Happy 4th Birthday, Beau!

About a week ago, I asked Beau if I needed to stop calling him my “Little Man” when he turned 4. He looked at me and replied, “I will always be your Little Man, daddy.” With that affirmation, the emotional toll of my youngest turning another year old lessened just a bit.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man! Today Beau turns 4 (📷: Ocean Simpson Photography).

Today is Beau’s 4th birthday, a date he has asked about insistently and looked forward to considerably over the past few weeks. It goes without saying that when you have a Monday birthday, it means you have to party a lot over the weekend—and that’s what we did. We had an Olive Garden birthday dinner on Saturday night and on Sunday we had his family birthday party. So as he goes to school this morning to celebrate his special day with his classmates, he will be in full birthday form.

I am so thankful to have this little guy as my son.

Beau was very busy as a 3-year-old. He went to lots of ballgames with his daddy, dressed up as Spiderman for Halloween, started school with his sister at St. Mary, made new friends, learned to play Nintendo, and watched all 151 episodes of “Bluey” numerous times. In fact, I think he did pretty much everything possible except visit the emergency room, which was very welcome considering all the times he went between 0-2 years old 😂.

One of my favorite moments with Beau as a 3-year-old was when our family went to the Seattle Mariners game

My little guy is a popular dude. His affectionate and loving nature is so endearing that it is infectious. Loved by all—including Sloan’s classmates—most people refer to him by his nickname, “Beau Bear.” The fact that he brings joy to so many people besides his immediate family makes me proud.

I think more trampoline parks are in Beau’s future as a 4-year-old.

I am looking forward to his stint as a 4-year-old. During this trip around the sun we hope to end his tendency to jump into bed with us at night and teach him that it is okay to simmer the heck down every now and then 😂. But other than that, we are just going to encourage him to be his special self because there is no one else quite like Beau Thomas Reser. Happy Birthday, sweet boy! Don’t Blink.

Sidney Is Feeling 32

My wife is a self-proclaimed “Swifty” so I have a loving plan to soften the blow of her turning 32 years old today. When Sid wakes up, I am going to sing that Taylor Swift song about “feeling 32”…

Oh, wait. I think Sidney is 10 years too old for that treatment. I just remembered the song is called “22”—not 32 😂.

Ha! Okay, enough with the jokes. My annual birthday blog post in Sid’s honor isn’t about roasting her; rather, it is about celebrating her and commemorating a date that would be tattooed on my bicep if I chose to have tattoos. Whenever January 28 comes around on the calendar, I always thank God for blessing this day with the most important woman in my life.

Today my wife turns 32. I love you, Sid!

Before beginning a new trip around the sun today, Sid had a pretty spectacular year as a 31-year-old. She led point on us buying a house, she amazed her bosses at Traveler’s, and her incredible faith continued to bear fruit as she led an entire retreat and became a godmother. And that just scratches the surface.

But the point of this blog post is not to look back at 31. Instead, it is to look forward to 32 and the promise it carries for my wife. This latest birth year is going to bring plenty of DIY house projects, continued chances to impress at work, and a couple big opportunities to truly help others. Stay tuned.

Sidney has so many incredible talents and qualities that I could celebrate in this birthday post. But this year, I just want to highlight one: her selflessness. She puts others first, always shows humility, and consistently takes the high road. People of Sid’s nature deserve birthdays the most because otherwise they would simply never permit a day to be about them.

We have a relaxing day planned with friends, family, and lots of cake. I imagine we might listen to some Taylor Swift, too, but I will refrain from playing that “22” song 😂. Thanks be to God for Sidney Mathis Reser! Don’t Blink.

2023: WE HERE

In November, Sidney and I had the opportunity to go to Pullman to watch the Washington State University football team host Coach Prime and the University of Colorado. When we walked on campus, we couldn’t help but notice the Colorado equipment truck parked near the fieldhouse. The back of the vehicle featured an image of Deion Sanders with his arms crossed in his signature shades with the phrase “WE COMING” written boldly across it.

The Cougars pummeled the Buffaloes that night. WSU was confident, prepared, and protective of their home turf. As we passed the truck on the way out of the stadium, Sidney and I couldn’t help but say “WE HERE.”

Ironically enough, even though we quipped that phrase on behalf of Cougar Nation, there might not be two better words that explain the Resers in 2023.

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The year 2023 will be remembered as the period in which we embraced our community, made a big commitment, and laid down roots. Surprisingly enough, for such a big year, things started out pretty quiet.

What a year it was for our family in 2023.

After such a tumultuous beginning to 2022, it was a smooth (and kind of boring) start to 2023. We threw my dad a retirement party in early January and then coasted through those first couple months. Probably the most exciting thing we did was upgrade from a queen bed to a king bed 😂. When spring arrived, the tempo started to pick up, beyond just my Bloomsday PR. We had our hearts set on a purchase even bigger than a new mattress. For the first time, we were seriously looking to buy a new house. So in between watching Sloan play t-ball and testing out the latest TikTok hacks, we were looking at homes. Thankfully we found something we liked.

My dad stands with the trophy that his employees presented to him at his retirement party.

Summer arrived and things heated up both figuratively and literally. While winter was laid back, summer was insanely busy. We attended multiple weddings, hosted Sidney’s parents, went on vacation, didn’t have a free weekend, and—oh yeah—closed on and moved into a new house. Autumn was also slammed. Both our children started at the same school, we traveled to Missoula for a Griz football weekend, Sloan played soccer, work was chaotic with the implosion of the PAC-12, I presented in Chicago at the AMAs, and we visited Myrtle Beach to spend Thanksgiving with Sidney’s family.

We had a ton of fun on our family vacation to Seabrook.

Of course there was much more to the year than that two paragraph rundown but I think that at least gives you an idea of the past 12 months, right?

When I truly reflect on 2023, I think of two unique themes. The first one is satisfaction. I know the popular adage is to never be satisfied, but I think we allowed ourselves in the second half of the year to be just that. With a home of our own, jobs we are fortunate to have, and both kids attending the same outstanding school, we permitted ourselves to be content. We have more goals and much to improve upon, but we took time to just be thankful.

We bought a house in 2023. During the second half of the year, we tried to be satisfied.

The second theme for us is unity. Sidney and I touch on this a lot with the engaged couples we mentor, but we specifically heeded it ourselves in 2023. The decision to purchase a home was part of other future plans that required Sid and I to be committed and united. We also had the blessing to take on some projects as a couple that required steadfast unity and teamwork. We are a force and so happy to be on the same team!

Unity was key for Sid and I in 2023.

In addition to those two unique themes of 2023, the same three values I highlight every year continued to be key for the Resers…

I start with family where it all begins with our Reser quartet. The four of us had a great collective year as we played, read, prayed, worshipped, ate, watched, and traveled together. A highlight was going on a vacation that necessitated we spend a lot of time in the car together. Driving to the other side of Washington and back gave us a lot of time to bond while the actual vacation on the beach was filled with memories. Speaking of driving, we made a road trip to Oregon for my cousin’s wedding that essentially doubled as an extended Reser family reunion. Before and after the nuptials, we stayed in a hotel where we shared a wing of rooms with my parents, my sister’s family, and my brother and his wife. When we weren’t spending time together in a random out-of-state hotel, you could usually find us all at my mom and dad’s house enjoying cookouts, celebrating holidays, and watching games. Hosting Sid’s parents in June was so nice and then flying to Myrtle Beach to spend time with Sid’s sisters and their families sure was a treat, especially after two years. Whether nuclear or extended family, we valued every moment we had together.

I thank my family for another great year.

Our journey to one day reach our heavenly home was hopefully bolstered by this past year. What a big role our faith played in 2023! Sidney and I mentored three engaged couples and continued our work with Engaged Encounter. Sidney organized a retreat for our Young Adult Catholic Group and I retained my involvement with the Knights of Columbus and our Catholic Men’s Group. We became godparents and explored a year-long theme of evangelization. I attended our diocese’s Eucharistic Revival event with Sloan and represented St. Mary at Hoopfest as our team of parishioners reached the championship game of our bracket. We had a blast at many family faith nights and enriched our prayer lives at home. I listened to the entirety of Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism In A Year podcast. Through it all, St. Mary Catholic Church and School continue to be our epicenter for growing closer to God. We extend our gratitude to Fr. Jeff Lewis for his dispensing of the holy sacraments and his unwavering commitment to the St. Mary community.

Sloan and Beau stand outside St. Mary Catholic School on their first day of school on Sept. 5, 2023.

When it comes to career, Sidney definitely deserves to be mentioned first in 2023! She thrived in her first full year with Traveler’s Insurance as she continues to impress her bosses and receive high marks from her customers. She is used by the company as an example of “what to do” when it comes to training new employees. I had a very busy and somewhat tumultuous year. Our small but mighty marketing and communications team dealt with some major issues including the Idaho murder suspect, the implosion of the Pac-12, and college ranking messaging. But when I wasn’t arrow-focused on our comms efforts and was in my element doing marketing, it was another exhilarating 12 months. I ran point on our paid social media strategy for all nine installments of our #GoCougsMeans brand marketing campaign, oversaw an initiative that recognized WSU’s top senior grads, collaborated with the video team on some really cool projects, traveled to Chicago to present at a major higher ed conference, and managed to win our department’s personal trivia challenge at our holiday party this month 😂.

I presented at the American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Ed in Chicago in Nov. 2023.

But as I said last year, my job is so great because I am allowed to be a father, husband, and child of God before I am a WSU employee. I love being a Coug, but there is a reason why the career portion of this blog post always comes after the family and faith portions. I am extremely thankful to my boss for always making sure that this is the case.

I feel lucky that family and faith come before work (photo courtesy of Ocean Simpson).

Time to send 2023 out with a bang as we savor these last couple days. As I wrap up this blog post, I feel extremely blessed that everyone within our extended families are healthy and that everyone who started 2023 with us will join us in 2024 as well. From just about every vantage point—whether it be from a physical, mental, faith, or foundational standpoint—I feel it is appropriate to exclaim WE HERE!! Thanks be to God for the past 365 days. Don’t Blink.