Its another surprise!

There's never a dull moment when taking pictures with this family. They keep me moving and shooting and laughing every time we get together. There also seems to be a trend of "surprises" each time I arrive to take their pictures. 

The last time I took pictures of them all together was a little over a year ago, when Jessica and Michael, announced they were pregnant to her parents and the family during our photo shoot together.  I had NO idea either! They told me as I arrived to the photo shoot.

Then, as soon as I arrived to this photo shoot, Chris and his wife, had a surprise to also announce during the photo shoot, that they too were expecting! I was in shock! Like, WOW! Two photo shoots in a row, I've got to be there when the children are making the "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT". Which for me, is SUPER exciting! To be able to capture the expressions, smiles and tears from everyone is true magic.

But really, I can't help but wondering if this will be a growing trend when I take pictures with this family. lol! Jessica and Michael...you're back up ;)

Back out at Nelson's Landing

It had been awhile since I had previously went out to Nelson's Landing for family pictures. For a while, it seemed like that's where everyone wanted to take their pictures and whenever I was there I would see like 15 other photographers.  It was a crazy scene of photographer and well dressed people in the middle of a 1/4 mile ghost town.  But, much to my surprise, we did  not even see one! And a TON of stuff had changed there. The owner are always super nice and they say something changes in their town at least every week. Something new is added to their property all the time. It's pretty cool how much that place has grown. AND really it was so good to be back. We had a fun time walking around the town and checking stuff out. I think this family even stayed longer just so they could do some more exploring after I had left. All and all it was a great day out at Nelson's Landing or aka Eldorado Canyon. ;)

Menard Family

Sometimes the stress of doing family pictures is a lot on a mama. Finding everyone something to wear, spending crazy amounts of money, deciding on where to do your pictures, paying for Christmas cards and prints for the house and on top of that making sure everyone, including the youngest of the family to be well behaved and ready to smile on cue for the camera on picture day, takes a lot out of the mama. That seemed to be how this family was feeling right before we started for these pictures. Kids were being taken out of school early, the rush of getting ready and to a place on time was definitely a high stress time.

However, thankfully, last minute the location we were hoping for, which was actually a surprise, turned out perfect! Everyone was happy, dressed perfectly and in a great mood. And even though, the youngest of the family eventually petered out on pictures, her sassiness and flirt-iness, was the highlight of my shoot. She was cracking me up with all her poses and attitude. 

It was really a pleasure to work with them all. Everyone was so nice and very easy to work with. Thanks Kristina for everything!!