The Ortega family consists of three gals and five guys ranging from age sixteen to forty. These loving, athletic and down-to-earth handsome men and beautiful women came together to create a gift for their mother. A gift of the love their share for each other as well as for their mommy.  For as long as they could remember, they’ve heard Lorraine talk about how she has always wanted a portrait of all of her children, but there was never a perfect opportunity. According to this enthusiastic bunch of eight brothers and sisters, Lorraine is a top-notch mom! Since these kids are all pretty much grown up, they said it was easier for them to make up a little white lie (Lorraine please don’t get angry with them as it was all for a good cause) to get away for an afternoon. Since only three still live at home, it made it that much easier for them to get all dressed  up and “shine bright like a diamond” (hee he, couldn’t resist throwing that in there). Now it was a matter of just keeping this plan top secret and preventing someone from going A-wall for the photo. Although their lives are at different places now and only the youngsters live with their mom, they still have one thing in common; they share unconditional love for their mother and think the world of her. After each new story or one of them describing her, I couldn’t help but sigh…”awww.” Lorraine has raised an entire starting basketball team….and some.  They each described how, “She’s always there for us. She makes me feel special. My mom always wants to know where we are or what we are doing because she cares.” Now, Lorraine isn’t just lucky, she’s blessed. Along with these healthy, good looking, and kind souls, she also has one grandson, Dominic, who is also just as gentle and well mannered as the rest of the bunch.

As we were wrapping things up guess who decides to start blowing up everyone’s cell phones? You got it! Their mommy! We all froze (like if she could see us…lol) and agreed for someone to call her back with another little twist in the story. One of the gents called her back and said we were safe…like Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez sliding home (Including Dominic, they can fill the Sandlot). I’m sure by the time they surprise Lorraine on Mother’s Day and allow her to read this post, all of their sneaking around will have paid off and this will be another memory to add to the list. Speaking about memories, let’s not forget about how the guys had preplanned a football style pose they wanted me to take a picture of, so I did…but that one is for their photo album. All of us girls were just busting up, thinking of how they had thought of this way in advance (who says only girls are obsessed with photos?)

Thank you, Anthony, Anthony Paul, Alicia, Gina, Raymond, Angelica, Matthew, and Michael (and Dominic) for all making your session so easy and fun! Lorraine, they showed me a photo of you and you are just as angelic on the outside as they described you on the inside. Happy Mother’s Day!

{Also a big thanks to Adam, Alicia’s husband, for being my assistant for the day. Hee he}