This session brings me so much joy.

I could stop right there, and you would totally understand by looking at the highlights below. The evening light during our Chisholm Vineyards session was magical. Their fall outfits were perfect. Their boys' sweet faces could make anyone smile.

All the ingredients for beautiful images are there.

But I'll go on to say that the joy comes because of this family. Their love and affection for each other made my job easy. They relish in their kids, and receive adoration in return. They are kind and down-to-earth, which I think just shines in their photos.

You might remember seeing their boys in my Kids' Portrait Event recap back in October. They ended up being the winners of the family session giveaway, and I'm so grateful I was able to document them again as a whole family. Kids are always cute, but to see and capture them with their parents is really something meaningful.

Hope these highlights make you smile — and keep scrolling to see how the Ashleys will display their new family photos in their home!

The Ashley’s print art: On the left, a collection of six Luxury Matted Prints, which will create a beautiful wall collage; on right, Premium Prints of more favorite images.

It was about this time last year — I was sitting on the couch, in front of the tree, wondering where we would be spending our next Christmas. 

Tyler and I had been itching to start house-hunting again, and we knew that come spring, he would graduate and (hopefully) land a job he loved. 

Fast forward 12 months, and I’m realizing that everything and not much at all has changed. 

In July, we said goodbye to our little home in Roanoke, and hello to a new adventure in Charlottesville. It was so hard to leave the place that held our first memories as a family of three.

And while I still remember the creak of those floors, the grooves in the kitchen counters, the smell of the radiator heat, and the slam of the screen door, I'm learning to love things like that here, too.

The weeks following our move, I barely picked up my camera. Partly out of exhaustion, partly because I felt like this house hadn’t earned that honor yet, like I was betraying our first home by documenting life in this one.

But then I started seeing the same kind of beautiful moments happening here that made me fall in love with our life in Roanoke. 

Evening summertime walks. Watching Tucker splash in the backyard and finger-paint on a towel. His first jump into a leaf pile. His last night in his baby bed. Carving pumpkins. Helping Tyler bake brownies. Dancing to Christmas music on the kitchen floor — all an endless string of magic that has carried me from crying in an empty house to sitting here in front of the Christmas tree once again.

So this year, I take comfort in knowing that, really, we’re exactly where we were last year: together. And I’ll let that carry me into the new year, and all the years to come.