OH, what a special shoot this was for me!! I have been telling myself to make this shoot happen for years now….and so when I got the email from Eric that they were hoping to do a family shoot, I was soo glad to finally be planning it. This is my Pastors terrific family!! Eric, Kendra, Lilly and Kaylynn are genuinely wonderful people to the core…I really can’t say enough about them! Mark and I met at our church, (a little known fact!) Eagle Church..both of our families have attended our church for many years and Eric has been the Teaching Pastor ever since, so our relationship and personal lives date waaaay back to our church! Eric is one of the core reasons why we love our church (in addition to our other wonderful Pastors at Eagle!) as much as we do because he has been blessed with an ability to preach God’s word like noone I’ve ever encountered in my life…and God has touched countless lives through Eric. You know those sermons where God just speaks to you through them, you just can’t stop listening, you want them to go on and on (yep, it’s rare, I KNOW!) , you can’t help but think of all the ways it applies to your every day life and you leave thinking about it for the next few days….well, that’s an Eric Simpson sermon pretty every Sunday at our Church. We are pretty lucky, I know! Just listen to one of the sermons that can be found on the Eagle Church website link above and you will see what I mean! And when he’s not preaching at our church, He’s working with with the Indianapolis Colt’s on their pastoral team. God truly works through him and it’s such an incredible blessing to me and to soo many others! He has a super great family!! His amazing wife, Kendra and daughters Lilly and Kaylynn are absolutely terrific!! Soo genuine, fun and real!! They are the kind of family that you really hope to have one day…people who truly love one another, respect and encourage each other, have a blast together and put an emphasis on enjoying life…while being based on foundation of faith, serving God and others and working towards a greater purpose! Mark and I can only hope to raise Sophie like they have raised Lilly and Kaylynn! We had SOO MUCH FUN on this shoot!! They were all completely involved, having a blast from the minute we started and truly enjoying time as a family…just letting me capture it! It was SOO SPECIAL!! Simpson family, I love you guys…it was such a great joy to photograph your family and it’s such a continued blessing to know you and call you friends!

Another family shoot! This time, for Mark’s family! Hannah, Ben, Graham and Xavier…our wonderful family…and our neighbors! We love them soo much and are soo blessed to have them in our lives! It’s soo hard to believe that Graham is now 4 years old (5 in January!)…when it seems like only yesterday, he practically had a daily shoot on my blog when he was born as the first child into the family!! Now Xavier is 2 (3 in March!) and everyone is growing soo quickly!! Oh…and a full family shot at the end! Told you that I was trying to capture everyone this year!

We were at my in-laws house for a family day of birthday celebrations when we did this shoot…and so Soph naturally ended up in the shoot! She loves her cousins, her Auntie H and her Umbleken, as she calls him (aka, Uncle Ben)! And I couldn’t help but shoot a few of my FAVORITE tree….. it’s such a beautiful, magestic old tree that is absolutely massive!! It’s estimated to be over 200 years old….and seen soo many generations, seasons, storms and sunshine…it’s amazing. One of my favorite things to do each fall is to visit Mark’s parents property and see my favorite tree!

And the whole clan from earlier this fall…