The Best Kind of Tie Breaker

Tie breakers, especially in sports, can be edge of your seat, blood-pressure raising affairs. They can also be painfully dull (tennis, anyone?). Tie breakers can also have worldwide impact, and not necessarily in a good way. One need look no further than the hanging chad debacle that was the 2000 Presidential Election for proof of that.

That said, tie breakers can also be a lot of fun. We've seen that play out recently here in the Den. For those of you more eagle-eyed readers who took a look at some of the RM's wedding pictures, you might have noticed that one member of the Den may have looked ever so slightly different. How so? Perhaps you may have spotted a little bump the waistline. Admittedly, that could have been me, given the amount of food I took in while we were behind the Zion Curtain. Alas, it wasn't me.

It was, in fact, Our Lady of Awesome, our oldest daughter, sporting that little bump because she is expecting another baby. If you are counting along, that's Grandbaby #3! We'd known about this prior to last month's wedding celebration but we were still sworn to secrecy. Soon after we left the Zion Curtain, she went to her real doctor and not one of those "only in Utah" mobile ultrasounds out the back of someone's van places (I'm not even exaggerating about this, people), to find out how the tie in their home was going to be broken.

With one boy and one girl, the tie was broken with this reveal:

Jane's reaction is pretty priceless!

It's a boy, arriving in April 2018! Suffice to say, we are pretty darn excited about this new edition to the Den. As we counted our blessings this past week at Thanksgiving, this new baby and his health were things we were most grateful for.

Now that the tie is broken and the word is out, the name suggestions are on the way. Benson wants him to be called Rudy Bear, after Rudy Gobert, his favorite Utah Jazz player. My suggestion, Fred, was once again shot down faster than Dear Leader Despot Wannabe Trump's latest insane desperate lie about being Time's Person Of The Year.

April can't get here soon enough! We can't wait to welcome this new one to our family!

3

As is what is now a long-standing tradition here in the Den, today we honor a Denizen on his birthday. By all accounts, it's a big one. So big that, thanks to a wicked good fare sale (so good that it was totally appropriate to burst into a rousing rendition of 'Let my people go'!) from the revenue management gods at JetBlue, we were able to celebrate our grandson's third birthday with him.

Turning three is not for the faint of heart. It's a big deal, especially for our grandson, B. You're potty-trained. You are genetically programmed to ask "why" every 1.7 seconds. You say "what the" and then pause dramatically whenever you encounter something that befuddles you. You really love your little sister and your hugs prove that, although her occasional bulging eyes would suggest you might want to turn it down on the strength of said hugs. You love your friends and it looked like you had so much fun with playing with them at your party today.

Your mom, Our Lady of Awesome, and your grandma, the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML, made a great sports-themed party. Because sports are your life. The baseball cake was a big hit (cheesy pun intended)! It was hard to stay focused because there was so much going on, but you made turning three look really easy. And more than a little fun.

It was so good to be here with B on his birthday. Every moment is a joy. Even the one this afternoon where he fell going up the stairs at the Wilk at BYU and I failed to notice he'd cut his lip. #grandpaoftheyear

Happy birthday, B!

Blessings

As far as weeks go, this has been a good one, dare I say a very good one. Seeing CAL graduate and hearing her talk excitedly about her post-graduate internship has been so rewarding. The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I found ourselves counting our blessings with two of our children now official degree carrying college grads.

We continued counting blessings today. We are holed up with Our Lady of Awesome and her family for a couple of days before we move on to Phase Two of Vacation Shenanigans 2015. We joined them at Church for our sweet baby Jane's blessing. For those of you not of the 'peculiar people' faith (us Mormons), the blessing of a baby is like a christening, minus the baptismal part. What an honor it was to join my son-in-law Awesome in the blessing! It was particularly sweet that Jane wore the same dress that her mother wore when she was blessed as a baby.

It should come as no surprise that I let the man tears fly when the little church choir and congregation closed the service with "Silent Night," accompanied by both the piano and organ. Surrounded by family, a new baby, and the spirit of Christmas made it easy to count our blessings. Hence, the tears o'gratitude.

And now our day is winding down. I'm listening to my daughter negotiate dinner options with my two and a half year old grandson. From what I'm hearing, he has a bright future in hostage negotiations. My son-in-law is holding his daughter, our sweet granddaughter, and all seems right in the world.