Landon's 4th Birthday

On July 14th our little man turned 4! I still can't believe it. It seems like the past 4 years have absolutely flown by. I love this little guy so much. I wanted to make his day special by celebrating with whatever he wanted to do.

He woke up to his favorite donut from Krispy Kreme, which is a strawberry iced donut. Landon was excited to blow out his candles and we struggled to get a picture of him without acting silly.

We asked Landon what he wanted to do and the only thing that he kept telling us was that he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. We didn't know how busy it was going to be so we called ahead and booked a party for all us. This gaurenteed us seats and that Chuck E. Cheese would come visit him at the table and personally wish him a happy birthday. We all enjoyed playing games and collecting tickets so that Landon could get whatever he wanted from the prize area.

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Landon even got to get inside the ticket blaster, which is a box that you get inside and collect tickets as they are blowing all around you. He got to bring a guest with him in the ticket blaster and he chose his big sister to help. They didn't collect many tickets because I think they didn't really understand the whole concept. However, he did get a golden ticket which was a scratch off prize. They told us that it might be cotton candy, tokens, or tickets. The little man was so lucky and he won 5,000 tickets! That was enough to get anything off the prize wall that he wanted. The little guy is so loving and nice that he only got something worth 2,500 tickets and gave the rest to his sister so that she could get something nice too! Chuck E. Cheese came and danced with Landon and even stole Uncle Chris' hat. Landon also enjoyed opening up some gifts as well.

The next day we celebrated with all of our family with a party for Landon at our house. We had a dinosaur themed party, because Landon is slightly obsessed with them.

We had all kinds of foods that Landon likes the most. We had burgers and brats for the carnivores, hot lava chips (Grippos), T Rex claws (Buggles), Pterodactyl Nests (Butterscotch Haystacks), Dino Krispies (white chocolate covered Rice Krispie Treats). I also made him a cake and decorated it with some of his small dinosaur toys and a cocoa krispie volcano. I think it all turned out pretty neat.

Landon also got to have one of his favorite drinks, Ale8! He doesn't get them often, so this was a treat for him! We used a lot of his toy dinosaurs to decorate around the food table.

I even made a homemade playdough volcano and we did a science experiment to make the lava erupt out. Landon thought it was really cool! We actually did it a couple of times.

Landon got some pretty awesome toys too. He got a scooter, ninja turtle lair, and multiple remote control cars. He got way too many toys! Especially for a little boy that already had all kinds of toys.

The kids all got huge water guns so we decided to head out back to have a water balloon fight and to test out the water guns too!

After we all got cleaned up from the water fight we decided that it was time for some cake and ice cream. It is no professional cake, but Landon loved it and that is all that matters to me.

Landon blowing out his candles. This was only the third time that he celebrated and blew out candles in about a 24 hour time period.

Landon is such a little blessing to us and he is quickly growing up into a little man. He is getting to have quite the personality and can be so loving and kind. Landon has worked so hard over this past year with his speech therapy and he is becoming much more articulate. I can't wait to see him grow and develop even more over the next few years. We are so thankful to have our little man and we love him so much! Happy 4th Birthday! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Fourth of July

This year the Fourth of July was a little different from all the ones in the past for me. It started bright and early with waking the kids up and getting them over to MiMi's house so that she could watch them. Then Jennifer and I headed to downtown Lexington to run the Bluegrass 10,000 or 6.2 miles. This race had me a little nervous because just about a month ago I injured my right calf muscle. I wasn't able to consistently train for this race which was frustrating. The week before the race I was able to finally start jogging again. Then the night before the race I was out playing with the kids and I slightly injured it again. I taped it up the morning of the race and hoped for the best. I knew that at the first sign of pain while running I was going to stop and just finish walking the race. Thankfully, I did not hurt at all during the race. I didn't finish in the time that I really wanted, but with everything that had happened I was just glad to complete the race without further injury.

The Bluegrass 10,000 is a nice race through downtown Lexington and then a out and back run down Richmond Road. The course doesn't have any real steep hills, but it does have some gradual ones. I tried to snap a few pictures along the way of some of my favorite spots. Goodfellas Pizzeria is one of mine and the kids favorite places to go downtown for lunch or before a ballgame. I got a picture with Coach Cal's house along Richmond Road. I even spotted Jennifer a little bit after I made the turn. The old Shriner's Hospital was another place I snapped a picture with. Then of course I was really happy to see the finish line too! Jennifer finished a little over 2 and a half minutes behind me. I couldn't help but take a selfie on the way back to the car with the most famous downtown landmark, RUPP Arena!

We are glad that the rain held off until near the end of the race. We had a pretty good experience running our first Bluegrass 10,000, but I am excited to do it again next year and hopefully can finish it with a better time.

In the afternoon the weather outside was pretty nasty so we asked MiMi if she would like to go see a movie with us. We were all excited to see Despicable Me 3. The movie was pretty funny, for what I could stay awake for. Getting up early and running the race made me pretty tired.

Landon couldn't get enough of the popcorn. Never seen a better way to eat popcorn, especially if you don't want to get your hands dirty.

While Jennifer was cooking dinner, the kids and I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood and see all the people setting off fireworks. Landon drove the dune racer and Brinley rode along half the time and rode her scooter the other half.

 We ate dinner out on the back deck and watched all the different neighbors setting off fireworks. There were a couple of groups that put on a pretty nice little show.

Landon enjoying playing with some sparklers. They could have done these all though the night, but unfortunately we finally ran out. 

Brinley also really enjoyed the sparklers, too. 

We had a jam packed day and we all had a lot of fun. I think running the race could become a new tradition. Maybe next year we will try to head downtown and see the fireworks show instead of watching the neighborhood ones. Also in a few years we will actually be able to tell them the real reason why we celebrate Independence Day. Hope you and your family had a wonderful 4th of July. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Fun with Aunt Andrea

Aunt Andrea and Uncle Chris are looking to move out of New York and some of the areas that they are looking are the states surrounding Kentucky. So, in order to get some face to face interviews Andrea came down to visit for a few weeks. We enjoyed having her around and I think that she enjoyed getting to be around the kids. She usually only gets to see them a couple times a year at major holidays, so this was a real treat for all of them. The kids and I took her around to some of their favorite spots to show her what we like to do.

We took her to Chuck E Cheese and she enjoyed playing games with the kids. Here she was helping Landon with the skeeball game.

Another place the kids really like is a trampoline park here in town called Get Air. Andrea taught Brinley how to do a toe touch and I caught her right in the middle of one.

Aunt Andrea was even brave enough to venture out to the movies with both kids by herself. She said they did really well for her. Landon slept through most of it like his grandpa and Brinley was completely engrossed in the movie.

Andrea went with us to a couple of the parks in town too. Here they were at the downtown park at Woodland and they all took a spin on  the merry go round.

Aunt Andrea and Landon enjoyed some face to face swinging.

So did Aunt Andrea and Brinley.

We even had to make a few trips to the grocery and it looks like this time we stocked up on some essentials, Ale8 and Oreos.

We got to hang out with Aunt Andrea's college sorority sister one afternoon at Chick-Fil-A. The kids enjoyed playing together while the adults caught up on everything that had been happening in their lives. The kids were pretending to be robots in this picture.

Uncle Chris was able to make it into town so that he could attend McKinley's graduation from medical school. He enjoyed teaching the kids a few things about one of his favorite sports, soccer.

The kids with Aunt Andrea before she left to go back home to NYC.

 We had a lot of fun with Aunt Andrea over the week that she spent with us. I know that the kids will enjoy getting to see her a little more often when her and Uncle Chris move a little closer to Kentucky. Until that happens, maybe quite soon, we will have fun talking on Facetime and hanging out with her a couple times a year. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Lexington Tours

A couple of weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa were making a trip up to see the kids. We had planned this all around the time that Tim Tebow was set to make his second appearance in Lexington playing minor league baseball. Just a few days before they were set to come up for the game we discovered that he was actually promoted to a different team. Thankfully we hadn't bought tickets yet, but I decided to see if I could find anything to do during their visit. I happened across a bunch of factory tours that you could take in and around Lexington. I didn't know how much the kids would enjoy them, but I knew my parents would. Best of all, they were FREE!

Our first tour was set up at Old Kentucky Chocolates located on Southland Drive. We showed up a little early to look around the store and the kids and grandparents really enjoyed trying out almost everything that they had to offer at the sample area. Next it was time for the tour. 

There were about 12 of us on the tour that was guided by one of the workers. We started out in the room where everything is cooked. Then we headed back into the mold room where some workers creating a ton of Kentucky shaped chocolates. The middle picture is of Landon with all the melted milk chocolate. It took everything I had to not stick a finger or two in to try. Next we headed over to the conveyor belt where they were making some bourbon chocolates. We didn't try one off the line because I didn't think the kids would like them. We did try some pretty awesome chocolate and caramel covered potato chips.

The kids tried out a few more samples and picked out a few treats to take home with us. The kids favorite samples were the chocolate covered grapes and chocolate covered animal crackers. I really liked the chocolate caramel potato chips and the pulled taffy.  The kids chose some pretty basic treats to take home. Landon picked a chocolate covered marshmallow while Brinley picked a chocolate covered pretzel with mini M&Ms on it. Grandma and Grandpa also picked out some thoroughbreds, which are like turtles.

This is exactly how not to eat chocolate! I actually have no idea how someone can actually get that messy with just one chocolate covered pretzel, but Brinley figured out a way.

I would highly recommend the tour of Old Kentucky Chocolates, especially if you like chocolate. The store sells all kinds of things for just about anybody. The tour only lasts about 30 minutes but you have to sign up for it in advance.

We also had a chance to go see a movie that we thought the kids would like. I thought Cars 3 was good and everybody enjoyed it. Grandpa and Brinley were caught off guard in the bottom left picture so neither one was smiling.

The next day we headed over to Boone Creek Creamery for a tour of the cheese factory. This tour was not by appointment, it was just whenever you were able to stop in the tour started. It was just the five of us on the tour. We started off with a short video about how the creamery started and how they go about making cheese that is different from normal cheese making production. These are all pictures from inside the Hobbit Cave, which is a cooler that houses all their cheese for 90 days while it ages. Both the kids started to get a little cold in the Hobbit Cave because it is kept at a cold 53 degrees all the time.

The tour concluded with a sampling of all the different cheeses that they make. They also tell everyone that in order to become a cheese minion you have to put on a cheese hat and get inside the original pot that they started making cheese in. The pot was a little taller that we thought. Grandpa had trouble getting in and out of it, so Grandma decided to pass on getting inside. Our favorite cheeses were: Grandpa - Jerk Cheddar & Ginger Rogers, Grandma - Scandinavian Bread Cheese, Me - Sassy Redhead, the kids - cheddar.

The kids didn't like most of the cheese samples because they were more unique than the basic cheddar and mozzarella that they are used to. Grandma and Grandpa liked it and even got some to take home with them. Overall, I would say that if you like cheese and have about 30-45 minutes then you should definitely head over and check out Boone Creek Creamery.

We always have a good time when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit, but we all really enjoyed getting out and seeing some of the local establishments and taking tours of them. I have already been searching for places that we can go and explore next time they are up to visit. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Brinley turns 5!

A little over a month ago our little lady turned 5 years old. If you remember last year she got to celebrate her golden birthday at Disney World. So, this year I was worried that whatever we did she wouldn't be satisfied. However, Brinley didn't mention a single thing about her celebration last year. We started off the morning with a donut for breakfast before heading to school to play with her friends.

A whole hand old now.

Brinley even got to open up a few presents before heading to school. Aunt Andrea was in town for some job interviews and was going to be gone all day and she wanted to see Brinley open her gifts.

Brinley, all ready for school, with her birthday button on.

After school we went to Chuck E Cheese, which was Brinley's choice, to play some games and have lunch.

Landon driving around the birthday girl.

Picture with our little birthday girl.

Brinley with Chuck E Cheese.

Brinley wanted to get an ice cream from Dairy Queen for a little afternoon treat.

I got a little creative and wrote a birthday note to Brinley out of sidewalk chalk.

Brinley with all of her gifts.

Brinley opening her big gifts from her mommy and daddy. She got all the Disney princess Barbie dolls and a princess scooter. The expression on her face when she saw the dolls was priceless.

Brinley picked dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

Brinley with her birthday cake.

We also had a birthday party for Brinley and all her friends at Monkey Joe's. She had the best time playing with everyone.

Making a wish and blowing out her birthday candles.

I thought about it too late, but I captured the birthday girl with some of her friends. Here she is with Reagan.

Brinley always tells us that Sydney is her best friend. Hopefully they will get to see each other more often next year because they will be starting Kindergarten at the same school.

Brinley and Baxter.

Brinley and Cooper.

Brinley with Maggie, and you can see Mac in the background too.

This was the best family photo that we could get because they were so hyper after fruit punch and cupcakes.

 I still can't believe that Brinley is 5 years old. I feel like just the other day we were bringing her home from the hospital. In just a few short months she will be starting Kindergarten and before we know it she will be all grown up on us. I just want to enjoy every moment with her and Landon because time is precious and these two kids mean the world to me. I love you Brinley Kate! Thanks for reading and God bless!