DUNCAN -- Andy had just come home from work when his wife, Christina, asked him to try a trick she saw online that begins with holding a basketball with a can balanced on it.

“You’re supposed to bounce your beer on the ball,” Christina explains. “Then catch it and slam your drink.”

She had already shot video of her dad’s attempts. During the first couple tries the can bounced off the ball and in the wrong direction. He nailed it on the third attempt.

Christina got it on the third try too, but not before a sticky spill.

“We had to hose down the deck,” she laughs.

Then it was Andy’s turn. In the video you see his arms stretched out holding the basketball with the can on top. He drops them both. The ball bounces and sends the can straight for Andy’s face. The hit knocks him to the ground. He shakes it off and bursts into a big smile.

It’s one of those caught-on-camera accidents that’s usually accompanied by the laughter of a studio audience on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

“It knocked me back but I think the can got the worst of it,” Andy laughs, before showing me a picture of his smiling face next to the can. “I have this little red dot [on my forehead] and the can’s smushed in at the top!”

Andy’s ability to laugh in the face adversity is one of the reasons Christina married him.

“He’s a funny guy,” she smiles. “He’s goofy.”

But life can suddenly seem like anything but silly. First, Christina suffered a miscarriage. Then, just 26 weeks into her second pregnancy, she was rushed to the hospital.

“They didn’t think there was a heartbeat anymore and they were putting me out for surgery,” Christina recalls. “It was very scary.”

She woke to discover her baby had survived, albeit three and a half months early.

For days, Christina and Andy could barely touch their little Rachel, who was attached to tubes in an incubator.

It made the moment they could finally hold her for the first time even more meaningful.

“It was the best feeling in the world,” Christina says. “Nothing is better!”

“Tears were rolling down my eyes,” Andy recalls. “Looking up, thanking everybody up there who helped look out for my little girl.”

After spending 77 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, they brought Rachel home to create a life together, filled with love and lots of laughter.

More than occasionally the laughter has been caught on camera. They show me video of Rachel hiding behind a door and jumping out to scare Andy. After jumping, he bursts into a big smile.

Perhaps because they know — more than most — the fragility of life. This family never wastes a moment to make the most of it.

“Laugh it up,” Christina smiles. “Have some fun!”

“You can be down,” Andy smiles. “But there’s always a way to bring yourself up!”

Cue the can hitting Andy in the face. Perhaps even play it in slow-mo and add cartoon sound effects — Boing! Ka-pow! Splat!