A (Barely) Happy Halloween

For the last five days, Little Man has looked like this. Puny and pitiful after getting some vaccinations that caused a fever, tiredness, loss of appetite and some vomiting. Poor little guy.  =(

Noni and Pop Pop sent Little Man a Halloween treat in hopes that it would lift his spirits. Balloons and an edible arrangement with extra "sssss" (that's grapes - one of his favorites).  

I was hoping that Little Man would have turned the corner before tonight, but no such luck. Our Halloween wasn't really all that spook-tacular. But Alex and our neighbors sure did look stunning in their costumes. Sam I Am (complete with Green Eggs and Ham), Thing 1, Cat in the Hat, the Robot, and a Peacock.

 Even though Alex was feeling tired and crummy, he did still wear his costume with pride.

Poor little guy didn't have many smiles tonight. In fact, I really only remember this one. I had to snap quickly before it was gone - that's why it's a little blurry.

We went to a fall festival at a local church near our neighborhood. That lasted all of about 15 minutes for us (thank goodness we were close to the house), and then we were done for the night. One of the few highlights for Alex was seeing this dog. Can't you just sense his enthusiasm? Yeah, I know - pitiful.

Hopefully he'll be back to his joyful, excited little self very soon.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

More Fun Family Time

I was looking through my pictures from Texas again tonight, and I found more I wanted to share! These are some of our memories from our time with Jerry's family.

The first morning we were there, Jerry's mom and dad were up at 6a ready to take Alex to get his favorite breakfast - pancakes. We went to Denny's, and they had the cutest little fall decor setup outside. You can't see it very well here, but it was quite festive. Here's Alex with Ganny and Grandpa.

Three generations of Correa men.

Alex and his Grandpa.

We got to celebrate Grandpa's 58th birthday! Alex enjoyed helping Grandpa blow out the candles on the cake.

Ganny has the yard all decorated up for fall. Alex loved going out there to see the little wooden pilgrims who were just his size. He loved the "give thanks" turkey, too.

Here's Alex with his Aunt Sylba getting some loves from her. He loved his Aunt Sylba. Oh. my. goodness. Couldn't get enough hugs from her!

And finally, here are a couple of pics of Jerry, Alex and I taken while we were there.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

One of our last little adventures in Texas was the Big Orange Pumpkin Patch in Celina with Katherine, Dana and the kiddos. Just the mommas and their babies while the daddies were at work.

Let me just say that the above shot was nothing short of a miracle to get. And, yes, bribes (in the form of teddy grahams) were involved to get those sweet little faces to look at the camera and give smiles.

I love a good pumpkin patch, and I especially love getting to go with this crew. Here are some of our highlights.

THE PETTING AND FEEDING ZOO
Alex: "May I please introduce you to this lovely creature, the goat."

Animal feed is included with the cost of admission. Here is Jackson feeding the goats. Jackson even taste-tested some of the feed himself - just to make sure it was goat-worthy!

PLAYFUL MOMENTS
Jacob giving his best Halloween scare while Luke looks at the goats!

Sweet pumpkins Jacob and Luke giving their momma a smile for her camera.

Alex showing Sarah some loves.

TRACTOR FUN
Alex loves LOVES tractors.

But getting sleepy can put a damper on even the funnest of times.

GOING DOWNHILL
The need for a nap really sent things downhill fast. 

Alex was no longer interested in the "na-nas," as he calls pumpkins.

And he wasn't interested in a group photo with the rest of the kids either.

*Sigh.* Such is life, I suppose. After our adventure, I'm not sure who was more tired, the kids or the mommas! It was a jam-packed day and definitely one for the memory books!

The Ribbits

Want to see Alex's favorite shoes these days? Here they are. The Ribbits. Or "boo. boo. boo." as he sometimes likes to call his boots.

The other day I went to put a pair of shoes on him that matched his outfit. (Not the same outfit as pictured above.) He immediately went back to his shoe basket and brought his Ribbits to me saying, "boo. boo. boo." He didn't want to color-coordinate. He just wanted those galoshes. What a riot!

Noni, he is definitely getting your money's worth out of these things. And everywhere we go he gets compliments on them. ;-)

Family Time

I still have a few adventures from our time in Texas that I want to share. One of them is time with family.

While we were home, we were able to squeeze in a visit with Jerry's family.

Alex was napping during our photo session so he's not in the pic, but he did enjoy getting to see everyone before he went down. It's not too often that the larger Correa clan is together while we're in town, but Jerry's parents invited everyone out to their house and cooked a great meal. It was nice to get to see everyone and catch up.

We also got to see Aunt LiLi, Uncle Buck and Cousin Isabel. I had hoped to get more pics than just these three, but Little Man fell down and busted his lip, so my picture taking was somewhat impeded.

On to the next adventure - time with Nana and Pops. We went to the lake for a couple of days to see my dad and Janna. Grandma Mary (Janna's mom), Granny and Papa, and Uncle Zack and his girlfriend Brooke were also there. Boy, did we have a fun time.

This was Alex's first time to meet Granny and Papa. They flew in from Oregon to spend the next few months with Nana and Pops, so we were excited that our visits coincided. (We're also looking forward to another visit during the holidays.)

Here's Alex with Granny and Papa. Isn't this photo priceless? Those expressions just say it all! This is one of my favorites I got of the three of them.

A few more adventures to come. Stay tuned...

Little Man's Big Adventures - The Zoo

While in Texas, we took Little Man on an excursion to the Caldwell Zoo.

I'm pretty sure his favorite part was riding in the wagon. (Look at that open mouth belly laugh!)

No wait, maybe it was the elephants and giraffes.

 Or making noises inside of his cup.

 Wait. Maybe it was the shoulder ride with daddy.

Or hugs and loves from Noni and Pop Pop.

Oh, who am I kidding? It's just too hard to narrow down one favorite from a day packed full of fun!

Gearing up for Halloween

Last year was a bust in the costume department for Halloween. Alex outgrew his costume, and I didn't realize it until Halloween day. I was determined not to make the same mistake this year. It's hard, though, you know? You have to buy the costume early enough to find the right size because you don't want the stores to run out, but not too early that they'll outgrow it before it's time to wear it. Drama.

While with Noni and Pop Pop last week, we turned the city upside down in search of a lion costume. Alex has his lion roar down pat, and I just bubbled over with excitement to think about him going as a lion and doing his "ROAR!" But it was not meant to be. We could not find Little Man's size anywhere. Bummer.

On to plan B - I had to come up with alternate options. I think we found a winner! Introducing...Alex the Robot!

At first I was a little nervous that he wouldn't wear the head piece, but he seems to love it considering he played outside for almost 20 minutes without trying to pull it off.

Yep, I think we found a winner, folks. And this time, I bought big enough that I will not have to worry about last year's Halloween Horror of the "shrinking" costume.

 Here he is checking his antennae with Noni and Pop Pop to make sure they're still there.

 And here's our Little Robot Man feeding the fish at Noni and Pop Pop's house.

 I hope he enjoys his "bot-stume" as much on Halloween night! We'll see...

Happy Anniversary

It's been 18 years since I first met Jerry - our junior year of high school. It's funny how much life has changed for us since then - how much I've changed since then.

When I first met Jerry, I was a skeptic when it came to marriage. I just found it so hard - impossible, quite frankly - to imagine that I could have a meaningful relationship with someone that would last my entire life. But two things happened our senior year in high school. Our friendship deepened. And God began some serious work on my heart issues.

Jerry and I worked at the same little shop at our local mall when we were in high school. We rarely worked the same shift, but as our friendship grew, one of us would make it a point to stop by and say "hi" while the other was working. Our friendship was sweet. And over time, we really began to see how God had His hand in it. There were things that occurred in our friendship that could have no explanation other than God.

While we worked together, I began questioning him about his faith in Christ. His response was always genuine. Never pushy. Always kindly leading me to the bible. I envied his faith, and I was often curious to know more. 

Around this same time, God began to plant this seed in my head (and my heart) that just because my parents were divorced, did not mean that my life was automatically going to end up the same way. I began to believe it. For the first time in my life, I had hope for a marriage that would last. Now please know, that my thoughts about marriage at this time did not involve Jerry (or anyone else, for that matter). It was simply a heart issue that God was mending.

Jerry and I dated briefly for the summer after high school. And if you had told us at that time that we would eventually end up getting married, we would have laughed at you in complete disbelief. After that summer, we stopped dating, but remained distant friends.

For the next four years, God did some major - and I do mean MAJOR - work on my heart. Jerry's, too, I think. And when the time was right, He brought us together again to rekindle our friendship. We spent time getting to know one another, and, looking back, I can see how our faith gained another blossom in the process.

Months before Jerry and I began dating again, I knew that God had created a plan for us to spend our lives together as husband and wife. The seed was planted one night after a phone call Jerry and I had - a phone call where I had told Jerry that his wife was going to be the luckiest girl in the world to be married to him. I didn't know God's timing on the whole thing, but I trusted with all of my heart that our lives would unfold to reveal God's perfect plan.

And so it did. We began dating. Dated for four years. Were engaged for a year. And have now been married for eight years.

I remember when we were engaged, someone said to me, "Amanda, marriage is not always the fairytale that you think it's going to be." My response to her was, "Marriage is what you make it. And I have aspirations for the fairytale. And that is what I am going to work toward."

I was offended by her comment at the time. But the truth is, marriage is not always the fairytale you think it's going to be. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you have to put forth a little extra effort in order to close gaps. Sometimes you have to be willing to put your pride aside for the sake of strengthening your marriage. What I'm saying is, marriage is indeed what you make it.

Jerry,


You continue to amaze me. You always have. Through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, I have always known that we are jointly committed to making our marriage better and stronger with each passing day. There is no one - no one - in the world that I would rather enjoy life with than you. 


Beyond the shadow of a doubt, I am the luckiest girl in the world to get to call myself your wife. I knew it then, and I still believe it today. I am blessed, and I thank God for you.


I love you. I do. I love you so much. And I look forward to a lifetime of sharing that love with you.


Amanda