House of Rose Comes to Pittsburgh! - VLOG: We're Expert Mothers

If you follow me on any of my social media...You've seen some of

this awesomeness, as it was happening!

I met Mandy, of House of Rose at BLISSDOM this past year.

We have stayed in touch and really became good friends..

 always wishing we lived in the same city!

We felt so similar and had so many of the same interests and goals for life..

Not to mention we both have 3 kids and have a place in our hearts for healing.

( her with adoption and orphans and me with domestic violence awareness)

A few weeks ago.. I get a text from Mandy:

"Hey! do you remember how long we said it would take us to get there? ummmmm we want to come visit you! lol.." She said they would get a hotel and take the 10 hour drive..

and that it was an idea she had during worship that day at church"

My response: "MANDY!!! we would seriously love it!!"

(And the crazy thing is a few weeks earlier BEN was the one saying we should invite them to visit sometime!)

So we of course decided sooner the better..

so the trip was planned for the NEXT WEEKEND!

I love having spontaneous friends like that! And because "company" was coming..Our 3 month to do list became a 1 week to do list and I was way more settled than I thought I would be at this time because of this motivation ;) Ben was thrilled with the new time frame of the to do list ;)

**It needed to get done anyways!! ;)

IT WAS SO FUN.

Seriously! It was so nice seeing Mandy again..

getting our families together. our husbands together!

It felt so natural and like we were old friends. I have to say I was soo in awe that she thought we were worth a 10 hour car trip with a vehicle full of kids...

I know how crazy road trips with kids can be!

But I am so happy that they did it because my girls were so excited for our company and still talk about their friends. ;) We had a weekend of fun.. laid back pittsburgh fun. :)

 I really feel so blessed to have found this friendship with Mandy!

And I only met her because of blogging..because I took that risk and leap of faith and went to BLISSDOM even though I only knew 1 person in real life that was going and we weren't even going together! God really works in our lives! He sees the big picture! We had both read some of the other's blog posts..but then re connected right before blissom.. and then during and after the conference became good friends.

Mandy had found my blog through shannon's story...and I really feel like shannon has helped me find a friendship that I was needing in this time of my life right now.

My husband even told me that he facebooked mandy the day after they left just to thank her for making the trip and to tell her that he saw how happy I was..and how it made him think of how since losing shannon I have found it hard to find friendships that came about so easily and effortlessly and with such an awesome connection! Right now in my life I feel like I've been blessed with a great group of women..and mandy is one of those people that inspires me and lifts me up. She is such a creative and joyful person.. and I think we, as mothers..as women, need to be surrounded by people like mandy! If you are feeling like you are lacking in that area of your life.. don't fret! E-mail me. ;) I can be your girlfriend next door.. sort of. haha. I know how it can feel lonely or stressful some days as a mother.. and having connections with other women who "get it" is important..I hope you find that here! And don't be afraid to take a risk.. it might mean you'll discover a friendship you wouldn't have had before!

We had lots of playing this weekend!

We played at the park... in our back yard...

We had pizza and lollipops for dinner! crowd pleaser here.

I made a nice big dinner for father's day.. but other than that we kept it simple and easy!

There were lots of giggling and forcing of children to take photos with over exaggerated "this'll be funnn!!" comments--trying to get them to cooperate..

they are used to their mamas so they were pros.

what did they expect? two bloggers together? we need to document this!!! haha.

I  already shared on my blog the fun little Gift Bag we surprised them with at their hotel...

I knew I wanted to do a nice detail for their arrival since they were traveling 10 hours!

Our husbands were great about taking

on the role of photographers over the weekend as well ;)

They knew that when we said "hey can you get a picture of us"..what we really

meant was "take at least 10 pictures of us."

Another perk of hanging with a blogger friend who documents everything like me.....

she turned the camera on my family! loved some of the shots she

got of sophie and micah and I!

Playground fun. Can't wait for the day when micah will

be able to sit up with them! He is ready to be a part of the action.

I really loved seeing our kids play together... It just made my heart happy! 

Because they were in Pittsburgh..we of course had to take them to the Incline!

A fun ride that takes you high up the side of the mountain and you can overlook the city!

It's beautiful. (The first photo in this post is from on the way up.)

We also went to the zoo. I absolutely love the Pittsburgh Zoo.

(It has a great membership price so we go now and don't even spend anything!)

It was also fun getting Abby, of Just a Girl and her Blog, to join in on the fun!

She is the sweetest and so glad I discovered her through Mandy!

Our husbands already exchanged numbers to play tennis! Can't wait to get our families together..I randomly bumped into her at target a couple days ago! crazy.

Saturday night we had our sitters come over and watch all the kids so we could have a double date night! We took them into the city..had dinner at Atria's in the

stadium and then walked the bridge into the city and grabbed

dessert at Olive or Twist. Cute place.. amazing desserts.

It was such a nice night.. took pictures on the bridge.. had GREAT conversation.

And now.. a little Expert Mothers Spoof...

for your enjoyment.

Mandy and I created this video to share how skilled we are in parenting.

Are your children as well behaved as ours?

One of the fun parts of getting together with blog friends..

was seeing the instagram feed come to life ;)

I feel like Mandy and I both try to share "real life" on our blogs in a positive way...

And after our fun and crazy weekend adventures with our kids together we

felt like we wanted to share how it went down..through video.

And also here's some shots of when we were trying to get "blog post" photos.

We just ended up laughing and going with it. ;) REAL LIFE.

The last day they were here we celebrated Father's Day with our amazing men..

by giving them a chocolate cake (cake boss) of their dreams.

Mandy was so sweet and gave me a cute going away present.

The Art is now in my kitchen. :)

We were so sad to see them go! But excited for

the next time we get our little crews together!

You should stop over and say Hi to Mandy at House of Rose...

she is posting her visit recap today too!!

Check back next week for the "official" video we created for you guys!

It was fun to make it..and even more fun to watch the outtakes. we are ridiculous.

If you've had starting a blog on your heart..or wanting resources..

you won't want to miss that post!