The Reason for the Season

I love reading blogs and I love hearing how other mom’s do things and what “works” for them and their children, and at the risk of being criticized for this blog post I have to say this year I’ve become a bit annoyed with some bloggers. Here’s why.

I am Catholic, I was raised by two very Catholic parents and they made sure we went to church each week, volunteered at our church (I was a lector) and also went to adoration, confession, etc. I even went to mass everyday during Easter week to celebrate the reason for that season. I loved the last supper mass with the washing of the alter boys feet to symbolize the apostles at the last supper. I loved it all. I am a good person, who does things for others regularly and KNOWS the reason for the Christmas season, but I have children; young children who clearly can’t comprehend the “true” meaning of Christmas just yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.

This year reading on Twitter and on some of my daily blogs I read I notice some people are just constantly making me feel like if I decorate my tree, my house, go look at Christmas lights, bake Christmas cookies, take my children to see Santa, and even have Santa visit our house I should be ashamed of myself. Christmas isn’t all about these things, ya know!. Yes, I do know that, but I do know that my 2.5 year old doesn’t understand who Jesus is and why he came to earth for us. I can explain it as basic as I can and all that he will be able to repeat to me is that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday and that if he hits the baby Jesus in my nativity he won’t be allowed to play football anymore in the house. He doesn’t get it, and I’m okay with that. When I got married I promised that I would raise my kids up in the Catholic faith and I have every intention of doing that. Right now, I’m content with teaching my son that the train table he gave to another little boy last week was super nice of him because that little boy didn’t have one. Sharing is good, and he understands that. Giving to others is part of the true meaning of Christmas and he gets that.

As parents we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, and until our kids are older we will do it FOR THEM…don’t get me wrong, we will still try and teach the religious aspects of the season to our kids when they are young, but I won’t let people make me feel bad for letting my kids celebrate Santa as well, and the other non-Christian aspects of the holiday. The next best thing to having my son(s) grasp the true meaning of Christmas is watching their faces light up on Christmas morning when Santa has come, or making Christmas cookies and looking at lights.

And I won’t feel bad when I hear moms and dads talking about how their 2 year old was caught singing Away in a Manger, or holding the baby Jesus from the nativity ever so gently because my son doesn’t do that. Because honestly, even if my son was singing Away in a Manger he still wouldn’t know what it meant. He’s holding the baby softly because it’s a baby and we needed to teach him to do that with babies for his little brother’s sake. He may go to church and sit quietly while reading his Children’s bible, he may talk during the WHOLE mass as loud as possible, but either way he still won’t understand why he is there—yet.

So this week when we deliver cookie trays to people and wish them a  Merry Christmas, and when my son hands the gifts we bought and that he made to those he loves and a smile a mile wide fills his face I’ll be okay with that. I’ll be okay with knowing he’s doing for others and THAT is part of Christmas. And when he packs away some of his old toys to make room for the ones Santa brought him this year and we take them to those less fortunate I will know me and his dad are doing something right.

Christmas Card 2011

I'm so excited to be trying all these new link-ups. I am linking up with Faith, a blogger whose blog I recently found through Megan.

Each year I try and find a super cute, creative card to send out to our friends and family. We usually mail about 50-60 cards out a year. I know how much I love receiving cards, so I love sending them to people too.

This year was our first year with BOTH boys...I was so excited to take pictures with them together and a family shot, which was supposed to be used for this card. Unfortunately, it was the first time we used a location shoot photographer and Logan (almost 3) was too mesmerized by the park and running around outside that he conveniently forgot to smile and pose for the pictures in an appropriate manner (more on that later). We did manage at least one good one though.

So I present to you, our 2011 Christmas card....courtesy of Tiny Prints

Merry Christmas!

Oh What Fun it is.....to create....LINK UP!

Oh What Fun it is to….Create Link Up. Make sure to visit Meredith today as she hosts the link up for Creating!!!! Also, make sure you check out these other wonderful ladies....Erin, Molly, Nina and AP

I love this time of year, I just wish that I could find more time to do fun crafty things. I have always loved crafts and always tried to make time to do them. Now I have Logan whose at the age where he wants to help and we are both so anal about things we have a hard time working together..hahaha imagine that a 3 year old and his mom not working well together on an art project. I take full responsibility for his anal tendencies.

Anyways, I did a few fun art projects this year, but only took a few pictures…I just never seem to have the camera when I need it.

I started off by trying to make a colorful, non traditional wreath for our front door. I went off to Michaels and picked up some colorful polka dot ribbon (obsessed with polka dots this year..) and a letter for our last name and some bright paint. I then headed to Target and found these super cute color coordinating ornaments and VOILA! here is what I came up with.

A friend of mine was making ornaments this year and told me about this super cute idea and soooooo easy. You use the glass ball ornaments, glitter and floor wax (MUST BE Pledge floor cleaner with FINISH wax)! YES! That is all and they are so super cute! First you remove the silver top piece, and pour a bit of wax in the ornament. Slowly move it around so it covers the rest of the inside and then poor the extra back into the bottle. After that make sure there are no bubbles (I let mine sit upside down on top of the bottle for a few minutes) and then proceed to pouring a healthy amount of glitter inside. Shake like crazy until fully coated inside and then pour out extra glitter.  Put the silver piece back inside and let rest until dry.

Here is the finished product. I used these to fill a glass container I had sitting around for a decorating piece in my bathroom (more of that to come on Friday for the decorating link up!!!!

Happy Holidays and Happy Creating!

Guess What!?

It’s Friday, it’s not snowing here (yet), the weekend is filled with holiday filled activities, I have 2 (or 3) haha amazing guys to spend this weekend with AND I’m hosting my very first giveaway…It’s sooooo a good day!

I love to cook, and I definitely LOVE to bake and I have my favorite kitchen items that I use when baking for the holidays. I love Pampered Chef products and have just really transitioned to using them for most all my baking needs in the last 2 years. I absolutely love their stoneware for baking AND cooking, but there are most definitely some things I can’t live without and I’d thought I would share with you!

First and foremost for those of you who make the traditional decorated sugar cookies let me just tell you that your life is about to get so much easier…say goodbye to that wooden rolling pin and hello to THIS….



So super easy and SMOOTH to use..I love it!

Moving on...I also love these bowls...they are stainless which is one reason I LOVE them...they have a rubberized bottom on them which makes it easy to mix in and not have the bowl constantly moving across the counter...and they have deep seal lids which make it perfect for storing cookie dough that needs to be chilled.


Stylish huh?

If you are sick of having sore hands after frosting (or even in the middle of frosting) cookies this is the perfect thing for you...there is NOTHING to it...If I could buy one of these and give it to each of my baker friends I SO would!

And last, but certainly not least this handy little thing will seriously clean your bowl out and leave NOTHING on the bottom or sides. It molds to whatever jar, bowl, etc you are scraping and is wonderful for cleaning every last morsel of food from a can. I use it all the time when baking Christmas cookies!




I forgot to mention these come in different sizes as well!

 Now for the fun part...how would one of you like to win a Pampered Chef gift set with one of the Easy Accent Cake Decorators and a Handy Scraper! All you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite holiday treat you like to make....and your email address of course! I will post a winner next Friday December 9th and get your package out to you for delivery on Monday so you can start your Christmas baking ASAP!

Have a good weekend and good luck!

****if anyone is interested in placing an order for any products email me...I would love to help****
                             loveandcoupons (at) gmail (dot) com




Monogrammed Clothing

Hey Everyone!

I’m looking for I (Ian) or L (Logan) monogrammed clothing! Ian is 6-12 month clothes and Logan is 4t-5t!

Email me if you have anything available!  loveandcoupons (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks!

P.S Join fellow blogger Kelly if you are in search of cute monogrammed clothing for your kids or if you have some you are looking to get rid of!

(EASY) Thanksgiving leftovers

My husband and I aren’t huge fans of turkey, in fact I don’t think we would ever eat it in the house unless it was Thanksgiving, or it came in lunch meat form but this year we hosted Thanksgiving and how can you host and not serve turkey? This year we had 2 different kinds of turkey. My wonderful FIL brought a deep fried turkey and my mom made this amazing turkey soaked in gravy sauce. We all stuffed our faces, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by how much was left over!

As I sat in the living room that night wondering how I could “get rid” of this turkey I decided to try a few things. We may not like turkey in this house but we sure as all heck love Mexican food. So I whipped up some turkey enchiladas..YUM YUM YUM…SOOOOOOO good and so easy. Here’s what I used and what I did.

Deep Fried Turkey—shredded

Chipotle Taco Seasoning (packets by the regular taco seasoning)

Shredded cheese (we used Mexican style, but you could use cheddar)

Flour tortillas

1 large can of enchilada sauce (I used mild-red)

I tossed the turkey in a pan and mixed in ¾ cup of water and the seasoning packet…mixed around until it was absorbed up and then filled each shell (I think I got 12), added a little cheese and laid in the 13x9 baking pan (spray these because the shells will stick). I then poured the whole can of sauce all over, making sure every part is covered. Sprinkled with cheese and baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes…VOILA! Super yummy and super easy!

I still had a lot of the turkey in gravy and most certainly couldn’t make enchiladas with that so I decided to make home made pot pies. It should be said that while sitting at work that day trying to figure out how to make individual pies I decided that was too much work so I made this in a pie pan and had one giant pot pie, but I’m sure this recipe would work with individuals as well. See the recipe below; again, super easy!

1 pkg prepared pie crust (you will need both inside)

Cut up turkey

1 bag of mixed vegetables (I also boiled up some potatoes and cubed them and added, but it’s not necessary)

1 cube of cheddar cheese (cubed)

2 cans of turkey gravy (unless you have extra from Turkey day)

I rolled out the dough and placed in bottom of the pie plate. Mixed all the ingredients together and poured in. Then put the other pie crust after it’s been rolled out on top. Use a butter wash (melted butter) and brush it over the top and bake for 30 minutes or until top is light brown….SOOOOOOO good!

Hopefully these will help you use up those turkey leftovers! Happy eating!

Playing Dress Up

One thing I love about little kids is that you can dress them in the cutest things and they really don’t have a say, well until they turn 2 ½ and want you to take off their khaki cargo pants and put on FLUFFY pants (aka fleece pants)! I did hope for a girl to dress up in cutesy little things, but boys can be fun too! I know my husband begs to differ but I love cute cute clothes for my little guys.





Enter Etsy….last year I ordered the cutest little turkey tie shirt for Logan to wear on Thanksgiving, don’t mind that he came down with the stomach flu on the way to the Thanksgiving festivities and we had to change him out of it in record time..it was still cute. Ha and I can’t wait for Ian to be big enough to have it fit him.

Cute shirt huh?

This year I’ve found some super cute ideas for both boys….I can’t decide..



Love love love this one...



Simple initial in the traditional Christmas colors? Courtesy of Braylabees

Love this one--so boyish!

And lastly...another Braylabees that I almost can guarantee my son would LOVE!

Did any of these catch your eye? A fellow blogger is hosting a giveaway this week for a $25.00 store credit at Braylabee’s Etsy store! Go enter to snag your kids some super cute clothes! I know I’m going to!

Can you tell I’m so excited for Christmas this year..I love having two little guys to celebrate with especially since Logan is old enough now to have such a good time and open presents. Ian just sits there smiling..but he’s too cute for me to care what he does..hahaha

See I told ya! Too cute for words!

Most Wonderful Time of the Year with Tiny Prints

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. Actually, once September hits I can officially say it is my favorite time of year. I love sweaters, the smell of pumpkin and yummy baked good and crafting holiday things. Oh, and how can I forget SHOPPING….I live for the day after Thanksgiving shopping (except for the year I was 9 months pregnant with my son). I thought I could do it, but I was soo soo wrong..ha

About this time every year I start to think about Christmas cards. Yea, that’s right THINK about them; that’s about all I do. I always come up with some elaborate super cute idea and then rush to get them done only to panic because I don’t have enough time and then end up heading to Walmart with the best picture I could find (yes, one year it had our dogs wearing Santa hats) and print what I need just to get them out that same day. There may have been one year out of the last 5 that I have got them out the day after Thanksgiving as I always plan to do. But not this year. I vow to get a family picture done and the kids pictures and get my card together and out no later than December 5^th. I am so excited to this year because I have decided to go with Tiny Prints to create these cards. They have A TON to choose from. I mean I may  or may not have had a small heart attack when I saw there were 23 pages of Christmas cards I could choose from. My favorites folder was filled up after the first 2 pages how will I ever choose!!!

Here are a few that are in the running in the DiVito household this year. And by few I mean like 10..hahah It may just take me till December 5^th to choose one, but I know whatever one I chose will be perfect!

This is my choice for a fun colored, different style Christmas card. Reminds me of Erin Condren, minus the price tag.

I know people love the BLUE Christmas look so this is my choice for a card with that style. Fun,

 huh?

                                                                  This is FUN and different!

                                                                   Simple, yet super cute!

Elegant, but cute nonethless!

This is one of my favorites. Super cute in the traditional Christmas Colors!

Just flat out love this..how cute is this (fake) couple..ha

See what I mean? How can I choose! Maybe you will be better at it than I will. Head on over to TINY PRINTS and pick your favorite design and wow all your friends and family this Christmas. I have personally ordered cards from them before, and I can assure you that you won't be dissappointed.  If you want to try it out you can
                  LIKE Tiny Prints on Facebook to get a FREE Christmas Letter sent to your little one.
                                                                  Have fun shopping!

Halloween Preparations

My son is 2.5 years old (and he’s not afraid to tell you that he’s 2.5 and NOT 2!) He is finally old enough (somewhat) to tell us what he wants to be dressed up as for Halloween. This year he threw us all for a loop..He has been asking to be Captain Hook and being the cheapskate I am I couldn’t justify spending 70$ for the costume and supplies from the Disney Store. I mean come on..he is going to trick or treat for maybe what, an hour!? So we talked him down to a pirate..easy easy easy…and better yet CHEAP..haha…but then on Friday I noticed the Captain Hook costume went to 40% off..so I talked to the hubby and we decided he would be so happy so we would buy it for him. Since I work right by a Disney Store I would run on my lunch this week and pick it up! Ohhhh no…Logan had other plans..he found a costume at Old Navy yesterday while shopping that he HAD..and I mean ABSOLUTELY HAD to have…as in would not take it off to leave the store….and he was so proud of that darn costume….mom on the otherhand…embarrassed…..ha…

Here’s why….

Yes folks my son wants to be a cheeseburger!! I blame this weirdness on his father..It most surely can't be because of me! :)

And to top off this holiday of weirdness...Ian, my almost 6 month old is going to be a hotdog..because I found this adorable hot dog costume at Old Navy 3 years ago, and dang it one of my kids WILL wear it someday.. Now I just need to find a french fry costume for the dog and we are all set. :)

Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings…

I started this blog because I adore reading others blogs and want to feel like I’m doing something with my free time (FREE TIME—WHAT?)

I started nursing school Sept 7^th, and haven’t blogged since. HA—go hand in hand..I think so!

I will probably send through all my blog posts I started and didn’t finish all at once, so be prepared for  LOTS of blog posts all at once to get me caught up.

I realized working in the nursing home is not for me…these clinical training days kill me both emotionally and sometimes physically.

October 21^st---FAMILY VACATION to Disney World cannot come soon enough!

My baby is turning 6 months old in a few weeks..THAT’S HALF A YEAR! What is going on here!

My first baby will be three in 86 days…cue the sobbing..ugh I hate that they are getting so old..but they are oh so fun!

I have so many fun things that blog buddies have turned me onto lately I must share those things with you soon…I wish I had all the money in the world to buy everything I love!

My days since Sept 7^th and until October 18^th consist of me leaving my house at 6am to get to work by 7am and work (with no lunch break) until 3pm head straight to school/clinicals until 10pm or 8pm…depending on the night..home to do housework pass out on the couch….YUCK

I love living in Wisconsin, but I love Fall too much to be able to enjoy 75 degree weather..I would love some 50’s and 60’s please!

I don’t want to go to India for work…I don’t want to go to India for work!

I may be doing my first giveaway this weekend…..hopefully people find there way to my blog and want to enter!!!

I miss not doing my “coupon” shopping during my school days!

I can’t wait for the weekend to be here—even though it will consist of catching up on all the housework I missed this past week. HA

I joined Pinterest and am starting to fall in love with it even though at the beginning I didn’t know how to navigate around it.

I promise I will update more meaningful stuff SOON!

Best dinner EVER....

Okay, a little over dramatic I must say, but let me just say I made this recipe (with items from my couponing stockpile might I add..ha) and it was seriously sooo easy, and so good; especially if you like a bit of heat.. I couldn't help but share..you can totally make this recipe in 25 minutes and have dinner on the table in less than 45. So yummy! Let me know if you try it and if you love it!!!!

Chipotle Chicken Meatballs

Prep Time about 20 min

Cook Time about 25 min

1/3 cup of plain breadcrumbs

4 slices of bacon, chopped

½ cup finely chopped onion

3 Cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

1 lb of ground chicken

½ cup chopped cilantro

Salt and Pepper

I package of frozen corn, thaqwed

8 ounces of cabbage, thinly shredded

8 flour tortillas, warmed

1. Preheat the broiler. In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumbs with 1/3 cup of water. In a large skillet cook the bacon over medium heat. Tranfer to a plate; por all but 2TSP fat into bowl. Add the onion to the skillet and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in three-quarters of the garlic, the chiles and 2TBSP water, scraping up any browned bits; add to the breadcrumbs and let cool slightly.
2. Add the chicken, bacon and ¼ cup of cilantro to the breadcrumb mixture; season with salt and pepper. Form mixture into 32 meatballs. Broil the meatballs, turning once, until just cooked through, about 12 minutes.
3. Meanwhile in a large skillet, hear the reserved bacon fat over medium-high heat. Add the corn and cook undisturbed until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and remaining garlic and cook, stirring until the cabbage just begins to wilt, about 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining ¼ cup cilantro; season with salt and pepper. Serve the meatballs in the tortillas with the cabbage slaw.

P.S I didn't make the slaw to go with it..I just made frozen corn, sauted with a little butter and some cilantro and lime juice...then after I put the meatballs and corn in a tortilla I added a little sour cream....soo yummy!