Pure JOY!! Loved this time with this family right before Christmas. Gray and Sawyer’s Daddy is in the National Guard, and is stationed away from home for the last several months and into 2016 as well. It was a joyous and magical time for them all when they could spend 10 days together over the Holidays. I had to cancel on their Mini Session back in October after I broke my ankle and at that time it was going to be just the 3 girls. This worked out so much better because Daddy got to join in. So grateful that it all worked out! So thankful for families like this that sacrifice for my freedoms!

Oh these sweet boys! I always just love photographing in Arlington Town Square and when you add this ridiculously photogenic family into the mix, it’s a real winner! Love, love, love watching these boys grow up before my lens year-after-year. 🙂

Some very, very special people and personal heroes on mine. LOVE this crew! 

My friend, Tracey, is one of the most funny people that I know! She always can make me laugh, especially with her unique perspective on her family and kiddos-all of whom are the same ages as my own. She was a part of the Mini Sessions that took place on Sunday. In addition to hilarious texts she sent me on the play-by-play, she posted the below status as her Facebook post on Monday. It was too good not to share!

Phases – The Process of a Family Portrait Session-(from Tracey)

We had our family portrait finally accomplished yesterday. It seemed like a feat similar to moving mountains. This was all on us, as the photographer was awesome and I adore her work and how she runs the session(Thank you Julie Torregrossa/ 1:17 Photography )! I reflected on all of this yesterday and decided there were phases to this, from a Mom’s perspective. Here they are:

#1. You book the date and are excited—it’s on the calendar. Booking phase.
#2. Later, you tell your family and you are probably ignored. You send email to spouse to put on his calendar–this may or may not happen. Family calendar phase.
#3. You forget about the ‘clothing’ issue until days before—you realize not only do you NOT have clothes for people that fit, but NO ONE needs to ‘clash’ with clothing choices. Panic section begins. Uh Oh phase.
#4. You squeeze in sprint-like shopping by yourself. You have never shopped with so much drive. You realize you will be making LOTS of returns.
#5. The day before, you brief family members of attire and collectively get the articles of clothing selected. Panic section starts to wind down. Final clothing selection phase.
#6. Day of session and one hour before departure, you are asked if cargo shorts and jeggings can be worn. This is after JEANS discussion the day before. Disbelief and denial phase. Can also be known as the oppositional phase.
#7. Crying phase of youngest and Mom pops Ibuprofen. (Mom wants to cry)
#8. Pre- departure phase. One member of family does total change of shirt 30 minutes prior to departure. Disbelief phase still going strong.
#9. Son wears fleece jacket in car after being told NOT to wear jacket, as mom spent time ironing shirt. This rounds out the disbelief phase.
#10. Grumpy phase for all in car.
#11. Actual session phase with no sibling wanting to touch one another and pretending to like each other seems impossible to them. 20 minutes is a long time.
#12. Post-session and family enters the elation-happy phase—where were these people for the last 2 hours?

Don’t you just love it? HA! Thanks, Tracey, for sharing your crew with me. So glad you survived!! 🙂 And, I hope you love our results and that it was worth all the frustrations. So many more to come! 🙂