The story behind how Michelle and I became acquainted has a painfully sad story attached to it so to save you all, (and both of us) from the guaranteed onslaught of tears, I'm going to stay focused on the joy that is a certain Miss Michelle. Michelle had been thinking about doing this shoot with me for YEARS. Like, for reals. YEARS. And it just finally serendipitously happened. Her two oldest (college kids) were in town for Thanksgiving, her adorable 13 year old daughter at the perfect crossroads age for some beautiful images, her three dogs and her brooding husband.... lol!!! Oh dear, I had so much fun with him! You know how you generally just kind of know what you can and cannot get away with with strangers? Well, I sort of pushed all the normal boundaries on that completely out the window. Poor guy. What a fun group this was! They let me torture their dad, and they completely indulged all my crazy requests. At one point I had them tramping through a muddy swampland of sorts (all of them barefoot no less) and as we are making our way deeper into the abyss dad deadpans: "and this is where she robs and kills us.... she looked so innocent..." Yeah, it was that kind of shoot. All of them were fantastic in their own special way but I'll admit to being partial to Mateo's brilliant quick wit, Sophia's quiet "fly under the radar" charm and of course Michelle's intensely effervescent personality. That woman's smile could light up the entire universe. I'm so used to dealing with really little kids that I have to get into a totally different groove with practically all adults type of family shoots. The dogs made sure that we weren't without at least SOME degree of pandemonium. Thanks, pups, I knew I could count on you. :)

Michelle, I hope you LOVE these and it was worth the wait! I am so delighted we finally got to hug in person and I'm so happy we were able to do this for you. xoxoxoxo