We finally made it to Rochester, NY on June 20th. It was a beautiful sunny day! I immediately fell in love with our little house as I walked through it for the first time. And not to mention our neighborhood!  Swoon!

The missionaries showed up to help unload the large furniture pieces. By lunch time, our garage and home were packed with boxes!

I absolutely LOVE organizing new space!!! I must have switched the cupboards at least 5 times to find the best system!June 30th: Our festive Independence Day attire for church (Thank you for the adorable outfits, Janna!)

This is our neighbor, Jim. He is such a kind, soft spoken man. Bridgette adores their dog, Buster!

She takes good care of their yard too!

JULY

Fairport Independance Day Parade!

Bridgette with her baby doll in one of my dresses from my childhood. And those curls are all natural!

Augoo hanging out in the bouncer in the kitchen and being as cute as ever with that hair!

Bridgette got 3 goldfish!

August goes on his first bike ride!

Papa is exhausted and I take the children to a local fish hatchery to feed the fish. It must have been 100 degrees that day!

Love this image of Bridgette

Our local library has a great room for children to play computers, dress ups, puppets, and stencils.

She is the master nail technician! Yes, that is her Papa’s foot!!!

Bridgette and her baby dolls! She got August in on the action too!

Bridgette continues to crack us up!

 

B likes make up application. Ha ha ha!!!

  

And she LOVES hanging from anything!

Bridgette helps mama in the kitchen!  The flour spill unfolded while I ran upstairs to get August. We have so much fun in the kitchen together!

(She is always rubbing the surface of her lips with lotion, chapstick, and even flour. When she lays in bed at night, she rubs her lips or picks at them. She got a tube of lip smackers for Christmas!)

We bought a membership to the Strong National Museum of Play. We spend hours there each week just playing, and we love it!

August gets his picture taken in his blessing outfit. Finally. 🙂 This was somewhat postponed due to the move. Whoops!

August gets his second haircut!

August turns 5 months!

Mama takes the children to pick raspberries and apricots!

I believe she ate more raspberries than she picked.

We made raspberry apricot jam that afternoon.

AUGUST

B and A snuggle in Bridgette’s crib

August continues to just make us smile!

My sister, Morgan, visits for a month with her kids.  This is Cousin Kate.  She sure loves the babies and she and Bridgette quickly become best friends!

Nothing says Summer like popsicles and bathing suits! And we played in the water for a straight month!

Cousin Kate reads books to Bridgette and August. She was such a good buddy to Bridgette. We just loved having them here.

We visited the Joseph Smith. Sr. Farm and the Sacred Grove in Palmyra with the Moore cousins, Grandma Kaylyn, and Grandpa Shirl. Bridgette was learning about shadows at the time! Augoo was smiley as ever and loved to fly high in Papa’s hands!

We visited a local dairy for fresh ice cream.

Some pictures (mainly of August) to finish out the month of August…how apropos!

 

August turns 6 months!

Fishing for dreams!

                 My, how time flies! He’s a brief catch up from April to June.

APRIL:

Chasing dogs on our walks. Always.

She pretty much picks out her outfits these days.

Her fine motor skills are super impressive!

Of course, she now has to do what August gets to do: Sit in his swing, lay on his changing table, suck a binkie and asks over and over for me to carry her in a wrap or baby carrier.

Pausing for a moment during our walk, so baby doll can dance a gig.

August enjoying the bouncer!

MAY:

Saying good bye to our awesome family medicine doctor, Dr. Kastman, who helped with the delivery of Bridgette and August.

The weekend of May 18th, we drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Wisconsin and stayed the weekend in Door County.

They were having a “Door County Scotty Rally” so we knew Bridgette would love to see so many puppy dogs.

She was the star of this little event! Local newspaper photographers were snapping pictures of her, engaging with every puppy that crossed her path. Of course Soft Baby Doll got to pet the puppies too! She was in DOG HEAVEN!

It was a great time!

We spent time at a park, swinging and playing.

This little nugget loves slides!

It was a great weekend getaway with the family! We did stop at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, where the Packers play, on the way home. (I am not sure where those pictures are though.)

Baby Doll and Bridgette fly papa’s helicopter. She was crazy over this for weeks!

B gets a hair cut, since her bangs were always in her eyes. I later regretted it!

The ever present big sister in August’s face!

She was also obsessed with a book called Apple Pie, about a little puppy dog who tries to get the apple pie off the table so he can eat it.

So, B made some apple pie!

All of Bridgette’s baby dolls are well taken care of: baths, diaper changes, nursing and burping sessions, the whole enchilada!

Sneaking in a date night!

One of her finer hair moments

She loves her Radio Flyer and baby carrier

JUNE:

A couple of weeks before we left, I arranged a photo shoot with some of Bridgette’s best friends.

This pretty much sums up the shoot:

One of her closer friends, Emmeline.

And all the parents. Man, I miss our friends in Madison.

I had a little going away party for myself 2 days before we moved.

 

Every Thursday, for over a year and a half, we gathered for the BBB (Babies, Books and Brunch) to promote a love of reading with our babies. Whoever was hosting (we’d rotate) would provide a brunch for all. Each mom would take a turn reading a book to the group. We’d sing interactive songs too. Sometimes there would be 8 adults and over 18 children crammed in our little apartments, but it was one of the best days of the week! So fun!

One last dip in the pool before we move.

August’s Blessing day! He was a dream. The most calm I had ever seen him. He must have been surrounded by angels!

June 8th, we headed up to the Dells for the day.

We spent the morning hunting for Zinke gravesites and the afternoon at the Mount Olympus water park!

I hung out with August

while Rick chilled in the lazy river with Bridgette, for over an hour! She didn’t want to get it for any other water features.Around and around they went!

Graduation from Residency! HUZZAH!

Just hanging out with my little man, Augoo

MOVING DAY!

This is Daisy. She lived across the parking lot, in another apartment building. Her dear mother saved my life on many occasions during August’s colicky stage. She’d take bridgette for hours, so I could try to get a nap in, after being up all night. It still brings me to tears just thinking about her selfless nature and generosity! Her mama helped us clean the day we moved!

Rick did an amazing job (surprise surprise!) with loading our truck all day Monday. I don’t think I moved one box into that truck. He’s a machine that knows exactly how to puzzle everything in. It’s always impressive. I provided lots of cups of water and “Good job, Babe!” over and over.

A few close friends helped move the big pieces in that evening.

Saying good by to Rebecca, our post lady! She was the best! (An architect who studied at Harvard and now delivers mail to “keep in shape”.)

Saying goodbye to Dawn, our neighbor who lived across the hall. She took a few missionary discussions in our home, and brought us countless meals over the years and lots of clothing for the children. She was so sweet and wonderful!

   

And my dear visiting teachers who helped me clean my apartment the morning we left. They really were so great.

And a picture I took of myself a few moments after pulling out of our complex. Tears swelled in my eyes. I was so sad to leave such a wonderful place. So many wonderful memories!!!

And my amazing co-pilot, who used to live above us. She made the journey with us from Madison to Rochester, to help me with the children. She brought us cookies a few weeks after Brigdette was born, because she could hear her crying through the floor.  Her note said, “Congratulations on your new baby!” Bless her heart. I had never met her before that. We quickly became good friends and still keep in touch.

Stay tuned for a lot more pictures! I’ll try to post again in the next couple of days!