It’s been quite a Saturday here at House of Rose. We’ve been to urgent care. Had one 2 year old decide he wants to wear ONLY underwear. And we have a sitter-upper friends.

All 3 pretty big happenings if I do say so myself.

Let’s start with P:

Our Poor P Man – besides being mauled by his brother…

…hasn’t been feeling well since Tuesday.

This is the 5th time he’s been sick in the last two months. This time has been different though. He’s been crying out in pain at night because his belly hurts. He hasn’t eaten a single thing in 5 days and has lost a lot of weight.

On Wednesday we went to see the doctor and he tested negative for Strep. So, they sent us home saying it must be the “flu bug“. Do you guys know how ABSOLUTELY tired of hearing “flu bug” I am at this point???

But, after his shrieking-in-pain screams last night and foaming at the mouth in his sleep I wanted him checked out again this morning. Unfortunately, Prompt Care didn’t find anything wrong with him. They even checked his urine. The P.A. said she would have done blood work, but doesn’t have that capability on Saturday’s so it looks like we will be back to our Pediatrician on Monday for blood work.

I’m not taking “nothing’s wrong with him” for an answer. I know my child and I know he is not being himself. Do you guys ever feel like you have to be an advocate for your child’s health? I usually just take the doctor’s answer and happily go on my way. But, this time…I’m not doing it. I am demanding answers. Call me “that” mom. I don’t care. I want to know what’s wrong with my baby boy. And if it turns up to be nothing like they say…then, sure, I may feel silly…but at least we will not have to worry anymore.

Now on to Mr. Bents:

I think this child may be the death of me. No lie. We have entered terrible-2′s and to say it’s terrible…doesn’t even come close. He started climbing out of his crib this week. As in…you put him in…he immediately escapes. We decided it was big boy bed time (EEEEK!). I SOOOOOOOO DID NOT WANT TO GO THERE.

He also is absolutely against wearing a diaper. Or pants. Or a shirt. In fact, he wants to be naked…100% of the time. The minute I would put him to bed he would take his clothes off AND his diaper. About 9 out of 10 times he would have poop. Yea, then he would smear it EVERYWHERE. Last week I was doing his sheets about twice a day.

And when we went “big boy bed style” he didn’t poop in the crib…just on the carpet. Awesome.

Thank you to all of you that suggested the footed pajamas backwards with the feet cut out. It’s the ONLY way I can keep his clothes (and diaper) on him.

We have now switched him to undies for the day time and so far he’s been peeing and pooing in the potty! Woot Woot!

Little SJ:

Is finally sitting up without help!

YAY!!

Happy Saturday!

You know what’s exciting?

When you have a really talented friend who can craft just about ANYTHING!

You know what’s even MORE exciting?

When that really talented friend is nice enough to come help out a not-so-really-talented friend!That’s right. My specialty is not closet make-overs. Not so much at all. Fortunately, my friend Tonya, from Love of Family and Home, is a closet makeover specialist.

Or should I just say she is a certified ROCKSTAR at any DIY project?! Yep, that about describes her.

After seeing her closet makeover project I got a little closet envy and decided…“How dare her closet be better than mine!”

Ha!

So what’s a closet jealous friend to do? So glad you asked!

Kill her with kindness until she agrees to make your closet just as good as hers? I think that’s a yes!

No no no, not really. It was actually much easier than that. I tweeted her to see if she wanted to have a closet party and (because she’s kinda awesome) she happily agreed!

She decided it would be a perfect opportunity to do a tutorial on how to stencil your wall! And since I am so fabulous at video editing these days (ahem)…it was a perfect trading of services!

Not to mention some fun girl time!

So if you ever wondered how to stencil your wall…you no longer have to wonder. Or how a girl works a drill? Or maybe your more curious of what kind of dance party we had mid-tutorial? Either way, I promise you…ANYONE can stencil after watching this vlog!

Here’s the finished product:I am obsessed with it! Thank you again Tonya for being such a great friend and sharing your skills!

SJ is cracking me up these days. About 90% of the day he is doing this…

…I guess when you find your tongue…you want to show it off?!?!

I just love being the mom of these three sweet boys! They make my heart full! And they all have such different personalities.

For example:

P is the funny one.

Bents is the happy-mean one.

And SJ is as laid back as they come.

I think those descriptions are pretty accurate from these photos…

WATCH OUT funny P Man…your about to get hit!

Don’t think Bents forgot about you SJ…your getting smacked in the back of the head next!

The scene usually ends something like this…finger pointing and all!

Life with boys is never dull!

I don’t have an organized post, but a few random things about today:

1. I’ve been working on post ideas for Dollars & Roses this morning! My goal was to have a list of 20 ideas that I could begin working on immediately. Thanks to my twitter/fb friends I now have a list of 34 ideas! I need to get busy writing!

2. I have learned how to edit videos in iMovie, but my husband prefers I become a Camtasia queen. So now…I’ve been watching YT videos on how to edit in Camtasia. I will be an editing genius before this life is over. Ha! Did I mention that my passion is NOT editing videos?

3. My husband made me do P90X with him last night. I have literally not worked out in a few months. Not even running. To say my a** hurts today is an understatement.

4. There was a guy running down my street with a rope attached to him dragging 2 old car tires? He had hiking sticks and his chihuahua with him. My guess is he was training for something…but it looked strange.

5. I saw a mom from my church today at Subway and she was eating with her FOUR children. All of her kids are probably under 5 and they were all behaving like perfect children. I realized that I want to be more like her. More willing to just up and take my kids out without having to say “oh it’s too much trouble”.

6. The whole point in going to Subway was to eat healthy. Guess my cheddar jalapeno cheetos about ruined that idea.

7. I took a break from working to go get my husband’s tweezers and pluck my eyebrows. There’s a window in our office and the lighting was just right! You know you do it too!

8. I finally ordered my business cards for BlissDom! If you are curious who I used: Leigh from Funky Faith Girl designed them for me to match my blog. I had them printed from Overnightprints.com. I ordered 250 cards for $26.95 + shipping! Score!

9.  About 98% of the songs that I have downloaded from iTunes have been contemporary christian songs EXCEPT:

• Sexy and I Know It – Girl Bring the Boys Out

and

• Party Rock Anthem featuring D’aun

You can thank P Man on that one. His request.

10. I rarely get out of my yoga pants, but my husband and I actually got dressed up this past weekend for a charity event! We had a great time! And it was kinda fun to wear something besides my jammies!11. I don’t usually love finance videos. Just as boring as Camtasia tutorials. But, this ONE that my husband filmed…made me laugh a little. Plus, P Man makes his vlogging debut (only for chocolate though). Make sure you watch the outtakes at the end!

Gotta get back to these dumb Camtasia editing tutorials. Blah!

I have been waiting and waiting to tell you guys about this! Finally, we are ready to make it official (and no I am not pregnant again – I know where your mind is going)….

My husband and I have started a blog TOGETHER! It’s called…

Yes, Dollars & Roses!

Please be aware that this site is in it’s beginning stages right now! Actually, hubby told me I wasn’t allowed to announce it yet, but guess what? I am anyway! I may be in trouble when he gets home!

The idea behind this site will be to show YOU how we have been successful (and sometimes NOT so successful) at making money through blogging! Not only do we plan to show you what has worked for us and what has not, but we plan to show you our monthly income report. Would you believe me if I told you that we made $3,798.15 from blogging in December? We want to be as transparent as we can with you guys so that you can SEE and LEARN from what is working for us!

I have to be honest here, a lot of our blogging income doesn’t come from this site. Actually, most of it doesn’t. I just recently started making money off House of Rose. There are a few different reasons why and we plan to elaborate on that more through Dollars and Roses.

So, if you ever wondered…hmmmm how do people actually make money by blogging? We will show you! I can not tell you how many times someone has asked me that question. Over and over and over again we get people who are dumbfounded when we tell them we actually get REAL money from our websites.

I am really excited about starting this site with my husband! Not only because it is something that we are passionate about, but it’s something we are doing together and I LOVE THAT!

Sometimes he will write. Sometimes I will write. Sometimes we will both contribute to a post. And  A LOT of times we will be doing videos! You know how he feels about videos! Ha!

Some of the other topics we plan to cover besides just making money (because let’s be real – it’s not ALL about making money):

• How to start a blog (we will do a series on this)
• Tutorials on how to create videos
• Increasing your traffic
• Backlinking strategies that work
• What the heck is SEO?

And tons more topics!

We plan to do a one post/video per week! You can follow us on twitter HERE! Pretty please!

No worries, I still plan to blog here at House of Rose as usual. Telling you how crazy my kids are is part of my passion so I won’t be going anywhere. But, I am excited to begin a new journey at Dollars and Roses!

In case you think we aren’t serious, you may want to read about how we have signed up for the 30K Challenge! Holy nervousness! Pretty big challenge huh? I think we can do it!

I hope that if you are one of my House of Rose readers that you will find value in our new site! I would love for you to follow along! I am no expert, but I want to show YOU what I am learning!

For Bents 2nd birthday we decided to do a “Frosty the Snowman” themed party! Two things I wanted to accomplish as I was planning this party:

1. Keep it small

2. Stress free

Those of you who know me, you know I tend to let my invite list grow by the minute. Case in point: P Man’s 3rd birthday party…we had 73 guests…at our house.

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved that SOOOOO many people came out to help us celebrate, but it can get pretty stressful when you are trying to entertain that many people and enjoy your child’s party. It took the enjoyment right out of it for me!

So, I vowed for this party to “keep it small”!

Unfortunately one thing I can’t keep small…EVER…the cake. I love for the cake to make a statement! Our local bakery didn’t disappoint (they never do)! I showed them a picture of the boys “party shirts” and they matched the snowman perfectly!

We did a “Winter ONEderland” party for Bents 1st birthday so I was very hesitant about doing the Frosty the Snowman party this year. I thought it may be too similar. But you know what? I will be doing super hero parties for the next 10+ years so I decided to just go with it! Just like last year, I bought everything right after Christmas! Talk about CLEARANCE sale! WOO HOO!

The favors were LIFESAVER gummies and cute little snowman/penguin sippies!

Literally about 4 days prior to the party I ordered some adorable printables off etsy! Even the printables were on clearance!

The candy section! All candy that I already had from Christmas time! Gotta get rid of this stuff somehow or I am going to be 500lbs!

See these…

…yea that blue snowman is a squeaky dog toy. Ha! But for 50 cents they worked perfect to hold my description tags! Plus the dog is happy now too.

P Man did a great job of helping mommy set up the table! Gotta love a helpful 4 year old!

Although, he probably asked me sixteen times if he could eat one of these…

How cute is he in his party shirt? Thanks to my friend Angie…all the boys had party shirts!

The birthday boy was not being camera friendly!

And well…when it’s your birthday…you can act just about however you want.

Poor SJ didn’t get to rock his party shirt very long.

Do you see his cheeks? This was the beginning of an allergic reaction to his antibiotic! Yes, 10 minutes before party time…he started breaking out in hives! This only happens to me I swear! By mid party he was covered from head to toe in red blotchy spots!

I was very proud of myself though because the guest list…remained VERY small. Besides family, I only invited a few close friends with children that are around my kids age.

Girls photo!

Katie, Brit, Tonya, me, Kelly, and Nina!

The boys babysitter Hannah came and thank goodness…she helped out A TON, especially with SJ! I just love how much she loves the boys!

Nina and baby Jack!

I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of all they kiddos together!

Bents wasn’t too interested in the cake. He had more fun transferring it from one plate to another then actually eating it!

He did; however, LOVE his gifts!

For the kid that sleeps with a level…tools are just his thang’!

Overall, pants-less and all, he had a GREAT time turning TWO!

Now it’s 4 months and counting until our next birthday party (SJ’s BIG 1st)!

Today my little (or I should say BIG) middle man turns TWO!

I say BIG because he has always been on the “above average” charts for height and weight. In fact, he mostly hangs out in the 90 percentile! Future Denver Bronco?

On one hand, it seems like he can’t possibly be TWO already and on the other hand, it seems like he’s been terrorizing this place for eons!

I love Bents for so many reasons. He is what we call “Happy Mean”. Trust me, when he gets older, ain’t no one gonna mess with him! He can throw elbows like its nobody’s business. Nine times out of ten…when he’s being mean…he does it with a smile on his face! Just about 1% of the time he does it and actually has vicious intent behind it. But, no worries, that isn’t Bents, that is who will call “Hateful Harry”.

He is my most independent child. He can get the bologna out of the refrigerator, grab the bread from the pantry and cultivate himself a nice little sandwich. He can also peel his own banana! I know that seems like such a minor detail, but P Man won’t even peel his own banana and he is 4 1/2! Ask him to go wash his hands? Sure, no problem. He can even pump the soap. When I come home from the grocery store, he immediately starts putting away my groceries. I see a great little chore chart in his near future.

I’m telling ya, he may look IDENTICAL to his father, but he definitely is Type A like mommy.

We are so blessed by his obnoxious and loving personality! I wouldn’t have asked God to make him any different! We love you Bents!

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY!

Let’s start with the good news shall we?

You see this ladder? This is the start of my dad installing the track lighting for the picture wall! Woo hoo!

He also bought the wood to start building the boys their own lockers for the garage!I like it when I get him on a roll…because I can usually keep him going! The projects that are brewing in my head are endless.

Now, the bad news?

About an hour ago I got a call from daycare and this happy fella…

 …is not feeling so happy! He has a 101 temperature. I am wondering if God is playing some sort of awful joke on me? No?

I can take NO MORE SICKNESS!  I know you guys are really getting tired of my posts and tweets about sick kids.

I guess I should have known yesterday when SJ was not loving his playtime with his brothers that we were on the brink of being sick.

Again.

I think my husband might fire me. I haven’t had a chance to really work in almost 3 weeks. Ha! I can’t imagine if I was truly still with my old company. I would probably owe THEM money by this point!

Did I mention that when I left to go get SJ…the dog decided to get in to my diaper bag, destroy the formula container, eat about two 8 ounce bottles worth of Enfamil powder, and then PUKED all over our bedroom.

REALLY? Because I am pretty sure I was already at my puke quota for the DECADE!

Too bad I hate wine.

You know, where one of your children decides that instead of napping he will REMOVE his pants from his legs…attach them to his head…and SHAKE IT SHAKE IT!

Because every kid does that right?Or is it ONLY the middle children that embrace this type of behavior?

Perhaps it runs in the family?

 Guess we’ll blame that behavior on daddy.

Ahem.

Now let’s talk about my child that can’t take his pants off just yet and wear them on his head. Yes, little SJ!

He had TWO bottom teeth pop through over the weekend. You can’t see them just yet, but you can definitely feel them!

He’s growing so fast! He’s still as happy as ever. Even when he’s teething. And he absolutely loves to watch his brothers. They don’t even have to be doing anything funny and he will smile and laugh at them. Such a blessing to have him in our lives!

Well, I better run before Bents decides to remove his diaper too! I’d prefer to keep my Friday night laundry free!

Back in November I purchased my ticket to BlissDom 2012! For those of you who are wondering, “what in the heck is BlissDom?” check it out by clicking below!

I am very excited to be attending my first “official” blogging conference! I went to the Financial Blogger Conference this past year with my husband and I had a such a great time (remember I met the two coolest girls ever – Linda and Besty?)

After I left that conference, I decided that one of my goals for 2012 would be to attend BlissDom! So…in 50 days…I will be in Nashville, TN having the time of my life with tons of other bloggers. Some that I have been corresponding with since 2008, but have never met in person!

BUT, as a BlissDom “newbie”, I need some advice from the veterans…

Let me know if you are attending BlissDom 2012!