Nate + Ann = one adorable little girl

The Hamiltons. They met through mutual friends just before she hopped on a plane to spend a year teaching in Africa, but this didn’t stop them from falling in love long-distance. When she returned, they knew this was it. A ring soon followed, and a new season in their lives began.

As much as they love kids, it wasn’t a surprise that it wasn’t long before another happy announcement was spread—their love would now be shared with a sweet little girl, Corinne Anaya.

On a quiet summer evening, they opened their home for us to capture the love of their family for them to look back on for years to come. Here are a few of our favorite memories from the day.

Nate, Ann, and Corrine, thanks for inviting us into your beautiful family!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A wonderful 4th of July!

So, it's officially no longer the 4th of July weekend, the clock has rolled past midnight and it's technically the first day of the week, the day we go back to work, the day we have to hear an alarm clock, the day... well you get the picture. Pretty much the holiday weekend is over and that means life goes back to how we know it.

So, as we go back to the nitty gritty swing of life, here's a couple of pictures from my weekend, which might I add, was simply wonderful.

Pearl and I...

... rested - which was VERY needed

... went to church - it was like red bull, but for the soul

... patched a hole in our roof - house projects can make you feel good; like they're finally done type of feel good, who knew we could "tar" a roof.

... school work; we're about 48 hours from the deadline to finish our last course before a two month break, Every time I think of that break I ask myself "just how much does not doing this paper actually hurt my final grade?"

... time with Zuri, our dog; who gets totally freaked out over fireworks (she's now laying on top of my feet, under the desk "hiding" from the loud bangs outside

... time with some dear friends; we actually had dinner at a friends house, lunch with another, and then time at the park with yet another group tonight, my friend tank is finally getting near full again!

... and last but not least wonderful, and I mean WONDERFUL (as long as your not Zuri) FIREWORKS! Pearl loves firework, I love Pearl AND fireworks, so seeing them at Long's Park tonight was a great treat!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

That's just about my weekend. I hope yours was amazing, and enjoy Monday!

Peace,

Matt

This blog comes after a month of craziness! As you can tell from the lack of posting.

The last month has being flooded with graduate school work,photo shoots, family vacation, job transitions, and weddings, weddings, and more weddings. (in fact I played just about every roll a guy could with in a four week span; I went from groomsmen, to photographer, to attendee, to officiator, Yes I officiated a wedding, crazy I know!)

This past month has been filled with highs and lows which seemed to bring with them a full range of emotional responses. I have found myself laughing, crying, stressed, joyful, peaceful, freaked out, and million other things but God is faithful as always and seems to level me out to a peaceful stride (although I feel like I can only write that cause I’m currently in that stride)

I have been meaning to blog, cause along the way the camera has seem some truly beautiful things. I came across a way to make a slideshow (so I didn’t have to upload 101 photos, gross!).

So, in this slideshow you’ll see pictures from:

- a wedding (Abbey and Brad – one super cool couple. Abbey works to provide homes for the underprivileged and Brad and his dad work to make houses for family to call home)

- an engagement session (Tiffany and Shawn – once again another really cool couple, Tiffany is my favorite Barista at Starbucks! Her and Shawn have a heart to live lives that reflect the way we were meant to live and they do that very very well),

- family vacation to the Otter banks (my family is simply beautiful people, and you’ll also notice some pictures from a wild horse reserve we went to. I though we were going to die on that trip and so did my grandpa!),

- a trip to a carnival (Pearl and I had high hopes, but it was pretty lame, but we still had a blast. I wanted to kiss her on merry go round, but it was like a $100, so we just kissed in front of it),

- a bike race near our house (the pro winner was a kid from Georgia, I had some serious home state pride for him, but was so excited I forgot to shut the car door, it was left open for 3 hours down town)

- And some Senior portraits (Ethan is not only an amazing potter, his heart and willingness to serve others is humbling to be around)

So there’s my last month. Enjoy the pictures.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

the day after....

Yesterday marked one of the greatest decisions and moments of my life. It was four years ago yesterday that Pearl and I committed our lives to each other till death do us part, for better or worse, and a list of other conditions that basically means SHE SAID YES!

It’s been an absolutely wonderful four years… four years! That’s a college degree! I have a bachelor of Pearl.

So to celebrate our special day, we had special events.

It all started with flowers (note to all guys, start all things with flowers!)

That led to a cup of Pearl’s favorite drink

(Starbucks whole milk, no water Chai)

Which only naturally could be accompanied by breakfast in bed.

(Bacon... yet another one of Pearls' favorite things in life)

(biscuits... mmm)

Here’s the spread… All this prepped by 7:00am and hot to greet her as she woke up.

It was a great morning… Pearl really appreciated the cheesy eggs, Chai, etc but mostly she just loved being the center of my attention and knowing that I was trying to love her… even if my cooking was not so great.

Shortly after, Pearl scooted out to work and I went to the gym, talked with my crazy funny old neighbor Barney for a little while,

(that’s not sweet tea he’s drinking… he tricked me one time in to taking a big gulp, only to receive a big surprise)

we talked a lot about photography, our new business was going and then places he had photographed. He showed me some really nice work he had done, surprisingly nice work.

After I wrapped up our conversation, I was finally was greeted by my lovely bride in the afternoon to start our evening date.

We went to Strawberry Hill Restaurant, which I will now be telling everyone to give a try. It was a wonderful time. The food was amazing and my company was breath taking.

She looked so fine… so I had to take a picture.

but she thought I looked fine too, so she had to take a picture

Here’s the rest of what our evening looked like. A wonderful meal, then a great time at the movies (we give StarTrek 2 thumbs up).