Maternity Pictures: Sisters, Best Friends, and Army Wives Edition

Though I don’t think I would ever purposely choose to walk through the pregnancy experience without my husband, the obvious benefit (of doing it twice) is getting to share these very special moments with my family members and closest girlfriends who normally likely would not have been a part of them if Jamie were around – i.e. ultrasounds, appointments, registry shopping, and more. If we’re looking on the bright side, sharing these priceless memories with some of my very favorite people has been a lot of fun for both them and me!

My sister and I decided months ago to find a photographer in our hometown (the North Alabama area) who would be willing to do a joint maternity session for us since we’re due with our babies so close to each other (our due dates are 5.5 weeks apart).

Both of our guys are deployed overseas, and though both of their chains of command are thankfully working hard to get them home in time for the births, we’re hoping and praying and hoping and praying some more that these little girls do their best to fully “cook” and wait until right around their due dates to be born. 🙂 Our mom is ready and on standby for both of us as “coach” if one or both of the girls decide they’re ready to come a little early.

Jennifer and I are only 15 months apart, and we’ve done everything together our entire lives. We attended the same college and pledged the same sorority. I introduced her to her husband in 2005 and she introduced me to mine in 2008. Our husbands have been close buddies since 2006 and graduated from West Point together in 2010.

We got married just four months apart while both trying to work around Army constraints. The military has thrown so many curveballs our way during the last six years, but many of them have seemed much less “dramatic” since we’ve had each other to walk through them with. Having your sister speak your “military language” and understand timelines and various scenarios is priceless. This lifestyle is so much better because we’ve been able to do it together.

We all even lived together for seven short weeks on the tail-end of their time at Fort Riley in 2015. It was such a blast, and watching them leave was really painful.

 

When I found out that I was expecting Sadie, she was vacationing with Josh in Ireland. When she found out that she was expecting Carly, I was vacationing with Jamie on a cruise. We each had to wait days for the other to return from their trips to share the news. She cried in the airport when I told her my news, and I screamed and cried on FaceTime when she told me hers.

Being pregnant at the same time was a total coincidence, and having our guys deployed again at the same time during all of it is also a coincidence; it just fits our “normal” though. We just have a knack for doing big life events together. 🙂

We hope these girls always find a friend in each other as cousins.

Maternity Picture Ideas for Sisters or Best Friends

 

And we hope Hadley loves being the leader of the pack. We think it will fit her bossy little personality to a tee! 😉

I know I’m biased as her mom, but I think this little girl is so beautiful!

 

A note about our photographer

If you’re within driving distance of the North Alabama area, I can’t recommend Sarah Buchanan Photography enough. We originally chose Sarah for two reasons: her work is obviously beautiful plus she offered very reasonable packages that included digital print releases (which is exactly what we wanted).

We ended up loving working with her for so many more reasons.

1.) She was very willing to work around our very tight schedule and never made us feel like we were a burden.

2.) It was absolutely freezing during our shoot, so she came prepared with a warm blanket for Hadley and a stuffed animal for her to keep. 🙂 She also came with three cups of hot chocolate and mini cakes to enjoy afterwards! So sweet!

3. We also loved working with her because she had the best balance of not only listening to our ideas for poses, but also speaking up and not being afraid to tell us to adjust our smile, an arm, a fly-away hair, etc. Since we are so far from being models, we appreciated her telling us more or less exactly what to do. She didn’t waste time, but we never felt rushed either.

4.) She seems to truly, truly enjoy and appreciate her job as a professional photographer.

We loved her so much that we’ve also booked her for birth photos and newborn photos, so stayed tuned for more work from Sarah. 🙂

You can find the Sarah Buchanan Photography website here and her Facebook page here. Thank you Sarah for capturing such a happy time for Jennifer and me!