Key Lime Cupcakes

Hey friends! Just wanted to share a recipe that I made today! With St. Patty's Day coming up, I wanted to try out a nice, green dessert. I LOVE Key Lime Pie and I also love cupcakes. So I decided to combine the 2 with this Key Lime cupcake! This lime flavored cupcake is topped with a cream cheese frosting to create a perfect dessert when you want something different than your standard chocolate or vanilla.

Sorry for the not so great picture... I used my phone instead of my camera. In real life, the cupcake is more green and the frosting is more cream colored. Anyways... as much as I like making things from scratch, I also like "semi-homemade" things. This is a great example of that! Taking a box mix and turning it into something new. So here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Key Lime Cupcakes:
1 box white cake mix
1 three ounce box of lime Jello
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Juice from 2 limes

Mix all ingredients and pour into cupcake pan (put liners in first of course!). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before icing. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 box cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
Half stick (1/4 cup) butter (softened to room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Use mixer to blend cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add vanilla and continue to mix. Then, slowly incorporate powdered sugar until smooth! Easy and delicious!

*Note: If you want a thicker icing, add more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add a milk 1 Tbsp. at a time until you reach your desired consistency*

To My Baby on Her Birthday

Dear Charlotte,

A year ago today, my life changed forever. A year ago today, I had you. How on earth has it already been a year since you came into this world wide eyed and wiggling? It’s like time has been on fast-forward! But for now, rewind.

For starters, it is necessary for me to give you a play-by-play of your birth. That’s what your Kiki does for me EVERY YEAR on my birthday, so it is only fair for me to do the same for you. So here it goes.

A year and one day ago on February 11, 2013, the doctors decided it was time for us to speed things up and start the process of bringing you into this world. You see, I had developed pre-eclampsia and it was just getting worse. The longer you stayed in my belly, the more dangerous it was for both of us. So once they saw how high my blood pressure was that day, they said it was time to go. Now.

So off to the hospital we went. Once we got settled into our room, they gave me some medicine to try and make me dilate. It didn’t work though. They hoped all night long that it would help and labor would start, but it didn’t. I was only 1cm dilated. So we went on to Plan B the next morning. At 6am, they started Pitocin. It started giving me a few contractions, but nothing very strong. Over the next 6 hours, they gave me more and more medicine until they couldn’t give me anymore! I thought, “If this is what contractions feel like, there is no way I will need pain medicine! This is easy!”

By noon, I was dilated to 3 cm. And then they broke my water. Almost immediately, my contractions intensified by about 100. They hurt BAD! Within about 30 minutes of those contractions, I started telling the nurses that I was going to eventually want an epidural. They told my doctor who said I couldn’t have it until I was at least 4 cm. The next four hours are a blur. Since the Pitocin was on the maximum dosage, my contractions were literally off the charts. They lasted a couple minutes each, but I only got about 15 seconds between each one. Whoever said you could rest in between obviously had never had my dosage of Pitocin!

Finally at 4pm, they checked me again and said I was 4cm and could have an epidural. I was so relieved to see the anesthesiologist! My sweet nurse held me while they did the epidural (I still don’t know where your father went…but at the time I didn’t care!). As they laid me back down to test the epidural, my whole body started contracting. Not only could I feel my stomach tightening, but my legs, my face, my arms, EVERYTHING was tightening up. I was terrified that the anesthesiologist had hit a nerve and caused some type of horrible damage. As I was telling him what I was feeling, he said that the symptoms were consistent with someone who was close to delivering. The nurse assured him that I was only a four, but she checked me just in case. The look on her face was priceless! “Oh wow…. You are about to have a baby! Don’t push! I have to get the doctor and everything we need!” I went from 4cm to 10cm in the course of about 30 minutes while they did the epidural. Apparently, my contractions were too strong to allow my body to relax enough to let you come down the birth canal. So once the epidural started to kick in, my body let you come right on down!

The next couple minutes were complete chaos! One nurse ran to get your dad, another ran to get the doctor, and another started wheeling all kinds of equipment into the room. Once they were all set up, it was time to push! About ten minutes and several pushes later, and there you were. 4:59pm. Eyes wide open, looking right at me when they laid you on my chest. I never expected your eyes to be open that soon! It was so surreal to finally see the little wiggle worm that had been inhabiting my belly the past nine months!

And you were perfect. They laid you on the warming table and your daddy went to be with you. As soon as you grabbed his finger, he told me he couldn’t come back to my side until you let go. So he let you hold him for almost an hour. Since you came down the birth canal so quickly, you aspirated some fluid, which made you breathe too fast for a while. And breathing too fast made your blood sugar drop a little too much. But finally, everything balanced out and they brought you back to me.

As I looked into your perfect little face, I was amazed. Your daddy and I talked so much about what we hoped you would look like. We hoped you would have his pretty lips and skin. We hoped you would have my bright eyes and face shape. And you did. You were exactly as we hoped you would be. And you were so alert! Immediately looking around, taking everything in.

Even in the womb, you were a mover. And it was the same as soon as you were born! Everyone that held you commented on how wiggly you were! And it never changed.

Over the past year, God has allowed me to watch you grow and transform from that wiggly little baby to an awesome little person. I thought you would be like a little mini-me, but you couldn’t be farther from that. You are strong-willed and outgoing. You know what you want and when you want it and you aren’t afraid to let everyone know it! You are a dare devil and an adventurer. You are fearless. You are loud! You are a troublemaker. You are an attention seeker. You light up every room you are in. You make everyone smile when they see you. You are so full of pure joy.

I pray often that I am able to take all these qualities that God gave you and mold them properly. I pray you take that strong will and use it to stand up for yourself and your beliefs. I pray you take that outgoing personality and use it to reach out to those who need a friend the most. I pray you use that adventurous spirit to go places and try things that others won’t. I pray you use your fearlessness to dare to dream big. I pray you use that loud voice to praise God. I pray you use that troublemaker attitude to go against the grain and dare to be different. I pray you use the attention you receive to spread love and positivity. I pray you never lose your light and joy.

You are something special. God designed you perfectly and gave your daddy and I the job of raising you the best we can. We are going to mess up. We are going to lose our cool. We are going to do things and say things we’ll regret. But we love you more than you could ever imagine. We want nothing but the best life for you. You have given our lives a new purpose and brightened our world in a way I never thought possible. We have learned so much about ourselves and each other the past year, and I can only pray we can teach you half as much as you’ve taught us. I can’t wait to see how your life will unfold, baby girl.

Happy birthday, darling! Mommy loves you!

DIY: Monogrammed Canvas

     So for a while now I have wanted to do a painting project with my daughter. Now that she finally isn't putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, I thought we would give it a try! First off, y'all should all know that I like projects that are inexpensive and easy. And this project definitely fits that description!

So here's what you need:

• A canvas 
• I grabbed a two pack of 16x20 canvases from Walmart for less than $15
• Several colors of paint that will mix well 
• I used red, yellow, and light blue....and I used acrylic paint. I just made sure Charlotte did NOT put any in her mouth and washed it off of her immediately afterward
• Something to keep the floor clean 
• I used a trash bag, but you could use a drop cloth, newspaper, etc.
• A small paintbrush 
• I have no idea what size I used...just one small enough you can trace an outline with!
• A monogram pattern 
• I got mine from For Chic Sake

I cut open my trash bag along one side seam and the bottom seam so I could spread it out. I placed the canvas on it and then just squirted the paints in various lines across it (Sorry I don't have step-by-step pictures! I didn't plan on blogging this!). Then I stripped Charlotte down to her diaper since I knew this would be a messy project. I set her down and just let her explore! Of course, she crawled on top of the canvas first and just sat on it. But after a little redirection, she got her little hands on it and had a blast!

I rotated the canvas as we went so that she spread the paint all over the canvas. In the end, we ended up with a nice peachy canvas.

I put it up on my easel to let it dry and then Charlotte had to have a bath. This is definitely not a clean project, so just turn back now if you don't want a mess!

I let the canvas dry overnight and then had the task of figuring what I wanted to add to it. I honestly had no idea when I had her paint it! After a lot of deliberation, I decided I wanted a monogram of her initials. I'm not crafty enough to draw a cool monogram on my own, so I googled "monogram maker" and sorted through the links until I found the one I listed above. Its a great printable that you could even frame if you wanted! Anyways, just choose a background color for the monogram (It doesn't really matter what color) and then scroll down and enter the initials. It has instructions on the page, so I won't repeat them on here.

So once you've got your monogram, its up to you how you do the next step. I am good at looking at something and being able to copy it free hand. So I simply looked at my monogram and drew it in pencil onto the canvas. Another option would be to print the monogram, cut it out and use it as a stencil. Either way, you'll want to draw it in pencil first.

Once you've got your monogram drawn on, its time for paint! I opted for a contrasting color for the monogram. Since the canvas was a peachy color, I decided to do the monogram in blue.  I used a light blue to fill in the monogram and then decided to use a teal color as an outline. I put a couple coats of the light blue on for full coverage. In the end, I love how it turned out! Can't wait to hang it in her room and keep it for years to come!