2019: Our Year in Review

Josh and I had a long break between Christmas and New Years, being the sentimental fools that we are, we did a lot of reminiscing on the year and I feel like it went by so fast.  As I was going through thousands of photos (and I wish I could add so many more to this post, but I’m having issues with uploading them), I began to write out the events, travels and special moments of the past 12 months.  I hope you enjoy our 2019 in review!

January:

I began the year with a full Kon-Mari of everything we own.  I had read the “Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” over Christmas and it really was all that.  It felt so good to deep clean and organize and ended up being very helpful to the year we were about to have.  I challenged myself to take a photo of my coffee everyday for a year, I only missed a handful of days, it seems pretty silly, but with the amount of movement in my life, daily coffee is one of my only constants and it was fun to document the year through cups of coffee.  Maybe someday I’ll make a “coffee” table book out of my photos.  We celebrated Hugo’s second birthday.  Josh & I attended the Chick-Fil-A Gala at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, GA, it was hosted inside of a soundstage (one where they filmed Avengers!)  We also visited the Georgia Aquarium while we were in town and it was a huge hit with our son.

February:

Jeremy Camp announced the filming of our movie “I Still Believe” from the TobyMac DeepHits! tour in Nashville.  Our team was there to film it and Josh and I got to attend backstage with them.  Josh turned 28 and we had a celebrated that and Valentines Day together.  We flew to Wisconsin to visit my family for a few days.

March

Josh & I went to Jamaica for a few wonderful days in the sun for an anniversary/shared birthday trip.  It was amazing!  We celebrated our actual 3rd anniversary apart (hazards of the job) as Josh was in California preparing for one of the biggest events of his life.  I flew alone with Hugo to meet him in SoCal and we were together for the Kingdom Launch Event.  While Josh was working, Hugo and I had lots of time together and we went to The Getty Villa, it was our first museum visit together and a special memory for the museum loving mom.

April

Josh spent a week in Mobile, Alabama getting a head start on pre-production for the filming go “I Still Believe”.  Hugo and I road tripped down to spend a few days with him and to check out our new Airbnb.  We moved a few weeks later to magical, Fairhope, Alabama and I cried when I drove through it’s perfect, live-oak lined streets.  Our home there was beautiful and airy and southern and we had so much fun hosting Easter for our friends and family (including our brother-in-law- to be!).  Josh & I also attended a MercyMe concert in and I cried when they performed “I Can Only Imagine”.

May

We were fully moved to set for the production and Josh kicked it off with an incredible event that was attended by almost every leader and influencer in the Mobile Bay area, it was truly a feat and his hard work paid off as we rallied thousands of people to come out and be movie extras.  We met so many good friends through this experience!  While living in Fairhope, we loved visiting 3 Circle Church, it was our church the entire time we were there and we were so sad to leave it.  Josh had various work trips, one of them was through New Orleans, it was Mother’s Day so Hugo and I drove over to meet him, we visited the art museum, ate some beignets and seafood and walked all over town.  We began filming “I Still Believe” and while Josh kept up the long hours, Hugo and I enjoyed our daily walks to the coffee shop and then the park, we also enjoyed visiting Josh on set.  I found a few local babysitters and got to come in and work with Josh and his team as they filmed some big scenes.

June

We found a house in Franklin, Tennessee and placed an offer immediately!  Since it was conditional on us seeing the house in person, we made a quick (long drive) trip to Franklin and in the end, decided that it was not a good fit for us.  It was a hard call to make, but the right one.  My mom and sisters visited us in Fairhope and we had such a good time showing them around town and taking them around set.  Hugo and I continued to enjoy our time at the park and with friends as Josh worked the long hours necessary to make a film.

July,

They wrapped production on “I Still Believe” and we stayed for an extra week so that Josh could help close out the production.  We celebrated the 4th of July together and bought a new car!  We then packed up our Airbnb and drove home to Birmingham where we packed up that home, and 10 days later moving trucks arrived to take our things to Nashville.  We were home for one day before flying out to Wisconsin to attend the wedding of one of my dear friends.  After all of that activity, we came back home and started to settle in.  It was a relatively easy move, but I cried a lot for that first month.

August

We gathered with a group of friends to watch the very first cut of the movie, so exciting!  We also found a new church and met lots of friends, old and new, Nashville is a bit of a hub, so we have happened to see a bunch of friends we haven’t seen for years, that has been a fun surprise of living here.  Josh hosted a screening of “Overcomer” with Sheri Rigby for our friends the weekend it came out.  Hugo and I enjoyed finding new parks, playing in our pool and attending all of the fun events put on by our neighborhood.

September:

A good friend of ours died unexpectedly and tragically in a car accident.  He was someone we’d known the better part of a decade, had been a roommate of Josh’s and he and his wife lived practically next door to us in Birmingham.  Josh and I went to Northern California to be at his memorial service and funeral.  We had planned a trip to NYC around the same time for my 31st birthday, but with how the month unfolded we both were homesick for the first time in our life and wanted nothing more than to be home with our little guy.  Loss has a way of instantly revealing to you what is most important in life.

October:

We traveled back to Birmingham, Alabama as Josh attended and spoke briefly at the LionsDen event.  My invitation to the Dove Awards was NOT lost in the mail this year and Josh and I had a fun time attending, although we’re so boring that we ended up skipping out on the after party and going home to eat a late night pizza in our pajamas.  We’re not as young as we once were!  My sister Brooke flew to Franklin to spend a few days with us, including watching our Hoo while Josh and I went to Atlanta for the Faith and Film Summit in Atlanta.  We spent some time at the Chick-fil-a Corporate headquarters and then spent two days at the beautiful WinShape Retreat Center.

November,

Hugo went to his first wedding, as one of our dear old family friends got married in Merritt Island, Florida.  It was very special to be there as we have all attended each others weddings and almost every major event in each others lives for the past 10 years. As a thank you for his hard work, Josh’s bosses treated us to a trip to Chicago.  Hugo got to stay with my parents and we spent two days at the Ritz downtown.  We  slept in, shopped, ate and visited the new Starbucks Reserve store.  We then joined Hugo at my parents home in Wisconsin for a family Thanksgiving.

December

Hugo and I were in the Christmas spirit for most of the month, he watched the Grinch more times than I can count as I baked a million cinnamon rolls, mailed out Christmas cards and decorated our apartment.  We road tripped down to Florida to spend the holiday with Josh’s family.  Our Christmas gifts to each other this year was a day at Disney World, it rained most of the day, but that didn’t stop us from having a wonderful day, we ended the day by meeting up with sweet friends to watch the fireworks over the castle.  I got to meet Josh’s grandmother, Nanny, for the first time and loved getting to chat with her in person.  Josh’s little sister Catherine got married on the 27th, Hugo was the ring bearer and my mom and sisters helped wrangle him at the wedding. We went to bed early on New Years Eve and had zero regrets!