Working with families and little kiddos makes me happy! It's my favorite. And yes, I'm aware that I say everything is "my favorite". It changes based on my mood, so for today- family shoots are my fav. :) I love seeing the interaction between people who truly love each other. And when those people also enjoy laughing and having fun together I get really excited. This year I focused on making family sessions more about the people than the locations. (Something I should've been doing all along!) The images below are only a fraction of my favorite family pictures from this 2009. But I hate scrolling forever and thought you might too, so enjoy just a little snippet:

My parents like to give out Christmas cards to their whole church. Okay, I should stop and clarify just in case this is your first time reading my blog. My Dad is the lead pastor at their church. They aren't just some weird couple who likes to give everyone cards. :) Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving Day with them and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take a few family pictures. And it would have...if my brother hadn't been more interested in taking a nap (b/c he stayed out all night) or if my husband would have been excited about wearing his Native American headgear and less concerned about how cold he was. It was a frigid 65 degrees! Why is it always so hard to get pictures of the photographer's family? Oh well, it was still fun. Even the grumblers eventually got in the spirit!

I made this chalkboard for my Mom out of an old headboard. She has it on the porch, and people use it to leave messages. I love it!

Me and the Big Chief. :)

I was threatened that if any pictures of Pops and Santa ended up on the Internet, I'd be left out of the will. Oh well-Who needs money?!

This man loves animals. All of them. He would have a petting zoo if I'd let him.

We love this family! Eddy leads worship at our church and Monica is seriously one of the best singers I've ever heard. We've only known them for a few years, but they've had a huge impact on us. They're such an artistic, talented couple, with big hearts for Jesus and the people He puts in their lives... and they have the cutest boys EVER! Basically, Anderson and I want to be them when we grow up. :)

When Monica and I talked about their session she spoke the magic words: "We totally trust you, and we'll do whatever you ask us to. If you tell us to stand on our heads and clap with our feet, we're in!" Needless to say, I was excited about this photoshoot. And I knew we were going to have to pull "the couch" out one more time before it's retired to our bedroom forever. This was one of my favorite family sessions ever. We laughed a lot-the boys are little comedians! You'll see...

Thank you so much for letting me take your family pictures (and for cooking dinner for us!) We had so much fun hanging out with the 4 of you!

I might have the World's Best sister-in-law. There's no scientific research to back this up, but science has never been my thing anyway! Sara is one of my favorite people. She's unassuming and kind; loving and accepting. The type of person you could sit with for hours and talk about everything under the sun. And her husband just so happens to be a pretty great guy too. Anderson's little brother, Will, is married to Sara. They are two of the sweetest, most giving people I've ever met. I LOVE spending time with them! While we were in Michigan last week we had a chance to take some pictures of them in (and around) Grand Rapids. Here are some of my favorites:

And she said she couldn't pull off a "serious" look...puhhlease!

They laugh...a lot!

Sara's a teacher, so I had to have a shot of her holding apples. :) She teaches 8th grade English. (Sometimes I cringe at the thought of her reading my blog.) Sara, do you ever print it and mark it up with a red pen just for fun??!!

My assistant (Anderson) was aggressively throwing leaves on them.

They were just as yummy as they looked. The apples, of course!

I've worked with Kimberly and Ranburn several times and each one has been a treat for me. I hope they enjoy it at least half as much as I do. :) It's been fun to see them engaged, then married and now getting ready to celebrate their first Christmas as newlyweds. Kim told me they want to start their own holiday traditions, including a family photoshoot, so they loaded up their Smart Car with their two "children" and drove all the way from Tallahassee for our session together. Of course, the pooches stole the show...