I’ve been waiting to write this post until the cards went out.  My friend Vanessa hired me to take pictures of her and Mia with the intention of using some for a New Year’s card.  She said it’s her tradition to skip sending out holiday cards and just do a New Year’s one instead.  The plans changed a little when she saw how cute Mia looked in her cupcake outfit!  We decided to go with a Valentine theme and I designed  these to be printed in little 4×5.5" folded cards.  They turned out so cute!!
So here’s the front…

The inside spread…

And the back…

I love doing fun little projects like this! 
-Kristin

A few weeks ago I went from blonde to brown, so I was feeling a little self-conscious about my very blonde picture on the left sidebar.  When I showed up to meet clients for the first time, they might not recognize me!  I was going to ask Shannon to take my picture when I saw her this weekend, but I forgot to bring my camera to lunch, so here I am today with the mirror.
I wanted to update my picture anyway, so here’s what I look like as a brunette.  It’s a little strawberry because the color has faded a bit.

And can I just say taking a self-portrait is HARD!  Focusing the camera in the right spot on the mirror without getting a weird look of concentration on my face is tough work.  This is the most ‘normal’ I could do.  Here’s my last self-portrait to compare it with:

And after a few tries in the mirror I put my camera on timer and took this one in my door, which I think I like enough to put in my sidebar.

It’s more ‘me’ …just casual…jeans and  no shoes.  Plus a little texture. 🙂
-Kristin

Rachel is the kind of friend whose generosity knows no end.  I can’t tell you all the kind things she’s done for me in the few years I’ve known her…the list is long.  So, when the opportunity came to help her get ready for her baby girl, I was ready!!
We spent this last weekend up to our ears in this:

The former sewing room will now be a nursery!!  But, don’t worry…there was plenty of time for fun…including meeting up with Shannon   for lunch and later that day doing a quick little maternity session.  Rachel is one of those girls who looks every bit as amazing pregnant as
she does her everyday-self.  If she wasn’t such a good friend, I’d have
to hate her. 🙂

Here she is with Rick, who was an incredibly good sport and let me take his picture as well.  I LOVE this picture of them!

After taking some pictures at Rachel’s house we ventured outside.  It may look like we are in the middle of Iowa, but we were actually in a dodgey little field in North Hollywood. 

Rachel makes it look beautiful and romantic, but it was a little scary! 🙂

Thank you Rachel…not only for hosting me for the weekend, but also letting me take these beautiful pictures of you.  I can’t wait to meet your little girl!
-Kristin

We just arrived home and I have mountains of laundry to deal with.  The happy part of this post is the maternity pictures I got to take of Rachel.  I have lots more to share, but for now…one of my favorites! 🙂

I’ll share more tomorrow!
-Kristin

I am writing this post from Los Angeles.  Today Jillian and I are going to visit my friend Rachel for the weekend.  Brent is speaking at a high school winter camp in Lake Arrowhead and the boys are going with Nana and Papa to their cabin in the mountains.  So we spread for the weekend and meet back on Monday to make the long drive home.
I promise to have lots of fun things to post when I get back, but in the meantime, here’s a few pictures that I found on Brent’s laptop.  Because a post just isn’t a post without pictures. 🙂
Jake’s first day of kindergarten last year!

Jillian modeling an outfit I made last year…

And the ever-cute Cooper…

Have a great long weekend!  And if you’re a client, I’ll be answering all emails on Monday evening.
-Kristin

This morning I got to meet Semira, who was recently scouted by a talent agency.  Her mom was a huge help in getting some smiles out of this little cutie, but it took her a little bit to warm up to me.
We were laughing at how big my camera is compared to the point and shoot her mom normally uses to take her picture.  Here she is checking me out…

Marci let me do a little shopping for Semira (which is SO up my alley), so here's the outfits I came up with:

Marci picked up that super cute hat and the rest.  Between the two of us we did pretty good!

We made it through SEVEN outfits in about a half hour before Semira started getting tired.  I'd say all three of us are rockstars!!
It was so nice meeting you both. 🙂
-Kristin

There’s nothing sweeter than a newborn.  The way they smell, the wrinkly skin, the way they cuddle up…everything.  Little Mason was welcomed into the world by his two big brothers, Nate and Noah who enjoy all those little things about him.

Cute little Mason is a snuggle bug…so I wasn’t his best friend when asked his mom to take his clothes off and put him on the bed….all by himself.  Poor little guy.  His mom helped me sneak the pacifier out of his mouth so we could capture this ‘peaceful’ shot of him in the basket.

Then I spotted this fantastic red stool.  We had the even harder challenge of getting Mason to snuggle up on a not-so-snuggly stool….but we did it!

At last Mason is in the arms of his mommy…doesn’t he look happy!?

Thanks Amy and Nick for welcoming me into your home and letting me document the beginning of Mason’s life.  You are so blessed to have three sweet boys!
-Kristin

Toddlers are slippery little people.  They like to move about and somewhere in their manual it’s against the rules to stand in one place for longer than two seconds.
I’ve photographed toddlers for the last three days in a row and I have found just about every trick there is to keeping them in the same place at the same time.
First there’s entrapment… (a teeter totter with mommy on the other end always helps!)

There’s also bubbles…

Then send them down the slide together!

These brothers were beyond cute in their little spiked hair-dos and uggs!

Thanks for fitting me into your busy day Jill!  Your boys are just adorable!!
-Kristin

Only in California can I meet a client in February and take a picture that looks like this:

I might be making the rest of the country a little jealous about our gorgeous weather!  And you can’t beat the scenery either.  I met Hansel, Lisa and their cutie pie kids at Stanford yesterday afternoon.  Some family members were visiting from Taiwan, so I got to take pictures of everyone together. (This was actually taken in between parking lots at the university!)

This was my first time to Stanford and the architecture on campus is gorgeous!

And the lighting was perfect!!!

I love the textures in the picture!  Not to mention the smile!

What a cute family. 🙂

Thanks for trekking around campus with me!  Enjoy the pictures. 🙂
-Kristin

This week started with a technological ‘issue’ and ended with a red crayon in the dryer.  It’s been that kind of week. 🙂  I ended the week back at Ethan’s house for a redo (see above!) and was more than happy to spend some time with this little cutie.
Lisa and her family have been more than gracious to me, so here’s some pictures for you guys!!

I definitely got more smiles this time around!

And we even got to try something new!

I ended the day at Stanford for a family session that I’ll be sharing shortly…
-Kristin