A Little Mo: {Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Higley, Gold Canyon Senior Photography}

 

 

Meet Mo.  Short for Mosese Latu.  Little name.  Big guy.  You may recognize him from this photo shoot where I got a great laugh work-out.  I got a good dose of laughter this time too as we did his senior photo session at Freestone Park and at the Perry High School football field where he played for the past four years.  He played so well that he was chosen to play in the All American game in Florida in January!

 

And. . .he has signed on to play at ASU!  Go Sun Devils!  Now ASU is gonna have:

A little Mo Laughter.

A little Mo Respect.

A little Mo Intelligence.

A little Mo Kindness.

And a little MO POWER!

“GO MO!”

 

But he will tell you, he wouldn’t be where he is without his family.  Big sis and Dad weren’t able to be at the photo shoot, but they, with Mom and big bro, are his best support system and most faithful fans.

It was so much fun having mom there.  She is a great lady and together with her hard working husband, has brought up fine children.  Foot ball is a big part of their lives (big bro Nuku plays for CSU), but their kindness and generosity are a much bigger part of who they are.  I am so lucky to have them in my life.

 

 

And the dose of laughter I mentioned?  Most of it happened after the sun went down. 

 

Malo aupito Latu Family!

 

PS:  To all the single young ladies—according to mom, these boys are engaged.   Mo is engaged to ASU.  Nuku is engaged to CSU.  Is that clear?!

The Sneak Sneak Peek

Usually I do more pics with a sneak peek but I am off to take one of my kids for an fun filled trip to the dentist for a root canal.  I will post more pics later (cause these guys were adorable and we got so many cute pics!) but I wanted the rest of the world to see how lucky I am to have the honor of capturing the amazing bond of a young family.

 

Back from the root canal and it wasn’t really so bad.  Whew.

 

Now to more darling pictures!

This funny little guy, who just celebrated his first birthday, kept us all laughing with his many faces.  First, we have the above “You found my ticklish spot” laughing, giggling face.

 

Then we have the “Look into my beautiful dark chocolate eyes and I will slowly hypnotize you” face.

 

And after a few others,  my favorite, the “Are you talking to ME?” face.  I nearly died laughing!  And the funniest part of it all, is that he could go from one face to another in a blink.  I am sure he keeps his parent laughing all day!

 

 

And speaking of his parents, they are the NICEST, SWEETEST things on earth.   What a lucky boy.

 

 

We had a perfect evening at the park.  This is what I love about Arizona.  While others are still digging out of the snow, we are able to be out in the parks, enjoying the sights, smells and signs of spring.  Thanks for sharing an early spring evening with me.  You are a wonderful family.

The Love Hate Relationship of my Life in the Desert

 

I have a love hate relationship with the place I live.  It used to be pretty concentrated on the hate end (Eww, you hot ugly thing!) of the scale, but time and patience has balanced (beautiful winter, how I love thee and the delicious garden tomatoes that I am STILL getting from LAST spring’s tomato plants) it quite a bit.

 

After growing under the shadows of the beautiful three peaked Mt. Nebo in the Rocky Mountain Range and living in or visiting places like Japan, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga, moving to a desert climate was quite a shock to my system.  I need color  like I do food.  And not just any food.  Like a buffet.  Yes, that is it.  I need a color buffet! 

Gradually I have come to love or at least tolerate many of the things I used to hate and I have learned how and when to find or make color around me (Check out my etsy shop where I display some of it).

 

I won’t bore you with a list of all the things I love and hate about the desert, but I will select one item.  That would have to be the cactus.  Actually,  it is cacti when referencing them in plural.  Did you know that?  It still feels funny coming out of my mouth.  Cacti.  CACti.  cacTI.  CACTI.

 

 

 

Of course there are so many varieties

 

 

 

but the barrel  cactus is the one most associated with the Sonoran Desert.  It is tall.  And pokey. 

 

 

And a little on the unattractive side.  But, just as many people find shapes in the clouds, we find characters in the cacti.

What do you see here?

 

 

And here?

 

 

 

So.  Besides the cacTI,

 

 

dead looking plants

 

 

and rocks and stuff

 

Did you notice anything else?  Like

*

*

*

*

there is SNOW on them there mountains?!!!!!!!

 

And that is one of the things I LOVE about living in the desert.  I love winter time and that even though it is rare, sometimes is snows here!  And it is just the perfect amount of snow.  Enough to see, touch, make a little snowman, and drive 1/2 and hour home and have a picnic in your back yard. 

NO KIDDING.

No driving in it. 

No shoveling it. 

No scraping it off your window. 

No tracking snow and rocks on the newly mopped floor. 

No kids trapped home on snow days. 

Nope.

Just enough snow to build a mini snowman,

 

get back in the car and know that you have just enjoyed snow in the most perfect way for you. 

I guess I may be a desert dweller after all.

I love you dear desert. 

But please don’t ask me how I feel about you in July.

Once there was a snowman!

More on this guy tomorrow!