It was that time of year again...

time for trips to the farm.

time for hay rides.

hay mazes (that cole mastered in seconds)...

and taking in the sights.

time for adoring daddy...

posing with daddy...

and taking train rides,

that go round and round...

time for an abundance of corn...

(...and blogger not letting me delete duplicate photos)

time for pumpkin finding...

and pumpkin posing.

and full out pumpkin photo shoots.

time for perfect fall colors.

time to scour the patch for the perfect pumpkin.

no matter how long the search.

and feeling the satisfaction of finding the perfect one.

that makes the perfect seat.

or jungle gym.

time for cole to meet yet another random girl to take pictures with.

time for scaling walls.

and being brave.

while trusting daddy.

again and again.

time for playing around,

and helping dad shoulder the load.

It's time for fall and we are loving it!

ain't no thing but a chicken wing

this is ali.

this is ali's new favorite movie.

this is ali's new favorite food.

this is ali savoring every bite of her new favorite food.

and this is ali's very proud daddy.

this is ali winning daddy over on a whole new level.

sealing bliss & people we miss.

the best of reasons for a road trip presented itself a few weekends ago!

one of my requirements upon moving was that Justin bring me back when Jimmy and Jen were sealed. Luckily for me going to this blessed event for our besties was high on his priority list as well.

even if justin and jimmy weren't able to get a mandate in...

they have an AMAZING story and we felt lucky to be there for their day of Eternal togetherness.

yeah, I cried. but that was coupled with a grin from ear to ear. we couldn't be happier for them.

we also couldn't have been happier to be back in St. George!

we had three nights of sleepover awesomeness at the Woods house. that meant quality time with more friends we love, a late night jewelry run with Kim, yummy food, and 5 awesome boys who I am equally obsessed with. we kept them up for some late nights, after all I had to get every ounce of social event possible in!

Oh how I had missed all of our dear friends. It worked out that we were able to see many of those we go thru daily withdrawal over. I wish we could have had weeks to get all the hang out time in with everyone we wanted to see...oh wait that would be a lot like living there again...which I am totally up for. Thanks to everyone who came to see us, let us come see them, or donated their houses for visiting purposes. Poor Emily, we probably kept you up way past your bed time...but it was worth it in my book (and ali's)!

it was just further proof that St. George is still home to us.

and the cherry on top?

It just happened to be the week of the primary program!!!!! Yay!

due to a bug going around I was thrown right into the action...and I loved every second of it. and yes, I cried there too. I miss all those kids like crazy. I was serving as the primary president when we left and was so happy that I got to see all that practicing for the year pay off. oh how I miss their tender spirits and hilarious comments.

oh it was a fabulous weekend...anyone else want to give us a reason to come back there? It would be an easy sell.

our kid broke

cole came in the house a little over 3 weeks ago screaming that he felt like he was "going to die" and holding his arm. oh dear. He fell at the neighbors house off their slide and must have landed weird on it. He calmed down and we watched him carefully the next few days. He no longer complained but he also wouldn't put his arm totally straight. He was playing and even writing with it, but it just all looked a bit awkward so we took him in. He thought the X-rays were awesome and the Doctor let him see the pictures of his bones. The X ray showed no break so we thought we were good to go...until the radiologist who specializes in pediatrics called the dr. up and said they thought there was a significant enough amount of swelling that could actually be hiding a fracture so they wanted it splinted for a week.

cole was a champ through all of this until they got the HUGE splint on...then he started to cry "mom, this thing looks so stupid! The kids at school are going to think I look dumb!" WHAT! my kinder-gardener cares what it looks like more than the fact that his arm may actually be broken? poor kid.

so after a week they re-x-rayed, still found no break, but decided due to where he said it hurt it was a fracture of the radial head (elbow) which was being masked in the x-rays by his growth plate.

so after all that we left the doctor with this...

which he was TOTALLY fine with. Apparently casts look WAY more cool that splints. He didn't care at all, as long as he got blue and his friends could write on it. I think his teacher even helped him feel cool with the splint on account of the new nick name she gave him..."muscles".

daddy adorned him with BYU symbols as soon as he got his hands on a cool enough marker. and watching kinder-gardeners sign this thing was hilarious. He even got to have some of his St. George buddies sign it when we headed down for a sealing last week.

he looks really broken up about it huh?

well as of Tues it is off. it was only a two week deal. and he was crazy brave when they pulled out the saw to get it off, even when they nicked him he assured the nurse "It's ok, it's only bleeding a tiny bit". if he is using it normally by the end of the week, then he is good to go...here's hoping!

Now if I could just get him back to writing with his right hand...

A Very Fairy Affair

before we left St. George we had one last order of business.

we couldn't very well move without allowing ali the chance to celebrate her entrance into her 3rd year of life with her gal pals.

so a few pixie pals had these show up on their doorsteps...

with an invite to attend a

Very Fairy Affair

dressed to the nine's they arrived in style to celebrate with al.

(and don't worry the mom's were smiling just as big as mila due to the fact that this gathering meant one more bonding session for them as well.)

the attendees were greeted by these...

sitting on this...

(believe me I wanted to do more, but with the boxes piling high and check lists being compiled, it was a miracle we got a party in at all!)

as you know, every fairy needs a wand...and a bejeweled wand at that.

so the fairies got to work!

constructing your perfect wand is serious business.

it takes lot's of help from senior fairies

tons of jewels

and lot's of concentration.

and after all of that concentration fairies are bound to need some nourishment.

(usually I go all out and make the kiddos cakes...ok I have grand designs and then becca, jen or justin save me...but mid move there was no way that was happening, so we cashed in on the cake we purchased from Amy at the YW fundraiser...a few picture ideas and presto she came up with this! SHE IS AMAZING and it even held up in the freezer for a few weeks after the original party plans were cancelled due to some serious food regurgitation curtousy of the birthday girl.)

now...

fairies are very good at granting wishes...

but equally as good at making them.

thanks go out to all our little fairy friends and their fairy-godmothers for making all of her birthday wishes come true.

special K.

it came...the day I have been preparing myself for.

my baby started kindergarten.

He was so ready, I was not.

but then I saw this face this morning and couldn't help but be excited for him.

we had already gone to meet the teacher night, so he was excited about his teacher. (He told justin that she was pretty and had pretty hair, what else could you possibly want from a kindergarten teacher?)

then we got to the mad house that was the school this morning...good thing I left my house so early...sheesh it was a zoo! full of crying parents. which is why his initial face looked like this...

don't worry it quickly changed to this mr. confident look.

I was able to hold back tears and only get a bit misty as he rounded the corner into the classroom. I was proud of myself.

and proud of my incredible son who walked in like a champ.

what a stud.

now I am counting down the minutes until I get to pick him up....love that kid.

Boise Shmoysie

we have moved.

I have put off writing this post for as long as possible, but alas I have other things to blog about and so in an effort to keep this in a semi chronological order the time has come to bite the bullet and come to grips with the fact that we have moved. moved to Boise, Idaho.

I will be honest cows and poo were what first popped into my head when visualizing our new home. turns out it looks a bit more like this...

Justin was promoted to the Boise airport. he has MUCH better hours. We now live in a house with a garage and gorgeous backyard. our neighbors had us moved in in about an hour and then fed us at the block party. that was my attempt at being positive...

because, I miss St. George like CRAZY!

as usual the Enterprise move was quick and crazy. 2 weeks in total from finding out to moving in. during which we managed to squeeze in ali's birthday party, a final in person ASL class (we will continue them online), Justins trip to San Diego with the young men, a jewelry party hosted by myself for my friend, a goodbye party, a million play dates, a flu bug, packing a house and cleaning it, a trip to Boise to find a house, and I am sure I have left something out. It was a insane.

It would have been absolutely impossible to move with out the help of our amazing friends. So many helped us clean, pack, watched our kids, seriously it was humbling to have so many come through for us. The Dutro's deserve a special shout out, they were there from sun up to sun down on both moving days. They even provided food for all those who helped us move. It would be one long post if I listed all those who helped and I am afraid I would mess up and forget someone, so I will just say that we were completely spoiled. like beyond words spoiled.

Katie heard about us moving and immediately got to party planning...thank goodness, I needed a good distraction!!! how cute is this invite?

a bash complete with yummy food (potato bar in honor of Idaho), good friends, and crazy kids all over. They even gave us the most tender scrapbook. They had the kids in the ward fill out pages in it on the sly during primary and then our friends all wrote notes to us. It even had a 40 things we love about the Maddux family page. I was a gooey mess one page in, so you can imagine how the tears were flowing by the end.

I can't go too deep into how much I love these women (and a few not pictured) or I will start to bawl. So I will just say that some of my favorite people in this world are back in St. George. Women that I admire, adore spending my time with, and just plain love. kindred spirits. I will know you girls forever.

if nothing else we will be reunited when these two are teammates at BYU.

Justin and I both consider St. George to be home for us. and as such we will be visiting our family often. In many ways I feel like not even trying to be this close to people again because after all can you really strike gold twice? Cause pure gold is what these people are. (as Justin pointed out I have been blessed with wonderful friends my whole life so I guess there is hope.) I am sure I am way too social to actually give up on a social life, but still, I will be in mourning for a while. I said in church (when the Bishopric so cruelly made me bear my testimony our last Sunday there) that I had heard the quote "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." So I am going to try and smile, with only a few tears mixed in because I am so very happy it happened.