we were able to keep grey and clementine on our glider long enough for some photos. the results were adorable!

– ryan & gub

grey had some fun playing around in the dirty laundry the other day! i couldn’t resist taking photos!

– ryan & gub

sorry for the lack of blog posts recently. we’ve been super swamped but hope to have lots of updates soon. in the meantime, here are some recent photos of clementine’s beautiful blue eyes!

– ryan & gub

i recently came across some photos of grey and his blabla friend hanging in his crib! they are similar to the cute photos of clem and the gang when she was a baby.

here are some other blabla photos with the kids.

– ryan & gub

grey started pulling himself up on tables and chairs and cruising around! it’s only a matter of time before he starts walking now, yikes!

– ryan & gub

clementine has become a big fan of kiki’s delivery service. it’s an older animation from hayao myazaki & studio ghibli, who created my neighbor totoro and ponyo, which clementine also loves.

the main character kiki is a witch who makes deliveries by flying on her broomstick. clementine now tries to ‘fly high’ like kiki on her little broom and gets super frustrated when she can’t get off the ground!

it’s adorable to say the least.

– ryan & gub

we’ve been having some fun taking instagram photos of grey recently! here’s one from pool day.

– ryan & gub

clementine and grey have become fast friends! the first thing clem asks for in the mornings is her baby brother in the crib so they can hang out. it’s adorable!

you can also check out a video below with clem & grey reading together in the crib. they start out by ripping a page in hop on pop, which they know they aren’t supposed to do, so they both look around to see if they are in trouble. it’s pretty cute.

– ryan & gub

while going through old pictures i found a common theme of trying to have clementine blend in with her photos. it started with an attempt to take an e.t. style photo with clem and her stuffed animals and went on from there.

the pictures of clementine with her baby dolls are hilarious. it’s kind of crazy how well she blends in with the dolls.

the tradition didn’t stop with clem either, here is a similar photo of grey!

– ryan & gub

being a huge fan of soft pretzels, i’ve always been intrigued by the bake-at-home kits you see at grocery stores. with clementine way into all thing baking & cooking these days, it seemed like a good time to try one out. so on a recent saturday afternoon, clementine, her grandmother and i attempted an auntie anne’s at-home baking kit i bought at kroger.

the kit included all of the necessary ingredients, so measuring was not required. the instructions were pretty easy as well, although time consuming for sure. i started by pitching the yeast in a mixing bowl. i then added the flour and mixed the dough. next came the kneading, which clementine was super helpful with! once the dough was prepared it had to sit for 30 minutes in a warm spot to “rest.”

after resting, we flattened the dough and cut it into 1.5″ x 8″ strips. the strips were then stretched out and shaped for baking. we went with normal pretzel designs and some twists, but you can get creative and make letters or animal shapes or whatever you can think of!

once the pretzels were shaped, i prepared a bowl with warm water and baking soda. i dipped each pretzel into the liquid (like you do with bagels), added toppings (ie. salt, cinnamon & sugar, etc.) and baked for 5 minutes at 400. the pretzels were then rotated 180 degrees and baked for an additional 2-5 minutes. i brushed on some melted butter and voilà, home-baked soft pretzels!

in the end, the soft pretzels were amazing! the process took way longer than i expected, however the pretzels tasted restaurant quality and were totally worth the effort. plus clementine had a blast kneading the dough and helping out, so i would definitely make them again.

next time i’ll have to try the egg in a pretzel recipe!

– ryan