New Albany Classic and Family Fun Day

Horses like this are why I would LOVE to be a mounted police officer.

Last Sunday I went to the "New Albany Classic Grand Prix and Family Fun Day". This was the 12th annual classic. I've heard of it in years past, and have considered going, but never got around to buying the tickets because they have to be bought in advance from ticket master. Thanks to my bestest friend Amy, she asked if I would like to go with her. So, Amy, Alyssa, Micahel (her 2 youngest kids) and Me, and Joey, and Kara (Joey's aunt) went to the classic Sunday!

OH MY GOSH it was amazing!! I was shocked at how awesome it was! The tickets were only $15 for 12 y/o and above, and children were free. There were tons of stuff to do! There was lots of carnival rides, and 'all day' rides was only $5, huge bounce houses that were free, face painting, hair painting, fake tattoos, sheep herding competition, and a ton of other stuff just to say a few. Then, we got to watch a concert put on by 'tween brands' - I was shocked at the line up! The performers were the OSU traveling band and cheerleaders and brutis, Mitchel Musso, and Jordin Sparks!! Then on to the grand prix jumping - what a good climax to the day!!!

My camera crapped out, so the following pictures are stolen from a friend's facebook page, but hey - I saw the same stuff!! :) here's a little taste of the New Albany Classic - and every reason why I'll be back EVERY year from here on out!!!

Look carefully at this horse's butt... the owner has shaved a perfect 'check board' pattern into it! LOL!

There's just something amazing about watching 1200 lbs of pure muscle flying over 5 1/2 foot jumps like they're nothing!

The gray horse was my fav, but not the winner! She did get 5th place out of 25 though!

A porche I think... they had about 5 super cool cars there like this that you were free to get into and look at and drool over and stuff.

A reindeer - what do reindeer do the other 364 days of the year? Why go to places like the New Albany classic to be petted by adoring kids. Their antlers were HUGE!

The 'Tween brands' jump - the whole even was sponsored by the Wexners... who have more money than should be legal! All the proceeds went towards the 'coalition against family violence' although w/ the line up and all the stuff they had there and how cheap the tickets were, I'm surprised there was any proceeds!!

The winner of the New Albany Classic Grand Prix - Armani! Yes - the horse's name is 'Armani'. I can't remember the rider's name - but who cares about the rider? It's the horses that are awesome! And what did the rider get for winning?? A $24,000 check and a 2 year lease on a Mercedes!! There was once a saying I heard that said "If you have made a small fortune riding horses, you started out with a large fortune!" soooo true - horses are so expensive!

All in all it was an amazing but exhausting day! And what a deal!!! I told Kris I'm gonna make him go with us next year!

Dehydrated apples

Last Saturday, I went with Joey and picked about 10 pounds of these...

Since I technically can't eat them right now, and Kris isn't a huge apple fan, and Joey can only eat so many apples, I was kind of wondering what to do with them? But some lovely ladies at my church had been jarring apple pie filling and dehydrating apples and making applesauce, so I asked one of them to help me learn how to do one of those things. She said dehydrating them is the easiest and a good place to start. So she came over yesterday, brought her dehydrator, and taught me how to use it. This is how it looks all loaded and ready to go! (I started just doing half rings because it fits more!)

And by the time they're done, they look like this:
And are absolutely delicious!!!! I made 2 batches yesterday, each one having about 5-6 apples each and realized as I was putting the 3rd batch in last night, that the first 2 batches were already gone!!! Where did they go? Well, Joey had a few and Kris had a few, and I gave a few away, and I guess some gremlin came in and ate the rest because I certainly did not eat THAT many!!! LOL anyway - I have fallen in love with dehydrating stuff! The apples and bananas are great and I can just imagine the possibilities. Kris really wants me to try to make him beef jerky some time. SO if anyone out there is wondering about birthday/christmas gift ideas.... I want one of these!!! ;)
Thank you soooo much Tanya for helping me and letting me borrow your dehydrator!!! You may or may not get it back!!! he he!

cute kids, cute video!

This past weekend was OSU's first game, and having grown up in Ohio, I bleed scarlet and gray. And of course, I live vicariously through my children. :) Enjoy my little football player and cheerleader. You'll have to turn your head to the left for some of them - not quite sure how to rotate them!







And next up, for your viewing pleasure, Savanna LOVES the song 'Old Mcdonald' and picked up on the E I E I O part! So cute! (or at least I think so....) :) Enjoy! You get to hear me sing, too, which is even better, right??

Another Joey Chatter

I just had to do it - Joey's said some more funny stuff over the past few days...

When watching Bob the Builder, they were advertizing that you can now watch Bob the Builder in Spanish, and so they played a part of the theme song in spanish. Of course Joey didn't understand it and he looked at me and said

J: Did they just call Bob the Builder 'Bob the poopy' ???

LOL
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Yesterday while driving - out of nowhere...

J: Girls live with mommys and boys live with daddys and when daddys go to work, mommys watch the boys.

S: What??

J: Savanna lives with you and I live with Daddy, but when Daddy goes to work, you have to watch me.

S: Really?

Hmmm.... where did he get that?? Kris said he didn't understand it, because when ever I leave Joey with Kris, Joey whines about wanting his Mommy the whole time. Goofy boy.

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After seeing a commercial for the program 'Your baby can read',

J: Mom, can our baby read?

S: No

J: Why not? We need to buy that! She needs to read.

(keep in mind he can't even read yet except for words like car and zoo)

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Another commercial

J: Mom, we need Oxy clean. Our shirts have colors on them.

Maybe I let him watch too much TV???? LOL

Joey Chatter

While in the bath:

J: "Mommy, if I pour water in my ear, will it come out the other side?"

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While playing:

J: "Mommy, did you marry me and daddy?"
S: "No, honey. I married Daddy, and we had you!"
J: "When you're married, do you get cars?"
S: "Sometimes, I guess."
J: "When I get married, I'm gonna get race cars!"
S: " O really? Well who are you going to marry?"
J: "Savanna - and we'll get race cars!"
S: "You can't marry Savanna - she's your sister"
J: "Well I still wanna get race cars"

What marriage and race cars have to do with each other? I'm not sure....

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While eating:

J: "My teeth chomps food up and my tounge makes food go down my drain and then it goes down the slide and out in my poop!"

I just love hearing him reason things out... and yes, he calls his throat a drain.

Pataskala Street Fair Parade!

This past week was the annual pataskala street fair - so fun! Saturday was the parade and I took my horse in it - even though there is lots of waiting around, I love taking my horse in parades. I just think it's fun to get her all shined up and pretty and to listen to the kids say 'O look at that beautiful horse!!' It's just fun. This year the plan was for Joey and Kara (my little sister-in-law) to ride Olivia and I would lead her. Well, at the last minute Joey decided he wanted to watch the parade - not ride in it. So it was Just Kara! She had a blast I think. It was a nice day - mid 70s so it wasn't super hot, and there was a nice breeze, so a perfect day for a parade. Kara controlled Olivia most of the time, I only had to grab her a couple times. That's pretty good because Kara hasn't ridden that much. The theme of the parade was "All fired up about Pataskala" so that's why all the flames. :) Here is my beautiful horsey and sister-in-law!!

Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio

For the past 6 months, I have donated alot of my breast milk to the "Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio." Over all, I donated 728 oz!! Many people have asked me what the milk bank is, what they do, and why I donate, so I figured I would post it on here.

The following info is from their pamphlet:
"Nothing can protect and nourish an infant like human milk. Human milk is even more important for premature and ill infants because it provides nutrition unmatched by formula. Often, the mothers of these fragile infants are unable to produce enough of this critical nourishment. Pasturized donor human milk allows these babies to benefit from the active growth hormones, developmental enzymes and immunological factors found in a mother's own milk.

The Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio provides human donor milk to babies, older children, or adults. Indications for human donor milk include: Prematurity, Malabsorption, Formula intolerance, Immunological deficiencies, congenital anomalies, Post-operative nutrition, and Biological mothers' milk unavailable" to name a few.

The milk is given to babies by a doctor's prescription only. One of the success stories I was told was a 2 year old girl who was only 15 lbs and was failing to thrive, because she would no longer tolerate ANYTHING put in her g-tube. So the dr prescribed human milk. In ONE YEAR she went from 2 years old and 15 pounds to 3 years old and 30 lbs! Doubled her weight! The drs said that without the human milk, she probably would have starved to death since her body wouldn't tolerate anything else.

I found the milk bank online when Savanna was 6 months old because I already had lots of milk stored for her and I had heard of milk banks, but didn't really know what they were all about. I am so glad I found them! I really feel I was able to help at least a few babies in need! I know not every mother can breastfeed, and I know that many of the sickest babies cannot get their mother's milk, because many times their mothers are sick as well, or it takes them a few days for their milk to come in.

If you would like more information, or are interested in becoming a donor mother, you can contact them at milkbank@ohiohealth.com or at 614-544-0810. This bank has drop off points in Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Athens, and even Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. They do offer for you to ship it to them if you don't live close enough to drop off. If you are a nursing mother but don't live in or around Ohio, I would encourage you to research milk banks in your area. I'm sure there's a need everywhere! I also have a few of their pamphlets here at my house if anyone is interested.

This is a picture ofthe scrapbook page that I made for the milk bank. They keep a scrapbook of all their donors. I went to my friend, Brandy's, house yesterday and made it (Thank you Brandy!!!) - I think it turned out sooo cute, I'm kind of sad to see it go! but I know at the milk bank it will be enjoyed by many!

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Here are just a few of my little stinker recently - she is so cute!!

I cannot keep this kid out of the dog's water... ugh!!!

And this is the poor girl after her Uncle Garrett and Aunt Kara put her shorts on her head. Poor baby! She thought it was funny though and walked around proudly like this for a while!