A Good Toaster

Aargh. One of Jacob's favorite things to do is to put tiny things in the toaster. Joseph and I have learned to empty it out before we toast anything (and also we're working to put a stop to the craziness). Tonight I forgot, so right now Joseph is working on prying one of those plastic twistable crayons from the wires inside the toaster. It's pretty thoroughly melted. Aargh! Jacob! It's the toaster my dad gave us at our wedding and it's been working great (for 9 years!!) until now so we're praying we can keep using it for a little while longer!

Joseph came home on Saturday after being out of town for four days and the kids were so excited! Caleb and Emily drew a few pictures to decorate the living room with in honor of the special day. Here's one of Caleb's:

So, it's a bad photo, but can you see tiny Jacob being held in Joseph's fingers? I love it!! Also, please notice the color coding - boys are blue, girls are pink. Naturally.
Curious about that spiky ball on the ground? So was I. I asked the artist, and turns out, that's actually a hole with candy canes hanging around the edge. Good to know, right?

We also celebrated with the best German chocolate cake ever and by spending the remainder of Saturday doing fun stuff as a family.
The snow finally melted enough for us to pull the bikes out again.

Caleb is always super cool on his puppy dog bike.

Elinor (in her mama-made dress!).

Jake does his best to keep up.

Emily's not so much into bikes, but she loves to climb.

See?

Baby Boy loves his daddy.

All of them. In their new sherpa-lined hoodies too! We've been searching for the perfect jacket, as they get very heavy use in our family. Jake's is Hanna Andersson, El's is Land's End, and Caleb and Em's are Mini Boden. The Boden ones are the winners for sure.

Em's in a mama-made dress too! All this good usage is making me want to pull out the old sewing machine again!