Lincoln's First Ball Game

We've been pretty terrible at keeping you updated on here, especially since Lincoln was born. Who knew life got so busy after you have a kid?

But don't worry, I'm here to update you on the important things! Ya know, like Lincoln's first time at the ballpark! 

It's been well documented (mainly on Instagram) that Lincoln is a Rockies fanatic.

Here he is at three days old in his Rockies gear (he chose his outfit, I swear!) while watching the game on TV:

And here's a recent one from last week where he's even more intrigued by the game:

And we learned just a couple days ago that he'll lift his head higher and hold it there for longer during tummy time if the game is on TV and he wants to see it (sorry, we didn't have a camera handy for that one, but know that it was cute and funny).

Last night the Grand Junction Rockies, Rookie-level affiliate of our beloved Colorado Rockies, came to town to take on the Orem Owlz, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take Lincoln to his very first baseball game.

We went a little early with a baseball and pen to try and get a few of the guys to sign. I figured it would be a fun souvenir for Lincoln later in life to say, "This was from your very first baseball game. All these Minor League Rockies signed it for you!" But of course at Brent Brown Ballpark the visiting bullpen is impossible to get close to, so I hung out by the dugout to try and snag at least one of the top prospects. And I succeeded! 

Lincoln's first autograph and first souvenir!

I had screen shots of the roster on my phone, and was looking at jersey numbers and cross-referencing my list, and I spotted Tyler Nevin hanging out in the dugout. Tyler was the Rockies third pick in the draft this year, and number 38 overall. He is also the son of former Major Leaguer Phil Nevin, and currently ranks as the number 24 prospect in the Rockies organization. I called out to him, tossed the ball and pen down into the dugout, and he signed it and tossed it back. Not a bad souvenir for little Lincoln!

While I was getting this signed, Lincoln was drinking from a bottle. And then napping. He woke up in about the second inning, and we moved from sitting down the left field line to sitting in the outfield where we could spread out more, stand up, take more pictures, look around, etc.

And Lincoln loved it! He absolutely loves being outside (yay!), and he seemed to enjoy the baseball too! 

Shortly after he woke up:

With Mom:

With Dad:

With all of us:

Wait. We didn't get one with all of us. Why didn't we get one with all of us?!?!

But look at how locked in he was:

Recognize that look? Same one he had as he watched the Colorado Rockies on TV! What a cute kid.

And the four and a half innings we lasted before his bedtime were pretty good, too. The Rockies pitcher, Dakota Behr, had a no-hitter going when we left. And lost it that inning, right after we were gone. I think we're good luck! The Rockies were winning 2-0 when it was time to go, and went on to win the game 8-2.

I also got a few good pictures from the game. Hopefully between the pictures, and the souvenir, this will be fun for Lincoln to look back on. His first baseball game! It was certainly a fun one for me.

Owlz manager explaining the ground rules.

Rockies LF Cole Anderson makes a diving catch in the first inning.

Dakota Behr finished with 5 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 R and the win.
When we left in the middle of the fifth, just one Owlz runner had reached (E5).

RF Sam Hilliard takes a swing, connects, and... Grounds out.

SAFE! 1B Collin Ferguson with the double.

And we were treated to a nice sunset over Brent Brown Ballpark.

Lincoln Timothy Smith

It all started Thursday night (June 4) at about 7:30 p.m. Actually it all started about nine months ago, but we'll skip that bit and fast forward to the part you care about. 

I had a couple softball games starting at 8 o'clock that night, but around 7:30 Shantel started to feel sick and have some cramps so she stayed home. I offered to stay with her but she insisted she was fine and that I should go to my games. I did, but kept checking my phone between innings to make sure she didn't need me. 

I got home shortly after 10, and Shantel still wasn't feeling great, and then at 10:40 pm she discovered what a real contraction feels like. It didn't seem fun. In spite of that, Shantel decided to try and get some sleep and we finally went to bed around 11:30. 

Orem Community Hospital is a very serene place at 1 a.m.

But that didn't last long. Shantel was awakened at 12:22 with more contractions. A few minutes later she went into the bathroom and at about 12:40 a.m. I woke up when I heard the bathroom door open, and Shantel told me that her contractions were about five minutes apart. For about 15 minutes we sat there trying to decide if we should go to the hospital yet because the contractions weren't lasting for a full minute and they hadn't been five minutes apart for an hour yet. But fortunately for us we got our answer at 12:56 when her water broke! We jumped up and grabbed everything we needed and were out the door in just a couple minutes!

We arrived at the hospital at about 1:10 a.m. And checked in while Shan dripped uncontrollably all over the floor (sorry, that's kind of gross, but it was also kind of funny). 

Anna was the initial nurse who helped us and checked the water break to be sure it was actually amniotic fluid that was leaking (which made us laugh because it was either that or Shantel needed to be re-potty trained which we were pretty confident wasn't the case). After that we got to our room and we were introduced to Corrina, the nurse who would be with us until 6 a.m. 

Room 117

Shantel was dilated to four centimeters and they said that since this was our first we could likely expect to dilate at a centimeter an hour (so six hours of dilating and contractions) and then one to three hours of pushing. Our doctor wasn't on call that night and wouldn't be there until about 7 a.m. which really was going to work out perfectly since we were told to expect to have the baby between 8 and 10 a.m. at that expected rate. 

Around 3 a.m. Shantel decided she was ready for an epidural as the contractions were getting more painful. Ryan, the epidural guy, came and stuck that giant needle in her back, but then about 30 minutes later the pain still hadn't gone down so he came back and gave her an extra dose, which did work, hallelujah! Those contractions did not look fun in the slightest. 

After all the tests and Shan getting hooked up to all the right monitors with all the right drugs, Corrina said she had some papers to fill out with us and things she had to go over. She told us that she would just go over one or two things on her list and finish the rest later so that we could get some sleep. She sat down and barely started when two other nurses rushed in. 

They could see the heart monitor placed over the baby and noticed it was no longer getting a reading, which means the baby had moved downward and was on his way out. That wasn't supposed to happen until at least 7:30 that morning, but here we were at about 4:25 and Shantel was fully dilated and our baby was getting ready to come out! And so we (and by "we" I mostly mean Shantel) braced ourselves for one to three hours of pushing. 

Shantel pushed with one contraction, and then with a second contraction a minute later the nurse (Anna) turned to me while I was holding Shantel's leg and said "There's your baby's head. Do you want to see it?" "I don't know, do I?" I decided to take a quick glance and got my first glimpse of our little baby!

Then Shantel pushed one more time with the next contraction, and apparently she's a natural at this because the nurses had to stop her before the baby came flying out without the doctor there to help. So everything paused for about five minutes while we waited for the doctor to get there, our baby's head halfway out already.

Dr. Wayne Young, the on call doctor that night, arrived and with one more push our little baby boy was born into the world. 

Lincoln Timothy Smith was born at 4:40 a.m. on June 5, 2015. He was 20.5 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces.

The first family photo!

If only that wall wasn't in the way of my shot...

His first bed! Albeit a very temporary one.

Just hammin' it up for the camera.

So content to be with Mom!

And I think he looks even more like me now, at almost a month old.

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A few quick notes for the sake of memory:

It didn't take long to discover that he's a smart kid! Or a really hungry kid that learned quickly out of desperation. But probably both! Shantel fed him for the first time at 5:35 that morning and he latched on first try, which apparently doesn't always happen. He ate for about 30 minutes before burping and switching sides, where he once again latched on almost immediately.

As expected, Lincoln's weight dropped down to 7 pounds even by bed time. That weight was the same in the morning, and was down to 6 pounds 13 ounces when we left the hospital.

They had a nourishment closet for husbands that had an unlimited supply of chocolate milk, pudding, jello, popcorn, cereal, etc. It was awesome.

Denise was our nurse during that first day until Corrina came back for the night shift. (Those two were definitely our favorites from our time there, with Debbi a close third). Jana was very briefly assigned to us Saturday morning but quickly switched out due to an influx of patients (I only met her when she came to introduce the new nurse because I had been sleeping). Debbi was our nurse on Saturday during the day, and then Andrea was our final nurse that sent us off when we went home, including helping us get Lincoln in his carseat for the first time. We left the hospital at 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 6.

In his carseat and ready to go home!

It was a rainy day, but a perfect day!

Stories from Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a fun time, and we've each had our fair share of pregnancy brain moments (yeah, it affects expecting fathers too). I figured it would be enjoyable for our future posterity to read and enjoy some of the things that happened during those nine months. I've forgotten some of the funny stories I'm sure, and some of these won't be hysterically hilarious, but hopefully will provide at least a little entertainment.

The Cravings

Honestly, Shanny's cravings weren't too wild. She suddenly liked pudding, and there was a stretch where she was constantly dying for corn nuts, but it hasn't been anything too wild like "I NEED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH GRAPE JELLY RIGHT NOW!" She usually would just crave something, like Thai food, and would keep craving it for weeks until we could get to that Thai restaurant. 

But the best cravings moment came pretty early on in the pregnancy. We were sitting on the couch one day when suddenly she turned to me, smelled me, and then declared that I smelled like this particular Chinese restaurant in South Jordan. I had never been there, I definitely didn't smell like Chinese food, but suddenly she could smell that place and wanted a number three with five extra egg rolls (her family's standard order). That place was about 40 minutes away, so we didn't make it that night, but the craving didn't subside until Keith, bless his heart, went up there to get dinner for his family and brought us some as well.

My second favorite cravings moment came probably around the six month mark of the pregnancy. We had eaten a pretty big pasta dinner around 6:30 or 7 o'clock. Then at about 8 we're watching TV and Shantel sees some pancakes on the screen and instantly wants some. So after our show ended she made herself waffles. After a pasta dinner. At 8 o'clock. But she had to have waffles right that second.

She also developed a cookie addiction for pretty much the entire pregnancy, to the point where I actually had to hide all the unopened packages of EL Fudge (we bought several when they were on sale). But don't worry: she also ate lots of pears, oranges, apples, and even some asparagus.

Snacks

While we're on the subject of food, I want to point out the second greatest benefit of pregnancy - the first being the child that comes at the end, of course. But the second greatest benefit? SNACKS. 

I love it! We go to church, and I always get hungry halfway in, but if I pull out an apple in the middle of Sunday School people look at me like, "Seriously, dude? In church?" But if my pregnant wife pulls out some snacks and then shares with me, there's no judgement! It's wonderful!

An Open Letter to Lauren

This letter is to Lauren, who ruined one night of sleep about four months into the pregnancy.

Dear Lauren,

If you don't want to give your number to the drunk guy at the club, don't. But please don't give him my wife's number. He'll call at 2 a.m. and he won't stop calling until she answers. 

Shantel handled it well though: "This isn't Lauren. This is a pregnant lady sleeping!" Even that drunk guy realized he had made a big mistake. He never called again. 

Of Moab and Missed Exits

This one is entirely on me.

We made it, and it was beautiful!

I had the idea that we should take one last little vacation before the baby came, so at about seven and a half months we decided to take a trip to Moab. Neither of us have ever driven there, so we used Google Maps and went on our way on a Friday evening after work. From our research we figured it would take about two and a half hours to get there. I looked at the directions and interpreted them to say "Take I-15 to I-70 and then you're there." But two hours into our drive we realized that they were actually saying, in the most confusing language possible, "Take I-15 to US-6 to I-70." The exit to get on US-6 is about five minutes away from our house, but it took us two hours to realize that. So about four and a half hours later we arrived at our Motel 6 in Green River and ended up with one of the best night's sleeps you could ever have! (Seriously.) Probably because we were exhausted from all the extra driving and arriving at 11 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

Oops!

But Arches National Park was BEAUTIFUL and we had an incredible little vacation in spite of my somewhat large blunder.

The drive home took just two and a half hours.

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So there you have it, a few of the funny moments from our pregnancy with Lincoln.

We're Having a Baby!

As I'm sure you know by now, Shantel and I are having a baby boy in June! This is the story of how everyone found out about it.

Naturally, it started with Shantel. I knew she was "late" but it turns out I wasn't aware how late. She took a pregnancy test (Sep 29, 2014) and found out we were having a baby! Of course, she couldn't wait to tell me, and she had been prepared for this moment for a while and already had a plan in place. 

She quickly and secretly change into her Colorado Rockies Carlos Gonzalez t-shirt and went into our back room. I had no idea what she was doing, and she gave me no reason to be suspicious. But she came out of the back room with a gift bag in hand. 

Now I was really confused, and slightly concerned. Had I forgotten one of the many gift giving holidays? Was I supposed to have gotten her something as well? Going forward did I need to be more prepared with gifts on hand like Ricky Ricardo? (If you don't know what I'm referring to, it's worth watching the first few minutes of this I Love Lucy episode, until there's about 20 minutes left)

She sat down on the couch next to me and I opened my gift. It was my Todd Helton Rockies shirt. Thanks, love! Just what I always wanted! A shirt taken from my personal collection!

Then she informed me that there was more. So I dug down deeper into the bag and pulled this out:

I was floored. I turned to her and asked "Really?"  She emphatically nodded her head in the affirmative. I began to cry. Who knew a little onesie could make me cry? But these were happy tears. I was so excited that we were going to have a baby! 

And the tears didn't stop there. I've cried many times since then. Basically anytime I think about our baby I start to tear up. I'm tearing up a little as I write this. I cried when we had our first ultrasound and saw our little baby for the first time. Thankfully the room was dark and I wiped away the tears before the nurse could make fun of me. Shantel knew. And she makes fun of me. But early on in this pregnancy especially, I've just been weepy and emotional with all the excitement!

But enough with my emotions, back to announcing it to everybody...

Ashley, Shantel's sister, had already had two babies in this area, and they were on their third, so we wanted their advice on doctors and just about everything else, and we decided to tell everyone early so that we could choose a doctor with their help. 

So we devised a plan, and here's what happened (which of course are two different things)...

Shantel's family was heading up to the family cabin for General Conference weekend. We decided this would be a good opportunity to tell them all as most of the family would be there, with the exception of Keith, Ashley, and their two boys who we knew we wouldn't convince to come, so we figured we'd just tell them on our way home or something. And we still didn't have an actual plan of how we were going to tell everyone. 

You see, the whole thing was so last second that we didn't have any idea how to make this announcement. Shantel's mom asked us to bring carrots, so really our plan consisted of handing them baby carrots instead of full carrots and seeing what happened from there. Thankfully, that isn't what happened. I'm not sure that's what we actually would have done, but it's pretty much the best we had come up with. And that would have been kind of lame. 

Sometime between devising this half-baked plan and our departure we learned that Bri and Derek probably weren't coming either. They were helping Bri's boss move their hair salon to a new location. So we stopped by to see if we could convince them to come, and then if not, to give them the exciting news. We stood there and talked to them for quite a while, and couldn't quite figure out if they were going to join us at the cabin or if we should just tell them right then. Long story short, they decided to come, so we kept our secret a little longer. And let it be noted that we carpooled for the two hour drive. That will be important later in the story, and not just because we couldn't continue planning how to make our announcement because we were no longer alone. 

We arrived just in time for the priesthood session of conference, so Shantel and Brianne dropped Derek and myself off at the church and headed up to the cabin. I, of course, made sure Shantel wasn't going to tell anybody anything exciting without me. She didn't even have a chance though - not that she would have - because there was some extended family there that night and we were telling immediate family only at this point. So, lucky for us, we had an additional night to prepare. 

We had a lot of fun that night, especially our game of Capture the Flag in the freezing cold that had a surprise ending which is still classified. I can't reveal any more details than that, but know that it was fun.

In the morning (Oct 5, 2014), with extended family gone, we put our new plan in motion. We had come prepared with our Rockies shirts and onesies, a clothesline, and clothes pins so that we could take pictures in preparation for future announcements of this baby. We decided to use those for a more exciting announcement than baby carrots. 

Shantel kept everyone distracted inside while I strung the clothesline, with Rockies attire for three, between two trees just outside the cabin's kitchen window. We figured once everyone finished their breakfast and cleaned up their dishes someone would look out the window and see the clothes, get excited, and then everyone would find out in that moment. 

Boy were we wrong. It didn't happen like that at all!

Before anyone noticed, we realized that Braxten's friend Landon was there. He's so much a part of the family it didn't even dawn on us that he wasn't actually related. But we decided to go ahead with it anyway, we'd just swear him to secrecy like everyone else. 

People cleaned up their dishes and nobody seemed to even glance out the window. Derek stepped outside for a minute but then when he came back in he had his back to the clothesline, pointed at something the other direction, and didn't say a word about our announcement. We were starting to wonder if anyone would notice. 

Then a few minutes later Bri and Derek came and found us and Bri got all excited and hugged Shantel and congratulated us. Here's what happened:

Brianne and Derek needed a place to watch the BYU football game the Friday night before. We were going to that game, but let them go to our house and watch it. Shantel also gave them the password to our computer, forgetting that we had windows open with baby stuff clearly visible. So they already knew and hadn't said anything! They kept it a secret during our whole conversation seeing if they were going to come to the cabin, the entire time they were trapped in the car with us on the drive to the cabin, and overnight until Derek saw our announcement and went and grabbed Brianne. I don't know how they never said anything to us before then, especially during the long drive up! I probably would have called them the minute I saw it if roles were reversed. But even though they knew, they still were keeping it a secret until someone else looked outside. 

The Sunday morning session of General Conference started, and we were all gathered around the TV to watch, with exception of the boys who were loading up the truck so they could get back for the afternoon. Next thing we know, Jaren comes through the door with a curious smile on his face, comes and sits next to us and asks, "Is this some sort of sick joke?" We just started laughing, and we talked in vague terms so nobody had any idea what was going on. Apparently Landon -- of course it was him that saw first, right? -- saw it and called out to Jaren, "Uh... Jaren, come over here!"

And with that, Landon, Jaren, and Braxten all knew. But that little coded conversation sparked some curiosity in Kortlyn and Tiara. They eventually found their way over to the window and saw the clothesline, but Tiara would absolutely not believe it! She kept saying "I'm not falling for this again." Apparently some of Shantel's other siblings have tricked her, because we sure haven't tried to trick anyone into believing we're having a baby! Kortlyn didn't say much of anything, but Tiara was continually insisted - for about 15 straight minutes - that we were trying to trick her and she was not going to fall for it. Eventually, we convinced her to go find Shantel's phone and look through the pictures so that she could see the one of the pregnancy test. She did, and was finally convinced!

Somewhere around this time Jaren came back in and told us one end of the clothesline had fallen, but Braxten was going to tie it back up. I hadn't tied too strong of a knot, just a basic slip knot, because I didn't think it would need to withstand the wind for over three hours. I thought it would take about 15 minutes, tops! But fortunately the boys caught it and fixed it before it ruined everyone else's opportunities to discover it.

It was getting really fun seeing everyone's reactions individually, and there were three left to go! Shantel's oldest sister (Kleresa), mom, and dad still had no idea, and we were on the edge of our seats every time one of them ventured near the window.

Jeff, Shantel's dad, was next to look out the window. He stared for a while. He looked up, down, left, right, straight ahead, every single direction. We knew he saw it. It looked like he had stared directly at it. There was literally no way he hadn't seen it. But he turned around, expressionless, and didn't say a word. Everyone died with laughter as he remained silent and made no acknowledgement of the display outside the cabin window.

Eventually, after the morning session of conference was all over (and please, forgive us for being such a distraction during that session! We really thought everyone would see it as soon as breakfast was over!) Kleresa and Natalie finally wandered over to the window. Kleresa saw it and quickly realized that only Natalie was left so Kleresa helped prompt Natalie to look out the window. It took a lot of convincing but she finally looked out the window, saw the clothesline, and proclaimed, "Whose crap is that?!" This coming from the woman who had raised her daughters to always be lady-like in speech and action! We were all so shocked by that reaction we about died with laughter. It was one of the funniest things I think any of us had ever heard or seen. 

So now everyone that went to the cabin knew and could openly congratulate us! We got the pictures we wanted to take, and it was all a lot of fun.

**********

We were supposed to have dinner with Keith and Ashley that Sunday night but had initially cancelled on them when we decided to go to the cabin. But since everyone was leaving earlier than we anticipated we asked them if we could still come over. They kindly obliged.

We didn't really have an exciting plan for telling them, but we decided that Keith would probably make some wisecracks about how we needed to have a baby, and he didn't disappoint! So we slipped it in and now everyone on Shantel's side knew. 

**********

Now we just had to tell my family, but for that we did have a good plan! We (and by we I really mean Shantel) took one of the pictures we had taken at the cabin and created this postcard to send to my parents:

Cute, right? (And yes, I can say "cute." I'm going to be a dad!)

So we sent that postcard to them early in the week and waited as it made its way across the country to my parents' mailbox. It made it there on a Friday (October 10) and my parents both texted us while we were at work and then we called on our way home.

We still needed to tell my sister, though. We decided to wait and try and tell her until we could have her over for dinner. Of course, when you invite someone over for dinner that you haven't invited over for dinner before it might raise some suspicions, so it wasn't the ultrasound on the fridge that clued her in, it was just the invitation. That and her overdeveloped baby radar. She can see a baby is coming from miles (or months) away!

So now everyone in our immediate families (and Landon) knew, and of course we were all very excited!

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Of course, there's also the story of how we found out we were having a boy. To be honest, it was a bit of a surprise! We both wanted a boy first - me because I'm convinced boys will be easier, and Shantel because she wants a protective big brother for his future siblings - but we both thought it would be a girl. The night Shantel told me we were having a baby I had a dream about our baby girl, and ever since then I was convinced we were having a girl. Shan was on board, as well, as her instinct was telling her girl as well.

When we went in for the ultrasound (Jan 12, 2015) the technician got everything ready, then started the ultrasound and immediately said "Well there's your boy! 100 percent!" Apparently our little boy isn't the least bit shy! The technician told us that she was going to let suspense build a little bit before she told us, but little baby Smith was ready to reveal himself!

Later that day Shantel had a major realization: "No wonder I'm so hungry all the time! It's a boy!"

We couldn't be more excited for our first child, a little baby boy due on June 2, 2015!

Blessings of Tithing

This post will be fairly short, but after a couple of talks on tithing today I wanted to write about how we have been blessed by tithing. The blessings for us started even before we were married. 

Shantel and I first met when she was attending my ward, which I had just moved into, which was actually her old ward and the ward she was going to be moving back into in just a couple months. Confused? Basically she was attending my ward because she liked it better than her's and she was about to move back in anyway. As a result, however, she wasn't able to pay tithing often because she never saw her bishop. 

Fast forward a couple months and now I'm living in a different ward and Shantel is back in my old ward officially. Ironically, I had to work during my new ward's time, so I was now attending that old ward, which was now Shantel's ward. Now you're really confused. But that's okay. All you really need to know is that both of us had gone through extended stretches in which we had attended wards other than our own, thereby making it difficult to keep up on our tithing. And then we got engaged. 

We planned on getting married mid-semester in spite of the challenges of finding housing, selling our current rental contracts, etc. But we took that leap of faith together because we knew it was what we were supposed to do and when we were supposed to do it. 

Have you ever tried to sell a housing contract in Provo in the middle of a semester? Not an easy task! We knew it would be a challenge, but we also hoped that the very worst case scenario was that we would sell our contracts starting in January and we would only get stuck with an extra month's rent for each of our contracts. 

Then we paid our tithing. It wasn't an "I'll bet God will help us sell our contracts if we pay our tithing" decision. It was a "Wow. Neither of us have paid our tithing in quite a while and that's just something we need to do" decision. But as soon as we did it the blessings came!

It was only a matter of days and Shantel sold her contract starting at the beginning of November. So we didn't get stuck with both of our single housing rents and our married housing rent in November like we assumed we would. It saved us almost $300 that month, not to mention the almost $300 for December, which doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount now, but at the time it would have been a seemingly insurmountable loss. 

I was not able to sell my contract in November or December, but fortunately my roommate's brother came home from his mission and bought my contract starting January. The greatest blessing though was that my apartment complex agreed to use my deposit to pay for my December rent so that we didn't have to use that extra money and then wait for the deposit to get sent to us. These blessings fell right into place the second we paid our tithing, and it remains one of the greatest miracles that we have experienced as a couple. Our faith as we took a step forward to get married even though it made no financial sense, and our faith to pay our tithing when it made even less financial sense (even though it was a no-brainer for us because that's how we were raised) led to these financial blessings and allowed us to get on our feet quickly after we were married. 

Those blessings have continued through our first 16-plus months of marriage so far. We were blessed to afford the payments for a new car and find one with zero percent interest. We have been blessed with Shantel being able to return to a job at the law school. We have been blessed that Shantel's job pays enough that I have been able to take lower paying jobs to get the experience that I need to hopefully start a career in sports soon. 

God is watching over us, and when we pay our tithing and keep His commandments He blesses us and directs us to all sorts of success, including financial stability. We are by no means rich or even "well off," but we are "well enough off." We have some student loans and a car payment to pay off, but we know we have been tremendously blessed and taken care of by our Heavenly Father. We have been blessed to the point that we have even been able to help others when they have been in need, and I believe that we were a blessing to at least one other individual as they paid their tithing. The Lord has blessed us so much that He could use us to bless others, and we are eternally grateful for that!

What a Year! A review of 2013

Facebook has a somewhat cool feature that gives you your top 20 events of the year. I was actually pretty excited to rediscover this feature because I thought it would be fun to reflect on our first full year together and see the highlights that we enjoyed, especially since we have a joint Facebook so it would be our family highlights. So here they are, for your enjoyment: our top 20 moments of 2013 according to Facebook, hopefully in no particular order. Actually, it's chronological, but I'm just glad these aren't ranked!

1. Facebook starts us off with Shantel and Brianne dressing identically in an attempt to trick their parents into mixing them up, and boy did it work! They had Jeff going, and Natalie about had a heart attack. And somehow in the process it all got blamed on me and Natalie still accuses me of lying to her. I promise, I didn't!

 2. One of our top moments of the year was my sister Natalie winning a mini-basketball signed by Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies, and Matt Carlino. Apparently Facebook wanted to rub it in as much as Nat did.

 3. The good news is, one of our top moments was me being funny. But how disgusting was that injury?! So horrible.

4. Another of our top moments was a random comment left on our wall by my best friend. Are we really that bad at social media?

 5. I'm choosing to believe that this top moment was actually our trip to Maryland, and not just the fact that we added a new photo.

 6. Shantel and I were able to play a lot of softball together this summer, but according to Facebook the actual highlights were when Shantel was able to watch me play softball. Or perhaps it was her subtly comparing me to the Sultan of Swat?

 7. Again, Facebook thinks I'm really funny! But my mom really is awesome.

 8. Because we don't add enough photos, it's a great moment when other people add photos of us, or in this case Shantel. Here are some pictures of Shantel at dinner and at the Temple to Temple 5k. Dinner is a daily occurrence, but getting out and running in a 5k with your sisters isn't, so I suppose that's a worthy one to add to the list!

 9. My television fame is quite well known, so it makes perfect sense that it would make the highlight list when Stacey, also of Studio C fame, sends me a picture of me in the Studio C writer's room.

 10. We got to wear BYU football uniforms and helmets. That was pretty cool!

 11. While Shantel and I were in Maryland, we got some family photos taken. Excluding our wedding, it was our first set of family photos since 2008, and also the first family photos Shantel and I had participated in. A monumental event to be sure!

 12. In fact, it was such a historic moment that Facebook included it twice.

 13. We were very relieved to see that all of the hard work we put into this year's Halloween costumes was appreciated. Okay, okay. Without exaggeration, it could not have possibly been any more last minute. Literally.

 14. I'm choosing to believe that the first time anyone has ever said I had a beard was the top moment, and not the fact that my wife accused me of cheering for the Red Sox.

 15. This one we both absolutely agree with. We celebrated our first anniversary in 2013!

 16. It was also the first time in a few years that Shantel's family took family pictures, and considering how much Facebook loved my family's pictures, it was no surprise to see these on the list as well.

 17. Not only was it a fun little trip to Park City and the first time either of us had ever gone to a skeleton competition, it was really cool to see my good from from England representing his country in an international competition!

 18. Keith was mad enough that I took this picture and put it on Facebook. Imagine how upset he'll be when he finds out it made our top 20.

 19. Glad to see that Facebook is a Rockies fan and was supporting me in my efforts to obtain this card. If anyone was wondering, it worked. I bought it for myself for Christmas.

 20. Well Facebook actually only gave us 19, in spite of it saying, clear as day, "A look at your 20 biggest moments on Facebook." Apparently we're so lame on Facebook that we only earned 19. And no, I'm not offended that it didn't include a single one of the posts from my sports blog even though it had room for one more and included three posts of only two sets of family photos.

**********

After reading through that list, you probably think we had a pretty lame year, but we didn't! I promise! We put together a list of our top 20 (don't worry, we're giving you the full 20, and even one honorable mention), according to us, and not some social media site that we clearly aren't very good at using. We had a really exciting year, so here they are, in chronological-ish order, because true chronological order just didn't flow as well.

It's us! Can't you tell?

1. I dyed my first Easter egg. Yep, you read that correctly. I had never dyed an Easter egg until I was 23 years old. But thankfully Shantel had, so she could show me the ropes! I made us, and I also made Troy Tulowitzki and Jackson Emery.

2. If you know me (which, if you're reading this blog, you probably know me quite well) you know that March is my Christmas. I LOVE college basketball, and the NCAA tournament is my favorite part of every year. I convinced Shantel to fill out a bracket, and we posted them on our wall. We actually filled out an NIT bracket this year as well since BYU didn't make the Big Dance. We also placed bets on each of the brackets, with the loser of one needing to plan a date we had never been on, and the loser of the other needing to give the winner a 10 minute massage. Naturally, with all my basketball expertise and knowledge of the college basketball landscape, I lost both of the competitions. In fact, Shantel did so well that she nearly accomplished something I have never managed to do in my entire life: it came down to the national title game, and she narrowly lost to my dad. On the one hand I was relieved that I didn't get shown up on that front, but on the other hand I would have been so proud! But 2014 is my year. I'm going to beat them both.

Woohoo! 

3. This highlight, were these in order of awesomeness, would certainly be at or near the top. Shantel finished up her degree in Recreation Management, and was even lucky enough to get that degree from BYU's Marriott School of Management. She now relentlessly rubs in the fact that I'm not done yet and that maybe one day I'll be as smart as her and have a college degree. Okay, so she doesn't actually do that, but I would if I was her. So congratulations, Shan!

4. Unfortunately, graduation also meant the end of her student job at BYU's Law School that she had held since her freshman year. She was sad to leave, but after a few weeks of searching she accepted a job at Prudential as an administrative assistant. She didn't love it, but she was grateful to have a job! One of her favorite things about that job was that HGTV was always on in there, so she got a lot of cool decorating ideas for our future homes. She also had a decent amount of down time that she could read and watch shows on her phone. So not what she envisioned coming out of college, but *SPOILER ALERT* she didn't stay there long! But we'll get to that later.

5. Shantel's new job was in American Fork, about 15 or 20 minutes away by car, so we decided we would no longer be able to get by without a car. And so, we went out and bought a new Toyota Corolla, with no interest, so that was nice. His name is CarGo. He's named after Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies, but we thought it was a very clever name. Ya know, because he's a Car. And he helps us Go.

Us at the White House

6. Just before Shan started her new job, and just before CarGo joined our family, we took our first vacation together. We went out to visit my family in Maryland, and got to tour around DC, Baltimore, and a few other really cool places. If you need a refresher on the events of that vacation, click here.

7. Around this time I started a new job with BYU Sports Camps as a camp planner. I realized that I had kind of reached my glass ceiling at security, and there were really no more resume building experiences I could have there. I was casually looking for a new job and just kind of stumbled into this opportunity. And it was a great opportunity! I had the opportunity to plan the camps for rugby, football, lacrosse, and diving, so I got to work closely with those coaching staffs and athletes and it was a lot of fun!

Sounds like Assistant Dean to me!

8. Not long after my new job, Shantel was contacted by one of her former coworkers at the Law School. She told Shan that she was leaving the Law School and that she should come back and take her spot. Long story short, she went back! She was very excited to return there as staff. She is now the Assistant to the Dean of Students, or as I like to call her, Assistant Dean. It is currently only a three-quarter position but we're hoping she gets made full-time very soon!

9. For those of you who know me, you know I love movies. For those of you know Shantel, you know she loves movies. For those of you who know both of us, you know we like to watch a lot of movies together. This past summer though we babysat my sister's movie collection while she was, shall we say, "between homes." Unfortunately pretty much the only movies that she has that we were interested in are movies that we already owned as well, however, she did own all eight seasons of Full House. It wasn't long before we were fully committed (not to mention challenged by Natalie) to watch every single episode before we had to return them. So we did it. And it was awesome. And it started a new routine with us. We're now watching several TV series together. We already have our shows that we follow. Suits, Psych, White Collar. We like USA shows. Clearly.

Now we're watching NCIS together. I watched the first four or five seasons before my mission, but we started at the beginning and recently got caught up! Don't judge us. And now in the early going of 2014 we are all caught up on BBC's Sherlock, and we're just getting started on Leverage and The Middle. I swear we're not lazy, we just love being entertained!

10. Right near the beginning of my fall semester, Shan and I made our first road trip together. We went to Colorado and visited some of my mission. It was a lot of fun! We stayed with the Olsons, probably my favorite family from my time there. Okay, not probably. They were definitely my favorite family. Shantel learned to love them pretty quick, too. Their three girls especially. We still quote them ("Nailed it!") and laugh about their ability to quote movies. Thanks for letting us stay with you guys! If you would like to refresh on that vacation click... Wait, never mind. I never got around to writing about that one. Oops! Here's a little more about it in highlight number 11:

11. The reason for our trip was a birthday surprise to me from Shantel. Surprise probably isn't the right word though because the following conversation happened a little before my birthday:

Shan: "How much am I allowed to spend on you for your birthday?"

Me: "Well, that depends."

Shan: "On what?"

Me: "Well if you're planning something like a trip to Colorado to see a Rockies game, you can spend whatever you want!"

Shantel's first Coors Field experience

She then got this stunned, "How did you know?" sort of look on her face. And that is how I found out what I was getting for my birthday. 

Her present was actually more than that. The week of my birthday was dubbed "Baseball Week," and it was awesome! We watched baseball movies, a Rockies game on TV, played catch, and went to an Orem Owlz game (they're the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim). Then she gave me tickets to our future Rockies game.

The game itself was fun. Well as fun as it could be with the Rockies losing. Todd Helton was sitting on 2,499 hits, so we were excited at the possibility of seeing him hit number 2,500! Of course he went 0-4, striking out three times and flying out to the warning track in center. Oh, well! We did get to see Corey Dickerson hit a MONSTER home run to right field. It was such a no-doubter that Jay Bruce didn't even bother to turn around and watch it, let alone run after it. So certainly a fun and worthwhile trip, no question!

2013 Carriage Cove Pirates

12. Facebook almost got it right. Facebook said the highlight was that Shantel got to watch me play softball, but really the highlight was that we got to play a lot of softball together! We were on two different teams together during the summer. The first was a BYU intramural team with some couples from our old ward. We were really, really bad. Like really bad. And we ended up having to forfeit our schedule before the regular season was even over because we couldn't get enough people to show up. But we also got to play on an Orem city league team with Shantel's sisters' apartment complex. That team wasn't horrible. I mean, we weren't great, and we had some, umm, interesting personalities on the team. But we did manage to come in second in the tournament in our division! Hopefully we get to play on many more softball teams together! Shantel hadn't really played before, but she was getting goooood!

13. This year was, in a way, defined by new (or new-ish) experiences. We went to a lot of events that neither of us had been to before, or maybe it was just the first or second time for one of us. And that's not even mentioning our vacations, which were obviously our first together. Here are some of the highlights:

The first was one that wasn't new at all for either of us. We went to A LOT of BYU games for a variety of sports. Of course that primarily consisted of football and basketball (because I have only missed one home football game and I have missed zero home basketball games during my time here at BYU), but there were a few games of baseball, women's basketball, and a few others.

BYU 0, Denver 9,074. Or something like that.

One of those was a BYU hockey game. I've been to some hockey games in the past, including one BYU game, but it was a new one for Shantel. And it was fun! Granted, BYU is awful, and they were playing a really good team in the University of Denver, so we got absolutely rocked, but it was still a blast! We got to sit front row, right behind the glass, and that worked out perfectly. Why? Because we got the best seats imaginable for the most viscous check I have ever seen. Literally right in front of us, as a Denver player went after a loose puck along the boards he got blindsided by a kid from BYU. Miraculously it didn't shatter the glass into our faces, but it sure busted up that Denver guy's shoulder. He immediately dropped his stick and skated for his bench with his arm hanging limp by his side as though something is his should had broken, or at the very least popped out. It was nuts!

We also went to several baseball games throughout the summer, aside from the aforementioned Rockies game and BYU games. As Pass of All Passes holders, we have season tickets to the Orem Owlz. Shantel humored me and allowed us to go to a few games during the summer, including back-to-back nights when the Grand Junction Rockies were in town. We showed up to those games in our Rockies gear and rooted against the home town team in favor of the Single-A affiliate of my Colorado Rockies. We were graciously acknowledged by the Rockies left fielder, and we ticked off a lot of Owlz fans. But it was awesome. And we cheered for the Owlz against everyone else!

Shantel and I with an international star!

During the summer we also went to the Draper Days Rodeo, which is something of a tradition for Shantel's family. It was only my second rodeo (the first coming the year before when Shan and I were dating), and we had fun. I'm actually way out of my element at a rodeo. Not many other people showed up in gym shorts, tee shirts, and tennis shoes, but I had Shantel with me so I survived!

Another of the cool experiences, as Facebook alluded to above, that we had in 2013 was the chance to go to Park City to watch my good friend Tom compete in skeleton. He's on Great Britain's national team, so it was really cool to go and see him compete and spend a little time with him. Shantel and I had never been to a skeleton event, so it was fun to experience something brand new to both of us!

Hopefully 2014 is filled with these kind of events, because we definitely enjoy them!

14. We started off the year in a married student ward, the same ward we joined when we were married. After a while, however, we started to feel like it wasn't for us. For one, it felt like a glorified singles ward, and we were trying to be all grown up. But more than that it just didn't feel quite right for us. And so we switched over to the family ward, and it has been awesome. There were equally great people in both wards, but we immediately felt at home in the family ward. So, moral of the story, follow the Spirit. The married student ward is perfect for some, but God helped us realize that the family ward was perfect for us. 

15. One of the really big highlights was my internship with BYU Athletic Marketing. It has been awesome. I get to go to all the games, be on the sidelines, court, field, etc. There are still times where I'm sitting on the press row or team bench in the Marriott Center and I just look up in awe of where I am. Freshman Tim never could have imagined. Heck, Junior Tim wouldn't have dreamt this up either. It's been amazing. 

Me and my sideline pass at the Homecoming game.

And it's especially awesome because they really like me. They give me a lot of experience and responsibility, and they've come to rely on me for a few things, especially a new fan loyalty rewards program that I was tasked with implementing and overseeing. 

It's been really cool to be a part of something I have always loved and been a fan of, and it has been great to reach out to BYU fans in the community and around the world. 

And if anyone knows of any jobs in athletic marketing, sports in general, or even just marketing, please let me know! I'm going to need a job when I graduate in June.  

16. If you need to review Friday the 13th, the mice, and our new bed frame, please click here.

17. Moving to the new ward also meant a new calling for me. I was called to be the Scouting Committee Chairman for the ward. I realized very quickly that I didn't have a clue about scouting anymore. I earned my Eagle Scout over eight years ago and haven't done anything with scouting since. My first task was to recharter all the scouting units for the ward, and that was a monster of a project. In fact, just earlier this week I was informed that I wasn't quite done. Bummer. But overall it is nice to be involved, especially in something as great and important as the Boy Scouts. That being said, the Boy Scouts of America is one of the least efficient organizations in the country. But that's okay. I still believe in it!

See! An old man!

And a little side note, Shan just got a new calling as the first counselor in the Young Women's organization. But her calling came in 2014, so that's why it didn't get it's own section. Maybe next year!

18. November 17 was our first anniversary! We did it! We made it through the first year! And Shantel still loves me!

Our anniversary was on a Sunday this year, so that severely limited what we could do, but we still made the most of it! A couple nights early we went bowling. Simple, but fun! 

Then on Sunday we had our traditional meal that we have on the 17th of each month. French bread pizza topped with pepperoni, olives, and pineapple. And our traditional drink of Martinelli's sparkling cider. It's the best. Then we also had year old wedding cake that we had frozen. Because apparently that's a thing. 

We also, of course, exchanged gifts. Shantel got me some Rockies slippers, some glasses (with lenses that don't actually do anything. Very thoughtful actually, because for some weird reason I've always wanted glasses), and a newspaper that recapped our year. Put that all together and Shan turned me into an old man reading the paper wth his slippers and glasses. Pretty funny!

Oh, Christmas tree...

I gave Shantel a Christmas tree because...

19. Our anniversary is on the 17th and Shantel's birthday is on the 25th and Shantel LOVES Christmas, so I decided to turn that nine day stretch into Christmas kickoff week. It was an especially meaningful gift because Shantel knows that I don't believe in starting Chistmas until at least December, if not until after my dad's birthday on the 16th. 

Every day I gave her a different Christmas themed gift, kind of like the 12 days of Christmas, only 9 days, and in November, and without any singing. But anyway, that week was fun. It was fun to surprise her with something new every day, and it was fun to help build her excitement for Christmas, as if she even needed any help with that!

20. Speaking of Christmas, of course Shantel's favorite holiday gets its own highlight. We spent the couple days leading up to Christmas with Shantel's family. We played games, played basketball, watched a bunch of movies, and tried to stay up late as if we're still young enough to pull that off. Aging happens quick once you're married!

Shantel's mom gave us all really nice sweats for our pajamas, and we received a lot of very nice and very thoughtful gifts, ranging from clothes to movies to games, and a lot of things in between. 

Jaren's gift on the left, Brianne's on the right.

But perhaps the real highlight was how we wrapped the gifts that we gave to Brianne and Jaren. We were giving Brianne a tennis racket and tennis balls and had no idea how to wrap them. But I came home from my internship one day to discover that Shantel had come up with a solution. She had made a wrapping paper snow man. It was awesome.

So then we decided to turn Jaren's gift - a BYU basketball themed array of presents including a basketball, shirt, hat, beanie, and tickets - into a reindeer. The hat was the head, the beanie the tail, and the ball was the body. Everything else filled in. Our biggest fear is that we've set the bar too high for future gifts, so we apologize if it isn't that awesome for any of your gifts in the future. 

Family, fun, and amazing wrapping jobs. A very merry Christmas it was!

And now, as a bonus, since Facebook robbed you of one...

They're not tampons.

Honorable Mention: I had the first nose bleed of my entire life. Serious! I had never had one until last year. And Shantel didn't give it to me, I promise. It was actually during a soccer game. I was the goalie, and it was the first round of the playoffs. I came out for a ball and the other team's forward tried to spin off our defender, and when he did his elbow swung around, right into my nose. Play stopped for a few minutes, Shantel rushed onto the field to patch me up, and the intramural people handed me things to stick up my nose. I completed the game and got the shutout victory!

Shantel also got a bloody nose this year, though it was not her first. It came during softball season. We were at a practice, and she was taking grounders at second base. The field we were on was not well taken care of, and one of the grounders was coming to her low and with some pace on it. Now Shantel was naturally very good at moving her feet and getting in front of ground balls, but it didn't work out in her favor this time. It hit something in the ground and spiked up into her face hard. I have never seen that much blood in my life.

So there you have it. Two bloody noses, a ton of events, new experiences, and a more fun that you could even imagine! 2013 was a good year, and I'll bet that 2014 will be even better. Although, the one Friday the 13th of 2014 will occur days before I'm supposed to graduate... Excuse my while I go and buy a rabbits foot. I'll probably even search for a four leaf clover while I'm out.