It was cold and windy, but the sun was shining and laughter was flowing for this extended family session!

I have my fingers crossed that 2021 is the year that we all begin to safely reunite with loved ones and gather back together for holidays and memories. And I have them double crossed that I get to be the photographer to capture it all!

Ben reached out to plan an extended family session for the Yoder’s on a weekend that his (gorgeous) sister and her (gorgeous) family would be in town to visit their parents. It had been awhile since they had last updated their family photos and it seemed like a great opportunity to do so as an early Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gift prior to them moving to a new home.

This sweet family had the gorgeous backdrop of a sunny field just beyond their backyard. Luckily, Miss Harper was ready to roll and fully prepared to scope out the backyard with me. Even luckier, she gave me a heads up that we should not wander over to the small patch of woods and filled me in on what type of mountain lions might be in there, and pointed out the edible chives around the yard. Always a smart idea to have an expert on the scene for your shoot!

*Local wildlife and edible plant expert, Harper.*

This sunny but windy day had me sticking to our usual routine of trying to get as many of the portraits with the kids in them taken first. Harper and Brooks looked so adorable even through cold wind gusts! Harper has such an easy smile and was so full of energy that she made my job easy, but Brooks was ready to make me work for it. Fortunately I was able to tag in mom and Uncle Ben for some tickle-and-run assistance to get some smiles going for this adorable little guy!

*Run in. Tickle. Run out. Sort of a rinse and repeat process for those giggles!*

Grandma and Grandpa Yoder, Ruth and Harold, also had to be troopers in the cold wind! But luckily I made it at least worthwhile for Ruth, giving Harold prompts to tell her how wonderful she is. Ruth was giggling like a school girl in some of these images as she told Harold she wanted to hear “more nice things!” he had to say about her.

But, as we learned in elementary school, it’s important to take turns. So I made sure Ruth got a chance to say nice things about Harold, too. These two will be newlyweds going on 52 years this July, and just are as sweet as can be.

And then I turned around to see this moment of absolute adorableness happening on the grass!

I do want to take a moment in this blog to give a big shout out to Ben. I met Ben through Ball State University, and if you’re familiar with the Harvard of the Midwest you may already know Ben yourself! Ben is a really active alum and leader for BSU and is great to work with. He’s also an educator, advocate, inspiration, and an incredibly kind human. It was an honor to take his picture!

Next up in this session was Ben’s sister, Maria, and her husband and children. Honestly, a completely gorgeous family. How are they not in magazines? I shared a few images of Nathan and Brooks on my Instagram and Facebook pages, but I have to highlight them again. As we walked to the backyard to do a few of their family photos, I heard Nathan ask Brooks “Should we scare mom?” and I didn’t think too much of it. And then this happened. And it was amazing! Brooks was all giggles and I have never seen a dad do such solid tosses. Kudos to these two, and I promise everyone was always safe throughout this entire session.

Now for some mama lovin…because these babies absolutely love their mama!

Thank you, Yoder family, for letting me spend a beautiful evening with you all! A beautiful family always reminds me why I set off on this photography adventure.