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!

Last Sunday we took the girls over to our friends at the Silver Spoon children’s boutique to photograph some of their brand-new spring arrivals.  We all agreed that some of the outfits definitely needed live models; enter Reilly & Teagan.  While the ladies pulled outfits, I styled the girls in and out of clothes as fast as Superwoman changed into her digs.  The girls had so much fun trying on all of the super adorable clothing, and even insisted on choosing a new hair accessory from the store’s vast assortment for each outfit.  Enjoy a peek at some of the Silver Spoon’s gorgeous new selection!

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!

As many of you know, we held our first annual Vintage Valentine portrait event at the Silver Spoon children’s boutique a few weeks ago.  As this was our first go at this particular “theme” if you will, we had no idea how it would go, especially given that they were 15 minute mini-sessions.  Much to our delight, we had an overwhelming response, completely filled every available spot and then some, and the images turned out–magical.  We provided tutus, pettiskirts, tanks, and hair accessories for the girls (and thanks to the Silver Spoon for adding to the selection, as well as our talented friend who provided the amazing hand-made flower headbands-you can find her one-of-a-kind pieces on her Etsy store, Wrapped in Clover), but the boys were on their own this time around, with some suggestions to guide their choices.  As you can see from these examples, the boys looked adorable, too!  I wish we could post everything, including all of the delicious Valentine cards and custom montages people ordered, because they were all just too cute for words!  This event was such a fun experience for us and everyone who came out, that I’m sure this will not be the last…we’re already thinking of next year’s Valentine event.  We’ve chosen a few faves to post here, but it was painful to only show a sampling; if we had posted everything I wanted to, it would have pretty much been every image from every session!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Last weekend we were fortunate to have been asked by our good friends to join them at their family lodge in S. Lake Tahoe for some winter fun (and superbowl).  We were thrilled and jumped at the invite, as poor Teagan has never been to the snow (she’s 4 1/2!), and it’s been so long I doubt Reilly even remembers it.  We were a bit nervous about how the weather conditions would affect our drive up, but just like magic, the clouds parted, the roads were clear, and there was no traffic!  Then, as is we had control over it, a ton of new snow fell all day Saturday, creating the most gorgeous winter wonderland you could imagine.  There was so much snow the kids were able to sled in the front yard right off the new hill that was once just a flowerbed of bushes.  In a word, the kids loved the snow!  Teagan was particularly fond of a giant snowball she found in the yard (see below).  We could not have asked for a better weekend–great friends, great weather, great fun.  Then, to top it off, the sun came out Monday when it was time to drive home.  In a word–amazing!  Thanks to Ann & Matt for being such gracious hosts!

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: