Maternity Pictures...

I debated long and hard whether or not to get maternity pictures. I wanted them very badly, but I also knew they were going to require money. Money I knew that could be spent else where- like on child birth classes, a car seat, or the actual hospital stay. In case you have not heard, preparing for a human and having a human is expensive:).

I loved the idea of having maternity, newborn, and then family pictures when she was a little older and there are SO many cool packages out there for just this and I know several people who had done it and have amazing pictures. And for those who know me I am a picture nut. In fact, a couple Christmas' back Steve gave me a photo shoot with the wonderful Lisa Woods in Austin. I treasure the pictures we have in our home from that shoot. And I know I would have treasured professional maternity pictures. But things were a bit different for us this year. I quit my full time job, giving up a full time salary, opened up a private practice, and got pregnant- all in the same month:). So we choose to be creative with a couple things, one of those things being maternity pictures. (PS- we did get a great Groupon for newborn pictures that will be taken in our house- yes, and my sister and Molly gifted us with a professional photography shoot for when Sweetpea is bit older, so really there are no complaints here!)

We decided while on vacation to take our own maternity pictures. Really, I only wanted a few and Steve did an amazing job- let me show you...

Here are a couple from our morning in Pagosa Springs. This is a little pond outside the place we stayed the first night.
Steve was so excited when he found this place. You should have seen me getting on the rocks- we should have taken pictures of that!
I like this one- especially with the waterfall in the back ground. This is Sweetpea and I after the hike up to Treasure Falls.
The above picture is Steve's current screen saver on his computer. I love it. We are at an over look right before we arrived in Crested Butte.
We found this super unique wall in Crested Butte covered in old license plates, it made for some great pictures.
I love the colors in this picture.
And this one is probably our favorite of the maternity picture. Steve has it framed in his office and this one is also in the nursery. I think it captures so much- plus I love my hair in it- just sayin'.
This one may not be a real maternity pic but I love the playfulness of the photo- the big bear, the pregnant tummy, the togetherness. Another favorite picture from the trip.I like the way Steve did this picture. Unique coloring. This one was taken at the White Sanding National Monument in New Mexico. We were heading to the airport in El Paso and stopped for one last adventure. The picture with my blog title also comes from this stop. The time of day and the pure white sands made the pictures perfect.
And here we are wrapping up our pictures and babymoon- the last picture taken of the trip. I like our kissing shadows and how my belly pushes up against Steve. Like I said in my vacation post, this last stop was pretty emotional for me. We are getting ready to close one chapter of our life and begin a whole new chapter that is exciting and scary and involves a lot of change.

As I walked away from the white sands with tears running down my face I had two feelings running through my heart. One was sadness for what is about to change because part of me could go on with just Steve and be happy and content and the other part filled with joy because we are about to bring into this world a person who is made of both of us and that miracle is almost too much for my mind to handle. And I get to be a mom and a parent with Steve- what an amazing gift.

And I share this because I think these maternity pictures capture, for us, more then anything any photographer would have taken in their picures. And when I look at them in the years to come I will remember what it felt like to be pregnant for the first time, I will remember the immense joy I felt during this season in my life and I will remember what I looked like pregnant. Pictures are special and I plan on treasuring these.