Tonya Joy Photography

real life...beautiful and romantic photography with a twist of glamour

Monthly Archives: February 2009

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

for ella…my 5 year old…

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It seems like every mother has a Hallmark moment when their little baby turns 5. I remember thinking when Ella was a baby that 5 was soooooooo far away. {I remember thinking it would probably feel like the end of the world too! } Now here I am, I blinked, ok, maybe I blinked twice, and now she is 5. Oh, the tears are a flowing…look at my little Ella…

She has grown quickly and has been joined by two sisters who love and look up to her completely…

Ella has always blessed our home with such a spirit of peace and she is a true peacemaker in our home. I love her natural tendency to be happy and consider that to be a great blessing for her. I hope she always has the ability to see things in a positive light…

I love that I can always spend my birthday getting ready for hers…seriously, birthdays are WAY better when you are a kiddo and I sorta getta re-live that on my birthday as I prepare all the fun stuff for hers…

This year…Hannah Montana sorta rocks her world. I am really unsure how this happened, as I would have never thought my 2, 3, and 4 year olds would be huge fans, but my girls are definitely crazy about the Miley by day/Hannah by night girl of the Disney Channel…so, her b-day decor is all about rockstar…

Here on her last day as a 4 year old we busted open the decor purchased a la Tarjet…and she had a quick photoshoot to document her 4 year old look…

by the time these hit the web…she will be sporting 5 ripe years in age…

Ella is so cute…everyone always tells her they learned to read when they are 5…you know in kindergarten…well, on our drive home tonight she told me that when she woke up tomorrow she would be able to read…because she will be 5. Oh it melted me…I explained that things like that actually require practice and what people meant is that is how old they are when they start to learn how to read. I think tomorrow should we should practice a bit…sweet, sweet, innocent girl…

Ella, I laid in bed with you tonight (the night before your birthday) and told you all about how thankful I am you were born. (Sorry for the tears that must have seemed like a warm rain storm…I have really gotta work on not crying when I tell you all how much I love you…) You really filled such a void in my heart and taught me so much about unconditional love. The moment I held you in my arms on the morning of feb 25th, 2004, I fell in love in such a sweet way for the first time. You prepared my heart to love as a Mother and gave me so much to be thankful for. I love telling you all about when you were a baby and love to see you grow in so many beautiful ways. I am so blessed, we all are, that you were born.

This day we celebrate YOU…

…may all your birthday wishes come true…

love you…

xoxo

Mommy Tonya

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Posted in Uncategorized Tags: ella is 5, hold them tight, personal

Monday, February 23, 2009

happy things

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The other day I went to get the mail…It is silly, but it is one of my girls and my favorite things to do. We all head out, look both ways, and run barefoot across the street to fight over who will turn the mail key. It is kind of a funny sight actually. Anyways, I was fully expecting to find another stack of unexpected bills (boo hoo) , or a pile of items to recycyle, when I found this cute pink envelope addressed to me. I love email…but when I see a letter with my name on it, esp. in a pink envelope, I always get so excited to open that baby up…

…enclosed was the sweetest, most unexpected, and kind handwritten note from one of my college roommates and dear friend, Sarah…it made my day for sure and I was humbled by the sweet things she said “just because”…(thank you Sarah, it really really made my day!)

My first “happy thing” is friendship. The kind that endures distance and time. I am thankful for the people who I can truly call my friends. They all mean the world to me…

My next “happy thing” is meshing together all the things I love in creative outlets…I love to sew, take pics, drool over fabulous fabric prints, and share time with others doing it…

I was putting together Baby Kate’s 12 Month photo order and I love how I was able to take my favorite fabric, scrapbooking pages, colors, and top it off with a cute little sewing label. Maybe a little casual, but this packaging really is ME and I love putting that into my photography business…

My third “Happy Thing” is my boy…he has been making my life a little rough over the past months, but I know with out a shadow of a doubt that once he is here, I will forget all the pregnancy woes and be so thankful that I was blessed to experience it.

I am having fun trying to prepare a space for him and hope it will be ready soon…

And my last “Happy Thing” is my blog book. I finally made it! Hooray! Double Hooray!! Triple Hooray!!!

It holds so much of my heart and in no way would I have been able to create a journal like this if I tried writing things down and printing pics on my own…

I love how it turned out and am being more dilligent in adding to it more frequently so I don’t get years behind on it like I did with this one…

(RANDOM FAQ: I printed it through www.blurb.com. I did not download everything to it. I just copied text from my blog and manually put the images in to the book from my hard drive. I did this, as I was having issues with the images coming from photobucket being too small resolution for print. I encourage everyone who blogs to do it. Just try to put your post directly into your book whenever you blog, or weekly, so you don’t get behind. Next time I will print mine with a photo cover and I will upgrade the paper to photo paper (I forgot to do that with this one ) I am super happy with it!)

Thanks for letting me share…

(my birthday is tomorrow…I am trying to let that be my 5th Happy Thing…but turning 32 seems a little crazy!)

xoxo

Tonya

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Posted in Uncategorized Tags: blurb blog book, personal

Friday, February 20, 2009

to my dearest middle child

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From the moment I found out I was expecting my second child, I was filled with so many emotions and worries about having 2 children so close, being able to love another child as completely as the first, and being able to give myself equally to them…

common emotions, for sure, and even more common is the purity of unconditional love and the ability our hearts have to grow and love more and more with each life we are blessed to love…magically we are given the ability to love more as our love is needed more…after having Ava, I realized I would always have “more than enough” love for each of my children and no longer worried about being able to give that to them…

Then we had 3….and the proverbial “middle child” was created…I have always been so sensitive to it. I have never wanted my Ava, my “middle child”, to feel as if she was lost somewhere in the “middle”…

truth be known…my girls all captivate my attention equally…each in different ways as they are in different stages…

and there is no geting “lost in the middle” from this little girl…

today…I feel inspired…to focus in on my sweet Ava Olivia…

She is a riot…quirky, brillant, mischeaveous, beautiful, stubborn, STRONG, sensitive, and tugs on my heart so…

(don’t mind that friendly little house fly…I would have photoshopped it out, but we had so many laughs looking at it flying off her head, I decided to leave him in…)

Ava and I play this word association thing…I will say a word and she tells me the first thing she thinks of…

when I say…

happy…you say “love”

pretty you say “wierd”

daddy you say “Jason”

sassy you say “ewwww”

mommy you say “biiig mommy”

baby you say “adam”

olives you say “i love olives!!!”

sometime I get some really good stuff…and sometimes the answer I get to everything is

“uhhhh…Stupid!” with that facial expression…

I am probably the sappiest mom on the planet…many nights I can not sleep…I usually spend time researching the internet to teach myself the latest photo trick I wanna master, editing pics, working on my blog book, or just enjoying random eye candy. But some nights, I just crawl in bed with my little ones…lately I love to cuddle up with Ava while she sleeps, esp. after our days when we have butted heads or had competing stubborness…(she is my clone in many ways). I will never take for granted time spent cuddled up in a bed way to small to hold my preggo form, my love, or my heart…

Ava, we are so proud of all the difficult things you are working so hard to bravely face…(like going and doing things without Mommy and Daddy…like her Church sunday school classes”

Everytime Ava offers a family prayer, whether it be dinner time, bedtime, or whenever…she often inserts this sweet sentiment..

“I am trying to be brave at the big primary and being brave in the little primary…bless me to be brave…”

oh, how it melts my heart…

Ava reminds me all the time that as a Mother I am raising another little person…a human being with unique needs and desires…and with a personality that has been present very early on. I am inspired to gently guide with respect and allow room for the things that make her who she is now and who she will be when she grows up.

i love you girl…

xoxo

Mommy

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Posted in Uncategorized Tags: hold them tight, my ava, personal

Saturday, February 14, 2009

TWO reasons to celebrate!

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We have TWO very big reasons to celebrate today!

My Pajama-Gram came in the mail as a surprise…and an “I love you…Happy Valentine’s Day”…from Jason…(the girls immediately had a modeling session)…which means today is Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

(thanks Jason they are comfy and cute)

and this little lady is making her debut as a big girl…(while sisters were dressing up in my pj-gram…she was sporting my earrings…) and is having a birthday!

Mia is a 2-year old! Yup…my little Valentine is turning 2! She is so cute and knows today is “her day” and everytime we tell her…”Happy Birthday Mia”…she flashes us this little gesture…

Last night we all sat in bed taking turns telling her why we are so thankful she was born…

Daddy is thankful for her spunky little personality and how well she gets along with her sisters…
Ella says she is a happy girl and “stuff like that”…and she is a crazy girl…
Ava said she is glad she is part of our family…
I said that I love her sweet little personality and her sassiness too and I am so thankful that I was given another little girl to love…

(she smiled and hid her head in the pillows and giggled when we all took our turns…)

Happy Birthday Mia! We love you…

xoxo

Mommy, Daddy, Ella, & Ava

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Posted in Uncategorized Tags: happy valentine's day, mia grace with the pretty face, mia's birthday, personal

Sunday, February 8, 2009

baby Kate: 12 months

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i am extremely aware today of what a blessing it is to just be with the people I love…the fragility of life makes my heart swell with appreciation to have the people I love in my life…healthy…happy…and strong.

Kate was born a year ago on February 1st…I love the time I have spent documenting her first year in portraiture…

she is beautiful and I am sure Mom and Dad would agree that once they laid their eyes on her…their lives were changed forever…I know that they love and appreciate her so much and it has been such a privledge to share in her 1st year!