2025 was for sure one of the most memorable, joyful, difficult, important years of my life. 🙂 This was a year of extremes for me – incredible amounts of excitement and love and happiness, as well as lots of pain, frustration, and difficulty. The things I lived through this year will impact my life forever and were something God used to grow me for sure.

As always, I wanted the last post of 2024 to be a yearly wrap-up post. I’ll do this one in last year’s style with a mini summary of each month along with my favorite post. Enjoy!

J A N U A R Y   M E M O R I E S

• Announcing our pregnancy to our families. 🙂
• Utter exhaustion and very mild nausea from the first trimester.
• Going to Sully’s Granddaddy’s baptism.
• Catering tasting for Megan’s wedding.
• Snow + Sully going on a hay delivery with me.
• My first OB appointment + ultrasound at the hospital.
• Lying in bed doing little activities that didn’t take much energy.
• Teaching a new hay employee/friend so he could take my place later.
• A spontaneous day off of work for Sully with adventures in gorgeous 70 degree weather.
• Starting a worship team/band for our church.
• Going to friends’ houses + hosting them at our house.

Favorite post: Megan & Harrison {Engagement Photoshoot}

F E B R U A R Y   M E M O R I E S

• Attempting and mostly failing to pull taffy with my family. XD
• Transferring my care to the birth center instead of the hospital.
• A surprise birthday/farewell party for Sheridan, my SIL.
• Going to work with Sully one day and helping him wash windows.
• Performing at a local church’s talent show.
• Going to Covington + Natural Bridge for a little vacation.
• Listening to audiobooks and podcasts while making Etsy art.
• Going to a Chinese restaurant to catch up with a friend.
• A barn dance at my old church.
• Membership interviews for our church.
• Orientation day at Embrace birth center.

Favorite post: Natural Bridge State Park {Vacation, Pt. 1}

M A R C H   M E M O R I E S

• Getting food poisoning, UGH.
• Having Lydia over for supper.
• Going to the library for the first time in a while (we got into the Stormlight Archive series).
• Starting a little “exercise club” (The Squat Society) with the girls at my church. XD
• Free Bruster’s ice cream with Sully’s family for pajama day.
• Putting on a bridal shower for Megan!
• Going on lots of pregnancy walks.
• My Granddaddy’s bone marrow transplant for his leukemia getting delayed AGAIN.
• Watching a Rainbow Valley play a friend wrote.
• Our church officially introducing all the new members, yay!
• A lovely a capella Good Friday service at our church + eating at Cookout with my family after.
• Easter family celebrations.

Favorite post: Spring Floral-Themed Bridal Brunch

A P R I L   M E M O R I E S

• Needing expensive repairs on my car after getting it inspected, ugh.
• Meeting + talking with neighbors on my walks.
• Cullen and Abigail’s wedding!
• Megan’s bridal shower with our church family.
• Finding out our baby would be a girl – so much joy!
• And the ensuing low-key gender reveals with our families.
• Working on a baby registry.
• A super fun vacation with Sully in Nag’s Head.
• A surprise birthday party for my friend Bethany.
• Helping with a baby shower for my SIL Michelle.

Favorite post: Sand Dunes & Sound Waves {Exploring the Outer Banks}

M A Y   M E M O R I E S

• Helping Megan and Harrison prep their camper for moving in soon.
• Hosting Aria, Andrew, Clara, and Laura at our house for the weekend because of…
• MEGAN & HARRISON’S WEDDING! Such a fun day!
• My 24th birthday, and going to the greenhouse with Mom to celebrate.
• Planting my garden.
• Attempting to see the Northern Lights by walking to High Bridge at night, but no luck.
• Night of Worship at Sully’s old church.
• Abram and Laina’s wedding!
• Our 2nd wedding anniversary!
• Swimming at Bear Creek Lake with my family.
• Finding out ARIA IS PREGNANT AHHHH.

Favorite post: Megan & Harrison {the Wedding Weekend}

J U N E   M E M O R I E S

• The ongoing saga of trying to trap the endless amount of groundhogs eating my garden…
• Milestone appointments at Embrace (no gestational diabetes, yay!).
• Michelle’s baby, Emery Rose, is born!
• Lots of landscaping and pruning in our yard.
• The Borns’ vow renewal.
• Doing some work on and planning for the nursery.
• Going to Waldy’s for ice cream with Megan and Harrison.
• Making 64 pancakes to freeze for Sully’s family vacation coming up.
• Going to Lydia’s house for supper.
• Megan putting on a lovely baby shower for me at Mom’s house!

Favorite post: Third Trimester Pregnancy Update

J U L Y   M E M O R I E S

• Chatting with Chessie after hosting young womens’ Bible study.
• Daniel and Leisha coming over for games + Farmville exploration.
• Amazing fireworks in a nearby town for Independence Day.
• Jake and Theresa’s wedding reception!
• July 4th celebration at Sully’s granddaddy’s house.
• Lovely baby shower with my church family.
• Sophia briefly flipping to breech position which freaked me out, heh.
• The big annual Alexander family vacation, ft. me flying for the first time at 33 weeks pregnant!
• A little craft supply sale on my Instagram (@thecolorboxstudio).
• Picking apples from our backyard tree + making applesauce.
• Celebrating Sully’s 25th birthday!

Favorite post: Alexander Family Vacation {2024}

A U G U S T   M E M O R I E S

• Sully got a lingering fever and sickness which was apparently a form of pnuemonia.
• Briefly joining my family at Lake Anna for a little hangout/vacation day.
• Eating at one of the “teppanyaki” Japanese restaurants for Sully’s parents’ 40th anniversary.
• Visiting to the chiropractor for the first time for prenatal stuff – helpful!
• Incredibly big flood in our town, causing me a long detour returning from Girls’ Night.
• Stopping for (cooked) sushi with Sully after a birth center appointment. 🙂
• Watching my siblings go down the water slide at my (great) Uncle Charles’ BBQ family reunion.
• Cooking + freezing a bunch of food for postpartum meals.
• Thrift shopping with Sam and Megan.
• Completing the diamond kit Sully got me to stave off boredom.
• GIVING BIRTH TO SOPHIA! Of course she is the highlight of our entire year!
• Many ensuing complications in the following days. 😦 (Fever, tongue tie, passing out, etc.)

Favorite post: Our Baby Girl Nursery Tour (…Kinda)

S E P T E M B E R   M E M O R I E S

• Many lovely visits + meals from friends and family and church family.
• Many more frustrating and tearful days of the mystery fever, breastfeeding troubles, etc.
• Fun times admiring Sophia’s cuteness and taking lots of pictures.
• Mom spending a lot of time here helping us and even staying through the night sometimes.
• Getting Sophia’s tongue tie released, which was SO helpful and needed.
• Megan calling to tell me SHE’S PREGNANT AHHHH!
• Sully going back to work while I figured out how to care for a newborn.
• Introducing Sophia to family and all the people at church.
• Sully writing “Song for Sophia” which we listened to so much because Sophia loved it.
• Making it through Sophia’s “hours and hours of screaming each day” phase…
• Exploring an almost-mansion for sale with Sully’s family.
• Finally going to the ER to figure out my fever and get some antibiotics which cured it.
• Buying a car from my parents to use as our “family car.”
• Another barn dance with my old church.

Favorite post: Introducing Sophia Joy {She’s Here!}

O C T O B E R   M E M O R I E S

• Sophia finally learning how to sleep with a swaddle. XD
• A special private chef dinner for various birthdays at Gram’s house.
• Packing hurricane relief kits with my church.
• Going “back to work” and opening my Etsy shop again!
• My parents babysitting Sophia so Sully and I could go on our first date since her birth.
• Amanda’s bridal shower + making a graphite portrait as her gift.
• A day of wonderful conversations with the Kings.
• The birth center’s “graduation day” with all the August babies + moms.
• Way too many conversations about politics wherever we went. -_- XD
• Getting together with Sully’s family + grandparents.
• Making applesauce with Megan, Mom, Carmen, and Gram.
• Sophia’s first pediatrician appointment + thrifting with Mom, Megan, and Carmen.
• Amanda and Michael’s wedding!
• Mom coming over to plant spring bulbs for me. ❤

Favorite post: Sophia Joy {2 Months}

N O V E M B E R   M E M O R I E S

• Election day happening – everyone survived. Yay, constant politics time is over for now. XD
• An insanely warm November – Sophia and I spent many hours sitting on our front porch. ❤
• Fall Fest day at our friends’ house.
• Starting Minecraft-ing again with Sully – so fun!
• Sophia sleeping through the night for the first time! And stopped soon after.
• Coming down with strep throat so I couldn’t go to Aria’s baby shower. :”(
• Our cousins from Canada visiting!
• A Thanksgiving trip with Sully’s family because his sister’s family was in town.
• Various delicious family Thanksgivings.

Favorite post: Sophia Joy {3 Months}

D E C E M B E R   M E M O R I E S

• Decorating our house for Christmas!
• Painting a ton of house portraits for Harrison’s Christmas lighting customers.
• A Steven Curtis Chapman concert with Sully and his parents.
• Sophia finally going back to sleeping through the night, yayyy!
• Adina visiting Sophia and I which was so special and fun.
• Baking tons of Christmas cookies + delivering them to neighbors.
• Putting my Etsy shop on vacation after completing heaps of holiday orders.
• Christmas caroling with our church at the local retirement home.
• Hosting Sully’s family Christmas and baking 8 sourdough pizzas!
• Several other family Christmases, including our own first with a baby. ❤
• Leisha and Daniel getting engaged and going to their engagement party ahh!
• Giving Sophia her first bites of real food – she was so bewildered. XD
• Hosting Anna and Sheridan for breakfast and Harrison + Megan for lunch and games.
• Annnnd to end the year, getting mastitis. *facepalm* But I’m feeling better already!

Favorite post: We Wish You a Merry Christmas {+ Sophia’s 4 Month Pictures :)}

G O A L S   F O R   2 0 2 5

• Spend lots of quality time with Sully and Sophia, watching our baby grow. ❤
• Meet Megan’s new baby! Plus throw her baby shower, help with newborn stuff, etc.
• Implement + keep up with a good daily devotional rhythm.
• Challenge my photography skills by doing more intentional photoshoots.
• Prioritize moving my body through walks or simple workouts.

I’m really looking forward to 2025 and all the adventures, big and small, that the Lord brings our way. I am grateful for all who have followed along this year – your engagement with this blog and your friendship has truly brightened my life!

Thanks for reading, my friends, and have a wonderful New Year!

***Allison***