November 2023

Landon and I went over to Uncle McKinley's house to watch Survivor with him on his birthday. Landon has started enjoying watching it with me. Maybe next year he will join in our family Survivor draft.

Brinley had lots of people come watch her volleyball game against Beaumont. Her team easily handled Beaumont and then they all went out to eat together for McKinley's birthday. Andrea and the girls surprised everyone by driving down for the game. They wanted to watch Brinley play and the game that they had planned on coming to had gotten cancelled.

I didn't know that my sister was coming down so I didn't find anyone to take my tickets off my hands. Jennifer and I had planned on going to the game after Brinley's volleyball game. McKinley and Taylor had said they would watch the kids. So, Jennifer and I had a date night out to the basketball game. 

After the game Jennifer and I went and looked at all the pumpkins that they have at Transylvania. I showed her which ones were mine and the kids. Unfortunately, I couldn't find Brinley's because she didn't want to sit it next to mine and Landon's pumpkins.

Well, Brinley's last tournament of the fall and we spent literally the entire day at the ballpark in Somerset. The morning sunrise and the championship game at night. Brinley's team battled really hard and ended up losing in the championship game. Proud of these girls and excited about next spring.

Some shots of my favorite softball player. I again took my camera so that it would keep me occupied and I wouldn't get in trouble with my mouth. I posted all the pictures of the girls on Facebook in between games on my laptop. 

This crew is having a lot of fun playing softball together and their parents are having a lot of fun watching them play and grow up together. 

We all had the day off for election day. I asked everyone at the house what they wanted to do after going to vote. Landon wanted to play Monopoly and Brinley wanted to go to the Humane Society. I told her I would only go if she went to hit at the batting cages. She agreed and had a lot of fun in the cat room. She even got one out and picked it up. Well, she became obsessed with this black cat named Witch. She tried very hard for us to go back and get it over the next few days. She even figured out the website and would look at it all day long. I informed her that as long as she lives in my house that I would not be buying a cat. I told her that when she had her own place I would happily buy her an animal.

Landon and I attended the next UK home basketball game. We had a lot of fun cheering the CATS on to victory against the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions. Landon has told me that his favorite player on the team this year is Antonio Reeves, while mine is Reed Sheppard. 

Well, the CATS took another loss to Alabama on the gridiron. I had high expectations for this game, but it ended up not even being a close game at all. 

Brinley thinks it is funny that she can pick up her little brother. She does this all the time. 

At work I had someone suggest that we should do a pot luck. It seemed to work perfect with Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks. We planned the first ever Clinicsgiving. It featured mostly soup and salad, but I was happy to bring in some turkey. I made a ton of these chocolate turkeys for everyone to consume. The only part that made me a little upset is that some of my co-workers questioned that I was able to make these little treats. They turned out good, but were harder than I had initially thought they would be. 

Landon's football team, the LCA Blue had a banquet and were recognized as the champions. They were all given championship rings. Landon had a lot of fun with these boys, but told me he isn't sure if he ever wants to play football again. I told him that he is a great little player and that he needed to at least give it one more shot at some point and that he is too good of an athlete to not play the game again. 

We got done with work a little early so I headed over to the student center on campus to donate blood for the Big Blue Crush. We beat Tennessee in the blood drive, but had unfortunately lost to them in football a few weeks prior. I would love to see Kentucky win both some year. 

Next home game I got to take my little girl. We got to see the Wildcats beat Stonehill. We ran into some of the Dance Blue students at the game and they gave us some yellow ribbons to show support for pediatric childhood cancer. The picture on the top right shows exactly how Brinley feels about me most days. Although, Brinley sometimes acts like she can't stand her old man, she knows deep down that her dad is crazy and funny. 

Brinley's middle school volleyball team had a tournament that her sixth grade team competed in even though it was only for 7th and 8th grade teams. They came out and won the 7th grade silver bracket. Her team beat Crawford for the championship, which happens to be the school of her Rampage team mate, Aminah. Aunt Taylor came to watch her play in a couple of games. 

Jennifer and I volunteered at our church on our day off to give people in the community a full Thanksgiving meal. We were paired up with Miss Rose who was actually from New Mexico but volunteered with her sister to help out the community. We had a lot of fun giving back, even on a cold rainy day. 

Brinley's team had a road game at Jessie Clark middle school. This was Brinley's first start on the season. This also was the team's first loss of the season.

I got a new little toy since my old grill was leaking propane. I had to be on call this year for Thanksgiving. Since I didn't know if I would get called in, I didn't want to make up a huge feast. We planned on having family up on the weekend once I got off call. I told the kids we could have whatever we wanted for our Thanksgiving meal and we decided on steak and loaded baked potatoes. It was delicious, yet felt very weird. We also took a walk around the park behind our house and the kids played on the playground. It was a beautiful day spent with my three favorite people on this Earth. 

Grandma and Grandpa came up to visit the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving with all the Lexington Heflin's. We had a good meal and then played games all afternoon. JK came over to play with us too. In between playing games on Saturday, I would watch some of the UK vs. Louisville football game. It was a back and forth game with the Wildcats coming out on top!

Jennifer and I snuck away with everyone at our house to go catch the Wildcats play. Just what Jennifer wanted was a second date night in November to watch some basketball. It is always nice to get some time with my wife. Maybe one of these date nights I won't drag her to a sporting event. 

Landon had gotten in trouble and had all of his video games taken away. I told him the only way that he could get them back is if he could solve the rubix cube five times. He spent about six hours trying to figure it out and was very frustrated with the whole thing. He said that he would never get his video games back. I helped him find a website to help him figure it out. He wrote a bunch of post it notes out so that he could have the patterns he needed to complete it. 

Landon and I went to watch the last home game of November and it just so happens that the football team was in town showing off their recently won Governor's Cup. Landon got a picture with it and his L's down. 

Brinley's team met up at God's Pantry to help with getting things packaged for people who are less fortunate than us. The girls had a lot of fun getting all of these triscuit boxes ready for people. Apparently the company misprinted the packaging and had to donate them all. The girls had to mark out the wrong information on all the boxes before they could be put on the shelves to give away. 

My work does a fundraiser every year during November and we ask the Dance Blue students to raise money and if they hit a certain goal then some of the staff will shave their heads. This year's goal was $40,000. The students way surpassed the goal and raised over $92,000. I have done it the past three years. This year I allowed myself about three months to let my hair grow out. Sadly my hair doesn't grow like it used to. Landon volunteered to shave his head this year too for the cause. He was really nervous about it because he was scared people would make fun of him. The day of the event he said that he was all in on it. One of my patient's siblings, that he is friends with, cut his hair. I had a patient that cut mine. So, now we have two bald guys walking around the Heflin house. 

Brinley's team had their last away game at Bryan Station. This was just their second loss of the season. This was also the first full day little Landon had his bald head. He said some fourth graders were laughing at him at school. I told him that I was proud of him for going through with shaving his head even though it might be difficult.

October 2023

We started October off with going to church. One of my friends at church said that they had pumpkins if anyone wanted them. Brinley and I headed out to their truck to get one. She got the last one and was happy to carry it. After about a minute she looked exhausted and I told her that I would carry it the rest of the way to the car. 

The kids had fall break and I had to work so we didn't leave town. We tried to find some fun things to do around town with the kids while they were on break. We took Jennifer to Activate for the first time. The kids and I had all been a couple of times, but Jennifer had never tried out any of the mini games. We had a good time.

To take full advantage of our King's Island season passes the kids and I headed up to the Halloween Haunt. They had seven or eight haunted houses. I told the kids that we were going to go to one, but they didn't believe me. We spent the morning riding roller coasters and then around six o'clock the lines started forming for the haunted houses. I was informed that Kill Mart was the best one so we went to it first. Both kids were terrified, but more specifically Landon was losing his mind. I told them that the performers could not touch them in the haunted houses. He walked right in front of me but wanted me to hold onto his shoulders as we walked. He came out terrified, Brinley said it wasn't bad. We then went to four more before heading home. Brinley said she would do it again. Landon said he needed about four months before he could do it again.

I signed the whole family up for a 5K to raise money for my clinic. We had all done the race the year before and everyone said that they would do it again. Everything was going well until we realized that we had forgotten Landon's inhaler. He usually takes two puffs before running a race. We figured that we would be fine. Well, Landon shot out at the gate and was just running along. He finished it in 24:44 and when he got done he called me and asked where I was at. I was about six or so minutes behind him. He said that he was having trouble breathing. I tried to get him to relax and take deep breaths and told him I would be there soon. He looked miserable when I got to him. I called the girls and told them that I was taking him home to get his inhaler. After realizing that I didn't have the keys I had to track down Jennifer to get them. I rushed home and got him the inhaler and I learned a valuable lesson to never leave home without it. We headed back downtown to pick up the girls. I am proud of the whole family for participating in the race. Landon told me after he felt better that he actually walked a couple of minutes of the race, but some college student told him that he could do it and even though he was having trouble breathing he finished so that guy wouldn't think he couldn't do it. I would like to see what he could run a 5K in if he actually felt good. Brinley said she ran most of her race and that listening to music really helped her. We have to thank Aunt Taylor for coming out and taking some pictures of us running. 

Jennifer and the kids spent their night making homemade pizza. It turned out pretty tasty. Maybe one day we will let them cook the whole meal by themselves. 

Brinley's softball team had originally signed up to play in a tournament that was raising money for breast cancer awareness. That tournament got cancelled, but they still wanted to wear the outfits that they purchased. These girls always have fun together and are getting better each time they get out on the field. I got my old camera out and spent my time taking pictures of all the girls. This was beneficial to me in many ways because it kept my mind occupied and made me not yell at the girls, specifically Brinley. She doesn't do well when I try to tell her things that she could do differently. I am trying to find out the best way to help her out. Mimi came to watch her play too.

Brinley enjoyed the stop at Bucee's on the way home after their tournament ended. It was a really productive time for us to talk about things on our one and a half hour drive home. I am extremely proud of the young lady that she is becoming. 

Brinley and I went downtown one afternoon to check out the UK volleyball team. With her now playing volleyball it was a way for us to see some really competitive girls playing. I made sure to point out how much the girls hustled and were quick to dive on the ground. We sat extremely close to the action on the third row. The Wildcats won for the day, which is always a great day!

Brinley's softball team was playing a Halloween tournament in which they were all dressing up as Taylor Swift albums. Brinley decided to make friendship bracelets for all the girls that corresponded to the album that they were dressing up as.

Brinley's first volleyball game. She has her mother's old number, 11. This was her first time playing volleyball. She was very excited to play for her middle school, EJ Hayes Middle School. 

When it gets colder outside then it means that it is time for basketball in the bluegrass state! Landon and I went to an exhibition game together to watch the new cats play for the first time. I am so glad that my boy understands which direction that L's go!

Coach Anna really loves Taylor Swift and I believe she turned quite a few of these girls into fans while getting ready for their Halloween tournament. They all got assigned an album and had to dress like that album and pick a walk up song from it too. 

Apparently 13 is a big number for Taylor Swift. I had no idea. 

It was time for Brinley's Halloween tournament. She was dressed as the album 1989 by Taylor Swift. It was really weird seeing all of the girls with makeup on. They are still supposed to be little girls.

I missed Landon's first goal of the day because it happened so quickly and I wasn't filming on this day. The first picture is after Landon scored his first goal. Middle picture is after his second goal. The last picture is of the team celebrating their only win of the season. These boys played very competitive in so many games and always come up short. It was nice to see them finally get that first win!

Landon's second goal of the game was on a penalty kick. I didn't film it because I had my camera there taking pictures. So here is frame by frame of what I was able to capture. The goalie made a good attempt at saving it, but Landon put enough power behind the ball that the keeper couldn't stop it. 

Landon had been shutout during the season and not been able to score at all this season. However, in the final game of the year this little guy scored two in the first half. It helped propel his team to their only victory of the season! Proud of this little guy for continuing to work at getting better and more aggressive on the field. 

After having four home games in September the football games were mostly on the road in October. After the Georgia loss the wheels started to fall off a little bit. We unfortunately lost to this Tennessee team.  

We went up to Columbus to celebrate Olivia's fifth birthday. She had the party at a little kid gym. Brinley and Landon were two of the older kids at the party so they helped kids get on the zip line. Olivia was very happy to have her cousins at the party. 

After the party we headed to a part of Columbus where they decorate and hide hay bales dressed up as Minions in Halloween costumes around the downtown area. It was cold, but the kids had a lot of fun walking around trying to find all of the minions. 

We worked up an appetite hunting for Minions so we had a quick dinner at McDonald's before heading back home to Kentucky. 

Another game day means that we get to cheer for our favorite player, #11!

No off season. I am always trying to keep Landon active because it keeps him from playing video games all day. I also am trying to teach him that putting in the extra work is what sets him apart from his peers. He is such a hard worker and a dedicated to getting himself better. He is always up for a good challenge too because he was trying to see how many baseballs he could hold at the same time. 

The only pumpkins that we ended up carving this year were the ones that we did at Transylvania's Pumpkinmania. We have done this a few times over the years, but we were struggling trying to figure out what to do with our pumpkins. The kids went basic and I went with my traditional FTK which stands for For The Kids. That is one of the slogans for the students that participate in the 24 hour dance marathon to raise money for our patients. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by Lexington on their way to Ohio to see the kids. We met up for dinner with them before they headed further north. 

Brinley's school had a father's breakfast on Halloween. I joked with her that I was going to wear a costume to the breakfast to embarrass her. She said "Good, because you are supposed to wear costumes!" Well, even though I was joking she was happy to have her dad roll into school with her dressed in a Winnie the Pooh onesie. She dressed up as a Dalmatian. I am so glad that Brinley is still happy to spend some time with her old man. 

Working at a children's hospital can be such a fun place sometimes. Our clinic dresses up every year for Halloween and then participates in a reverse trick or treating. The clinic dressed up as all things Disney. We had some characters from movies like Inside Out, Peter Pan, Hocus Pocus, Incredibles, Frozen, Winnie the Pooh, Finding Nemo, 101 Dalmatians, and a whole slew of villains. All the infusion nurses were characters from Winnie the Pooh. I also ran into a Mario and Luigi who drive the golf carts with me on UK Football games. It was a very fun and happy day. Even for all the kids!

This was the first time in the children's lives that we didn't have some type of family costume. Brinley really wanted to be Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games. We contemplated all being people from the Hunger Games, but we couldn't agree on who to be. So, instead we let Landon pick whatever he wanted. This year we started letting the kids watch some scary movies and Scream was a favorite of Landon. So naturally he wanted to be Ghost face for Halloween. I was very sad to not be in a family costume, but I was happy that both kids were happy. 

We went over and walked around the neighborhood with one of Landon's best friends and baseball teammates, Easton and his family. They had fun running around and getting as much candy as possible. 

We ended our Halloween night at Uncle McKinley's house. The kids hit up a few houses in his neighborhood and then we all ended back up at his house playing a couple of Halloween themed board games. We also had some cake to celebrate McKinley's birthday a day early.