Can you tell we’re related?

I’m fortunate to belong to a family that gets together often. Being the one who no longer lives in Fort Wayne, however, it’s a bit harder for me to make it home and so it’s never enough for me. What’s also never enough are the times I bust out the camera to take photographs of my siblings and I. I love these guys so much but it’s rare I make time to document how much fun we have together.

For the unfamiliar, I’m the youngest by a mile in a line-up of four. My mom had me when my oldest brother, Mark, was close to graduating high school. Could you imagine? But I loved growing up with a house full of (much) older siblings. My sister, Karin, made sure that, at age six, I had an appreciation for Patrick Swayze and all things Dirty Dancing that appropriately matched hers. And my brothers made sure to pick on me plenty since, being so much older, they had it easier when it came to tossing me around (my brother Jeff’s favorite move: Rolling off the couch, onto the floor where I normally was watching cartoons and rolling over me, “steamroller” style)

The older I get, the more fortunate I feel to have such a tight-knit family. Without them, well, I’d feel pretty lost. Jeff, Mark and Karin, I LOVE YOU GUYS

(I took these photos during an impromptu photo shoot in my parents’ backyard during a recent trip home, so there will be more to come of the family, including some adorable shots of my brother Jeff’s little boy, Sam, who just celebrated that giant milestone of turning 1 year old! He is so stinkin’ cute I can barely stand it!)