The Sprinkle on Top

Our ward auction fundraiser was this last week and I was asked to help bring cupcakes for dessert. I've always loved flipping through cupcake cookbooks, pinning new flavors of cupcakes to my Pinterest board (completely dedicated TO cupcakes!), and eating other people's yummy cupcake creations. I've never been able to make cupcakes on my own. At least not ones that don't look like a two-year-old decorated them. But I decided that was all about to change as I made four dozen cupcakes for our ward auction. I pulled out my cupcake cookbooks-- Your Cup of Cake --and set to work. In my defense, they tasted amazing... But for the life of me, I could not get my buttercream frosting to work. It just kept melting on my completely cooled cupcakes. I feel like you'd have to try hard to get them to turn out the way I did. I researched all over the place to a solution for my problem--add less liquid so the frosting's not as thin, add more powdered sugar to th...

NOTE: I no longer breastfeed my baby girl due to a dairy and soy allergy, but I feel like I tried it all! I hope some of this advice might help others learning to breastfeed. The hardest part of my recovery from Evie's birth besides the raging hormones trying to balance themselves out was learning alongside my baby the art of breastfeeding. The lack of confidence in what I was doing mixed with the physical pain of nursing made those first few weeks of feedings a nightmare. I sought advice from anyone and everyone: online forums, my doctor, multiple nurses at the hospital, the on call lactation specialist, my mom and siblings…  I received some fantastic advice, but everyone had their own opinion on what would work and that added a level of frustration when I'd try it and come up against another wall. I'm sure other new moms have their own unique struggles to overcome when it comes to nursing a brand new baby so I wanted t...

Over the past few months I suddenly feel like everyone around me is having babies! Which is great news because babies are the best.   Lots of babies means lots of baby showers. Although it's great to get much needed items like diapers and wipes (which you can never really seem to have enough of) it's also fun to get unique gifts personalized for you and baby. Check out these DIY gifts that no one else will duplicate giving at the next shower you're invited to.  Diaper Friends These type of gifts are fun to make and fun to get. Plus they give the new mom a variety of items (diapers, bibs, bottles, mittens, toys, clothes, blankets, pacifiers, and whatever else you'd like to include).    Burp Cloths A wonderful woman gave me eight darling homemade burp cloths for one of my baby showers. At first, I wasn't sure why I was going to need so many... silly me. We go through them all weekly. It's so handy to be able to throw one in the wash and ...

It's been almost two months since my little wiggler joined our family. I won't sugar coat it - the first week was really hard, the next three were even harder. By the end of the first month, I thought I'd had some things figured out... and then more trials appeared. But that's life, right? Before Evie joined our family, I got a lot of really good advice from family, friends, and even random acquaintances of what would help my transition into parenthood be as smooth as possible. A lot of it worked... And a lot of it didn't. Based on my experience as a new mother, here are the absolute must-haves, nice-to-haves, and non-essential items that you may wonder if you need before you turn the page into the parenthood chapter of your life. Baby Must-Haves White Noise Machine: If you don't get one of these for a shower, buy it yourself. When your baby cries inconsolably, you don't want to have to then go find one. I love this one from Bed, Bath, ...

While living in Charlottesville, Virginia for over two years, I worked at WorldStrides - an educational travel company that runs international study abroad programs for universities across the globe. Although I have not traveled extensively overseas, I learned a lot of tips and tricks to help the inexperienced traveler have a smooth and amazing experience in their chosen country of travel. Most of these may be common sense to the well-seasoned traveler, but for those who are just stepping into the world of travel, don't forget these 8 things to know before you head out. 1. Arrive at the Airport on Time You can really start a trip on the wrong foot by missing your flight and having to be rerouted, taking any available flight and any available seat to get you to your final destination. Travel professionals recommend arriving at the airport two (2) hours in advance for domestic flights and three (3) hours in advance for international flights . This gives your schedule a bu...