Life with the Bussis'- 11.27.13

This is going to be short and sweet because I have a turkey in my sink thawing and a house that needs to be picked up and vacuumed. :)  Life continues as normal.  The twins are over their colds which makes for less fussiness which makes for a happier home. :)  Jonathan was being pretty fussy the other night and I felt in his mouth and realized he has 4 molars coming in so no wonder the kid is crabby at times, I would be too!  I checked David and he has 3 coming in.  So that also explains why they still are drooling like crazy.  Oh the joys of teething.  I always wonder if God had it planned pre-fall for babies to be born with teeth :) or maybe it just wouldn't have hurt, who knows. :)  Winter is upon us here in Michigan and while it has this mamma not excited at all for the long months ahead, there's a 2 year old in this house very excited about the snow. :)  Saturday he wanted to go out in it (there really wasn't a lot, but enough in his mind).  It was in the 20s and windy so we tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted to so we said sure, put on his coat, opened the door for him and said "have fun" while we stayed inside. :)

Trying to make a snowball

After a few minutes Steve just couldn't stand the thought of Micah having fun in the snow without him so he joined him :)  I never had such feelings :)

 Jonathan loves 2 things, putting those rings on his head and sitting in this toy

Micah decorated some turkey cookies (and we made an M cookie with the leftover dough) 

Then he said he was done decorating when there were still a few M&Ms left, I discovered that was so he could eat the rest of the M&Ms :)

 

We had pasta with red sauce the other night.  The twins were big fans

 

 They went straight from their high chairs to the bath tub that night :)

 We got more snow so Micah of course wanted to get out in it again.  I got smart this time, I actually put on the snowpants I bought for him at a garage sale this summer :)  And we put snow boots on this time (I'm learning).  So he stayed a lot drier and warmer than last time.

 He thought he was pretty funny throwing snow at my window

Here's a little peak at life here at the Bussis home:

 

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!



Fun Food Friday- Pumpkin Pie

One of my favorite parts of fall is pumpkin pie. :)  And when I worked at Providence Christian College the lady who ran the cafeteria did a pie baking class and I learned how to make the best pumpkin pie around.  To prove to you it's the best I'll share a funny story with you.  So a couple of years ago we decided to do a pie fundraiser for youth group for Thanksgiving.  So we were going to make pumpkin and apple pies.  To entice people to order them I made a couple of pies for them to sample after church.  So it's that day and I'm talking to a lady after church and her husband comes up to her and says "We have got to order one of these pumpkin pies, it's the best pumpkin pie I've ever had."  And she looked at him as said "I thought you liked my pumpkin pie." :)  And his response, "Um, no we have to order one of these." :)  Yeah, it was a little awkward standing there, but I had to agree with him, it is the best.  The lady from Providence told me it's because it uses both brown and white sugar.  Whatever the reason, you need to try this recipe.  And it's super easy to make.  So if you've been given the task of bring pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving dinner next week, try this one, you will not be disappointed.  And I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ingredients: Unbaked Pie Crust, White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Flour, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Pumpkin, Eggs, Milk, and Salt (which I forgot to put in the picture :))

You will need 1 1/2 cups of warm milk, so start by heating it up in a microwave about 2 minutes

Add 3 eggs to a mixer bowl...

And beat

Then add 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar...

1/2 cup of white sugar

1 Tablespoon of flour...

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg...

1/2 teaspoon allspice...

1/2 teaspoon salt...

and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix together

Add one (15oz) can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix, just pure pumpkin) (if you have a big can it's 1 1/2 cups)...

And the warm milk

Slowly mix all together.  The batter will be very liquidy.  I remember the first time I made it I thought it shouldn't be that consistency, but it should :)

Pour into an unbaked pie crust

You want to cover the crust with foil so it doesn't get burnt.  To do that get a long piece of foil and fold it in half lengthwise  Then tear it down that fold.  Fold one of those pieces in half again lengthwise...

And wrap around the crust

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes...

Then bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until the filling is set.  To check if it's set give it a jiggle. :)  It won't be completely jiggle free if done, but you should be able to tell if it's set.  You can also stick a toothpick in the middle and see if it comes out clean.  When I bake my pumpkin pie in my glass pie pan it usually takes at least 60 minutes at 350 degrees but if I do it in a 9 inch tin pan, it's usually done at 50 minutes.

When it's done it will be puffed up...

But after cooling a little it will settle down.  Oh, that looks good :)

And that looks even better!  Got to have the cool whip on top. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

Pumpkin Pie

1 unbaked pie crust

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 TBS flour

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

15 oz can pumpkin (or 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cup warm milk

 

To a mixer bowl add the beaten eggs, sugars, flour, nutmeg, allspice, salt and cinnamon.  Mix together.  Add the pumpkin and warm milk, mix until smooth.  Pour into the pie crust.  Cover the crust with foil.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 350 and bake for an additional 50-60 minutes or until the filling is set.  Cool.  Top with cool whip.

Life With the Bussis'- 11.20.13

Life with the Bussis children, well, let's see.  Depends on what time of the day you're asking.  If it's right after baths, before bedtime and the twins are on my lap and Micah's sitting next to me and I'm reading them a book, I'd tell you it just doesn't get better than this.  If it's 1:00 in the afternoon and Micah is still sitting in his high chair slowly eating his lunch and the twins are getting into the trash and my piano music and pulling on the blinds, I'd tell you it's just a bit exasperating. :)  It makes sense, Micah is acting like a normal 2 year old and Jonathan is acting like a normal 1 year old and David is acting like a normal 1 year old.  The problem is you put all that together and you reach the point where you think you might just go nuts. :)  You reach the point where you are sick of having your kitchen trash can in the bathroom and sick of having to have your blinds raised up a foot so they can't reach them and sick of stepping on toys because they insist on getting everything out and having them all over the place and sick of playing referee because they have to have whatever the other one has...and then you take a deep breath and look at this:

And this:

And this:

And you thank the Lord for allowing you to be the mommy of these 3 precious, very normal little guys and ask Him to give you the strength and patience you need to be a good mommy.  Can you tell today was one of those very exasperating days. :)  I think one of the biggest problems is it has gotten cold here (and windy) so we can't go outside and the twins have colds so we haven't gone anywhere and I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy with all these boys stuck in the house.  We are definitely going to have to plan outings every week or this is going to be one very long winter.

One great place to go is Target- look at this cart!  Every store needs these carts!  It is a cart made with the Bussis boys in mind. :) 

Another great perk of outings: they wear the boys out :)

 During one of the times the twins were getting into everything they found my big gingerbread man cookie pan.  Micah asked what it was and when I told him he of course thought we needed to make one. :)  I talked him into doing a chocolate chip cookie man.  As long as he got to decorate it, he didn't care what it was made of :). 

 

 I tried to take a picture of all the boys Sunday morning after church because they all just looked so cute.  Instead of sitting nice for me Jonathan ran away and Micah tackled David :).  But then Micah said he wanted his picture taken.  Silly boys.
We had crazy weather here Sunday afternoon, evening church even ended up getting cancelled.  It was blowing like crazy and raining sideways.  Then we looked out the window and saw a rainbow.  It actually was a double rainbow, on the below picture you can kind of see the second one at the very bottom of the rainbow.  But the one rainbow you could see the whole thing from one side to the other.  I couldn't get it all in one picture so you have to piece the three together to get the picture. :) 

It was so cute, Steve took Micah outside to see it and Micah said "God made that." There's a rainbow on the front of his children's Bible so he's very up on what the rainbow is about :)

 

All our boys love to read which is so wonderful.  I feel like since we've started going to story time at the library every week they have gotten so interested in it.  The twins constantly are getting a book and bringing it to you to read.  And my favorite is when Micah wants to read to them. 

 

Jonathan has discovered he enjoys playing with Micah's computers. 

And then he decides they need to be sat on. :)  David does this too :) 

 

And I'll leave you with this fun video :)

And I'm sure after watching this video my mom is saying "how could you ever be exasperated with these adorable little guys" :).  Oh, it happens :)