Enjoy the sneak peek below and let me know what you think. And chances are that if you live in the Auburn, Lake Tapps, Bonney Lake or Sumner areas, George and Bianca may look familiar to you. That is because they own and operate two amazing restaurants in the area–Copper Falls at the Auburn Golf Course and Al Lago which is located on the west side of Lake Tapps. So, when you stop in to either of those restaurants to enjoy a nice meal on your date night, be sure to tell George what a beautiful family he has.

This past week has been extremely difficult. I had four clients with sessions scheduled for this week and in preparation for them all, I decided to get sick. Not the greatest timing. I’ve been under the weather all week and today is the first day where I am starting to feel back to “normal”. This past Wednesday however, Anita and Doug and their two children helped me feel energized for about an hour and a half as we met at Discovery park for their portrait session. The weather was a sunny 60-degrees and their kids could not have been any cuter. As you’ll see from the sneak peek below, their family is very photogenic.

I’m going to give you fair warning right now that this sneak peek contains a lot of images (15 total)! This is intentional on my part though. I wanted to put Doug and Anita at ease and show them that we got plenty of wonderful images of their family enjoying each other at the park. You see, Doug and Anita were a little concerned about whether we were able to capture any usable images because nap times didn’t necessarily happen as they usually do on the day we had our session scheduled and sometimes, this can cause the little ones to be a little less cooperative than normal. Most of us parents have found ourselves in this situation before. I know I have and I have the photos to prove it (in fact, one of them is framed and on our wall–who says everyone needs to be smiling in a photo). But, as you will see below, we captured some beautiful images of them just being a family and enjoying their time together. Nothing forced. Nothing artificial. Nothing contrived. Just simple, plain, authentic moments shared between people that love each other that, once captured, become special images because they preserve a moment in time that will never happen again.

Doug and Anita – thank you so much for asking me to be your photographer. It was a pleasure meeting your family and I’m honored to have captured these images that will grace the walls of your home and be given to your family members as gifts. Enjoy!

Jenni and Don – thanks again for being so warm and inviting as you welcomed me in to your home and trusted me to capture these images of your beautiful family. It was truly an honor. Enjoy your images!

And that goes for the rest of you too. Enjoy! You’ll notice that I shot the majority in black and white to suit Jenni and Don’s preference but I also captured quite a few in color as well, a couple of which I will share below. I personally tend to gravitate toward the black and white images as well. For some reason, black and white always seems to articulate the emotion of a particular moment so much better. Leave a comment and let me know what you think?

Just like our family, one of their favorite things is reading bedtime stories so it was important to capture the family enjoying some of their favorite books together.

Just spending time together as a family is so sweet. It’s important to capture these little, simple moments instead of taking them for granted.

The girls enjoy their very own personalized chairs. Noticing toes and sharing a contagious laugh is a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning.

This was one of the few times where they actually noticed the camera. A little intimidating for most kids but not when there’s two of you and only one of me.

Weekends are a great time to settle in to a good book. The one on the right was always a favorite around our house–watch out for that Noothgrush on your toothbrush!

The new found freedom of being able to stand and walk on your own is exciting but there’s still nothing like the comfort and safety of staying nice and close to mom and dad.

Snuggly time with dad never gets old. As someone that has personally experienced how fast kids grow up I can say that these are the moments you want to preserve and cherish because unfortunately, they don’t last forever.

Sometimes you just need to be silly. And with twin girls, there’s always an opportunity to do that.

One of the nice things about having a sister, is that you always have someone looking out for you and ensuring that you look your best. And sometimes, looking your best means getting all of the buttons fastened just so.

And then showing her how much you love her (or sounding the bell for a wrestling match).

Well, based on this final image, I’d say that I accomplished my mission. You know, the one referenced in my watermark? “Find joy in every moment”. What do you think?