doing the family thing…

one thing i really love about being back is being able to hang out with family way more often.  my dad comes and visits about once a month.  my brother’s family lives only 45 minutes away.  mikey and allie really love their uncle and auntie and their “baby cousin” (as mikey calls him).  i love seeing my kids being so comfortable around them- crawling into their laps, talking and playing with them. 

so on saturday, after the great backpack expedition, johnny, joanna, and jeremiah came over to hang out and have dinner with us.  it was so nice to just kick back and relax while spending time together instead of having to pack in tons of activities in a short amount of time before one of us has to fly back home.

we’ve always said that mikey is very similar in personality to my brother.  they’re both a bit shy and unassertive.  they both love cars.  they both have strong gag reflexes.    so johnny was saying how he and mikey will play with remote control cars together when mikey’s older.  that’ll be their thing to do together.  but surprise, surprise, mikey already has a remote control car!  (we got it for him as a reward for pooping in the potty).  it was hard to tell who was happier, mikey or johnny, as they headed off toward the parking lot to take the little car for a spin.

“has difficulty sharing.”  heh heh, here they are fighting over the controller.  in johnny’s defense, mikey’s turns would last much longer than johnny’s turns.  johnny would have it for literally a few seconds before mikey would announce, “mikey’s turn!”  but uh, nice, uncle johnny… 

uncle johnny played goalie to make sure the little car didn’t go over the edge since we were on the second level.  though he said later, the car finally did go flying over the edge.

after they came back, my very nice brother offered to cut my boys’ hair.  so thanks minna and lorie, for noticing mikey’s hair cut!  all the credit for how good they turned out goes to johnny. 

the end result (with mikey taking the opportunity to show off his “muskles” at the same time):

then it was daddy’s turn!  here’s phil before:

hard at work…

and after!  my cutie boy.  but for the life of me, i cannot get him to shave off that gross billy goat’s gruff thing he’s got growing on his chin!

leaning in…

my goodness, we’ve killed my poor brother!  he went up to take a nap beside jeremiah (who was in the crib) after all his hard work.  btw, johnny highly recommends the remington hkvac-2000 vacuum trim titanium clippers.  it has a little compartment where all the hair gets collected by a vacuum right on the clippers.  he says you never have to oil the blades and this clipper buzzes less and doesn’t get hot in your hand while cutting hair.  sells on amazon for 27 bucks!  i’m getting me some since it looks like i’ll be doing home haircuts again to save money.  other reviews say it doesn’t work as well on very fine hair, but that isn’t a problem for my guys.

after johnny’s power nap, he was back for more!  here’s allie and uncle enjoying a book together.

allie looooves uncle johnny!

time for dessert!

i felt bad for keeping johnny so busy while joanna was busy caring for baby jeremiah.  but here’s the sweet little guy after a nice long nap!

hard to believe, but jeremiah’s ten weeks old already!

and here i am with my favorite little nephew as he does his best “tough guy” pose:

ahh family.  i love it!