Huggies: Go Hawaiian For A Cause

Have you checked out these adorable Hawaiian diapers from HUGGIES®? Aren’t they just the cutest diapers!  This is such a great cause. I can’t imagine keeping a wet or dirty diaper on my baby longer than it needs to be on there because of not having enough diapers to change her as needed. These are some of the things that we take advantage of and don’t realize that some families do struggle just to be able to buy diapers for their babies. So if you haven’t tried them yet, HUGGIES® Little Movers Hawaiian Diapers provide tropical style—without compromising on leakage protection.

HUGGIES® Little Movers are shaped to fit babies on the go, and come with new and improved Leak Lock® protection for even more absorbency. And for the first time, design comes to HUGGIES® Little Snugglers.

• Two tiki designs in one pack lets you enjoy this spring season—and make your little one the coolest and cutest around
• Get gentle care with the proven leakage protection of the HUGGIES® Leak Lock® System
• Pocketed back waistband to help keep in the runny mess
• Specially shaped to gently fit little legs — even when they haven’t uncurled yet!
• All HUGGIES ® Diapers come with the trusted leakage protection of the Leak Lock® System which includes:
• Absorbent layers to help pull in wetness and lock it away
• Leak guards to help keep wetness in
• Grip tabs and a SnugFit® waistband for a secure fit

Now you have a chance to create cuteness. When you go to HUGGIES® Hula Babies Facebook page you are able to create your own Hula Baby. With every HUGGIES® Hawaiian purchase and Hula Baby creation, you are helping diaper a baby in need for a day. HUGGIES® will donate 6 diapers, up to a maximum total of 20 million diapers to the National Diaper Bank Network and up to 2.5 million diapers to Food Banks Canada, for every pack of specially-marked HUGGIES® Brand Hawaiian limited edition products purchased (not tax deductible) and every designated online social media activity associated with the program between 4/15/12 and 12/31/12 to diaper a baby in need for one day.

 

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post for HUGGIES®. I was not paid any type of compensation at all. I support the cause.

Irene

Banana Bread With Cream Cheese Frosting

I love baking and I’m always looking for new recipes to try especially since I take the yummy baked goods to my vets office- I like to use them as my guinea pigs and they very happily volunteer their services plus they love it so much that sometimes they don’t charge me for my visits-they totally rock!

Here is a recipe for Banana Bread that I found. It was super simple to do. The cream cheese frosting isn’t part of the recipe but since I had some left over from the cupcakes I made I threw it on one of the loaves and it was delicious! I used my cell phone to take the picture so it’s kinda dark.

The recipe is for two loaves and it came out super moist and delicious. I practically ate one loaf myself. I absolutely love banana bread. The recipe suggested adding some chocolate chips into the batter and I did that to one of the loaves but to be honest I didn’t care for it much because it took away from the banana flavor, after all, it is banana bread-right. But if you try the recipe let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans.
3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Makes 2 loaves (12 slices each). Here is the original Banana Bread recipe.

Enjoy!

Irene

Ocean Spray® Fruit Flavored Snacks Coupon

We have quite a few kids in the neighborhood. They are a few years older than Buggy but she likes to hang with them yet will not play with them without me so they all usually come over to our house. Since I never know when the kids will be over I like to have snacks on hand.

If you are looking for a snack that your kids will love and you can feel good about then you will want to try these new Fruit Flavored snacks from Ocean Spray®.  Available in two delicious varieties and made with real fruit juice+ and natural colors* and flavors, Ocean Spray® Fruit Flavored Snacks provide kids with the great tasting snacks they crave and parents with the confidence that they come from a good place. Not to mention these fruit flavored snacks contain 100% daily dose of your Vitamin C, are gluten free, contain only 80 calories, and are available with double Box Tops all year long!

Want to check out Ocean Spray® Fruit Flavored Snacks? You can visit http://bit.ly/K9P4Eo to download a printable coupon to save $1.10 when you buy any TWO boxes of Ocean Spray® Fruit Flavored Snacks. Remember to share the coupon offer with your blog readers, family and friends so they can take advantage of the discount as well.

Disclaimer: I received this information and the coupon offer from Ocean Spray® through MyBlogSpark.

*colors from natural sources
+These Fruit Flavored Snacks are made with apple, pear, and cranberry juice concentrate. See package for a list of complete ingredients. They are not intended to replace fruit in the diet.

 

UPrinting Business Card Magnets Giveaway - Ends 5/25

When our friends got engaged a few years ago we received their Save-the-Date card in the mail. Generally when people send out stuff like this there is a lot of other stuff you need to hang on to and your lucky if you can remember where you put it. When we opened the envelope what we got instead of a lot of paper was a magnet with all the details right on it. It was so convenient. We just put it right on our fridge where we were easily reminded of the event.

If you have a special event that is coming up then you will want magnet printing as your Save-the-Dates’ from UPrinting. With durable 17pt magnetic stock available in standard and custom size with a high gloss finish, your magnet cards will look amazing.

I know you are super excited about getting your own cards so thanks to UPrinting we are giving away 25pcs business card magnets for one winner. 2” x 3.5” 13pt Magnet Gloss, Front Only Printing.  


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Disclaimer: “You should assume that the owner of this blog will receive free print products in exchange for the post. Any and all reviews posted are based solely on my own experience and may be atypical. Please practice due diligence in making any related purchase decisions.”

Wii Super Mario Bros Party Pack Giveaway - Ends 6/15

These days there nothing interests kids more than their electronics and gaming systems. If you are looking for a new Wii system with some fabulous games then this is the giveaway for you.

A big thanks to our great friends who are hosting this super cool event so please stop by and check them out:  Mommy & Baby Reviews & Giveaways, Powered by Mom and Mom Does Reviews

Our thanks to all of the following hosts who helped make this giveaway possible. If you get a chance please visit their sites, you won't be disappointed.

Kathleen's Blog Spot, Couponista Queen, Fragrances 123, Coupons with Q, Single Mom Inspirations, Lil' Daily Deals, Mommy's Memorandum, Sweet Deals 4 Moms, Linda's Angels, Life as Leels, Making Memories With Your Kids Mom Of One and Having Fun, Couponing4you, Mom to Bed by 8, Comic Book Mom, Frugal Diva Frenzy, Frugal 4 Four, Mommy Coupon Swappers, My Photopage, Health, Beauty, Children and Family, The Penny Hoarder, Angie's WrapsDonnasDealsAndMore, I Love My Kids, NowandZen4u, Kat's Cafe, Emptynester Reviews & Giveaways, Capri's Coupons, In The Kitchen With KP, Building Carpenters, Making of a Mom, Ohayo Okasan, Giveaway Bandit Jenny at Dapperhouse, Cha Ching Queen, Nana Roberta, Sister's Saving Cents, Heavenly Savings, PR Mom Ambassador Freebie Spot, Bear Haven Mama's Tales, I'm A Silly Mami, Christina Serrano Ind Avon Sales Rep, Wraps With Wendy Crazed Mind, Cajun Couponer, Family, Love and Other Stuff, Freebies 4 Real, Simple Savings For ATL Moms The Shopping Duck, Tatum's Family Reviews, Chant3llo's Blog, Random Deals, 2 Dorks in Love, Views From the 'Ville, Miki's Hope, HomeGrownFamilies.net, ACE Is Healthy Weight loss, One House Schoolroom, The Maven of Social Media, Helping Moms Connect & Camp Wags

Check out what you could be winning:

Black Nintendo Wii Console Black Remote Plus & Nunchuck New Super Mario Bros. Wii Super Mario Galaxy 2 Soundtrack CD

Plus 4 Wii Games

Valued at over $250 !

• Built-in Wi-Fi Access For Easy Connection To Internet
• Netflix instant streaming functionality allows for thousands of movies, TV shows, cartoons and more right on your TV
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii offers a 1-4 player, cooperative or competitive experience
• The newly configured black Wii console is designed exclusively for Wii game play and entertainment experiences (Nintendo GameCube software and accessories are not supported)

Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk: The Wii Remote Plus controller is the standard wireless controller that ships with each Wii. It combines the intuitive motion controls of the original Wii Remote with the precision technology of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, all built-in to a single unit. The device is handled in a wand-like fashion, and uses internal gyroscope and accelerometer technology to pinpoint the players movements and physical positioning which it then relates into a game via a sensor bar connected to the console. The Wii Remote Plus has only a few buttons making it easy to use. It also contains a speaker, a rumble feature, and an external connector for other input devices like the Nunchuk controller and the Classic Controller.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii:

A classic Mario adventure that everyone can enjoy. This Side scrolling Platformer for 1-4 players has a game rating of "E" with Comic Mischief. Language is English, Spanish and French. Mario has made a mighty leap out into the galaxy. We've also made the leap to full surround orchestration for the music that paints the backdrop to Mario games. Much as a multitude of stars come together to create a galaxy, many musicians have come together to create music to fill your hearts.

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Father's Day Man Cave $600 Cash Prize Giveaway-Ends June 8

Looking to do something special for dad on Father's Day but you're short on cash? Enter this amazing giveaway and you could win $600 to create a man cave for daddy. What man doesn't dream of having his own man cave and you also get a $100 Gift Card for Restaurant of Choice for Father's Day Dinner - how totally FANTASTIC is that!

Please check out my wonderful friends who are hosting this event:  voiceBoks, Good Steward Savers, Terri's Little Haven, Cute-Ecakes, Giveaway Promote, and Linkie's Contest Linkies

And last but not least, this giveaway would not be possible without these amazing sponsors so I hope you can stop by and say hello.
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Homemade Lasagna

Italian food is my absolute favorite. I especially love anything that has a cream sauce – yea I know fattening but mmmmm so good. One thing that I love to make is lasagna. I love, love, love it. I generally make it when hubby is away because I can get a few meals out of it. Here is how I make it. Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Barilla No Boil Pasta
• 1 pkg ground beef
• 1 Can/Jar of Spaghetti Sauce
• Minced Garlic
• 1-2 Packages of Shredded Cheese
• Adobo / Sasson
• Sofrito – you can get this at the store but I use home made.
  • you can substitute the sofrito with 1 onion and 1-2 peppers chopped

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef. Season with Adobo & Sasson or whatever you want to use and add the minced garlic, onions and peppers OR just add sofrito. While the meat is cooking soak 3-4 pasta noodles in a pan of water for about a minute (I learned this on Rachel Ray) and coat the bottom of your lasagna tray with sauce.

2. Place one layer of noodles in your tray and coat noodles with sauce

3. Add some ground beef

4. Add some shredded cheese (I add more sauce here)

5. Add another layer of noodles (they should be soaking while you are adding the cheese, meat and sauce)

Repeat

Hope you like it!

Irene

Coupon Stash Giveaway-Ends 5/15

Mommy and Baby Reviews and Family, Love & Other Stuff is

giving one lucky reader the chance to win over $425.00 in coupons!

A HUGE Thank you to the Following sites hosting our

Coupon Stash Giveaway

Mommy and Baby Reviews Family, Love & Other Stuff, Powered By Mom, Mommy Coupon Swappers,
I"m A Silly Mami,  Mom Does Reviews, Home Grown Families, Emptynester Reviews,
I love my kids,
Simple Savings For ATL Moms, Loves 2 Read, Mom Blog Society, Whole Lotta Mama!,
Bloggity Blog

Giveaway starts May 8, 2012 at 9 am est and will end May 15, 2012 at 11:59 pm est.

One winner will get over $425.00 in NON-Expired coupons!

Enter Now for your chance to WIN!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Good Luck!

Irene

I’m Surrounded By Critters

For the longest time I have been telling my husband that we have “tenants” in our attic. Hubby travels all the time so he’s never around when I hear the noise coming from upstairs and when he’s home he never hears anything so he always thinks I make half the stuff up. Well that is until last week. Hubs was home for the last two weeks and he finally heard all the commotion. That was quite surprising to me because he never hears anything above the roar of the television! I’m constantly telling him to turn it down and get his hearing checked. Any-who, I digress. So now I have to get the critter guy here and catch whatever is up there.

A couple of days ago, it was a little before 8P and I was doing final call for potty. I grabbed Allie, my blind westie, called Chantal my boxer and into the yard we go when all of a sudden Chantal runs out. I look up just in the nick of time to see a huge cat like critter running into the woods. We have conservation in our back yard so we have plenty of wildlife back there. I’ve tweeted a few times about almost stepping on snakes in my yard- I hate snakes and last summer when I started blogging I posted about this little bugger, but anyway, this thing was almost the size of my boxer. I didn’t see the face but saw the body. At first I thought it was a fisher cat but when I googled it, it wasn’t even close.  What I saw looked like a cougar type cat –it had the body and the tail of that type of animal and it was yellow. Pretty freaky huh!

Here are the footprints we found in the sand from the “cat”. My neighbor and I have been trying to find out what it is but no luck. Yesterday while we were in the yard my boxer kept trying to go into the wooded area again but I kept calling her back. Not knowing if there was anything there, I threw something into the brush and the beast took off. I could hear the snapping of the branches and could see movement as it headed across into my neighbors territory.

I’m totally obsessed trying to find out what this thing is. I keep checking my backyard to see if it’s come out again. I won’t be leaving my girls out there by themselves especially my little Allie. I have my camera ready to go just in case. But seriously, check out those prints – they are huge!

So stay tuned- I will find out what this big cat is. What do you think these prints are?

 

 

Irene

Hallmark Blooming Expressions Vase Giveaway - Ends 5/11

TELL ME

This giveaway is brought to you by Crazed Minds

Mother's Day is right around the corner.  Are you ready?  I know I am...Not!  No not yet...but am working on getting there.  You see I need to know just how do I tell my Mom how much I really do appreciate her.  Hallmark has a new commercial....Tell Me.  It makes me wonder just how to do that.



Let me paint you a rosie pretty picture of my childhood with Mom baking cookies and patting my head.  Or let me tell the truth.  Mom was a busy working woman raising 5 kids that were loud crazy and out of control 90% of the time.  Mom taught me the home truths of life....work hard so you can pay the bills so your kids never worry about the lights being turned off.  Love someone that you have seen their ugly side as it will be the one that is snoring beside you in the middle of the night.  Hug your babies tight because there is a day they wiggle away to play with their friends instead.  And use sun block...you will wrinkle...you will age....you will not like it but you can accept it when the grandbabes run to you screaming....NONNIE!

My Mom taught me that as children we are protected and as adults we protect.  My Mom was tough.  She fought for us as much as we fought with each other.  My Mom most often fell asleep in front of the TV right after serving us dinner because her days started at 5 a.m.  And my Mom did without meals, new shoes and at times even transportation so that we could have what we needed.  I want to tell her....

Thanks for bringing me into this world.

I appreciate all you have done to raise me into a strong woman.

Your beautiful because of the lines in your face.

I love you!  I respect you!  I want to be just like you!

And this year I am just trying to figure out how to get it all written on one lil scrap of paper that will unfold out of a red rose.

We have one of these to share with you too.  One that will be able to tell your mom or special person just what you want them to know.  Now all you have to do is figure out just what you want to tell them too!

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