I took a turn on the other side of the lens this year for our own family photos with my sweet friend Maria Harte Photography. She’s documented many of our major life moments so far and we are forever grateful for her and her talent! Vince and I had been planning this session since earlier this year and it only took until October for us to make it happen but I’m so glad it did. Time, especially with a 1 year old, goes SO fast and I desperately wanted to document this time in our lives. She’s running around the house, keeping us on our toes (figuratively and literally), and full of personality. I initially wanted to do photos with the amazing Chicago skyline because even though we’ve lived here for 5 years, we don’t have any photos like that. But in classic Chicago fashion, there was a major cold front and high gust winds the day of our session, so we pivoted and just embraced an in-home session. Ellie didn’t take a nap that day so we did our best to entertain her with games, by tickling her, and bribing her with yogurt melts. Thankfully it (generally) worked and we got some amazing photos that I’m so excited to put around the house and share with you all today. I had no doubt we would get amazing photos anyway with Maria behind the lens! We also hired a videographer (Kat with DeepEnd Imagery) which we have NEVER done before. I’m so excited to see it. I may even share with you all once I get it 😉 Until then, here’s some of my favorites from our family session!