My boys

There are times when I finish the day thinking I can't believe how completely blessed I've been in my life. It's not because of the physical things I have (we all know that those things can come or go i.e. a bad moving accident or a tornado) or my job although I'm grateful for those things. It's mainly because of my boys. I'm not sure how I ended up with them. There are so many times I feel like they are here to teach me to be a good person instead of the other way around. They are both so good hearted.

It's no secret that math is just not my thing. I struggled with it my whole life barely making it through the requirements in high school and college with the help of my very calm Dad and many hours of tutoring. Science wasn't that fabulous for me either. I always thought that I would have to marry someone in Math or Science to make up for my lack of skills, and then I married a theater major. So how it happened that our first child turned out to be a little academic genius I will never know. But there was Grant reading at three, placed in G.T. everything, 100 percent in math and science. He is ten years old and he wants to be an architect and go to Yale. He is taking a summer school class on how to draw renderings and a class on HTML design so he can create his own webpage, by his own choice. He is so goal oriented and organized, and this does not come from Mark or I. I am continually amazed that this little person is mine. I struggle to know what to do to help him reach his potential as I feel like he is already more advanced in life than I am at 32.

And then there is Cole, a brilliant light in everyones life that he touches. He is funny, and friendly and generous. He is not without his own smarts either. He can spell anything, which is also something that I am terrible at doing. (You know this because you read my horribly written blog.) He can memorize something after just hearing it once. He loves to pull out funny movie quotes at just the right time. He can make a friend out of anyone. But the thing I'm the most impressed with about him is his sense of compassion. We cannot have the news on when he is near or he gets really upset at the hurt that people are experiencing in this world. The news of the earthquakes in Japan made him cry nightly for several days until he donated all his allowance he had saved to the red cross through a school fund raiser. He is constantly trying to earn money for some cause or another that he wants to help with.

The other day we were at dinner, just Grant, Cole and I because Mark was in rehearsal. And I had an older woman come over to me and say that she had been watching and listening to us at dinner and she just wanted to thank me for raising such well behaved little boys. She said she had seen them open the door for me, and carry the tray of food for me to the table, they said please and thank you and ate quietly while chatting about their day at school and that she was so impressed that I did such a good job with them. I thanked her but said that the door opening came from their Dad who has impressed upon them the importance of treating their Mother and all other women with respect. (He never lets them talk back to me or treat me unkindly and he is a very good example of that himself) and that the rest of the credit really went to them.
I don't mean to go on and on but its been a while since I've talked about them so you will forgive me won't you?  We hadn't taken official portraits of the boys for quite sometime and since I had the white background up and my lights out for Mark's head-shots I decided it was the boys turn. I recently discovered that we have a Zara Kids here in San Antonio. I have found that it is really hard to find decent boys clothing once they pass the toddler age. I don't want everything to be a graphic tee or skull and crossbones but I refuse to pay Jcrew prices for classic looking clothing. So I was excited to find the simple yet classic look Zara has for boys. Both Grant and Cole have gotten to the point where they want to pick out their own clothes and I have given up trying to buy things for them without their approval because if they don't like it, it just sits unused hanging in the closet. The nice thing about Zaras was that I just let them walk around and pick out what they wanted for pictures and I knew there wasn't anything there that I wouldn't like as well. Win, win in my book.

Here are a few of the images:

 

And just so you don't think that my children are too perfect or that my job of a photographer is too easy. Here is how the photoshoot ended.

I said they were GOOD boys, not perfect. lol. They still hate getting their photographs taken, never-the-less, I love them.

Comments

[bandreoli]

beautiful post.

[Regina]

Candice, this is a wonderful post. The pictures are fabulous, and I laughed out loud at the last one. Isn't that how our very patient children always look in the last photos of a shoot !

[AngMomof3]

Love these! I too understand the picky clothing problem of a son named Grant. We still have some long sleeve tees in the closet for winter that have tags on them. Really?

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful boys' lives! (And for inspiring me for your portraiture 101 class too!)

[AbbyS]

Such a heartfelt post! Thank you for sharing!...and your boys' are absolutely beautiful!

[Kimber]

Priceless. Absolutely priceless--both your photos and your beautiful written tribute to Grant and Cole.

(My hat is off to Mark for training his sons to treat their mother with such respect, too).

[Ana Cabrera]

I can not believe how big the boys have gotten. I will still never forget sleeping on your couch and hearing... "Dad, there are girls on the couch".

[Steph]

Hahaha! That last picture cracks me up! I love those boys!

[Kelli Radmall]

Your boys really are very sweet. I remember when little Cole was in swimming lessons. They were both so awesome and fun!

[Donna Jannuzzi]

Hi Candice, I'm a new reader and poster to your blog, a mama to two boys myself (and one in heaven). I also don't like all the skulls and crossbones for boys... my latest discovery for nice classic clothing has been Land's End. If you sign up for their mailing list they send lots of coupons and have free shipping frequently offered on their site too. Just a suggestion. =) I've been happy with the purchases I've made there so far and if you're not happy they accept returns at *any time* after purchase.

Your boys are adorable, btw. And I too love that you shared that last photo. =)

[Kristin Smith]

This brought tears to my eyes. Even if I weren't a mom with three boys - :)
Well written!