NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal - write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

Crazy? Yes.

Am I starting mine from word 1? Nope.

I am slightly ashamed to admit that I started to write a novel a few months before I had Garrett. (Not ashamed that I'm writing, but ashamed that I'm still not done with it!) Three years later...I have over 50,000 words but have not completed my first draft. Embarrassing.

So...now that I have 4 kids and unlimited time (please note sarcasm), I have decided to take the challenge. Not to start a novel from word 1, but to finish my first draft in one month. Since technically over 50,000 words should put me near the end it doesn't sound so bad except I'm pretty sure I'm not even half way done. And did I mention it took me three years to write the first half?

As anyone who writes knows, sometimes the first draft can be the most difficult part. At the same time once its done, its only a tiny part of the writing process.

I might look half crazed through the month of November but its time to finish.

Six or a Ladybug Bubble Fairy

Mini cupcakes for Emma's class.

A ladybug cake, no fairies or princess but she still liked it.

We've had a birthday at our house. Our little Emma (Emmalou, Emmybug, Emmy, etc) turned six this month. She wanted a lady princess fairy cake...thats the best I could do. She wants to be a ladybug bubble fairy for Halloween, hence the title of the post.

 Emma is my shadow.

But she is a sweet little shadow. She started kindergarten this year and she's doing great. I'm going to totally and shamelessly brag about her.

Emma could write her name when she was 2. She started sounding out words when she was 3. And now that she's been in kindergarten all of a few weeks she's reading the scriptures out loud with the family. She loves all things girly - pink, ruffles, sparkles, barbies, and dolls - while at the same time she is my scientist.

She is still fascinated with the human body. She got a model of the brain for her birthday and she shouted, "This is perfect for me!" I tried to help her put it together but we had trouble with the bones of the skull once we got all the parts of the brain together. (I'm going to admit that I don't get the appeal but she thought it was great.) The same kit came with a model of the human body that you could take all the parts out and practice putting them back in again. I couldn't figure out why we were having trouble until I realized that we'd put the rib cage in upside down. Thank goodness she's added the solar system to her areas of interest. At least I'm competent in that area.

Love this crazy, quirky girl.

They're sick and I'm tired

Haven't posted for awhile because 3 kids are sick and I'm tired because...well I'm taking care of three sick kids.

In the mean time, I figured out what kind of bird hit the front window. Its the same kind that hit the back window. Apparently it didn't learn its lesson. You can't tell from the picture but its quite large. I've seen little brown woodpeckers before but this is the first time I've seen this kind and they are big. Like the size of a crow.

 There were two flying around the house and this guy hit the window and stayed down long enough that I went out to check on it, at which point it flew away.

Before anyone thinks, 'wow she must have clean windows for all these birds to keep hitting them', no, the windows are dirty but we have a giant picture window in the living room and the kitchen. Consequently, you can see all the way through the house and out the other window. Thus, lots of birds hitting the windows.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...



If only I could have seen it!



 No...its definetly a bird. I'm not sure what kind but it hit our living room window hard. We were in the back yard when the incident took place so we didn't actually see it happen. There was no body around so it must have survived.

Any guesses as to what kind? Quail? (We have a family of them that hang out in the yard quite often.) Blue jay? (They're eating all our hazelnuts.)

First Day of Course!

First day of kindergarten! No tears here.

First day of third grade! She's so grown up and loves giving school advice to her little sister.

Oh my goodness, they are so gorgeous. Isn't it also cute how color coordinated they are? Totally not on purpose. I'm just glad they didn't look like they got dressed in the dark.

And this is how Emma usually looks...off in her own little world.

And this is how Madilyn usually looks...Moooooom.

Two kids in school. What?!

I wasn't sure how Emma was going to handle the first day. She's afraid of a lot of things but turns out school isn't one of them. It helped that she had her big sister with her the whole way. The school district didn't have a back to school night so parents were invited to meet teachers the first day of school. Not an ideal situation, especially when you have more than one teacher to meet. But it went fine and Emma didn't even cry when I left. Neither did I.

When I left she was getting her build on. She's going to rock kindergarten.

Trekkin

Enjoyin the ride

She looks so grown up!

What would a post about Northwest Trek be without a Caribou...at least I think its a Caribou.

My mom and dad came for a quick visit for my aunt and uncle's surprise birthday party. We slipped in a trip to Northwest Trek before they had to leave and the girls started school. We saw moose, elk, buffalo, mountain goats, mountain sheep, swans, owls, black and brown bears, beaver, fishers, wolves, bald eagles, and a whole bunch of others I can't remember.

It was fun. Although I'm not sure my dad enjoyed his assigned job - making sure Garrett didn't fall out of the tram. Garrett's a little bit, or a lot bit, like an octopus.

We Were So Young



I know, so sad that I had to take a photo of a photo

 I'm playing some serious catch up on the blog. We celebrated our 10th anniversary a few weeks ago. Originally, we planned to go on a cruise for our 10th anniversary but there is no way we were going to take a nursing baby on a cruise. No sir.

We did get a couple of days to ourselves...and Grant. My in-laws were kind enough to take the three older Nashlings for the night.

ANNNNDDDD I have nothing profound to say. Marriage is everything I expected it to be while simultaneously being nothing like I expected it to be. So I guess 10 years and four kids later and we still like each other. It MUST be love.