February 2021

February is the shortest month of the year, but we sure do cram a lot of stuff into the month. My brother-in-law always says that the most special people have birthdays in February because it has the fewest number of days available to be born. Well, I would certainly agree with him that one of my favorite people was born during this month, Jennifer celebrates her birthday on the 7th. We were happy to party with her all month long. 

Pepper was getting a lot of attention, which isn't really that abnormal. Brinley hardly ever puts her down. She really likes to snuggle with her.

One night we decided to have a fitness challenge. Landon by far is our longest plank holder.

Brinley messing around with a little modeling clay. She reminded me of the Mask movie with Jim Carey. Notice that she is holding Pepper too!

I had a zoom meeting in which I thought I needed to get dressed up. If you know anything about me then you should know that I hate dressing up. With a zoom call I felt that it was only necessary to have the top half presentable. Maybe we should call it the zoom mullet, business up top and casual on the bottom.

When the pandemic started we painted the front door. For almost a year we have enjoyed this beautiful and colorful front door. I finally decided it was time to clean it off. We got one last picture with the kids beside it. 

Kentucky has been historically bad at basketball this year so I have had to try all kinds of things to try and get myself through the games. I was getting so frustrated with the team that Jennifer threated to hide all the remotes so that I couldn't watch the game. I however discovered that if I did a puzzle while watching the game then my emotions didn't get too far out of control. I guess because it didn't end up being a total waste of 2+ hours if I made good progress on my puzzle. Jennifer and the kids even helped me finish up this one. 

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with early non-alcoholic cirrhosis. I made some life style changes and dropped some weight and this was my final follow up. My liver is back to way it is supposed to be according to my ultrasound that I just had. Very good news and I was glad that I no longer have to follow up with my GI doctor. 

I am so grateful that I was able to get my second COVID shot because I am a healthcare worker. I walked in and the person giving me my shot asked if I lived in Lexington. I said yes and she asked if I ran out in the neighborhood. I had no idea where she was going with all this, but then she told me that she lives in the same subdivision. She sees me and the kids out on our bikes and even knew what helmets the kids wore. It was pretty awesome and it was a really small world. If not for getting my COVID shot I might never have met Amber, with whom I am very grateful for her volunteering to give the shot. I had no side effects at all. In fact about 24 hours after my shot I decided to get up and run a half marathon. I can only hope that many more people decide to get their shot and that we can get back to normal life sometime in the very near future. 

A couple of requests Jennifer had for her birthday were Olive Garden and Great American Cookies. After I got my 2nd shot I decided to pick up both of these things for Jennifer for a little early birthday celebration.

Landon's indoor soccer season was almost over and Jennifer had never been able to go see him play. There were rules that only one parent could attend the games. However, every other family wasn't following the rules so I told Jennifer to come on in and enjoy the game. Landon and his squad had their best game of the season and they won 4-1. 

Jennifer's birthday was full of so many different things. Jennifer has been wanting to declutter the house so part of her birthday included getting to donate 14 trash bags of stuff to our church donation bin. The kids and I went on a 3.6 mile run/scooter ride through the neighborhood. Brinley made tickets to the movies for Mommy to see Harry Potter 2. We made some homemade caramel popcorn and worked on a puzzle while watching the Superbowl. She ended the night with her nightly reading to the kids. We are so thankful for you and love you so much!

The kids made cards for their mom and drew her some pictures inside. Landon drew her a flower and told her that he loved her more than video games, which is really saying a lot. Brinley drew an awesome picture of her and Jennifer outside on a beautiful day. The kids even helped make a dessert for her. They crushed the Oreos for her dirt cake.

Family picture with the birthday girl, including Pepper. 

The kids got a kit to build different motor vehicles. Landon made a car and Brinley made a helicopter. It was really awesome to see them take some parts, nuts, bolts and create something with them. Landon struggled a little, but Brinley did the whole thing on her own. 

I came to work after a day off and I had a Valentine's Day card from one of my little patients. I thought it was the sweetest little gift and she did it all herself. 

The kids were excited about their Valentine's treats that we got them. I also tried out the new cast iron skillet to cook our steaks for dinner. The kids loved it all! The kids have both become big steak eaters. 

Landon had one of the most exciting soccer games so far in his career. His team got down in the first half 1-5. In the second half something just clicked with his team and they found something that worked. They tied the game at six a piece with about 30 seconds left in the game. It was a really great atmosphere and it was awesome to see his team battle back and come out with the tie. If we had just had a few minutes of stoppage time then I believe we could have pulled out a victory!

The ice storm of 2021 hit and it was crazy. Unfortunately working in healthcare we don't get snow days, so off to work we go. The kids didn't even get to experience a snow day because they were already doing virtual school.

After work one day we packed up the kids and headed out to the best sledding hill around, the old Shriner's Hospital hill. It was packed with tons of people and the hill was awesome. The snow and ice mixture provided an great sledding hill. Almost too good because the hill ends with a pretty busy road in Lexington. A couple of times Landon and I came close to sledding out into the road.

With it being so cold outside I haven't been outside running very much so I have been playing a lot of Madden. Landon told me that he wanted to learn how to play. I taught him and he was really good. He was scoring 80-90 points a game against the computer. Landon even won a Superbowl in my career mode.

Our neighbor Willow asked the kids to come over and play in the snow at her house. She had a little hill in her backyard so the kids kept sliding down it. We told them about the hill at Shriner's and that they should check it out. 

The next day we met Willow and her dad out at Shiner's hill to go sledding. The kids loved it! It is so much fun seeing them just be kids. 

The school system decided to bring the kids back in certain grade levels. The first group back was     K-2nd grade, which meant Landon was a part of the first group back. His first day of in person 2nd grade came just over 11 months after his last day of first grade. He was so happy to be back. They checked temperatures as you were getting out of your car and all the kids had to wear masks the whole time at school. 

The ice storm caused a few little difficulties for us. With me being a cheap skate and parking on the street it proved to be hard getting a parking spot over all of the piles of snow and ice. I ended up having to drive around with a shovel in my car so that I could dig myself out everyday after work. I also got a phone call from Jennifer one day while at work telling me that water was coming in from the ceiling. We believed it to be some frozen ice and it expanded some areas around the roof and gutters and then found it's way in when it began to melt. 

The kids wanted to play out in the backyard one afternoon so we all went out there. We decided to clean off the trampoline. It had probably four to five hundred pounds worth of ice and snow on it.

During the summer we had a water balloon fight and I had recorded it in slow motion with my camera. During part of it I got drilled in the private area. After I posted it to Facebook I had so many people think it was hilarious. One person even mentioned I should send it into America's Funniest Home Videos. Well, I did and they said that they would like to use it. The Heflin's made our national TV debut on Feb 21, 2021. It was so funny to see ourselves even if it did bring back a lot of painful memories. We even made honorable mention for the show. We couldn't believe it. We were so close to making money off my pain. The kids didn't know that they gave out money but started trying to think of ways that we could make more videos to send in. 

The kids both said that they wanted to play coach pitch baseball. Since it was cold outside they had tryouts at an indoor baseball facility. Each kid ran a timed 30 yard dash, fielded a few ground balls, caught a couple throws, and got five pitches to try and hit. Not an extensive viewing of their abilities, but they then had a draft to pick all the kids evenly between all the teams. The kids did ok, but were a little timid because it was weird having all kinds of people just sitting around watching them. Thankfully they were a package deal and whoever picked them got both Heflin kids. 

I tried to get out and do some type of activity every night. It was getting dark a lot earlier so I had to break out the headlamp that I got for Christmas.

I am not sure why this girl loves rabbits so much, but she does. It might be the number one thing that she thinks about.

On my day off I took Brinley on a daddy daughter date. We went to Goodfellas for lunch and even stopped by Magee's Bakery for a sweet treat. She talked the whole time and I spent a lot of the time just listening. I think she is an amazing young lady who loves bunnies (actually all animals), drawing, reading, cooking shows, and did I mention bunnies.

Landon's indoor soccer team had their final game and they pulled out a final victory on the season. This group came a long way and they all improved greatly from the indoor winter season. Landon now says that soccer is his favorite sport.

I had a friend ask if we wanted a couple of tickets to see the CATS play in their senior day game against Florida. Well, I rarely pass up an opportunity to watch them play. I asked MiMi to watch Brinley so that Landon and I could go out on a father son day. Of course Landon wanted to get Goodfellas pizza as well.

We had an awesome time. It was a weird environment with not as many fans in the stands and it not being as loud as normal. We had a lot of fun. It was a really close game down the stretch, but like most of the season Kentucky found a way to lose the game. In the end it was the most fun I had at a loss because I was with my little mini me.

We even made it onto the big screen. 

Grandma and Grandpa came up to visit up on the last day of the month. I got the smoker out and cooked a couple racks of ribs (which were delicious) and the kids played trivial pursuit on the Nintendo Switch with them. Landon had to pose with the screen because he beat them all in a game of trivia. Some was because the old people couldn't grasp how to work the controls. 

The month of February was a blast.  Jennifer and I both became fully vaccinated. Then we got a little normalcy back with Landon starting back to school. We had  ice storm and lots of snow to play in. As much fun as February is I am always looking forward to March even more, which it just so happens to be my favorite month of the year. Thanks for reading and God bless!

January 2021

 Happy New Year! I know that everyone is excited to see 2020 come to an end. Most people start the new year out with a diet and good eating habits, but after this past year you just have to celebrate everything. I was excited about getting to have my favorite food again which is pizza! 

I started out the new year with one of my favorite meals ever, Giordano's deep dish pizza. It was delicious! I actually had pizza of some kind everyday for the first 7 days of the new year. 

We were finally able to get together with Jennifer's family to celebrate the holidays. With the pandemic we weren't able see each other for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It had been a really long time since we had seen each other. The kids loved playing together. They really enjoyed playing with the dog. They even took him for a little walk around the neighborhood.

The kids were excited about getting some more Christmas gifts too! 

I spent most of my time watching the UK football bowl game against NC State. I can't believe that it was a year ago that I was watching the CATS play in the bowl game win down in North Carolina. It was a wild year. 

MiMi always comes up with some fun games to play. This year she had a marshmallow stacking contest to see which kid could build the biggest tower.

I never held our first rabbit, Biscuit until I was handing it off to the vet for the last time. As most of you know I am not really an animal person but Brinley absolutely loves them, especially her bunny. With the Wildcats basketball struggling I made a bet with Brinley. If the Cats won then I would hold her bunny. It was so that Brinley could enjoy watching the basketball games with me. She has never been so interested in the games ever. It took a couple of games, but the Cats finally won and I am a man of my word. Brinley was so happy to see me hold Pepper. 

Landon's soccer team that he played on in the fall decided to play together in an indoor soccer league. It was a really interesting set up with what looked like a hockey arena with turf instead of ice. There are no out of bounds, you just kick it off the wall and keep going. With COVID precautions they didn't allow teams to practice so it was quite a shock for all the kids when they started to play. A little bit of a learning curve, but the kids all had fun. 

MiMi got Brinley a pet stroller for Christmas. Brinley thought it was awesome and was ready to take Pepper out for walks in the neighborhood. Landon even enjoyed taking her out for a walk.

On one of our days off we made a quick trip up to Perfect North for an afternoon of sledding. The kids loved it, especially Landon and I. Since the kids had school we went after it finished for the day. Since we went during the week we had unlimited time to stay on the slopes. There actually weren't many people there either. 

We ended up staying for over 5 hours. We brought our own snacks for the afternoon and night. Nothing like some hot chocolate to make you warm up!

While we were at Perfect North snow tubing I was notified that they were ready for us to get our COVID vaccine. I was able to schedule an appointment the next day to go in and get my first shot. I was so happy to get the shot so that I can hopefully be a part of the solution to a return to "normal". I did it so that I can soon hug my parents again without fear of them contracting this disease. I took this shot so that I can protect my patients at work who are battling cancer and have no immune system to fight off illnesses. I did this so that someday I can be mask free and smile at people once again. I did this because I love people and I want to see you all again. I will continue to wear a mask and abide by all of the social distance requirements to protect the people that I love the most!

Another Saturday means Landon had another indoor soccer match. His team is still struggling to figure it out. Landon is starting to find his way around the field and is turning into a more defensive minded player. He says that he enjoys defense best. I love it because that is the ultimate team player in my opinion because he isn't worried about being the person getting all the glory for a score. 

If you are looking for Brinley then I can guarantee that Pepper is not too far away from her. It doesn't matter what she is doing she thinks that Pepper needs to be a part of it. Having her rabbit has brought her so much joy.

The kids had seen a video somewhere about people that did a color challenge. The challenge was that they could only eat foods of the same color all day long. The kids thought it was awesome. We all picked our color for the day and then Jennifer and the kids went shopping to find stuff for all of us to eat. The biggest problem ended up being that we had to fix multiple different meals at each meal time. Jennifer chose white, Brinley picked red, Landon took yellow, and I had brown. This was all of our dinners. I couldn't use white milk so I had to have my cereal with chocolate milk. Landon was sad because he couldn't use ketchup with his fries. The girls both did fine with their choices. 

A friend had made some Greek yogurt soft pretzels. The recipe looked pretty easy so I decided it was something that the kids could make. They were really good. 

We also had family game night where we played a game of Clue with the kids. Every time I play this game I am reminded of a time that I played with my dad and my siblings. Dad just told us all the rules instead of reading the instructions to us. Well, he forgot that you had to actually show the person who guessed the reason why their guess wasn't correct. We were just saying to one another that they were not right. After about 4 hours of torture the game ended and none of us kids ever asked to play again. When the game is played properly it actually isn't too bad and most definitely doesn't take 4 hours to play.

I decided to try out the smoker one night. I put some chicken thighs in for about 4 hours and they were delicious. This was a trial since I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to get a feel for it before trying it out with some more expensive types of meat. 

Well it worked good so the next day I tried out my first pork shoulder. This one I had a little more trouble with because I was having trouble keeping the heat up on the smoker. It was really cold outside and the smoker wasn't hitting the temperatures that I needed. I ended up having to finish it in the oven. It was delicious, but I learned that this isn't really a cold weather activity when you have an electric smoker. I will be doing it a lot more come spring.

I was finally able to find a new treadmill that wasn't outrageously expensive. After we set it up the kids really became interested in running on it. Landon loved it and was asking to run every day and sometimes twice a day. 

Landon decided that he was going to cheer for the Browns with me. It was the first time in his life that they ever made the playoffs. Hopefully this team turned it around and we can build on this for the future.

I was so happy when the Browns won their first playoff game since 1994. It was even so sweet that we beat the Steelers two weeks in a row. I had worn my Browns gear all around town before the game and even when I was volunteering at church. I had a lot of people  that said "Go Browns!" to me. Another volunteer said he never knew there were so many Browns fans in this area. I told him that I didn't think they were Browns fans but that they just didn't like the Steelers. 

To keep up with the times I tried my hand at putting Bernie Sanders into random pictures. Here is Bernie with our crew who cut their hair to raise money for DanceBlue. It worked out great because Bernie is already bald on top.

Landon lost another tooth and this one just happened to fall out while he was eating Doritos. We were getting ready to watch a show and Landon just yelled that his tooth fell out. 

I have always been clean shaven, but with all the masks that we are wearing now I thought it was the perfect time to try out some different facial hair options. I like the full goatee, but Jennifer doesn't like any of them. A couple of people at work were laughing hysterically when they saw it for the first time and just said "NO!". So I guess you will never know what you are going to get underneath the mask. 

We installed our ring doorbell and the kids love talking to me at work. The only problem is that they can't see me. I enjoy getting to see their faces when I am at work. Whenever they want to talk they just step in front of the camera. 

I was so proud of this little girl. Not only does she love to play with her bunny, but she has done a fairly good job of doing the other chore parts of owning a pet. One night while I was getting a run in on the treadmill she cleaned Pepper's cage.

Landon asked me to teach him the game of chess. I taught him and he picked it up pretty quick for a 7 year old. We played the next day and I was giving him little tips and tricks along the way. Well, turns out I got my king caught in a checkmate without realizing it and he beat me. He was so happy to beat his daddy.

This little girl loves her bunnies. Can you spot the real one? 

Our first real snow of the season just happened on a day I was off from work. I ended up shoveling a few driveways on my street. Landon asked if he could help me shovel. He was out there for about 5 minutes when one of our neighbors came out and said that we didn't have to clean his driveway. I told him that Landon really wanted to do some shoveling. He got his wallet out and gave Landon some money ($1) and then Landon quickly quit and ran in the house. He told Brinley about it and then she came outside and said she wanted to do some shoveling now. I think she was trying to get some money too. She didn't get as lucky.

We also happened to all be off together for a mid week snow day. We stopped for a cool treat before heading out to the hills of Jacobson Park. Jennifer decided to stay in the car while the kids and I slid down the hills. I even attempted to take a trip down while standing up. That did not work well at all. I was sore all the next day. 

Brinley made me a sign to cheer on the Wildcats. I am always happy to see the kids show some love for our hometown team.

Landon is really growing into a defensive specialist. I love it because he is playing with so much more confidence now. He is chasing people down and trying to help keep the other team from scoring. However, he still hasn't figured out the offensive side of the ball.

After his game we stopped into the North Lime Donut shop to pick up a couple of treats. The kids enjoyed them on our drive down to visit a couple of people.

We met Grandma and Grandpa in Elizabethtown. They have seen the kids every month since they were born. I would hate for the pandemic to ruin a streak like that so we decided to meet halfway. We had a socially distanced mask wearing Wendy's picnic in our cars. We even played a game of trivial pursuit on the Nintendo Switch with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids ran around in the grassy area to burn off some energy. 

We got to do quite a bit of stuff together in the month of January. We had a lot of snowy fun, enjoyed some indoor soccer, became a smoker, and continued on as best we could 10 months into the pandemic. Will it end in 2021? I hope so! I pray that we can get back to a somewhat normal life soon. The kids want to be kids again. I want to go on vacation again with my family. I want to smile at people and see them smile back. I want to have to awkwardly tell someone that they have something in their teeth. Praying that your family stays safe in 2021. Thanks for reading and God bless!