Love to Jackson

I got to spend all evening Friday and all day Saturday with Jackson! Kevin had his big engineering exam on Saturday, so I figured I would take the opportunity to go stay with Matthew and Terri and visit with the boys. Nate was scheduled to be at his dad's, so it was just me and Jackson. It was my first chance to have him basically all to myself, and it was so wonderful! He is such a little delight, I could hardly put him down, and had a very hard time leaving!

He is getting bigger all the time, and so smart I can't even believe it. He is sitting up really well, can lean forward to grab something and then raise himself back up to vertical. He is thinking really hard about crawling. He knows it has something to do with his legs, but he hasn't quite gotten them underneath him. He is giggling like crazy, and this weekend his big thing was clicking with his tongue at you. So cute! I want to have more extended time like this with him, I feel like I got to bond with him so much! I am so completely and utterly in love with the little guy!

The cutest little pumpkin ever!

Jackson LOVES toes! He worked really hard to get over to Terri's feet, and just grinned and laughed like crazy!

Hanging out with the turtle

Hey, where'd you come from?!

This is the face he gets when someone notices he's woken up from a nap. How cute is he?! We then proceeded to have a laugh attack playing peek-a-boo, which Terri and Matthew could hear in the garage and went on long enough to get a phone call in to Grandma and Grandpa! He has the best laugh!

Trying on his new hat! My first stripes!

Yeah, he knows he's adorable

Kevin felt like he did well on his exam, so that is excellent. It will be nice to get a little more time with him in the coming weeks. We also got a visit from his parents tonight, which was great. We hadn't seen them in well over a month I think! Yummy pizza, good conversation, looking through wedding photos (someday I'll get around to getting them printed!). A great, and way too short, weekend! Next weekend we are off to Portland to see our friend Taylor get hitched! Woohoo!

The last of the great harvest '08

I clipped off the last of our tomatoes today, in hopes that I can ripen them indoors. It turned into a lot more tomato than it looked like! I have lunch bags full ripening in cupboards now. I have high hopes for one bag with more mature fruits in it, and the other two, well, we'll just have to see. If they don't ripen, I'll have to learn some green tomato recipes!


I have been knitting up a storm the last couple weeks, and am now fully in the holiday mood! Today was a great day! I made coffee and just knitted away the afternoon! Sometimes being told you aren't needed at work that day turns out alright! A sneak peek at my latest creation:

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Since it is autumn, my most favorite time of the year, I decided my page needed an update to its old boring look with colors I never really liked anyway! Let me know if there is any font color that wigs you out or anything like that!

Speaking of colder weather, we bit the bullet this year and decided to winterize our drafty windows! Kevin did most of the work, cuz he's all husbandly and whatnot! I helped move the fridge, and sweep out the nasties that had built up behind it the last three years. If you haven't moved your fridge in awhile, you might consider giving it a whirl!

The pictures I took were frankly not that exciting, since it is clear plastic that goes up over the window, but we are hopeful that it will keep our place a tad toastier.

We harvested the last of our basil today and Kevin made a delicious batch that we enjoyed for dinner tonight. We have 4 more batches in the freezer, which should just about get us through the winter with our pesto cravings! We just have a few tomatoes left that we think we'll cut and bring inside to ripen, and then that's it for the garden! I never seem to get around to planting anything for the winter. Is it too late? :) Anyone know something other than tulips that can go in now and produce something in the winter months? I'm sad to see that last of our garden go!

I finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle the other day. I have to say, it was an incredibly enjoyable read! I was hesitant to pick it up for a long time because I thought it would be preachy for some reason. But I fell in love with reading about the families trials and triumphs of living as locally as they could for a year. It inspired me to try harder to think about where my food is coming from, and made me want chickens sooooooo bad! I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a little inspiration and motivation to eat well for their bodies and their communities!

And finally, GO RAYS!!!! They are headed to the World Series against the Phillies! I'm so excited!

Birthdays, pumpkins, and baby, oh my!

We were off to Bainbridge this weekend to celebrate my 27th birthday a little early with my family and go to a pumpkin picking party on Saturday. Matthew and Terri brought Jackson over, much to my happy surprise as they are in the middle of moving; thanks guys!! We spent a little time hanging out at my parents house in the afternoon on Saturday, and then headed to the Suyematsu Farm for pumpkin picking, beer, bratwursts, and good time in the beautiful fall weather!

I found my pumpkin! A rare breed of blue adorableness!

It was Jackson's first time picking pumpkins, and we had a great time! The food and company was excellent as well. Afterward, we all headed back to my parents house for some cake and visiting.

Grandma absolutely captivates Jackson

Uncle Kevin gets some floor time!

I love his little feet! And he loves grabbing onto my nose and just babbling away. So great!

Jackson will be 5 months tomorrow, and he is growing so quickly! Every time we see him, he is a little bigger, a little more aware of what's going on around him, holding himself up better, and babbling more! He is saying "mamamama" and "dadadada" which is exciting! And he is loving solid food. We had a little tummy time where he turned himself completely around on his own! What a smart little guy!

It was nice to visit with my family and have everyone celebrate my birthday! Last night after the Seattle crew left, Kevin and I watched the Rays beat the Red Sox in the 11th inning, so exciting! Today we are laying low, watched some sad football, now tuning in to watch Jamie Moyer lead the Phillies to a hopeful win over the Dodgers! I love October!

Lovely autumn arrives

We are finally seeming to slow down on our activities, just in time with the cooling weather and shorter days. I love fall, it is my favorite time of the year. I love the last few sunny days when the weather is getting crisp, I love pumpkins and pie and Halloween, I love that my birthday is just around the corner, and that I can pull out all my cold weather clothing and have an excuse to get a cozy sweater and learn how to knit some socks! Autumn is the bestest!

This weekend literally blew by, with some wacky weather with it! I had to spend all day at the DOL getting my new ID with my new name on it! Hooray! Afterward, Kevin and I decided it was time to get out in the windy weather and went for a walk. We decided to see a part of the neighborhood we hadn't explored yet, and mapped our route out to pass by several parks. We ended at the Sunset Hill Park overlooking the Sound. It was great fun!

Nearly blown away outside Ballard High!

A really fun park had this zip line swing, I couldn't resist it!

The view from Sunset Hill Park, overlooking the Puget Sound.

Kevin had a hankering to bake this week, and delighted me with a Raspberry Tart, made with raspberries that we had frozen over the summer! Yay! It was so delicious, and so awesome to eat some of our produce that we thought ahead to store. He also made chocolate chip cookie bars! What a husband!
My big accomplishment this week was in knitting. There are a great many babies in my life currently and several who are due to make their appearance in the world in the next week and months! I've knitted a couple hats from the Stitch and Bitch book, called the umbilical cord hat. It is a great pattern, very easy and so nice to give something handmade to these babies to keep their precious heads warm. Corbin sported his on his first camping trip!

While it is a great pattern, I've been yearning to push my knitting abilities beyond reading a pattern, and so I plunged into altering a pattern for the first time! I increased the size of the hat by about 25% so that an older baby can wear it, and changed the stitches from straight knit stitch to alternating knit and purl stitch every two stitches. This results in a rib stitch, which makes the hat a little cozier. I feel very proud of myself for working through the difficulties and have renewed desire to GET KNITTING! I have 4 new babies coming into my life indirectly that I would like to give some knitted love to! This one will be going to one of my coworkers who is about to become a grandpa for the first time! His daughter is due any minute now!

Lacking a real life baby model, Hobbes was a wonderful stand in!

Tomorrow we are making Irish Stew with lamb! Hooray for cold weather foods!

Food Dream, Fulfilled!

I've been experimenting a lot in the kitchen lately, and tonight I made Broccoli Goat Cheese Souffle! It was pretty easy, which surprised me, rose beautifully, and was really delicious!


I would definitely recommend making this, though I would add a little more salt and a little more herbs. It also took about 8 minutes longer to cook than the recipe said. But so easy! We had a delicious green salad with it, and I got to make something I've always wanted to make!