Now here is how it is going to work this year! Last year I did everything on Facebook but this year it will all be on the blog! I would still love it if you would head on over to Facebook and “like” the Lavish Photography page, here you will able to keep up with all the new sessions and specials that I will be running throughout 2012!

Most of you remember the Lavish Photography Best of 2010 contest last year!! It was so fun to see all the votes and in the end there were two photos that were SOOO close both with over 100 votes a piece! I’m hoping this year will create the same buzz, seriously last year I didn’t want to leave my computer it was so fun!  With 45 of my favorite images from paying sessions last year, you will be able to vote your very favorite picture of the year! You are allowed one vote per household! Tell all of your friends and family to head on over to the Lavish blog and enter!

Contest starts today January 17th and will end next Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 10pm!

Here are the details: Look through all of the pictures one by one and enter the number you want to vote for at the bottom of this post! Remember…one vote per household! Also, you must be a fan of Lavish Photogarphy on Facebook! If you don’t have Facebook…please subscribe to my blog by clicking the Subscribe tab above!

This year there will be ONE Grand Prize Winner!

The winner of the Best of 2011 photo contest will receive one complementary photo session anytime in 2012, a 16×20 print of your choice from the session and the same photo on CD!! Seriously that is a $260 value!!

Ok Ya’ll that’s the scoop! So now all you have to do is spread the word!! Tell all your family, friends, random facebook friends and go VOTE!!!!!

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You see like most of you reading this life hasn’t been easy, my parents were divorced when I was in kindergarten, my mom remarried not real long after to the man whom I call my step-dad although they two have since divorced. My dad re-married when I was in 4th grade to a woman who for some reason hated me. She told me and anyone else who would listen what an unlovable person I was. They finally divorced when I was a freshman in collage. My Dad is remarried again but this time to a woman who loves him and me and my family (I’m so very thankful for this). In my teens and 20′s I was in relationships that weren’t healthy but I knew I just wanted to be “loved.” Those are the simple, brief overview of the surface of part of my life.

When I was 21 my life was forever changed. The guy I had been dating invited me to his church, I went knowing that I had a longing for something more in life but not knowing what that meant. In Jan of 2002 I learned something that no one had ever told me my whole life. I learned and knew that there was a God, I God who LOVED me, valued me and DIED for me. I will never be able to express how this knowledge changed my life. My life is not determined by my circumstances or by what others say about me, my life is in the hands of my creator, my savior.

Today as I was confronted with some really hard and scarey stuff. Things that I have no control over and can only hand over and trust in God to get us all through. I felt so weighted down by the why me? Only the why me I was looking at was not about why is this happening to me but why have I been saved from path in life I could have easily gone down? A path that unfortunately others in my life have chosen? My response to this is just plain gratitude. Here is the thing. Anyone can have what I have, God pursues each one of us, every.single.day. all we have to do is answer. There is no rhyme or song to sing, no message to say or even to hear but the simple truth, knowing that there is a God who loves us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us and that Jesus died for us, rose again so that we might have everlasting life. Wow what a gift.

So today, although it  was a really hard day, a day that “required” me to eat a large amount of cookie dough ice cream and to cry on the shoulder of my husband and a really sweet friend, it’s a day that I am thankful. Thankful that when I ask why me, there is a very simple answer. HE LOVES ME!

Last week we tried to meet up again and poor baby threw up on her momma before the session… Sooo we decided to wait and try again. Third times a charm right?! RIGHT! We had a beautiful evening, a beautiful location and a very happy Aubree!! I knew we were going to an apple orchard, so I found this ugly yellow chair I had downstairs and painted it red! I’m SOOO in love!!

The above photo, might be my new favorite photo ever!