Lists

It’s the last day of 2025, and each year on my blog, I’ve always recapped some highlights from the year. This year started with a baby (Merritt was 9 months) and ended with a toddler! It’s been a hard year in some ways, but it’s also been a joy-filled year, too.

January

We started 2025 with the flu. It literally cycled through all of us, and it was a pretty miserable way to start the new year. It also is the reason why we ended up getting air purifiers in our house (which I think has helped tremendously in keeping us from spreading around any sicknesses this past year!).

It also snowed!!!! It was lots of fun for me and the boys. We waited until Merritt was down for a nap before we went outside since Dustin had to go to work and Merritt couldn’t walk at this point during the year.

Banks turned TWO!!! He had a Snoopy themed party since he was obsessed with Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

February

We spent Valentine’s Day at home!

I gave Harrison total control over his school Valentine’s box. While lots of kids walked in that morning with these elaborate boxes their moms made, Harrison was so proud of his because he did it himself!

We had weather that was nice enough to play outside without jackets!

Harrison turned SIX!!! We had a small family dinner at home and then instead of having a big party, he opted to take a friend to Let’s Play and then out to Taco Mama for dinner.

March

Lots of love between these two 🙂

Harrison played baseball again this spring. We had the same coach as last year and really love being on that coach’s team.

We had a cousin play date!

Merritt turned ONE!!!!!!

April

We got outside anytime we could.

I continued to take a picture after church each Sunday (I started taking them in 2024 when Merritt was old enough to go to church)

Easter 2025!

I also went to tea for the first time at a local tea house and found myself a new hobby haha!!! I LOVE going to tea because it’s themed each month and so fun!

May

More ball field time!

Banks did a lot of playing in the dirt at the ball field while Merritt stayed in her stroller or was passed around to family to hold.

On our Battle of the Classes day at school, we started it with a surprise assembly where around 10 8th graders got to pick a teacher to give their “Tiger Tribute” award to for impacting them during their time at our school, and a student I had taught the previous year surprised me with her award! I almost cried I was so shocked!

Dustin and I went to see The Avett Brothers in concert.

We had to take Harrison to the pediatric cardiologist to check on something with his heart (he’s fine!), so we let him choose lunch and he chose his favorite place–Taco Mama!

I got a weighted vest for Mother’s Day and I still love it!

Banks had his end of the year program at his little school–Merritt’s class didn’t participate since they were all so young.

Harrison had his end of the year awards for kindergarten!

School finally ended and it literally rained the entire first week of summer, so lots of play time inside looked like this. They made a train with their chairs 🙂

June

We went to Nashville to go shopping at the Green Hills mall.

Every day looked like this–we went out back and played in the splash pad and water table! And I enjoyed dressing everyone in matching bathing suits haha!

Merritt was diagnosed back in April with a peanut allergy and since then, I had been measuring out peanut butter and applesauce and feeding it to her so her body could tolerate it.

Lots of trips downtown to wait on a train to pass through.

Father’s Day 🙂

We didn’t go to the city splash pad very often because I wasn’t brave enough to take all 3 kids by myself, so I waited until my mom was free to go with us haha

July

My sister took pictures of my kids!

All 3 kids modeled for a local children’s clothing boutique

And we continued to spend every single day outside!

My mom watched the kids for 2 nights and Dustin and I left them for the very first time and went on a little getaway to The Grand Hotel in Point Clear and had a great time! But we kept saying how much fun our kids would have and how we needed to bring them back haha

We spent every Thursday at the local library during the summer for the summer reading program. This guy used to work as an animator for Disney and he taught the kids how to draw Mickey Mouse!

We spent a weekend in Auburn staying with my best friend, and one night we got a babysitter so we could go to The Supper Club. We woke up the final morning with a few of us having the stomach virus and we drove home from Auburn with me catching Harrison’s throw up in garbage bags the whole ride home LOL

Dustin turned 40!!!!

And the next day we celebrated 11 years of marriage by going out to dinner!

August

Snuggles with my littlest babies to soak up the end of a great summer

Harrison started first grade!

And the babies started their school a week later!

But my favorite thing was rushing home each day to be with Harrison, Banks, and Merritt 🙂

Got my first bag of candy corn for the season LOL

Harrison played soccer and he played so much better this year than last! We were so proud of him!

Dustin’s work was a sponsor one night for the Trash Pandas and he and Harrison got to go to a game–Harrison had the BEST time!

September

We were ready for Alabama football with another matching outfit :). One day my kids won’t let me match their clothes, so I do it as much as I can right now

Just a little after church photo shoot in the backyard since Merritt had on a really pretty dress

The boys went to the home football games…

…while we cheered on the Tide from home!

But the best and most exciting part of September was…

DISNEY WORLD!!!!! It was such a dream come true to be able to be at Disney with my 3 babies

Lots of stroller maneuvering and naps in strollers but it truly was the most fun

But then midway through our trip, it got even better when….

…our best friends showed up!!! Our exact trip dates couldn’t line up, but we were able to line up two park days together and we had the best time. Harrison and Abigail and a year apart and then Merritt and Eloise are 4 weeks apart.

I cannot get over how much fun we had!!! Also, the above picture is outside Woody’s Rodeo Roundup and all of us raved at how good the food was!

We upgraded to The Contemporary last minute after I convinced Dustin we needed to be on the monorail (and he was glad I did after folding up and toting two huge strollers on the bus to HS and AK), so on checkout day, I asked everyone how they would rate our trip….all agreed it was the best!

October

I colored my hair and went back to my natural hair color after 15ish years of being blonde

We took a train ride to a pumpkin patch

We made smores at night

And went on early morning walks with the stroller

I turned 38 and had a small birthday dinner at home with family

For Halloween this year, we had two scarecrows and a candy corn!

We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood and my nephew came over to also trick-or-treat with us!

November

We decorated for Christmas and started having family movie nights with different Christmas movies

I finally got to go to an Alabama game and it was the LSU game–what a game!

We had our family pictures made for our Christmas card in my sister’s front yard

We spoke at church about how adoption has changed our lives for the better and how we couldn’t have done it without the support of our church

We went to the Homecoming game together (what a terrible game) but it was the best company!!

And we ended the month celebrating Thanksgiving!

December

I enjoyed dressing my kids in holiday clothes for church each Sunday in December

We went to our town’s Christmas parade, and while it was a cold night, I literally bundled everyone up like we were in arctic temps haha

Harrison learned how to tie shoes thanks to this awesome book!

We did our Shaneyfelt Christmas Light Drive By and started with a treat from Starbucks

We did the Polar Express Day at the library

We walked through the Galaxy of Lights and loved it!

Christmas morning was the most fun!!!!

And the days in between Christmas and New Years have looked a lot like the above!

I’m grateful that the Lord has given me another year. My biggest dream in life was to be a mother, and while some days it’s really difficult, it’s been the greatest joy of my life. Dustin and I talk about our kids all the time and marvel at how smart and wonderful our kids are.