You guys, we have been planning this photo for over a year, so I know how hard it is to get family photos, but it is soooo worth it.

I am the oldest of 8 kids ages 14-34 years old, and with families of our own, crazy schedules all on different shifts and different days, it is not easy to coordinate a photo shoot for 25 people. But we did it. Some of my siblings managed to ask off work. It was my brother and sister-in-law's anniversary, so they postponed their anniversary plans until after the shoot. There was a lot of rearranging, but I am so grateful everyone made it work. My brother lives with his family in Vancouver, Canada, and will be a missionary in South Africa, so I was dead set that this was happening, even though baby (well, her face anyway) isn't in the photo. And I'm so grateful to my sister-in-law's generous parents who took time to show up and make the kids laugh and press the shutter so I could be in the pic too. I will treasure these forever. ♥

Epic grandkid photo fail, but honestly I love it. Ha ha!

Yes, my children do look like Civil War soldiers in posed photographs.

My nephew might need a redo. It was not his day. ;)

This family is such a blessing to my life.

This is yet another amazing family I met through my husband when we started dating. To watch them grow  is such a joy, because there need to be more kind people like them in the world. So when they asked me to photograph them at their Thanksgiving get-together, I was of course delighted. What a privelege to have these awesome people in our lives.

The boys asked me right at the beginning if we could take a photo of just the guys, and then they whispered in planning about what poses they wanted to do. ;)

We had a tougher time with the girls. The littlest was understandably tapped out and so over the whole photo thing.

OUTTAKES!!

I think it was nearly 13 years ago that I met this family. I started dating my now-husband in November 2003, and through him, I inherited some of the most amazing friends. He had grown up with this family, I think pretty much most of his life, and Lee and Karen's son was one his best friends, and through my husband, he became one of my friends, too. Years later, I started hanging out with Lee and Karen's daughters, we became friends and I was even honored to be a bridesmaid for one of them. And then Lee and Karen's son met an awesome girl, and so I get to be her friend, too! How lucky that because of my husband, I get to be friends with all of these amazing people! They are such a close-knit, kind and wonderful family, a great credit to Lee and Karen. It's been four years, 2 grandkids and 1 daughter-in-law since their last session, but it was just as much fun. I feel honored to have been invited to capture a bit of their time together. ♥