I first met this family when they contacted me looking for a photographer for Hillary’s maternity photos and a Minnetonka baby photographer.  It was actually her husband that talked her into getting them done, which I always think is so sweet!  After meeting for a wardrobe consultation before the maternity session, they decided to sign up for my First Year Collective and did four sessions total – maternity, newborn, 6 month and one year.

For the maternity session, Hillary brought a dress of her own that she wore at her baby shower, and it looked absolutely beautiful on her.  She also borrowed a dress from my studio wardrobe collection, which is available for mothers, babies and children during their session (some pieces for dads, too!).

Their baby girl, Eloise, was three weeks old when she came in for her newborn session on a frigid winter morning. It was at the end of a long cold snap we’ve had, with temperatures consistently below zero and windchills in the negative 20 and 30’s.  That, combined with a bit of jaundice, had us wait until she was 3 weeks old for her newborn session.  She was awake and happy for most of the time, and wanted to eat a lot (we must have gotten her on a growth spurt!).  We took lots of breaks so she could eat, and she finally feel asleep towards the end of her newborn session.  I had the baby shusher turned on and she fell asleep shortly after.  Dad actually fell asleep on the bed, too!  Her favorite position for photos was having her legs stick straight up, and we decided she must have been like that in the womb.

For her sitter session, they had just gotten back from a trip to Germany and France.  Little Eloise is already quite the traveler!  We originally scheduled her session for around 6 months, but she wasn’t quite sitting up unassisted yet, so we waited a bit.  It worked out so much better this way, getting a lot of variety and big smiles.  She wore two outfits from the studio wardrobe, and to end the session, they all wore outfits they purchased in France for a family photo.

When Eloise came in for her one year session, I was so excited to see how much she had changed already!  Her hair was getting longer and curly in the back.  She was walking already, and loved showing me how old she was by holding up one finger.  It’s always so fun to watch them grow from these tiny little babies into their own little people.  For all three of her sessions, they brought with a sheepskin rug that was dad’s when he was a baby.  So of course it was extra special to get photos of Eloise on the same rug for all of her sessions.

Here are some favorites from our time together:

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