Life with the Bussis'- 3.25.15

We've been having lots of fun over here. It's been pretty cold, so the fun has been mostly indoors, but we're rolling with it. :)

Micah having a post-nap snack and playing some Trouble with mommy, does it get any better than that?

Playing outside. Notice all the nice grass showing now and where do they go? On the little bit of snow that's left :)

 

We had another Plan and Learn at a local elementary school. The boys loved playing in the "sandbox" (a tub filled with oatmeal and coffee). I'm thinking they are going to spend many hours this summer playing in their sandbox

 

And of course they found a train set to play with

 

Micah and Jonathan got into the singing (David didn't want to stop playing with trains to sing :))

 

Micah thought he needed to hold David's hand while we were walking to the van afterwards and amazingly David didn't fight him :)

 

Showing off the name train he made. Micah has gotten pretty good at writing his name

 

He even signed his name for the first time on a card!

 

Had to make a mid-week trip to the grocery store so the boys all came along. Our local grocery store doesn't have a cool stroller they all fit in, so this is how we do it here

Micah continues to love puzzles and is pretty good at doing almost all of it by himself!

Saturday night we went to Steve's parents house for dinner and they had little cupcakes for the boys for dessert. They were a big hit

Jonathan managed to get the chocolate frosting all across his face, I'm not sure how much actually got in his mouth :)

The twins loved playing with cousin Morgan

It was so funny to watch because she kept looking back and forth between them, we think she was trying to figure out why there were two of them :)

 

This is what Monday mornings look like at our house

David was pretending he was sleeping, while sitting in Steve's lap :)

I decided to do my workout while the boys were up and was reminded why I usually do it while they're napping. Micah is a very good workout buddy...

David however, is not :) Push ups are hard enough to do and then he climbs on your back. My arms got an even harder workout that intended.

He's pretty proud of his pushups

He lasted about 20 minutes doing the workout with me and then decided he was done. :)

Terrafit 90 Day Challenge

I've shared here and there about how I'm doing a 90 day health challenge which means I'm eating super healthy and exercising, and getting points for it. But I thought I'd share with you more about this challenge that I'm doing. It really has been a great experience. It's hard work, but it's definitely been worth it. Last year I lost 30 pounds but as I headed into the holiday season I didn't behave as well as I should have. I started the new year bummed that I hadn't reached the goal I had set the beginning of last year and I didn't know how to get over the hump I'd hit. Then I saw a friend of mine on facebook talking about this 90 day challenge. I looked into it and thought it would be a good way to get back on track. For the challenge you are part of a team of 5, so I asked my siblings if any of them would be interested in joining me, only one was. :) With the help of our coach we got a team put together and the day I came home from Cancun I stared on this 12 week journey of becoming healthier and stronger. As of today (10 weeks in) I've lost 14 pounds and over 15 inches (you lift weights so along with losing weight you gain a lot of muscle, so it helps to also see how many inches you've lost :)). I have 2 more weeks left, but I really hope to keep up with these healthy habits I've created. So here are the specific details about this challenge:
It's put on by DoTerra which is an essential oils company (I will admit, they are a very clever company because they really promote their products during the challenge, but you don't have to purchase any of them if you don't want to, but if you want maximum points, you'll need to).
Each team is made up of 5 people and each of those 5 individuals pay $25 to participate in the challenge (this money is used for prize money at the end). You compete both as a team and individually.
Each day you can earn a maximum of 100 points:
20 points for eating foods off the healthy list (you get 2 point per serving of healthy food up to 20 points)
10 points for eating 4 servings of vegetables (these also count as your healthy foods)
5 points for eating 6 small meals instead of 3 big meals
5 points for not eating after 8pm
10 points for drinking 64oz of water
20 points for exercising at least 30 minutes (you must be exercising hard enough that you're breathing so hard you can't carry on a conversation while exercising)
10 extra points if you use the TerraFit workout (you can either buy the DVDs for $45, it's 6 DVDs, you do a different workout every day or you can subscribe for around $13/month to stream it).
- you get 2 rest days per week, and on those rest days you get to give yourself 30 points (wither you use the TerraFit workout normally or not)
10 points for using doTERRA's oils (5 points per oil, up to 10 points)
10 points for doing the daily challenge
You also can lose points for eating foods on the unhealthy list. You get -2 points for each serving of unhealthy food and there is no limit to how many negative points you can get.
Then each week you weigh in and you get points for how much you lose.
You can also get bonus points for telling others about the challenge (like what I'm doing here :)).
You get one cheat meal a week where you can eat up to 4 servings of food off the unhealthy list (you come to plan your whole week around when and what you're going to have for that cheat :)).
You record all your points every day on the TerraFit website and they add up all your points for you and keep track of everything.
So there you have it, what I've been up to the past 10 weeks. If you think this is something you might be interested in, they have another challenge starting up on April 6. Registration ends March 30 I believe. You need a coach and I highly recommend mine, she's awesome!! If you have any questions about this or want to know how to sign up, you can message me on facebook or contact me through the contact form on the right side of my blog. And here's a link to all the information on the challenge.

You can even get your whole family in on the fun :)

Fun Food Friday- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars



After I had the twins friends of ours from church came over to meet the boys and she brought along the absolutely most delicious bars I think I have ever had. They combine two of my favorite things, chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake. I seriously think I probably ate half the pan by myself (hence the need to now be on a health challenge :)). But seriously, these bars are worth a cheat (I've waited all week to have one and I'm actually bringing it along to a restaurant tonight to have as part of my cheat meal :), they are that delicious). And it makes a lot (you don't need big pieces because they're super thick). Now I won't lie, these aren't your quick throw together bars, there are two batters to make and you have to crumble the dough on top, but if you have the time, they are definitely worth it. I haven't met a person yet who didn't bite into one of these and their eyes got big by their surprise of how incredibly delicious a bar can taste. :)

Ingredients: Flour, White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Eggs, Butter, Chocolate Chips, Vanilla, Baking Soda, Salt, Cream Cheese

To a mixer bowl add 1 1/3 cup of softened butter...

1 cup brown sugar...

And 1 cup white sugar

Cream together

Add 2 eggs...

2 tsp vanilla...

1 tsp baking powder...

and 1 tsp salt

Turn the mixer on low and add 3 cups of flour. Once all the flour is poured in, turn the mixer on high for a minute, scrapping the sides

Add 2 cups of chocolate chips

And there you have it, the cookie dough is done.

To another mixer bowl (or if you're a normal person who only has one, put the cookie dough in another bowl, clean out your bowl, and return it to the mixer :)) add 2 8oz packages of softened cream cheese...

1 cup of white sugar...

and 2 eggs

Mix until all combined (it will be a little clumpy, that's okay, it still turns out delicious!)

To a greased 9x13 pan add a little more than half of the cookie dough batter

Pour the cheesecake batter over the top and spread it around

Then you need to add the rest of the cookie dough on top of that. you can either just crumble it on top, or I smashed it between my hands and laid it out over the cheesecake batter, either way works.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until the middle is set

 And there they are, beautiful, delicious Chocolate Cheesecake Bars!

Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars
1 1/3 cups butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:
2 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

Mix shortening, butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Put a little more than half of this cookie mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.  Pat down slightly.  Beat cream cheese, sugar, and egg until smooth.  Spread over cookie mixture.  Crumble remaining dough over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min - 1 hour.  Watch to see when center is just set.  Cool and refrigerate.  If you are in a hurry, you can use 2 rolls of store bought cookie dough instead of the cookie recipe.

 

Life with the Bussis'- 3.18.15

We've had another good week with some nice weather so we could play outside which is always a bonus. The boys got a nasty cough but I'm starting to think that might be allergies.

The boys continue to love all things Thomas, the show, the books, the shirts :)

They're all just too cute!

The other day Micah just randomly decided he wanted to pick up the toys. I love it when he does that! I wanted to take a picture of him in the nice clean room, and of course David thought he should jump in, even though he provided absolutely no help in the picking up process

My proud boy!

March 11- Our first walk of the year!!! Looking forward to many more of those!

Not sure that truck was meant to ride on snow :). Amazingly all that snow is gone now!!!

We had a prayer service last Wednesday night and Jonathan had some cake afterwards. You can't see it very well on this pictures, but he had frosting all around his mouth :) He was one happy boy!

We had a play date over at church one day. Micah talked Jonathan into giving him and his friend Isaac a ride.

 

 

March 12- First grilling of the year!!! Looking forward to many more of these too!

I had a few things to get at the mall and they boys were so good while I shopped, so they got to play on the playground

He thinks he's pretty big stuff

 

So does Jonathan

 

Steve and I got to have a date night Friday night. We went out to dinner and to a play with our good friends Zach and Kasey. I remembered to snap a picture as we waited (forever!) for the people in our row to exit the row (yeah, the orchestra had stopped playing by the time they finally decided to start moving and it's not like at a ball game where you can just climb over the seats to the next row). The picture wasn't super clear so I decided to take another picture:

And Kasey decided to photo bomb that one :)

 

While Steve and I were on our date Micah got to have a sleepover at his cousin Bentley's house. This included a trip to the fire station where Uncle Adam is a volunteer firefighter. He looks pretty happy up there in the truck

 

And then he got to do something he thought was so exciting, he got to pick out his own little ice cream carton of whatever flavor he wanted. This was seriously a big a deal for him. :) 

And the next morning he got to play with Play Doh in his pajamas, seriously fun!

 

David and Jonathan got to spend the night at Grandma's house. So everyone had a fun weekend!

 

These two just crack me up! They are so cute to watch play together and they always keep us entertained!

And they really are monkeys too! They love to get in my bed after I've made it and make it a mess!

It has been David's turn to come with me to the grocery store the last couple of weeks and he keeps saying he doesn't want to go (and then gets upset when someone else leaves with me). I finally convinced him to come with me this week. And as you can see, he love it! :)

 

He kept trying to grab stuff out of the cart to hold so I finally gave him a ketchup bottle to hold. I then grabbed an orange juice and set it in the seat next to him. I turned to grab something off the shelf and when I turned back he had chucked the ketchup in the cart and was holding the OJ and said to me "Mommy, I hold the big one!" :) So cute!! And he held that OJ until we had to pay for it

 

Eating a banana for a snack to hold them over until lunch. All 3 of these boys have been eating like crazy lately. I can't even imagine what the grocery bill is going to be when they are all teenagers!

Micah can never be left out of getting his picture taken, so here he is too :)