Poe or Self

I have to brag on Tyler for a minute. His class had to write a poem to enter into The Diverse Youth Anthology 2009. Hundreds of students entered the contest and his poem was one of the poems chosen to be published. We joke with him about already being a published author at 8 years old. He rolls his eyes.
Yesterday he had the chance to read his poem at the Austin International Poetry Festival. He did a great job.

Me and the Court

by Tyler Self

Down the court I shoot baskets.
When I dribble it feels so fun. I think the fun of basketball has just begun.

I use defense and jump a lot.
Very tiring, but it’s worth a shot.

In offense I am aggressive.
Like Michael Jordan, I want to be impressive.

Thump, Thump I dribble on the court.
I go to the basket and make a dunk.

Basketball and I will be friends forever.

I hope I can get just a little bit better.

It's Official

No more diapers for the Self crew. We have been buying diapers for a little over 8 years. Poor Gray doesn't turn 2 until May 31st, but I started potty training him about a month ago. I couldn't bare the thought of buying one more pack of diapers. For the past two weeks Gray wears big boy undies 24 hours a day. (I like the cold turkey approach) Yes, we still have an occasional accident, but overall he is doing great!!! I have thought about adding up how much money we have spent on diapers over the last 8 years or how many diapers we have actually used, but I am just not ready for that step. Right now I am happy diapers are not on my shopping list.

Totally Stole This

My best advise comes from my "Mom" friends, whether it is parenting, potty training, or recipes. I took this from my friend Mary and I am so glad I did. You can go to Sam's club and buy 14 pizza crusts from there snack bar area. I think it was around 17.00 for 14 large crust. Very inexpensive. We eat pizza almost every week, mostly frozen, but sometimes we order it. Anyway, this is so yummy and you can create your own. All the boys (that is including Jeremy)love pizza and now they help make it. The only issue was fitting them in my freezer. Yikes!! That was a workout. (They thaw out within minutes, so it is a pretty quick dinner to throw together.) Our first one was BBQ Pizza. So good!

Everyday

The boys love looking out our back windows at the golfers. It is funny because they will have a running commentary on how the golfers are doing.

Easter Morning

Sorry these first two or sort of backwards, but I am not sure how to fix it. Ty loving on Lawson.

Getting a picture of all these boys is almost impossible. What in the world is Sam doing?

We had an Easter Egg hunt for the boys and the cousins around 4:00 that afternoon. This is the whole crew for now. Wade and Kimberly will being adding another baby in July.

The Easter loot!

Having our first Easter at Free Chapel was awesome and so exciting.

Easter Baskets

We had to do Easter early this year, well only by two days, but I am so by the rules. We would have had to wake the boys up at 5 a.m. to do Easter baskets on Easter morning. Saturday morning was out because Jeremy was doing an outreach to the local bars until 3 a.m. on Friday night, so we did it on Friday. The boys are at such good ages for holidays. They love it. Waiting to come find their baskets! (We hide them in the house)

About to bust they are so excited!

Blake found his with the help of Gray!

Ty found his last, but that is because his was the hardest to find.

We love ring pops!! (Also, any other kind of candy)

Tomorrow is Easter and I am so excited to celebrate at Free Chapel for our first Easter. HE IS RISEN!!!

Mr. Smartie Pants