Crafting Day

Well today I was in a crafting mood. So I tired to get the twins to do a craft, making yarn bowls. At first they were very excited about it, helped me pick out what colors they wanted, cut the yarn, etc. Anyway when we got to dipping the yarn in the glue...FORGET IT! They didn't want to get their hands dirty or sticky. So, you guessed it, I ended up doing the project! Bella ended up handing me the yarn and which colors she wanted but that was about it, Quinn just wanted to go play his video game.

I don't think that they will turn out, they are drying still. I think I needed to let the yarn soak in the glue longer, and I only had so much glue. Here are some pictures....




Then later today while they were all napping, including Jay he needed to sleep before going in to work tonight, I decided to make myself a purse. I'm in a sewing mood. I really want to sew a mei tai but don't have enough fabric or the right kind. Darn!! So I made this reversible purse for myself, and I just finished an organizer that goes inside of it, no picture of that. But here it is, Quinn was my model that volunteered!

Yummy Dinner: Stuffed Pasta Shells

Well I made this again for dinner tonight and thought I would share. It's so yummy even Brinlee loves it! So please try it out, it's very easy and a great leftover dinner as well. (Be sure to add the egg, I forgot to do this tonight, oops! that's what happens when you have twins that are screaming at the top of their lungs. Anyway it still turned out very yummy!)

Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ingredients:

1 box jumbo pasta shells, 12oz

1.5lbs sausage, Italian sausage (I used the links)

2 cloves of garlic, through garlic press

1 minced onion

1 egg

1 tablespoon tarragon

1 tablespoon parsley

1 teaspoon Tu-Ars Seasoning

1.5 cups pasta sauce

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated italian cheese blend

How to make:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cook shell acroding to packaged directions, drain.

3.Mix sausage (take out of casings), garlic, onion, parsley, tarragon, Tu-Ars Seasoning, egg, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, italian cheese blend. The best way to mix all of this is with your hands.

4. Stuff shells with meat mixture. The easiest way to do this is with a small ice cream scoop, cookie scoop.

5. Cover bottom of pan with 1/2 cup of pasta sauce. Place stuffed shells in pan. Sprinkle with rest of pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese.

6. Cook uncovered for 40min. Serve warm with garlic bread.

This makes approx. 26 shells. Please leave a comment once you make these and let me know what you think!

Also if you'd like to get the Tu-Ars Seasoning you can!
You can order right online and get it mailed to you!! This seasoning is multi-purpose and you can use it on anything. We love it!! If you live in Clermont, FL or nearby, there are 3 places that carry it now, check out the Tu-Ars website at: http://tuarsseasoning.webs.com/ or email them at: tuars01@gmail.com

Happy Eating!!

Birthday Rewind

Well the Birthday craziness has ended in the Cone Family household. The cake has been eaten, the presents opened, the smiles recorded and the memories have been canned up for rememberance. We had a great time, even in these hard times.

Quinn and Bella turned the BIG 3 and brinlee turn the BIG 1! If you weren't here to celebrate with us we missed you dearly. We started out by letting Nanny and Gramps taking the kids on Friday and they spent some time at Magic Kingdom and at Old Key West Pool with the Englers. They had a blast. While they were having fun, Jay was working hard and Me well I was fighting with frosting. I was baking all 3 cakes to save money, NOT TIME! They turned out FABULOUS though...'Watch out Publix!' Then we all met at OKW to have a nice dinner in, put party favors together and relax.

Then on Saturday it was PARTY TIME! The day started out great, but then of course when it was time to go to the park it started to rain, or should I say POUR! So we sat in the car for about 30min. There was another party going on at the pavillion and taking up all the tables, so yep Mommy went over to ask for at least 2 tables. (At least they were nice). It poured, it stopped, it poured again but we enjoyed our family and friends. We had food, cake, the park, some crafts, presents and most important the friends that we love that came to celebrate with us!!

Then come Sunday, it's Quinn and Bella's 3rd BIRTHDAY! (We also celebrated Brinlee's too of course!) We went to Disney's Yacht and Beach to have a character breakfast. It was very yummy!! The twins wanted to take pictures of the characters but not be near them or take a picture with them. Brinlee was terrified, go figure my kids like them from afar but not next to them. Emma LOVED them and wanted to take pictures with them all morning!!

After breakfast we went to Epoct and walked around. We saw the Nemo ride, all the fish, turtles, stingrays, etc. We saw figment and played in the jumping waters too. It was a lot of fun. After a few hours in the park we decided to go and eat at a local mexican restaurant and then go back to Nanny and Gramps and go....you guessed it Swimming! What a day to wrap up the Birthday Day!

You can see a slideshow of all the pictures in the right sidebar!

Dancin' with Ellen!

So today we watched the Ellen Show, just love her! anyway the twins wanted to dance today and I told them that Ellen dances. Quinn said, "She does? I dance." I said ok, just watch and you can dance with her. So of course I run to get the camera, because he is just too darn cute dancing, well lets say that he does some moves that I've never seen him do before. TOO DARN CUTE! Bella danced a little too and Brinlee rolls into the picture at the end...LOL! Maybe I can send it into Ellen?!

Bow-utiful Night

Last night I took some time for myself to be creative. The kids went down around 8:30pm with Brinle falling asleep in the saucer, but easily went to sleep in her crib...for a few hours lets say. Quinn was a cranky mess! With no nap yesterday it was defiantely bedtime! Bella of course wanted to act like an 'angel' because her brother was getting in trouble.

So from 8:30pm-10:30pm I set up my craft table and off to work I went! Jay went to work on ideas for Light House so I had some time to make the girls bows adn watch 'Next Food Network Star'. I first worked on Birthday bows for Bella, she still actaully fits into her 18mo Birthday Girl' t-shirt so I made her some pink/white birthday bows to wear all next week. She was so proud of them, she got to see them before she fell asleep - oh and she told me she wanted 2 BIG BOWS!! That's my girl.

I then worked on matching bows for Bella and Brinlee to wear at their party that matched their birthday summer dresses. I was very happy that I had ribbon to match and enough. With these hard times, I haven't bought any ribbon in MONTHS :( THey turned out so freakin' cute!

So to make all 5 bows, clean up, etc. They took me about 2hrs. Not bad! So of course I'm in the mood to make more bows, they are time consuming but when I'm in that zone I go to town.

After I was of course done, took some time on lovely Facebook, Brinlee had to wake up. Poor thing is teething her 2 top 1yr molars. So some Infant Tylenol and some cudding did it for a little bit, then she fell asleep on the floor. Of course then when I put her back down, Bella has to wake up because I turned off her tv. So I got to bed at 1:30am. But I got their very 'Bow-utiful' bows done! I know you are asking...'well I want to see PICS NOW SARAH!' So here you go!

Share or not to Share?

Well this was a fun night, since Brinlee is now on Sippy cups, since she discovered the twins, she loves taking their cups. At least Bella likes to share with Brinlee there isn't too much of a battle. Brinlee sure does have a little attitude about things. We are trying to teach her to 'share' but for an 11mo old that's hard to do. Here is a cute video! Enjoy!

Standing Tall!

Yes the day has come where we are standing tall all by OURSELF! Brinlee today was standing by herself, in one spot of course, not walking yet. I find her now pulling up on things, letting go and playing with a toy. She seems very happy that she can do this too! It only lasts for about 5 seconds, which is long enough for Mommy to snap a picture!

Here are some pics of our little baby!!

STANDING!

Friday Update

One again I'm slacking on our blog...that's a Mommy's life huh? I'll try to wrap up what has been going on with all of us today.

Brinlee: Wow what a fast growing little girl! She is now on whole milk. No problems what-so-ever with the change. We started her a bit early because finances are very tight, she did fine and I think is stronger than ever! She is now on completely whole foods, no pureed food, some things I have to mash, but mainly cut into small pieces. She now eats, mixed veggies, bananas, applesauce, pears, blueberries, fish sticks, mac n' cheese, pasta, cherrios, pudding, jello, juices- not citrus, and pretty mucha nything else she can get her hands on!! She is definately transitioning from one thign to another, as far as standing. She is not standing by herself without holding onto things yet. And we are not walking. However she is a very fast crawler!

Bella: She is our little helper, tattle-tale, attention getter, yes all around GIRL! She loves helping out and folding clothes or doing small tasks. Her job now is to make sure that Finna has water in her dog bowl. So she takes her plastic cup, fills it from the fridge and even puts it in the fridge to keep it cold then fills the dogs dish. Too cute! Bella is doing good on the potty, we had a few accidents here and there but now I thinkw e are getting a hang of it and actually going to the potty by ourselves and washing our hands. YES!

Quinn: Let me just say BOY BOY BOY! We are definately still into our tantrums, I guess it's just the age. We whine about everything and anything, getting him to talk things out, understnad things is hard. However I shouldn't say he doesn't understnad things, he does it's his actions and just not wanting to listen I think/ He teases Bella like crazy with hitting, bitting and also teasing the dog. This is something we are working on. Eating is a challenge with his as well. He just wants SNACKS all the time so this is where our tantrums come in....a long process here for this. Potty training is coming along, he still goes in his underwear, which I don't knwo why so we have to keep a close eye on him. The only thing I can think of is that he just wnats the attention right now! There is a lot of yelling in the house because he hits, bites, screams, throws tantrums, constantly teases the dog (she wil bite him oneday, honestly I don't blame her). He is very smart, loves to do puzzles with me, make-believe, count, etc. So I'm still trying to figure out what is going on....

The twins do play together very well for the most part, of course they have their moments. THem being in seperate rooms, nighttime routine has been better, and they are sleeping through the night for the exception of Brinlee. They play very well with Brinlee, I don't think Quinn gets the idea that she doesn't know any better when Brinlee takes his toys. Poor guy. Bella loves to share her things with Brinlee and sharing a room. She calls it 'THE GRISL ROOM'

Jay: First I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It was yesterday!! Jay is working everyday still, and trying to pick up overtime whenever he can get it. It's July already and we just put together a flyer to post on his website for Light House..check it out! http://www.holidaylighthouse.com We are hoping that Light House gets even more business this year!

Sarah: Do you really need to know about moi? Yep still keeping things as sane as I can around here. Taking care of the kids and the house during the day and teaching at night. Summer sucks for me since I don't get many hours at all. We ahve asked for my fathers help to put ourselves on a very strict budget. It's going to be rough but worth it in the long run! I try to keep some 'Mommy Time' by designing siggies, blinkies, and more on 3 sites. This is my relax time late at night.

So as a family we are doing the best we can and surviving. This economy sucks but we ahve to keep our heads up even when it looks really really bad. We are enjoying the times at home sicne we can't go anywhere. We are gearing up for the Twins Birthday on the 19th, and Brinlee's 1st Birthday on the 23rd! One party to celebrate too!! So that's about it, I know I'm so slacking on keeping this blog up, I think about it then never get to it, another thing to try to schedule into my very booked schedule...LOL!