Family portraits with kiddos this little keep me on my toes. They actually used to intimidate me before having my sons who have trained me well in the four years since I became a mom. However, I still feel that before every session with young children, I need to manage expectations, mine included as I know how it feels as a mom to want just one perfect photo of my boys at their best behavior in adorable clothing, with no distractions in the background and good lighting. Actually, I’m not sure most moms have put this desire into words, and even more unlikely those words, but I feel they want something along those lines.

Before becoming a mom, I would have disregarded this photo below. But now I know better to appreciate it. Isn’t this the way it goes sometimes? Wardrobe is carefully planned. Everyone is looking great and there’s just this one thing that isn’t working for this family – this little guy hates laying in the grass. Mom and daughter look great and Dad is trying his best to comfort his son, but it’s just not happening. But fussy baby boy and all, aren’t they a sweet family? And this moment is one that should make them smile someday—remembering what they did in pursuit of the perfect photo. It’s real life and this image was a part of the set in their gallery. We never did get all four of them to smile, or just look at the camera, while they were laying in the grass in this beautiful lighting, but how could I not share this sweetness?

There’s something I love about photographing one-year olds. I love how they can look into the camera with no inhibition and really just study it with no pretense for smiles. I have some portraits like this of my sons and they’re still some of my favorites to this day.

And then they get bigger and learn how to turn on the charm for the camera (when they’re in the mood to comply, that is!) and that is just downright charming.

For little guys like this one, a ride on daddy’s shoulders is a sure-fire way to get some good father and son portraits.

And this little sweetheart just did something funny that made her mama laugh and this was the embrace in the moments that followed.

We did get a couple of family portraits where everyone is looking at the camera and content to be photographed. And that’s a reasonable expectation when it comes to family portraits with little ones. The expectation of getting all smiles is sometimes a tall order, depending on the age and particular mood of the kids in that moment. I do share some things I’ve learned about trying to cultivate a positive environment for photo shoots on my Getting Ready page and it’s definitely worth checking out before your session. I’ll continue to add what I’m learning along the way because I want sessions to go well and understand all of the pressure that comes with getting ready for a photo shoot.

And here’s the moment where this little brother and big sister simultaneously shared in big smiles—as they were looking through this park bench! I’ll take it!