Vacation Day 2/ Mothers Day

I figured I'd say a few things about life in the now before I get too caught up in vacation again. Julia is a trooper. She is a little under the weather today. We have all been fighting a little cold, but last night she started running a fever. She is still pretty active even when she is sick, but I'm just letting her get in as much sleep as possible to help her feel better. We did run around all day yesterday. Just little errands. Plus, we got to go swimming at the gym with Kim and Harry. John is enjoying his break before he starts school again on June 9th. I am enjoying summer as much as I can being this pregnant. Summer is one of my favorites because I like to be outside swimming. It's not quite as fun with a big belly, but I'm managing. The baby is 31 1/2 weeks at this point and quite active at night and in the early am. I'm not too surprised by this schedule, as I have to work night weekends. The baby shower/party is this weekend and that should be so fun. I know Kim has put so much work into it. I can't wait to hang out with family and friends.

Julia giving me my mothers day gifts, wanting to eat them. (its beans)

VACATION DAY 2

Vacation day 2 was Sunday May 11, 2008, this also happened to be Mother's Day. The day before we left on vacation Kim helped Julia make me 3 very cute pictures that said Happy Mother's Day, Julia. And I love you. Thanks Kim and Julia!

Julia and Mommy, I love my princess!

Anyway, we decided to go to California Adventure Land and Disneyland on that day. These parks are so close they are almost one in the same. I imagine they split them up only to increase revenue.

Julia at Cali Adv Land first park day of vacation!

We had park hopper passes, meaning we could go back and forth to either park at any time. We actually ended up starting at California Adventure Land. We were able to have fun at 3-D show, like the Muppet's. Then we went on the Monsters Inc ride, Julia loved it. Right after we got off we were handed these cards and told "congratulations." We had no idea what the cards were. We stepped aside and read the cards. They were actually fast passes to get on a lot of the rides that normally have long lines. We were very happy about winning these, but it turned out we were there on a day that wasn't too busy. The passes did come in handy a few times, but would have been even better to have on Friday. At any rate they make great keepsakes. John rode a few crazy rides at this park. I'm pretty certain his favorite was the Tower of Terror. I would have loved to ride, however, I tried to be good knowing that I'm the designated growing place of our little boy. lol. I think that 29 weeks pregnant turned out to be a perfect time to go on this kind of crazy vacation. First, I wasn't sooo pregnant that I didn't enjoy it. Second, John could go ride crazy rides and not feel too bad that I was watching Julia because I couldn't ride anyway. Third, lots and lots of needed exercise. The weather was pretty good. Day 2 was probably 78 and partly cloudy. The park was pretty calm in the morning a little busier at night.

Julia and Daddy having so much fun on the ladybugs ride.

Julia meeting Mickey Mouse! She always gave them all a big hug!

We stayed at Cali Adven Land until about 5pm when we decided to wander over to Disneyland. We didn't have to feel too rushed because we had two more full days ahead of us at Disneyland or California AdvLand since we had three days of park hopper passes. For us that turned out to be the perfect amount of days because we were able to do pretty much everything we wanted and not feel to rushed. It was fun to see Julia ride airplanes, carousels, and even some coasters. She is a little thrill seeker and would laugh the hardest at the scariest parts. I loved hearing her little laugh. She is so sweet. She would pick exactly the color of tea cup, dumbo, or seahorse she wanted to ride before we would get on each ride. We watched a parade in the evening and then the fireworks. The park stayed open late this night and John wanted to run back over and ride the Tower of Terror at Cal. Adv Land. When we got to the gate at the other park we realized he didn't have his wallet. NOT GOOD! This was one of my worst fears....him losing his wallet. We only had $9 cash...but his ID, credit cards, and our 3 day tickets were in there. Amazingly they let us back into Disneyland and we traced our steps back to the last ride where they had it!!!! All in all a great day at Disneyland/CAL and a scary then happy ending. Wow, that's a lot for day two. Our legs were already sore. More to come on days 3-8. Love Ya'll

New addition: This night we went to Holly and Tims' for a good night of sleep. It was closer to the park that we'd be going to the next day. (universal studios) We arrived at Holly's very late and quickly showered and went to bed.

California Vacation 2008

Julia preparing for flight!

This year we were able to go on a wonderful and crazy family vacation to southern California. It was wonderful because we were all together and having a great time. I say it was crazy because I was 29 weeks pregnant and it was 7 days of walking and walking. All in all it was awesome.

DAY ONE

We flew to California at 10am on American Airlines. Julia has flown twice before when we went to Houston (to see my friend Rachel), and last year to Florida (Destin 2007). This year was a little more exciting because she knew what an airplane was and she could talk to us about it. Her vocabulary is amazing and I think she speaks so clearly for a 2 1/2 year old. After switching planes once because our planes door would not properly close, we were off. The flight wasn't too bad, about 3 hours. Luckily, Julia was tired and slept for about 2 hours! We arrived at ONT, Cali airport and picked up our rental car. It was a little silver Chevy cobalt. Not too bad on gas. We were so grateful for that because gas was $3.83 a gallon. Not too much more than Texas, but still sooooo expensive. We drove to my friend Mary's with no problems. We so enjoyed our stay with the Decker's. Mary and Jeff have one son that is Julia's age, Evan. Also, a little girl, Sadie. She is still very little. i think about 2 and 1/2 months old and still sleeps a lot. She hardly ever cried while we were there. Julia had a great time with Evan. We all went to lunch at a pizza/pasta place that was very yummy. Then we went and fed the ducks in this pond that was just outside the restaurant.

Julia and Mommy
Julia and Mommy in the rock pond!
Mommy, Julia, Evan, and Jeff in the rock pond!

We also got to walk in a little rock pond that fed the big pond. Julia and Evan really enjoyed the ducks and pond. After lunch we stopped by Costco and stocked up on water and snacks that we would use on our vacation at all the parks. We were smart in doing this because a small lunch size bag of Doritos in the park is $2.50! and a 12oz bottle of water is about the same! That afternoon we got back to the Decker's and John, Julia, Evan, and I all went on a bike ride. John and I were wanting to test drive bikes and this kid trailer because we are considering purchasing that for our personal enjoyment. That night Julia, Evan, and Sadie, went to bed very early. We were all pretty tired already. John, Jeff, Mary, and I then watched a movie and went to bed. Mary and Jeff have a beautiful home and we were so thankful to be able to stay with them and enjoy what time we could with them. More to come later on days 2-8.

John, Julia, and Amanda

Baby Boy/The Fetus

Believe it or not our little guy now has a name!!! After months of waiting and talking with John we have finally decided on a name! I for one will blame John...lol. It's quite funny because he does have an opinion. I'd create lists and lists of names and he would blackball all of them. I don't think I was that picky. Yet he wouldn't create any lists of his own. I was only given one other name to work with and that was Daniel. I don't hate it at all, but I didn't love it. Anyway, finally while we were on vacation this past week we were at the beach and I said babe you have to give me a name to work with! Anyway, he said what about Brice ...yes with an I. I said I like it. That was a name that I'd put on my list a few times, but it needs a Y. He reluctantly agreed. Our new baby boy will be Bryce Luke Gilbreath. As little as I've posed about this pregnancy I'm sure you can't tell, but we are very excited for him to come. Of course we want him to wait a little longer as I am only 30 1/2 weeks right now. Keep watching for a lot of new posts on our recent vacation to Disneyland and other fun California places!

Julia and Blankie Reunited

You'll be happy to hear that I was able to reunite Julia with her own blankie on Saturday. As many times as John told me he was positive we had it when we went to Best Buy, I still decided to call Home Depot (the store we went to just before Best Buy) just to make sure. They had it! At any rate all of us were glad to have blankie back. I've also ordered a pink back up blankie just in case. Not the exact one though. At $50 a pop, I figure I'm going to try and get her used to the new one before anything goes wrong. It is very interesting to me the things that become priority to me after having Julia and one on the way.

Speaking of one on the way....I haven't really posted too much about this pregnancy online. I guess because I have the count down baby brother fetus ticker. The photo to the right that tells the count down days and if you click on it; it will tell you all about this week in pregnancy. This pregnancy is going fairly smoothly (knock on wood!). I feel pretty good right now, as I have been working out 3-4 times a week. I like to speed walk, use the elliptical, and swim. I feel much better cardiovascularly than I did with my pregnancy with Julia. I was a pretty avid exerciser before I became pregnant with Julia. Then when I was pregnant with her there was always something crazy going on so, I was scared to work out. Which was probably for the best since she was preterm . At my doctors appointment yesterday I was happy to hear I've only gained about 14 lbs so far. Also, my doctor is awesome and she did a sonogram. I asked if she could tell me about how much baby brother is weighing and she did numerous measurements and told me he is weighing just under 3 lbs! She stated this was greater than the 50% range. Most baby boys at this gestational age are only 2.4-2.6lbs! I guess this more coincides with the fact that he is also measuring a week ahead and has since the beginning. I am very sure of dates though, so he must be just a little on the bigger size. Unlike Julia who has always been on the smaller side!


Julia with more of mommys shoes and a new swimsuit! Covergirl!

Julia is forever saying more funny phrases. She like to say, "everybody just calm down!" She says this when the room gets too loud or she just doesn't like your reaction to something she has done. She still calls John, "Babe." She will wake up and say, "where is babe?" Then I'll say at school. So now when I ask her where is daddy, she says "probably at school." She has taken to liking BIG words. You'd be surprised how much Disney teaches her, good and bad. In the second Ice Age Movie the tiger calls the possums "Cretans." She loves to call people Cretan now. Her vocabulary already seems amazing to me. You can't get anything past her and I already have to spell numerous things to John when discussing things I don't want her to know about. Before to long she'll know what I'm spelling before John knows...lol. Last night she also amazed me by being very creative. She took this PVC pipe and connectors that we have in my bedroom closet that is part of a clothes hamper and was putting it together and taking it apart for a long time. She called it building. She was completely absorbed in this building. I had to drag her to bed and she kept saying no mommy, I want to build. I was just very amazed at how she got so lost in time and was figuring out how to put the PVC pipe and connectors together so easily. What a sweet girl.

John and Amanda at company party. THHBP at Southfork Ranch.
John finished school this week. On Saturday we leave for California! Lots of fun pictures to come!

Good Day/Bad Day

Julia and Rylie on the slide
Julia, already getting chased by this random boy. (not good)
So cute! Julia always says, "Walk my hand!" which means hold my hand and walk with me. Julia and Rylie look so cute walking together at the park!
Julia and Rylie enjoying some giggle time!

Well today was an up and down day. It started off great. John went to school like usual. He only has a little over a week left. Julia and I woke up noon (like usual), ate breakfast, then got dressed for our day. Around two or so Aunt Cynthia (John's sister invited Julia and I to go to the park with her and Rylie. Of course we wanted to go play. It was so beautiful outside and Julia loves the park and her Aunt Cynthia and cousin Rylie. We all had a great day at the park.

The bad part of the day comes next. John came home and we decided to run a few errands. We went to Home Depot to grab a few flower bed necessities since we have been installing flowers at our house, together with Kim and Nonny. Julia also loves flowers!

Nonny and Julia planting flowers.

Julia loves orange and pink anything, but especially flowers!

Nonny, Aunt Kim, and Julia.

The finished creation! Red, white, and purple flowers!

Anyway, after returning home from Best Buy and Home Depot I immidiately noticed that we didn't have Julia's favorite and best friend, her pink blankie! We drove back to Best Buy and looked everywhere without success. I've posted missing ads on craigslist. Our blankie is no where to be found. Julia is taking it way better than I expected. She never goes to sleep without blankie. A few months ago John accidently left blankie at home when we were pretty far from home. So I decided to make a quick run in to target to get a back up blankie. I looked for a similar one, but without much luck. I even had to pick a green one. Julia was not fooled. She told me that is for baby brother. She is a pretty smart cookie. Baby brother isn't even here yet, but she knows that we've been buying him blue and green clothes and that hers are mostly pink, purple, and orange! So so she immidiately assumed this was for baby brother too! Last night when she asked for blankie and explained to her that we lost it. It really broke my heart. I think more that it broke hers. I hate losing things!!!! She reluctanly took the green blankie after I explained we would get her a brand new pink one asap. After she went to bed I searched the internet for a few hours looking for a similar or exact replica! These blankets are hard to find!! Apparently Carter's changes thier blankies every 6 months to one year!!! How crazy is that. These blankets litereally become collectors items. Today Kim calls and says that she has found an exact replica on ebay. These blankies are selling for $50. Can you believe it?! We are hoping to get one for a little cheaper than that, but honestly it's her lovie. What can I do? We want to thank Aunt Kim for searching for hours on ebay for the blankie too!

Julia's everyday life with blankie. Also with mommy's stethoscope "listening to heartbeat."

Julia night night with blankie! Apparently it is call the Carter's I love you Daisy blankie.