Star of the Week

Daxton had the privilege of being star of the week last week. We were very excited when we found out. Then, we forgot. Monday morning came and I'm rushing Daxton out the door, and I realize we forgot to get his poster ready. He did a great job of not having a meltdown. I told him we'd do it that night. But, about 1 hour later I got a call from the nurse saying Daxton has a fever of 102 and he has to come home. I'm trying not to feel like a horrible mother because I sent my kid to school with a fever, and didn't even know it.
He came home and this is what our Star of the Week looked like for the next 7 hours:
He fell asleep watching an Avatar movie in my bed, and somehow ended up on my floor. I felt so bad for him. That night we got his poster started before dinner. When we sat down to dinner I noticed that his eyes were looking a little red and puffy. As time went on they got worse. Daxton has never been officially diagnosed with Asthma, but I think he has a mild case of it. He started telling us he was having a hard time breathing. Then he was getting so upset he said, "I think I'm going to die." We jumped into action and gave him some Claritin for an allergic reaction, and some Albuterol to help him breathe. We told him to calm down and we'd see if the reaction would calm down. When we explained to him that we might have to take him to the hospital he had a lot of questions about if they were going to give him shots and would it hurt, and so forth. The reaction calmed, and so did he. We called a friend (Thank You Friend) to help Brandon give him a Priesthood blessing. We put him to bed with lots of apprehension, fearing he would stop breathing in the night. We checked on him several times. His eyes were still red and puffy, and his breathing slightly labored, but he seemed alright. The poor guy had to miss school the next day as well. Now he was turning into "Star for a couple days". He handled it like a champ though.
On Wednesday I felt he was well enough to go to school, so with his poster in hand I sent him off. He said the lunch lady made him go to the nurse, but she took his temperature and said he was fine. Phew....
Finally, he got to do such fun things as eat lunch with Mr. Walters, the principal, and have nice notes written about him by his class. The week was a great success, after Tuesday that is.

His poster said, I heart: Drawing, Reading, Soccer, Avatar, Swimming, My Family, My Room, and My Puppets.

Extra Extra!! Big Brother Changes Diaper!

Daxton loves to carry Tabitha around the house. I don't allow him to carry her up or down the stairs, or over the hardwood floor. But other than that, he's got free reign.
So, last week I was sitting here at my computer and he brings her on in to me. He says, "Mom, Tabitha needs her diaper changed." "Great," I said. "You'll learn how to do it."

Oodles of giggles came out of him, and she kept kicking him in the head, but he learned how. I couldn't resist the pictures... since this proves how much he adores her. He usually does all sorts of dramatic gagging when I even ask him to throw away a dirty diaper for me. Imagine my surprise when he willingly changed her diaper... and hugged her afterward.

The 4th in Utah

If you've ever spent the 4th of July in Utah then you know that it doesn't even compare to the 4th in Arizona.
I grew up on Bettina Lane in Sandy. One of my greatest memories as a child is attending the street party on the 4th of July. Everyone would roll their grills up to the top of the street. We'd eat (I specifically remember caramel rice krispie treats) and watch the dad's set off the fireworks that they'd driven to Wyoming to buy.
There wasn't any driving to a huge park somewhere to fight traffic and try to get a good view of the fireworks. And when you can't get through traffic, you just pull off to the side of the road to watch.
I LOVE spending the 4th in Utah. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity this year. We returned from Italy on the 1st, did laundry on the 2nd, and flew to Utah on the morning of the 3rd. It was a quick turn-around, but there was a deadline to meet.
My sister and her husband very generously offered us a place to stay. We had a wonderful time at their cute house. Here's some of the happenings:

4th of July breakfast in the backyard jungle (give them a break... they were in Italy for two weeks). We had Creme Brulee French Toast and were joined by some of Brandon's brothers and my brother Cole. From L to R: Steve, Brandon, Grady, Daxton, Dayton, Kayson, and Austin.



Watching Fireworks...

It seemed to me that the Cole, Brandon, and Steve were really excited to be the one's in charge of the fire. They were like little boys at a fireworks stand.


Grady wanted to set them all off at once. When we told him no, he picked out a few of the biggest ones for the finale.

Grady with his finale pack.

We took advantage of the fire pit and roasted marshmallows over the fire. Of course, we used a duraflame log, so they couldn't eat those marshmallows. That probably defeats the purpose, but we just microwaved our smores... and they were still really yummy.

We hung out with Chris and Dallen. The boys went swimming in their little pool. Dallen got to get re-aquainted with Tabs.


My Aunt Jen came down to Chris's to visit with us and she snapped this picture of Tabitha wearing her swimsuit in a very non-tradition, non-ladylike kind of way:


I took the boys to play with Dawson and Haydon:

Chris took my boys one day, so Jessie and Tabitha and I headed up to Park City to do some major damage at the outlets (we were very disappointed though). We had to go to our favorite Deer Valley restaurant first at the Stein Eriksen Lodge. This is a view from the lodge that was just stunning. I love the ski resorts in the spring and summer WAY more than the winter.

Sweet, Sensitive Boy

Today was Daxton's last day of Kindergarten. He had a program this morning that I attended with Tabitha and Nana. It was a cute half hour, but the real treat came afterward. I told Daxton to go tell Mrs. Smoot goodbye since she wasn't going to be his teacher anymore. We went to her and she was teary-eyed from saying goodbye to her kindergarteners. She told me that she had a story to tell me about Daxton. She said that last week she was reading this poem to the class (it's out of the yearbooks they made):

I'm glad I was your teacher
I've come to Love you so.
I can't believe the end is here.
I hate to see you go.

Remember all the fun we had
in all the things we did
But most of all remember...
You're a Very Special Kid!

She said Daxton raised his hand in the middle of reading the poem and said, "Mrs. Smoot, that kind of makes me sad." He started to cry, and she said she started to cry with him. She told him it makes her kind of sad too.

He's told me several times already today that he will miss her. How wonderful to have such great teachers who let themselves get involved with their students and love our kids. We were so blessed to have her as his teacher.