Disney Teaser

We just got back and I remembered that I have to work today so you'll just have to wait for the pictures of our trip. Hopefully I can get them up by Saturday...

The Homer's aren't home today, so leave a message

Yay!
We're going back to Disney this weekend! The kids are out of school on Monday and Tuesday so we will start the weekend early on Friday afternoon and head on down to Orlando. Friday night is looking like rest time at the pool to get up early for the parks. I think the first day we will all stay together and hit Epcot. The next two days we are splitting up because the boys want to go to Universal and Ryan is still so happy to just hang at the Magic Kingdom...me too! Stay tuned for pictures, we'll be home Tuesday late. I hope to come home with more photos this year since last time I broke our camera and lost most of our family shots...including the one of our family on main street... :(

Happy Birthday Aubie!

Kitty Kitty meet Aubie...

Sleeping Beauty

Yay! We got a kitten!!

Well hello there Foxi doggie...

This post is for Jared...(it was his idea) When Each of our kids turn 6 they get to choose their pet. Jared was a cat lover from day one, starting with his beloved stuffed Kitty Kitty that went EVERYWHERE for the first 7 years of his life. In 2005 we started looking around on the internet for kittens for Jared's birthday. We knew what his answer would be to the pet question and we wanted to go into it well prepared. I have allergies as does Grammy so cats were looking like a slim possibility. We found a breed called Bengal and decided that it looked and sounded like the breed for us. Not only does the cat look like a tiger (War Eagle!) it loves the water and acts more like a dog then other breeds of cats. Seeing that Rob and I were both dog people-this was welcomed news. We also read that they were hypoallergenic...good news for me! We told Jared that we needed to go visit Daddy's aunt Agatha in Charlotte( Rob doesn't have an aunt Agatha) and made the trip to go get our new love. Seeing as the date was April 1st, we could get away with our "April fool's" surprise. I thought he was going to bust out of his skin when he saw all the kittens. There was one that immediately chose Jared and we took her home. We named her Aubun's Dixieland Daisy, Aubie for short.
Right off the bat she got along very well with the kiddos as well as Foxi. She is a sweet little thing that is very attached to "her people", we can't imagine the house with out her.

Happy 3rd Birthday!!

Hurricane-Groundhog Invitational 2-2-08

Good Luck Jared!

Whistle...

"Swimmers take your marks..."

What a day! We started our morning bright an early by heading down to Auburn Al. We decided to drive the kiddos around campus since we were going to be in Columbus for the meet anyways. We had a big group with The Homer 5, Gran and Grandfather in one car and Grammy and Pop Pop in the other. We drove around town and hit some of our old haunts. This was Kevin and Ryan's first trip to Tiger Town and they seemed to like it. We decided to go into a couple of stores for Auburn Gear and then off to lunch. We tried Niffers but they weren't open yet so we hit Gutheries (precursor to Zaxby's). We all decided to come back soon for a football game and then it was off to Columbus for the meet. Jared's first event was freestyle and it was the second one of the 2nd shift. There was chaos in the bullpen and as a result, Jared missed his event. They put someone in his lane and he missed his swim. Poor thing shook it off a lot quicker then his Dad and I did. As long as it didn't bother him I was ok...kind of. So now we drove a few hours away from home to only watch him compete in three events...humph! Next up was backstroke and Jared's worst event by far. He really is almost comical in the way he executes this stroke. He seriously looks as though he is out for a Sunday stroll...he ended up shaving off 5 seconds from his seed time to take a 9th place overall, earning 9 points for Chattahoochee Gold. His second event was breaststroke, this is his favorite stroke and is very difficult. He took two seconds off his seed time and placed 7th to earn 12 more points for the team. Last event was the butterfly, not his favorite, but one of his strongest events. He took off two seconds and took 3rd place for yet another 16 points for the team. We were so proud of him for shaking off the episode at the start of the meet, for doing his best and for beating his own times (not worrying about what the other kids were doing). We kept telling him that if he beat his own times that the other things (placement, points and awards) would fall into place. We got some good news at church this morning...a friend that also swims was there until the end of the meet and said that Jared got a trophy for his third place finish. AWESOME! He is SO excited and he really worked hard to earn it. HUGE thank you to Gran and Grandfather for driving all the way down from Hartwell for the meet and also to Grammy and Pop Pop for making the trek from Atlanta.


WAY TO GO JAREBEAR!!

Libby Lu a.k.a. Livvy-Livvy-Lu

Yay! We're here!

Looking at the doggie clothes

"Like my makeup"?!?

Savannah looks so pretty!

Mikayla and Kiersten feelin' g.l.a.m.o.r.o.u.s.

Ryan's up-do

"We want to sing to Hannah Montana"

DJ Mikayla

Ok everyone, time to sing!

P.A.R.T.Y. These girls were ready to get glam! After the "snowstorm" last weekend, we rescheduled Libby Lu for today. Kiersten and Ryan were ready to have their birthday treat! Mikayla and Savannah joined in the fun too and the girls all had a great time. This store is inside of Belk department store and is a magnet for any girly- girl. It is literally the pinkest, glitziest store on the face of the earth. I have never seen so much glitter in one place in my life...but the smiles made it all worth it. Each girl got to pick a hairstyle (we had 3 DJ's and1 princess), dress up in a costume matching their theme and get their hair, nails and make-up done. At the end they got to go out front of the store and dance to a song of their choice so all the mall patrons could get a glimpse. Something happens to little girls when they get to wear make up (even though it's pretty much see through-very light colored- make up). It's almost like a super suit for little boys. They acted so cute and "proper" and had to keep checking to see if they looked "ok" in the mirrors around the store. Luckily they got to bring their make-up case home so they now each have a compact for their purses...oh brother!

Let It Snow, Southern Style

Funny Story: Kevin came home last week with a writing assignment- How to Build a Snowman.
He was whining about the assignment and I thought he wasn't sure what a topic sentence was, conclusion etc. So I started to explain. He stopped me and said, "No, I don't know HOW to make a snowman." Um, parental ah-ha moment..."Ok, well you start with a snowball, and then...""No! I don't know how to make a snowball either." Really?!?!? "Ok, well you start with a snowball (like this...), place it on the ground and roll it in the snow....(yadday yadda yadda)...and then you put on a hat, buttons and other stuff from around the house to make him look real..." He looks and me and in the most pathetic voice he says, "Wow, that sure sounds like fun"
...welcome to the South baby!

The Homer House before the kids hit and a shot off the back.

Waiting.... Ryan's first snow day!

Say AHHHHH! ........................Look out Mom, duck!

Our attempt at a snowman-it later became ammo to hit Rob in the second picture, see the grin?!

Our Snow Angels. Kevin (top) Ryan (right) Jared (bottom) also the kitties watch the fun.

On the 16th of January we had a nice surprise. While we were at swimming it started to snow. We were only supposed to get sleet so of course the kids went nuts. The Homer-Harvey clan acted like they had never even seen snow...oh, wait they haven't (the last measurable snowfall was three years ago and the last time Jared and Kevin "played" in the snow was the day after we brought Ryan home from the hospital) so we let them get down and dirty while the little girls were in swimming. I'm glad we did because the snow was gone in the morning and the munchkins were off to school. Saturday called for another round of mixed precipitation. This time they said the "S" word so we decided to get ready. We had everything out: snow bibs, check...boots, check...hot cocoa, check. The down side to all was that we had scheduled Ryan and Kiersten's birthday party at Libby Lu for 10 am. After a reschedule to next week we hunkered down to watch the snow roll in. Around 10 am the "blizzard" hit and it kept snowing for about 4 hours. I wanted to reach maximum snowfall before I release the kids outside. Finally they had enough and begged to go out. Final snowfall amount, just over one inch. But the kiddos didn't care. If we decided to scrounge up ALL of our snow we MIGHT have a chance to make a snowman, but the consensus was the throw it at each other instead. It didn't stick to the roads so Atlanta was spared-once again-from a "Storm Watch 2008".
Maybe next week...the kids can only hope!

Autism Video

On my homepage for my Yahoo! account I have the Snopes site bookmarked. This morning a headline popped up and I felt I had to share it with you. The Snopes article link is attached for you as well for all you skeptics.

One of our best "couple friends" that we hang with has a child with Autism. They are very involved with advocacy and awareness and this video helps accomplish that goal. By clicking on my link and watching the 3 minute video $.40 will be donated to Autism Speaks. This is an organization established for Autism research. Please take a look.

Video link
Snopes link
AutismSpeaks.org

Our little Ryan & Little Adam a.k.a Adam Luke
(before he was diagnosed)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

Ryan is FIVE today and she is so excited about her special day.

Happy Birthday RyRy
We Love YOU!

Getting ready for Christmas--In January

So Christmas is over, decorations are put away and trees are unplugged until November, and I am just now getting to post some of our holiday photos. With the kids out of school for so long we got a chance to do everything they wanted to do. We stayed super busy with "fun" stuff but we also had a nice chance to chill--no sports, no school, no deadlines, NO RUSHING! They all had a wonderful holiday and I think they are ready to get back into the swing of things. I hope so, because they go back to activities today and school tomorrow. Here are some of our holiday highlights...

The first fire of the season

Kevin helping to make the chocolate covered Oreos.

Ryan's idea of helping...

Jared at his class party. The boys each had a party (at the same time this year) so I went to Jared's class (with the camera) and Rob went to Kevin's. Ryan stayed with Grammy and Pop Pop's house. Next year will be fun with all three in the same school...

Chritmas Photos (by Kevin)

So Kevin got a camera for Christmas from my parents and I promised him that we would upload his photos to the blog. He does well taking the pictures but he likes to delete them just as fast...here are some of HIS pictures...

Jared got an i-Coaster for Christmas and Kev took pictures of the finished product...cool toy!

Here's Kevin (self photo) at Auntie Carolyn and Uncle Sherman's annual Christmas Party. He decided to use his teeth as a bottle opener for his root beer and lost a tooth in the process...Kids, don't try this at home!

There were alot of this shot. I am guessing it was very important and Kevin just HAD to get a picture of it...we'll call this one "darkness"...

While were were up at Hartwell we made the rockets that Santa brought, more photos below from my camera. The big blue one is Grandfather's (lost it), the red one is Rob's from pieces and parts from the rocket box (most parts were recovered), team Kevin/Rick is in the middle (lost and gone forever), Team Ryan/Rob is the small Red, White and Blue one (probably still going into the atmosphere) and Team Jared/Tracey is the short blue one (had launch pad issues but the good news is that we still have it, that's the upside of only going up 15 feet and doing wicked dangerous spirals at our heads...) We had an awesome time---we only scared a few cows and Rob is still getting over his poison ivy but everyone had a BLAST, hahaha.