This maternity session was extra meaningful to us because this is our family! Jordan’s brother, Nick, and his beautiful wife, Anna, mean the world to us, and we feel so blessed to have them in our lives. Nick and Anna are the awesome parents of our first niece, Olivia, and while it seems like just yesterday that they were announcing the news to the family that they were expecting their first little one, here we are, already celebrating their second! Now, we’re only a month away from getting to meet our very first nephew, so needless to say, we are a very excited aunt and uncle. Olivia is two a half now, and is one big ball of energy and personality. She’s smart, and funny, and she’s already practicing her “baby voice” for when her little brother arrives. We can’t wait for her to be a big sister. It was so fun to capture such a special time in their lives, the last time they’ll ever be a “party of three.”

The first time we met Joe and Dani, Baby Vinnie was sleeping soundly in his mommy’s tummy as Joe officiated a beautiful ceremony for his sister’s wedding day. So we couldn’t wait to meet the little guy when Joe’s sisters gifted his new family a session to capture their first days together. Baby Vinnie is an absolute doll. He is only a month old, and already full of personality. Joe and Dani are such gentle, loving parents, and there aren’t really words to describe the joy on their faces when they look at their sweet son. Watching the three of them together was pretty magical, and we felt honored to be able to capture such a special time for such a special family. Here’s a little look at a few of our favorites.

There’s nothing like working with returning clients. It always feels more like a reunion than it does like work. And when we see them, it’s like no time went by at all. It’s hard to believe it has already been a full year since we last shot The Gasser Family. Spending time with them again was such a treat. What’s more, getting two busy teenagers’ schedules to coordinate for a photo shoot was practically a Christmas miracle. Grant and Alicia go a mile a minute, so we were so glad that they found a pocket of time for us to capture their family again this year. This will be Alicia’s last year at home, as she heads off to Baylor next year, and we caught the family just in time to include Grandma Mickey in a few photos as well. As you can imagine, there’s nothing a high school boy wants to do more than take annual family photos, so we made sure to make it as painful and drawn out as possible. We kid, folks, we kid. Here’s a look at a few of our favorites!

We couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the start of family photo season than by sharing our time this past weekend with The Campbell Family. From the second they turned the corner, we knew we were going to hit it off. Their outfits? Perfectly coordinated. Their hearts? Pure gold. This family just took our breath away. There is no other other way to explain it, other than they were simply beautiful from the inside out. The quality of their character was top notch, which just gave us extra reason to enjoy every minute they were behind our lenses. Their kids were sweet, respectful, fantastic listeners, and were even willing to meet our obnoxious requests to get as close as humanly possible to each other with a smile. We had so much fun with them, and because the whole family was so great, we were able to do so much. We have so many favorites that we’re happy to turn over all printing decision-making to Dawn and Jimmy. The way these guys photograph, we would have a heck of a time choosing which one is going over the mantle!  Dawn and Jimmy, we wish you luck!

Call us old fashioned, but for us, the printed word will never go out of style. We love the smell of book stores, the anticipation a sealed envelope brings, the way a sticky note just screams, “Look at me!” We walk just a little slower in the airport to check out the covers of each and every magazine. We tear out the pages of catalogs for creative inspiration. Finding a handwritten letter in our mailbox still trumps finding anything in our inbox. And we have saved every wedding card we ever received. Yep, print and us, we have a thing.

So when the Metz girls told us that our images from their family session were going to be featured in big, bold, beautiful print, we couldn’t wait to turn the pages ourselves. MASK magazine, a family-focused publication, set out to showcase the incredible relationship of these four sisters, and what their experiences were like growing up under one roof. So as we turned the page, and held the assembled pages of the images in our own hands, we renewed our vows with print right then and there. May it never go out of style.

We feel so blessed to work for such wonderful people. One of our past clients, Shawna, contacted us because she wanted to give her sister photos of her four beautiful children as a gift. We loved the idea and jumped at the chance to work with Shawna again. She is so sweet and has such a big heart. Plus, she has a great eye for styling. We knew her nieces and nephews would be darling, and when we saw the way she coordinated their Janie and Jack outfits, we could barely wait to begin shooting. Aslyn and Bryce are 4-year old twins and were bursting with energy during the shoot. We could barely keep up! Mackenzie, 9, and Logan, 6, did such a great job in the big brother/sister roles, and we just love all the giggles that come from getting four kiddos under 10 to do just about anything. They were so much fun, and  holy cuteness, are they precious or what? Here are a few of our favorites.

This post has been a long time coming, and I’m so glad to be able to finally share the images! When the Metz girls contacted me about arranging a shoot as a surprise Christmas present for their parents, I could barely contain my excitement.To give you a better idea, Sue and I are soul sisters. Keeping this shoot a secret put me about one notch away from, “OHHH MYY GOSHHH! I’m so freakin’ excited!” I had to take a note from my bestie Sue, pull my Bill Cosby sweater over my mouth and wait until after Christmas to post. Well now that 2012 is here, and I received a heartfelt thanks from Papa Metz, I can safely share some shots of these amazing girls. There is something so beautiful about the special bond between sisters, and I was so honored to be able to capture it through my lens. 

I knew I was going to love every minute of this shoot when, right as we met, Elizabeth turned to me, said she noticed I was an Adele enthusiast and asked if I had seen the Glee mash-up of Rumor Has It/Someone Like You. Have I seen it?? That’s my shower track of choice! In fact, I edited quite a few of these photos jamming out to it. We all hit it off right away. We spent our time together making Zoolander  faces, cracking jokes and crossing our fingers that nobody arrested us for trespassing. Even though they don’t all live in the same place, they are a truly tight-knit family. I could just feel the unconditional love they all had for each other during the short time I spent with them. And most amazing of all, Jennifer and Darrell were celebrating their 42nd wedding anniversary. The two were so happy and so in love that they reminded me of the young engaged couples we work with. Jennifer and Darrell, we want all your secrets! They certainly did a wonderful job of passing those secrets on to their kids, because Melissa and James and Chris and Elizabeth were perfect together. It just made for a beautiful family shoot. To all six of you, thanks for letting Jordan and me be a part of your wonderful family for a few short hours. Here’s a little look at our time together:

Us Phoenicians are pretty spoiled. While the rest of the country is shoveling snow in their long underwear, I get to shoot fantastic families like the Gassers in sunshine that would make a certain Care Bear very jealous. The sun was totally on our side, and I wasted no time taking full advantage of those beautiful rays. We had such an all-around wonderful time with the Gassers. They were sweet, down to earth and coordinated their outfits like pros. From belts to scarves to shoes, they had every detail just right. But let’s face it, when you’re as good looking as they are, you can come in feed sacks and still look fierce. The outfits were just a bonus. We laughed a ton as Grant won the power to pick the family meals for a week by being a great sport about the shoot. How were the filets, Grant?? We hope you liked them half as much as we love these images! Here are a few of my favorites from the day: