The Learn family brought their energetic, adorable boys to us for some fun, “real” family portraits, and that’s just what they got.  We basically just followed their lead and let them have fun and show us their personalities.  It was easy to capture the love and affection in this family, as it was bursting everywhere!  Meet the lovely Learn’s:

The Rieta family came just in time to display their beautiful new portraits for their little man’s 1st birthday party.  It was a gorgeous day and everyone had a great time; well, almost everyone.  The family’s dog wasn’t super excited about the session, but we managed to sneak a few in with their furry friend anyway.  Little E. was definitely one of the happiest, most content kiddos I’ve ever seen, which is a testament to his great parents, I’m sure.  It was just a great session from top to bottom; thanks to the Rieta family for such a great time!

Little Mr. G and his parents came to visit us for his final Bebe session, and it’s always bittersweet for us.  In this case, we met the Cameto’s and started photographing them for their maternity session, and then continued on capturing baby G’s first year.  We come to know and love these families that we are fortunate enough to spend so much time with, and then it’s well, sad, when the baby turns one and we know we probably won’t be seeing them quite as often anymore.  G was one of the easiest baby’s to photograph in my recent memory, and we could have continued shooting forever the day of his last session.  He was so darned cute in his “little professor” outfit as his dad called it, and I still just want to squeeze his cheeks every time I look back at these images.  Thanks for a great year, Cameto family!

Meet the Patock family….their session was one of those where all of the stars just seemed to be aligned–perfect weather, great clothing, and kids that were awesome (okay, the parents weren’t too bad either…:-)).  We had so much fun getting to know them, and as has happened on so many occasions, it turns out we had some mutual acquaintances that we discovered just chatting during the session.  Way to go on the great hat and scarf–we loved it!

These happy newlyweds came to us for some “family portraits” with their baby, Chopper.  Chopper is the cutest bulldog I’ve ever met, and the first one we’ve photographed.  It was so sweet to capture the glow still apparent in the Weygandt’s first year of marriage, but Mr. Chopper definitely competed for their spotlight.  It was an extra treat for us to photograph Scott & Braeden, as they are part of one of our favorite families!

The Anast’s are just those kind of people who you can’t help but have a great time around.  We met them a few years ago when little brother was just a baby, so it was fun getting to see them again and this time, at their gorgeous property in Loomis.  When we first talked about the possibility of doing their session at their home and I asked N about what the property was like, she said it really didn’t have much on it but this falling down old tree.  We were super excited when we heard that, and of course she thought we were nuts but took our advice anyway and went forward with having their family portraits made at their place.  As you can see, the falling down old tree was awesome!  We had so much fun just following the kids around the property, letting them run free and explore.  We did sneak a few of mom & dad in, and the one shown here was our absolute favorite of them!  This lovely family is a constant reminder of how lucky we are to be doing what we love; they invited us back as a family a few weeks later for dinner…what a blessing to become friends and be invited into the homes of those we are so fortunate to photograph.  Thank you Anast’s for everything!

Little Miss B visited us for her 2nd Bebe session (her 3rd actual session since we also did mom’s maternity!) and was sweet as can be.  We had some fun in the studio first (and mom and dad really know what I mean when I say “fun”….you had to be there!), and then ventured outside to show off her awesome winter outfit, full of color and texture, which we absolutely loved.  We always have a blast with the Zander family, especially since Dr. Zander happens to be our dentist…it’s a treat to get to see him when we’re not laying on our backs with our mouths wide open!

We met the lovely Cubias family last fall (pretty sad that it’s February and we’re still not finished blogging from before Christmas!) and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and their adorable kiddos.  Mom did an awesome job on their wardrobe selections, and we just loved the girls’ hats and big brother’s colorful scarf.  The girls were like supermodels and seemed to quite enjoy being photographed; I think they would have stayed longer if we had let them!  A fun fact we learned is that their daughter goes to the same pre-school as Teagan (our youngest), so we often see each other there during morning drop-off.  Meet the Cubias family:

We’ve been photographing this family since big brother was 2, I believe, and now little sis is going to be 2 later this spring!  They came for their annual family holiday portrait, as well as to capture Miss G’s new skill–standing!  We always have the best time with them and are so thrilled to see them each and every time.  The kids are always in a good mood….I wonder if there are good bribes involved?? Just kidding…they’re awesome kids no matter what!  Meet the Pham family (again):

When we met with Natasha last fall to discuss the portraits she wanted to have made of her family, we were excited on so many levels; first off, she is sort of family–she is my (Stef) aunt’s step-granddaughter; and second, she brought the coolest clothes to her consultation!  We knew if was going to be fun when she had so many ideas of looks that she liked, not to mention the fact that on the day of the session, she and and her daughter went to our friends at Article Salon (in the Fountains) to have their hair done especially for their portraits.  On the day of the session, the weather was perfect and the kids were superstars.  Miss A was a mini-supermodel and was up for changing clothes and looks as many times as she could squeeze in.  Little N was not quite as into being a supermodel as his sister, but he still did awesome nonetheless!  If I remember correctly, this session ended not because we ran out of outfits to change into, but because we ran out of light outside!  They were such a fun family to photograph and it shows.  Meet the Vasilopoulos family: