March 2023

I had quite the adventure for my 38th birthday. I started the morning off at the pool and swam 38 laps. Then I hit 38 shots in basketball, sadly it took quite a few attempts to get that many. I then got home and ran 3.8 miles. I said goodbye to my parents and then we headed off to go hiking at the Pinnacles. Before picking up the kids we enjoyed lunch at Malone's. Later that night I took Landon to the final UK home game. It was jam packed. 

Before heading to the UK game we had some ice cream cake. 

We were running late to the UK game and I was a little bummed because we missed the senior day activities. However on the way in we were stopped by a person with the Keeneland Kids Club. At first I told them that we were already members of the club. Then they informed me that they would like Landon to participate in the stick horse derby at halftime. We stood down in the lower level waiting for our turn out on the court. A professional photographer took these awesome shots of him running in the race. Landon smoked the other kids in the race. Some of my friends at the game said that he started too early, but I just say that he had a great start. It was such a cool experience for the both of us. 

We got some more pictures from our adventures down in the lower level. We got pictures with the wildcat and Mrs. Ellen. I got a picture of Landon up on the big screen too. 

On March 2nd we held a college and career fair for our young adult patients at work. It was a really awesome event and we even had Josh Pascal, former UK football player and current Detroit Lion, on for a live zoom talk. Some people don't know unless you follow UK athletics, but he battled cancer during his time at UK. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time seeing all the patients come out and get information about different opportunities.

A massive wind storm came through Lexington and destroyed tons of trees and a lot of houses. I took this picture on my drive home that had fallen on a very busy road. A lot of town was without power for a few days and schools were cancelled for power outages as well. The news said winds got up to 80 miles per hour at times. 

Went for a walk one night in our park of a backyard and saw a beautiful sunset. I just loved this view and it was even more stunning in person. I love the reflection of the tree on lake.

This little lady is quite the mix of her parents. She is turning into quite a baker like her daddy and a crafty person like her mommy. She got some of our bad qualities too, but we will let you figure those out on your own.

I still remember when we took these two little kids to the Home Depot build and grow programs. Now they are about to age out and be too old. I love seeing both of them grow up and learn to be self sufficient, but then also know when to ask for help if they get into something they are unsure of. I sat back and watched them build and saw a couple of families with those younger kids. It is crazy just how fast time flies. 

The kids were off from school for a day so we took advantage and headed out to champs to roller skate. The kids had been begging to go for a while. Well, we get there and Brinley had forgotten completely how to do it all. The place was practically deserted so I asked and was able to walk her around a few times to help her get the hang of it. Landon was just running around the place like he had never missed a beat. 

McKinley and Taylor went on a vacation to Europe so that meant that I got to spend some more time with my buddy Lexi. She is my favorite animal in the world. She always comes over to say hello when I come to visit. She really loves some back rubs too. 

Our little baker coming back with her first cake (from a box) that she did all by herself. 

In our house we don't like to take days off.  I mean that I don't like to take days off. We can always work on getting better at something. One weekend it was a little cold outside and I took the kids out to get some extra work in. The fields were completely empty. The kids kept whining about being cold, but I was trying to get them prepared for any cold weather games we might be having over the next few weeks until spring officially shows up. 

What better person to celebrate Pi Day (3/14) with than this beautiful lady. We celebrated with a slice of black bottom banana pie at Ramsey's. 

I always know that the day after Pi Day is the Ides of March and more importantly it is the anniversary of the day I proposed. On March 15th, 2005 we went to have beignets at Cafe du Monde and every year since we have been married I have made these for her again. They are not the same as the ones in New Orleans, but they are pretty good. 

It was Meal Pack time at church again and we recruited MiMi to come along with us this year. We had a lot of fun packing 1,000,000 meals for people around the world.

The kids have also been awesome volunteers on most Wednesdays when we go and pack meals for children in Lexington who don't have as much access to food. The kids have become well known in the group because they are some of the younger helpers. I just pray that they always know how blessed they have been and that you can always lend a helping hand to those in need. 

I don't sleep much at night because I have so much going on, but if I sit still for too long then I am out! Jennifer took this picture of me getting in a little dad nap.

March 21st (3/21) is National Down Syndrome Day. You are supposed to wear mismatched socks on this day to celebrate all our friends with 3 of chromosome 21. The kids were happy to celebrate with me, but they wear mismatched socks quite often. 

The kids were asking me for something that they wanted. Well, I wanted them to get better at baseball and softball. Actually, I wanted them to want to get better. I told them if they asked me without prompting for two weeks then I would get them the thing that they wanted. They made these signs to help remind themselves. 

We had our next monthly nursing get together. For the month of March we went to an 80's vs 90's music concert. It was a lot of fun and we got to hear a lot of music from our childhoods. 

We had some visitors in town the weekend before Easter. Brinley was supposed to have a tournament, but because of bad weather they cancelled it and moved the entire tournament to Sunday. We changed our plans since Aunt Andrea, Olivia, and Eliana were in town to visit and went to an Easter egg hunt at nearby Northeast Christian Church. 

This was Eliana's first Easter egg hunt. Brinley was happy to help her out. The kids were really happy to sort out all the candy they found inside their eggs. 

Landon had indoor batting practice, so the girls decided to get out and enjoy Jacobson Park. It looks like they had a lot of fun. 

Uncle McKinley came over to visit while we were at practice and played some chalk art with Brinley and Olivia. Later that night the girls got the telescope out to look at the stars. 

Brinley's softball team had their first tournament of the year. It was a lot of fun watching all of their hard work pay off. Brinley was really excited about her kitty whisker eye black. 

Landon and I left the tournament a little early because it was on the same day as the Dance Blue Marathon. These girls battled hard and just came up a little short in the championship game. She brought home some runner up hardware. 

One of the most selfless acts of kindness days that I have ever been a part of is the Dance Blue Marathon. The students at UK dance for 24 hours with out sitting to raise money for the children with cancer in Kentucky. It was so great to see a lot of former patients and some that are on active treatment right now. The students do a line dance every hour on the hour and this year Landon got in and did the dance with Aunt Taylor. This year the students raised over 1.6 million dollars. 

We went to a new ice cream place close to our house called Andy's. The kids really liked it. 

My ice cream left a lot to be desired, especially ice cream in the actual cone. I felt so deceived. I'm not sure this will be on out list of places to frequent. 

We went over to visit Uncle McKinley and Aunt Taylor's new pet, Rupp. Lexi is not too sure about this new guy in the house. 

The people that we bought the house from had a ton of rocks throughout the back yard. We decided that we would like more of an actual yard. We didn't know what to do with all the rock so we decided to repurpose it and build a rock pit sitting area around the fire pit. The top picture shows what it looked like before and the bottom is the process that we made on it. Now we just need to clear out more of the rock and get some grass planted. It is looking good, but it still has a long way to go!

Spring break was the first week of April and we were toying with the idea of taking the kids out west to hike at some of the National Parks. We decided two days before that we were actually going to do it. We didn't have anything booked except a rental car. Jennifer packed up some clothes and we headed west for an adventure. To get a head start and make sure we had enough time for everything we actually checked the kids out of school a day early to begin our travel. 

Our first stop on the trip out west was in St. Louis at the arch. This was a new state for Landon, but Brinley had been there when she was just 4 months old. Landon finally caught up to his sister in the number of states that they had been to. We hadn't reserved tickets for the trip to the top of the arch and it was a couple hour wait so we decided that we would do it on the way back home. I was ready to get on the road while we were making good time. We stopped in Kansas City, KS for some BBQ. Brinley actually said it was her favorite mac and cheese ever. It was a gas station that made BBQ. Just goes to show you don't judge a book by it's cover. 

We had a lot of fun in March, but we were just getting started on a journey of a lifetime. Our sports were just gearing up and I am extremely excited about this year in sports. Both kids have been putting in a lot of hard work and I just know that it is going to show when they get out on the field. I'm not sure quite how many more years I will have the honor to help coach them so I will try to soak up all of that while I still can. Thanks for reading and God bless!

February 2023

We have a lot of nurses that started working in the clinic during the pandemic and haven't gotten to spend as much time with each other outside of work. I came up with an idea one night and asked everyone at work what they thought about monthly team bonding activities. Not mandatory, but highly encouraged so that they we can enjoy time with one another outside of the stressful work environment. Each nurse was randomly assigned a month to come up with an activity. Our first event was at El Asadero which is a Mexican restaurant with a 9 foot dancing robot. It was an awesome atmosphere and we had a blast. 

Brinley had asked me a couple of months ago when we were going to that Chick-fil-a daddy daughter dance. Well, I had no idea that she wanted to go, but I had to make it happen. My little lady got all dressed up and I did too. We headed out to Keeneland to have some fun. She was hesitant to dance at first, but I finally got her out there. 

They even do professional photos for the dad's with their daughters. My little girl is growing up too fast. 

We made our way up to Columbus for Miss Eliana's 1st birthday. Eliana now had much more personality and was happy to play with everyone. Olivia really enjoyed having her cousins come to visit. 

The cousins at the birthday party. The kids all really enjoyed playing with one another. Cassie Jo warmed up to all the kids pretty quick and enjoyed playing with them. 

We had a lot of fun at the Hungary Caterpillar birthday party. We stayed the next day for the baby dedication at their church. 

Aunt Taylor had told us so much about how good the ice cream is at United Dairy Farmers that we had to try it. We brought her along to show us the ropes. It was one of her childhood favorites.

Brinley signed up and tried a new sport, volleyball. It was at the YMCA and was quite an experience all around. Brinley said she had fun which is what it is all about. She was one of the better players on her team and she had a lot of people out in the stands cheering her on. 

One of my patients told me that I should try on her wig. It provided a lot of laughs that day and every time I have shown other patients the picture. I'm pretty happy with my bald head, but maybe I could grow it out to something like this.

February is very special to me because it is the month that this lovely lady was born. I was very happy to celebrate her 38th birthday together. She was off from work so we did whatever she wanted to do for the day. That included lunch at goodfellas, dinner at Jeff Ruby's, double doozie cookies, a walk at the arboretum, and watching a movie.

Birthday girl with her kiddos.

Brinley's Girls Who Game team was one of the teams that was invited to city hall to meet with the mayor and the rest of the council members about their ideas for the park that is being designed here in Lexington. The top picture is where her team was describing their Minecraft build to Mayor Linda Gorton. The bottom picture is all the students with the Mayor and City Council Members.

Jennifer and I both had a day off from work on Valentine's Day and we decided to go out and take a hike out at Raven Run. It was a chilly morning, but the animals were out and about. We spotted about 10 deer and 20 turkeys on our three mile hike. It was a beautiful day out in nature with my lovely lady. 

After our hike we headed over to the school and had a surprise lunch with both of the kids. They were both extremely surprised to see us, but I think that they actually enjoyed the Chick-fil-a that we brought even more. 

Brinley said she was interested in learning how to pitch. We even got Jennifer in the cage to catch for her one day. We even signed her up for some pitching lessons at D-Bats.

Our Valentine's Day night activity included trying out Pickleball with McKinley and Taylor. The kids enjoyed playing. This was my first time playing. It was a lot of fun and I think I should play more often. 

Landon getting some tips from Aunt Tay Tay. 

We have had these before and the kids loved them. The Costco heart shaped cheese ravioli made the perfect dinner for the whole family. 

Landon has turned into a huge UK fan. I can't go to a game without him saying that he wants to go with me. Thankfully the girls don't really care about going to the UK games. 

We make it a point to go down and give the guys high fives when they are heading to the locker room after the game. Most of the players are really nice and give him a high five, but occasionally he doesn't get someone and it ruins his night. The top picture was Landon getting a high five with his favorite player ever, Oscar Tshiewbe.

I was looking at the UK Men's Basketball Instagram page and just so happened to spot someone that I know. See if you can find Landon in both pictures. 

We had a day off from school so we invited Uncle McKinley and Aunt Taylor to this newer place in town called Activate. It is a fast paced mini game and fun experience. We all got water bottles because we had collected so many points. It was really fun and we will definitely be back. 

I found this king cake at the store and knew that we needed to find someone to share it with so that we didn't eat all of it. We brought it over to share with the other Lexington Heflin's. The kids enjoyed it because they knew more about Mardi Gras since our trip last fall. We had no idea that this cake had a baby Jesus in it, but Jennifer found it! That means that she has to throw the next party!

We heard about a free hockey experience. Landon didn't really want to do it, but we had some friends on Grassroots that had talked us into trying it. Landon had a lot of fun, but he said it was exhausting. It was a lot of fun to watch him. I couldn't talk him into pursuing a hockey career, but someday he might change his mind. 

Brinley went with me to a Dance Blue party for the patients and staff at work. It was to learn some of the dances for the marathon that was coming up in March. Unfortunately I couldn't get her to get out on the dance floor with me. 

February is a short month, but we always tend to pack as much in as we can. We had fun celebrating the birthdays with family. We also enjoyed watching the wildcats with my little man. We got to try a lot of new things this month too: pickleball, hockey, Activate, and a wig. Thanks for reading and God bless!