Today my baby girl turned 6 years old! Time is already flying too fast for my taste. Sometimes she’ll look up and I’ll see her little newborn face looking back at me. But who has time to be nostalgic when you’re 6? Things to learn! Places to see! People to meet! And Amelie is very excited about it all.

Thank you, Marcie, for the wonderful pictures! (www.jesseephotography.com) This little miss was determined to pose and not let any silliness come through.

I interviewed Amelie today:

Me: What is your favorite color?

Amelie: Pink and purple and red.

Me: What’s your favorite show on T.V.?

A: George. (Curious George)

M: What’s your favorite movie?

A: Um, Mulan.

M: What’s your favorite food to eat?

A: Pizza. (I should note that almost every answer she gave sounded like a question. George? Mulan? Pizza? Isn’t that funny how kids do that?)

M: What’s your favorite dessert?

A: My favorite dessert, well, my favorite dessert is all kinds of desserts!

M: There’s not one specific one?

A: Well, there is one that I like. There’s, um, sugar cookies. And cupcakes. And I like all the rest. I like lots of kinds of desserts.

Marcie tried her best to get Amelie to giggle or laugh, but Amelie was determined to focus and stay in control.

M: Who is your best friend?

A: Um, my best friend is Lyssa. (Alyssa Jessee, Brad and Michelle’s niece.)

M: What is your favorite part about going to school?

A: Doing activities.

M: What’s your favorite game to play?

A: Um, my favorite game to play is hide and go seek.

M: Where are we going for your birthday?

A: DisneyLand.

M: What are you looking forward to most about DisneyLand?

A: Meeting the princesses.

My very own princess. And I don't even have to travel to DisneyLand!

M: What’s your favorite song on the radio?

A: I Haven’t Met You Yet.

M: Can you sing me a little bit of it? Please?

A: Um, no.

M: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: I want to write shows and movies. And I want to be a ballet dancer. I can’t choose which one.

Siblings.

We sure do love you, Amelie! You will always be my Sweet Pea and I am so grateful to have you in my life.

So, Easton is definitely the most “attached” of my babies–at least it feels that way. I pretty much need to be in sight at all times, preferably holding him, or he gets quite concerned. Quite concerned meaning totally freaked out. When it came time for Amelie and Calder to go in to nursery at church, there were no problems. I dropped them off and came back two hours later with no issues. Easton turns nursery age in October and I pity his nursery workers.

The position he assumes when anyone dares glance his way or, heaven forbid, tries to hold him.

"Must get as physically close to Mommy as possible!"

I can’t help but be a little flattered. He does seem to like me quite a lot. And I sure do adore him. So it works out rather well.

Unless you would like to hold him. Sorry.

Yesterday was a holiday here in Utah and to celebrate our pioneer heritage, we went fishing and “camping”! I say “camping” because we didn’t spend the night or anything. Just played at the campsite and cooked yummy food over the fire. We had a marvelous time! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Haymond for hosting us and making it happen!

The reservoir at Mill Hollow where we spent the day. Isn't it gorgeous?

Amelie was in love with the worms brought for bait. The fact that we were putting them on hooks for fish to eat didn't seem to bother her, though.

Daddy teaching Amelie the ropes. She turned out to be a natural and practiced her casting until she was able to cast way out into the lake.

Grandma Brenda mentoring Calder. He enjoyed casting and trying to figure it all out.

My two fishermen--fisherpersons? You couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Easton giving his secret sign. You'll have to ask him what it means. I'm not allowed to tell.

Daddy caught a fish. Bryce actually loves to eat fresh fish, so after we had wrapped up the fishing for the day, he cleaned the fish (I don't think I even want to know what that entails. Or entrails, for that matter.), and grilled them up.

And then the most exciting part of the day--Calder caught a fish! Here he is holding his netted prize. It was like a little miracle.

Easton could care less about fishing. All he wanted to do was get in the water.

Exploring our campsite.

Sitting pretty while Aunt Michelle did all the hard work of building the fire.

Our campsite was a children's paradise. I tried to be open minded about Calder's adventure schemes, but some of it was just too high and scary for this mama's nerves.

One last one of my cute fisherman. It was really a wonderful day.

A couple months ago, I took Amelie to an instrument petting zoo. The Utah Valley Symphony played a short concert and then the local music store arranged to have all sorts of instruments out in the foyer for audience members to try. Amelie tried them all–trombone, cello, violin, trumpet, flute, and more. Before this concert, she and I had talked about starting music lessons. She said she wanted to learn violin. While I was very pleased to hear this, I didn’t want her to choose violin simply because that’s what I play and teach. I wanted her to find something on her own. So we went and listened to the concert and tried out all the instruments (I was kind of hoping she might choose cello) and, lo and behold, she still wanted to learn violin.

I knew it would be fun having her learn my instrument, but I had no idea how much fun. On Tuesday, we arranged to rent a little 1/8 size violin and she was over the moon about her new instrument. She played and played and played. It’s amazing what you can come up with using only open strings! Then on Wednesday, she had her very first lesson with my friend and neighbor, Eliza Bryan. Amelie was very excited about this part. When we agreed that she could start violin, Amelie insisted on taking lessons from “Nan’s mom”. The first lesson went great–Eliza is wonderful and Amelie was thrilled.

Right after we brought her violin home.

During her first lesson. She learned how to shoot her bow like a rocket ship, do pinkie jumps, sing a song about the names of the strings (involving Eeks, Ants, Dirt, and Ground), pluck the strings, and lots of other fun tricks.

She is in heaven! I know the novelty will wear off eventually, but I’m enjoying if for now. It’s so sweet to see and watch her play!

This 4th of July was pretty great! We woke everyone up and headed out around 5:30 that morning so that we could drop the kids off with my friend Harmony who so graciously offered to tend them for us that morning. From Harmony’s, Bryce and I drove over to the Freedom Run race in Provo. It was a beautiful morning and the race was early enough that we managed to precede the heat that hit later in the day. Bryce, Brad, Brock and I ran the 10k race (a little over 6.2 miles) and Mark and Brenda did the 5k race. It was so fun to participate as a family! And I finished! I truly never thought I would be able to say that I could run over 6 miles, but I did.

Just after I crossed the finish line. Brock and Brad finished a while earlier, but Brock was sweet enough to run back up the race course to meet up with me and Bryce and then run the last bit of the race with us. It was a great morale booster and I so appreciate his support!

My sweetheart ran the whole race with me, even though he could have gone much faster. It was wonderful having him beside me the whole time, encouraging me and keeping me going. Thank you, Bryce!

Those crazy brothers are going to run a half marathon tomorrow. I will be happily watching from the finish line.

After the race, we headed over to the big parade. Amelie and Calder got to sit with Grandma and Grandpa Haymond the whole time and were in heaven!

There were lots of exciting floats and balloons and bands!

This guy did pretty well considering we had to wake him up so early!

All the excitement and the lack of sleep caught up to him as soon as we got in the car.

All in all, it was a pretty great day! To top it all off, it rained and rained the next day. A blessing indeed considering the insane fire season we’ve been having here.