{Las Vegas..a preview}

Last weekend was amazing. Stay tuned..

{Lurking Strangers Winner}

I hope everyone's Black Friday was a safe one, I know I stayed safely hunched over my computer. It's time to announce the winner of the {completely random} drawing! I am always pleasantly surprised when people come out of the shadows, I get quite a variety of different people. Thank you so much to those of you who entered..keep entering my contests, the odds are you will win. Now on to the winner! (can I get a drumroll please?WHAT? No drumroll?)

The Winner is....

Katrina!

Congratulations! Email me with your details so I can send you out your certificate!

{Holiday Gift Certificates}

Give the gift of pictures this year with Holiday Gift Certificates.

Recipient will get a 1-2 hour session on location,complete with disk of appr. 30 images with print rights and an online proofing gallery for 2 months. Certificate can be mailed to you or directly to the recipient, beautifully gift wrapped.

$75

{gracias.merci.danke.mahalo}

In the spirit of today's celebration, I sit down and reflect on this past year...the trials, the mistakes, the highs, and the lows; I can't help but be humbled by the fact that I am extremely blessed. Blessed in my personal life but also very blessed in my business.

With that being said I just want to take a moment to say a great big THANK YOU to all of the people who have helped me along in this photography journey. I have been so privileged to have served 100 clients so far! This is a milestone for me personally, I never thought I would hit that number by my one year mark, but somehow I made it. Thank you to all of you friends and family who have supported me and encouraged me along the way, and even let me get away with taking HORRIBLE pictures of you at times. You are all saints....

....for believing in me and helping me to see my true potential..hiring me time and time again..

....for modeling for me on a whim a BAZILLION times and for watching Benjamin Button with me even though you hated it and wanted to die..

...for hours and hours on the phone talking about photography and dreams..being there for me during a big event in my business. the SUPPORT you give when most others would be competing

...for loving my work no matter what...

...for stalking my blog and not telling..hehe

...for pulling me back to my feet when I was overwhelmed and discouraged..

...for financial support through the beginning months..

and last..

..for mean, judgmental, or critical comments or emails, you only fuel my fire to achieve and make me so grateful for forgiveness and the opportunity to be better in everything I do..

You all know who you are. Happy Thanksgiving.

xoxo

Ashley Hawkes

{Can I keep them?}

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love photographing family! These are my husband's brother's kids. Holy freaking cute.

And this is the little girl I would like to clone for myself. She's my favorite little person. (No offense to my own children of course haha)

I bribed her with my cell phone and she took off with it, made a few calls, booked me some clients....

This is Spencer. He's so full of it. Every time I see him I get a great big hug.

He does the BEST pirate impression.

One word. CURLS.

And these amazing people are responsible for all the above mentioned cuteness.

Thanks for a fun shoot!

Your gallery is ready:)

{strangers lurking in the shadows..come out, come out wherever you are!!}

There are a handful people that I KNOW of who regularly visit and comment on my blog. Bless you. But then there are those mysterious lurking strangers..I only know of them because once in a while I meet one and hear shy confessions of blog stalking;) You know who you are. Well, I want to know who my readers are!

I propose a contest. It's time for a contest.

Leave a comment on my blog and a link to your blog if you have one and I will enter your name into a drawing to be held on Black Friday. So leave your comment, go shopping, spend some dough, hell, spend ALL your money cuz you won't need any for this awesome deal.

If your name is drawn, you will recieve a gift certificate for one FREE photoshoot by me. Keep it for yourself or give it as a gift.

The redeemer of the certificate will receive:

• 1-2 hours on location
• disk of all edited images (approximately 25-35) with full print rights
• online proofing gallery for 2 months
• happiness

So, come on, what are you waiting for? All you gotta do is get over your social networking/comment leaving anxiety for one day. I know it's hard. But it will be so worth it!

No haters please:)

{OH SNAP!}

5 Reasons why

I.LOVE.THIS.FAMILY.

#1. um, hello? GORGEOUS.

#2. Style.

#3. Dimples!!!

#4. It. was. FREEZING!! Those little girls are TOUGH!

#5. They did whatever I asked. Yep, even the Dad.

You guys ROCK.

Can I say HOT MAMA?!? Shana knows how to work it. And Steve could just plain be a model too. GQ!

Thanks for a fun half hour you guys!! Hope you love your pictures!!

{Ruby Slippers}

"Who killed my sister? Who killed the Witch of the East? Was it you?"

More to come...

{my weekend}

Need I say more? I have so many fun things to post so don't go far!!

{rebecca + three}

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." ~Irving Washington

This is my sister's beautiful family. She is a single Mom (any takers?) to 3 energetic boys, and I know for a fact that's not easy. She amazes me.

These boys are so sweet, even though I doubt that's their favorite term to be called , they really are. I haven't had the opportunity to spend very much time with them during their lives so far, but that is changing. I learned a couple of things from the shoot..namely..

#1 kisses from aunts aren't THAT bad

and #2 girls DONT have cooties

Who would have known?

{Those Eyes..}

Stay tuned for more of my beautiful sister and her boys..

{LiNkiN}

I am so late posting these!! I was burning his mommy a disk tonight and realized I hadn't blogged these yet. Sorry Jess..I'm slacking in my frienderly duties! This was so much fun!! This little guy is so funny..I love the squishy face laugh he was doing and how he DID NOT want to take his attention from the excitement going on on the ground (cigarette butts, leaves, rocks LOL) Next visit we shall do this again-and I will be quicker about getting the pics to you!! XOXO

{Ramses & AnnaDee}

LOVE these two. I met up with them in Ogden yesterday for our little session and it was a blast.

Ramses is from Texas, they met online, which I think is awesome!

Thanks guys for a fun afternoon, and thanks for putting up with my space case brain!! Happy wedding Saturday!!

The Skousen Family

Dave and I had the pleasure of spending a morning with this beautiful family from Arizona. They were so much fun to work with and were even willing to do some of our crazy ideas!

Thanks so much for giving us a shot and for your willingness to try all our ideas, even though some of you (ahem-DAD) couldn't stop laughing through half of them! XO