Suzanne Melissa Photography, Engagement, Wedding, Wedding Photographer, Scottsdale Arizona, Phoenix Arizona » Scottsdale Arizona Wedding and Portrait Photography

 

Hot dogs, cotton candy, donkey rides, face painting…best birthday party ever!  Oh and cake too!  Check out this birthday party planned by Emily with Your Heart’s Desire.

Note to self-start planning Andrew’s 1st birthday ASAP!

I haven’t eaten Pixie Tix since I was in junior high and would buy them from the ice cream truck as I rode my bike home.  Hey, at least I was burning calories as I was eating pure sugar right?

The birthday boy himself!

What’s a party without hot dogs right?  I’ve seen these little veggie cups all over Pinterest…such a great idea for parties!

This is Jamie, a high school senior.  I tagged along on this senior session with Marnee Marriott.  I will be second shooting a couple of weddings with Marnee this month, so we used this session as a chance to get to know each other.  Aka-to ensure that neither of us are crazy and that we could spend 8-10 hours at a wedding together!  The good news is I think we are both sane:)

I’ve never shot a senior session, so this was pretty fun!

Jamie was so sweet and soft spoken.  This outfit seemed to totally match her personality of fun and light hearted.

Then there was an outfit change and WOZA!!!  I almost fell over.

Yes, I feel old saying this.  OMG!!!!  My parents would have died if I looked like this in high school.

 

I met Karyne at the Melissa Jill 2 Day workshop in January.  We instantly bonded over our lack of sleep due to new babies!  Karyne and her husband, John, have two beautiful boys Silas and Garrison.  We decided to trade portrait sessions since both of our babies are around 6 months old.  Since Garrison just turned 6 months we shot their session first.

It can be extremely nerve wracking shooting portraits for another photographer.  I really appreciated Karyne and John’s easy going nature.

Silas is the big brother and SO curious about checking out his surroundings.

Garrison is such a happy baby!  For these pictures John stood behind me and made Garrison laugh…like full belly giggle non-stop laugh.  I can’t wait for Andrew to laugh like that!

John with his boys.

For some reason this next picture totally cracks me up.  Everyone was sitting on the bench and we asked Silas if he could give Garrison a hug and this was the result….real life people!

One last favorite…taking advantage of the setting sun.

Meet the cutest family ever!

This is my family!  Above is my older brother, Trey, his wife Kandy and their two kids Billy and Madison.  For the last several years they have done what most families do and gone to a department store for their annual Christmas pictures.  This year they asked if I would do the pictures and of course I was…nervous as all get out.  Shooting sessions for my own family ALWAYS makes me nervous.

Nerves aside, we got some great shots and nobody cried…including me. I consider this a sign of a successful family session!

We’ll start with the kiddos.  Billy is the big brother and is 7.  He is sweet and tender hearted.  He loves playing video games and Pokeman.

Madison is 4 going on 14.  She is all about her baby dolls, dress up clothes and fake make-up.   Don’t be fooled by the sweet exterior though.  She can rough house with the best of them.   I always say she’ll have you in a headlock with one arm and a baby doll in the other.

This next picture is for my mom.   She likes to think that all brothers and sisters get along just great and skip and hold hands like Little House on the Prairie.  I know my brother and I certainly did (NOT).

I promised the kids that for every serious (aka smiling) picture we took we could take a silly one.  Madison was fully on board with the plan.

Trey and Kandy are of course the parents of these two awesome kids.  They have been married almost 10 years and they still have that spark.  They know how to laugh and love together.

Kandy was demonstrating the wind blown hair look here!

Over the last several months my brother has lost over 40 lbs.  We all swear that he has been invaded by an alien.  He now workouts every single day and eats a steady diet of chicken and fish.

Coming from someone who used to claim he was scard for life because we had sugar free Kool-Aid as kids this transformation has been nothing short of amazing.  He looks fantastic, but it’s even more incredible to see in pictures.  The picture below was taken last year at Christmas.

What a difference!

Here are few more of my favorite shots from the day.

You guys are so cute! Thanks for letting me take your pictures this year!

You might remember Sarah and Demar from their engagement pictures here and their wedding pictures here.  They were married this last March and Sarah mentioned that she might be interested in doing a boudoir session.  A few months after Sarah’s wedding she let me know that she would be switching her next session from boudoir to maternity!  I couldn’t be happier for these two and it was great to see Sarah and Demar both again!

It’s easy to see that these two are still so in love and going to make GREAT parents!

They are expecting a little girl…any day now.  As I read Sarah’s Facebook updates I was worried that I wouldn’t get her maternity pictures posted before the baby arrived!

We wanted to take a few pictures outside to capture some of the sunset.  I asked Demar to stand in as I set-up my lighting.  This turned into a mini-session which had me cracking up!  He is going to be such a fun dad!

The actual shot I was setting up for.

And a few more favorites!

Sarah and Demar it was great seeing you again and I can’t wait to meet the newest addition to your family!