Halloween 2014

Even though this is our 3rd Halloween with kids it ended up being our 1st true Halloween. Brinley's first Halloween she was a ladybug and we really didn't go "Trick or Treating" because she wasn't old enough to eat any of the candy so we just walked to a couple of the neighbor's houses to show off our little bug.

Our little lady bug - Halloween 2012

One of my all-time favorite pictures. Brinley did not like this pintrest idea very much.

Our little family - only hours after this photo was taken Jennifer would inform me that our second child was on the way.

Last year we had good intentions of taking the kids around the neighborhood, but due to bad weather and the city actually rescheduling the official night for "Trick or Treating" we were unable to go. The date that it was rescheduled for conflicted with our trip to New York City to see my sister run in the NYC Marathon. I really enjoyed the kids outfits last year because they were dressed as Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Mike and Sully Halloween 2013

Brinley loves her baby brother, most of the time.

Brinley working on her roar!

This year we had a lot of decisions to make as to what the children should be for Halloween. We contemplated having a family themed costume, but we could never agree on anything. Some of those still might be in play for the upcoming years, so I won't ruin the surprise. We finally decided that we were just going to do a theme for the kids. We never know how long they will go along with our crazy ideas, so we have to get them in while they are still young. We decided on Brinley being Cinderella and thought about Landon being Prince Charming. Only problem is that you can't really find outfits for a 14 month old for Prince Charming. This is when Jennifer got to work. She decided to try and make his outfit all by herself. I can't believe how well the outfit turned out. We got so many compliments on it and many people asked where we bought his outfit and they couldn't believe it when we told them that Jennifer made it.

This year we actually hosted a party with some of my co-workers from the PICU. We have been going to their parties for most of the holidays and a few asked if I would be able to have it at my house. Of course I was happy to have people over so that all the children could get together in their costumes. We had about 10 little kids that showed up all decked out in their Halloween costumes. We also had enough candy to put a small army into a diabetic coma. The kids all had a great time and it was fun to see all of them interact with each other.

The PICU party crew

Halloween night turned out to be really cold and a little drizzle now and then. We decided that the kids would enjoy it and Brinley really wanted some candy so we headed out into the neighborhood with the grandparents, Cinderella, and Prince Charming riding in a wagon. The kids got cold and we decided that only one block was enough for the night so we ended the trick or treating earlier than Brinley would have liked. When we got in the house we decided to let Brinley and Landon have a few pieces of their candy. Mostly because we knew that it wouldn't be Jennifer and I taking care of them all night. We handed over babysitting to Grandpa and Grandma and then headed downtown for the Garth Brooks concert.

Out at Evans Orchard looking for a couple of pumpkins.

Brinley enjoyed picking up every pumpkin, but this one was her favorite.

Landon picked out his little pumpkin too.

Cinderella and Prince Charming - Halloween 2014

My go to Halloween costume is a football player.

The kids on the front porch waiting to take a stroll around the neighborhood.

We weren't going fast enough for little Cinderella.

Prince Charming riding in style.

Both kids caught on quick that if they went up to these people's houses that they could get some candy.

Mommy with her hands full.

It was pretty cold, but the kids just wanted more candy! So onward to more houses.

Grandpa and Landon

Grandma and Brinley

The Heflin's after a very cold but successful Trick or Treating.

We had to get inside to try and warm up.

Brinley trying to eat all of her candy. She would have put a pretty big dent into it if we hadn't cut her off.

Overall we had a great Halloween with Brinley and Landon and I can't wait to see what Jennifer is able to come up with next year. Maybe we will go all out and do a full family costume next year. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Landon's first UK basketball game

I had plans to take Landon to the basketball game last Tuesday night because it was not a really big time game and I thought it would be easy to get an extra ticket for Landon. If you didn't know, it doesn't matter what age someone is, everybody has to have a ticket in order to enter RUPP Arena in order to watch the Wildcats. When looking online I found some really good deals on tickets and it just so happened that my parents wanted to go see this team play at least once this season and it just so happened that they would be in town. So I called my brother to see if he wouldn't mind to watch Brinley while we went to the game and he said he would be happy to babysit. Then I saw that a friend of mine couldn't attend the game and was selling her tickets, so I asked Brinley if she wanted to go to another basketball game again and she said yes, so I got those tickets and informed McKinley that he was going to the game instead, which of course sounded great to him. This left us with 6 tickets and 7 people that wanted to go to the game. The decision was made that we could either try to scalp a ticket or just press our luck and see what they said when I brought him up to the gate in the baby carrier. We decided to head downtown early to grab dinner before the game and decided to go to Shakespeare & Co.

Dinner at Shakespeare & Co. before the game. Surprisingly Brinley wanted to sit in a high chair, which she hasn't done in over a year.

After dinner we headed over to the arena and I just asked one of the ticket scalpers what the going rate for just one ticket was. First offer was $40 and I said no thanks and just kept walking. He stopped me and offered me one for $20, but again I passed. He sent one of his friends to come talk with me on the other side of the street and I informed him of the situation and he offered me one for $10. I decided to press my luck to see what was going to happen, but I knew where to come if I got turned down at the gate. Upon walking in the door to Rupp, the man ringing the bell for the Salvation Army was waving a ticket and asking if anybody needed an extra ticket. I quickly approached him and said that I could use it and he just gave me the ticket. What a great start to the night!

Picture of us outside Rupp with most of my family.

My little man and I making the walk up to our seats.

I thought this was a pretty cool shot with the Kentucky banner being displayed over the eRUPPtion zone.

My parents sitting in their seats just a couple sections over from us. Can you spot Mr. and Mrs. Heflin?

McKinley and Brinley's seats were 4 rows down and closer to mid-court. I wasn't sure how well Brinley would act so we offered up McKinley's seats to the people that have season tickets next to us so that we could all sit together. Brinley enjoyed hanging out with her buddy, Uncle McKinley.

Family picture at the top of RUPP.

Brinley loves seeing all the cheerleaders and especially all the flags that they bring out.

Taking Landon wasn't quite as good of an experience as a few weeks ago when I took Brinley, but overall he was pretty good. He did best while in the baby carrier, but wasn't satisfied because he saw Brinley moving around and free. So, against my better judgement I let him out and then he wanted to go up and down the bleachers. He also chucked his sippy cup down a few times.

I am not sure when I will take him again, but I can't wait until he actually likes watching the Cats play.

After the game we again headed down to see Coach Cal give his post-game talk and I brought a ball to try and get signed for Landon. This is Coach signing Landon's ball.

Landon with his ball. He looks completely thrilled. It had been a really long day and he really didn't want to be cooped up in the baby carrier.

Family photo court-side. Maybe one day we can have seats down here.

Landon testing out the floor at Rupp. Maybe one day he will get to play on this court.

Last one of my mini-me.

Photo of every Heflin that was in attendance. 

As much as I enjoy going and watching the Cats play, they don't bring me anywhere close to as much joy as my children. I love Brinley and Landon so much and I enjoy being able to have them experience a lot of my favorite past times. I hope that one day I will have a couple of true Wildcat fans, even if it is just to make their old man happy. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Raising a Wildcat.

Included in my goals for this year was taking the kids to see the greatest college basketball tradition that ever played. I have been a fan for as long as I have been alive. I was raised in the great state of Kentucky and I would like nothing more than for Brinley and Landon to grow up loving this school too. Having actually graduated from and currently being an employee at the University of Kentucky has just made my love for this school even greater. During my years as a UK student I was able to attend many basketball games and enjoyed the standing room only eRUPPtion zone. The only problem was that I was a student during the last year of Tubby Smith, the Gillispie Era and the first season of Calipari. This didn't make for the best years as a Kentucky fan, but I enjoyed going and cheering on the boys in blue. Luckily my little brother was able to secure me some more tickets after I graduated so that I could still get in to see the wildcats play.

Not until last year was I informed about the process of how to apply for season tickets. I was just under the assumption that there was some list somewhere that had so many names on it that you couldn't get tickets until you were in your 80s. However, a friend of mine informed me that I was wrong and that a simple postcard was all it took to enter the lottery to get season tickets. I was lucky enough to get selected the first time I sent in my request and I couldn't be more excited about this season. Since I have the season tickets I decided that it would be nice to maybe take the kids seperately so that it would be more manageable and hopefully enjoyable for everyone.

It just so happens that on the opening night of the UK basketball season Jennifer signed up to work. This left me with an extra ticket and the best excuse to have our 1st ever daddy daughter date. I tried to get Brinley excited about the game all day long. I tried to say all the cool things that we would get to see during our night. I told her we would get to see basketball (minimal excitement), cheerleaders (slightly more excitement) and lastly fireworks (huge excitement). Too bad the fireworks are only during the announcement of the starting lineup. We left for the game and dropped Landon off at MiMi's house. This created our first dilemma because Brinley then did not want to go to the game because she wanted to stay at MiMi's house. Again I had to reel her back in to the exciting things that we were going to do and this time I might have actually dropped the P word. Thats right, popcorn. Jennifer has turned both kids into popcorn lovers and this got Brinley excited again about our night out.

We parked and walked to Rupp and decided to make a stop at the facepainting table. I didn't think Brinley would do good with paint so we opted for the face stickers. We grabbed a box of popcorn and then made our way up to our seats.

Heading to our seats. Maybe next time we won't show up 45 minutes early.  

My little lady. She did so good and was so observant of everything going on around her. She would point out things to me all the time that were going on.

I still can't believe how well she did for the whole game. Especially for a game that didn't start until 8 pm, which is only an hour before her normal bedtime. 

Popcorn was the best decision of the night. She sat and ate popcorn like a little lady.

I only had a few missteps during our night. The first was I accidentally brought back up MiMi by saying she could show her the face stickers after the game. At that point we were only halfway through the first half and she was saying that she wanted to leave now. I thankfully calmed her back down and we enjoyed the rest of the game. 

  

She was also a big clapper during the game. Every time something big happened and the crowd went wild Brinley started to clap along with them. 

The other mistake that I made was that I didn't take any of her sippy cups into the game because I was unaware if you could bring drinks into the arena. (FYI: You are able to bring drinks in for kids.) Sometime in the second half Brinley started saying that she was thirsty. However, with all the stuff that we had brought I knew that if we got up and went down to get something we were not making the trek back up to the seats. Thankfully I again calmed her down.

With about 4 minutes left in the game we started down and made our way to the lower level. I had known from previous visits to the games that Coach Cal comes out and does a radio interview after the game. So, we found some spots close to the broadcast booth and waited to see if we could get lucky enough for Coach Cal to sign our ball.

Coach Cal signing our ball.

Brinley was so excited, but she mostly wanted to play with the ball.

Brinley also got to walk out on the court for a picture too. How are you going to tell this little lady no?

One last picture of Brinley and I on our 1st ever daddy daughter date.

 I still can't believe that our little baby girl has turned into such a amazing young lady. I can't wait to see her grow over the years and I hope she is never too ashamed or embarrassed to go out and do things with her daddy. I am so proud to be her dad! Thanks for reading and God Bless!