Family Pictures

About a month ago, Breanne took some family pictures of us. I know she must be tired of my gushing over her, but I can't help it. She is such an amazing photographer! So talented! She did my sister's engagement and wedding pictures also and holy cow, the pictures are unbelievable.
But for now, here's our little family (that many of you may have already seen on fb)









This post is also a small tribute to Cole, and to better explain my thoughts about him I have to talk about a movie. I saw "Mr. Holland's Opus" about 15 years ago when it first came out. I loved it then and still love it. For those of you who have seen this film you'll remember that Mr. Holland dedicates and sings the song "Beautiful Boy" by John Lennon to his son, Cole. That scene is so touching, and now as a mom of two boys, calling a boy "beautiful" is so poignant. That's exactly what little boys are. And of course, I love when Mr. Holland ends the song with, "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Cole". Oh, it's just too much. Cole has become my beautiful Cole.
I love how he loves us. It was not at all surprising to hear him say to me the other day, "Oh my dearest darling mother, you are an angel descended from above". I love how close he feels to Heavenly Father. He told us last week that he has decided to start saying prayers before he eats his lunch at school and that he did so that day. He bore his testimony for the first time last month. He practiced for weeks beforehand and when he got up to speak it wasn't the generic primary testimony you usually hear. I love how he will not let us skip FHE, ever! Clay helps him prepare every lesson and he loves writing out FHE lesson plans, or as he calls it, his agenda. I love how he loves music, and will sing for anyone anytime no matter how large the crowd. Also, he is the only child I know of who has "humble days". These began because he was constantly shooting down our praise for him, saying things like, "No, I'm not the best, you are the best, I'm the worst". I wanted him to start accepting compliments by simply saying, "Thank you". He held firm to his belief that it's better to be humble so we compromised. Half the days of the week are "humble days" where he can disagree with praise for him, the other days are called, "thank you days" where he just has to say thank you when he's given compliments.
I could go on and on, but I'll stop here for now. I love both, no wait, all three of my beautiful boys!