Let me tell you a story.

One upon a time there was one very creative mum (let’s call her Ammber) and one very creative dad (we’ll call him Justin). They had one very ambitious three year old boy (who we’ll call Oscar) and one very cruisy 4 month old girl (let’s call her Evie), and together they made one seriously awesome Doyle family. That was their family super-power – making awesome.

One day, they realised they had made so much awesome that they didn’t need it all, but they didn’t know what to do with it. What does one do with surplus awesomeness? And then it hit them – one creates an AWESOME kids clothing label!

And so MyArkadia was born, a childrens’ clothing line with pieces so amazing I want to wear them myself. I’m not even kidding. I mustn’t be the only grown-up Arkadian either, because Ammber and Justin have just done their first run of ladies shirts (one of which has my name on it!! YES!!). If you like unique, environmentally-conscious and seriously cool kids clothes (or just awesome stuff in general) you should definitely check out MyArkadia right now. And then come straight back here for the rest of this post!

I had the honour of catching up with this Family of Awesome on two lovely Sunday mornings to make the memories you see below. I’ll let their photos tell you the rest of the story.

One of my favourite things about family portrait sessions is trying to get stellar smiles out of children. I am the youngest of my generation in my family, so I never grew up around children – I never babysat for young siblings or cousins, and dealing with children is something I’ve learned a lot about very quickly since I first picked up my camera and pointed it at a kid. Yet there’s something about making a child smile that’s incredibly rewarding, and it never wears off! If I can get a smile out of a little one, I feel like I’ve accomplished something with my day.

Having said that, I left this particular shoot with Dayna, Ben, Charlotte and Jacob feeling pretty accomplished – these guys shared a HEAP of smiles with me, and left me feeling super-joyous. If you have little ones of your own, Dayna’s range of kids clothing and accessories might leave you feeling super-joyous too – you should check out her store, Goosebump Clothing and Accessories! You might recognise some of her little models from below, too…