Wow. It’s crazy to think that I’m here typing up my 2020 year in review. 2020 was absolutely NOTHING like I had imagined, but it safe to say that goes for every single person on this planet. This past year for me personally was filled with very high highs, and incredibly low lows. Despite it all, there were some amazing things that happened to my family! We added our precious Beau afterall!
Without further ado, here is the Gougler Family 2020 year in review.
January
We opened the year with a bang and I accomplished one of the greatest physical feats of my life! JP and I took a kid free trip to Disney World where I ran and completed the Dopey Challenge: a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon in 4 consecutive days. (Yes, it was exhausting and I can’t wait to do it again one day!)
After several days at Disney, we headed to Port Canaveral for a 5 day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas! It was the most magical start to the year.
February
I ran two half marathons in Sugar Land and Katy crushing my sub-2:00 half marathon goals. I even ran my fastest post baby race in Katy coming in at 1:51:40. It’s only about a minutes slower than my PR that I set in 2013 at the age of 26. I also started an Instagram account focused on my running (@amyrunningtheworld) if you’re interested in following along.
I also saw Celine Dion in concert with my best friends which honestly seems like a LIFETIME ago at this point in time!
Later that month, we traveled up to Fort Worth with my family to watch my mom graduate with her Masters in Nursing and visit my brother and his wife. Little did we know, it was the last getaway we’d have for a while!
March
March started out strong with lots of outings to the zoo with friends, the Houston Rodeo to see Kristin and Slider compete and other adventures around Houston. Then the world literally shut down. The Houston Rodeo closed (March 10th) just two days after we went, JP started working from home (March 13th) and my final half marathon of the year turned into a virtual race on March 15th.
Two days before Houston shut down for quarantine completely (March 22nd), I took a test and found out that we were expecting baby number 3! Chloe was the first person I told and I let her tell her daddy the big news.
April
We spent the month of April at home or in my parents backyard! There was a lot of time at home trying to come up with fun and different activities to keep our toddlers busy and entertained.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on April 10. Thanks to Covid, we didn’t actually get to do anything. Luckily we considered our Disney Cruise from January our anniversary trip! I’m so glad we had something planned at the beginning of the year! We also celebrated Easter at my parents despite the pandemic and announced our pregnancy!
May
In Texas, mid May is when things started to open up a bit more. I remained cautious since I was pregnant and there was still so much unknown. We mostly stayed home or at my parents’ house, but we also started having some fun driveway playdates with friends!
We celebrated Mother’s Day, JP turned 34 and I made it out of my first trimester of pregnancy!
June
For me, June was a month at the beach! I wasn’t at the beach the entire month, but I took two beach getaways. The first was at the beginning of the month with my entire family to Crystal Beach, TX. We rented a huge beach house right on the water and spent the long weekend together.
A couple of weekends later, Brody and I got on an airplane and flew to Ft. Meyers, FL to be with one of my very best friends for the week! We hadn’t seen each other in a while and both of us were burnt out from quarantine and life that 2020 brought. We escaped to the beach spending a couple nights together at a beach resort in Ft. Meyers. I caught some slack for taking my 22 month old on an airplane during a pandemic, but I wouldn’t change a thing!
July
A lot of July was spent in the water: at the beach, in the pool and playing in our yard! Since the beach became our happy place this summer, we took advantage of a beach mini photo session to capture our family during this crazy year.
At the end of the month, my first born turned FIVE! Five seems like such a milestone and I still can’t believe how big she is now. We celebrated with a very small arts and crafts party with her best friends!
August
We started the month with a weekend getaway to Ft. Worth to visit JP’s sister and celebrate her birthday! It was exactly what we needed because we missed traveling and being out and about.
To keep up with my fitness this pregnancy (and to keep my sanity during Covid), I kept running! I ran a runDisney virtual series with some friends and even ran the 3rd and final race with my running buddy, Rachael!
Chloe started her first day of virtual kindergarten on August 17th! It was definitely a challenge starting elementary school online, but Chloe thrived.
On August 27th, our Brody Bear turned 2! We celebrated with a truck themed pool party at my parents’ house.
September
Since September is my birth month and I entered my 3rd trimester of pregnancy, I decided to really focus on self care and my mental heath before our new baby’s arrival!
September was also a really BIG month because both kids finally got to start school in person! Brody started his Mother’s Day Out program 3 days a week at the beginning of the month. (He’s in the same class as his cousin Gabe!) Chloe started her first day of in person kindergarten on my birthday! Talk about an awesome birthday present for this momma.
October
October felt like life we sort of going back to normal. (Sort of.) JP had his first business trip for work since February, we went to the pumpkin patch and my friends hosts a baby sprinkle for me and Baby G3! (Remember, we decided to wait until birth to find out the gender!) We also took maternity family photos to remember this precious time in our lives.
Quite possibly my favorite day this October was Halloween where we dressed up as a couple of construction workers, a wrecking ball and of course, Princess Tiana! Chloe and Brody are the perfect age for trick-or-treating making it incredibly memorable with this big belly.
November
November started on a high celebrating my nephew’s 2nd birthday and immediately hit a low with the passing of my Aunt Dianne. My mom’s sister who was like a motherly figure to me and another grandmother to my babies, passed suddenly leaving us all devastated.
But following great sorrow, we found great joy in the arrival of our precious third baby, Beau Philip Gougler. His birth was perfection however, I struggled immensely postpartum with hemorrhaging and a massive blood clot after I left the hospital sending me right back.
Luckily everything turned out alright and we were able to celebrate Beau’s very first holiday, Thanksgiving, at home with our families!
December
As a family, we were counting on December being a month of joy and togetherness after a very hard November. We celebrated Christmas all month long and spent as much time together as possible.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were magical with our kiddos. There’s nothing quite like celebrating baby’s first Christmas no matter how old they are!
That’s a wrap.
There you have it, our 2020 year in review! We’re planning to finish this year with food and fireworks at home with all of our wonderful neighbors! Needless to say, we’re looking forward to saying goodbye to this crazy year and hello to 2021!
It’s hard for me to say that 2020 was the worst year ever since it did bring us our precious Beau. However, between losing multiple family members, dealing with my severe postpartum blood loss and trauma, and the pandemic on top of all of that, it was pretty tough. We are definitely stronger because of what we endured this past year, but I’m looking forward to more joy in 2021.
I wish you all a happy new year and a beautiful 2021. Here’s to a new year and saying goodbye to 2020!
