I am quickly posting just to let everyone know I’m still alive. I know it has been a month since I have posted and I promised some funny stories about our Monticello trip. I’m just not so sure I am going to get that done. We went to Disneyland and now I have all those pictures to do too! Sometimes I hate being a photographer because I never post snapshots. I have to edit every one and so I get behind. Have patience. I will be posting some wonderful things very soon.

On a personal note I wanted to add that Virginia is now rolling both directions. She started this last week, right after we got home from Disneyland.

Oh and she had her first solids…sand from the beach on Coronado Island! EEEK! I was busy photographing sandy tootsies. She was enjoying herself sucking her sandy fingers. LOL

Well after a 6 hour drive which included 2 stops for my almost 10yo to toss his cookies, a campsite we couldn’t find until we were too late to attend the VIP meeting, being too late to do the full tour of the campus site, losing my 6 yo at the ballpark party, finally finding him and deciding to cry rather than beat said child, and cleaning up puke from in the kids’ cabin at 1am while my baby screamed in the cabin next door, I wasn’t too sure I wanted to go to the ground breaking anymore. It had been an exhausting day and night before and I just wasn’t sure I was up to it. But considering we had come a long way just to attend I decided to just push forward and get us all there anyway. I had prayed fervently the night before that our stomach bug(which I had caught as well) would go away and we would be healed and the Lord smiled fondly on us that morning and we all felt well and able to go.

The location for the groundbreaking was the site for the first building of the George Wythe University campus. It was a lovely morning despite the wind that blew dust in our eyes and into the lens of my very expensive camera. The kids buried themselves in the soft orange earth while the adults listened to speeches that were inspiring and moving. I found myself tearing up at the realization that Dr. Oliver Van DeMille, founder of the university, was unable to attend because of his health. Hope flooded my heart when Dr. Brooks spoke of the generations this university will change. I imagined my young children standing at the doors of opportunity in a few years when they would travel to Monticello to begin their lifechanging journey and begin to participate in the Great Debate. As I took this picture of my children holding the golden shovels I imagined returning here to this spot to take a new picture. I imagined my grandchildren and great grandchildren, how their lives would be changed by this event and I was honored to be there.

I took some pictures of the event and I am happy to share them for personal use. If you want to post them publicly or use them for print production please contact me for a release and please credit my work. You can see the GWU Groundbreaking photos HERE.

This past weekend our family had the privilege of attending the ground breaking of the brand new campus of George Wythe University in Monticello UT. It was an exhillarating experience!

Not only was our experience at the ground breaking amazing but we also had a very interesting camping experience and even a trip to Arches National Monument that I would like to share about. It won’t all fit in one post so over the next few days I will be posting a bit about each stop on our adventure.

The time is just flying by with my sweet little Virginia. I truly adore having a baby right now, especially a girl. I’m having so much fun putting sweet little dresses on her and cute little headbands. I love listening to her delicate little voice cooing and sighing. She has the funniest little sticky out ears and lovely big brown eyes (yes they did eventually turn brown). She just started grabbing things and putting them up to her mouth and just a few days ago she laughed for the very first time!

I took the kids swimming this week. We got together with a few photographer friends. Here are a few of the photos from our day of fun.

I take back any bad thing that I have ever said about Bludomain’s customer service!

Earlier this week my login page for my photography website (www.modernexpressionsphoto.com) stopped functioning. My site host(bluehost) did everything in their power to fix it but at the end basically told me I’m SOL because there’s nothing they could do.

I urgently pleaded my case to Bludomain.com, expecting nothing, because when I have had site issues in the past they have refused to help because I host with someone else….Well now not TWO hours after I posted my concerns my site is FIXED!!!!!!!!!

I am absolutely flabbergasted and sooo excited to receive my Charlie site that I bought. I will soon be using Jinky for my logo site and Charlie for my photography. I am just bursting with happiness right now and sooo grateful to the folks at Bludomain for their stellar customer service amidst what I know to be a very busy time for them.

Bludomain ROCKS!

Rani had her seventh birthday on Thursday. It’s also her fourth “Gotcha’ Day”. We started the day early with french toast in bed, her favorite! We then talked about the day we met and painted her feet red to remember it. We smelled the powder she wouldn’t let go the first 3 days we knew her and we looked at the clothes she was wearing. After that we went to an Indian restaurant with a friend and her 13yo dd who was also adopted from India. Then we came home for a “Warm Tub Birthday Party” with her friends. All-in-all it was a special day.

Here are her birthday pictures. Can you believe how small she is? That’s my dining room chair!

I took a break from my maternity leave to create some family photos for a family in our ward. It was an interesting experience doing a session with a baby in tow. I nursed her right before and Daddy carried her around while we went from location to location. At one point she started fussing and so I plopped her in the sling, she fell right to sleep and we continued without missing a beat.

So dear H family, here are a few of my favorites!

I couldn’t decide how to process this one so I’m posting it three ways.

I got a call from the pediatrician’s office today and she said those words. Why is it that they are not comforting to me? Shouldn’t I be happy that my baby’s hips look great and she doesn’t need to wear a Pavlik Harness or have surgery and a spica cast? The problem is that her hip is really clicky and I just worry that they will miss the diagnosis and it will get worse to the point where it’s not easy to fix. I’m not sure what I should do about it…..

I wanted to feature the Fancy Nancy Dress by Rae Gun clothing on Etsy. These dresses are just the perfect party dress for dress up or just for fun. The dresses are lined and very well made. You can find the Fancy Nancy dress and other beautiful items at

Rae Gun by Marissa Fischer