Proceed with caution!

Kevin and I decided to embark on a life-long dream for the both of us this evening. For many years now, we have both wanted to make Louisiana gumbo, and tonight, we did it. Holy smokes, that stuff is spicy!

Check out those fiery orange habaneros!

We used yet another recipe from Eating Well magazine. (I really oughta get paid for mentioning them so many times!) We used all organic ingredients, except for the okra and habanero peppers, neither of which were available organically. We also used homemade chicken stock! Yummy! One of the habaneros exploded in the pot, so infused spice was a bit of an understatement. Yowza!

Kevin was sweating it!

Me, dramatic? Never!

All in all though, I give this recipe 5 stars. I am ready for another bowl as we speak, now that my mouth has cooled down.

This will definitely stay in the rotation of good eats!

Bridal Shower

So my awesome future mother- and sister-in-laws, Susan and Erin, threw me a fantastic bridal shower this weekend! We went to Blu Water on Greenlake for a terrific brunch and fun games and present opening and all in all good times! We all had a great time, and I got to see some people I hadn't seen in forever. My friend Taylor came all the way up from Vancouver, Washington! We hadn't seen each other in at least 2 years, so what a great surprise as I was walking toward the restaurant and see her and her fiance standing there looking at me! At first I wasn't sure if it was just coincidence, but it all came out that she was here for me! Yay for awesome friends!

Taylor, Nikki, Erin, Me, Lauren, Terri, Jackson, Susan, and my mom! Kristi was there too but had to leave early, and there were several people who were there in spirit! Thank you ladies!

And speaking of awesome, Erin is freaking 9 months pregnant and drove down from Bellingham and organized it! Thank you so much, you are inspiring my dear! And my sis-in-law Terri just had Jackson a few weeks ago and came out too! What great friends and family I have! I felt really loved and lucky to have such amazing women in my life.

Lauren and Terri hard at work unscrambling wedding related words. Lauren won, and received a great bag of goodies! (Technically, I whooped everyone, but for some reason the bride doesn't get to win the games! Hehe! I love words games!)

The darling nephew made a guest appearance, so I of course got completely distracted by him! Seriously, could he be any cuter?!

A mere 56 days till Kevin and I tie the knot! We are getting really excited and have so much to do! Thanks to everyone who made it to the shower and for your thoughtful gifts! I've already used some of them! (Well really, you can't give me crafting supplies and then think I am not going to open them the second I get home, can you?!) Thanks again everyone for giving me such an awesome day!

Jackson is 2 and a half weeks old!

Kevin and I got to head over to my brother's house for a quick visit before all us kids headed out to see Cirque du Soleil, while the grandparents watched the baby and Nate. He is still the most adorable little thing I have ever laid my eyes on. Kevin couldn't get my camera to work when I was holding him, but I got a few good shots in. We've decided he's a little Barnacle. He curls up on your chest and is just so snuggly! Oh baby! His pirate name is Barnacle Jack. Arrrr, where's me binkie!? I know, my family is weird. :)

He shot me the dirtiest look after the flash went on in his face!

Aunt Capriel and Jackson - He got a death grip on her necklace!

Cirque du Soleil was really cool. We had a blast and I would definitely recommend seeing it to anyone who hasn't been before. The acrobatics were amazing, but the storyline was a little weird and hard to understand, so you just had to wait out the little skits til the next person started flying through the air! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Uncle Joseph gets to do a feeding! Yum yum!

He opened his eyes a lot on this visit, but not much when the camera was pointed at him. He has eyelashes now, so hopefully the eyebrows will come in soon too!

Ski to Sea 2008

Kevin and I headed up to Bellingham for the 2008 Ski to Sea race. It is an 85 mile, seven leg, eight person race from Mt. Baker to Bellingham Bay, including cross country skiing, downhill skiiing, running, road biking, canoeing, mountain biking, and kayaking. This year the weather was incredible: blue skies and hot, which proved to be a blessing and a curse. Lovely to have nice weather, but with it the levels of the Nooksack River rose to dangerous levels, and the canoe leg, which Kevin and his brother Adam were suppose to race, had to be cancelled at the last minute. Though we're glad that safety came first, it was a bummer for the guys to not get to compete. Regardless, their team did really fanastic, coming in 123rd out of 450 teams! Wow! There were two members who actually finished in the top 100!

A Bold Move: Kevin Sm, Jerry, Adam, Bert, Jarrod, Kevin S, Rowan, and Dick

Jed, who is my future sis-in-law's younger brother, was recruited to a team that hoped to finish in the top 3 teams. Well, Jed started the team out with a fantastic cross country leg, finished in third place overall. From there, his team just continued to do awesome, and ended up winning the whole race! Such excitement! I've never known anyone on one of the top teams, so it was awesome to feel invested in the race so much more!

Adam, Jarrod, and Kevin after the pass off of the timing chip. Jarrod raced well on the road bike portion, and Adam ran his little heart out for 50 feet to get the timing chip across the line. They had to improvised a bit after the canoe cancellation.

Hanging out in Fairhaven in the sunshine.

We ate lots of good food, had great company, and got a lot of sun! We headed down on Monday after a pancake breakfast with Kevin's mom, took a quick nap, then headed down the the Mariner's versus Red Sox game with Adam and Erin, and Erin's family. It was her parents 35th wedding anniversary, and Erin got their names up on the score board, which was really nice. Sadly the Mariners lost, but that's nothing new this season. We had a good time anyway, and the Red Sox fans didn't gloat too much. What a weekend!

Kevin piled rocks on me while we were waiting in Fairhaven for the last leg of the race, the kayak! I did this leg last year, and may give it a shot again next year. We'll see!

I'm in love with a boy...

and his name is Jackson Douglas! He's a beautiful 9 pound 10 ounce, 20.5 inch boy, born at 2:07pm today. I am utterly and completely smitten with my new nephew.



He has his dad's nose and scowl, his mom's lips and hair, and distinctive lack of eyebrows, and my freaky little toes that curl underneath the ones next to them! He's delectable!



I think his future uncle Kevin is rather smitten as well. A baby looks good on that boy...hmmmmm. We could be in trouble!


Grandma and Grandpa look pretty in love with him too.





Here's big brother Nate holding Jackson. Looks like he's a natural. He's been such a great brother already to him. Nate just celebrated his 9th birthday on Sunday. Happy birthday Nate!


Welcome to the world baby Jackson!

In other news!

Kevin and I bought our wedding bands today! We've both been wearing them around the house this evening, and I love mine. It is going to be tough to take it off. We are definitely ready to just be married already! But it was good to cross another item off our list of wedding things to do.

We also made one of our favorite meals tonight. It is from PCC Natural Markets and it actually makes three meals. The three day chicken last us six days, plus lots of chicken stock to last for other soups and risottos and the like. Yum Yum! First night is Chicken and Dumpling soup, then Chicken Enchiladas, and finally Chicken Pot Pie. And they are all wonderfully delicious!

Forgot to mention, for the recipe we use a whole fryer chicken, not one from the deli. No shortcuts for us!

Baseball season has begun!

Kevin and I went to our first Mariners' game of the season on Tuesday. It started out beautifully, the sun was high in the sky, Kevin caught a ball during batting practice, and the M's flag was flying in first place!



And the game was fun, although rather sloppy. Until JJ Putz (my second love) came out and gave up a homerun to lose the game. Thunderstruck did not pump him up I guess, so he decided to go and get some rib injury...sheesh! And after the sun went down it was COLD!!!!!



Now the flags are reversed, with Mariners occupying the last place position. We'll just have to enjoy that picture and hope that it comes back around again soon! We won tonight!



Go Mariners!