Belly Shots

At 36 weeks we took some maternity pictures with our friend Merrilee.  She did a fantastic job of capturing this time in our lives and I am so thankful to have these pictures to look back on and show Raya one day when she is older.

Tim has known Merrilee and her husband Brad since their pre-teen years (they were also all in show choir in HS together, they were Glee before Glee was popular, oh how I wish I could have seen them then, but the pictures are amusement enough for me!)  I had the privilege of meeting Merrilee and Brad not long after meeting Tim.  We all lived in the same neighborhood and were involved in marathon running, so we spent a good amount of time together.  A few years ago Merrilee started her photography business, you can see her additional work and find her contact info at, www.photographybymerrilee.com. Between juggling two sons and the building of a custom home, she manages to take amazing photographs and we are so thankful she took the time to spend the afternoon with us to capture these images. 

Most people know that even without carrying 30+ extra pounds on me I am super critical of how I look in pictures, so I am thrilled that she got the right angles and deleted the horrid ones so I didn't even get to see them, haha!  I will admit I was very nervous when she said she wanted to meet about 4-6 weeks prior to my due date to take the pictures, I thought I was going to be an elephant, and although I kinda felt that big she really captured our love and happiness!!  I am proud that I still am stretch mark free and my belly button never popped out (there was just minor photo shopping to my previous belly ring scar above my belly button) :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU MERRILEE!!!  These are just a few of my favorites :)

Tim was feeling a little neglected that my belly was getting all the attention so he wanted a "tummy shot" of his own!!  I certainly hope Raya follows in his footsteps of never getting embarrassed :)