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!