their hats, so we made sure to try to get a bunch of pictures with them on!

Griffith Park has some huge beautiful trees so we took full advantage of them and made them a prop/background for these pictures.

It’s always more fun for kids when they get to play on the “furniture” we use for pictures!

After the tree time, we headed over to the playground to get a few shots of the kids just being kids.

(I, Breanna, told him that he could design/pose one picture on his own and the one on the right is his creation!  ha ha I love it!)

Of course as it goes when you arrive at a playground, the kids were off in the blink of an eye and Scottie and I were left with our old people legs trying to catch up to them!

We caught them a few times… at least just enough to get the shots we wanted!

Thanks to the Cooper family so SO much for traveling down to meet us for your family session! We loved getting to hang out with you once again! I really hope you guys enjoyed your little vacay and that you enjoy the pictures that resulted from it even more!

Click here to see the rest of the photos from this fun California family photo session!

On our last trip to the LA area we had the privileged of staying with my (Breanna’s) cousin and her BEEautiful family!

Our trip consisted of all kinds of momentous things, but both Scottie and I (Breanna) would agree that one of the best parts about our vacation was the time we spent hanging out with the Collvers!

They were so much fun and such great hosts to us that we insisted on doing a photo session of their kids in an attempt to repay their kindness!

We headed over to one of the kids’ favorite restaurant, Sharkeez, on Newport Beach and had a great dinner (that was cut short by the mass of Laker fans that poured in to see the final game) and then we wandered over to the beach that had emptied as soon as the game started!

Of course when you have a girl and a boy, you’re likely to have different activities going on at the same time.

So Scottie and I split up and took turns covering each of the kids individually.

One of us wandered down the beach picking up shells and discussing them with the oldest of the two kids (Scottie has more patience than I do so he spent the longest doing that)…

…while one of us stayed up on the beach taking pictures of Frisbee tournaments…

…karate kicks…

… a “gun” show…

…and (surprisingly) the splits!

We did get lucky enough that the two of them decided to grace one another with their presence long enough for us to get a few shots of them together.

Of course that only lasted so long (Cooties spread quickly you know).

So they headed their separate ways to continue playing.

Thanks to the Collver family for helping to make our CA trip SOOO much fun and for allowing us to do our little photo session with your amazing kids!

Click to see the rest of the photos from this fun, beach family session!

When we walked around Mike and Emily’s San Diego wedding admiring the unbelievable flower arrangements, we never dreamed we’d to meet an entire beautiful family behind them!

Working with Suzan M Florals was like a dream for a photographer because she gave us such stunning detail shots to capture (seriously, you have to click to see her work on the wedding we did together!).

The bride had more nice things to say about Suzan than any bride has probably ever had to say about her florist in the history of the world!  We could tell she really pours her heart into her work and goes the extra mile.  So because she did such a fantastic job and was so nice to work with (not only for the bride, but also for us) we made sure we stayed in contact with her.

From glancing at the photos on Suzan’s website, you can tell that she works with some great photographers in California.  So we were absolutely floored and beyond flattered when she asked US to do her family photo session!

We were also very excited when the dates for our California trip actually matched up with the dates that her daughter could come down with her kids for the session!

So we headed over to Balboa Park on one beautiful San Diego day (aside from the whole “June gloom” thing that we sadly learned about during our many beach tanning attempts during this trip!).

It’s a coincidence that we went to Balboa because that is the same place we went for Mike and Emily’s Unique Session the day after the wedding (and got our famous “giant tree” picture)!

(The roots on the tree in this picture are actually way smaller than the ones in Mike and Emily’s tree pic!)

Balboa was as beautiful as we remembered, but honestly it wouldn’t have mattered where we went since we had such cute subjects to work with!

I could’ve taken pics of those beautiful girls anywhere!

I love working with kids and getting to capture their individual little personalities through a series of photos.

Their honesty doesn’t let them hide any part of themselves and I love it!

Thanks guys for hanging out and playing with us while we were on vacation.  We had a great time getting to know all of you a little better and we hope you love, LOVE the pictures! :-)

Click to see the rest of the photos from this San Diego family session.

When some of our best friends moved away from Phoenix to Sierra Vista, we were more than bummed.

But we quickly realized that having friends who live in a town that stays below 100 degrees, has it’s benefits!  Our positive perspective was confirmed when Ryan called us to help him give Molly a surprise family photo session for mothers day.

We headed down for a weekend of intense late night conversations, tasty meals, hilarious kids, and major life revelations (which is what always happens when we hang out with this family!).

Molly and Ryan had a terrific weekend planned for us.  We started out by heading down to the little town of Bisbee, AZ.

We’d never been there before and we found out that this little European-esque place in the middle of the Desert that is Arizona, is a photographers dream!

(They love baseball!)

It was really hard for us to adjust to walking right past places we could only dream of finding to use as photo backgrounds if we were in Phoenix because there were just too many good shots and we would’ve had to be shooting for a week straight to catch it all!

We also headed down to their favorite little hiking area, Ramsey Canyon, to catch them doing one of the many things they enjoy doing together as a family.

Our big outdoor adventure was followed by a nice dinner at a cute little 50′s diner…

…and then a night of their normal bedtime routines.  Their bedtime routine is one of my favorite things about being with this family.  First, dad gives them a bath time, complete with special treats that the kids absolutely love like tornado time (watching the water go down the drain fast), airplane time (dad tossing them up in the air to help dry them off), and great conversation about life.

The kids all have their toothbrushes in a row and they each brush their teeth while dad dries their brothers off, then they head into their bedroom to wait for the family to finish gathering in there.

Once they are all in the room, they have Bible story time, followed by question and answers (I couldn’t believe the intelligent questions they kids ask!).  They all do “blessings” on each other which is where they each go up to every family member (and Scottie and I) and run their finger over your face in the shape of a cross saying “in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.”  Have you ever heard a 3 year old saying something that intense while looking at you straight in the eye?  It’s so cool!  Especially when he says “fodder” instead of father. ;-)

Next they all climb into bed, sing a hymn together, and say prayers.  They really do this together every night! Before they moved, Molly and Ryan were in the class we took that helped us get out of debt (read our blog about that here) so we went over to their house once a week around bedtime and got to witness this routine every time.  So awesome.

Despite how neat all of that was to watch, I have to say that my favorite part was when the 4 year old was laying down to sleep and just before we walked out of the room, he innocently decided to ask one last quick question, “how do we get babies?”.

Oh wow, it took us a long time be able to catch our breathes from laughing after we walked out of that room!  Luckily, we caught that one on video!  Which by the way, we plan on releasing for you all to see soon!

The next day we headed over to the superhero wall.

Superhero mom, Molly, had made all the boys capes with their initials on it and masks go with it.

Oh wow, it couldn’t have been more perfect for pictures!

We just sat around for awhile watching the boys fight crime and then play on the playground afterwards.

These are definitely some of my favorite pictures of all time!!!

Let me just say that you have truly never seen 3 little boys who are so well behaved before.

(These are some little hats that I, Breanna, bought at Michaels and have been saving for the perfect kids photo session… this was it, they loved the hats!)

I spent most of the weekend trying to convince Molly and Ryan to start a blog or write a book because they must have something magic up their sleeve!

They are a very exceptional family who permeate one another’s lives with love, grace, acceptance, and humility.  Even the little 3 year old extends these values to his other family members!

It was seriously moving to wake up every morning and get to watch another day of a family loving one another that well! 

I say all of this because the entire weekend was filled with activity and the kids were totally thrown off their normal schedule…

…and still we did not see one time when it was necessary to discipline the children.  They were just good the entire time… exhaustion and excitement weren’t even enough to bring these amazing kids down!

Molly bought bribery candy for our day in Bisbee and by the end of the day, the grown ups ended up eating it because it was not even necessary to bring out even once!  Unbelievable!  We are so proud to be friends with people who can raise such beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and caring children.

We’re also so thankful we got to meet them before we have our own kids so that maybe we can learn a few of their secrets in time to apply them ourselves!

By the way, when we asked them about their kid raising magic tricks they said the main ingredient is that everyone serves one another… parents serving each other included!

Their explanation totally did make sense after we’d been watching them for an entire weekend.  Molly and Ryan weren’t constantly begging each other to take over with the kids, because one would always hop up first without even a second thought, and we didn’t hear any arguments the entire time over “who’s job it is”.

Molly and Ryan really do serve one another better than I think I’ve ever seen any couple do… and the kids have followed suite.

(Spending the afternoon playing baseball with their kids)

(Molly & Ryan love the “Swagger Wagon” song and this is their homage to it!  If you haven’t seen this hilarious video, you’re missing out so click here!)

How many times have you seen a little 6 year old willingly serving his 4 year old rather than fighting for their own individual rights?  Well, we saw it constantly all weekend!

(The littlest one loves helping his mom cook for the family.  While prepping for this same meal, the middle child is asking if he can be our waiter which means setting the table and bringing us our food).

In fact, Scottie and I saw this family serving each other enough all weekend that when we got home,  we looked at each other and realized that if we don’t start learning to serve one another better, then we’re in trouble when we have kids because they’ll definitely learn more than a few bad habits from watching us.  So thanks to this freaking cool family, our new goal in life is to learn to love others better by working on things about ourselves (the main thing having to do with serving others).

Thank you guys so much for being one of the most positive influences in our entire life.  I can’t even begin to communicate how refreshed, hopeful, excited, etc., etc. we felt after spending a weekend being served by you.  We’ve decided to have Ellison weekend at least 3 times a year because it’s one of the best things we could do to help us become better people…and because we have a GREAT time!!

We love you all!

Click to see the rest of the photos from this wonderful family session!

After doing pictures for their baby…

…we were thrilled when the Kugle Family called us to do pictures of the rest of the family as well!

Of course we couldn’t resist taking pictures of the baby again because as in any family, the baby steals the show without any effort at all!

This time was especially fun because he had a bunch of new expressions in his repertoire that we were happy to witness!

Especially because some of those faces were absolutely hysterical!

(Although this is probably my favorite picture of the day, we decided to get a normal one during this very sweet family moment!)

The rest of the family did get their time to shine too…

…both as couples…

…and as an entire family.

When you have a family as photogenic as this one, you can’t help but take way too many pictures of them!

We were very happy they were staying at the JW Desert Ridge Marriott while they were in town because it gave us full access to the stunning grounds there!

We couldn’t ask for a better place to take pictures, every where you go is beautiful!

In fact, if we had any problem, it was that there were too many places to go and we were overwhelmed with options!  Not a bad problem to have!

We want to give a special thanks to the Kugle family for working with us.

You really are a beautiful family… and a photographers dream I might add!

We hope you returned home from your vacation well rested and that you’re having fun back in normal life! :-)

Click to see the rest of the Kugle Family pictures.