S. Carter Studios

Josh and I live in the house of love, aptly named by my friends who know that while we were engaged everything was the __________ of love. It made perfect sense that when we bought our first home that it would be the house of love. The house of love has been absolutely perfect for us, the most common term to describe it has been, “Cozy.” It’s true! We love to celebrate and share with friends and recently we opened the house of love to one new member: Charleston “Charlie” Deal. We rescued her from the Lynchburg Humane Society on Friday and have spent the weekend loving on her and spending great quality time with each other. Quality time can be hard to come by for a husband who works mandatory 10 hr days, 5 days a week and a wife who battles an “obsession” with being connected to the internet. But, by God’s great grace, we make it work. So I hope that you have had a wonderful, beautiful Valentine’s day celebrating the people in your life that help you understand how very loved you are, whether they are family members, friends or lovers! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are some photos of me and my valentines! (Photos of Josh and Me by my beautiful sister Rebecca Carter, Photos with Charlie taken by us with my Canon Powershot SD880 which almost bit the dust in a water bottle incident but lives on, that’s right CANON!)

Today I met Kaydence Grace (about 10 hours old now) and Wyatt Mitchell (about 2 weeks old now). I didn’t do much work,  my dishes didn’t get done and I wasn’t able to put away all my laundry but I got to spend time with real, wonderful people that I love. It was a very good day.

Just wanted to post a quick project that I did for my grandpa. I am increasingly aware of the importance of printed photographs as I have been given what are truly invaluable gifts: photos of my father as a child, photos of me as an infant in the arms of my grandparents and others. My grandpa came to visit me in October and he took a picture out of his wallet. It’s a picture of my beautiful grandmother, who past away in June. He’d been carrying it in his wallet for over 54 years. He asked if I could do a little work on it for him. I thought I’d share it with you and encourage everyone to print a few more pictures!

Before

After. It’s not perfect but perhaps it will be treasured still for decades to come as I share it with my children and grandchildren one day too.

It’s been one of the most highly anticipated moments since Ross and Rachael kissed on friends, since n since New Moon came out and I would venture to say even more anticipated then the coming World Cup. Solomon asked Angi to marry him. Angi is one of my very best friends and favorite people. She’s a good part of the reason I didn’t go crazy while I was planning my wedding and she stood next to me on the day I said my vows. Solomon was one of the first internationals to win me over during college and his friendship has been steady and faithful as we’ve both gone through a couple of Bachelors and Masters degrees! They’d been dating for about 3.5 years across two continents and both had plans to serve full time at Global English School in Bangkok, Thailand as of next year. BUT he hadn’t asked her to marry him yet. I was spinning my wheels trying to be discreet about letting Solomon know that I would love to be there for them in any way to help facilitate the event. It may have been primarily selfish but I just really love them and knew how special that moment was going to be! You can imagine the girls-only-reach-this-pitch scream I let out as he called me last Tuesday night to let me know the ring was on its way and he’d pop the question on Thursday if it came in before. I prayed my little heart out and God must have heard the prayers of mine and of many, including Angi, because the ring came in and the plans were set! Solomon’s brothers, our friend Sam and I went out to West Manor to get things together. And then they came. She was blindfolded and pretty sure she was about to get a puppy, not a ring.

She was pretty confused and disoriented, until he got down on one knee.

Naturally, she got down on hers and enthusiastically said, “Yes! Of course I’ll marry you.”

There was lots and lots and lots of hugging and laughing.

And, a beautiful sparkly ring of course.

I talked them into letting me take a few shots of them around the location. I mean, you really only get one engagement day!

It’s perfect for her and fun to hear her discover all the places that diamonds are extra sparkly, like in the snow.

I love that I got to be there and see them being so ridiculously happy.

Team engagement photo:

Angi was there when I got engaged, listening through a thinly insulated wall and I am so glad I got to be there for her in the middle of nowhere in the cold weather! Love you both!

I have these two friends, one is Jim and one is Alisha. I hang out with them separately and sometimes even together. It just so happens that they are married but for some funny reason I had a hard time thinking that was real, well, until we had their Fall photo session. They are both lovers of Fall and we even had a celebration in honor of October. Celebrating with the Meadors is always great because Alisha has the market cornered on appetizers and Jim makes the most delectable sweets in all of Lynchburg! They are two very special friends of mine and I’m so glad that I can finally, fully endorse their status as a married couple, to each other. Love you guys, thanks for kicking around in the leaves with me! Enjoy a few of their photos of married love.

Really, how could you not love them??

Outstanding.

a funny one to end the post….

It should be noted that Alisha and I have two matching shirts and she wore both of them over the course of their session. Once I copied her and once she copied me. So Jim took this photo which we’ve happily dubbed 6th grade BFFs.

Josh and I have only been married about 8 months. I know, it seems like forever because we’ve been together for six and a half years! Happily, we have no little ones on their way yet but I’m very thankful for the availability of little cheeks to kiss on and hands to hold! Here are a few pictures from Halloween of some of the cute kids in our life!

Darth Vadar a.k.a. Justin, our ringbearer

The Mengs

Brinley

We had to tempt him to let us put his hood up for a while.

and Cooper

I hope these pictures make you smile as much as they do me!

I think it’s kind of funny how much I enjoy a good picture of myself. Trust me, I’m not vain but who doesn’t love to feel beautiful? It’s not just anyone who can make me feel the way that Josh can and so I love his photos of me even more. When we were in CT for Matt and Jen’s wonderful wedding we took part of the afternoon to take some new head shots. I am so pleased with how they turned out that I wanted to share a few with you. Plus, you can see how handsome and talented my wonderful husband is and why I love that he’s my second shooter!

Proudly a Canon photographer!

Now, for the best part…

You may ask yourself, if you know us, why isn’t one of these Josh’s profile picture on Facebook? Oh, because, “These are good, but Rambo is cool.”

October 14th is a nice round number. It’s always been special because it’s two days after columbus day. It’s also been special because it’s my little brother’s birthday. I found out that he has a birthday twin, which is a very fun thing if you ask me, and her name is Jenny. She also happens to be my intern and you all haven’t heard much about her so I thought I’d take time on 10/14 to tell you a little about both of them!

My brother is 14 months younger than I am. In my head I think he’s at least two years but it seems crazy to me that he’s 23 today. He’s been my partner in crime / mortal enemy for over two decades and has the power to charm me even when I’m at my angriest.

Yes, we were both much chunkier then.

It’s been a pretty wild and fun ride. He’s the kind of guy who risks getting arrested on your wedding day to keep one of the bridesmaid from getting a silly parking ticket. He’s one of the best navigators I know and he loves his family more than we deserve.

Happy birthday to you Christopher Andrew. I love you!

Part 2

I’m sure you’ve caught my illusions to a wonderful, talented assistant. Her name is Jenny and she’s the eye behind Paper Napkin Photo. It’s been such a wonderful experience working with her and I’m so proud of how far she’s come during our time together! She doesn’t sleep enough and has this crazy thing for measuring wounds with clipboards but I think I’ll keep her around. Thank you Jenny for all your hard work this summer and fall, I don’t think I would have made it through a few of these things without you!!

Here is Jenny, we haven’t taken any head shots yet but here are some photos of her in action!

Happy birthday to you Ms. Jenny!!

I’d show you how I can balance a birthday cake on my head but I have a feeling that would be dangerous.

Brinley, who may remember from a previous post, turned one and we took some pictures of him to celebrate this momentous occasion. He still wins me over with his facial expressions but now he can walk, he’s well on his way to being those cutest member of our Small Group. I hope these photos are as happy to you as they are to me! 

I can see a future in break dancing!

I don’t know why but I think this is the sweetest.

He’s a lot more difficult to keep up with now that he’s mobile!

The best facial expression title is still his, hands down.

It’s really not a surprise to anyone that we love the Parks family. You can tell because they are probably the family, other than the Browns, who appear most often on this blog! So it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Josh and I to be over at their home for dinner and Spades. Jackie, just five days shy of her due date, had told us she had a few random contractions that morning and that they had returned while she was making an amazing trifle for dessert but she was content to go forward with our dinner plans. Over the course of dinner her contractions got closer together and before we knew it we were trying to talk her into going to the hospital! Yes, my friends, we were over at their home when Jackie went into labor with the newest and little Park-it: Cole! She left the house around 7:35pm and Cole made his appearance just over an hour later! As you’re looking through the photos it’s okay to marvel at how amazing Jackie looks after just giving a natural birth to a breech baby! Enjoy some photos of Cole Benjamin taken just one day after he was born!

Yeah, just seven intense contractions, and then this little miracle arrived. The next day she was e-mailing us about fantasy football!

What a beautiful family. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some more photos with Cole’s big sister Lydia soon!

PS. Heather Hatchett is the winner of the $5.00 iTunes gift card for being the first to post a joke! And 5 cool points to Hilary for the BEST joke!

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