Thanksgiving at home

We went home to Minnesota for Thanksgiving this year at my parents' house.  It was great family time- just relaxing together and watching Madeline run around with my nephews was so much fun!  

This is a picture of Norwegian lefse... no holiday dinner would be complete without it!  Great job Mom and Grandpa!

Attempting to get a family shot... Shane can obviously not hide the freezing cold temperatures very well!!  

My sister's family
Our whole family-
One of the most fun things about going home is finding all sorts of old things packed away. This was my Mom's dress and winter mitts from when she was a little girl!  So sweet!!  Madeline loved them both!!
And decorating cookies was of course great fun!
My Mom made them all pancakes with the letters of their names... Madeline, Tyler (he was already on his second letter!) and Jack. 

Madeline imitating everything... when we got home Shane bent down to talk to her while waiting for our luggage... but then she needed to do the same!!!  Precious!

Suzanne and Pete~ Family Portraits

Here are some shots from a session with Suzanne's family.  I met Suzanne in my MOMS club a couple years ago and I am constantly amazed at how she manages four children and volunteering and working part time.. oh ya.. and training for 1/2 marathons!  

The three older kids were so good about helping with AJ (the one year old)... they were such troopers during the entire session!  



Thanks Suzanne!  I hope you enjoy your pictures of your precious family!  

Julie and Kevin~ Family portraits

A few weeks ago I got to do some family portraits for my friend Julie's family.  We only got to shoot for about 30 minutes before the ominous dark sky opened up and poured rain on us!!  I think we got some cute ones before the storm hit.  

I did Ally's newborn pictures and she is a photographers dream.. so easygoing and smiles so big when her brothers are being silly(-:  




Thanks Julie and Kevin!  Hopefully we can get another round of family pics in when there are no storms brewing overhead!!  

Melissa & Hans- Family photo shoot

Sunday I took some portraits of Melissa's family.  When I was editing them I just kept finding myself smiling at how cute they were and laughing at a lot of the silly ones of the kids (not posted here!).   We had a lot of fun taking these at CCV- the kids were so patient and cooperative... it is funny because everyone kept telling Carson to smile as it seemed like he was not into the pictures but as they turned out... I think he has some of the cutest poses and smiles that are just all natural!  

I LOVE this one!!



Cute family(-:


Beautiful Rachel:





Sometimes I wonder if Rachel is a really short 16 year old... not a tall 6 year old(-:  


See what I mean about the natural cuteness!?!?










And a few in the Christmas outfits(-:



Thanks Schmidt Family!!  Hope you like the pictures!