Protecting My Most Precious Blessings... AKA: Why we are going private

Well, I kinda messed up, I guess. I tend to do that a lot. This time it seems a lot more serious. The problem is that I'm a photographer. Not that THAT by itself is the problem, but that the downside to having a registered business that runs out of your home, is that your home address and phone number are often listed. I've always posted my best pictures of my kiddos on my photography blog. That's fine, except for ONE LITTLE THING... I actually SAID they were my kids. AND, I apparently linked one of my posts back here to my family blog. DUMB!!! When I photograph other people's kids, I put generic things like "This little cutie..." or "This handsome boy..." rarely mentioning names in order to protect their privacy. But even on the extremely rare occasion when I do mention a name, it's just a first name and there is no connection to a parent, a location, or anything else. They are safe. In the process, I did not protect the privacy of my own family. My kids, by me mentioning that they are mine, were put at risk. I never realized how much until a shady character commented on one of my sweet Hayden's pictures on my Facebook photography page (remember, this is my PHOTOGRAPHY FAN PAGE, and not my personal Facebook profile). I got an email saying that he had commented, but when I went on to see who this guy was, his comment was already deleted. However, he had still LIKED the picture. Therefore, his name was right there. He had become a FAN (or Liker) on my page. I clicked on his profile, and found some disturbing things there. It totally creeped me out! The fact that he had actually CALLED HAYDEN BY NAME (which I think he figured out by following the link back here to the family blog, because even though I said they were my kids, I never actually mentioned names) and mentioned that he was MY SON when he commented freaked me out even more. The worst part is that he is in Riverton, UT... not very far from here. If he had commented from the other side of the world, I wouldn't be half as nervous. I'd just think "FREAK," ban him from my Facebook page, and move on. Now I've become the paranoid mom who can't even let my kids play in the front yard without me staring at them the whole time. Jared and I decided that we needed to put our personal blog into private mode. I hope there are still some people out there who want to know what we are up to... we're just going to make sure we actually KNOW them. My photography blog will remain public, of course, since it's my best source of advertising and I will continue to protect the identities of my sweet and amazing clients just as I always have, by not posting anything that would give away who they are. I love my Blog friends, and I have NOT wanted to go private. But sometimes things happen that change minds. I'm sure I'm just erring on the side of caution, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Please continue to stop by and see what we are up to. There will always be fun things happening at the Stafford house!!

In fact... I'm working on a couple of catch-up posts from May. May was one seriously crazy month!

If you are reading this, it means you've been invited and that you are my friend. Thank you for being my friend. Love you all!!


OH! One more thing. One thing I love about public blogs is the ability to see when people have posted or updated something. Sometimes it's hard to remember to look at my friends PRIVATE blogs, because of this. My sister came up with the best idea! I have started ANOTHER blog, which is public, which will just say "Hey. I've updated!" and have a link to THIS blog. Of course, only those who are on my invite list will be able to click that link and get here, so this one will remain safe and private. Bookmark it, put it in YOUR list of blogs you follow, whatever... it will tell you when we've updated. (It's up, but not much is there yet. It will tell you the next time we update here, though!)

Here is the link: www.staffordupdate.blogspot.com


Again, thanks for still being interested in our happenings.