Fall.......Our Favorite Season!

Family picture at the Pumpkin Patch

Abbie enjoying playing with 3 pumpkins that were somebody else's! She enjoyed putting them in her stroller and pushing them around, thankfully the people either didn't notice or were kind enough not to care.

"Sniffing" the pumpkins! Mike must have taught her this! haha

On our front porch, Abbie was "giving our pumpkin love". She loves to "pet" it.

Baby James Asher Monsarrat at 31 weeks of life! So where's he going to go for the next 9 weeks or so? Many days I feel like i'm literally going to pop already!

Well, the Monsarrats are re-entering the world after 7 full days of a fever virus that's kept us pretty much quarantined ( i can't spell that word) at home. Mike started out with it last sunday and then abbie got it monday then mommy and baby asher came down with it wednesday. Abbie has bounced back best thankfully, Mike's close to be well, and mommy and asher are bringing up the tail end. We prayed and prayed Asher and I wouldn't get it and God took good care of us in that my fever didn't get near has high as Mike and Abbie's.
On a more exciting front, we are loving the cool mornings and evenings that the fall has brought. We went to a farm 5 minutes from our house, Priddy's Farm, to see all the pumpkins and take pictures last weekend. Abbie wasn't really up for staged pictures but she loved having free reign to run around and "smell" the pumpkins! That's right, that's what she's doing in that picture!
We've enjoyed playing outside every day now that's it's cooled down. If you say outside, Abbie runs straight to the back door squealing "ouside"! She's got a few toys to ride and push around and then Nana and Papa bought her a swingset for an early Christmas present that we hope to get up next weekend. We won't get to play on it long before it's cold but even a few weeks of her getting to swing and slide will be worth getting it up for.
Our church, that we joined a few months ago and are LOVING getting connected into, is having a harvest festival next sunday and Abbie's dressing up as a frog. I'll definitely be posting pictures of that later on.
We have just 8 1/2 weeks left at the most before Asher's arrival! Abbie can say Asher and when you ask her about him she runs up to my belly and pats it or rubs it. She has been fascinated by her own belly button for awhile now and the rare instances when she sees mine, which is almost inverted to an "outie" now, she points and wants to touch it and i try to use those moments to "prepare" her by saying "it's baby Asher". Her world is going to be ROCKED come Christmas!

Countdown to Moose's Arrival

We've visited our close friends, the Shows, 2x this summer. Abbie fits right in with their 4 kiddos! Never a dull moment in that house!

Fun at the lake in Alabama with my dad's side of the family. Abbie loved playing in a float in the water and the constant action of all her 3rd cousins having fun in the water.

Fun at the beach with Aunt Amy and her cousin, Maggie.

Pool time with Daddy! Abbie would relax back in the float and enjoy the ride of someone pulling/pushing her around the pool

Cake we made to surprise Mike's family about Moose's sex. We made an "it's a girl" cake when we told them Abbie's sex so we had to continue that tradition.

Family picture on the beach in July

"After" Abbie's 1st haircut (sorry the pictures are reversed!)

"Before" Abbie's 1st haircut. We had to resort to her sitting in my lap in the chair and she went through 3 dum dums in 5 minutes, sharing them with Mommy of course!

18 month celebration with Mommy and Daddy! Mike now thinks we'll have to celebrate every 1/2 birthday! We won't go that far! We made do by reusing her 1st bday candle

Moose and Mommy at 25 weeks

Yes, I'm with you that it's been way too long since I last posted. I must admit, blogging just isn't a priority for me, but that's apparent. Anyways, God is blessing us with an addition to our family and we are so excited it's a BOY! He remains nameless at the moment except for the nickname "moose" that mr. bill, mike's dad, gave him from the time we announced to Mike's family that we were expecting. He was totally convinced we were having a boy long before the evidence was seen on the ultrasound. The pastor at our church recently prayed for little moose when we announced to the church this praise in our lives one wednesday night at prayer meeting. I'll never forget what he prayed "God, You've already called him by name...." and it was then that God laid it on my heart that He's already named this little boy and we are called to pray fervently for Him to reveal the name He's called him by to us and then obediently give him that name. So that's where we are at in the process... praying for God's guidance in naming "moose". We're pretty sure that's not the name He's called him by! haha!
So here's some pictures of our summer and of moose as we're growing VERY fast!
Abbie now puts her hand on my belly when I ask her where her brother is! So sweet! She's fascinated with her belly button and enjoys looking for everyone else's too! I had to put a stop to her pulling up people's shirts to find their "buttons" very quickly!

Fun with Nana and Papa

In my parent's front yard, we had great weather most of the week.

Playing in this swing is where we spent every evening

3 generations on Mother's Day. I'm so thankful to have my Mom in our lives!

Abbie's initial reaction to the sandbox! She got used to it finally and would laugh as we buried her feet in the sand

Chasing my parent's cat, Polly. Her favorite game of the week and motivation for walking!

Walking on my parents deck our last night there. She would reach out toward Mike when she was still far from him hoping he would reach out and hold her so she didn't have to walk any farther!

Daddy and Abbie on Mother's Day

Papa, Nana, and Abbie on Mother's Day

Our vacation to visit Nana Rose and Papa Ray began with a Friday night of Secret Church at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, which was awesome as usual by the way! David Platt truly knows how to bring the Word of God and is annointed each time he preaches, even for the 4+ hours of preaching that Secret Church entails! Nana and Papa babysat Abbie and she spent the night with them in their hotel room, I missed her! My first night away from her all night, a hard night for Momma!
On Saturday we visited family in Alabama before heading to Atlanta for the week. Abbie, Nana, and Papa truly soaked up every single waking moment together! My mom said it was the best Mother's Day present she could ever have. Abbie took her 1st steps the night we got to Atlanta, my dad saw it first, as she was delightfully chasing after my parent's 3 cats. She LOVED them! She loved to grab their tails and then when they would move their tails she'd giggle so hard. She crawled and walked trying to "chase" after them and never gave up on that game the entire week. I got to see some of my friends from home, which was nice, and we had a great time just relaxing and hanging out with family and friends.

A Much Needed Wake up Call to Reality!

kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com
Please read this blog every few weeks and you'll understand why i'm highly recommending that you do! I just read it and as usual, never fails, it pierces DEEP into my heart regarding our Lord God, what life is TRULY about, and what reality is for SO many people in this world. I need this reminder frequently, daily that is. Today's post brought my heart to a point of pure awe and thankfulness and beyond that words just can't describe. We have SO much that we take for granted, what we would consider little things aren't little at all but great BIG things that our God has given us that we need to praise and thank Him for daily! Our safety, family, His mercies that are new each morning and abundant, and I could go on and on. It's a small world because turns out this girl is from Brentwood, TN where I lived close to Nashville for 10 years. She has an amazing God story that will leave you speechless! She is following hard after our God and I pray that I'm surrendered so that my Lord says the same of me and others also see it so that He gets the ultimate glory from my life on this earth! Get our your kleenex because many of her stories will bring you to tears. I pray God blesses and moves you like He does me every time I read this blog. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear what the Lord teaches you through her stories.

1 Year with Abigail Rose Monsarrat

Scene I walked into the eve of Abbie's birthday after Mike had decided to give her her 1st bite of chocolate syrup leftover from his ice cream sundae!

Her "private party" with Mommy and Daddy. The donut was specially chosen by Mommy who loves icing and sprinkles!


Homemade butterfly cake and icing made by Mommy and Daddy

Abbie and her youngest cousin, Hallie, trying to see who's tallest!

Family picture on Abbie's big day!

1st bite of cake!

Think she liked the icing best??!!

Abbie preferred watching the other kids pull the pinata ribbons than doing it herself! This is her oldest cousin Maggie taking a turn.

She thought wearing the pinata was MUCH more fun than pulling the ribbon!

I never dreamed that Abbie turning 1 year old would be so emotional for me! Of course it's a combo of happy, joyful, thankful, reminisent, and sad emotions. This first year of life with her as part of our family has flown by and God has enriched and blessed Mike and I's life beyond imagination and description through the gift of her. I frantically finished her baby book, or at least up to 1 year, the day before her party and it was amazing to look through the ridiculously large number of pictures taken of her, between us and my Dad, and see how drastically she's changed since the day we met her for the 1st time. God's faithfulness has truly poured out over her and us as a family since we found out July 11, 2008 that she was on her way!

Don't know if I ever shared that crazy story but I'll give you a quick synopsis. I'd been sick for a couple weeks and had some dehydration problems resulting in low blood pressure issues and started feeling really weak one morning as I was working. A co-worker took my blood pressure and it was really low so since I worked in a hospital at the time my boss took me to the ER to be checked. They started and IV of fluids and in that process at one point the doctor said to me "guess what you'll be doing in 9 months?!" I was shocked, beyond excited, and totally overwhelmed! God had taken care of Abbie and protected her through me being sick.

My pregnancy went well until about 34 weeks when I went into pre-term labor one day at work. Instead of heading home that afternoon, I headed up to the maternity floor! My labor continued to progress and the doctors finally told us they just couldn't stop it as the medicines they'd given me to stop it were only increasing the strength and frequency of my contractions! They stopped the medicine, we kept praying for a miracle that God would stop the labor, and we just waited to see if Abbie was going to make her debut! Once the medicines stopped, the impossible happened, my labor stopped! So the next morning they sent me home on bedrest for the next 3 weeks until it was safe for Abbie to come. Of course, ironically, I ended up being induced at the end! Abbie had a mind of her own from the very beginning but she was finally here in our arms safe and sound!

God faithfully took Abbie and I through labor and though small, she was totally healthy and vibrant with life! One scare we had when she was about 3 months old was that one night Mike was coming down the stairs of our old house and his foot missed a step and he sat right down on his bottom and Abbie began to roll out of his arms but he caught her at just the last minute by her feet! That was a night we'd both like to forget but God totally protected her and she was hurt at all! I stayed up with her all night that night to watch her and make sure she was ok. What a scare but God had protected her with His mighty hand! No more scares like that since then thankfully and we've had an amazing journey of life with Abbie as parents where God's shown us in so many ways how He loves us through this opportunity of being her parents. Daily He reminds me of His patience with me, childlike faith that He desires from us, and that in my own power I can't be the mom He desires me to be to point Abbie toward Him but that He must do that job through me in His strength, not mine.

Mike, Abbie, and I celebrated her birthday February 25th, with a personal iced, sprinkle donut with a "1" candle for her and singing Happy Birthday to her to practice for her party on Saturday the 27th. Abbie LOVED being sung to and tore into that donut after warming up to it for just a minute! Saturday she loved her big party too with family and friends. She didn't seemed overwhelmed by all the people at all. Mike and I made a homemade butterfly cake to go along with the garden party theme. She loved being sung Happy Birthday to, once again, and enjoyed the icing of her little cake. The kids all seemed to have fun and the weather was nice so we got to go outside for the cupcake pinata game. Abbie wasn't amused at all about pulling the first ribbon from the pinata with Daddy's help but seemed to like watching all the other kids do it and then loved when Daddy put the empty pinata on her head at the end! We are so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and friends to celebrate Abbie's 1st year of life!

Happy Valentine's Day

Not sure what to think of this crazy Valentine's boa!

Much happier with the lion wearing the boa!

Abbie is sporting 2 items from a special Valentine's care package she received from her Nana Rose and Papa Ray! I put the boa on the couch for her to watch from afar a day or so after we got it and she'd just stare at it. Then I put it on the floor where she plays and she'd reach out slowly and touch it and then pull her hand back and crawl away. Letting her warm up to that crazy looking and feeling thing! So here's the final product of her "wearing" the boa to pose for a special picture. This blog is dedicated to Nana and Papa! I tried to wrap it around her neck but she just wouldn't go for that! Oh well, it turned out cute anyways! She's definitely our little Valentine and gift from God above!

Let It Snow!

Abbie helping Mommy fold laundry one day, she LOVED pulling it off the couch before I could get to it! Big helper! haha!

Watching the snow start to fall out the window at the end of January.

Her reaction to the snow was to just kick her right foot in it, stare at it, and then not long before she realized her bottom was freezing and cried!

Mommy and Abbie with the "snow family" we created in today's snow.

Daddy and Abbie

The past 2 weeks Abbie has had the 2nd and 3rd snows of her lifetime! Feels like we are back in Nashville, because it's rare that it snows in Memphis! We've welcomed it though, especially because it means Daddy is off work! We are just a little more than 2 weeks away from Abbie's 1st Birthday! Can't believe it! We plan on spending Valentine's Eve together as a family and eating a yummy homemade dinner at home! I think that will be Mike and I's Valentine tradition. His culinary creations are better than any we can get at a restaurant! Last Valentine's Day we were waiting on our little Fusser! Time has flown and God is SO GOOD! He's blessed our family more than we could ever ask or imagine! Daily as I walk the road of being Abbie's mommy, God teaches me something new about how much He loves me, how patient He is with me, and how much He cares for me. It's so humbling for sure!