pinching their pennies.

i think it's time i invest in a piggy bank for my boys. lately, they've been scavenging the house looking for all sorts of loose change & "millions of dollars" as gavin calls the paper money. they know &/or have found all my hiding spots for change & have completely cleaned me out. today i stumbled across this pile of money on one of their dressers. before i could gather it up, gavin quickly informed me that he was saving up for the hungry hungry hippos game. at the rate he is going, this little thief will have enough money in no time... too bad half of it is foreign currency leftover from our travels. he doesn't quite understand why his favorite store, target, won't take the british pounds, turkish lira, indian rupee, or euros he's got in his stash. maybe i'll have to wrap up his precious hungry hungry hippos game & give it to the boys as a gift from the "baby".

i'm still getting over the drama.

i finally got around to uploading all of our pictures from last years summer vacation. although very long over due, it was a fun excuse to look through them again (all 3,132 of them). anyway, these pictures of gavin & his long(er) hair, made me a bit sad (& i'll admit, misty eyed) that he recently has decided to take matters concerning his hair, into his own hands. luckily, he's a boy & it's almost grown out. pretty soon, he'll once again be able to create his beloved "triangle hair", otherwise known as a mohawk.

this is me.

a friend of mine is in the midst of starting a new venture... and although she is still dotting her i's & crossing the t's, i was too excited & just couldn't wait to post about it. so shhh! i'm offering you a sneak peak. i am tickled pink to introduce the this is me journal. her story is definitely one i (& probably you) can relate too. my friend spent forever searching high & low for the perfect "first journal." she really wanted something similar to what she had as a kid... something for her "little ones" to record their thoughts & drawings. having no success in locating said journal, she created one & then decided to self-publish (wow!). resulting in the this is me journal... the perfect combination of "drawing, writing, creativity & simple scarpbooking to capture the years memories through your child's eyes." i'm already having visions of sitting around with my "boys" filling out their copies together. seriously... go check them out HERE. for only 20 bucks, they are a total steal! & don't worry if you don't have any little kiddos of your own, they would make the perfect gift!

what's worse than a mullet?

owen is in major need of a hair cut... his hair is long on top & very lacking in the back. it looks like he is sporting a toupee or a comb over! which reminds me of one of my favorite snl commercials... nelson's baby toupees. (by the way, if you're jealous and want your baby to have her or his own baby toupee, you can buy one HERE.)

baby toupee | Funny Jokes at JibJab

in case you were wondering

the ink from gel pens rubs easily off a leather chair. at least it did this morning, after gavin created his masterpiece. too bad it didn't go with our decor & i had to clean it up.

did i drink too much when i was prego?

i think i need to acknowledge that my family (me and the boys that is) have a slight addiction... to coke. (actually my order of preference is cherry coke, then dr. pepper & finally coke, but that's beside the point.) anyway, it appears that my boys have inherited this fine quality. gavin has been sipping on my drinks ever since he could suck out of straw. one of his first words was coke & he recognizes the symbol everywhere we go (which can often make life a bit difficult. he sees a coke sign & suddenly he has to have one.) i realized how serious the situation was on our trip this past summer... one evening a waiter asked if we would like anything to drink. gavin immediately raised his hand & said "coke." seriously?! how many 2 year olds do you know ordering their own coke? another time, all the restaurant had was pepsi. no big deal, or so i thought. gavin took one sip & then looked up at me and asked "coke?", and then refused to drink any more. how in the world did he know?

well i thought, or at least hoped, that this slight genetic flaw might have skipped owen... unfortunately, this isn't the case. any time i have a coke he cries & cries until i share. maybe it's time i wean them off the bubbly.

10 months!

O is no longer a baby... he's practically a kid! he is all over the place. he crawls, walks around furniture, loves the stairs & boy can he eat! as long as you stick food in front of him he's a happy little camper. he and gavin have started to actually "play" together which is fun to watch. he babbles all day long & definitely loves his momma. but, still no teeth! i'm wondering if they are ever going to come in... but then again, i love his toothless grin!

boys love their toys!

jeff & gavin had lots of fun with some new toys this weekend. unfortunately for both jeff & gavin the motorcycle isn't ours. it belongs to my little brother russy. he loved his scooter so much, he thought he'd get the real deal. so, if you live anywhere near salt lake, watch out! here comes russy!

crete

as you can expect, crete is beautiful... imagine waking up to that view every morning. not bad! we've spent most of our days just lounging by the pool. although we did manage to visit the local village, take a boat tour of the island & pay a visit to the spa. every treatment in the spa uses olive oil, which makes your skin so incredibly soft! who knew that olive oil had so many possibilities?

9 months & counting!

owen is 9 months old today... wow! that's wild. suddenly he is so BIG. he is crawling everywhere. pulling himself up on everything, walking around the furniture. and yet, still no teeth! he is really a happy little kid, that is until gavin gets to him! although, they are starting to play together, which is definitely fun to watch. time is flying by... i can't wait to see what these next few months bring!

life's a beach!

we've spent the last couple of days hanging out at the beach. (too bad i finished harry potter, i could really use something to read.) the beaches here are incredible... we went to a "black beach." instead of sand, the shore is just tiny black pebbles. up and down the entire beach were hundreds of beach clubs. umbrellas & lounge chairs all lined up for you and restaurants with waiters standing nearby waiting to fill every request! i wish the beaches back home were like this!

we also took a boat tour around the island & the surrounding islands. we got the opportunity to see the beauty from an entirely different angle. we swam in hot springs & visited several of the other beaches. everything was so beautiful... from the ocean, the town of santorini looked like snow on top of the mountains!

yesterday we took a ferry over to crete... can't wait to explore the island!

honk. honk. beep! beep!

jeffy & russy LOVE their scooters!

a day at the beach.

yesterday we hit the beaches. we started the day at akrotiri's red beach. it's incredible! you have to hike a little ways to get to the shore, but it's absolutely amazing. you are walking along, and then suddenly you just see these beautiful red lava cliffs emerging from the black sandy shore which leads you to clear blue water. wow! what a sight.

world famous...

the tiny town of oia is famous for its amazing sunsets and breath-taking views of the caldera & volcano. it truly was beautiful... very romantic, if you weren't surrounded by your two kids, a large extended family and about zillion strangers.

island life.

the greek islands are everything i've imagined it would be... i've seen the play mama mia so many times that i was well prepared. we've spent the last couple of days on the island of santorini, which some believe is part of the legendary lost city of atlantis! 3,500 years ago a volcano erupted here causing the entire center of the island to sink, what remains here today is a crescent shaped island. almost the entire island is built upon these incredible cliffs that overlook the ocean.

watch out greece, here we come!

we spent the day touring athens, hitting all the local hot spots... and i mean HOT! that's a shot of the acropolis.

tomorrow we are off to enjoy the islands!

looking pretty...

so i guess i'm not the only one enjoying the blue mascara & new lip gloss (yep, that's lip gloss that gavin used as eye shadow). by the way... just wanted to let you all know that i'm enjoying the new mascara. not quite as 80's as i thought it would be. as with everything, there have been some "technological" advances... it only appears blue in the sunlight, but it sure looks pretty!

gavin's starting the celebration early.

tomorrow's my birthday... i guess gavin couldn't resist digging into the cake mama jo had made. the real question is, how did he find it? the cake had been hidden under a huge mound of tin foil... now there are lots of finger holes.

he can be SO helpful...

it's too soon!

seriously! owen isn't even 8 months yet.
why does he think he can crawl up the stairs? this can't be good!