Christmas Cards
I have to be honest.
I was never a “snail mail” type of person. I didn’t send birthday cards or “thinking of you” letters on a regular basis. I was always shocked when I would receive cards or gifts in the mail because I would literally think, “WHO DOES THIS?”
Well… In September 2005, I had Chance. He was only 3 months old when Christmas came around. My good friend, Janet, said, “When am I gonna get YOUR Christmas card?”
Me: “I don’t do Christmas cards!”
J: “WHAT? You HAVE to. You have a baby now. Everyone wants to see your baby in card form.”
Me: “What? Is this a mother rule.”
J: “Yes. Welcome to motherhood.”
Me: “But Christmas is a week and a half away!”
J: “Well… you better hurry then.”
Yes. This was a real conversation and yes… this sounds like MOST of Janet and my conversations. Imagine Gilmore Girls banter… that’s the kind of banter Janet and I have. It’s real, honest, revealing and efficient. With Janet, I don’t feel like I have to do the whole fluffy, “How are you doing, feeling, smelling…” ritual that most people do. That’s how we roll.
So, home I went. I loaded the cutest photo of Chance I could find (taken by my sister Renee) and sent it off to Costco Photo to make 100 or so Christmas cards. It was a last minute thing, but I received SO many comments over it, I knew Janet was right. This began my “once-a-year” snail mail project.
Five years later… I find myself LOVING the opportunity to mail out a picture card to my friends and family once a year. It’s a way to update AND let them know I’m thinking about them. I don’t use a label maker for outgoing addresses. No… I handwrite every single address, and pray over the family of which we are sending the card to while I write. I also know some friends keep my card up on their fridge all year long and pray for us daily.
This years’ family photos and card was taken/created by Kimberly Whipps with Barefoot Photography. Kimberly made ours last year too… and I’m pretty certain she’ll most likely be creating ours next year… and the year after that.
Not only is Kimberly our photographer, but she’s a dear friend with the most humorous personality (y’all know how I love that). She knows our story… she knows how our family almost fell apart. So, this year, she used her amazingly creative & artistic eye to capture what God has saved in Brian and my marriage. She helped reveal a family experiencing restoration. She captured REAL moments (which is pretty amazing since our kids are ON THE GO).
If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area, and have always wondered about where to get some awesome family photos (or Christmas cards)… Kimberly’s my vote. She’s my girl.
Merry Christmas, everyone… and may you ALL remember WHO we celebrate this season.
Because of Jesus, we can TRULY experience faith, hope and love.
These words have never rung more true to me.
My Family’s Historian
Some people joke about our family having a photo shoot every other week.
Yes. we have a lot. Maybe not THAT much, but we have a few a year.
Here’s the deal: I am the CEO of my home. That makes me my family’s historian as well. If I don’t document as many family moments as possible, who’s gonna do it, right?
We actually take a lot of photos and videos of our kids, but what happens is we end up having lots of pictures… with one of us missing. Usually me. HA.
Anyway… our friend AND Portland photographer of choice is Kimberly Whipps (Barefoot Photography). She actually helps sponsor JenniClayville.com and is responsible for the amazing rotating banner you see on the home page.
We had our winter/Christmas card photos taken last weekend.
You can CLICK HERE to see some more of them.
If you live in the Portland area and want to capture some amazing moments with your family to keep FOREVER… contact her NOW. You will NOT be disappointed.
Thanks, Kimberly, for capturing some crazy Clayville moments. I love that you just laugh and hang out with us. You are AH-MAZ-ING and I am blessed to call you “friend”!
Love IS Greater Than
As you may have known… our friend, Joshua, stayed with us for a week a couple of weeks ago.
Gregg & Sandy came out soon after that (Gregg & Josh are a team and were out here to shoot a wedding in Bend) and we soon introduced them to SUSHI at LeHana. I can confidently say that their lives are forever changed for the better.
Anyway… one night, Josh & Gregg took us out for a photo shoot. You know me… I’m ALWAYS game to have someone help me with capturing a moment in our lives. I posted some of those pictures on THIS PREVIOUS POST. Later in the week, Josh also let me talk him into a mini-shoot in the daylight. You’ll see what I mean. The first shoot was mostly in the dark.
Love Is Greater Than Photography is located in Toledo, Ohio… so if you’re around there… I would HIGHLY recommend you use them. You will NOT be sorry!
These guys are amazing photographers, but even better friends. Though I wouldn’t mind having either of them around all the time as my families personal paparazzi, I would rather take their friendship. I would not trade real friendship like this for anything. Thank you, Josh, Gregg & Sandy for the privilege of being your friends. I am blessed.
Now… Get ready to experience some serious awesomeness!
Oh… and just for fun. Here are some from when Brent & Tam were here:
The Good & The Bad of This Week
So, as I said… this past week has been really busy in good and bad ways. I thought I’d just list them to keep it simple.
Good: I came home from a girls weekend from the beach. So nice to be with women who know my junk and still love me in spite of it all.
Bad: As fun as it was, put me behind on housework.
Good: Josh was here last week (he rocks and is SO much fun!)
Good: Went berry picking with Rose, Janet & Abby (and my kids, of course). Haven’t done that since I was a kid.
Bad: Granger Lam, my sweet friend from High School, died at the young age of 30, leaving behind his 5 year old little girl.
Good: Finally met Gregg, Sandy and Dylan Hart (my sweet Twitter friends that MAILED me Thin Mints).
Good: Hiked Multnomah Falls with the Hart’s, Josh & Steph (ok, not Josh & Steph… dorks)
Good: Photo shoot with Josh & Gregg (aka Love Is Greater Photography). Here are 3 samplers from our shoot:
So… seriously… I’m really over having bad news infiltrate my life. I would like for things to even out again. My heart can’t take it. It can’t take:
- the brokenness of good friends’ marriages.
- the hurt life leaves on those I love.
- the hurt those I love leave on me (whether they are aware of it or not).
- news another friend has been in another accident.
- news another friend died.
That’s all I have brain-room to post about right now. I’m “good & bad”-ed out. Mentally exhausted. I’m gonna go watch a movie with my honey.
50 Pics Friday
For some reason… I thought I would be blogging more than I have been this week with Crystal in town and all. Apparently, I DO enjoy real life time with my friends more than blogging or twittering.
The Hodges, Brent, Tammy, Kass & Kota, just rolled into town too… so it’s a full house for the next few days and I’m beyond thrilled.
I’ll post more soon… but for now, here’s my 50 pictures marking today:
oh… and this pic was #42 (I couldn’t use my iPhone for this pic so it’s not in the sequence):
If you captured all your moments on Friday…
The Bromance Comes To Town
Brent and Josh came into town early this week.
First of all, it was a BLAST to have them here. It’s nice having REAL friends that you can just be authentic around. No need for masks… no need to cover things up. It was also nice to learn a few things about how to take better photos from Josh. Brian and I are thankful for them.
Here are the pictures from their 48 hours here. Some were taken by me, some by Brian, some by Brent and some by Josh:
[nggallery id=1]Barefoot Photography
My friend, Kimberly, recently helped me out with a mini-session.
I don’t have a lot of GOOD photos of myself (mostly because Chance takes all my portraits for me and most of them are of me driving… hmmm) and I needed some for when I launch the new look of my blog. Kimberly went above and BEYOND my expectations.
Here’s just ONE photo I stole from her blog site:
You’ll have to wait for when my blog is re-vamped to see more… but for now, here’s a sneak peak of a few!
If you’re in the Portland area, I would highly suggest you check her out for newborn, baby, family, engagement photos. She also does some KICK BOOTY “trash the dress” sessions for post weddings. If you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to ask Kimberly.
She’s FANTASTIC!!! Thank you, Kimberly!
Barefoot for Babies
My friend, Kimberly (who took Paxton’s newborn photos) is using her photography business to help Pregnancy Resource Center for the second year in a row.
If you are in the Portland, Oregon area and have been thinking of getting portraits taken (family, personal, kids, etc…), NOW is the time.
THIS IS FOR YOU!!!
Not only will you get great quality photos, but 100% your money will be going to something bigger than you or me COMBINED (I know, I know… I’m not all that big, but you know what I mean!)
Check out how you can help by CLICKING HERE!!!
Turn your volume up for the whole experience 
Sara Gray Photography
I believe you can NEVER have too many photos of your family.
Time is the one thing you can’t get back… so capturing moments are extremely important to me. If I had unlimited funds, I would have a live-in photographer following my kids & family around on a daily basis, capturing moments and beautifully setting them into scrapbooks. But since I don’t have unlimited funds, I take my family to get photos done once a year and pose as an amateur photographer (sometimes, I get a good shot).
HOWEVER… Sometimes, I get awesome opportunities of photographers looking to build their portfolio. Who am I kidding??? I’m actually LOOKING for these opportunities.
Since it feels like I’m ALWAYS behind the camera, it’s nice to have some moments IN FRONT of the camera so my kids will know they actually HAD a Mom.
Today, Sara Gray took us out for a quick shoot. Here are the ones she posted to her Facebook.
If you live in the Portland area and are getting married anytime soon… make sure you check Sara out.
Paxton Won!
Thank you ALL for letting me spam you and for actually voting from ever computer you could get your hands on.
Because of YOU… PAXTON WON BEST IMAGE of 2008 with this photo.
KEEP VOTING FOR PAXTON
I just read THIS POST on Kimberly’s blog.
“We have now surpassed the number of votes we got last year for the best image! While I won’t say who’s winning, I will say there are a handful of you who are really working it.
One clue…the second place is within ONE vote right now. “
~ Kimberly (Barefoot Photography)
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
My earlier post HERE requested YOUR vote for him. Some of you have already voted. THANK YOU! But if you haven’t yet, would you be so kind and CLICK HERE to vote for #1 (that’s Paxton’s image). If you’ve already voted, but have access to multiple computers, would you mind voting from as many as you possibly can?
Seriously… vote from your iPhone. Vote from your Crackberry. Vote from your Palm. Vote from your Smartphone. Vote from your bosses computer
I’m not sure who’s in first or second place. I’m hoping Paxton is up there… but I’d SURE like him to win.
So go. GO VOTE for #1
Go now… Like your life depended on it.
VOTE for Paxton
That has a nice ring to it. Maybe Pax will be President one day
As most of you know, my friend, Kimberly took my pregnancy photos AND Paxton’s newborn photos. I have her linked over to the right (the black and white advert of Paxton) .
ANYWAY… She’s rockin’ a contest on her blogsite right now and Paxton’s picture is #1 on it.
Help Pax win!
Go to HER SITE and vote for #1. You can only vote once from your IP address… so please help me by forwarding this link to everyone you know and have them vote for #1 too. You could also vote once from home and once from work if you really loved me
I’m not supposed to copy her photos… but in case you may be a bit dense (like me)… THIS is the photo you’re voting for (once the voting is over, I’ll have to remove this photo).
Btw… Paxton’s newborn photo is in her banner THREE times. Can you guess which ones he is?
Similar but DEFINITELY Different
I got a few comments about Chance & Paxton not looking anything alike at all.
You’re right. And there’s a good reason for it. They’re not the same person
Here’s some pictures of similarity though:
Chance at 2 months:
Paxton:
Chance:
Paxton:
Chance with Daddy:
Paxton with Daddy:
For sure… one looks like me, and the other looks like a white guy.
Eagle Crest Wrap
It’s taken me awhile to load all my photos from our Eagle Crest trip. It’s also taken me awhile to settle back into life once we returned home.
We’re almost there…
Vacationing at Eagle Crest with my in-laws was SO relaxing.
We played Super Scrabble & Cash Flow. I won at neither. Here’s a picture of our board when my Father-In-Law won. You can click on any of these pictures for an enlarged view.
Brian and I got massages. Then we played tennis. We had fun… but we are not so good at it.
There was also a crazy windstorm while we were there. Chance kept saying he was scared because he didn’t want the wind to “break him”. He could have actually been picked up by the wind, it was so crazy.
The wind actually knocked down a tree in front of our condo. It almost hit our car:
Mostly… we just got to spend time with family and slow down a bit. What a relief after two months of craziness. Here are some pictures from the week.
The Clayville Men (Kevin, Brian & Dennis) snowmobiling.
Paxton breaking out the smiles at 7 weeks.
My two cutie boys just hanging out together.
I caught Chance being such a sweet, loving big brother.
Me, taking a moment with my camera. It was so windy there, tumbleweed had blown into our patio area. It was wedged in pretty well. Made for a good photo
The one promise you know will always be kept.
Chance watching Louie Giglio preach in his “How Great Is Our God” DVD. I LOVE this photo.
Frozen Waterfall #1 – me taking photo opps again
Frozen Waterfall #2
And Chance copying what he sees me doing all the time. He’s actually taking a picture of the same waterfalls in this picture.
Now, we’re back to life… back to reality. Remember that song???
Chance’s Pictures
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Chance received a VTech digital camera (which is WAAAAAY cheaper at Costco, btw) for Christmas this year.
Well… I thought I’d share some pictures he took with you:
Chance’s first picture out of the wrapper.
Look… there’s a lizard on my face. That’s what he wanted
This picture of me reminds me of “The Grudge”. Good thing I wasn’t nakie walking out of my closet.
Paxton’s crotch. We were in the car… whatev!
The crab tank at Dim Sum on Christmas Day.
When he was supposed to be napping. Way to get proof of yourself, buddy!
Um… I don’t know.
And here’s the dump truck he got from Nina and Papa yesterday when we got to Eagle Crest. He INSISTED that I put this picture in here.
So… there you go.
He’s a good photographer, don’t you think??? Indulge me… he’s THREE!
New Banners
I finally got my personalized banners up. There are five in rotation right now, but I’ve noticed that they come up in random order, so it may take awhile to see all five.
It took me forever to get them up because apparently, it’s pretty difficult to get somewhat decent shots of yourself when you’re usually the one behind the camera. Brian was really great with the camera when I was pregnant… but let’s face it… who wants a preggo picture of themselves in a banner when they’re no longer pregnant, right?
We recently had a newborn/family photo session with Kimberly at Barefoot Photography. I also had a maternity session with her. What can I say??? She’s absolutely fantastic!!! She’s SO fantastic that she agreed to create three of my five banners for me.
I’m sure you can tell which one’s are hers — the one’s that have perfect lighting and flawless in look… and the one’s that have her website stamped on them
I think one of the most important things we do for our families is to document our lives together. The easiest way is through pictures. My friend, Allison, takes about a million a day of her daughters. I try… but I go through spells of consistency and INconsistency. However… if you just plain SUCK at documenting with a camera, and you live in the Portland area, I would HIGHLY recommend you use Barefoot Photography.
You won’t be sorry!!!
Chance’s School Pictures
First school photos… This is a rite of passage, right?
My kids are cute!
Today has been a good day so far. Here’s to hopin’ it stays up.
Oh the joys of “ups & downs” of hormones.
Newborn Photo Session
As you know… life is pretty crazy for us right now. But one thing we had scheduled before this craziness began was a newborn/family photo session with Barefoot Photography.
We had THOUGHT about canceling it, but decided to just go ahead and take the photos since it’s really capturing a moment in time.
It was SO worth it.
Kimberly has posted just a few on her blog. Check them out HERE!
She’s so amazing!!!
I can’t wait to finally move in our PERMANENT home and hang some of these up on OUR walls.
Family Photos
I’ve attached Brian Zaro’s final pictures to the album entitled Family Portraits to the side.
You can check out the differences to this past post.
Family Pics
Brian, Chance and I went out for a photo shoot this morning.
Brian Zaro, one of my original worship team kids (who has now graduated from college), did the photoshoot for us. He is SOOO talented. I’m beyond impressed with his work.
If anyone wants pictures done (it’s about that time to prep for Christmas cards) with Brian, just let me know, and I’ll send you his direction. He’s working on getting his portfolio started so he’s welcoming the work.
Here are some samples of his work. Click on them for an enlarged version.
(btw… these are raw photos. Not only has he NOT done ANY post work on any of these, but they were resized super small for email file sake just so I could view them):
And… here’s my very favorite one:
Look at Chance’s face! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I should also say that by the looks of these photos, you would never know how difficult it was to get Chance to hold still OR to look at the camera. I believe that Brian Zaro is a magical unicorn… whatever that means.
I’ll post comparisons of the post work photos in a few days.
Sunriver Pictures
Sunriver pictures are up. There aren’t a lot because I was having so much fun, I forgot about the camera till near the end of the trip. But you can see what we DO have on the right side of this page under Sunriver2007 or CLICK HERE.
Enjoy!
Nikon’s Home!!!
I GOT MY NIKON BACK!!! YAHOO!!!
This is a time of celebration. We must mark today as a day of remembrance… a holiday!
As many of you know, my Nikon D70 fell ill in October. It’s been in the Nikon Hospital since the beginning of December. I missed her so during the festive holiday season. I had to borrow a "point-and-shoot" camera for Christmas, which kind of sucked since they sometimes blur if the lighting is not JUST right.
Well… they finally called and said she was in and ALL better. Good as new. The best part was that the problem was a recalled issue, so I only had to pay $20 for shipping and handling. WORD!!!
Today, after we pick up Helen, Brian and I are headed down to Dallas, Oregon, to hang out with his cousins. His cousin just had a new baby and everyone is together. This is also where our baby cousins (our ex-nieces and nephews… the one’s we fostered for awhile) live. This will be a fun trip for us.
This is the perfect day for Nikon to come back into my life.
Oh, Nikon… how I love you so!
*sigh*
Jenni on Skype: jclayville 
