Fun weekend

We had another fun busy weekend! Saturday some of our friends that have triplets had their 4th Birthday and so we went to a place called "Pump It Up" and Cami had a blast. Brayden of course slept the whole time. Cami absolutely is an adrenaline junky and wanted to go down the giant slide about 20 times. She was brave enough to even sit beside me and go down "by herself" holding my hand. Crazy brave fun girl! After that another one of our good friends little boy was turning 4 as well so we drove out to Lebanon to say hi and wish him Happy Birthday! Feeling blessed with all our friends and their little ones growing up and being strong and healthy.



We had a bit of a cold front come through so out came the sleep sacks. Both kids looked so cute in them but I forgot to snap a picture of both of them together. This is Cami trying to walk around in it. Pretty funny!



Tonight we tried cereal for the 1st time with Brayden. Needless to say he didn't like it too much, guess we will try again tomorrow! Also, Cami kept on wanting to try it so I let her(as you can see in the 3rd picture) and didn't like it too much either. Wish I had been able to capture her facial expression because it was about as bad as Brayden's! I forgot to mention in the last post about Brayden's 4 month check up. He is in the 25 percentile for weight (12pds 14 oz) and 50 percentile in height (25 inches) and unlike Cami {haha}his head is tiny, 35 percentile. It is really hard to find pants that fit him because he basically needs newborn waists and 6 months length. Guess we will be sticking to a lot of cotton pants this winter!

Such fun stages

So today marks Brayden's 4 months and Cami's 20 months of blessing our lives. They have both been such blessings to us and we love them with all our hearts. We spent the day at the doctor getting Brayden's shots and Cami's flu shot. So needless to say we had 2 very cranky, teething kids today. Yes it does appear Brayden is starting to teeth and is 100% different then Cami has been with teething. Up until molars you pretty much never knew she was teething other then the drool. Not so much with Brayden... We were up at 1 am, 3 am, and 5 am last night. Hoping this teething thing gets a little easier with him, but if not I guess we will be in for a long 2 years of teething! At least I get extra cuddles with him since that seems to be all he wants to do :) We also this past week had a big accomplishment for Brayden. He isn't consistant yet, but is starting to roll from his back to front sometimes. He is also able to sit all by himself for a couple seconds. Such a big boy!

4 Months



20 months



She got into the pantry and pulled out the Goldfish box. She then closed the door behind her and tried to get into it.



she wanted to wear my socks and push the baby doll around. funny girl.

he LOVES to look at himself and talk and then giggle

List

Here you go:

1. Why is it that once I start working out, eating healthier, I am hungry ALL the time. I am trying to drink more water to get me through, but sometimes its hard. Any suggestions on better snacks to get me through and fill me up?

2. Enchiladas casserole. AMAZING! Devin decided to try a recipe last night that our friend Kelsey makes and it was absolutely amazing. Here is what was in it and how we cooked it...
             - Corn Tortillas
             - Mexican Rice
             - Black Beans
             - Low fat onion chive cream cheese
             - Light Sour Cream
             - Shredded cheese
             - Green Enchiladas sauce
             - Mexican seasoned steak (or you can do chicken)
             - Green Chilis
             - Corn
    Directions: Step 1- Do a layer at the bottom of corn tortillas. Step 2- put sour cream over that. Step 3- Do a mixture of the seasoned meat, bleack beans, green chilis, mexican rice, and corn. Step 4- do little blobs of Light onion chive cream cheese. Step 5-Green Enchiladas sauce on top of that. Step 6- shredded cheese on top. Step 7- Repeat steps 1-6 for another lay Step 9- Put in oven and bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes

3. Things I treasure right now: Cami laying her head on my shoulder every night before bed and everytime we pray she says "Amen" at the end. Cami getting so excited when I go to pick her up after work and she yells "Mammmma". Then when Devin comes home she yells "Daddddy." Brayden getting so excited when he sees me that he scrunches up his whole body and smiles and laughs. Watching how excited he gets in the bath tub learning to splash around. We absolutely love our kiddos and feel so blessed with 2 healthy kids!

Quick.Cheap.Easy meal

So last night I was completely exhausted and really didn't feel like cooking dinner for Cami. So I decided to try something new that was quick and easy. Here is what I put in it, but obviously you can do more or less depending on how much you want to cook. The portions below made enough to fill a medium size storage container. Cami loved it and gobbled it right up which made me happy because she has been Ms.Picky eater lately. Enjoy!

Italian chicken pasta salad:
2 Cans of canned chunked chicken
1/2 box of Barilla Rotini pasta
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Pepper Seasoning
Italian Dressing
Peas (or any other veggie you want to add)

Surrounded by prayer

So to be honest, today was the day I had dreaded for the past 4 months.... leaving my babies and going back to work. Last time I went back to work after having Cami I had horrible anxiety and it was not an easy transition at all for me.  But thanks to my friends and family, your prayers surrounded me and gave me a great sense of peace this time and felt arms wrapped around me today. I don't think I could of made it through without all the prayers and support of family and friends. So, I say all this to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

On another note.... the kids did great today! Knowing they are safe in the arms of someone we trust and love to death, it brings us great comfort. Thank you Susan for loving our precious angels like they are your own! There is also nothing better showing up to pick up your kids and them getting so excited to see you. I love my little family :-)

Brayden... our young old man

So anyone who has met Brayden knows about his beautiful hairdo. Well, as cute as our little munchkin was with it we finally shaved it off last night. I will try to post another picture of him from the front side because you can see it does look better. Love this little guy and all his personality. He truly has shown his personality so much more the past couple weeks and we love him to death!



Before



After



Last day in San Diego

Last day in San Diego was bitter sweet. We had a blast and were sad to leave Devin's family, but were very happy to be coming home to our own beds. Lot's of memories were made this trip and can't wait to go back again!

Day 6

We spent another lovely day at the beach. That night John, Marilyn, and Chelsea volunteered to keep the kids and Devin and I got to go on a wonderful date. It was a lot of fun and so thankful we were able to do it!

Cami absolutely loved the ocean

Brayden and Grandma

Cami and Aunt Chelsea

So close to rolling over

9/11

9/11 brings on so many emotions. Not only for what has happened to our world back in 2001, but because my families world changed personally of September 11, 2002. The world lost another amazing woman that day! My grandmother passed away unexpectantly and it made me realize what all those people felt that day just a year before. She was a great woman and we all miss her dearly! Love you grandmother and can't wait to see you again one day.

                                        

Day 5- Sea World Day!

We arrived to Sea World a little early so we decided to go walk around the Mission Beach area a little bit before we headed to the park. After that we were off to a good long day at Sea World. The kids were amazing and we had a lot of fun. I would say the highlight of the day was seeing the Dolphin Show. Cami was absolutely amazed and Brayden just slept through it all. The other shows we saw were Shamu and the Pet show. We also got to see Seals, Sharks (Cami loved this and we had to go back through it again, but Brayden got scared so he didn't go back through :-)), and birds. We also got to do a "Build a Creature" and Cami got a Dolphin. Overall, just a great day and tons of great memories.

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Day 4

We started our day off by going to a yummy restaurant called "Broken Yolk." I got a super delicious omelet and Devin got Eggs Benedict. After that John, Marilyn, and Chelsea arrived and we headed off to the beach. We had lots of fun and are so glad they finally arrived. We ended with a FABULOUS dinner too. It consisted of Steak, shrimp kabobs (shrimp, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms), pasta salad, and salad.

Day 3

Well day 3 was much better then day 2. We got to just lay around the condo for a while and then eventually made it to the pool late afternoon. Cami has become so brave all we have to do is put her swim wings on and she is off. Obviously we are right there just in case, but she is not scared to float around and try to swim all by herself. It was so nice having no obligations and no schedule to be on. We then decided to drive around and venture out to go walk on a different beach at sunset, but unfortunately it clouded up and it ended up being cold. So we made our way back to the condo, but it was nice to see more of California while driving around. The rest of the Zupan clan is here, so let the rest of vacation fun begin!

Vacation Day 2

Day 2= not the best of days. So most of you know going on "vacation" with small children isn't always a "vacation." We decided to drive to the beach down the road because it was a wider beach and less crowded. After hauling all our beach equipment out, I realized I forgot Brayden' formula. So then we had to come back early to feed Brayden and went ahead and put Cami down for her nap. After nap we got ready and decided to try the beach that we could walk to. {side note: I knew I was out of shape, but didn't know how bad until we had to walk up the millions of stairs carrying a 12 pd little boy and the carseat... woah... definitely will be using those stairs as my work out this week!} Got down and Devin decided to try surfing again for the first time in about 5 years. He had fun trying and it was fun watching him do something he use to love to do when he lived here. A side of Devin I have never really got to see. After coming back up we realized we had NO POWER! Are you kidding me?! So then we had to take 2 VERY cranky kids to try and find a store so we could buy flashlights or what not. Well come to find out ALL of Southern California was without power because a whole power plant blew so nothing was opened. We adventured back home and grilled so we could have dinner. Also, luckily we found some tea candles and then our neighbor was kind enough to bring over some candles as well because she knew we had 2 little kids and didn't want us to be in the dark. How nice of her!Luckily power did come back on in the middle of the night. All that to say it was an interesting day and hoping today is better! We are also expecting Devin's parents tonight or first thing in the AM and also Devin's sister tomorrow mid morning. Should be fun!

Devin surfing

Love these two!

Getting so big!