Little Angels Photo Blog

Little Angels Photography on Good Things Utah talking about our awesome retouching.

Please schedule your photo session before August 10th or after August 27th.  We will not be taking any appointments during this time.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  We will still be checking messages and emails.  Feel free to contact us during this time if you have any questions. thanks.

Thank you Mindy for all your kind words and sharing your beautiful story with us! – Tanya

“Every baby has a story, here’s ours.  Ethan’s story begins on Dec. 10, 2004 when Matt and I got married.  We found out we were pregnant with our first son, Blake, about six months later.  We we so excited!  But starting at the very beginning of our pregnancy, the disease I have, Crohn’s disease, got much more severe than it had ever been before.  The last three months of the pregnancy, I could no longer tolerate food in any form.  I was hospitalized seven times throughout the pregnancy with bowel obstructions.  I spent three months in the hospital while specialists in the fields of gastroenterology and obstetricians fought for my health and the health of my child.  We underwent medications of all kinds, scopes, x-rays, and anything they could think of to try to get him the nutrition he needed while keeping me alive too.  When I was 26 weeks along, they discovered that my liver was also failing, and they gave me the news that a delivery was necessary for my life.  They proceeded to ready me by giving me a shot to develop the lungs and a consultation which included them telling me that my baby had a 50% chance of survival, and if he did survive, he would most certainly be blind or deaf or both.  I was terrified!  But, I believe angels were watching over both of us because when they decided to do one last test before moving forward, they found nothing wrong.  As astonished as they were, delivery was no longer required.  So we continued the fight in the hospital for nourishment, all the while, I was losing incredible amounts of weight.  By the end of my pregnancy, I had lost 35 lbs.  But miraculously, Blake was born just one month early, coming at the time he chose, perfectly healthy.  He didn’t have to be kept in the hospital at all and was able to breathe room air immediately.  It was truly incredible.  He was just 5 lbs 10 oz and great!

However, I was still in a terrible state.  One week after delivering a healthy baby boy, I was back in the hospital with another bowel obstruction.  My condition had not improved with delivery.  I was so discouraged.  At that point they moved forward with surgery where they removed 18 inches of my intestine.  I was in the hospital for just seven days, but if felt like years because my baby could not stay with me.  I treasured each visit, but felt a tremendous sense of loss when he had to go.  After recovering, my doctor counseled me not to have any more children.  He said he thought I’d had my share of miracles.  So that was the direction we took.

Three years later, I again became very sick.  I spent almost a year barely being able to tolerate anything, toward the end, including small sips of clear liquids.  It was the worst yet.  I became the thinnest I’ve ever been, including high school.  It was at the tail end of this year that I missed a period.  I didn’t think much of it because I’d been so malnourished, and, of course, we were protecting against pregnancy.  But it started to eat at me after six weeks of nothing, so I decided to check.  I could not believe it when that little stick showed pregnancy!  In the state I was in I couldn’t even believe conception was possible, irrespective of the fact that we had been being responsible.  At that point I felt the full range of human emotion: excitement, joy, fear, were the tip of the iceberg.  I was too thin to lose another 35lbs, and I knew it.  I wanted to be able to raise the son I already have who I adore, and I began to be afraid that that would no longer be an option for me.  But, amazingly, I gained access to a miracle drug that just happened to be safe in pregnancy!  It wasn’t more than a few more short weeks, and I was completely well again, no surgery required.  And I was pregnant!  Hooray!!  I had always wished that I could use the word “kids.”  Funny how it’s the little things that matter.  I wanted to say, “I’ve got the kids,” or “The kids are doing great,” or whatever.  I had just always wished for another opportunity to just bask in the magic of motherhood with the miracle that is every newborn.  I was so sick and such a fretful new mom when I had Blake, and I knew if I ever got the chance to do it again, I’d absorb the experience to the fullest.

Now that you have the history, I feel like I can better say why these pictures mean so much to me.  Every child is a miracle, and mine certainly are.  The first, that he lived; the second, that he exists.    On that note, my soul wanted photography that could show without words the incredible feeling of awe and majesty that is a newborn, a family.  To the depth of my being, I LOVE being a mother, and my memory is less than what I would like it to be.  So I wanted tangible evidence of how special these incredible years are to me, something that I can look at when I am old and lonely, and I can’t remember what my child looked like as a newborn anymore.  Because I know that is how it works.  My grandmother died just five years ago, and I can’t rightly remember the details of her face anymore.  That makes me sad, and I didn’t want it to happen with my babies.  But I knew it had to be done perfectly or it could never even come close to portraying the emotion and depth of love in my heart.

That is why, for me, anything but Little Angels is completely insufficient.  I’ve been lots of places and taken lots of pictures, but these are the ones I will take with me when I die, if I find I can take something with me.  They are perfect!  I love them beyond words because they are so tender, so filled with love, so genuinely the way I feel about the extraordinary gift I have been given having my husband and my two boys be a part of my life.  I have never been happier, and I don’t want to forget these magical years when our family was at it’s beginning.  You can get pictures of your children taken anywhere, but if you want the magic, if you want the tenderness, you can get exactly what you seek with Tanya Hovey.  Mine has been an experience filled with pure awe at her artistry.  When I saw the stuff on her blog, I thought, “I’m sure she posts the best stuff, the babies that are already the handsomest and most perfect looking.”  I found out it wasn’t true when I saw my images.  She can take any baby and make him or her look immortal.  Portraying what they’d look like if they were the offspring of a Greek god instead of here and human is her specialty.  My first baby had perfect skin and no male pattern balding, my second baby had neither perk, but he looks absolutely angelic in the photos she took.  I don’t know how she does it, but I can promise you that she can!  I don’t know if it’s her special way of positioning them in such beautiful ways or if it is the lighting or the fancy software she uses to remove acne, but when I got the images she’d sent, all I could do was sit at the computer and pour over them for hours, since I had hours while feeding Ethan anyway!  They were absolutely gorgeous…the loveliest things I’d ever seen.  And so tender and full of the magic of motherhood.  Just what I wanted.

I love Tanya!  She’s given me my memories for now and for when I’m old and desperately need them.  They are worth every penny and more to me.  And she was so great to work with my self esteem too!  She took the things I was worrying about in the images of me and made them not an issue.  I never buy pictures of me, but I could now!  What a gift, what a remarkable talent she has for working with women.  She was patient and kind and absolutely a pleasure to work with in ever aspect of the photo taking and buying process.  She even accommodated our tight finances as of late and made it possible for me to get all the images I wanted.  My only regret is that I can’t go back and get her images of my darling Blake.  That I will always miss.  I emphatically recommend Little Angels if you care about artistry, quality, kindness, in essence, perfection.  You will not be disappointed.  I’m altogether too much of a perfectionist for my own good, and all I could do was cry when I saw what she’d done for me.  I love them!!  Best wishes, and thank you beyond words, Tanya, for what you have done for me.  I’m so grateful you found your way and became a photographer.  And I’m grateful for all the time and talent you share with me and others.  There are very few people who can touch your life in a more meaningful way in just a couple of hours.  Thank you, thank you. ” –Mindy

We do not remember days.  We remember moments.

Customer testimonial – “You have such an amazing talent.  So glad you are sharing it with all of us to keep such beautiful special memories.  Thanks so much Tanya.  Love Jane”

Isn’t this baby the cutest thing ever!

I think every mother should have a gorgeous keepsake like this to remember her little one!