Congratulations Colter Family! Thanks for letting us spend this time with you and thank you to Megan S. who nominated them. Our time was filled with balloons and cupcakes, hanging out in the living room and lots of smiles!!  What a blessing it was to me!  You guys ROCK! Keep up those smiles! They are contagious!!

Its such a great day!!! Its the day we announce our first Joy Project II winner! We have read all of the amazing, wonderful stories and are in awe of all the heart and love put into all the submissions!  Reading them over and over...made me realize how we all have things that come our way in life and how truly heroic these people are!

 Heroic? Yes...they are my heros! The ones that through trial choose to stay positive and be such inspiration to others! We received such amazing emails nominating some equally amazing families for the Joy Project II in January!! WOW is all I have to say. Thank you to all of you who took the time to nominate!! We are happy to say that we will be shooting our Joy Project winner this Saturday!!! It is going to be an awesome day!! Right now it even looks like it will be sunny, clear and even warming up to 8 degrees ABOVE 0!! YAY! (Look for the dates for February and March soon!)   Here are a couple snippits of the winning nomination that I had permission to share for January! 




 In the past few years they have had to deal with more than any family should have to deal with in a lifetime. My friend, had to struggle with medical situations with both of her sons, while raising a daughter, going to school, and dealing with the deployment of her husband.


 Within this struggle, a therapist her sons were seeing, was charged with possession of child pornography, which drug her and her family through that much more struggle to stay strong. She has sacrificed everything for her family, and her boys are finally able to come home again. Her eldest son just turned 13 and this is the first time in a long time that they have been able to celebrate an event as a whole family. I think she would be a perfect choice for the Joy Project because of the strength she has shown the world in dealing with all of this.


 By her being chosen for the Joy Project, she would be able to document the year her boys got to come home as one of the happiest years in their family.She is an angel walking on the earth, and I cannot think of anyone else more deserving of this opportunity. Thank you.


 The Joy Project II January winners are............ The Colter Family. Congratulations to your family! Your sweet friend Megan S. nominated you and Megan will also receive a $100 off a Lana Marie Photography session after April 1st 2012!!! I am so very thankful  to have this opportunity to capture such a special time!! Thank you again for the winning submission Megan and congratulations again Colter family!

The Joy Project part II

 This year is going to be different...and we all say that every year with good intentions right?? This year is going to challenge and stretch our abilities beyond what we think we are capable of. We are all capable of so much more than we ever could dream for ourselves!! More joy, More love, more hugs, more air guitar, more thank you's, more dancing in fields of flowers in the rain, less noise, less haste, more family dinners, less crazy schedules that our hair somehow falls out, more walks holding hands, and sometimes we just need to take a step back and reevaluate and balance. 

 WE GET ONE SHOT HERE on this earth and I'm not talking about photography. 

 We are refocusing our goals at Lana Marie Photography and doing something totally new.  

We are starting off in January, February, and March with this, but we need your help. 

For this season, we only have 3 appointments available-

TOTAL. That is one per month.  And here is the biggest part...


THEY ARE FREE! 

That's right completely free. 

A full session, with disk and digital copies, gallery uploaded to the Lana Marie Photography website and a mini-accordian album of 12 favorite images. 

Here's where you come in.  

In honor of this upcoming season of acts of kindness and simple joys, please email me a 100-300 word entry for submission on behalf of someone else and why you think that they and their family should get a session, especially if they have never had professional portraits done before...all contact information for you and the family you are submitting --for when you win :) If your entry is chosen then you will also receive $100 off a session when we start normal session times back up in April. 
 Just "Like" our facebook page and share, the more entries the better. You can submit more than one family as well. Below is a link and you can email me the story on the page or to lanamariephotography@gmail.com. 

Thankful for all of you over the years and I can't say that enough.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! You all mean so much!YOU ROCK :) 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lana-Marie-Photography/108519289672?sk=app_106171216118819 

"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest thing right and doing it all for love....Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do for love. "

Therese of Lisieux

Little Winter Princess!

 Isn't she just the sweetest little thing you ever did see?? Mom and Dad let me put a flower in her pretty little hair!! She's got some beautiful blue eyes to top it all off.  Hard to imagine she is less than a week old in these pics.. I honestly cannot believe its taken me sooo long to blog!!  Watch out Alaska....here comes a sweet girl that will steal your heart!  Good thing she has two big brothers! :)