Life with the Bussis'- 4.30.14

Big news this week!!!  Micah woke up Thursday morning and decided he wanted to go potty on the toilet!  We have no idea what made him decide it but we're just going with it. :) He's pretty good at telling us if he has to go but sometimes we need to ask him too.  I was cleaning out my e-mail inbox and found a few adorable pictures, here's one from May 2 of last year (I wouldn't call this particular one adorable, but it is funny :)):

I had just bought his little toilet and he was trying it out :).  It took him almost an entire year to decide he wanted to go on it, but we made it! 

He's wearing pull-ups now because he still doesn't want to poop on the toilet, so no underwear for now, but we are headed in the right direction.

(Sorry if this is TMI :), but for a mama who has had 3 kids in diapers for over 18 months, this is very exciting news :))

Here Micah is getting to play with his train set since he was a big boy and decided to pee on the toilet :)  I'm pretty sure he played with that train set for a total of about 2 hours that day :)

 

So that was pretty much our most exciting thing of the week. :)  It's been cold and rainy so we have spent a lot of time indoors.  The boys love to play in the basement so that has been nice, especially since I can let them be down there by themselves as long as I'm in the kitchen. 

 

We're still working on utensils with the twins.  They're getting pretty good with the fork, the spoon, however is still pretty difficult for them:

That is broccoli cheese soup all in his lap :)

And all over his bib

 

But they loved the soup

And didn't seem to mind the mess :) 

This is how we ride to church when Micah decides he want to ride in the wagon too

So Monday I made some Applesauce Muffins.  I guess I didn't put the cooling rack out of Jonathan and David's reach:

Steve found the twins taking a few bites out of these :)

 

Some of the plants we decided to put in our garden have to start indoors so Monday Micah and I planted our Honeydew, Tomato and Pepper seeds. 

While we planted Jonathan decided to just be silly

 

A typical sight in our house around 1:00- watching a video (usually Thomas) before naps. I love how they all 3 have to sit on the couch together.

 

 Our Tuesday Storytime at the library is over till Fall, so instead we went to the Children's Museum with two of my friends and their kids.  My boys just love that place.  I am so thankful they got a membership there for Christmas because it is just a wonderful place to spend a morning at.  And we only lost David twice so that was pretty good :).  Thankfully the place is swarming with parents and workers who notice when a child looks like they've gotten away from their parent. :)

Jonathan "at the bank"

Micah and David

The bubbles table is always a favorite

 

(If you're trying to figure out what kind of vest Jonathan has on, it's harness for a leash :).  Since I got there by myself I needed a way to "hold onto" the boys while we walked to the museum.  They're usually pretty good about the leashes and it's a life saver for me)

 

Neither of my friends were able to go to lunch afterwards, but we decided we still wanted to go.  I do not venture out to lunch by myself with the boys very often, it's a bit of a chore, but it was so fun:)

(I couldn't get a picture of all 3 of them at the table without leaving the table and I was afraid if I did that they'd knock our food on the floor, hence the video)

I definitely get a lot of looks and "you are one busy mom" statements when it's just me with these 3 :)

Today I had to go to the Post Office to mail something and get stamps and then the drug store to get some cards.  I'm very thankful that we live in a town where I can just walk to those places.  And as a treat for being such big boys we made a stop at the bakery for the boys to share a donut.  We love our small town!

So that was pretty much our week.  David is once again getting a cold, booooo!  We are so sick of colds over here.  Hopefully he gets over it soon and the rest of us don't get it!

As I said earlier I was cleaning out my inbox and found some adorable pictures that I just had to share:

This is from last Easter.  Isn't he just adorable!  Sadly I'm not totally sure who this is :).  Micah said he thought it was David but I feel like it's Jonathan's eyes.  Whoever he is, he's a cutie!

 

This one I'm more certain that it's David on the left and Jonathan on the right. 

 

Oh, these three just melt my heart! 

Have a wonderful week!

Fun Food Friday- Orange Pork Chops

In our quest to eat healthier over here in the Bussis home I downloaded an app onto my iPad called SparkRecipes which is full of healthy recipes.  We have tried out quite a few of them.  Some of them we won't try a second time :), but some of them we have really like.  This is one we really liked.  And it's really easy to make which is a plus.  So if you're looking for a different way to cook pork chops, try this one out!

Ingredients: Pork Chops, Salt & Pepper, Garlic Powder, Cinnamon, White Vinegar, Olive Oil, Brown Sugar, Mandarin Oranges, Ketchup, Mustard (I used Dijonnaise)

Season the pork chops with salt...

and pepper

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet...

 

and brown the pork chops on both sides

In the meantime drain the juice of the mandarin oranges into a bowl

Reserves the oranges for later

To the juice add 1/2 up of brown sugar...

1/2 cup ketchup...

2 teaspoons mustard (I like to use Dijonnaise to give it a little kick)...

1/2 tsp garlic powder...

1 tsp cinnamon...

 

and 2 TBS white vinegar

Stir together until all combined

When the pork chops are browned pour the sauce over them...

Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes...

Flip the pork chops half way through.  And that's it! 

 

Just top with the oranges when ready to eat.

We had it with Vegetable Fried Brown Rice and it was fantastic!

Micah was very excited to show you his dinner here :)

 

Orange Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

11oz can mandarin oranges

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tsp mustard

2 TBS white vinegar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cinnamon

 

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the pork chops on both sides.  Drain the can of oranges, saving the juice.  Set oranges aside.  Mix the juice with the remaining ingredients and pour over browned pork chops.  Cover and simmer for 45 minutes, flipping the pork chops halfway through.  Top with oranges.

Life with the Bussis'- 4.23.14

We've had a pretty good week.  Still some runny noses and some cold days, but we also had some really nice days.  We love getting to play outside:



 

I had to take all 3 boys to the grocery store:

The free cookies made it go very smoothly :)

I had a shower Saturday morning for Steve's cousin.  I got to make the cake for it and I think it turned out cute :):

 

I had never made a stacked cake like that before, it was so much fun!  And I made marshmallow fondant for the first time and it turned out pretty good

 

Then Saturday night we went out to Logan's for dinner (still had a gift card from Christmas :)).  Going out to a restaurant with our boys always makes me feel like a normal family. :)  The boys did great!  It helps that they give you rolls and peanuts so they don't have to wait to eat.

Jonathan was very mesmerized by everything going on around us 

 

We had a wonderful Easter.  It was a very busy morning.  I had to be at church at 8:30 (with the twins) to practice for all the music going on for the service, but it went so great.  I had talked 4 of the youth from our church into playing their instruments with some of the singing and they did such a great job.  And Steve had a wonderful sermon.  I don't know why, but it just struck me while he was preaching what a great preacher he is and how I can help make the most incredible music for a service, but without a great message, it's empty.  And I'll tell you, I'm not bias :) my pastor for most of my life until I married Steve was an excellent preacher, so I have a pretty high standard :).  And I'm very thankful he is a good and faithful preacher of the Word because he's my preacher for the rest of my life :). 

The boys always insist on climbing in the closet under the stairs.  They don't care if it makes their clothes dirty, particularly their Easter outfits :)

Family Easter picture

We went to Steve's parents for lunch.  It was such a beautiful day!  We spent a lot of time outside

Steve's mom wanted a picture of all her grandkids, this was the best we could do :)

Micah loved riding the little 4-wheeler (he wasn't such a fan of having to share it with his cousin)

David was satisfied with the little rider

Monday we had another nice morning so we spent it outside.  First on the list of things to do: bubbles

Micah loved chasing the bubbles down the hill

And he even got the hang of blowing them himself

David liked to try, but usually he just tried to eat the wand :)

After bubbles we got to do something very exciting:

Go on our first family bike ride of the year!

 

 

Our ride brought us to the playground:

 

 

At night we went to a huge greenhouse to get the tarp to put down in our sandbox and garden (which my father-in-law built for us on Saturday) so the weeds don't grow up and we bought our seeds!  Can't wait to plant our garden!

 

Two boys very excited to be let out of their stroller

Micah insisted on pushing the very big cart

 

We went to the library yesterday morning only to find out that there wasn't Storytime, but they brought out the toys so we could play (which was nice since it was really cold outside).  My boys don't normally dress up to go to the library, but we went downtown beforehand to take some pictures :)

Today I had a few things to return to the mall, so after that was taken care of the boys got to play on the slide:



And have lunch:

David with a mouth full of fries

Jonathan is much more refined, he eats his fries with a fork :)

 

Getting to ride in the taxi after lunch.  It's great that they can all fit in it :)

 

And since he shared his ride with his brothers, Micah got to go on another ride, with his brothers :)

 

Micah thought he was pretty funny climbing into David's car seat while I brought David up to his crib when we got home :)

 

So fun week over here at the Bussis home!