Happy Birthday to ......

Me:):) It's my birthday today and it was good. Tonight I went to an Arizona Weddings Party and saw the new magazine.. I have tons of pictures in it and i'm so excited. I'll try to post some pictures later! Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday.. it was great!!!

Carrine and Michael

Saturday I had a very special wedding. My sister's best friend Carrine got married and she asked if I would be their photographer. I was thrilled because I did not want to miss this wedding. Carrine has been such an important part of my sisters life which makes her part of the family!

The Wedding was in my hometown of Pinetop, AZ. I love being able to go back and take pictures in Pinetop because there is so much beauty there! I have such a great time going home. I have now done 1 wedding a year there, but am hoping to do more.. so if you know of anyone getting married in the mountains, just let them know I LOVE taking pictures up there!

Things have changed so much on the mountain since I lived there and some of the changes are very good.. such as a new Salon that does amazing work and is totally hip and urban.. it is called "Urban Bliss" and is where the girls got ready. If you are in the White Mountain Area you have to check out this new Salon.

Carrine is one of the most beautiful people inside and out. I'm so glad she choose to have someone pamper her and do her hair and makeup. She looked Gorgeous and had so much fun getting pampered.



As I said, the Ceremony and Reception were at Torreon Golf Resort. It was beautiful.
The dress was beautiful!
We caught this moment of Carrine about to get ready.
And of course you can't forget all the details... the pearl bracelet that her Grandmother gave her to wear.
Carrine getting dressed with the help of all the girls. The girl in the back middle is my wonderful sister (The Maid of Honor).
Carrine's beautiful rings.


My sis is the one next to Carrine... aren't they gorgeous girls?
Carrine radiated the entire day!! Beautiful!
The Guys!!!

The handsome Groom, Michael.
Of Course, I can not leave my nephew out of this whole mix of pictures. My family was invited to the wedding, which was crazy because I've never done a wedding with so many people I know. Of course it was hard not taking a ton of pictures of my nephews.. but I did good. But this is little Aidan in his tux.. and he was adorable. More pictures are below of both of the boys!
The official Ring Bearer and Flower girls... so cute.

Their Dad had to help them pick up the flowers because they wouldn't go any farther because they dumped out all the flowers alredy.. what a great father/daughter moment.


Carrine had her brother walk her down the aisle and it was a very special time for both of them.
The older brother giving his sister away.



A very fun wedding party.

Something very neat about this day was the fact that it was supposed to rain the entire day, but it didn't. The day before it rained and were so scared that we weren't going to be able to get pictures outside, but God is good.. and the rain didn't come until all the pictures were done and we were inside partying at the reception.. we just had gorgeous clouds to get great pictures.





At the reception there were a TON of kids and they all played on the dance floor. I have to show some of these pictures because I was so proud of my twin 1 year old nephews who got out and partied with all the other kids...Below is Aidan.
And this is Liam.
This is my wonderful mother with Aidan.
And because I never get to share pictures with all of you of my parents I thought I would end with this picture of my amazing mother and father dancing together. I love you guys.

Carrine and Michael... you two are truly a blessing and I can see God in your lives and pray that you will continue to seek him in your marriage!! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such a wonderful day! I'm looking forward to so much more time spent with you both. Congratulations!!

Christina and Craig

Christina and Craig just relocated from Wisconsin to Arizona. Their wedding is going to be back in Wisconsin, but they wanted some engagement pictures so they called and asked if I would do that for them.

Of course I said yes and in April we headed out to Scottsdale to take some great pictures for them. I'm so excited because they are going to also order a guest book, which I think is such a great way to show off your pictures and have a great memory. We are also going to meet up soon and talk about me taking their pictures up in Wisconsin.. I love to travel so that would be so much fun!

These guys were so much fun...they wanted to make sure that we got some of the Arizona mountains in a shot and also cactus so they can show their family and friends what Arizona is like:) So we managed to get a little bit of everything and they turned out great!!

The Graves Family

This family is one of the neatest families I have ever met!! Meet the Graves!!

These kids are wonderful.. so well behaved and we had so much fun running around Austin, TX to get some really fun pictures.

I have known of the Graves for awhile now. When I lived in Texas John was the college leader at one of the churches I went to. I never really got to get to know them really well, but my friend Melissa lived with them for a long time and through the circle of friends John called me up and asked if I would help him surprise Nicole with a family session while I was in Texas. I was so excited to be able to do this. Nicole has been following my photography for over 3 years now when I did my first wedding out in Texas, so she was so excited when she finally found out that we were doing a session.

I love things like this. I love surprises, I love catching up with old friends, and I love taking pictures of families so that they will have memories of this time in their lives.

Thank you John and Nicole for the opportunity to photograph your family. It was so wonderful getting to know you a little more and i'm so excited to get to know you more and more as the years go by!

Enjoy the pictures!!

The Awaited Melissa and Rick Day After Pictures

Melissa and Rick got married a few weeks ago in Austin, TX. Since I wasn't able to do their engagement pictures I asked them if they wanted me to stay an extra day and I would take Day After Pictures of them. They were totally excited for it especially once I told them that I wanted them to find a really cool place with water where they could make out and take some really sexy pictures.

The Day after session is especially fun for couples who have destination weddings because I really get a chance to take some pictures of them in some neat places.

We decided to go to a river and the setting was gorgeous! We started off with some fun pictures of the two of them and then moved on to sexy... beware as you scroll down it get's hot!!

Thanks you guys.. it was awesome and you both seriously look like models!! Great job!!

Oh yes, and as usualy I have to give credit to the amazing Mary Beth Tyson who came along and got phenominal shots.. a few of hers are below and I will let you know which ones.

This is a great MB Shot!!









I love this shot that MB got through the trees.

Another phenominal MB Shot.
Here is where Melissa and Rick started to turn up the heat!! Whohoo!!




And yes, the water was cold... they were such troopers.

Aidan and Liam Joiner

When I talk about how important it is to do my Baby's First Year package it's because I know. I understand how much kids change within a year... within a week. Everytime I go to see my nephews (which is at least once a week) they have changed so much and are doing things that i've never seen them do.

About a month and a half ago my sister and I were walking every afternoon with the boys. It was great. We would stop by a little park on the way home and let the boys crawl and roam free. They loved it. They were both crawling and it was a new experience. So I decided to do some pictures the next day, which became their 11 month portrait session.

I've had them sitting on my computer for a month or so because I have been so slammed, but last night I stayed up to try to get them up because the next pictures to show you are their 1 Year Birthday party which was last weekend... they grow too fast.

These are some of my favorite pictures ever, probably because I know these kids, I know how within a month they both started walking so they are now at a completely different stage in life, and I know how their personalities are so different than each other, so the little faces, pouts, and stealing of the cell phone very much screams Aidan and Liam. I love these little boys and I'm so glad that I have these pictures that I am going to blow up and plaster along all my walls.

The First year is so important and this is why.

This is my favorite shot of Liam.

Such a happy boy. (Liam)

And then the funky face (Still Liam)

And then the joyful face because daddy is hanging him upside down and sees my camera (Liam)

I Love this family shot. The boys with dad and mom in the background.

Aidan with a little pose.

This is my favorite Series. They both love the cell phone so Mom gave them the phone. At the early stages of life we thought Aidan would be the calm one and Liam would be the crazy child.. well now Aidan is the one who wants everything and takes it and pouts and bullies his way to getting it and Liam just goes and finds another toy. What a picture that shows their personalities!


Wanting Moms Attention

Aidan is such a wonderful child. Both of these kids have so much joy and I love it when Aidan is smiling and being a cutie.

Another very cute face (Aidan)

My favorite of Aidan.. not sure why but i'm blowing this up and hanging it on my wall.

So excited that he got the cell phone again (Aidan)

Trying to figure out what to do now (Aidan)

A very cute Liam Crunch

And another one of my favorites (Liam)

I have so many more pictures to show you! We just did Aiden DeWall's 9 month pictures last week so those are to come too! I'll put comparisons from his 4wk pictures as well.

I love you Aidan and Liam!! You make me have so much joy!

A Challenge and A Contest

I am very sore right now. My friend Mary Beth and I decided that we have got to get back into shape. We are very competitive people, but we live very far away (I'm in Arizona and she's in Florida). So the other day we decided that we would challenge each other with the IPOD + Nike+ running challenges.

Basically I just bought a Pink IPOD Nano Nike Plus Shoes
and the Nike+ add on for the IPOD

We then go onto the nike+ site and challenge each other for who can run the most miles in 10 days or such.

So far i've run 2 straight days in a row and I love it, although, i'm not kidding you, i'm really sore.

So this is the fun part. I've been wanting to do a contest on here for awhile but haven't been able to think about what we can do. I know there are a lot of you who read my blog and it is so much fun.. so let's make it a little more interactive.

I'm proposing a Nike Running Challenge to all of you who already run or those of you who want to get in shape and start running. If you are interested in this challenge I will set it up on the Nike Challenge site and the winner of the challenge will receive a $25 I Tunes Gift Certificate.

How it will work:

1) You have to have the Nike Shoes, Kit, and IPod to be able to do this challenge.
2) You have to sign up on the Nike store, make your ID Public, and then email me with your ID name so i can add you.
3) I am going to give you a few days to get all your gear ready and sign up with Nike, so we will start this next Monday.
4) Keep track of your runs and update them every day. Everyone will be able to see how you are doing and we can challenge each other even more on the site.
5) The person with the most miles at the end of 10 days will receive a $25 I Tunes gift card. - no cheating.. you have to run them yourself.. no getting others to do it for you.

If you are interested in doing this you have to leave a comment on the site with your name and you must email me and let me know your Nike ID - the email is info @ michelleallenphotography.com.

Now get out there and start running!!!

Dbacks with Grandpa

I have to give a big shout out to one of my brides Jessi for hooking me up with Dbacks tickets tonight. My grandpa and I are having a blast.

Waiting... You all Rock!!!

I know many of you are waiting so patiently for pictures. Weddings and sessions alike.. I promise they are coming:). We are working crazy over here because within an amount of 4 weeks we did a TON of weddings and sessions and are trying to get them up online.

We also had a run in in the family which has slowed things down. My aunt is my color correcter and has helped me so much to get my weddings up faster, well, the other day we found out that her daughter (my cousin who i'm very close to), just got diagnosed with MS (Multiple Schlerosiz), a nasty disease. The news has been hard for our family and my aunt has had to help out with my cousin and be there for her during this hard time; thus, we have slown down some, but we are catching up.

So, thank you for your patience.. It will all be up very soon!!!

Amanda's Senior Pictures!

Everyone.. meet Amanda. I have known Amanda since she was in 7th Grade and now she is a Senior. I can't believe she is all grown up and in a few weeks will be out of High School. My how time flies!

Amanda also is my assistant, so if you get a call from someone other than me it is usually her. She is a huge asset to the MAP team and I am so thankful that she is working for me!

So, when she said she wanted Senior Pictures of course I jumped at the idea.. I told her she had to be fun and crazy and work the camera.. of course she did just that! We had a blast. So, here are a few of the 400 pictures she gets to choose from.. I know that is a lot, but we drove everywhere and took so many great pictures. I got it down from 750, but now it's up to her!!

Amanda you did awesome and are so cute!! Enjoy!!!