You know what is even cooler than photographing adorable families? When you are related to that family!! I don't get to see my cousin Amanda and her sweet family often enough in Seattle. But now that we are both in the PNW that will hopefully change.

Amanda and Chris are as cool as they come. Both triathletes, PNW natives and recently (as in 6 months ago) adopted this adorable baby girl into their lives after struggling with infertility for too many years. But the good news is this little girl was absolutely worth the wait and as sweet as they come. I was elated to capture these pictures for Chris and Amanda as a new family of three.

The Jones Family lives in Seattle where we flew into to start our journey getting to Bend, Oregon. We spent a few days with them. I offered to get a few pictures of these guys, but not even thinking about the time change and exhaustion from traveling. I woke up probably 15 minutes before baby's nap and we pulled this off before Chris needed to leave for work and baby was fussy for her nap and we were packing up our car to hit the road again.

Their backyard is full of those beautiful PNW pine trees that all of Seattle is know for so we walked out back and took these super quick. Both Chris and Amanda are elated to be parents, as noted in these pictures. I cant think of anyone else more deserving to finally be at this point in their lives and pinch myself that I was lucky enough to capture it.

When working with little babies for pictures who could be pushing it on their wake time I always try to have a toy or something to get their attention towards the camera and then direct the parents with prompts to get a lot of genuine and happy moments. You can get so many in such a brief amount of time. If you are a family with little little ones mini sessions may be your saving grace!