Cutest Baby Contest!!!!

Have you ever entered your child in the GAP model contest or The Cutest Kid contest??! Come on, you know you have! :) Well, now you can enter your child in a contest that you actually have a chance of winning!!! Mari Wilkes Photography is announcing a GIVE AWAY! A super fun Facebook contest going on now!! Click HERE to join my fan page on Facebook and enter the contest! Here's the scoop:

Between Friday, May 14 and Friday, May 21st, you can submit ONE snapshot of your child to me to be entered in my cutest baby contest. Please note that it must be a snapshot, not a professional photo! I WILL NOT accept a professional photo, and being that I am a professional photographer, I know what a professional photo looks like! :) If you have more than one child, you may enter a separate entry for each of your children. Contestants must be between 0 and 8 year of age to be entered. To enter your photo, you MUST be my friend on facebook (not just a fan of my fanpage, but my friend on facebook, so send me a request if we are not already friends!!) and attach the image in a message along with the child's name and age and something he/she likes to do. If you post an image to my wall or to the wall of my fan page, it will be deleted. Photos will only be accepted via message to my personal facebook profile. Next Friday, I will work on compiling an album for this contest on my fan page of all the photos entered and the information for each child. Once the album is up and all images have been accepted, VOTING WILL BEGIN!!!!!! To vote, one must be a fan (or LIKE) Mari Wilkes Photography, as this is the only place the images will be. So please encourage your friends and family to join my fan page so they can vote and help your child WIN! You can do this by posting a status on your page about the contest and reference to Mari Wilkes Photography. If you put an @ symbol in front of Mari Wilkes Photography in your status, your friends and family members can click on it to join. You can also suggest the page to your friends - you do this from the fan page. If you submitted the photo of your child, you can vote for your child, but you can only vote once. If you do not have any children, please help someone else's child by voting for your favorite! To vote, simply add a comment underneath your favorite's photo. Please keep comments clean, nice, and tasteful, otherwise I will delete them. You can vote for more than one photo if you'd like, but you can only vote for the same child once. Voting will continue for one week, ending on Saturday, May 29th. Now for the good part - the PRIZES! There will be 3 prizes given away for the top 3 spots.

1. The child with the most comments (votes) will receive a free session!!
2. The child with the second most comments (votes) will receive a session at half price ($50).
3. The child with the third most comments (votes) will receive a free 11x14 with any session booked within this year, 2010.

If your child wins, then YOU can choose the type of session you want - family, child, siblings, etc. Anyone can submit a photo for a chance to win!!!! However, I do hold the right to turn anyone away from the contest or to remove anyone from the contest if the rules are not followed correctly. There is a lot at stake here, so get to submitting and then get your friends to become a fan so they can vote and help you win!!!! Let's have fun! :)

If you have any questions at all, please post them in this discussion. I will be checking it daily and answering any questions you may have. DO NOT post them on my wall or my fanpage wall or in a message!!! Post them here so that everyone can see the answer because someone else may have the same question as well. P.S. Please only submit photos if you are in or close to the Auburn/Opelika area or are able to travel there for a session!! :) Have entering and voting!! GOOD LUCK!

Sweet Reagan Girls

Awwwww, these girls are so sweet! I first met Hannah, the oldest, right after she turned one and right after Lily, the youngest, was born. She didn't have nearly as much hair, but she was just a cute and sweet as she is now at 3 years old. I met Lily last year, along with Kaelyn (their cousin), right after she turned one. She and her cousin are just a few days apart in age. All the girls are very, very close, and I'm excited to see how baby Ella Grace will fit in the mix as she grows up. :) Hannah and Lily's mom is a very good friend of mine from high school, and I'm so excited to be able to see her girls grow up each year. Mom and Dad are very blessed with two gorgeous girls, and I can't wait until next year! Enjoy your preview! :)

Kaelyn - A New Big Sister

Being a big sister myself, I know how hard it is when that new little baby comes home and Mom has to share her time between the two of you. This little girl is adjusting well. In fact, I'd say she is a pro! She adores her little sister, and she was great when I took her baby sister's newborn pictures - holding her just like a big girl. But it's important to give her some special one-on-one attention as well. So of course she had to have pictures all by herself! :) And her cousins met us a little later so all of them could have pictures together. What a great group of girls! I met Kaelyn last year right after she turned one, and then again late in the summer when her Mommy and Daddy got married. Now she is two and cuter than ever!!!! Mom and Dad, you have two very beautiful little girls. Congratulations! Enjoy the preview!

Melissa's Crew :)

I've known Melissa for years now. Her stepsister and I were college roommates and are still best friends to this day. Melissa and I have been trying to plan a session for a while now, and I'm so glad we were finally able to do it! It was so much fun!! The kids are great together. They were very cooperative, which made my job very easy. They even wanted to have their picture made in a tree!! :) You've got to love them at that age!!! Melissa, thanks for sharing your "crew" with me! I really enjoyed meeting them all and capturing these sweet memories for you!! I hope you guys had as much fun as I did! :)

Blue-Eyed Whitley

Meet sweet Whitley. Now, I have to tell you that when we adopted our new kitten, the shelter had named her Whitley. We changed her name to Molly, but I'm a little attached to the name Whitley. :) So I loved this little sweetie right away! And those blue eyes!!! I swear that I must have all the beautiful blue eyed children as clients!! :) She was a sweetie. She really enjoyed playing in the grass and the dirt, so I assumed it was her first time. She enjoyed it so much that she was shy with her cute smiles. But a little girl this beautiful doesn't need to smile at me!! She's gorgeous, and I had such a great time with this family. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for trusting me with your daughter's 6 month portraits. You two are very, very lucky parents. :) Enjoy your preview!

Sweet Siblings

Oh, I just LOVE these two sweeties!! I cannot believe how big they are now! I've seen Braden since he was about 2 1/2 years old, and I have been photographing little Avery since she was just a few days old. Now they are 5 and 1! Where does the time go?!? I adore seeing clients throughout the year - it's amazing to see how much they change! I feel so privileged having the awesome opportunity to photograph these two precious siblings for a while now, and I can't wait to see them again!! Mom and Dad, THANK YOU for sharing your sweet children with me each time! It thrills me to walk into your home and see my images all over the walls. I can only hope that they bring a smile to your face each time you see them. :) Enjoy these as much as I enjoyed taking them!!! Mom, I think it was worth all of our hard work! ;)

Nikki and JJ are ENGAGED!

Congratulations!!! This is just another part to the fabulous love story that revolves around a wedding - the engagement. These two are very special and very much in love. We had a blast at the session! It was complete with bees, weeds, briars, and dog poop. :) Gotta love the measure you go to for some awesome pictures!! I really enjoyed hanging out with you guys getting to know you better. I hope you enjoy the preview!!! I'm really looking forward to September 25th, as I'm sure you guys are, too! :)