30th, Kobe, and Baby Dedication

Sunday night we crammed two big things in one while my Mom was still in town. We celebrated Kimberly's 30th birthday and we had Harley's baby dedication. It was great. Wade decided we should go to Kobe Japanese Steak House, which was hilarious with all the kids. As you can see Parker was not a fan. He cried pretty much the whole time. My mom says it is payback because when Lindsey was little she did the same thing at a Japanese steak house we went to.
I have no idea why Sam is plugging his ears. He and Jax screamed every time to fire was big.

Tyler and Blake loved it. Their favorite part was catching egg in their mouths and the fire of course.

Gray also covering his ears. Probably because Jax and Sam were screaming. I felt bad for other people who went to have a peaceful dinner.

Kimberly turns 30. All the boys helped her blow out her candles.

Harley Jane was dedicated by Jeremy. It was sweet and special and all on video tape, even the commotion in the back ground. It is extremely hard to keep everyone quite. Jeremy and Harley acted like nothing was going on.

Birthday Date

My Mom missed both Jax and Sam's birthdays due to work in Birmingham. She will be in Austin for about a week and then headed back to Birmingham to pack. They finally got a contract on their house and they close Nov. 10th.
Jax and Sam are big buds and do great together. The plan was to take them to Chuck E. Cheese, McDonald's, and Target to pick out a toy. They had the best time. Mom did say it took both of them forever to pick out a toy. Thank you Mama Don.
Sam called Jax that morning to tell him to wear his blue Monkey shirt. We thought that was so funny.

Austin Children's Musuem

My sister-n-law Kimberly had a few free passes to the Austin Children's Museum. I had heard about and seen it, but we have never been. It was great. The boys had so much fun. It was sort of dreary outside, so it was a perfect outing. Sam (4), Jax (3), Gray (2), and Lawson (1) ran around and played for almost three hours.Sam being a Vet.

You are supposed to put the balls in the top of the fish and then pull the latch on the bottom. Gray wanted to do it a little differently.
Lawson loved the drums.

We spent a lot of time here making pretend tamales.
This is pretty much what sweet Harley Jane did. She didn't make a peep the whole time.

Picture Day

WARNING: A little bit of a vent session!

Yes it is picture day today which brings all kinds of guilt on me. Are you confused? The deal is I don't buy school pictures. *gasp* I know. Call me cheap. Call me a horrible Mom. I think I might be alone in my view on school pictures, extra things to buy at school, extra OPTIONAL projects (which feels like it means if you are a good Mom and want your child to be ahead you should do them). School stresses me out to some degree. This has nothing to do with my boys teachers. I am truly thankful for my boys teachers and know they have hard job and if it was left up to me my boys wouldn't make it pass 5th grade. But I am constantly juggling what we should agree to do or buy and what we shouldn't. The pressure.! And I thought having 4 kids 6yo and under was stressful.

Anyway, I always have to circle back to what our (the Self Family) priorities are. Just to be frank, most of the time they have nothing to do with all the extra work and money that we have the "option" to buy or do.

*I don't think that their is anything wrong with buying school pictures or doing the extra stuff. These are just thoughts about decisions that hit me on a weekly basis.