First off, thank you to everyone who voted in the 2009 Ella Bella Photography Portrait of the Year Contest! It was a HUGE success! Now I’ve got to block out a good 2-3 hours tomorrow night to tally up the votes one by one on the comments section! The winners will be announced on Wednesday night!

And now for today’s sneak peek! You might remember this little guy I’m sharing today! He’s been lucky enough to grace the front page of my blog, not once…. not twice… now three times in his 9 months of life! I love watching him grow up and marveling at how much he changed every 3 months. He’s sporting more hair now, is crawling pretty quick and still holds the Ella Bella double record for bluest baby eyes & most drooly baby. I hope you enjoy your sneak peek, “H” family! Click the links to see him at 3 months and 6 months and (drum roll please….) 9 months:

His Mimi and Papa were over to help coax some smiles out of him. I thought this moment was absolutely precious…

The football was almost as big has him!

Touchdown!

This last sneak peek cracks me up! Their dog “Pearl” was so super excited with all the commotion of the photo session and when it finally came time for her “turn” to be in the pictures, she couldn’t contain herself! She was rolling all over the place and smiling from ear to ear - such a happy girl!

** If you came to my blog to cast your vote in the 2009 Ella Bella Photography Portrait of the Year Contest, click here! Contest ends Superbowl Sunday, February 7th at 11:59pm! **

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meet little Miss “A”. I got to spend part of my morning with her early this week and I left her home with baby fever once again. It’s a good thing that I get to snuggle baby girls as often as I do, or I would seriously be begging my hubby to try for a baby girl! Just look at this bundle of joy…

I forgot to mention that little miss adorable is almost 2 months old and was awake for most of the session. She’s seriously so cute that I barely noticed that she didn’t sleep but 10 minutes the entire morning.

And when I flipped her over on her belly for some head-on-hands poses, she showed off her most amazing baby trick… lifting herself up off my beanbag! My prediction is she will be an early crawler! Her mommy will definitely have to get back to me on that one! Enjoy your sneak peek, “H” family!

Announcing Ella Bella Photography’s 2009 Portrait of the Year Awards!

It’s that time!! We picked out 20 of our favorite portraits from all of 2009 (narrowing down 100’s of photos to only 20 is so hard to do!) - there are so many more that we wanted to choose but alas, only the 20 portraits made the cut!) If you made the nominations list - Congratulations!

Now for the best part!! The 1st place prize winner will receive a 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas of a portrait of their choosing from their 2009 session. The 2nd place winner will receive a 11×14 mounted print with linen finish from their 2009 session. The 3rd place winner will receive a 8×10 mounted print from their 2009 session with a desk easel frame!

To Vote: All you have to do is leave a comment below with the number of your favorite image. We will do the contest until Sunday, February 7th at midnight and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, Feb 10th on this blog! The portrait with the most votes wins 1st place! 2nd place goes to the portait with the second most votes and so on! 3 prizes total - 1st, 2nd, 3rd place!

Spread the word! You can have as many of your friends and family vote, only one vote per person!! (Extra votes by the same person (tracked by IP address) will not count and may disqualify you so please don’t cheat!)

Now get voting!!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

I’m so giddy over this session I’m sharing today! I met up with the “K” family at a *new* photography location they showed me and I’m just over the moon about it! I think you’ll see why… Cute little “B” just celebrated his 1st birthday and this is his one year photo session. Isn’t he so adorable?? Enjoy your sneak peeks!!

Itching for your baby fix? Coming at ya times 2 today!! These sweet peas are identically adorable in every way… Enjoy!

It’s that time! (Better late than never!) I’m ready to announce the winner of my first blog contest! Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the contest by leaving a comment after posting about my photography biz on their Facebook, Twitter or Blog pages. Without further ado, the big winner of a free newborn photo session (value $150) is Kristi! Kristi, please contact me via email so we can work out the details of your session! Also, congratulations to Vanessa (who referred Kristi to my contest) for winning a free photo session (value $150) for referring Kristi to my blog for the contest! Vanessa, please email me to get on my calendar for your winning photo session!

And since I simply cannot post without sharing a photo - here is the very last photo I edited before writing this post! More sneak peeks of these identical twin girlies coming tomorrow!

{{ Blog Contest Winners will be announced on Tuesday! Sorry for the extra wait!! (Good things are worth waiting for, right? More on this later today!! }

This newborn baby boy is so sweet… and cuddly… and adorable… and pees a lot! He soaked all of us girls at his newborn session. Sister, check. (kudos to big sister who handled it so well!) Mommy, check. Photographer, check! Daddy, nope, not a drop! Us girlies were feeling singled out! hehe. It was all worth it when you look at his sneak peek. Aaahh, I love back wrinkles! Enjoy your sneak peek, “S” family!

{{ ETA: Blog Contest Results Coming on Monday!! }}

Little Miss “L” had her one year old portrait session last week on her 1st birthday! Pink dresses, pettiskirts & birthday cake - a super fun session!! Isn’t she adorable?? I could get lost in those brown eyes… Enjoy your sneak peek, “M” Family!

(She aaaalmost has her index finger up to show how old she is!)

Aaaand now for some cake!

My first official session of 2010 is tomorrow (identical twin newborns!!) and it kicks off the start of a busy fun year at Ella Bella Photography! Yay!!!! Lots of sneak peeks coming your way along with more guest appearances of my own two boys… I’m going to make more of an effort to photograph them this year since I missed out on several milestones last year just trying to keep up with the business side of photography! For me, 2010 is all about making memories and capturing the moments that matter. I hope you will be a part of it with me!

PS. My contest ends Friday at 6pm! See below and spread the word about Ella Bella Photography to get qualified to win!

xoxo,
Elle

Enter to win a photography session with Ella Bella Photography!

Are you pregnant? Do you personally know someone who is pregnant? Do you want a free photo session with Ella Bella Photography this Spring? If you answered “YES!!” to at least ONE of the questions, you can enter to win a free photo session for you and a friend!! (Each of you gets your own photo session!)

To enter:

1) Tell your all your pregnant friends about the Ella Bella Photography Contest by posting a link to this contest on your Facebook, Twitter or Blog and then leave a comment here with a link to your post!

2) Tell your pregnant friends to enter this blog contest by posting a comment that has their first name, due date, the person’s name who referred them (you) and why they would love a free newborn photo session!

3) Each eligible comment is an entry!

4) The more people you refer to this contest, the greater your chances of winning!!

5) Contest ends on Friday, Jan 22nd at 6pm CST. Winners announced on Sunday on this blog!

6) The contest winner wins a free newborn photography session (value $150) and the referring person wins a free portrait photo session! (value $150)

Spread the word and increase your chances of winning! Good luck!!