So it’s a verifiable fact that I basically disappeared all of March and most of February. I’m here to explain why, and I’m really excited to share our news.

In February we started house hunting. Wow, I had no idea what we were in for. It was my first time and though it was not Paul’s, I know our hunt had unique challenges that he wasn’t even prepared for either. I should tell you what a rock star our realtor was though. For real. Catherine is insanely amazing – she is the for real reason we got our dream house.

Catherine stuck with us through every twist and turn, through every uncertainty. She worked late for us. She bargained for us. It sounds so cliche, but she literally went above and beyond for us.

And for that reason, we live here now. On March 16, the house on Juniper Lane was officially ours.

Paul and I lived with our boys in a townhouse up til now. I love that townhouse – it was our first home together as a family. It was the perfect place to start out. But we always knew it was temporary. We just weren’t sure how temporary. To know we’re now in the place we’ll live forever (fingers crossed!) is an amazing feeling.

The kids have more than settled in – it’s like they’ve always lived here. The backyard was a bit of a jungle by the time we moved in; after all, the house had been on the market several months. (It’s like it was waiting for us to come along!) But we’re working on that, and for now we’ve really been enjoying wandering the streets of our beautiful new neighborhood, getting to know them.

Even though I’m just now finally getting around to posting this blog (you have no idea how crazy things have been! This was literally the best I could do, haha) I always had it planned in my mind. So on one of the last days before they took down our sold sign, we headed to Juniper to do a little photo session.

You should know my almost 8 year old stepson took several of the below pictures – Paul even took one of them! I’m impressed with the natural photography ability the men in my life have. But I was especially excited that Ryan expressed interest in my DSLR and I look forward to hopefully teaching him a little more about it once we get settled in.

Probably the most exciting – not to mention professionally relevant – news, is that our new house has a room that I will turn into a studio. I actually shouldn’t use the future tense there .. I have turned it into a studio. I’ve even already had two sessions there. I knew I couldn’t really bust out the corresponding photos on social media until I explained my two month absence and why I suddenly had studio space. So believe me, I was desperate to find the time to get this blog post up. To let everybody know our exciting news and the amazing things in store for Michelle Carriere Photography in the coming months.

It’s literally a dream of mine coming true, and I can’t imagine how I got this lucky.

So bear with me if the photos are late getting posted in the coming months. Bear with me if I disappear on facebook and here on the blog from time to time. We’ve made a lot of progress but there is still so much to do! And we are loving every minute of blood, sweat and tears getting our dream house perfect.

More to come. I can’t wait to show you.

Michelle