LIFE is better in PINK

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

I love a good Bundt Cake! Last week, we headed down the shore for a fun visit with some of John's family members and I knew I wanted to bring a dessert! It had been a long time since I had made a bundt cake, so I decided to come up with a new recipe! It did not dissapoint!

This Lemon Bundt Cake is CAKE MIX RECIPE #54!

Your Shopping List for the Lemon Bundt Cake:

1 box lemon cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup milk
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup white chocolate chips

Your Shopping List for the Lemon Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Now Let's Make the Lemon Bundt Cake:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease a bundt pan (I use Pam)
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the eggs, milk, and cream cheese
Add in the lemon cake mix and beat on low for 30 seconds
Scrape down the sides and then beat on low for 1 minute
Fold in the white chocolate chips
Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes
Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely

Now Let's Make the Lemon Glaze:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon zest
Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla extract
You can add additional powdered sugar to make the glaze thicker or add additional lemon juice to make a thinner glaze
Pour or spoon glaze over top of the bundt cake - I like to spoon one layer of glaze and wait about 20 minutes and do an additional layer of glaze

I use this Bundt Cake Pan - and I love love love it! My cakes turn out perfect every time!

Monday, August 17, 2015

Mommy Mondays: Paisley Jean is Eight Months Old

EIGHT MONTHS!!!!! I actually cannot believe that she is already this old. Paisley has been such a source of peace and happiness for our family. She is honestly the happiest baby on the block. She is full of smiles all day long. And at eight months she has such a strong, funny personality shining through!

At Eight Months Old Paisley:
*says Mama, Baba, Dada
*crawls
*pulls herself up to standing
*waves bye bye (now she will do a more controlled finger wave and not a whole arm wave)
*has one tooth (and one more is on the way)
*plays peek-a-boo
*feeds herself small pieces of food

Such a big girl standing all by herself - notice how happy she is to be in baby jail?!?

Paisley Loves:
*eating any kind of baby teething cracker
*her pacifier - she's obsessed - there are 15 in her crib
*her sisters - playing with them and watching everything they do
*playing in the bathtub - especially now that she takes a bath with her sisters
*crawling anywhere she's not supposed to be (kitchen, bathroom, in between the couch and the end table, etc)
*teething tablets and cold teething toys
*music and dancing
*everything - seriously - she is so so so happy

Paisley has the best personality! She keeps us laughing all day long!

And here's my traditional Side by Side of all Three Girls at Eight Months! Lacie/Blakely/Paisley

I think all three of my girls look so much alike!

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Daddy Saturdays - John's Favorites

Lindsay always shares her weekly favorites up on the blog each Friday. I thought it would be great to share my favorites for my second Daddy Saturday Post.

The Art of Shaving

About a year ago Lindsay and I were at the mall and I noticed a new store called The Art of Shaving. I got suckered in to trying some of their products by the sales guy. Plus Lindsay said I should buy the products and start taking better care of my skin - but to be honest she probably just wanted me to buy it so I would stop complaining about how much money she spends on skin care products. So I went with the trial set. You can pick different scents but I went with the Unscented for Sensitive Skin. These products have made a huge difference in my skin and how I shave! No more razor bumps.

My most favorite product from the set is the Pre Shave Oil. This makes a big difference. I get a much closer shave using this oil.

Next I use this shaving cream. It goes on really nice. The thing I like most about this is you only need a tiny bit to get a great lather.

Lindsay convinced me that I needed to use the brush because it would help exfoliate before shaving. It was weird to use at first but now I'm used to it. Using the brush cleans out my pores and helps me use less of the shaving cream because it creates a great lather. And I do get a closer shave when I lather with the brush.

The After Shave Balm gives your skin a cool fresh feeling after shaving. And I think it prevents bumps. I don't use any face creams or lotions so this stuff is really great.

I started with a trial kit and now Lindsay just orders what I need when I run out from Nordstrom. I use a Gillette ProGlide Five Blade razor, but I am looking to upgrade in the future.

Reef Sandals

I was desperate for a new pair of sandals, so when Nordstrom was having their anniversary sale I ordered four pairs of sandals so that I could try them on and wear them around the house to see what was the most comfortable. The winner were these Reef Rover Sandals. They have a lot of cushion - your feet feel like they are walking on carpet. I need good arch support because flat sandals really hurt my feet. These are my favorite everyday sandal - I wear them out with the kids to the park, the pool, etc.

OluKai

I also wanted a sandal that was a nicer leather - that I could wear in the summer if I needed to get dressed up. So I found these OluKai shoes and got them in the Rum Leather color - which is a deep brown. They are comfortable (but not as comfortable as the Reefs) and they have good arch support. They feel really good on my feet and you can tell that they are a good quality.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Friday Favorites: Summer

With only a few weeks of summer left, I thought I would do a Friday Favorites Summer Edition!

John's Vacation

John works so hard all year long - but especially during the school year! The summer months are amazing because he's home early everyday and also takes a lot of days off! This past week he took the entire week off and we had a fun "staycation" and did lots of family activities close to home!

We kicked off Monday with a Day Date to Grub Burger Bar in Montgomeryville PA! A good friend of ours just opened this location! If you have one of these near you - definitely check it out!

Tuesday we went to Build-A-Bear for the first time, and the kids had a blast! I see lots of trips to this store in our future!

Wednesday we went to Sesame Place!

Thursday we took a trip down the Jersey Shore to visit family that lives down there! The kids did lots of swimming in their pool!

Today we are taking the older girls to their first movie!

Summer Treats

I have lots of recipes that I make only during the summer months! Anything with tropical or summery fruit flavors and especially coconut! Here are a few of my very favorites!

Blueberry Coffee Cake - this is hands down my favorite summertime recipe. You can definitely make it with frozen blueberries all year round, but I only make it with fresh blueberries in the Summer Summer Summertime!

Lemon Coconut Bars - these bars start with a cake mix and are loaded with coconut and white chocolate chips!

Chocolate Coconut Neiman Marcus Bars - these bars are delicious! They taste like a candy bar...but better! I love the chocolate/coconut combination!

Click Here to see my entire Summer Dessert collection!

PUDDLE JUMPERS

Buying these was the best investment I made in our summertime fun. For $20 per kid I have had peace of mind in the pool all summer long. Both girls are able to swim independently in the pool as long as they are wearing their puddle jumpers.

NATIVES

The pink Native Shoes that my girls are wearing in the above picture have been my very favorite summer purchase for the kids. They are so easy to clean. My girls can put them on all by themselves. They seem more comfortable and stay on their feet better than Crocs! They wear them to the park, walk around in them all day at Sesame Place, wear them to the pool, etc. We will definitely be getting Natives again next summer!

Today I am linking up with:

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Daddy Saturdays

Yesterday, I shared with you that John was interested in writing a bit on this blog! And I knew my readers would have questions for him. So I thought it would be fun for him to answer some reader questions!

What is Your Favorite Thing that Lindsay Cooks

My favorite dinner is the Asian Inspired Chicken Stir Fry that Lindsay makes - with rice. Tons of brown rice.

My favorite dessert is anything red velvet. I love Lindsay's Red Velvet Cupcakes the most, followed by the Red Velvet Fudge Bars.

Is Your Favorite Color Pink

No blue is my favorite color, but pink is a close second.

What Are You Wearing

My Giants Shorts! I have two pairs and I'm always wearing them whenever we hang out at home!

What's Your Favorite Thing to do With Your Kids
My favorite thing I do with my kids is wake them up in the morning. Seriously I love being able to run in there and wake them up whenever I have a day off work. It's really simple things that I love - Eating pancakes or bagels together, watching TV with them, going to the pool, taking family walks etc. I just love spending all of my free time with them. Being a Dad is the most important thing that I do and my family will always come first.

What a great First Blog Post by John! Don't forget to comment with questions for next week's Daddy Saturday!

Friday, August 7, 2015

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!!! I am extra excited about this Friday because John is on vacation from work all next week! So the girls get 9 straight days of Daddy being home to wake them up in the morning...and they are EXCITED!

Speaking of John being off - he really wants to participate in this blog! He has been asking for awhile now for the opportunity to write a feature. I love getting questions from my readers, and I think John would too! If anyone has a question that they want John to answer - write it below in the comments or email me at lifeisbetterinpink@yahoo.com and I can but together a fun Q&A for John!

Now onto my favorites! Here is what I am loving this week:

My Pink Watch

Eeek! John surprised me for my 30th Birthday with this gorgeous pink Michael Kors Watch! I love love love it! And I was not expecting it at all. In fact, I sent him an email with totally inexpensive earrings from the Nordy Anniversary Sale and thought I was getting them. I was super shocked to open this pink watch! It just screams LIFE IS BETTER IN PINK!

100 Days Until Disney

I seriously got so excited when I logged into my MyDisneyExperience account and saw that we had reached 100 days to go! The countdown has me looking at all things Disney! And I could seriously write a post a mile long about all the Disney products I eye up on the daily - but these are a few of my favorites!

How cute is this Minnie Mouse Waffle Maker! I know typically it's Mickey - but my girls are all about Minnie, especially Blakely. I am definitely looking to get this for the fall so we can start a Disney Countdown with a special breakfast...maybe at the 50 days to go mark?!?

And as much as I've been in love with the Natives that I picked for the girls' summer shoes...I have been looking at these Frozen Crocs, which I know they would LOVE! I think Lacie would be all about the Blue Sparkle ones! They may work better since Lacie has always had tiny dancer feet!
For Paisley's Tiny Feet I just adore these Minnie Mouse Robeez. I have emailed them to John more than once and said that Paisley needs these Minnie Robeez! She has a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal that John's Parents got her for Christmas, and she adores it. I figure she will go crazy for these on her feet. Plus I just love Robeez on their feet from around 9-18 months! They are perfect for babies learning to walk and for keeping socks on them in the winter!

Cinderella is Blakely's Favorite Princess

Belle is Lacie's Favorite Princess! It is a lot more difficult to find stuff with just Belle on it. Usually it's Belle with other characters.

Today I am linking up with: