Snow Days 2016

Some people don't like snow, but I love it! As a child I always said that I wanted to move to Wisconsin because I thought it would have a lot more snow. The past few years the kids really haven't enjoyed playing in the snow, so I was a little saddened. That all changed when Brinley started asking for a sled this past Christmas. I couldn't wait for some snow. Unfortunately we didn't get any snow until 2016. Thankfully we have had a few snow days to enjoy all of the white fluffy stuff.

Making a snow angel. Sometimes Jennifer will tell you that I am probably the biggest kid in the house.

Using our sleds that Santa brought for the very first time. Brinley and mommy on their first ride ever.

Jennifer and I even went down together. It had been almost 15 years since we had been sledding and it was together.

Family sledding. 

Brinley and I going down the hill together. They both ended up closing their eyes while going down the hill. They also said that they really didn't like sledding because it was too cold. I think they didn't like all the snow that came up on their faces when going down the hill.

Landon and mommy heading down the hill.

Another day playing in the snow I pulled the kids in the backyard. They were enjoying it until they fell off into the snow. Here Landon is holding on for dear life.

Brinley is enjoying being pulled around in the circle track in the backyard.

Landon really enjoys throwing snowballs.

Here I was just being goofy and running laps in the backyard and I finished it off with a flip into the snow.

Brinley is my little daredevil and she asked me to toss her up into the air. Jennifer wasn't exactly ready for the picture so she didn't get all of Brinley in the photo.

The kids with their snow angels.

Family snow day selfie.

Our first snowman that we built together. We used toys and rocks in the backyard to decorate him.

Building another snowman. This time we made it out in the front yard so that all our neighbors could see our work of art.

Building a couple more snowmen. Brinley was over it in this picture and Landon was just having a good time. Maybe one day Brinley will enjoy it a little more.

The kids are starting to get excited about playing outside, but they just aren't able to stay outside as long as I do. Brinley lasts about 20 minutes before she starts saying she is too cold and wants to head in for some hot chocolate. Landon is going to be my snow buddy. He will stay out until his hands and feet go numb because he is having a good time. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Donating blood at RUPP

I am a huge supporter of donating blood. This is because I see so many kids with cancer at work who continuously are getting different types of blood products. Quick biology lesson: Chemotherapy kills cancer which we all know, but it also has major impact on the rest of the body too. The chemo also kills red blood cells which are found in your blood. Red blood cells are the transporters of oxygen around your body. If you have low blood counts then you will typically show signs of fatigue or be tired more often. So, 3 years ago when I started working on the Hematology/Oncology side of the children's hospital I made a commitment to myself that I would also donate if I was able to. This is because these kids are in a daily battle for their life and the least I could do would be to go get a little bit of my blood taken so that they could be better prepared for their fight with cancer. Every 2 months I head over to the donation center and give a pint of my O+ blood. Besides the benefit of knowing that I helped someone with my donation there are also a few perks that go with it too! Every year they do a blood drive at RUPP Arena and the perk is that you get to take a couple shots out on the court where many Kentucky legends have played. The past three years I have taken advantage of this awesome event and have even taken Jennifer and the kids along. This year we had some additional help to watch the kids so Grandma and Grandpa watched them while Jennifer and I donated.

The kids playing on the court. They were running around and acting like they had never been out of the house. 

I helped both of the kids make lay ups. If only I was a little bit lot taller I could help them dunk. Maybe one day they will be able to jump up there by themselves.

All of the adults taking their shots. Nobody hit on their first attempt! I tried out all the shots from the This or That challenge that they do at the halftime of each UK basketball game. I made the lay up and the 3-pointer, but missed the free throw and half court shot.

Donating blood! I am proud to say that I am currently working on my 3rd gallon that I have donated.

Jennifer just after she finished donating. She was a little nervous because this was her first time ever donating. They will probably be calling her often to donate because she is the universal donor blood type.

You can't walk out on the court and not pretend to be in front of 24,000 screaming fans. It would be a very intimidating arena to play for both the home and away team. Since I have used up all of my college eligibility I will never be able to play for the wildcats, so my next option to get in front of that huge crowd would be to complete the spelling of Kentucky by being the Y! Not sure that will ever happen, but a man can always dream. I guess I would need to do something that would make myself famous first or only a handful of people in the arena would know who I was.

So, I guess that I will just have to keep training the kids in hopes that one day they can be the Y.

Landon as the Y.

My little wildcat family. I am so glad that they are being raised to love the BBN.

Grandma and Grandpa even got in on the dream of being the Y. They went in together to each complete a half.

Here are a couple snapshots from the previous couple of years going down to RUPP with Jennifer and the kids. It is so crazy to see how they have grown.

Even without the benefit of getting to shoot around at RUPP, I would still be donating blood. I would also encourage everyone one that I know to do the same. You never know who you could help and one day it could even be you or one of your family members that are in need. So, get out there and donate! Save lives! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Landon at RUPP

Landon has been to watch the wildcats play before, but we have always gone as a family when we had an extra set of tickets to the game. Not until the other day did I get to take my little mini me to a game when it was just the two of us. We got there early so that we could explore and see everything that they had to offer before tip-off. Landon had never been interested in getting his face painted on previous trips to RUPP, but he had seen Brinley do it. I asked him on the way into the stadium and he said that he wanted to do it. So, after walking over to the arena we jumped in line for face painting. 

Landon sat really still while the lady painted his face. I talked him out of getting the wildcat face like Brinley did on a previous time to getting his whole face painted.

Since my season tickets are in the upper arena, I took Landon down near the court to get a picture while the boys were warming up.

The foam fingers were a free give away in the lobby. Landon loved it. As we were walking back up to the concourse Landon was getting a lot of smiles and high fives. A few people even asked if they could take his picture. The ushers told him that he was a little celebrity.

We headed back out to the lobby to listen to the pep band. I put Landon up on my shoulders so that he could see everything going on.

We even headed over to meet the cheerleaders before heading up to our seats. They all thought Landon was so cute.

 Right after meeting the cheerleaders I realized that I had lost Landon's sippy cup. So, with about 20 minutes before tip-off I started panicking and we retraced our entire journey up until that point to look for the sippy cup. We didn't have any luck so I thought this was going to be a wasted trip to see the CATS play because there was no way Landon could go through the entire game without something to drink. I opted to try out a drink from the concession stand even though Landon doesn't really like cups with straws all that much. While I was there I picked him up a box of popcorn too!

We made our trek up to our seats and Landon was ready to eat. He loved the popcorn and especially liked his Sprite.

He hardly set this cup down during the first half.

 We made it to about half time before he started to lose interest and become restless. I was able to keep him calm with some pez candy and with his iPhone.

He was really into taking pictures tonight which is not like him at all. I took advantage and captured quite a few.

 Since it was a blow out win against Georgia there were a lot of people that were heading home early because it was such a late game. I took advantage of everyone leaving and decided that we would move on down a little closer.

Little man enjoyed the comfort of the lower arena seats. He looks pretty chill in this picture. 

Landon and I enjoying our seat upgrades.

Landon took my phone and even took a couple selfies. I think he really enjoyed the face paint.

I wanted to try and get Landon on the post game show just like I had been able to with Brinley earlier this season. Just our luck that the seats right behind the announcers opened up just in time and Landon and I got in right behind the two ESPN announcers. He held up a number 1 as well as his foam finger. I think he did pretty good for a 2 year old.

Even though it was almost midnight when we got home from our night out Landon was still wide awake. We decided that mommy needed to get a picture with Landon and his face paint before he went to bed.

I had so much fun with Landon at the game. He is really starting to become much easier to take care of because he is actually able to communicate better. He is a really happy little guy and I can't wait to teach him everything that I know about being a man. I also can't wait to learn even more over the years with him as we enjoy the journey together. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Super Bowl 46

Some people have going to the Super Bowl on their bucket list and I was one of those people too. Thankfully I was blessed with an amazing sister who just so happened to make my dream become a reality not only once, but twice. So, on the eve of Super Bowl 50 I couldn't help but reminisce about my last Super Bowl. It just so happened to be just a little north of us in Indianapolis. Jennifer was pregnant with Brinley and we were happy to be staying in Indy with our good friends the Duritsch's. It turned out to be a pretty awesome week and an even better game.

Upon arrival to Indianapolis Brinley got her first name badge. Since Andrea had been working in credentials she decided to get one made for her first niece.

One day while Andrea was working we decided to check out the NFL Experience. It was where you could participate in a bunch of drills and skills challenges. I even got Jennifer to participate in a few.

Chris and I enjoyed seeing all the extras and behind the scenes experiences. They had make shift lockers from some of the superstars from each team. I wasn't able to get close to the Browns locker because it was right next to the Tim Tebow locker and there was a huge crowd waiting to get a picture in front of it "Tebowing". 

Pretty awesome decal on the side of the Marriott Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. 

One of the most exciting things that happened to us during the week was Andrea surprising us by getting us tickets to media day. Chris and I went and saw all kinds of sports figures and other celebrities. I really regret not taking our good camera to this event. I took all of my pictures with my iPhone so some didn't turn out to be the best quality. Here we are at the coaches press conference where they had the Super Bowl trophy on display. The bottom left picture is of the Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the right picture is the Giants head coach Tom Coughlin and Don Shula. 

We also got to see the three finalist for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. The nominees were Phillip Rivers, Charles Tillman and Matt Birk. 

There were some celebrities giving interviews to give their take on who they thought was going to win the big game. A few that I spotted were Vanilla Ice, Adam Sandler, Curt Schilling, Ice Cube, Rosie O'Donnell, Joe Gibbs, and Arthur Blank. The only one I really got the chance to get close enough to speak to was Adam Sandler.

We also saw tons of current and former players. They included Jason Taylor, Steve Young, Michael Irvin, Clay Matthews, Matt Stafford, Stevie Johnson, Maurice Jones Drew, Matt Hasselback, Warren Sapp, Eddie George, Andy Dalton, Tim Tebow, Doug Flutie, Drew Brees, Greg Jennings, and Kurt Warner.

Sunday finally arrived and we got there early for the NFL Tailgate. We tried all of the food and listened to the pre-game entertainment of Coldplay and Lenny Kravitz.

We made it up to our seats and decided to walk around and see what all was inside the stadium. We walked right by this Hall of Famer that played for my Cleveland Browns - Jim Brown. I have no idea why I didn't ask to get a picture with him, but I did get this quick shot. After we walked away Chris asked if I had noticed who he was with and I said no. He was walking with another Hall of Famer - Barry Sanders!

Some action shots from the game. It was a great battle and nobody was going to give up easily.

It is so crazy to see how quickly after the teams leave the field for halftime that they can put together the stage for the halftime show.

I didn't get to see a half time show that I was excited about because it was Madonna, who I really don't like. It was a pretty impressive show and I even knew a few of the songs too.

In the third quarter Andrea came up to see us and we got a few pictures before she headed back down to complete her responsibilities for the night. 

Thankfully the Giants pulled out the win. (I can't stand the Patriots!) We watched the celebration and even captured a few pictures of Andrea down on the field after the game. 

Jennifer and I went downtown before leaving Indy to get a picture with the huge Super Bowl Roman numerals.  

I can never think my sister enough for all the experiences that she has been able to make happen for me. I still can't believe sometimes that I have been blessed to be able to attend the most watched sporting event not once, but twice! If only I could have been able to see my Browns play in the game it would have made it that much better. As for Super Bowl 50 I am going to be happy regardless of the outcome because I think both are really good teams. However, I am going to be pulling for Peyton and the Broncos so that he can maybe ride off into the sunset with a championship. Thanks for reading and God Bless!