2025: A Year in Review

Is this the earliest I’ve ever written this post?! It usually takes me several months to pull this annual posting of our Year in Review together. I think that I’m freshly off of Christmas and a very long holiday break and just recently created our yearly “Grandma Books.” P.s. if you’re lucky enough to still have parents and grandparents in your life, please print and send them photos regularly. Occaisionally I will remember to text them photos, but there is something about having the physical copies that they really love and if I’m being honest, I really love having the real thing in my hands too. I use Mixbook (the 8.5×8.5″ square hardcover books are my favorite.)

2025 had a very clear sea change moment. Everything now falls into either before or after Hamilton’s birth. To say that the birth of our second son was the highlight of our year is an understatement, he has filled our hearts so full.

See previous year’s in review 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

2025: A Year in Review

January

After struggling through a very difficult Christmas with a medical emergency that required us to be near family for several weeks and my daily management of Hyperemesis Gravidarum, we flew to the Bahama’s for our family vacation.

The hotel had a giant “8” in the lobby, perfect for our boy who turned 8 on this trip!

We stayed at the SLS Hotel at Baha Mar in Nassau and relaxed, ate good food and celebrated Hugo’s birthday.

We also had our big ultrasound with the baby and we were all overjoyed to find out that we were having a BOY!

February

Josh and I attended the Movie Guide Awards in Hollywood. We did not win for our category but had a really lovely night with friends. After spending the previous 4 months either sleeping or vomiting, it felt like a momentous victory to be dressed up and out of the house.

Josh’s birthday was during our time in LA so we celebrated with a day at Disneyland!

We also traveled to Texas for a friend’s wedding, bought a new car, started construction on our back porch and Josh continued pre-production work on I Can Only Imagine 2.

March

Dress up Fridays at the office (Josh was Yukon Cornelius, Hugo was Mandolorian)

In March, we celebrated our anniversary, St. Patrick’s Day (a favorite for this very Irish house!), I failed my first glucose test and had to take the several hour test. Thankfully the baby and I passed.

April

Filming began for I Can Only Imagine 2! The first day is always nerve-wracking and very exciting. It was the first time we had shot a movie in Nashville and we loved being at home. Hugo and I were able to visit set most days and join Josh for crew lunch.

Our Easter celebrations included a helicopter egg drop and our friend’s annual Easter Disco (as amazing as it sounds!) We were home to attend one of our favorite moments of the year, our church’s outdoor sunrise service.

The film spent several days in Colorado and shot a concert scene at Red Rocks. It was our second time there and we loved being back as well as visiting friends in Boulder and eating really amazing gluten free food.

May

We spent even more time on set. Hugo got to be an extra (as far as we know, his scene made it to the final cut!) he was a cowboy at a kids birthday scene. Not surprising, he loved every minute of the action.

I limped my way towards the end of pregnancy. In the spirit of radical candor, I hate all photos of myself from this time. Pregnancy is not kind to me and I just dont’ feel like myself. Despite being sick and having little to no appetite, the Walshes are big boys and the weight gain is really hard on me. Here we are having some popcorn!

June!

Baby month! Go time!

I took this photo after getting ready to go the hospital to have our baby. It was a very surreal morning, similar to the day Josh and I got engaged and our wedding day. I felt a quiet calm, knowing that everything was about to change, preparing as best I could, but also understanding that there was not really any way to do that.

This was truly the greatest day of my life. It’s all still so tender and precious to me. After a traumatic first birth, I carried heavy and painful emotions for 8 years. Having another baby was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I knew that I had to “trust myself to complete the same lap twice”. And I did.

The kindness and goodness of God was all over this moment. Our little Hamilton.

Josh finished the film right before the baby was born. We were able to focus on his birth and then enjoy our newborn bubble for several weeks. Friends stopped over and brought meals, I was overrun with flower deliveries (just the way I like it!) and baby gifts.

July

Our first Fourth of July! Grandparents and family came to visit. We had lots of pediatrician and chiropractor appointments, all of those new baby tasks that you forget about until they’re born.

August

We flew to Los Angeles with our newest little jetsetter. My sister met us for a few days and we stayed at a wonderful little airbnb in Venice Beach where we ate goop kitchen (still dreaming about the chicken caesar wrap) and walked to Gjusta in the mornings. Divine!

Hugo had what I dubbed a “90s kid summer”. I taught him how to make beaded lizard keychains, how to sew and mend a hole (he became a vet tech and patched up several of his stuffed animals), he watched Newsies and really got into the soundtrack (best of all time) AND the idea of selling newspapers (I did find him several doors down our street with a stack of free local newspapers and a pocket full of change. You can figure out the rest.)

Josh jumped in on the golf lessons this summer and loved it! Him and Hugo had several outings to the driving range together and had a great time. Josh also traveled to Ireland for a film location scout. It was my first time solo with both kids, but we all pulled through!

September

In September we traveled to Phoenix for the deeply impactful memorial for Charlie Kirk. It was a moment that we will never forget.

From there we went on to Los Angeles for a work trip that fell over my birthday.

One of our favorite LA spots is the Academy Museum. We saw the newly opened Jaws exhibit and then spent a day in Orange County. One of my favorite places on earth is Crystal Cove in Laguna. We had breakfast at The Beachcomber Cafe and then took a long walk on the beach. It was a great way to celebrate a my new year!

October

Josh won his 3rd Dove Award for A Drummer Boy Christmas Live! It was our first night out without the baby and we all did great.

November

We spent Thanksgiving in the midwest with my family. It was a beautiful holiday with amazing food. We ended up leaving a day early to avoid a huge snowstorm hitting several states.

December

December was one of our fullest months of the year. We attended concerts (Tommee Profitt The Birth of a King and For King + Country at the Opry. Hamilton loved both!), Christmas parties, a little Christmas morning at home before flying to Florida to spend a few days with Josh’s family. It was one of my favorite Christmases of all time, made so much sweeter by our little baby joining us. Then we took full advantage of our Christmas break and hopped on a Disney cruise. More on that later!

Truly 2025 was a year to treasure, we are looking ahead to 2026 with grateful hearts.