Eagle Scout Cake

I daydream as I cake (yes, the word is now a verb here). 

And as I decorated this one, and considered that my Aidan's scouting career begins this year with his 8th birthday, I imagined the many Eagle celebrations in my future.  This design is a good start, but I may have to get more creative as we go.  

What else happened as I decorated?

Miss Azure's arms are getting long.  I do realize that I'm not the most observant human (especially when I'm deep in concentration), but the girl grabbed this apple sauce from the table and managed to open and suck it dry without my notice. 

2 of my 3 wouldn't come within three feet of Santa

any guesses?

the "in line" faces say it All.

my girl

It almost sounds like an oxymoron. 

Because "my boys" is all I'm used to saying..

I left the house at 6 this morning.  And when I got home at 2 in the afternoon the Miss was napping.  Deeply.  I missed her.  Deeply.  At {finally} 4 p.m. she awoke, just when the boys were heading out for basketball.  So the two of us were left to ourselves.

And we went on a walk.  Which she adores. 

It was dusk. 

And I looked up to this:

And down to this:

Then up again. 

Then down again.

Times twenty.

Dizzied between the two perfect views, I realized it was a moment to Remember. I may not have time to blog beautifully in this busy season of life, but I can't let these Perfections pass without a nod.

perfect chaos.

I picked up my phone and snapped this picture while I was elbow deep in icings and food color last Friday.  Five fat flies were buzzing through the house by the time Jim got home, but the open door policy of the late afternoon was a worthwhile Bliss.  The boys ran to & fro, while the girl watched in delight, while the mom piped and Enjoyed.

Lately I feel like my life is pretty near perfect. 

I have zero free time, a DVR full of unviewed shows, a stack of unread books, and a mess of laundry to be done.  Every morning we patch Aidan's pants, dig for matching socks, and sweep more cereal crumbs to the floor.  But every morning we also pray, hug, kiss and hold. 

It's the only kind of perfection I expect to attain. 

Someday the house will be spotless.  Someday I'll get to my book pile.  Much of the chaos will vanish, but I can't imagine life will feel quite so crazily perfect without these Three.  These are definitely years to Enjoy.

cookies for baby Alex

I'm getting a niece for Christmas.  It's Daniel (Jim's brother) and Tonya's first baby, and we couldn't be more excited.  I did the cookie party favors for the shower, but snapped pictures of the rest because it was all put together so well.  Her name is Alexandria, so they went with a Greek theme. 

first, the cookies...

This picture is of the cookies in process.  The design mimicked the invite, but was so detailed that I had to develop a new skill.  So I made a stencil for the leaves.  Jim spent a good hour cutting out the tiny details, and it worked surprisingly well with the royal icing.  It was a huge time saver that I will definitely try again.

bagged cookies make me smile. 

but here are some of the shower details that I loved...

Jim and I both had a slew of Saturday commitments, so we divided the kids, and I ended up with Azure as my shower buddy.  She loved all the other littles that were there, especially her cousin Abby.  I love this picture I snapped of them from inside...Abby's little arm guiding my Azh.

Grandma Kay has introduced each of my 3 to olives.  Azure readily gobbled them down.

And here are all of the Scott girls:(Tonya, Jenna, Shanon, Kay, Abs in front, Tonya, me with Azh)

Now we just have to wait to meet Alexandria!