“Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” – Mother Teresa

I have to say, after spending an afternoon with this beautiful family, I left better and happier.

It was a beautiful afternoon when I met up the Reitsma Family  for a short but sweet session in the wildflowers….Rylee and Russell were happy.  Mom and Dad were happy.  I was happy.  It’s obvious this family shares lots and lots of love at home because you couldn’t help but feel it once we started to shoot….and look!  I have pictures to prove it!!  :)

Here are a few from the day….

I first met Peter last year when he hired Holly Carlyle Photography to shoot the blessing of his marriage to Staci.  Maybe you remember their bulldog, Chesty, who accompanied Peter and Staci along for their engagement session and who also became a cover model for one of many Bakotopia magazine covers that I shot last year.   Peter is about to have a baby boy in the spring and he’ll be going back overseas next year as he serves in the United States Marine Corps.

Well I had the opportunity to do some more traditional portraits for this gorgeous family (Peter and his 4 sisters) recently as they decided they would love to give away portraits to their parents for christmas (I hope their mom and dad don’t see these…).    Their dad is a die-hard San Francisco 49ers fan and recently gave the kids some jerseys in which they were very happy to get their pictures taken.  Dad will be proud.  It was a little chilly and gloomy the day we shot but the beauty of this family came  shining through…  Here are just a few of their pictures for Mom and Dad…(and one of Chesty from his “cover” shoot for good measure…)

And of course, Chesty!