I am so excited to announce that this blog has moved to a new location! I will no longer be posting any updates here. For updated studio news and links to all of the shawna K studio websites, please visit:

www.shawnaKstudio.com

THANK YOU FOR VISITING!

Wow. Have I neglected this blog or what? I think that was my worst lapse in blogging EVER. My deepest apologies. My kids were sick on and off for 2 months since the holidays. But in addition to that, I have some very exciting news! I’ve been behind the scenes working on some really incredible High School Senior Sessions with some of Granite Hills High School’s top swimmers and water polo players. We’ve been having a blast in the Gaslamp, Ocean Beach, Little Italy, and even downtown El Cajon of all places! I am so excited to share some of those sessions with you! I don’t really want to post them to this blog though because . . . . MY NEW BLOG IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re just fine-tuning the last few details, but the whole process has been great. My blog designer, the gorgeous and talented Zofia, zofiaphoto.com/, is the bomb! So, be looking for some major changes here in the next week or so.

To top it off, my new High School Senior website is done! www.anthologyseniors.com. I’d love for you to check it out. And if you know of anyone in the East County who is a Junior or Senior in high school, I’d love to offer them some great deals on their portrait session.

Stay tuned for more news!

-shawna K

Yes, it’s true . . . the infamous duo are turning TWO! It’s so hard to believe how fast the time goes by, especially when I’m trying to stay involved with Devyn’s school, chase after two toddlers, run my business, and somehow keep everyone fed and in clean clothes (minor miracles!). It seems like I just get everyone bathed and to bed and I sit down to relax and I realize another month has passed! Wasn’t it just Christmas???

But it’s so good and it’s so fun. We got news that Tyler’s renal reflux is GONE. The surgery appears to have done everything that it was supposed to do, so we are so grateful. Dr. Kaplan and Children’s Hospital are just absolutely wonderful. It’s been a long 20-month process from her very first kidney infection, but it looks like it is probably gone for good. Next year, they will do an ultrasound of her kidneys to make sure everything is growing as it’s supposed to, but if she doesn’t have any infections, she’ll never have to undergo that testing again. Yay!

Christmas this year with Devyn and the twins was a blast. Tyler and Jordyn HATED Santa. Scared them to death! But Devyn, of course, just got so excited about seeing Santa and learning about Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas. It was so much fun. This past month, we’ve been doing some fun things, despite this crazy weather (is it freezing? is it 80? no one knows!). We spent one day out at the desert with my sister and her family, and Devyn got to ride on her cousin’s old quad all by herself. That was cool. Jordyn loved my sister’s golf cart, and Tyler loved going in and out of the motor home. Oh, and my husband loved the carne asada taco stand — haha! It was so fun!

We also went to Sea World as a family, and I took Devyn to Disneyland with my sister and my nephew just for fun (not for anyone’s birthday or anything). I’ve been trying to do some fun things with the kids while my portrait sessions are low, but I usually spend my days designing albums.

As far as the twins go, it’s been kind of a rough month. They haven’t been sleeping well. They are still in speech because they are behind in speaking. But this month they did learn to say water (wa-wa) and they will ask for it spontaneously (not just mimic what I say). They are also quite proficient at saying no. “Tyler, do you want to go night-night?” ” NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Yeah . . . she doesn’t like to sleep! Jordyn is getting really good at learning everyone’s names. She loves to look at the photographs I have around the house and point to everyone in the pictures. She’s TOTALLY my little photographer. If she’s not looking at pictures, she’s trying to get a hold of my camera to TAKE the pictures. It’s really funny.

Well . . . two years ago, this is what was going on in our lives. Tyler was born first:

A couple of minutes later, Jordyn arrived:

While we were at the hospital, my friend and fabulous photographer John Riedy (www.johnriedy.com), came and took pictures of us with the new babies. This is Ty:

This is Jords:

Jordyn again (by John):

Ty again (by John):

Devyn toes and baby toes (by John):

The new Family of 5 (by John):

Tyler when she got home from the hospital:

Jordyn when she got home from the hospital:

I can’t believe they used to sleep next to each other in that little bassinette!

Just a funny one of Ty being silly.

Just a cute one of J being serious:

Skipping ahead to Jordyn on her first birthday (she wasn’t that into the whole cake experience):

Talk about different personalities, Tyler dove into that cake with both fists!

And here is a funny one of my little klutz Jordyn at the desert:

My most recent picture of Jordyn (at Sea World)

Jordyn loves to point to all of her body parts when you ask her to. She knows her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, button, hair, big ole foot, and my favorite, “Jordyn, show mommy your big ole tongue!” She sticks it out and rolls it, and here I caught her trying to look at it. Too funny!

Here is my pretty Tyler at the desert. She’s munching on graham crackers. The child pretty much only eats carbs. It’s terrible. But I love her big eyes in this one:

VERY excited about running around at the desert:

And the last one, where she was having a ball in the play area at Sea World. Ty loves to jump and play.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Tyler and Jordyn. We love you!

I just wanted to share that Devyn is producing some pretty fantastic art in her Kindergarten class. This first one is crayon and marker on posterboard, and the last two are “watercolor reliefs:” crayon drawings with a watercolor wash. She used salt on the wet watercolor paint to make extra bubbles and texture in the water. Mommy’s so proud of her achievements so far this year . . . in art, reading, math . . . pretty much everything. I knew she was going to love school, and I’m so glad. Yay!

I can’t believe that Carter is turning 5 this year! I’ve been photographing him since he was just about 8 weeks old, if I my mind can think back that far! He is turning into such a handsome little man. Not to be upstaged of course by his cousin, Brady. This was my first time photographing Brady and with the 2 of these wild boys together, it was quite an adventure. Brady didn’t quite think the chair was for sitting, and Carter wasn’t all that interested in hanging with his little cousin when there was a huge field of grass to run in! But boys will be boys and we march on.

I am so blessed to have such gorgeous children to photograph all the time. Not to mention gorgeous parents, too! My photographs of Natasha and Carter have always been some of my favorites because you can just get a sense of how much love they have for each other and the bond they have as mother and son. Simply beautiful.

Enjoy!

I had such a great time meeting Natalie and her mom and dad for portraits before Christmas. Natalie’s parents are so incredibly nice (and aren’t they gorgeous people??!!), and you can just tell how in love they are with their daughter. Despite the fact that Natalie was cold (we were all cold!), she did SO well in front of my camera. She liked to talk to me about her favorite princesses, so we got some winning smiles discussing Sleeping Beauty! Love it!

Enjoy!

In the spirit of the New Year (and in the spirit of there being sooooo many new images I want to share with you), I’ve made some recent updates to my children’s website: www.pattycakephoto.com.

Check it out!

More updates will be coming soon over the next couple of days. You just might see yourself there!

Enjoy!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to post more on my blog — which I think is ALWAYS one of my New Year’s Resolutions — haha — but this year I mean it! Since I’ve got the whole “exercising more” and “eating right” thing pretty much down to a science this time around (yay, me!), it’s time to focus on the blog!

So, I thought I’d start with some sessions that I didn’t blog for some reason or another. Usually it’s because gifts were outstanding (sometimes we go so far as to make fake log-in names on my shopping cart so prying eyes won’t know what we’re up to–haha). Sometimes it’s because the session happened at a time that was especially busy and my blog didn’t get updated. In any case, I have PLENTY of sessions to share with you.

For starters, here are three little charismatic boys that I had so much fun with. Jaxon was a sleepy little newborn (we love sleepy newborns). Dawson (the middle child) was trying very hard to make his status as “still the baby” known to everyone. He loved the camera and loved the attention. And Braden was just as handsome as can be with his sparkle in his eyes and sweet disposition. They just make an adorable little family:

This was Jaxon’s birth announcement. It is a 5×8 photo card printed on metallic paper. You’ll notice that parts of the card are blurred. I don’t post children’s birthdays and last names on the internet as a rule, so that’s not a mistake. I just really liked the stripes and colors of the card, which match his room decor very well:

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope everyone is gearing up for a fun and festive New Year’s Eve and that everyone had a fantastic Christmas. I’ve been busy behind the scenes, delivering 9 albums the Monday before Christmas, designing albums for the New Year, hosting 3 Christmas parties, recovering from a cold first and then the flu, and sending out Christmas cards galore. The studio had a record amount of Christmas cards go out this year . . . and I’ve been so excited about some of my designs. Since all of the cards should no longer be a surprise for anyone, I want to post some of my favorites.

We actually start taking photographs for Christmas cards as early as March for families with older children (older children don’t change as quickly as younger children do), and August when there are little ones in the family. So, if you are interested in a Pattycake original Christmas card for next year, please call me as soon as possible so we can book your session.

This card is a 5×7 folded card printed on watercolor paper. Here is the outside:

And the inside. I love how the ornamental paper and the colors of the fall leaves coordinate:

This is a 5×8 photo card printed on metallic paper. I love how this one features 2 very different photo sessions, but ties them together with the sepia images:

Here is a 5×7 photo card printed on metallic paper. I loved how it was fresh and funky with the cute ornament:

Here is another 5×8 photo card printed on metallic paper. I really loved how stunning the black looked on metallic paper, and I loved how black isn’t a “traditional” Christmas color, but it looked so elegant:

This is a 5×7 photo card also on metallic paper. I love how their clothing coordinates with the color of the card (I also love that I got all 3 boys to look at the camera! No small task!):

This is a 5×7 folded card printed on pearl paper. I love EVERYTHING about this one . . . the unique background for the photographs, the non-traditional purple color, the elegent swirl. I also love the pearl paper. Of course, my cousins are pretty handsome, so they certainly help!

And here is the inside with my aunt. I love how her shirt ties in with the whole look of the card. They just look so New Year’s Eve, don’t they???

This is a 5×7 folded card, but it’s folded horizontally. It is printed on watercolor paper, because that seemed to work so well with the traditional colors and style of the photographs.

Here is the inside. I also think my nephews are some pretty adorable kiddos if you ask me!

Of course, Christmas wouldn’t be complete without Devyn and the Wondertwins. It was positively impossible to get the kids to listen to me . . . but I’m super pleased with how the card turned out. I did a 5×5 tri-fold card, on linen paper. The linen worked so well with the beach images.

The inside:

The back:

And last but not least . . . my last-minute card. Mom was having her third baby while these went to print, so a birth announcement with their new baby is on their way. Little Lucas was just too late to be included in the card. Next year!