As you all know by now, I love “growing” with my families.  As kids add inches to their height and work their way up through different shoe sizes, I am also growing in skill and technique.  While sometimes I might cringe a little, it’s always a rewarding feeling to look back on older shoots and see how far I’ve come.  I am so thankful to all the families that trusted me back then, and still trust me today to document their milestones!

This year was my third year photographing the Cleven family, and it was as fun a time as ever–seriously, just try to count all the “silly face” poses that they do so well!  We took these photos at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden, which ironically enough was where Mariaelena and Brian were married 10 years ago.  I “met” Mariaelena almost four years ago when I was first starting photography; I photographed my nephew’s baseball game and unknowingly took some shots of her son who was also on the team.  Our first attempt at a family photoshoot didn’t work out that year, but the following three years we’ve been able to get together and take some pretty adorable photos of their growing bunch.

This year we also added grandparents to the picture (literally), which is such a sweet dynamic for me to witness.  As our families change and our parents get older it’s so important to take good photos.  I know these images will be around for a long time, and that’s an honor!