When we grow up, we want to be Erin + Mark. That’s what Mike and I said to each other after getting to know our neighbors down the hall. We had just gotten engaged and met the two of them when we moved into our first place together, a condo in the heart of Philly’s Bella Vista neighborhood. Somewhere in between countless gab sessions in our hallway about building issues, local happenings, or “you won’t believe the sh**” that happened to me today” conversations, we became friends.

Soon enough we had a new little neighbor on the floor, Ellie, undoubtedly the prettiest bright-eyed baby in our neighborhood. And not too long after that, moves were being made, on both our ends, to bigger homes outside of the city. It was hard enough to say goodbye to the condo we had shared so many memories in, and saying bye to Erin, Mark, + Ellie pulled at our heartstrings even more. We said we’d keep in touch, and thankfully for social media outlets like Instagram + Facebook, we were able to follow along on each other’s new journeys, me keeping a close eye on their accounts for every new photo shared of Ellie reaching new milestones too.

All of my newborn sessions are special. I always leave each one with my heart a little more full and with so much gratitude for getting to be a part of these first moments in these family’s lives. This session really got me, though. I’m not sure if it was Mark’s token huge bear hug of a welcome, or seeing the crazy amount of love between him + Erin again. But it got me good. So good I didn’t want to leave! Four years later and I still want to be just like this fam when we grow up.

Thank you for welcoming me into your beautiful new home. I’d like to introduce baby Jack, Ellie’s little brother and new best friend!