I’m so excited to share one of the most special sessions I’ve ever shot with you! My cousins play such huge roles in my life and hold such a big part of my heart. As far back as I can remember and until the age of 10 our families grew up in the same house and then on the same property. Growing up with 9 cousins who felt as close as siblings was foundational to who I am today. Most of my happiest childhood memories were spent with my cousins, it was like having built-in best friends haha!

As we all transition into adulthood and spread out it’s been bittersweet. We see each other less, getting everyone together at once is nearly impossible, and we’ve all started forming our own communities and families. If I could go back and make time stand still to when we all lived right next door and our biggest worry was getting chores done so we could play, I wouldn’t. My cousins growing up has brought people into my life who I can’t picture my family without anymore, including two new baby cousins! I’ll never forget the memories we made as kids, and I’ll forever be thankful to my mom, dad, aunt, and uncle for pulling us all together but… there’s something really special about CHOOSING each other as best friends in adulthood too.

Now that you have a little background into WHY this session is so emotional for me, (yes I’m crying right now) let me fill you in on who The Stokes are as a family!! All of my cousins were homeschooled at some point or other, my aunt is one of the best teachers I know and my uncle’s mom was also a teacher so it kind of runs in the family! Another huge part of the Stokes family culture is music!! There are some crazy talented musicians in this family!! When I think of the Stokes family I think of music and games, so I knew we had to incorporate those into our session. Normally the Stokes like very nerdy strategic games that take a longggg time but for the purpose of this shoot they stuck to small brain games. After shooting inside the house we took more formal photos outside on the property we grew up on!