Officially Homeowners, that is! Eric and I have officially closed on our house and officially moved into our new home. I can’t believe it. God is SO good to us. For anyone who hasn’t heard our story, here it is. Eric and I planned to live in our little apartment for as long as we needed to while saving up for a large down payment on a house. Until…. we went out with a couple that is our good friends and confidants. They suggested that we look into buying a house since there are good incentives for first time home buyers and really good interest rates. We gave them the okay, we’ll look on realtor.com and check out all the homes we would like to have, but could never buy. LOL. The next day, we get home and there is a card on our door that said “It’s time to buy your first home.” Hmm… okay, we’ll REALLY look on the internet, ok? That day, another one our friends signed up to personal train with Eric. She’s a realtor. Alright…. fine. We’ll just go look at houses. No rush. We graduate in May, then we can get serious about buying.

The next week we put in an offer on a house. Two weeks later our offer is accepted. A month after that, we’re closing the deal. Today we live in a cute, fixer-upper, 1800 sq ft, 2 story home, in a gated community… HOLY MOLY. God is SO good. Not only did we get a GREAT deal on the home (it was appraised for a lot more than we bought it for), we also got a GREAT interest rate. I’m so amazed at the God that I serve. We are 22 and 23 years old, married, 1 month left of college, and own a home. Seems like none of those things should match up, but God always has a better plan than we do.

So on Monday at 4:00 we close the deal and that night we take a huge load over to the house. *Thanks Jen, Bryan, Misti, Jeremy, kids, Maw, and Paw for the help!* We get there at just about dark and…. the electricity is not on. We paid extra for it to be turned on early. So, after about an hour of unloading furniture into a dark house, everyone stumping toes and bumping into one another, and eating pizza in the kitchen with a flashlight, the electric guy comes out and turns on the lights.

We still had no water.

Later, Eric and I took showers at Maw and Paw’s (who live no more than 4 min down the road), and came back to sleep in our new house. It had to have been well after midnight before we laid down, exhausted. Except we were so excited.

You know how when you spend the night with your best friend and you stay up entirely too late giggling about nothing? Then for some reason, you wake up really early and somehow  you start giggling again? Yeah, that was Eric and me. Romie woke us up early on Tuesday to do his thang in his new backyard… and even though Eric and I were SO tired, we were laying in bed laughing and giggling about something silly and the fact that we were finally in our new house.  I’m so blessed to have him as my husband and I’m so thankful that I get to have a house with him.

I hope that all of you will come buy the house and hang out. We are really praying that we can use this house as a tool for ministry and just a place for people to feel comfortable to come to. So… come by.

AND, since posts are better with pictures, here is the mini-session of the Collie family. They were PRECIOUS and SOOOO good for me. Cute smiles and just so sweet. Here they are.

So I had another first as a photographer. Maternity shoot. Boy oh boy did this just open up a new can of worms. With all the things that I’ve been wanting to buy for phtoography lately, now I have to add on some more lighting equipment. LOL! I had such a good time shooting with Misti and getting beautiful shots of Kassie’s belly. I’ve never been pregnant, but I do know that if my belly looks like that when I am, I will DEFINITELY be wanting a bunch of pictures of it! Here is Kassie and her future baby girl.

In other news…. Eric and I were supposed to close on our house today. Not only did some things  prevent us from closing, but Eric and I took the weekend off from church so we could move all of our stuff in. AND last night I came home achey all over with pain in every which way. The flu. Yep. THIS was not what I was imagining for this weekend. Oh well. Here’s a peek at our little fixer-uper we can’t wait to get our hands on.

These two are engaged and getting married in June! Jacki’s sister-in-law and my friend and fellow photographer (not to mention our pastor’s wife… whew she’s got a lot of roles), Misti invited me to come along for their engagement shoot and I was more than happy to come along. In addition, my hubby’s bro is on Spring Break and came down for a visit. He’s just getting into photography can came to do a little shooting. All four of us had a really great time trying to get Miles to loosen up. Can you say nervous? Miles was SO nervous to get his picture taken… at first. He finally loosened up after a while and we got some really great shots of them! He seriously had nothing to be nervous about. They looked great and especially great together. Anyway, I also had a chance to capture Misti in action, which I’ve always thought would be really cool. Misti, I hope you enjoy seeing yourself doin’ yo thang!

Ryan was in mine and Eric’s wedding. He was a groomsman… one of the guys who kept Eric cool, calm, and collected on our big day. Now it’s his turn to get married and he’s marrying Amy. I don’t think there could be a more perfect pair. Eric and I have gotten to know these two over the past couple of years and are so glad to call them our friends. AND, I’m so glad that Ryan and Amy asked me to be the photographer for their wedding! The wedding isn’t until June, but before the wedding comes Engagement pictures, of course. *Oh, and by the way, I will be doing Amy’s bridals soon, so keep an eye out for those. She’s gonna be one STUNNING bride.* Anyway, back to the engagement. Get ready for a rockin’ cute couple. Presenting, Ryan and Amy:

Well, not quite yet, but I’m SO feeling it. Next week we spring forward in time (don’t forget to set your clocks forward), the weather is warming up, and finally people want some pictures again! Yay! I’m so excited that it is already March. That means that Eric and I only have 2 months until we graduate, and only THREE WEEKS until we close on our first house! I can’t wait to share some of the photos that I took of the house. I’m saving them for some before/during/after pictures when we move in, but keep your eye out for them. Today at StoneWater was awesome…. so many people… and it’s so obvious God is working in our church. What Jeremy said about God’s favor was just right on. I’m so blessed to be a part of what God is doing!

Okay, quit talking and just show me the pictures. Right? (Or maybe you just skipped down to the pictures, anyway!) Here they are… The Carter family:

P.S. Leave me a little comment just to say hi. It makes me happy when I read it.