Happy Halloween!

Babies + Pumpkins = Too cute

I don't know if I ever mentioned that last year in my department at school, we had 5 pregnant mammas at he same time and 6 babies born! Four of the five are good friends and have tried to get the babies together as often as possible. (We aren' leaving the fifth out, but she only works part time and not directly with us so we arent' as close.) Last weekend was the first time we were all able to get together and so Owen was meeting a new friend, Jayden, for the first time.

Side story - Owen and Jayden were born on the same day, 20 minutes apart. When we went to the hospital on tuesday, I jokingly sent Jayden's mommy a text and told her that we beat her to the hospital but if she was quick, she could beat us in the baby race. She did. Jayden was born on 5/11 at 10:30 and Owen was born at 10:51. Our due dates were two days apart - mine on 5/ 17 and hers 5/15. What are the chances?

Anyway, we all met at Johansen's Farm and couldn't have had a better time taking pictures of the babies and enjoying our new roles as mommies and daddies.

Owen (5 months), Jayden (5 months), Camille (8 months) and isabella (10 months)

Birthday buddies!

My new favorite family picture!

Our little pumpkin!

BFFs!!!

A Perfect Fall Weekend

Could we be more blessed with this weather lately? I mean really, it's October and this man is outside with no clothes on...

What a wonderful weekend we had! We opened our home to good friends, the Hooli's, and had more fun than we could handle. The interesting thing about the Hooli's is that Brett met Brian the same weekend that he and I met in Myrtle Beach. They became instant friends and as both boys moved on, got married, and had kiddos, our families have become wonderful friends. They are the kind of friends that you love to have as overnight guests. They're very much like us and we can have the greatest time doing nothing at all.

On Friday night, we enjoyed catching up playing with their boys, Colin is 3 and Brendan is 4, and they got to meet Owen for the first time.

On Saturday morning, the men went golfing and Claudette and I took the boys to the Adler Planetarium. Brett and Brian met us later on. What a  beautiful day to be by the lake and learn a little about space.  It's wonderful to be grown adults hanging out with your children and still acting like little kids. The joke of the weekend was "five" because so many jokes were made that you would think we were still kids. What planet comes after Saturn? Uranus. Yep! Still funny!

Saturday night we had a cookout, play tag in the dark and all retreated to the basement for some laughs and some good episodes of the Backyardigans. 

Sunday was equally as beautiful so we went to park. This was Owen's first real trip to the park and he enjoyed it immensely already.

Cluadette and I entertained ourselves by trying to learn to juggle with walnuts. "five". 

 Oh, I wish this weather could last forever!

Fall Fun

Boy does time fly when you're having fun. And, boy, are we having fun being parents to this little boy.

Two weekends, we made a family trip to The Morton Arboretum. We had always wanted to see what the arboretum had to offer, but their admission price is a little steep for what were thought were just walking trails through a  bunch of trees. Thanks to their partnership with Groupon, I was able to get us in for less than half the price. While I still think their normal admission is a little steep, especially for large families, it was definitely more than walking trails though trees. Since we had no idea where to go and were struggling to read the map (yes, we are both beyond college educated), we went to the Children's Garden first. As you can imagine, Owen is a little too young for most of the activities but his parents sure had fun walking thorough imagining what he'll be like in the place next summer.

After the children's Garden, we headed down the Conifer Walk and saw some pretty amazing trees. this also leads into most of the "Nature Unframed" pieces. The pieces were interesting to say the least. I admire the artists for their imagination.

Lichen It!

By this point in the day, we had decided that we really liked this place, enough so the we ended purchasing a family membership. We're looking forward to going back this October with Owen in his costume and painting a pumpkin and this December for breakfast with Santa and a sled dog demonstration. The Arboretum also offers snow shoe rental which sounds like a fun day date for us! Overall, the Arboretum is beautiful. It is meticulously cared for and we are so excited to spend time there enjoying nature and the peace and quiet.

This past weekend, we visited Kuiper's Farm with the intention of picking apples and bringing home a family pumpkin. We had visited this Farm years ago and were excited to go back...until we got there. Much of the apple side has been redone and it is much more commercial than it was before. The line to pick apples was ridiculous and the line to pay for bags of apples was just as long. We did buy a bag of apples and took a few pictures. unfortunately, we didn't plan to spend so much time waiting in the line and by the time we got to the pumpkin side, Owen was not in the mood to be his usual smiling self. we're learning!

My latest culinary achievment

I decided to go pro...last night I boiled the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving and made one giant pot of soup and 4-24 oz containers of stock. No more of that store bought stuff for us. When I told my mom I was doing this, she told me I was crazy and that she (an amazing cook) had never even done that. It turns out, it is really not that hard. I took the carcass and put it in the biggest pot that I had. Then I put the other bones that I had ripped off in two smaller pots. Turned them on to simmer for about 2 hours and done. For the soup, I just used the big pot of stock and added carrots, celery, onions, corn, turkey, salt, thyme, sage, and marjoram that I had sauteed. Cooked it a little more and it was great. I also made spaetzles (little dumplings) for the first time using my moms recipe and they turned out fantastic!!! The house smelled great and I felt good about that fact that I had gotten everything I could out of little Tom the Turkey. The stock is in the freezer and we have yummy soup for the week...hmmm, maybe I need my own cooking show since I am getting to be so faaaabulous in the kitchen!

Here's my Turkey Soup, not Campbell's but good enough to be.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

To all of our family and friends we would like to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Brett and I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and so many friends; we have so much to be thankful for this year.

Thanksgiving was quiet, just Brett, Cari and myself for dinner. We ate a late breakfast and watched the parade. Much of the day was spent perusing the ads for Black Friday...I don't even know where to begin.

Thanksgiving dinner was quite possibly one of the best meals I have ever had. Brett made a turkey that not only looked like it should be a Buetterball commercial but tasted better than any turkey I have ever had. To compliment we also had Apple Cranberry Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Baked Corn, Cranberries, and Rolls. It was a meal fit for a king or better yet for the Clancys.

And now...the process of making such a memorable meal.

Brett preparing his bird.

Brett placing his bird in the oven.
The table is set.
That is one good lookin' bird!


Ready to eat...

Aaaaaaaaand done!

The fight for the wishbone...

I won!

Just another day in the life...

Brett finished up his dental work today so I again get a free day off. Unfortunately I left my camera cord at work and so a real post from last weekend will have to wait because the pictures are a must. We had dinner with Liz and Adam on Friday night and just had the best time. On Saturday Brett went into the office and so I ran some errands and got a head start on some Christmas shopping. I also went to Super Wal Mart to get some Thanksgiving groceries...my, oh, my, is that place a mad house! Sunday was quite productive as we finally got our new storm windows installed (and by we I REALLY mean WE did it!). The week will continue to get more and more hectic as we get ready for Thanksgiving and then on Friday we are off to Moline, Il for Natalie and Jason's wedding. Fortunately, Aunt Cari is the in house doggie sitter so Tucker and Lucy get to spend all weekend with her and their cousin, Hera!

Souper Sunday Week 11 Preview

So I want to try a new soup this weekend from my BFF Rachael Ray.

Total side bar...when you go to yahoo and search Rachael Ray you get several web and image results...please tell me why this is the first image result?

Anywho!!!! A girlfriend of mine gave me the recipe and I was too sleepy last weekend to try it. It's called Chorizo Tomato Stew and you serve it with homemade garlic croutons. My mouth is watering all ready. You'll have to wait until after I make it though for the recipe. However, since it 's going to snow and I am holding on to autumn as long as possible, here's a recipe from my faaaaaaaabulous Aunt Zoe for Butternut Squash Soup. I haven't made it but she's pretty trustworthy so I think you'd be OK to go ahead and give it a try. Here it is, straight from her email...

1 med. butternut squash (about 2 1/4#) - peel & cut into 1/2" cubes
1 small onion - sliced
2 small cans chicken broth (if you want to be Martha Stewart, make your own, but I don't want to know about it. It'll be your own dirty little secret!)
2 T. butter (Yes, I used real butter!)
1/8 t. pepper
1 pinch nutmeg

425 oven.
Layer squash and onions in baking dish. Pour one can broth over. Dot with butter. Sprinkle pepper & nutmeg. Cover with foil. Bake till tender - about 40 min.
Cool slightly. Puree in blender with remaining broth till smooth. (I used extra broth.) Transfer to saucepan. Bring to gentle boil. Top with whipping cream and spr. of nutmeg.

(Alright, Aunt Zoey, this was a nice shout out to you with no teasing about your (lack of) technical knowledge. Now you have to leave a comment!)

There's a crispness to the air...

How quickly we are losing Autumn and slipping into Winter?!?!? All of our leaves are off and sweaters are becoming hidden by bulking winter coats. Not to mention that every retail location in America already has twinkle lights and Christmas carols in their store. Well, to hang on a little longer, here's a great Autumn recipe to keep you thinking of beautiful leaves, pumpkins and apple cider for a little longer - Glazed Apple Bread! I made it last week and it was a hit; very simple too.

1/2 c. canola oil
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 large egg
2 c. unbleached flour
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
2 T. milk
1/2 c. raisins
2 large apples,finely chopped (use good baking apples)
1/2 c. walnuts

• Combine first 3 ingredients and cream until light and fluffy.
• Add egg and beat well.
• Sift together next 4 dry ingredients.
• Add milk, raisins, apples, nuts, and dry ingredients to mixture and stir only until flour is well dampened.
• Bake in well greased 9 x 5 x 4 inch loaf pan at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
• Cool. Remove from pan.

Combine the following ingredients for glaze:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 T. water
2 T. melted butter

Mix well and pour over bread. Let glaze set before wrapping tightly.

Note: I left out the nuts (Hate. Nuts.) and the raisins. Had I added the raisins, I think I would use Craisins instead.

Enjoy!

Halloween 2008

I come home to find that the dogs have eaten 18 Reese Cups. I know it was 18 because I counted all of the little white paper squares that the cups sit on.

I notice the squirrels have made a meal out of one of our pumpkins.

I take the dogs outside for a fun, Fall photo shot and they do not cooperate.

I finally get a few good shots and the dogs spend the rest of the evening going insane every time a trick or treater comes to the house.




















Lucy eventually throws up some chocolate, grass she ate while we were outside, and several of the many, many treats I gave her while trying to take her picture. Later that evening, I agree to watch scary movies with Brett. We watch The Strangers and my (ir)rational fear of a home invasion is brought to life on the big screen.
Brett rests his head on Lucy throughout the movie to monitor her breathing.

The day after, the dogs recuperate from their Halloween Hangover...

The Berger Clancy Autumn Adventure

Last weekend Brett and I and our friends Adam and Liz went to Kuiper’s Family Farm. I can't tell you how fantastic this place is - so fun and the greatest apple cider donuts I have ever had (actually I had never had an apple cider donut before this but they were really yummy!). We purchased Combo tickets that included apple picking, a hayride into the pumpkin patch (a bit of a rip off though because you had to pay extra to actually take a pumpkin home with you), and the maize maze. All of these things would be fun under normal circumstances but throw in two flasks and apple sippers and man it’s a party!!! Afterward we came home and ate Team Clancy chili (sorry no recipe), Liz and I made apple pies, and then we watched the Cubs (nuf said).

Here were the Maize Maze Teams:

Picking out pumpkins...

Enjoying those apple sippers...