Kara

is such a little sweetie. Within 2 minutes of meeting her we learned that she has her own schedule and it's not a rushed one and she is a master negotiator! The apple didn't fall far from the tree in her house given her parents' professions!

It had taken her hours to get down to half of her pop tart before we came. However, before the session could start she negotiated for 5 more bites. hehehehe!!! I'm pretty sure she only ended up taking one more bite, but it cracked me up that she wanted FIVE more...not one, not two....but five! Kara is one funny girl!

Want to know what she wants for Christmas? An octopus! That's not a typo....to the surprise of us and her parents she announced that an octopus was on her list of items she hopes Santa will deliver. Hmmmm, I wonder what Rudolph would think about transporting sea life?

I asked her if she could go get her favorite book. Given exhibit A above (she's on her own timeline), her daddy happily found his way up and down the stairs before she even knew he was gone. I'm so glad he found her favorite book because I am in LOVE with the family time we captured above!

I love them even more because the days of mommy, daddy and Kara only story time are limited...see exhibit C below...

Kara is going to be a big sister by the end of the month!! Not only do I love that image because it represents so much anticipation it also captures so much love in their family...Kara is just being her silly little self and her parents are loving it!

Kara - We had so much fun capturing your silly little self! You are so full of life and we loved learning all about you and your most ambitious Christmas list! You are going to be SUCH a great big sister! We can't wait to see you again!

Connor and Madeline

worked very very hard to help their parents get their Christmas tree all decorated before we came to their home for their family pictures. Don't they look like they'd be such great little helpers?

Connor was little Mr. Social Butterfly! Oh my goodness, he welcomed us instantly to their home and never stopped making us feel welcome! At one point he even planted a big 'ol kiss on my cheek! He helped us create a little surprise for his mom while she was out of the room. Surprise, it's little Connor Claus!

Madeline was pure tiny sweetness. She really didn't know what to think of Eric...it got to the point where we just had to have Eric hide because she would look around the room until she spotted him and then just scream....and they weren't happy excited screams. I have to admit, I thought it was hilarious! But look, once we got Eric hidden behind a blanket, she was good to go!

This next outtake is just too good not to share! Do you think Connor spotted Santa behind us?!?!?! :)

Connor and Madeline - I am so glad your mommy called us and asked us to capture your family! We had so much fun learning all your favorite ornaments and all the goodies that came in your Advent calendar! We can't wait to see you again!

Thoughts and Prayers

Please keep the Anderson family in your thoughts and prayers. I just received a text this morning with the most awful news. Susan Anderson very suddenly and completely unexpectedly passed away in her sleep last night.
My mind went spinning, how is this possible? I still have her emails in my inbox, her order was just delivered last week. She could not have been taken from her family and friends already.

And then I was quickly reminded why we love what we do so much. I am so thankful that we were able to spend an hour with their family last month and capture these moments. At the time, these moments seemed simple and normal, now they are priceless moments captured for a family to treasure forever. It brings a smile to my face now knowing that I kept Susan and Barry hugging for just those few extra seconds so that I could get "just one more picture". This is such a great reminder and I will forever continue to have families "hug it out" in honor of Susan and a life taken far too soon.

I do have to share a story about Susan in my very short time of knowing her. The majority of our "conversations" took place via email....and trust me we shared a lot of emails! But the one thing that always stuck out to me with her emails is that she never signed off as Susan. Her sign off was ALWAYS, "Love, the Andersons" I'm fairly certain it wasn't an automatic signature line, I truly believe she signed every email that way....as her family. It always made me smile.

To Barry, Jacob, Joel and the Ponca famly - Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this very difficult time. We are forever grateful you have invited us into your families and loved that we were able to capture these very special memories for you. Hugs to you all!

Baby Drake

invited us to his grandparents house to capture him and all his hair sweetness!

Seriously, can his hair be any more awesome??? I was quite obsessed with his hair and couldn't get enough of it!

I'll give you one guess to figure out what is going on in the image below....

He's already teething at THREE months old!!! Holy buckets, he is wasting no time at this growing up business!

When Drake's mom showed me this hat I nearly melted to the floor with excitement...can it get any cuter than this?!!?!

Want to know the best part about this hat? When I showed his Nana a preview of this image in the back of the camera, tears came to her eyes. Yes!! I am a sucker for emotional reactions to our images....show me the tears, yes, show me the tears! :)

Such a funny juxtaposition...a little baby wearing a skull and crossbones. Drake you are one cool little dude!

Guess what else I am a sucker for? Spit bubbles!! I love that Drake is going to town making bubbles and his parents are bustin' a gut....such a small moment in their life, but oh so sweet!

Drake - Little man you are so sweet and I am so happy we got to meet you and hang out for a bit! There is no doubt about it, you are certainly surrounded by love and we loved being able to capture it. We cannot wait to see you in 3 months....but dont' grow up too fast on us!

Baby Lyla

was just 6 weeks old when we got to meet her for the very first time. Oh my, she is pure sweetness and oh so teeny tiny!

Remember her mom when she was full term and her parents were patiently awaiting her arrival? Little Miss Lyla was quite comfy and tested her parents' patience while she was in no rush to see the outside world. Judging from this next image, I'd say she's pretty content with life now. Doesn't it just bring a sense of calm over you seeing her so content with her little grin? I love it!

Speaking of content...look at her on her mommy's shoulder after a feeding....oh.....my......goodness!!!!

This next image cracks me up...

This is just for Lyla's daddy....he came up with the idea and I think it's stinking adorable! This is just the beginning of her love of golf!

We are told she doesn't spend too much time in her nursery, so we had to capture one of the fleeting moments she was in there! :)

Sara, Tod and Lyla - What fun it was to meet little Lyla!! I still can't believe she didn't crash for hours after we left! She was a true rockstar and handled the entire session like a pro. We can't wait for her to show off her skills again next time around! Thank you for always letting us share in the special moments in your life, we love that we can capture these moments for you!

Photographering day...

is what Evan called this day when I asked him if he knew what we were going to do that day. Photographering day....yes I like that word...I think I need to start using it more often!

Love this moment captured between sisters...

This was a surprise session for their dad/grandpa….and what a fun time we had with the surprise! I really don’t know where to start as it was like one big comedy act. Perhaps this will give you a little idea of what happened...

We had kids flying through the air, kids on the ground and everything in between....including a dog between legs! Perfect chaos makes a session so memorable and fun and brings about plenty of laughter!

Jim and I had to come to an understanding that when I say "1 picture," what I really mean is about 10. Jim didn’t know that about me. And I didn’t know that Jim would take the idea of 1 picture so literally. Eric refers to it as fuzzy math Jim, I am glad you came around to our fuzzy way of thinking. J.

Jim said he had a pitch fork and we said American Gothic the KandE way?

Jim has always wanted a family picture of his family on the elevator and that is why we were invited out for the surprise….but he also had a vision of his family walking in the field. (Sorry Jim, you can't see the surprise image just yet!)

Notice the kids never stopped flying through the air!

Never.... :)

To all of you…whoa!! What a wild and fun time we had out at the farm! I am happy we were able to contribute to the kids' high sugar levels after naptime! :) Thanks for inviting us, we loved hanging out and capturing your families!!!

Gabby

Oh my goodness what an exciting day it was for us to meet little Gabby!!! Why so exciting you might ask? Oh boy, we always say that one of the best parts about what we do is that we get to capture families as they continue to grow! We love love love it when families come back year after year (or month after month!). Despite the fact it reminds us that we are getting older, we LOVE to see how much the kids have grown!

We had never met Gabby before, but we did know her mom and dad from when we captured their wedding back in 2007! Be still my beating heart....they now have Gabby and wanted us to capture her 6 month portraits! I cannot tell you the joy in my heart when I received that email!

Little Gabby tried her best to put on her serious face for much of the session....but don't worry, we coerced some pretty sweet smiles (or some great funny faces) out of her!

Don't cha just want to go squeeze those lovable cheeks?!?!

Gabby's parents tried to tell us that she couldn't sit for much more than a few seconds all by herself. Check out daddy making sure she is OK...

Oh my, Gabby definitely proved them wrong! She sat by herself for such long periods of time, we were beginning to wonder what kind of story her parents tried to tell us :)

Want to know the BEST part of the session????? They told us that Gabby is going to be a BIG sister in about 6 months!!!! Oh my goodness....what a GREAT session!!

Brandon, Megan and Gabby - Oh my goodness how great to see you again and capture your family!! We are so excited you have stayed in touch and asked us to capture your growing family! We loved our time with you and getting to know little Miss Gabby and her incredible sense of fashion!! :) Can't wait to see you again when Gabby turns 1 and is a big sister!! YAY!!

Email not working

OK, what better time for our website contact form to stop working except in the middle of our busiest time of the year?!?!  

We just realized this week that people who have tried to contact us through the "Contact Us" page on our website have not been getting through to us.  All those messages seem to be lost in cyber space....ahhhhhh!!  We are not ignoring you...promise!  The cyber elves just seem to be very hungry lately and need our mail.

SOOOO....if you have used that form on our website and haven't heard from me, PLEASE send me a direct email (karen [at] kandeproductions.com - that still seems to be working) or give me a call at 515.231.4857.

Thorpe family

What fun we had with Tyler and he had no idea we were capturing all sorts of great images of him! He did give us a few funny looks as we were running all around, but he soon went back to doing his own thing.

I have a feeling Tyler's mom and dad see this look many times a day and I am so happy we were able to capture it forever!

What a stud don’t you think??? Totally GQ!!

It wasn’t long before we started family pictures and he was totally cheesin’ it up! It was cracking us up because when we were just capturing him, he was totally oblivious to our camera’s, but the instant it was family pictures he was fully aware of the camera in front of him.

This next image is too funny! None of us had any idea what he was doing, but he was being a total actor and I could barely capture this because I was laughing too hard!

Thorpe’s – Tyler was a total rockstar! It was so great to see you guys! We loved hanging out with Tyler and capturing him just being his cute little self. We are so happy we were able to capture these little moments in your life.

Liam

Liam stole my heart about .02 seconds after we met him! The instant I said hi to him he showed me his adorable smile and it never left his face the rest of the session.

Liam, you made it too easy for us!

Boy it's hard to tell why he's so happy all the time...I bet he doesn't get any of that from his parents. Oh wait...pretty sure the above image describes Liam's family perfectly....soooo happy!

His parents tell us the only time he loses his smile in a day is when it's bedtime. Can you blame him? This little guy LOVES life....how unfair to have to shut your eyes and miss some of it. I always say that sleep is overrated...I think Liam is on the same page too!

He is getting ready to celebrate his first birthday party with all of his family in about a month...I can't even imagine how much bigger his smile can get when he see's so many people that love him all in the same place....lucky little man!

Liam - Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing all your sweetness with us! We could have easily spent all day with you. Our time together went way too fast! We are so excited to see you again! P.S. Enjoy your birthday cake!!!

Handsaker family

Oh heavens I don’t even know where to begin! Cash is a talking machine! He had us laughing so hard! One of our favorite words he pulled out was “Peace out”…seriously, Cash you just said that??? What a hoot!

This picture makes me laugh so hard! The expressions on their faces are just priceless!

Another behind the scenes shot…this is what you call up close and personal and Cash wasn't afraid!

Paige certainty didn’t forget her stint as my assistant last time we saw them. She came prepared with her favorite subject Brownie this time. She had many ideas for posing Brownie ….so we took him all over!

Miss Paige is the only person besides Eric that I have let touch my new 2 week old baby! Yep, this new camera I refer to as my baby...and Paige got to take a picture with it! Check out her mad skills!

Handsaker’s – The kids are growing way too fast! I cannot believe how talkative Cash is! I’m not sure how you ever get anything done around the house because I think I could just sit and listen to his comedy act all day long! Thank you for being so patient Paige waiting for your picture of Brownie to get posted! How cute does he look hanging out in the perfect spot you found for him??? :)