The trees are budding around Austin, the green grass is returning and I’m starting to find patches of wildflowers! It’s almost Spring! We’ve had an unusually cold winter in Austin, so we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of warmth, and flowers, and days spent outside playing under the sun.

Remember these adorable babies? These twinkies are 9 months old now! You can take a walk back through memory lane and see their newborn session and their 6 month portraits. So much growth happens during the first year of life! I love watching my baby planners grow up! (Little Miss “C” is also the 2009 Ella Bella Photography portrait of the year winner!) Enjoy your sneak peek, “F” family! See you in a few months!!

I met this sweet boy last week for his newborn session. He was such a good baby, slept for me the entire time! Definitely a laid back personality!! Such a dream! Enjoy your sneak peek, “W” family! Your baby is precious!!

I also wanted to rave about my favorite new Etsy seller, CapsofGrace! I absolutely love the quality, colors and hat styles of this Etsy store! Check them out! Their crocheted hats are so well made and they come in all sizes from newborn to preteen! CapsofGrace is also having a free hat giveaway going on right now too! No purchase necessary to enter! Here is more info:

** Announcing the CapsofGrace Spring GIVEAWAY! For all orders placed between now and Mar. 21, we will enter you in a drawing for the “hat of your choice”! You’ll get one entry for each item or set purchased. Another way to enter, send us a link to your post about us and our products, on a blog, facebook, twitter or other social network, and we’ll enter you in the drawing again for each separate post! No limit to number of entries and no purchase required. Contact: [capsofgrace@yahoo.com] Winner to be announced March 22nd…so stay tuned! **

And one with daddy. I love this one!

One of my favorite things about my work is having the priviledge of photographing my families again:) I am always amazed at how much my little ones have grown and developed since the last time I saw them! The last time I saw these twins was about 14 months ago here, before they were completely mobile. This time around they gave me (and their parents) a good workout! They are also the proud big brother/sister to a little brother, who is now 2 months old. They love their baby brother so much! It was great to see you again, “H” family! Enjoy your sneak peeks!

I absolutely loved every minute of this sweet baby girl’s newborn session! Her beautiful mommy and I had so much fun dressing her up in all my newborn hats and props. I absolutely love what I do! Enjoy your sneak peek, “S” family! You are blessed!

I love peeling skin on a newborn…

… almost as much as the sweet little nose and mouth on a new baby.

Well, the votes have been counted (what an exhausting job!) and the official winners have been placed in the secret envelopes marked “1st”, “2nd”, and “3rd” place! (not really - but you can imagine it, right?) Thank you to everyone who voted for our beautiful nominees! And now for the good part!

{drum roll}

Our FIRST place winner and winner of the “Ella Bella 2009 Portrait of the Year” title with by far the MOST votes goes to #18! Congratulations! This family has won a 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas from their 2009 session!

Our SECOND place winner, with the next biggest vote count goes to #20! They will receive a gorgeous 11×14 mounted print with linen finish!

Our THIRD place winner, with the third highest vote count goes to #15! They will receive a beautiful 8×10 mounted print with an easel for display.

To all my Nominees!
I have a special surprise for all of our nominees too (including our winners) - each family nominated will receive a $50 Ella Bella Photography gift certificate credit that can be applied to your next session booked between March - August 2010! The gift certificate is not transferrable, so it may only be used by the families who were nominated for the 2009 Ella Bella Photography Portrait of the Year contest!

Congratulations to everyone!!!

I am jumping on to say that the winners of the 2009 Ella Bella Photography contest will be announced this weekend on my blog! I need a few extra days to get all the votes counted! Hang on tight for a few more days! It will be worth the wait!!

And since I can’t post without a picture…

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! **

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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!!

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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!!