May 2022

The bachelor party crew. We had a great time down at the cabin in the gorge. Glad that we could get together to celebrate McKinley one last time before he gets married. 

I came home and was really excited to see the kids. Especially this girl because it was almost her birthday.

May the 4th is always a great day because it is this little lady's birthday. Per her request I made her pancakes in the shape of the number 10.

Birthday cake for Brinley. This year she decided to try a Costco cake. She went for a rainbow on the top.

Mommy and Daddy with their 10 year old. I can't believe that it has been an entire decade being her dad. I still feel like sometimes we just brought her home.

Brinley loves Harry Potter and we just wanted to get her something amazing for her 10th birthday. She was really surprised to see this under the wrapping paper. 

It is still amazing to me when I get to see the puffer fish when it has puffed up. So many of the kids really want to see it puffed at work so I keep this picture to show them. 

Happy nurses week! We never ask for anything, but our clinic always does something really nice for us. They are very thoughtful and I am so thankful to work with all of them.

Brinley said that instead of a party she wanted to have a sleepover. She invited the whole softball team and six of them showed up. They had a blast. They made slime and lip gloss, played tapple, and watched Harry Potter movies. At about 2 am I went down to the basement and told them that they had to go to bed.

When they woke up they went upstairs and drew on Landon's face. He wasn't very amused with their shenanigans. 

Happy Mother's Day to Jennifer. We are so thankful for you even though we don't always show it. We love you!

We decided to try out a new donut shop, Parlor Doughnuts. The kids can never both be happy at the same time. Brinley was excited to try her peanut butter chocolate donut. Landon was upset that his sprinkle donut was too messy. It was delicious once Landon gave up and tried it. 

The kids and I went by their school so that we could vote in the primaries. We actually rode our bikes to the school.

The garden was starting to have some great produce. We had planted lettuce for the rabbits. They loved it and thought it was delicious. 

Uncle McKinley and soon to be Aunt Taylor were starting to move stuff into their new house. They invited the kids over to take a look at everything and to take a little trip down the street for some Greater's Ice Cream. The kids never pass on ice cream.

Brinley began the task of putting together the 6000+ piece castle. She said her goal was to do one of the 36 bags everyday.

Landon was keeping us busy with baseball. He was turning into a key player on the team. He was batting lead off and had easily locked up the second base position. 

One of my friends at work brought me a fruity pebble coffee one morning for work. They know I love my cereal and this was delicious. Well, at least the fruity pebble part. Coffee is awful to me. 

We went to catch a UK baseball game and they were giving away umbrella hats. The kids were really excited about them. I think they are awesome. 

They finally opened the new ice cream shop near our house, Bruster's. So we had to check it out. While Brinley was eating her ice cream she lost one of her teeth. 

We were invited out to watch the Legends play baseball. Both kids ended up getting game balls thanks to Brinley asking the players when they came in from playing in the field.

Landon had tryouts for the Southeastern All-Star team, Crush. He was one of the best kids out there. He caught all 3 pop ups, fielded his 3 grounders, and hit 4 out of 5 pitches into fair territory. He did everything necessary to make the team. Some kids were crying because they didn't hit any fair (too bad their dad was the coach so the kid had nothing to worry about). I was notified around midnight that he didn't make it and the only reasoning that I got was that he was too small. Landon I guess had it all on his mind and couldn't sleep well. He woke up at 2 am and came to wake me up to see if he made the team. I had to tell them that it was their loss that they didn't pick him. It just really sucks that they turned kids sports into who the parents are, instead of basing it off the actual talent of the child. No matter what we knew that this summer we were going to get our fill of baseball.

It was that time again to donate blood. I am just so glad that I can have a small part in helping someone in need.

One of my patients recommended Apollo pizza, so of course I had to try it. It was good, but nothing that we will start driving across town to get on a regular basis.

Landon's soccer season came to an end. Landon has turned into a defensive specialist over the last few seasons with the scorpions. Unfortunately, this will be the last season of the scorpions because the team decided to split up with some starting to play on travel teams. Landon said he didn't want to play because he only liked the scorpion team mates. 

With the start of summer ball that means that you get to use different bats. So, Landon got an early birthday present in the form of a Cat 9. He was really excited to get in the batting cage to work with it.

Landon got noticed at Brinley's practices and quickly found another team that wanted him to play for them. It was the boys Rampage out of Georgetown. They had already set their team for the year, so we became a pick up player. I would contact the head coach and tell him if we were available for the weekend. If so he would go play for them. When he got to play for them he would play at pitcher and would bat second in the line up.

If you know me well, then you know I am a cheapskate. So, for all the tournaments that we were attending we decided to pack meals so that we didn't have to go out to eat multiple times every weekend. Brinley helped Jennifer make the meals one weekend and she left me this note. This was a weekend that we were split between two different locations.

Picture with my little lady. I really enjoy watching her play softball. It is a lot of fun to see her interact with all of her friends. They have even started dancing in between games. The first couple of times they did it they had to drag Brinley out of the dugout. Then she got excited about dancing. 

May proved to be a very fun month filled with mostly sports and practices. Seeing my kids play sports is one of my favorite things. It is one of the things I dreamed about when we first thought about having kids. I just love sports and want them both to love sports as well. Thanks for reading and God bless!

April 2022

Our adventures in Ohio were coming to an end on April Fool's day. I pulled one over on the kids that morning. I told them all that I was going out for donuts, when I came in from the donut place I only brought in an empty box. Nobody was really excited about that, but quickly forgave me when I brought in the real box of donuts. Apparently Olivia stills talks about the time I brought an empty donut box.

The cousin crew with their newest member. 

The February birthday crew. 

Grandma and Grandpa came by the house to visit and we got in a quick game of life.

I worked the UK Football Spring Game and just happened to run into an old friend and Georgetown Tiger, Chad Spencer. His nephew Dane Key is a freshman wide receiver for UK. Looks like I will be seeing him often over the next 3-4 years. 

My view for the UK Football Spring game. 

Brinley's softball team had a team outing at the UK Softball game. 

While Brinley and her friends were in the stands Landon and I were out in the outfield chasing down home run balls. Landon beat a group of kids running to get this one. You get a prize for turning the ball in which made Landon happy, but no so much for Brinley.

Landon happened to have one of his first games of the season while Brinley was with her softball team outing. This is his last season in coach pitch. I have always been happy to help out with any thing my kids have been involved with. This year I moved from dug out dad to coaching 1st base. 

They got to go out on the field and be recognized.

They were able to meet and greet with the players after the games. Brinley got so excited about meeting the players.

Brinley with her eggs that we decorated. The left one says "Your just as sane as I am" a phrase from Harry Potter. The right one says "May the 4th be with you" a nod to her birthday being on Star Wars Day. 

Landon did a great job decorating as well. On these two he wrote Rampage, Brinley's softball team, and Mason, his best friend.

We signed the kids up for a supplemental learning academy called Kumon. For completing the first workbook Landon got a treat from Mondelli's Bakery. 

Really not the way that we wanted the basketball season to end, but we wanted to go meet Kellan Grady. Landon and I got so excited at games when he would start draining 3's!

The day before Easter I got up and made bunny and egg shaped beignets for breakfast. On Easter morning I made the kids their bunny pancakes like I have done for years.

The kids took both bunnies to meet the Easter bunny. The kids got entirely too many treats from the Easter bunny this year.

We ended up not making it to any Easter egg hunts around town this year so we decided to hide about 200 eggs in our small backyard. The kids had a blast finding them all. They even made us hide them a second time.

Easter morning service at Southland Christian Church. It turned out to be a beautiful day with a wonderful service. Most of the people at church didn't recognize me because I was wearing long pants!

Jennifer and the kids went to see the next Fantastic Beasts movie. I had never really gotten into this series, so I let them go enjoy it together.

Landon's coach pitch season was in full swing as well. I changed my coaching duties a couple of games into the season when they asked me to be the pitcher. It was more nerve racking pitching to the kids than being the first base coach, but it was also a lot of fun getting an up close view of some of the kids getting hits.

A Buc-ee's opened up right outside of Richmond, Ky and I knew that I had to take the kids. The place was packed, but the kids were excited because I told them that they could get two things in the store. They both ended up with icees and a bag of candy each.

Brinley's team came in second place. She got drilled in the leg with a pitch with a girl who threw with a lot of power, but not a lot of accuracy. Brinley was the third girl in a row to be hit by a pitch.

Great Granddaddy and Memom came up to visit and they were able to catch the kids at all of their sporting events. They got to see Landon play baseball and soccer. They were also able to see Brinley play softball. They were just a few minutes from getting to see Brinley catch her first ever pop fly. 

I loved these pictures of Brinley. This is the only sport that she has played that I haven't had to beg her to go to practice. She really enjoys playing with all the girls and they are gaining confidence with every tournament they play. 

Loco Ice finally opened up for the season and the kids were really excited about getting one. 

Brinley has really been putting in the work with softball. It is the only sport that she has actually enjoyed going to practice. It might be because of the girls on the team. Either way she is turning into a good little ball player.

 team was starting to play even more often in tournaments. She was starting to lock up the position at 2nd base, but she was struggling bad at the plate. She was terrified of being hit by a ball again.

McKinley's bachelor party had a survivor theme to it. Everyone's name already written on the parchment.

While I was at the bachelor party I was still keeping up with Brinley's softball game. I would much rather be there to see her play, but I am very thankful that someone keeps the book on this app so that I can see how they are doing. 

My view for the hour long ride that we were kayaking at the underground adventure. It was really cold in there and the water was frigid!

Hard hats and lights I guess are necessary when kayaking in an old mine.

After the underground kayak adventure. It was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it. I still can't believe that in just over a month McKinley will be getting married. 

April was a lot of fun, but we were extremely busy. We spent a lot of time working on softball and baseball skills. We were also able to spend some great time with family too. Thanks for reading and God bless!