Abbie's 1st Christmas!

Getting the hang of standing/walking with the Lion's help, Abbie's favorite gift from Nana Rose and Papa Ray!

A special "baby" Christmas tree at Abbie's great aunt Kay's house and the perfect sized sleigh for Abbie to ride around the house in!

Abbie loved this little Santa that was "cutting" candy canes, great entertainment to keep her in 1 place for at least 2 minutes!

Reindeer fun with Nana Rose and Papa Ray Christmas Eve

Celebrating Christmas with Abbie's cousin's Maggie and Lily!


Christmas is SUCH a special time of year as we celebrate our Savior's birth and in addition to this celebration, we got to celebrate Abbie's 1st Christmas too! We celebrated with Mike's family Monday night, the week of Christmas, with a big delicious dinner and presents. We spent the holiday with my family in Alabama and Atlanta. We got to my aunt Kay's house late Wednesday night and had a blast with my big family Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We headed to Atl with my parents Christmas day and had lunch with some close family friends and then Christmas once again with my parents at their house that afternoon! Abbie loved all the toys but was totally indifferent to the paper, bows, and boxes. I thought it was supposed to be the opposite? Leave it to our little one to break the mold! Abbie was sick the whole time we were out of town and I took her to the doctor yesterday morning asap to find out she has double ear infections!! Not fun! So we've been hanging in at home the past 2 days since it's in the 20's and 30's out, not ideal weather when double ear infections have come to visit! We had a wonderfully blessed Christmas with family!

Happy Thanksgiving

Aunt Amy and Abbie

Breakfast with my stuffed turkey and "i'm stuffed!" bib!

Daddy bonding with a big, fat turkey leg!

The struggles of crawling! This is as far as Abbie gets before giving up and falling onto her tummy to roll wherever she pleases!

Praise God for the immense blessings He's given us! They are beyond counting for sure! We had a great Thanksgiving together with Mike's family here in Memphis and in Oxford, Mississippi to see his extended family. Abbie thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and had cran-applesauce to welcome the holiday, though her Daddy preferred she have turkey to celebrate! Days of eating turkey and other meat will come soon enough, for now I prefer she remains a vegetarian! She doesn't oppose it either.

We're Back.............

Abbie enjoyed shimmying a tree with Daddy while hiking in Mississippi! I was standing at the bottom of the tree hollering "mike, mike, mike, mike" and reaching upward to catch Abbie if she fell out of the harness she was riding on his back in! My heart was racing to say the least! She loved every minute of the adventure!


SOLD! Praise the Lord! Our last family picture at Abbie's first house.


We found the elephants...the perfect family picture spot!


Abbie was mesmerized by the zoo map on her 1st trip to the zoo in St. Loius. She insisted we go find the elephants after she found them on the map!


Abbie's 1st St. Louis Cardinals Game! She cheered them to victory, well actually just distracted several of the fans around us!

So I've gotten ALOT of grief from a few folks for my taking a LONG hiatus from blogging....it hasn't been purposeful at all but just busyness, but I know that really no excuse! Since June alot's been going on in the Monsarrat household and life. To begin, after 9 months on the market, our house finally sold by a miracle from God above in this struggling housing market. We closed on it and moved out at the end of August. We moved in with Mike's parents as as of then didn't yet have a new house or timeline of when we'd have our own place again. God lead us to just the right house He had in store for us, not too far from our old house, and we closed on it the end of September. In the meantime, I started a new job where I could work only 2 days a week to stay home more with Abbie! God soon brought us the gift of me going down to only 1 day a week of work, so that's where I'm at currently! It's the BEST and I highly recommend it to any Mommy out there that's interested! So we are in our new house now and almost settled, it's been a long process. It definitely feels like home to us and all the boxes are unpacked, but not everything has a spot yet. That will come...what's the rush??
Our 3rd niece, Hallie Claire, was born in September, to add to the pile of granddaughters in the Monsarrat family! We're up to 4 now, 3 girls for Mike's brother and his wife, and then Abbie Rose. Lily, the 2 year old, has named all her baby dolls Abbie and she loves to get right up in Abbie's face and say her name repeatedly!! Abbie's used to it now since it's a weekly occurrence!
We've been on a few road trips, one of our favorite things to do. We went to French Camp, Mississippi at the end of October to enjoy the peace and quiet and small town feel with my parents, aunt and uncle, and my parents super close friends, gene and angie. It was a great time and so much fun for Fall. This past weekend we went to Birmingham to continue our tradition of going to Secret Church at the Church of Brook Hills, 2x a year. If you've never been, it's a must on the to do list for sure! If you want to learn more about it go to secretchurch.org to get the details. Once you go, you'll be hooked just like we are. My parents me us there to entertain Abbie for the evening while we were gone to Secret Church and Abbie had to work hard to keep them under control!
Abbie is 8 months now and sort of close to crawling but honestly would just prefer to roll to whatever destination she's preferring at the moment! She gets up on all fours then quickly falls back down on her tummy without any effort to begin to crawl. Time's flown these past 8 months and her growing up is definitely a bittersweet thing!
It's good to be back and I won't make any promises but hope to be seeing you much more often than my record the past 4 months!

Summer Fun

My first swimsuit! Flowers and seahorses and hot pink of course!

My big cousin, Maggie, and me.

Bumbo time, it was either blue or pink at the store so we chose blue because it's more neutral for babies to come!

Aunt Amy looked gorgeous!

Mommy and me when I was dedicated at church. I managed not to poop or spit up on my pretty dress borrowed from my cousins, Maggie and Lily.

So I've been out of pocket blogging and facebook wise these days and the culprit is WORK! Yes, I'm back to work since the end of May but praise God it's only part-time, 3 days a week, instead of full time as before little Abbie came along. I get my dose of Abbie Rose on Tuesdays and Thursdays between the days of work, which is a super treat! Abbie's changed a ton in the last month and has her 4 month check up this Tuesday. We're hoping she's finally gained enough weight to get out of the low percentiles, we'll see. She had her first trip to the pool at Mimi and B's last weekend and seemed indifferent to the water until it was naptime and she wasn't keen on it at all! She's getting better and better at sitting in her bumbo seat each day but still has to have close by company as she likes to cheat and just lean forward and teethe on the pommel! Her feet are her most recent discovery and boy are they exciting things! She's making more and more sweet coos and noises and Mike's doing his best to teach her to say Dada. Abbie switches between sucking her thumb and her 2middle fingers, with paci tiding her over every once in awhile when she's hungry or super sleepy. Every day with her is a true joy and it's still surreal sometimes that God's given us little Abbie.
Memorial Day weekend Abbie was dedicated at church and cried through the whole dedication prayer the pastor ended it with! He'd talk louder and she'd cry louder! We like to think she was making her own prayer known!
Mike's sister, Amy, got married to Taylor May 30th. We were both in the wedding so my Mom and Dad gladly kept Abbie for us, she's not the most courteous guest at weddings yet!

On The Road Again!!!

The new Mr. and Mrs. Borgmeyer, Han and Josh smiled ear to ear the whole time!

Three Generations....it was a great first Mother's Day and I anticipate many more to come!

Tulips and irises from Mike and Abbie for Mother's Day.

Tummy Time on Mommy's leg to make a stinky thing more tolerable! Other ways to make it "fun" are to sing to her or pat her bottom to buy us a little time on her tummy!

Strawberry hat from my good friend Angie from PT school. I took about 6 pix of Abbie in it but I will spare you of the photo shoot. I just couldn't contain myself with the camera! But who could with such a cute, sweet subject for pix!

We've had a busy month of WEDDINGS and there's one more super special one to come, my sister-in-law, Amy and her fiance, Taylor, will be tying the knot May 30 to round out our crazy month of weddings. We took a road trip to St. Louis May 16 for a super close college friend of mine's wedding, Hannah. Mom and Dad were the official babysitters for Abbie Rose since she can't control all her coos and squeals of delight these days to sit through a ceremony. We celebrated my first Mother's Day there with delicious crepes from City Cafe and Coffeehouse and a LONG ride home back to Memphis! Mike surprised me with 2 vases of tulips and irises for Mother's Day, a mistake of ProFlowers but I enjoyed getting 2 to enjoy. This past weekend we headed to Atlanta to see Nana Rose and Papa Ray and go to my 2nd cousin's, Derrik's, wedding in Alabama. I must say we've almost mastered traveling with an infant....you don't stop unless she's awake and hungry! You hold it and wait for drinks/snacks til it's time for her to eat so that 6 hour trips don't end up being 9 hours! I know all you out there with infants know what I'm talking about.
Please be praying for me as I go back to work next week! I will be working 3 days a week and Mike's mom and sister will be keeping Abbie. I'm going to miss being at home with her everyday so much and can't wait til God brings those days back to me hopefully SOON!

2 Months Old and All Smiles!!!

Mommy and Abbie Rose

Demonstrating some of her gymnastics moves, she LOVES lying on her back with free arms and legs!

It's been tough to catch her smiles on camera and video, but we got lucky this time.

The aftermath of her 1st shots...1 shot in each thigh with colorful bandaids and fussiness as the evidence.

The way we often find Abbie in the mornings or at the end of her naps! She's a mover and a shaker in her sleep!

Little Abbie Rose is 9 weeks old and time has absolutely FLOWN! At her 2 month check up she weighed in at a big 8 lbs 3 oz (10th percentile) and is 22.5 inches long (50th percentile). We are hoping and praying she weighs in on the more "heavyweight" side when we go for her "weigh in" in a couple weeks. She's changing so much everyday with new coos, squeals, and facial expressions. She's started smiling when she's got a full belly and mommy is playing with her making silly faces and when daddy gets home from work, one of her favorite times of the day! Her tolerance of "tummy time" expires quickly but she has her daily dose because mommy knows best, right?!The paci is her best friend once evening comes and she's "spent" for the day as "fussy time" embarks, several nights a week. Abbie went to her first birthday party today. It was her cousin Maggie's 4 year old princess party! Abbie slept through the cake and presents, but made it through the first half of fun watching all the kiddos do fun crafts on a rainy day.

Our Little Easter Bunny

Custom easter egg dyed and decorated by Daddy. It says "Sprout", one of his many nicknames for Abbie.

Proud grandparents written all over their faces!

My cousin, Alicia, had this great idea for a cute picture of Abbie.

Easter Family Picture (Abbie at her best, we hope this isn't setting a precedence for future family photos!)

Easter brought our first road trip adventure with little Abigail Rose! She did amazing to be only 6 1/2 weeks old! The trek to Atlanta went from the normal 6 1/2 hour trip to 9 hours! But we did have the treat of stopping in Birmingham to enjoy delicious pizza at California Pizza Kitchen, one of our favorites. We enjoyed Friday in Atlanta and then set out on another trek on Saturday to Alabama to visit family and friends and introduce Abbie to all of them. We had a great time at my Aunt Kay's house for Easter with all our family. Mike dyed easter eggs for the first time in his life and helped Aunt Kay make dressing from scratch. Abbie's dress was borrowed from her cousins, Maggie and Lily. What a perk to have girl cousins to share clothes with. Abbie found the first easter egg in the hunt with all her second and third cousins. It just happened to be the one her daddy dyed especially for her!

2 Years of Bliss

Pacy is my friend when I'm just beside myself with fussiness, though it takes up my whole face and it's a newborn pacy!

We've been working VERY hard on this BIG BELLY! I'm a whole 8.6 lbs as of today! Hooray!

Daddy's lap, one of Abbie's favorite spots

Sleepy baby!

Silly pose to show off his culinary work

March 31st Mike and I celebrated our 2 Year Anniversary! Time's flown and oh how life's changed! It's been numerous blessings beyond counting that God's given us. Nana Rose and Papa Ray babysat little Abbie Rose while we went to Bahama Breeze to celebrate caribbean style last weekend, and we continued our celebration cooking dinner together the eve of our anniversary this past week. Our menu included macadamia encrusted tilapia with mango papaya salsa, broccoli, and brownies and oatmeal cookie chocolate chip ice cream! Good stuff! We've almost perfected our tag team cooking skills and love that kind of quality time together. Though, these days I often find myself as a spectator, along with Abbie, watching Mike and his chef skills, which thankfully he's ok with.
Of course I also added some recent pictures of Abigail, just couldn't help myself!

Abbie Rose is 1 Month Old!

This froggy towel rescues me from miserable baths, it's my favorite moment of baths for sure!

Mommy and me

Definitely a fan of "boppy time"

I've mastered kicking my socks off as soon as Mommy puts them on

My HERO and me

It's been an exciting, life-changing month around the Monsarrat household since Abbie Rose arrived! I've honestly felt like a zombie a lot of the time as we're adjusting to life with a newborn! Some days when Mike gets home from work, I can't even think what I've been doing all day long it's such a blur! An amazing blur though, that's for sure. Some of my favorite moments have been quiet times in the day of talking to and singing songs to Abbie, watching Mike have Daddy time with her, and the more frequent and longer awake times for Abbie as she's looking around,cooing, and exploring her new world! Of course, we think she's a super star already and the sweetest thing in the world! It's still surreal and so humbling that God's blessed us immensely with this sweet baby girl!

Abigail Rose Monsarrat's Birthday!!!

Sleepy time after a LONG day's work!


Big blue eyes! We anticipate they will turn brown like ours before long.


Our 1st family picture a few moments after Abbie was born

What a roller coaster we've gotten on! The best one of our lives for sure! It all began last Wednesday, February 25, 2009. We arrived at Methodist Germantown Hospital at 6am, without much sleep for either of us the night before understandably with the excitement ahead. They started the pitocin drip at 7am and we arrived in labor land! By 10:30 I'd experienced enough of the pains that labor brings and hollered, literally, for the anesthesiologist. I could have hugged that woman after she finished giving me the epidural! They are definitely a gift from God above in my opinion. That labor pain is for the birds. I felt like a new woman and was all smiles after the nurse predicted Abbie's arrival by 2:30pm~! I started pushing about 1:30 and come 2:00 the nurse told me to hold on while she went to get the doctor! Hold on! Are you kidding me??!! At 2:08, we heard the miraculous, breathtaking sound of our baby girl's cry and saw her finally after many long months of waiting! It was indescribable and I couldn't stop crying. Mike videoed her when the doctor held her up for us to see her the first time, me holding her on my chest right away, and the intense rub down and check the nurse gave her to welcome her into this world!
These words are insufficient to describe the intense emotions and excitement of February 25, but I did my best. "God is good" is just one of many ways to sum it up!

Valentine's Day and 39 Weeks

Chef's Special for Valentine's Day
Jenn and Abbie Rose's Dessert of the Day (we did share with Mike!)
39 Weeks

For our last Valentine's Day as just us 2, we celebrated at home together just in case Abbie Rose decided to make her appearance. We cooked a scrumptious dinner of papaya salsa orange roughy and sweet potato surprise! It was a delicious caribbean style meal that hit the spot. I'd requested a TCBY ice cream cake for a dessert treat and it was wondrous also. Mike and I love cooking together, he's the chef and I'm his assistant because he's much better at it than me!
Abbie's made it to 39 weeks in my belly! It's been 5 weeks since her little trick of trying to come early. We just can't believe it's been that long, though it does feel like time's crept by and been an eternity since 34 weeks when she gave us a scare.
I had my weekly doctor's appointment last Thursday and the plan is to be induced Wednesday, February 25th if Abbie doesn't come before then. We are praying she will come before then because I, especially, prefer for her to come in her own and God's timing without medication to help her along on her journey. So in 4 days at the most, we'll be holding a precious baby girl in our arms who we've prayed for and anticipated for so long it seems!

38 Weeks and a False Wives Tale

I've made it through my first week of work post bedrest! I was so so sore getting back moving again and am just uncomfortable with Abbie's birth pending any moment now. A co-worker told me about an old wives tale of scrubbing your bath tub to speed up the onset of labor so i gave it a try one night this past week......and no such luck! maybe i didn't scrub hard enough but i got out of breath just squatting in the tub to clean it! Joys of pregnancy! I saw the doctor thursday and she said Abbie Rose is sitting super low! That's good news but yes, we are still waiting! She has a mind of her own! The plan at this point is to induce me on February 25th if Abbie doesn't come on her own before then. The doctor told me though she thinks she will come before then and we so hope she's right! Please pray for us to have patience in this time of such anticipation and excitement and for a safe entrance of little Abbie into this world!