Heather pics

After Heather sent a picture of herself eating snails in China, Lily has been very concerned about Heather.  She asked me, multiple times, if Heather turned into a snail.  And she tells a lot of random people that "Heather ate snails in China."

Here are a few more pics Heather sent with scorpions and starfish in a market (Happy Chinese Thanksgiving dinner), and one with a monkey.

 

 

Applesauce 101

October around the Wilsons means apple season.  (Just pretend I posted this in October, okay?)

Grandpa is great with his apple picker.  And when he gets sick of having to reach so high, he just jiggles the branch and lets the apples fall.

There are lots of little hands to help pick up apples.

And taste test the apples.

No good apple picking session is complete without a wheelbarrow ride.

 

....or a makeshift hayride.

 

The best is when you can get Grandma to come, too.

And the very best (not pictured, unfortunately) is when Becca pretends to be a headless ghoul in the orchard who chases after the hayride.

Sometimes the help gets distracted.

Then it's time to set up the assembly line in Grandma's sweet kitchen

And when the apples have been sorted and de-stemmed and cooked, then we set up the sieve, powered by Dad's drill, to crank out gallons of applesauce in record time.

And suddenly the taste testers come out of the woodwork to be of service. (So sanitary.)

And Grandpa gets out his drill to mix in the cinnamon to our 15 gallons of fresh applesauce.

Then, once we're totally sick of applesauce, we leave a few leftover apples to face the dehydrator.

Ratting on JJ

I am a major snoop. Sage left her email account opened on our computer after she left today, so I just had to take a peek. And this message from a few days ago caught my eye (as well as a lot of emails from supportive aunts and grandma):
Subject: cutie patootie
Sage,
What do you want to name our new baby?
Carter?
Christian?
Heebee Jeebee?
Love you,
Mom

And I thought, Janel is such a good mom.
That's all.

Welcome Baby Boy Williams!

Urgent news bulletin just in!

We have word that a healthy baby boy was born to Janel and Mark Williams at 8:56pm on Saturday, November 12, 2011.  Male Williams (hopefully waiting to receive a name before his one month mark) weighed in at 6 pounds 3 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

Further updates will be broadcasted as additional information is gleaned.  Pictures (hopefully) soon to follow.

Fields Broadcasting System signing out.