Peyton's 1st St. Patrick's Day

Peyton and I had a grand 'ole time celebrating one of my favorite holidays yesterday! I just really love St. Patrick's Day for some reason and I was so excited to get to enjoy it with Peyton this year. Our festivities this year were a little different (don't worry I still got my Reuben sandwich and my Irish beer) than in the past, but I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

It wouldn't be a proper holiday in the Roche household without a themed outfit of course :)  

The main reason that St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays is because it also happens to be the day that Jared and I met for the very first time. This is our first photo together, on that day, NINE years ago! My how times have changed.

Like any other holiday around here, this called for a photo shoot :)

A fun present from mommy for the holiday. This necklace was a bad idea. I never stood a chance at getting her to pay attention to me or look at the camera after this. But she loved it.

Peyton and I spent St. Patrick's Day at our local Irish Pub and she had a blast. This child loves going to restaurants. She is always entertained, sitting up in the high chair checking everyone out, smiling and waving at everybody as they walk by. She was particularly fond of the green table cloth at our table and kept trying to pull it off, almost taking everyone's beers and food with it.

We had a play date at the pub (yes, I just used the words "play date" and "pub" in the same sentence) with some of Peyton's Kappa Sigma baby friends. All of their daddies were fraternity brothers in college, and we are so glad that we got some amazing mommy and baby friends out of that deal too! Basically, this "play date" was more for the mamas than the babies, but hey mamas deserve a little lunch date every now and then too.

Here's something I never thought I would be doing on St. Patrick's Day...sitting on the floor of a restaurant playing with three infants. Luckily, we were sort of in the corner of a back room away from the main dining area, so we didn't look too insane. I'm sure they put us back there on purpose. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Is this the cutest thing you have ever seen or what? 

Adelyn {1 year}, Harrison {6.5 weeks}, Peyton {9 months}

Peyton and I had a wonderful holiday and we hope that you did too! Happy St. Patrick's Day from this lucky little girl and her very blessed mama! 

Scripture Memory {Verse 2}

I have successfully memorized my first verse, hooray! I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself, since memorizing things has not always been my forte in life, unless it was choreography for a dance routine. Put on the music for a song I had a dance to in 8th grade and I can probably still remember most of the choreography...could I actually do it, probably not, seeing as how I am grossly out of shape and no where near as flexible as I was then. (side note: anyone else notice how much pregnancy diminishes your body's flexibility? No fair.) Anywho, now we are on to verse 2 and I am very excited about my new verse!

P.S. - In case you missed the explanation on what I am doing here...short version: I'm memorizing 24 bible verses this year in order to help me get more into the gospel and grow spiritually. Long version: Read my blog post about it here.

Now, back to my new verse. Of course, there is a long-winded story about how I came across this verse and why I have chosen it as one of my memory verses. However, I'll let you in on the verse itself first in case you aren't in the mood to read my extensive ramblings about how I arrived at it. Alas, my second memory verse for 2015 is John 13:34-35...

Story time! First you need a little back story here before we get to the verse. So my church had us fill out these "gospel transformation" cards two weeks ago where we made goals for how we wanted to be transformed spiritually this year. Also on the card, we were to list one thing we want to "quit" this year that will help us in our transformation. My "quit" for this year is negativity. I want to rid my life of anything toxic...people, thoughts, and experiences that make me feel negative. I'm so guilty of whining, complaining and judging others and none of these things ever make me feel any better, just more negative. Therefore, I want to try and be more positive about everything. To surround myself with positive people, flood my brain with happy thoughts and focus more on what is going to make life more of a joyful experience rather than always dwelling on the negative. It's easy to judge others, to complain when things don't go your way, and to just focus on the negative things that are raining on your parade. And I am sick of doing that. Why do I always let one little stupid piece of negativity block out the overwhelming number of blessings in my life? I have so many things to be grateful for and yet, one little thing doesn't go the way I planned it and my whole day is ruined. How pathetic. I'm notorious for letting a bad situation or someone else's negative attitude bring down my spirit, well no more. I want to be happy, positive and nice as much as possible, even when shit hits the fan. I know this is going to be very challenging and I know that I will by no means hit the mark even by the end of the year, but even a little progress is better than none. I want to try and try my best I will. 

Pardon the side road there, but that's important information regarding my verse. So here is how I came about it. I picked out my verse on Wednesday, the day before I had to submit it on the LPM blog because I'm a planner, that's what I do. I picked out a lovely verse (Philippians 4:6-7) and was all ready to go with that on Thursday morning. 

I woke up Thursday morning and opened my Bible app to do my daily reading (yes that's right, your favorite Bachelor-watching, wine-loving blogger also reads her Bible every day) and the verse of the day was: "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." (1 John 4:20 NIV) I felt very convicted by this verse as soon as I read it. I thought, yikes, they are talking about me. I claim to love God and yet there are plenty of people out there who I truly dislike and can't stand. Girl just got called out. Ah. So I continued my daily reading which coincidentally happened to be in the book of John that day and it all just kept coming back to the same theme, love and forgive others, no matter what. If Jesus can love and forgive everyone, then so can you. Hmm, well they do have a point there. Next, I opened up my Instagram and the very first picture that popped up was a graphic from She Reads Truth that said "Love each other. John 13:34", and the caption below had the entire verse from John 13:34-35. As soon as I read it, I knew that had to be my verse for the next two weeks. 

I have chosen this verse because I need the reminder, everyday, all day, to love others. It's easy to love the people that you actually like...your spouse, kids, family, friends, etc. It's not so easy to love the people you dislike...that annoying co-worker, neighbor, family member, acquaintance, "frenemie" (don't lie, you all have one), random person in the grocery store line, random person driving slow in front of you when you are late for work, etc. It's really hard to love those people because heck you don't even like them, and maybe they have even done something really bad to you which makes you feel like you have every right to hate them. However, Jesus loved everyone, even the people who betrayed him and murdered him. Now, that's impressive. Trust me, I'm not trying to compare myself to Jesus or claim that I can be like him. Yeah, right. However, I do know that I am capable of trying a little harder to love others. Let's be real, what do you get out of being rude to someone or talking trash about them? Basically nothing. I've noticed that when I'm negative towards other people (even just in my own mind) that I feel crappy and negative too. And when I'm nice and positive towards others, then I feel so much better and happier. Alas, my verse. I want to use it to fight off the negative thoughts in my head. When I see someone doing something that I think is stupid or ridiculous, I want to replace that negative thought with my verse. Who cares if some girl wants to post a billion photos of her baby on Instagram (guilty as charged), I'm going to love her anyway because she is doing what makes her happy. And why does it matter to me if some crazy girl wants to write ridiculously long-winded blog posts (also guilty) and think that she's cool enough for people to actually want to read that garbage, well I will love her too. Challenge accepted. 

I see that what started out as a blog post has now turned into a short novella, sorry y'all. However, this verse just really has me going here. I promise that this is last point that I am going to make about it, so hang in there. The final line of the verse, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples", also spoke to one of my gospel transformation goals for this year. To share my faith with others. I'm not a huge fan of people throwing religion into random conversations. I am not one of those people who is going to come right out and ask you about your church, or try to force mine upon you because I just don't feel like that is my place and I don't really even know how to approach that. So I have been looking for ways to share my faith with others without just randomly throwing something like, "Hey, so how 'bout that Jesus guy" into a casual conversation. I feel like this verse finally gave me a little direction in that department. It says that simply by loving others, I can share my faith with the world. Well, that sounds like a manageable task, even for me. Ultimately, loving others seems to be like a pretty good idea in my book so I'm committed to making more of an effort. Love to you all, and free hugs for everyone. (That one is for all my fellow Bachelor fans out there...here's your free hug, don't worry you can get a coupon and redeem it later) 

Have a spectacular weekend and go share some love :)            

Baby Showers Galore

In the month of November, I attended three baby showers (and hosted two of them!). All three for very special friends from completely different circles of my life. I'm so blessed to have all of these amazing women in my life and could not be more excited for Peyton to have some new friends! 

Baby Shower #1 - My childhood best friend, Lindsay

Remember back in May when I was 36 weeks pregnant and a bridesmaid in Lindsay's wedding? Well, guess who is rocking the baby bump now?! 

I am super excited about Baby Speer's arrival because I always wanted Lindsay and I to have our kids grow up together. We have been friends since birth (I'm only 2 months older than her) and our dads have been friends since middle school. When I got married 5 years before her, I thought for sure that our first born babies would most likely be far apart in age, but God has a greater plan for us all and now we get to have babies close together after all! 

My mom and I helped host Lindsay's baby shower and it was absolutely beautiful. 

Even Peyton got a fancy new pink outfit for the occasion. Baby Speer's gender is going to be a surprise, but I think that Peyton is guessing that she's getting a new girl friend! My guess is a boy, and this anticipation is so exciting! I can't wait to find out :) 

Congratulations pretty mama!

Baby Shower #2 - College friend and wife of Jared's fraternity brother, Emily 

Emily is having a baby boy, Harrison, who Peyton has already claimed as her boyfriend/future husband. Just kidding. But really, as long as he is tall enough for her :) 

Kappa Sigma Wives Club...aka: now Mommies Club! 

Peyton loves any opportunity to see her auntie!

All dressed in blue to celebrate Harrison's impending arrival! We brought Emily some practical new mommy necessities and some monogrammed goodies as well. I simply can't resist adorable monogrammed baby gifts. There were tons of cute baby games and fun at this shower...and of course donuts, which made me nostalgic of my pregnant days spent binge eating those delicious powdered munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. 

Baby Shower #3 - Church small group friend, Rebecca 

This wasn't really your typical baby shower at all, but rather an adoption finalization party to celebrate Miss Lorelei being "officially" adopted. So even though Lorelei joined our church family back in July when she was born, we waited until now to celebrate her officially becoming apart of her family forever.

The party hostesses! Since Lorelei loves books so much, we made her party book themed. Everyone brought gift cards for mom and dad as well as a new book for Lorelei's library.

Each component of the shower was themed with a children's book!

The ladies who love Lorelei!

The proud mommy and daddy. God could not have placed Lorelei with a more loving and deserving family. She is truly blessed with some amazing parents.

Peyton and her sweet friend. We are so happy that you have found your forever home, Lorelei.

Pumpkin Patch

Peyton had her very first visit to the pumpkin patch this weekend! I think that this is what I have been looking forward to most about becoming a parent...all of the fun holiday traditions! Now, I have a legit excuse to participate in fun kiddie things and not look like a total weirdo. Obviously, Peyton had no clue what was going on and did not care about picking out pumpkins, but I had a blast. Let's be honest, this outing was more for me than for her. Don't worry, I took an unnecessary amount of photos to document the occasion.

We joined our friends, The Bush Family, at the pumpkin patch at Mandarin Methodist Church. This was especially fun for me because we used to come to this pumpkin patch when I was a kid and this was actually the church where I was baptized as a baby!

The Bushes come to this pumpkin patch every year for photos and picking out their family pumpkin together. This is definitely a tradition that I want to start with our family too!

MaryAnn and I decided that we want to bring our kids here every year and take a picture of them together so we can see how much they grow over the years. I'm super excited about starting this fun tradition with our friends. Here is the very first Bush-Roche kids photo!

 Jackson (6 years old), Joseph (10 months old), Peyton (4 months old)

We decided that we all wanted to match for our family photos and for the photos of the kids together. The easiest way to get the boys on board with any type of matching is to make it FSU themed. Plus, everyone looks good in garnet and gold :) Lord knows I have plenty of it in my closet. 

One very happy mommy. I love sharing all these fun holiday traditions with my little girl.

Picking out Peyton's very first pumpkin!

It doesn't matter that my 4 month old can't sit up on her own yet. I was determined to squish her among the pumpkins for a photo. Don't ever doubt the abilities of a mommy on a mission for an adorable photo opportunity. 

How adorable/hilarious is this? I can hardly stand it. 

Thank you to The Bush Family for including us in your fall tradition! We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again together next year!

Hope y'all are having a fabulous fall!

Tennessee Trip

Peyton went on her very first overnight, out of state road trip the weekend of August 8-10 to Tennessee! Back before Peyton was even born, I decided that going on this trip would be one of my first big mommy goals. A dear childhood family friend of ours was getting married and I desperately wanted to be there. I knew that Peyton would only be about two months old and that putting her in the car for 8+ hours was probably a terrible idea, but I wanted to try. The bride's father (a dear friend of my parents) passed away back in late April and I was very sad that I was not able to make it to the funeral. My doctor wouldn't let me travel so far away from home that late in my pregnancy. I knew this wedding weekend would be difficult for their family and for my family, so I wanted to make sure that we could be there to support everyone. Plus, I knew all of our family friends would want to meet Peyton!

I knew that I wanted to bring Peyton on the trip to see everyone, but I did not want to have to bring her to the actual wedding. Mommy and daddy needed a night off :) So I enlisted Jared's sister to come along as our babysitter. 

We decided to make the initial drive to Chattanooga in the middle of the night. We didn't want to have to keep stopping along the way for feedings and diaper changes, as this drive was going to be long enough even without having to stop constantly. Therefore, we opted to schedule our travel plans around Peyton's sleep schedule. Peyton does the majority of her uninterrupted sleeping between 10:30pm and 6am (I know, shocking for an almost 2 month old) so we wanted to do most of the driving at a time when she would be in a good long stretch of sleep. Jared and Erika are super insomniacs and really good at staying awake all night so they were totally game for attempting this midnight road trip. Staying awake late is not something I am good at. I am a morning person, not a night owl. 

On Thursday evening, we packed up the car (Sidenote: 3 nights out of town with a two month old basically requires a full sized U-haul) and got ourselves ready for the all night drive. We fed Peyton, bathed her, and did her whole night time routine. However, instead of putting her down for bed in her crib, we put her down in her car seat. By 10:00pm, we were all in the car and ready to hit the road. Peyton had just fallen asleep. Along the way, we stopped twice for bathroom/snack breaks for ourselves, but Peyton never woke up once. Jared drove the entire way and Erika helped him stay awake. I sat in the back with Peyton and slept on and off throughout the night. A couple of times, I woke up to Jared and Erika having a full blown 90's dance party in the front seats. It was hysterical, but hey, whatever it takes to stay awake. 

We arrived at our hotel in Downtown Chattanooga at precisely 5:00am, exactly 7 hours from door to door. When I brought Peyton into the hotel room and sat her down, she instantly woke up and greeted me with this adorable face :) She was ready for her morning feeding, right on schedule. I couldn't believe how smoothly that drive went. I was so nervous and terrified that we would be trapped in the car with a screaming baby, but she was amazing! 

Jared and Erika went right to bed while I unpacked Peyton's stuff, fed her and then put her back to bed so I could get a few more hours of sleep. She went right back to sleep for 4 more hours! 

Once we all got a decent amount of sleep, we decided to head out for a late lunch and a visit with some friends. 

Peyton had a lot of visitors all throughout the weekend. And a lot of outfits! Thank goodness I overpacked for her because everytime I put a cute outfit on her, she pooped on it. Here she is with Aunt Melissa, who came to the rescue many times with her Shout wipes which saved Peyton's outfits. 

Friday night, we took Peyton out to dinner with us while everyone else was at the Rehearsal Dinner and she was so well behaved. The restaurant we went to was super loud, but she just slept the entire time. After dinner, my mom stayed with her in our hotel suite so we could go out to the bar with our friends from the wedding. 

On Saturday morning, we headed "up the mountain" to where our family friends live on Signal Mountain. We spent the day visiting with everyone and Peyton got to meet a new friend! 

Peyton (almost 2 months) and Claire (almost 1 year) 

Saturday night was wedding time! Peyton stayed in our hotel suite with Auntie Erika for 8 hours. That's the longest that I have ever left her before! I didn't mind though because I knew she was in good hands and Erika sent us lots of cute photos throughout the night. I did miss her of course, but it was so nice to have a night out. 

I was super excited to get to spend a little time with my childhood best friend, Lindsay, even if it was only for one day. The last time I saw her, I was pregnant in her wedding!

Jared just loves when I make him pose for photos at weddings, especially when he hasn't had a chance to make it to the bar yet :) 

Our parents have been friends since middle/high school and we have been friends since birth! So great to be reunited with these beautiful ladies, who might as well be my sisters! 

Ah, a better Jared smile now...thanks to a few cocktails :) The view from the Chattanooga Country Club was gorgeous. Overlooking the Tennessee River, I loved this fabulous deck where we got to enjoy that refreshing mountain air.

All of the moms, who became friends in high school, and their daughters! Thankfully, the official wedding photographer captured this shot as well which will be so much better than my iPhone version here. 

We are so blessed to have had such an amazing group of friends to grow up with. These ladies have been more like aunts and sisters to me, rather than just friends.

We went back up the mountain to say goodbye to our family friends before heading back to Jacksonville on Sunday. Jennifer (Claire's mommy) and I have known each other since birth. Our dads and our moms have been best friends since high school. We are so excited for Claire and Peyton to start the 3rd generation of our family friend group!

I couldn't possibly leave Tennessee without introducing Peyton to the beautiful mountains. I insisted that we take the scenic route back down the mountain so that we could stop at an overlook to enjoy the view.

I can't wait to bring Peyton back to Chattanooga when she gets a little older to visit her friend again and really enjoy the mountains!