Hannah’s Maternity Shoot for Baby #2

Do you remember about two and 1/2 years ago when I posted Shae’s and Hannah’s engagement pics? (That would be my bro and his wife, if you’re new-ish here).

Well, I must have done something right enough to earn a repeat (I strongly suspect the fact that I’m family and charge, well, nothing were the biggest factors, but I’ll happily delude myself that it was due to some merit) because I had the privilege of snapping some maternity shots for their super-cute family a couple of days ago.

And I say, “family,” because exactly 9 months to the day from their marriage date, Hannah gave birth to my cutie-pie niece, Halleli. #honeymoonbaby

And now, she’s expecting Halelli’s sure-to-be-equally-cute baby sister, Eliyana, any day. (Not that you’d be able to tell because she’s just the tiniest pregnant woman you ever did see).

Speaking of Halleli, I do believe that she has the baby smolder mastered.

 

She’s a thinker, this little girl, and it’s not that easy to wrangle a smile out of her (although Shaun has always been able to get one with almost zero effort; she has good taste), but when you look this good serious–really–what’s the point in wasting all of that effort smiling?

She’s awfully stinkin’ cute when she does smile, though (thank you, husband, for playing peekaboo like a fool behind me pretty much the whole time I snapped pictures).

Go ahead and feel disgusted that Hannah looks this good 39 weeks pregnant. I’m right there with you.

Oh, how I love tiny baby booties!

And sweet sisters.

If you’re not a professional photographer (raises hand high), I’ve got a tip for you: take your pictures in a peach orchard at sunset. Then, everybody will be too focused on all of the prettiness around to care whether the shot is perfectly clear. If the peach orchard belongs to your neighbor, and you can tramp over from your own property, all the better.

“Halleli, where is Eliyana?” Girlfriend knows what’s up. Or…down, in this case.

Happy girls are the prettiest!

I have to laugh at these pictures in our field, which looks a bit scrubby and unkempt until the evening sun is sparkling down on the each green blade of grass, and you plop a couple or three cute humans in the middle of it. Then, it’s all CHARMING! and PRETTY!

This one was a Pinterest recreation. I’m sure not going to show you the original for comparison, but I still think it turned out fun.

And this version was my idea. Because the husband kissing the belly is, like, the most original thing ev-ah, Abbie.

Either way, it’s pretty sweet in b+w too.

And this one, here, is pretty much modern day reality: daddy wrangling the toddler while mama looks up the pose she wants on Pinterest. How did we ever take family photos without it?

And just in case you’re sick of sun flare…

It was so much fun to take pictures of three of my favorite people in the world and made me even more excited to get to meet a fourth!

PLUS!

Hannah brought us dinner…because she’s super-thoughtful like that. And, since I had already decided before I started Whole30 that I would make exceptions for hospitality, I got to eat ravioli and cookies! Woo!

So, what do you think? Didn’t they they turn out cute? Sometimes, I start to get super-critical of my limited photog skills, but then, I remind myself that it’s not about the perfect bokeh or the just-right angle.

Hannah will always treasure these memories, captured when they were just three (on the outside anyway). And I will always treasure getting to be the one to capture them.