KD Photography

It Must Be Love… Maxi Dresses

05.16.12 2:49 PM Posted in All About Me, I Love...

When a 2-year-old points out that you wear a lot of “those pretty sooo long dresses” is when you know you have a bit of an obsession! ”those pretty sooo long dresses” are also known as Maxi dresses. Which, until recently I was convinced I couldn’t wear. Because I am too short. And thus they are all too long. BUT if you look hard enough you can actually find a maxi dress here and there that is relatively short enough for a shorter person! I have a few that actually even rest on top of my feet which is amazing! And then a few that hit the floor. But I’ve decided I am okay with that since most of them puddle with a solid 6-8 inches of extra fabric around me feet! :)

I looove these dresses though because they are SO comfy! And they allow you to be cool in hot weather because they are dresses right? And then, because they are long, they can keep you warm by covering your legs if it gets chilly! And sometimes people probably wonder how a long dress if comfortable, but really a lot of times it’s like wearing pjs! I swear!

I feel like a weirdo for taking these pictures but yesterday I was wearing a maxi dress and decided I should do a post on them so I figured I might as well show an example and prove that I really do wear them!

And this one is just funny because as I was trying to take this… Max decided to check himself out in the mirror haha

Posted in All About Me, I Love...

5 comments

LESLIE! - hahaha it looks like max is checking out his bum.May 16, 2012 – 6:21 PM

Katie Derus - Brittani! hahah you’re funny… I think we are pretty much the same height. So you should go try! So far Target and F21 have been where I’ve found ones I can manage! And max ohhh my gosh, isn’t he funny?!May 16, 2012 – 3:33 PM

Katie Derus - Anna!! It’s from Target! I think they have them online too incase they maybe aren’t in stores in MN :) I loooove it! and it has straps which is even more awesome! Also… I’ve always said I will live in these when I’m preggo and since that probably won’t be for a while, I just have to hope they are still remotely in style! :)May 16, 2012 – 3:32 PM

Anna - Love maxi dresses, but ESPECIALLY this one in particular. You must share where you got it! Also, being a beached whaled all summer (aka pregnant) these are my go to.May 16, 2012 – 3:11 PM

Brittani - Oh my gosh I hate you. I love maxi dresses but I really am too short. Actually, I can’t say I’ve ever really tried one on…haha. Maybe I should try. I loooooove the one you’re wearing. And Max is totally thinking “Dayum…I’s looks good.”May 16, 2012 – 3:09 PM

Denver Family Photographer :: Mother’s Day Tradition – Ella Max and Meah

05.14.12 2:00 PM Posted in All About Me, Babies, Families, Kids

Yesterday was Mother’s Day (I hope you all had an awesome day and let your mom know how much you love her because Mom’s rocks! :)) and it also marked the third year of a tradition my nanny family and I started, sort of by accident, or at least we didn’t intend for it to be a “tradition” each year, of taking photos of the grandkids for their grandmother for mothers day. A lot of it had to do with the fact that Ella and her cousin Meah were born only a few weeks apart and the by the first May that I watched Ella, we knew we wanted to get the two girls together for a cousins shoot and it happened to be right around Mother’s day so we ended up using the pictures to make a present for their Grandma that year. They were so little and adorable!

Then the following May, little Max had been born (not to mention the girls were getting so much bigger!) so we decided grandma really needed and updated photo of the grandkids since there was a whole new dude in the group! So last year we got these cute ones! And, well, then by THIS may/mother’s day we knew we kind of had a tradition on our hands and frankly, it’s pretty fun for their families to have these photos of the whole group each year around the same time so you can see how much they grow and change in a year!

I am not even going to try to pretend that it has ever been EASY to get a good photo of these kids all together. The first year the girls were little and couldn’t really escape or anything so that was good, but they didn’t understand what we were saying or doing (or bribing them with…) so we just had to act silly and hope to catch their attention and smiles. Last year the girls were totally on the go, walking and talking, so it was harder to get them to sit still, while Max was easy-peasy because he just sat there on his tummy and was cute! :)

This year… well this year was a whole new challenge with all three kids walking and talking and comprehending english. I banned all parents from this shoot because I know these kids well enough to know that they 99% of the time will chose Mommy over Katie and I was going to lose my mind trying to get them to pay attention to me when their parents were there too. And it actually…. kinda… worked!! We definitely got the best shots of the kids together ever, since they can actually follow directions now (and they fully comprehend bribes!) and since I was the only person they had to listen to they mostly behaved… but we definitely had lots of “out-takes” in between good ones because 3 kids under 3 is just plain chaos no matter how well they listen.

These first two shots are my favvvorites and since we couldn’t pick one, we got a big frame that holds three photos so we did these two and then one silly one, because really these kids are just big goofs and it’s perfect to show them how they really are! HOW CUTE ARE THEY!?

I die. This is my favorite thing ever. And it may look like Max doesn’t enjoy this, but don’t be fooled, he thinks his sister and cousin are the best and loves any and all attention from them!

Here’s a few more semi-cute ones

Here’s where we started to lose it…

Totally over it. Especially with being outside. They love to play outside too much to sit still very well :)

Max really wanted to play with the bouncy ball I was trying to use as an attention-getter hahaha…

Then we went inside and we got that UBER cute one up at the beginning of this post, but that was luck of the draw… because after about 30 seconds Max decided to test how loud his echo in the new house is and started yelling at the stop of his lunges. Which drives Meah nuts because she’s not used to a loud little brother, but Ella just kind of ignores him …. I loooove these next shots so much. It’s priceless Meah and Max and Ella…

And yeah I got that cute shot of the kisses, but this is mostly how it looked:

Until I made good on those bribes and fed them snacks… then they sat REAL still! :)

I also quick did some shots of the girls, who haven’t really had their own shots recently. Ella gave me one perfect shot and then was done-zo! Sweet girl.

Meah, on the other hand, is not subjected to my camera all the time so she was a DOLL to shoot! Get ready for major cuteness…

Sweet girl

Giggles!

Baby blue eyes! Just like from our first shoot!

Love her!!!

Happy Monday!! ::KD::

Posted in All About Me, Babies, Families, Kids

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Friday’s in Nannyland – Max is funny.

05.11.12 9:08 AM Posted in All About Me, Babies, Fun Fun Fun, Kids, Nannying

Let me first get to some important business. TODAY at 1pm Mountain time (12 noon west coast, 2pm central, 3pm east coast. just clarifying that since SOME people I know have a hard time figuring out time zones. cough cough jacki.) my college rugby team, the Winona State Black Katts, who I went to watch play a few weeks ago and took all these photos will play the first game at the DII National Final Four tournament in California. This means that they are 1 of the best 4 teams in the country! The games will be broadcast online HERE … so please, if you can go watch them, and if you can’t then just root for them! YAY!

Now on to important baby and nanny business …

Recently Max has been cracking me up more and more. Maybe it’s that he’s getting bigger and more interactive, or maybe it’s because Ella is becoming more of a punk (rather sassy and emotional that girl is getting), but either way, he is just the funniest dude these days. And frankly, it’s pretty impressive that a kid who is not even 1 and a half and can’t really talk can still be SO DANG FUNNY.

Here are some recent favorites from him:

He eats with a fork in one hand but picks up the food and puts the food in his mouth with the other hand. The fork has essentially become a useless accessory of meal time just for show. Whatever works though I guess, and he still manages to eat as much as an adult sometimes.

He has become acutely aware of the fact that Ella’s more advanced walking/running away skills and superior intelligence allow her to steal his toys if he doesn’t work fast and keep tabs on his toys. So he now has resorted to carrying as many of his things around with him from one place to another as possible. He carries something in each hand AND often has an item in his mouth! He looks ridiculous, but he seems to have it down to a science.

He currently LOVES to play peek a boo. Especially at the table. When his hands are super messy (remember because he doesn’t use the fork). So his face gets all messy. Whatev. But it’s sooo cute because he’s so enthusiastic about it and even says BAH-BOOO! when he pulls his hands away! I die.

He also loves the phrase “uh oh” and has started to purposely drop things and then exclaims “uhhh ohhhhhh!” It’s adorable. and annoying after the 7th time you have to pick up the cup/toy/paper/crayon/food item.

He and ella play a game in the back seat of the car where they pass a sippy cup back and forth and take turns taking drinking (don’t judge. If one is sick the other WILL get it regardless of the sharing of a sippy cup. and happy kids = sane katie so I go with whatever works) and just laugh hysterically about it. Or maybe I’m missing the actual funny part. But either way it’s adorable and funny.

I recently got Instagram on my phone so this weeks photos have been instagramed… :)

Ella and her cousin Meah were playing in the ball bucket this week

Max wanted to play but couldn’t quite climb in like the girls… so he went in head first :)

Here he is with the unused fork and eating with his fingers.

Max gave up his morning nap yesterday. He might still occasionally take one, but recently he would take a great morning nap from 9-11am ish and then when Ella would sleep from 2-5pm ish he would sit in his crib and talk/cry/poop/eat his pacifiers (those left last week upon discovering he had bitten the ends off them!) and either wouldn’t sleep, or would fall asleep at 4pm ish and then not want to wake up at 5 and either way would be SO SO crabby all night. So we’ve nixed the morning naps the last two days and actually it’s been pretty awesome. He is up and happy until 2 pm and then sleeps like a ROCK until 5ish. Yay for Katie! 3 whole hours of quiet time! The trade off is having TWO crazy toddlers to entertain for what seems like endless hours every day until it’s finally 2pm. That, and he fell asleep in the car for the first time since he was an infant. Adorbs.

Cuddles!!!

Ice cream happy place! :)

Posted in All About Me, Babies, Fun Fun Fun, Kids, Nannying Tags: giving up naps, giving up pacifiers, Nannying, nannying 2 kids, siblings

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