i have to be honest with you though…..i was a bit nervous for the shoot…….not taking the photos of course…..but announcing a super, big, exciting, SECRET!  but needless to say, it went well and as planned, and it was one of the most exciting things i have ever done in my career!  i love sharing and capturing special moments with people, and this is something i will never forget and i don’t think the neal family will either! <3

just chillin in cam’s castle….jen had contacted me about a week prior to the shoot, letting me in on a big secret……and wanted to see if i could help her tell this big secret she had……long story short, we planned that at the very end of the shoot (while taking one last family portrait)…i would announce…..that “JEN AND JAY ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!”  i had my trigger finger ready to capture all the surprised, shocked, and pure excited faces! this family just couldn’t be happier and more blessed to welcome another baby into their family! (i love this first photo below showing jen’s excitement and grandma’s first reaction!) what a wonderful experience i got to share with you all, thank you for letting me be apart of this special time in your lives!

this has been quite the year for zoey, she is rounding down the last month of her 4th year on earth, sharing the 2nd half of the year with her little sister gracyn whom she adores and loves to give hugs and kisses too.  it’s really a sweet sight! i love the fresh green grass and blooming flowers that come with spring, so i had fun with this.  if you missed zoey and the previous seasons you can check them out here:

summer

fall

new baby sister

winter

i told you about instagram and dolce’s baby testing a few posts back.  and now it’s time to show off my little #chanman as i call him, from birth to first month. isn’t my babe the cutest, sweetest thing you have ever seen? well i think so anyways!  you can follow me on instagram @courtkatphoto.

Let me introduce ourselves…..Hello, we are “The Neal’s” i love it!!

oh so precious, i can hardly take it!you might be thinking? what? dodger fans??  no, not really…..brian, was drafted out of high school to play in the minor league, he was a left handed pitcher for the LA Dodgers until he injured his shoulder, and was unable to recover from surgery.  if you couldn’t tell, he is hoping chandler is a star baseball player like his daddy.now this is my cute little mister!
we love him to pieces, and can never get enough kisses, cuddles and snuggles!our family of 4! love my babies!

i would like to thank each and everyone of you who prayed for us, thought of us, wished us well before, during and after delivery.  the outpouring amount of love and support means so much to us.  xoxoxo

*note-announcements are only offered to CKP clients*

if you know me well enough, or follow me on instagram or even facebook-you will know i am slightly obsessed with my dog (dolce peter).  we have had him since he was a tiny 2 lb pup at 8 weeks, and it is crazy to think over 4 years have gone by since then.  brian and i both love him with all of our hearts.  he is our self proclaimed “fur baby”.  and is spoiled rotten!  dolce peter (aka “dolch”, “mr.d”, ”peter”, “DP”, “fuzzy”, “my baby”, etc….) is 75% pomeranian and 25% shih tzu.  he weighs 8.4 lbs and looks like a rat when wet!  lol.  i often call him perfect, i know he isn’t…..but i guess this is just my motherly instinct to think so highly of him!

i am approaching my due date in 10 days, (march 20th)….and for the last 6 weeks we (brian) have been assembling all of our “baby stuff”, and dolce became the official “baby tester”.  since the first instagram photo i took of him “baby testing”, it had become quite the hit!  so if you are not on instagram or are not following me on instagram, you better start now….but for your viewing pleasure….here is the collaborative project of :

“Dolce Peter: The Baby Tester of Stuff” on instagram.  no dogs were harmed during the making of this project.

a circus themed baby shower seemed like a fun theme to play with; so with the help of pinterest of course….whitney and i came up with a vision for the shower. DIY project after DIY project for whitney and my mom to do, after the hours of planning and prepping for this here day, i was absolutely amazed at how perfect everything came out!  i have the best family EVER!  thank you!

so the circus came to town, and along with a slight snow storm came too; but the room quickly filled up with amazing family and friends, who joined me in celebration as my little mister, “Chandler” will be here before we know it.  i felt so blessed to have so much love shown to us and can’t thank everyone enough for all that was given or done!

so without further adieu, come one, come all, to the greatest baby shower of them all!

my dear friend, amanda, did all of the cupcakes for the shower!  she is simply amazing! looks good, but tastes even better!  and our tiny circus tent cake was done by cake shotts.my sister, whitney, made all of the banners for the shower.  there were mostly large ones on all of the food tables, gift tables, and circus tent…..but i can’t help but love this teeny one she made adorned with my little mister’s name, chandler! and a huge shout out to the graphic designer i worked with at metro-designs, she did the invites, cupcake toppers, thank you tags, and the actual thank you’s as well.wow, so blessed we are to have this many gifts given to us! thank you friends and family!

and those 4 important ladies in my little guys life! he loves them all so much already!!

each month, i do a small themed shoot for the punxsutawney hometown magazine.  this month, of course, is featuring groundhog day.  so i met up with a few of the inner circle members a few weeks ago and we had a lot of fun shooting at a few different locations throughout town.  the first photo above was a tribute to the beatles abbey road cover album.  we are calling it ”groundhog mania; mahoning street” featuring left to right….Jason Grusky “big chill”, Dr. Dave Gigliotti “thunder conductor”, Bill Deeley “president”, PHIL, Butch Philliber “iceman”, and A.J. Derume “rainmaker”.

other places we shot on this day, were the punxsutawney weather discovery center.  caterina’s coffee shop’s new location in the ATA building. and the groundhog zoo which is located at the punxsutawney library.

this friday feb.1st, is when all the action in the town truly starts.  the population of our town has the capability of increasing to more than 1000% with visitors over the weekend.  we would love to see your face here to enjoy what we, “punxsutawnian’s” enjoy year round!

angela, jimmy and i met on a beautiful day to shoot.  it was sunny, not too cold (or windy), and a fresh coat of snow had fallen the day before.  these two lovebirds have been dating for 15 years! high school sweet hearts….who got married after nearly 10 years of dating in 2007.  now over 5 years of marriage later, they seem so in love and smitten for one another just as they did in high school.  angela and jimmy live out in eastern pa but came home for the holidays, and well equipped for their photo shoot, angela planned beautiful outfits from head to toe.  and even had her hair and make up done for the shoot.  that’s my kinda gal!  i truly hope i caught your vision and you both love the photos! xoxox0

love, courtney, brian, dolce peter, and baby neal.

i met mr. jace when he was just 7 weeks old, a year later, he is just as cute, and i fell head over heels in love…..well it was more like a “not so graceful, landed on my butt, heels up in the air, kind of fall”, but either way, jace knows how to work the camera!!

prior to the party, brian and i found out the gender of the baby and put together a video slideshow together of ourselves in the photo booth and revealed the gender at the very end.  i then later added in the photos from the actual party to make the video a bit more fun!!  and now for the reveal!!!!

congrats to the new mr. and mrs.!!

so this year, i gave the choice of 2 scenes…..fall or christmas, the majority of folks chose christmas, without even seeing the set ups.  both were beautiful and looked pretty awesome if i say so myself

above and below are my 2 pull back views of christmas and fall scenes for this year! yes that is a real 1950s vintage truck! it’s a beauty, no?and here are my 17 fabulous families i shot in order…..plus my 2 lovely assistants for the day!above is my assistant kaylan, she 2nd shoots with me at most of my weddings, and in office she does editing, paperwork, and other CKP fun!  and below is my other lovely assistant for the day, my mom(and her 4th child zoey)!  my mom doesn’t assist on a regular basis, but she sure does come through for me, anytime i need her! love you both so much! xoxo

after looking through these photos, you would never think that there was a very high percentage of rain forecasted for amanda and adam’s october outdoor wedding?!  i was so nervous for these high school sweet hearts!  i knew how much time and energy they spent getting the beautiful ceremony site on amanda’s parents land, planted with flowers, ivy, and the rest of the fall decor!  somehow the skies cleared after morning rain, and it was sunny and blue for the rest of their day!  talk about lucking out!!so very pretty amanda was!!i loved adam’s orange socks to go with the fall wedding!! amanda’s mom worked very hard preparing the land for the most beautiful ceremony.i absolutely loved these “dedication chairs” for their loved ones, not with them anymore.  so sweet!now THAT was an exit!! such a happy sweet couple!i love when speeches make you laugh and cry…..they were great!
amanda and adam had the BEST “traditional polka dollar dance”……it was time for adam to fight his way to his bride, after much pushing and shoving, he did a crowd surf to find his bride……only to get up above the crowd, to see she had escaped…..to the back of the room, you can see in the photo below, amanda and 2 friends waving in the back of the room.  adam’s friends then guided him like super man to the back, so he could capture his bride!

congrats to you both!!

the vasbinder family is back, and this will be the last time you see them, as a family of 3, in just about a month, they will officially welcome another baby girl into their family!  i am so excited for them, and can’t wait to meet the 4th addition!!  if you missed the last time zoey was on the blog this summer….check her out here.

it’s that time of year again, and i am super excited to announce that you are FINALLY able to book your child or family for CKP’s 3rd annual fall & christmas mini sessions this year.

so here is the deal.  the package is valued at $175, but prices are slashed for this year’s mini sessions.  if you would like to schedule a mini session, the fee is  $75 for 15 minutes. you can bring your one child, or  you can bring your family up to 6 people. (including dogs).  if you have more than 6 mammals, $25 will be charged per mammal.  in those 15 minutes, we can shoot individuals of children, and the whole family, pets welcomed too, as long as everyone cooperates well.  it is  not my responsibility that your child will not smile, is crying, asleep, or “rover” won’t stop chewing on 3 year old “billy’s” leg.  get my drift ??he, he, he…

there will be at least 5 images in an online gallery for viewing and you are able to pick your favorite one digital image that you can use on christmas cards and to print enlargements.  you may purchase additional digital images for a discounted price of $75 $40 per image or you may purchase prints a la carte.

saturday october 27th is the one scheduled day, i will be certain to have.  if it rains, the reschedule will be sunday october 28th.  so, if you want to schedule and book a spot, you must know, that if we are rained out on that saturday……you must be available sunday to shoot as well.

now, if we have beautiful days, both saturday and sunday, (like last year), i will be able to shoot on sunday as well.  after saturday is filled, i will be filling spots for sunday too, but not promising the shoots happen, if we have rain that weekend.

so, now what are you waiting for?  i have a very limited number of spots, and it is first come, first serve.  so call me today to book your session!

oh!!  and i almost forgot to mention, you will have 2 totally different looks to choose from…………

you may choose to do “a very happy fall y’all” or “a very merry christmas”

give me a call today at: 724-422-1659

although, the experience did leave me feeling a little jaded.  and as we were ready to go down the path again to fulfill our dreams of parenthood, i became more pessimistic vs optimistic, and that is very unlike me.  so when we found out i was indeed pregnant at the beginning of july, i was not overly excited.  i couldn’t be.  for the fear of losing a child again, and my dreams being crushed.  so each week as we saw my doctors, we just prayed that we would hear good news.  and we did.  the baby was good at week 5,  we saw the baby’s heartbeat for the first time at 7 weeks, we heard it at 8 weeks, and week 11, week 13 and week 15 have confirmed that we have a healthy baby and a strong heart beat!!  so it’s time for me to finally be excited!!  we are into the 2nd trimester and will find out the gender of the baby in 5 weeks.  i can not wait to start to feel the “flutters” and the movement of our “little, little buddy” as we call him or her  i can not wait to have a nice round prominent pregnant belly. i can not wait until the morning sickness is over (but since it’s the sign of a healthy baby, i can’t complain) and we of course can not wait to meet “naby neal” this march 2013, march 20, 2013 to be exact, is my due date.

thank you to all who have prayed and wished us well, thru the difficult times.  and thank you all in advance for the wishes in the future.  we are truly blessed to have AMAZING family, friends, and lots of internet love!

XOXOXO, Courtney, Brian, Dolce Peter & Baby Neal (aka little, little buddy)

congratulations mr and mrs meader!!!

jenny’s dad seeing her little girl as a bride on her wedding day, so sweetjenny looked stunning, loved her veil!miss harley, was one of my favorite flower girls!  this kid cracks me up!jeff cleans up so well, maybe the cleanest his hands/nails have been in a long time!such a cute couple!this is “lovebug”, an old tractor that jeff has refinished! it’s beautiful!

such a sweet family jenny and jeff  have, i enjoyed the day with everyone!  thanks for letting me help make memories! 

congratulations mr & mrs loudon!!!

you last saw addison when she was 12 days old….just a teeny babe has grown into such a beautiful baby! loved seeing her smile and squeezing those chubby cheeks of hers!