T H A N K y o u...

Kensington has had an amazing birthday celebration that has continued on for weeks, which has kept us quite busy with the thank you notes (again, we're only 1/3 of the way through and I am determined to get at least 15 out today if it kills me).

This little angel has so many beautiful outfits... and we can not wait for her to grown into them. With the amount of formula she's taking in, she should fit into all of her newborn clothes within 2 weeks, and her 0-3 months shortly after that (one would think that 0 months would be the same as newborn.... but it isn't).

In yesterday's, Today... Life Is Beautiful!, post you will see a picture of Kensington in a little teddy bear swing that she received from her Uncle Mark and Auntie Aggie, who have been spoiling her to death - and she loves it!

We're still looking for the creator of this beautiful afghan....

Speaking of afghans, Kensi has received another beautiful one made by Marilyn O. that came with the funniest card ever. "This blanket is for Kensi. To keep her warm and cozy in her stroller or car seat. She is allowed to chew on it, spit up on it and even spill things on it. When she wants it clean again, just pop it into the washer on gentle and put it in the dryer on low and it will be like new again." Spoken like a true grandmother :) Thanks Marilyn and Don.

And while on the subject of funny cards, these leopard print slippers were sent courtesy of Auntie Jeff in Ohio (soon to be Auntie Jeff in New Jersey... right?!?!?). The card read, "Dearest Kensington, Welcome to the world! You're a season and a half behind on Gossip Girls - We have some work to do. Here's to the latest Diva in training. Lots of Love, You're old auntie Jeff" Okay... so I may have changed the way he signed the card. Jeff - stop sucking up to Kensington. She's not going to take you in when it's time to enter the nursing home. You're own your own, buddy! You get a 'A-' on creativity.

Adam gets the Gold Star award for creativity and talent. Not only did he create an amazing Adoption Portfolio, but he hand stitched the pillow cases that we posted on our Wednesday, December 17, On again, Off again... post. In addition to that, he made Kensington four beautiful onesies (A deer, birdie, angel and "Kensington" set), which you can tell by the picture below, she fell in love with.

Happy Monday...

We have had a busy few days behind us. Kensington met many of her aunties: Diane, Janice, Kevin & Nathan, Alyssa, Kevin & Carmen (yes... the famous HTHAP creator and author) as well as her Nonna Gionvanni. She also had the opportunity to spend more time with her cousin Mason, aunt Aggie & uncle Mark.

In the pictures it may seem like we span weeks, due to the different outfits Kensington is in… but it’s just not so. On Saturday alone, she went through 5 outfits. Yes.. count them. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. (okay... I have to stop spending so much time watching Baby Einstein). Kensi has this ongoing habit of tinkling every time we start to change her diaper. On a few occasions, she’ll squirm while peeing, which causes it to go everywhere, thus needing a wardrobe change. Just a change, not a malfunction.

We were finally able to take down all of the Christmas decorations and pack them back up in the attic. We've also completed about 1/3 of our thank you notes... so it's my goal to get another third of them done this week and to design her birth announcements. Again... it's a goal. :)

More to come on the adventures of Kensington Grace tomorrow…

Diane showing off Kensington's cow girl outfit from Mark and Aggie, along with the hat that Chris ended up going to 5 different Gymboree stores, in three states, to find.

Kevin and Nathan... upset that someone in the house weighs less than them.

We have a dilemma! Do you see the BEAUTIFUL pink and white afghan below? If you know the artisan who made this, please call or email us. Someone spent hours making this and brought it to our open house/reception in December without a tag on it. The person actually handed this to Chris and said, "I didn't put a tag on it", so we walked it to the nursery and placed it in her crib. He remembers the action... but for the life of him can not remember who handed it to him. Kensington love this and we'd like to thank you for it!

Carmen displaying the rough draft of Kensington's one-of-a-kind How To Hug A Porcupine artpiece that will go in her nursery, Kensi sleeping, Kevin and Alyssa.

Paul and Mason along with Janice and Kensi.

I picked up the scuffed and distressed frames from Anna Aspnes at designerdigitals

To Be... or Not To Be

Mazha Dearest,

Back in high school and college, you told me theatre was a waste of time and wouldn’t prepare me for anything in life. Let me tell you how wrong you actually were. I’ve been able to take the fine teachings of Pro, Doc, M’Liss, Strick, Vic, Jacque, and Faulds and it has helped me become a better parent. Let me take a few moments to make my point:

Lights: We have installed dimmers throughout the house to create the perfect ambiance for Kensington. During the day, the lights are set to the maximum level to encourage her body to realize that it’s daytime (which means small naps, but lots of activity – including her tummy time). At night, the levels are dropped. We also have motion-detector nightlights that illuminate the major hallways so when we’re up at 1 am, we can make it to the kitchen without walking into a wall or tripping over Gossip.

Make-up: Chris and I haven’t slept in days, but you would never be able to tell due to the amount of “yellow-mellow” we’ve used under our eyes. Also, we haven’t seen the light of day in three weeks, but I remembered that Max Factor liquid base is a versatile foundation that creates a natural finish that won′t streak, smudge, slip or transfer onto our clothes… unlike Kensington’s spit-up.

Box-Office: Sales, sales, sales. Mazha Dearest, the gift of the crib (which not only is loved by Kensington… but commented on and adored by EVERYONE) is like an appetizer. It’s the starter piece. We got the crib, you got pictures and photo albums. Now… if you actually want to see her in person, it’s gonna cost you a little bit more. Kensi would like a Grand Victorian Playhouse. Please click on the name to be directed to the place where you can purchase it. Thanks in advance.

Sound: Please see Thursday, January 15, 2009 posting… enough said.

Props: Having gone out a couple times, we’ve realized that we need to focus on our Prop-list for her diaper bag. One cannot get caught without the proper nipples for her bottles, additional binkies in case one falls and we’re not able to wash it, and the right suction bulb for her nose. We’ve learned to always check the list twice before going anywhere.

Set Design: We’ve used the right color combination in her nursery to create a calm and soothing environment. We’ve structure the layout of the room to enhance the mobility and functionality of the space provided. The pieces used have purpose & meaning and accent the room to leave one in awe when entering the room. The mulberry and HTHAP pieces have been woven seamlessly to complement and fashioned the necessity of the room.

Costume: While “premature” clothes may be to small, and newborn clothes too large, we’ve altered pieces to enhance her petite frame. We’ve also created and used a colour palette that compliments her skin tone and the hue of her eyes. To ensure continuity in style, we’ve assembled coordinating outfits, bibs, blankets and accessories in hatboxes to provide for easier access when preparing for the morning routine.

Choreography/Vocal: I have created an original dance number to my original song entitled, “It’s a warming up”, that is preformed at each bottle warming session. Within the coming weeks, the dance-mix version will be taped and posted on the blog… but the steps go a little something like: 5-6-7-8… Weight on right foot, stamp left foot down, take a few steps backwards, hop forward on one foot, Weight on left foot, stamp right foot down, etc.

Directing: We’ve become ‘those’ parents that are directing people to use Johnson & Johnson’s Purell hand-sanitizers before holder her, positioning her in the right angle when holding/feeding, etc. We’ve taught Kensington to emote when she’s in need of another bottle, and to move with purpose. We’ve also ensured that she’s positioned properly for each picture and have created an overall well-orchestrated environment where everything comes into play.

PR/Marketing: This blog has been viewed over 3800 times and in 16 different countries. Chris and I just added a map on the blog that will start tracking countries that are logging on. Keep an eye on it – it refreshes every 24 hours with the hits.

Acting: This whole thing is an act. She’s a perfect child that sleeps through the night and never cries. This blog was just created for an over dramatization on how hard parenting is. To tell you the truth, this parenting stuff is easy. [are any of you buying this? Okay… maybe I needed to work on my acting skills a little bit more]

Thanks Mazha & Fazha for all the support! We love you and appreciate all you do.

Outfit from Dave and Theresa, Blanket from MK and Kat. Thanks gang!

There must have been some magic...

In that old silk hat we found,

For when they placed it on her head,

She began to dance around... Kensi the Snowgirl,

Was alive as she could be.

And the children say, She could laugh and play...

Just the same as you and me!

This outfit was supposed to be a gag gift from Kate, Jordan, Dan, Kiki and Cindy (along with the wonderful toys and gift card they bought Kensington's vibrating crib mattress). They saw it at Babies R Us and thought it was hideous, so they bought it thinking we'd hate it... but would never tell them because we'd wouldn't want to hurt their feelings (do they know me?!?!). When we opened it up, EVERYONE (with the exception of them) LOVED it. Our nephew, Mason, was the first to have an oppurtunity to wear it and he looked so adorable... so we couldn't wait for Kenis's turn.

Only one small glitch. The outfit is 0-9 months (okay... like that makes sense!!!). With the eight inches of snow we had this past weekend, it would be the perfect time to have her in the outfit. So while Chris was outside shoveling and snow blowing for an three hours on Sunday, I dressed her up - but she still to tiny to fill it out, so yes team... we'll be holding on to this outfit for another cold winter season, and for Christmas next year, will be making all of you Kensi the Snowgirl apparel that I will be expecting you to wear in the office. Lets just say I'll be making this part of your goals and evaluation process as being a 'team player' :o)

The cute pink backdrop is her monogrammed blanket, which she loves to sleep with. It's sooooo soft. Thanks Karen in Massachusetts!!!

The quickpage used for the picture above is from Raspberry Road Designs. Please check out all of the amazing pieces Susan Darter has put together.

Still a little sniffly...

We tried taking pictures of Kensington the past couple of days, but she still has her little cold and is groggy and doesn't want the paparazzi tailing her (may have something to do with the saline that gets sprayed up her nose every half hour and then sucked out). The doctor said she should be 'in good spirits' by Wednesday.

This little outfit is from the Jackie, Jamie and Howard and it's one of her favorite sleepers. It's part of the Taggies collection.

[frame source - Natali Design]

What a Kawinkydink, Moment 1

A couple weeks ago, after Chris and I picked out Kensington Grace's name, we went online to look for items for her nursery. The major theme of her room is "How To Hug A Porcupine", which is a wonderful children's book written and illustrated by the very talented Carmen Carnevali (I'm not just saying that because of the gorgeous Tiffany's Atlas® platter that he and his husband gave us last month, or all of the baby items for Kensi - the cute little panda bear, the hilarious bibs, or the Baby Bjorn. By the way... thanks guys!)

Anyway... the major theme of the room is "How To Hug A Porcupine", with the backdrop of mulberry items... a shade of purple that goes along with the color of Prickles, the lovable charater in the book. (I would have tried to make her bedding in the How To Hug A Porcupine theme, but my $9.99 Sewing Genie from AC Moore just can't do that type of project. Curtains, yes. Baby Bumpers, no!)

While looking online for mulberry items to accent the room, we came across two items that we wanted to share with everyone, but at the time we couldn't. We didn't tell anyone the name we selected (though a little birdie told me that the other Mr. Irwin-Dudek may have slipped it to someone... again, it could have been because of that Atlas® platter).

Chris and I heard of children being call MacKensi, or McKenzi (or various spellings of both), but in all of the baby books we looked through (and there were many), neither on of us saw a Kensi/Kenzi anywhere... so imagine our surprise when we found a Mulberry clock that could be customized... and the example they used was Kenzi (different spelling, but you get the point). And to add to the coincidence, we found block lettering in the same style, from a different online store, and the example they used was Grace. Out of all of the items we looked at, only two of them were customizable and they used "Kenzie" and "Grace".

We had several of these Kawinkydink moments throughout the process, and will be sharing these throughout the next couple of days when not trying to catch up on sleep.

The crib is complete... for the moment.

Now we just need to pick up the dresser/changer this week.

That baby has one heavy head!

Not ours! (just didn't want you to assume that she's been born yet)

Have you ever played wii for hours at a time? Oh, I'm not talking about just any wii game... I'm talking about wii sports - track and field. 100m dash. I'm talking about table tennis. Wii Playground's tether ball and dodge ball. Oh yeah... you know what I mean. Swinging your arm at full force to beat your opponent. When your done, nothing. no pain. nothing out of the ordinary. you go to bed and you wake up. everything is fine and dandy... but you go to pick up your toothbrush and then you realize. yep. you've got...You know the feeling. It hurts so bad that you have to call in sick to work the next day. Yep... you got it bad. Take that feeling and multiply it times 10.

That's what you get when you hold your nephew in your arms for 20 minutes without a boppy. Mason's head rested on my arm while he feel asleep. It rested on a muscle that I never knew existed. my arm went dead. no, seriously... dead. Episode of Fox's HOUSE, where they diagnose some wierd medical disease kinda-dead. I was the biggest wuss! For a good 2 hours after he left my arms, I couldn't move mine.

Folks... this doesn't look good for me!

Aww... you shouldn't have (but we're happy you did!)

Cathy, Diane and Mary Cay... you're the best.

These three wonderful women threw us a shower in NJ today. Do you see the look of sheer surprise on my face???? lmao.

As I've said before, and I will say again... Chris and I truly have the best set of friends around.

Okay.. there are a couple pics that I need to share: What is up with scary cardboard baby?!?!

You GOT TO love the diaper cake!

And the real cake:

And then there was the gift that brought on tears:

Surprise!!!! (No, really) Surprise!!!

Today, Chris and I got up at the crack of dawn to get ready for a board meeting - getting only about 5 hours worth of sleep was difficult (but I'm told we need to get used to it - ugh!).

Having no urge to sit through a 5 hour meeting, I ended up leaving after our first 1 1/2 hr working committee session and decided to leave Chris there to suffer (but in the good "i wanna give back to the community" type of suffering).

So I headed home, threw a load of laundry in the washer, a load of dishes in the dishwasher, and took out three loads of garbage to the community compactors. We had two messages on the machine, one being Fred, who asked if I could go to the cemetery today to help him lay a wreath on Colleen's grave. I called Fred and he asked if I would be available around 12:45 to head down the street and I told him I would be more than happy to go with him to visit Colleen and help him lay the holiday wreath down. He then said that because of the winter weather, he's been stuck in the house for the past several days and would love to go out to lunch at our restaurant, and that he was craving stuffed pork chops - and after he mentioned them I too started craving them.

So, at 12:45 I showed up at Fred's house and we headed down the road. We were at the site less than 5 minutes and then headed back to the community and he suggested that we just ride to restaurant together instead of me picking up the truck and driving separately. Once we got to the Top Of The World, I headed straight to the bathroom to wash up (The pins that I used to hold the wreath down to the ground had been sitting in the back of the truck's cab and were rusted and I had that yellow-orangish crap all over me). After washing up, I headed around the corner into the dining room to see approx 30 ladies (and their husbands along the side) sitting in the back yelling "surprise!!!". I guess it's the pregnancy hormones (or the fact that I'm fabulously gay) but I started to choke up and cry. There were gifts, food, cake, balloons, and pink-crap galore and I received more hugs that I knew what to do with.

Chris, 30 seconds later, walks in to another round of "Surprise"[we were supposed to walk in together, but they didn't plan on me leaving the board meeting early and when I did, Kathi called up Fred and he called to get "plan B" in motion]. The ladies had tons of games planned as well as tons of food (and wine) and I couldn't believe the amazing support system that we had in place. These wonderful women - mothers/aunts/grandmothers, etc - got together before their own "Women's Club" holiday party to help us celebrate the little ones arrival.

I can not tell you the amount of items we received - and not only did we show off every item, but we also had to announce the items to help the ladies in their baby shower "Gift BINGO" game that they were playing. The little one has a new outfit for every day of her first 365 days she's here. In addition to the clothing, we received a car seat and the additional cradle for the car, a high chair, hand-made crocheted blankets, scrapbooks and frames, musical mobiles, boopies, dolls, playpen, garden gyms, diapers and wipes, laundry hampers and gift cards... the list really does go on and on. Currently, Duncan (dog) and Gossip (cat) have no place to walk in the living room as we have 8 huge boxes of items taking up floor space (come on people, I'm too tired to carry this stuff to the nursery). In addition to the amazing items our community gave us today, FedEx and UPS delivered our diaper bad and changing pads (Thanks Melanie and Pete!) , additional wipes (no name on the packing slip), a cute sleeper, sleep sacks and onesies (Thanks Cupcake-Bill).

The one thing we continue to tell our NJ and TX friends is the love we have for our community and the friends we have made here. Never in a hundred years would we expect the amount of love and support for the people here when we first selected to build our home in PA. We are truly, truly blessed to have the friends and the relationships that we have!

The only complaint of the day... no stuffed pork chops (thanks for getting my hopes and my appetite up, Fred!) hahahaha.

Lions and tigers and diapers... oh my!

I know I posted on my coworkers in the past, and said that they are all nut jobs. I still stand by that comment... but they are nut jobs with HUGE hearts.

Today we had our monthly staff meeting, followed by our Secret Snowflake party. I ended staying up until 2:30 last night working on Jackie's gift (if you want the back story, continue reading... if not, fast forward to the black text below)

[A couple of us went to Jackie's house back in September during lunch time and as we were leaving, I hijacked one of her lawn ornaments - a ceramic frog. At first, we were just going to put the frog in the safe at work, and when Jackie would go into it - hahahaha... her frog would be there. But then we thought... how can we keep with joke for as long as possible? I know... why don't we take pictures of the frog all around town doing different things. Oh... better yet, why don't we take the frog to Fire Island with us and get picture of it there. And so we did. Pictures of the frog on the Suffolk County police boat, on a pool table, kissing the deer... we had a blast the entire weekend with it. The fun didn't stop there. It ended up going to Indianapolis, Albany, NYC, New Hope, the Poconos... as many places as we would possibly take it until on October 30th, Teresa and Kate (yes ladies, I blame you both, broke the frog). In order to keep the joke going even longer, we snuck back over to Jackie's house and kidnapped the second frog - side, side story - we actually went to the wrong house on her street and ended up crawling on our hands and knees looking for the frog. Then, we went on their neighbors back deck and I ended up running into a tree as we snuck back to the truck to leave empty handed... it was only as we drove away did we see the correct house we were supposed to be at and ended up laughing so hard I almost wet myself. To wrap that story up, we went to the house and grabbed froggy II.

How we were going to let Jackie know was to put a scrapbook together of the 300+ pictures of the frog and give it to Jackie at the holiday party. To make the plan work, I had to volunteer to put the Secret Snowflake gathering together to ensure that one of us had Jackie as our gift's receiver. One of the 'rules' of the gift giving festivities was that the gift had to coordinate with the receivers name (i.e., If your name is Debbie Downer, you could receive Dunkin Donuts coffee and mug, or a Drama on DVD. You get the gist) Jackie's initials are J.W., so I ended up doing the cover with "Freddy the Frogs Jounrney around the World to find his was home. I came up with a corny storyline about the frog being kidnapped and having to take odd jobs to buy a plane ticket to get home. Teresa got some great pics of the frog at the airport, and almost had her camera confiscated at Newark due to the fact that she was taking pictures in a secured location. Below you find a couple of the pages that I did... all in all, I was pretty impressed with the job I did. I used the Artemia by After Five Designs Freebies and quick pages.

After the holiday party, I went back to my office and continued to work. Then my coworkers started acting strange (again). They would walk back-and-forth by my office and just give me a look. Then Cindy came in and asked if I could help her with the goal setting sheet... and when I asked 'with what part', she responded with "just come to my desk and you'll see". I knew right then and there that they were up to something and then I was escorted to the board room.

The entire crew (minus Dan because he's a boy and boys don't do showers) was there, including Megan who left us a couple of weeks ago and Carol who is still on her maternity leave. They all went above and beyond... clothing, tubs, blankets, drying station, sleeping sacks, taggies, and butt paste galore (which brought on another conversation about our outing at Fire Island). We also got our "entertain me" set, blankets, gift cards, Dora the Explorer movie and the cutest darn bibs ever!

Chris and I can not thank you all enough! We can't wait for you to baby sit.

Knock, Knock... Who's there?

Santa!!!!!!!!!

What do you get when you tell your big brother, who just had a baby boy two months ago, that he should be expecting a niece any day soon?

An adorable bassinet that will allow us to do our "nightly rotation". Chris and I are planning to put the bassinet in the guest room so one of us can have a good nights sleep in the master bedroom with Duncan and Gossip, and the other one can be taking care of the little one.

Rock a bye, baby, Rock on!

Here comes the bride...

Wow... what a night! Chris and I, along with 110 of our closest friends and family members celebrated our marriage (the one we had before Prop 8 passed), as well as the upcoming arrival of our daughter. This was the first time in 12 years that Chris and I had members of our family together...

Well, needless to say, I'm extremely exhausted (as well as extremely happy to see everyone tonight) so calling this one a short blog. Will be posting pictures and stories soon :)

Prepping for the Reception

Chris and I are hosting a small open house / reception tomorrow and Cathy & Kyle (NJ), Adam (TX) and Rhonda and Jeff (GA) were [are] over to help us get ready for the festivities.

Santa-Simone dropped by the house again today, via UPS. We got tons of shiny silver boxes with glitter bows... I sense a glitter fight in the future :)

We (meaning every one but me) made cookies, peanut brittle, and other goodies while I out the finishing touches of the tree. Seeing that this was to help celebrate our wedding, we had to go along with the theme. :)

Santa just came a little early...

What do you get when you tell your big sister, who's dying to become an aunt again, that when you receive her neice you will be spending several days in a hotel (with the baby) waiting for the paper work to clear?

a BEAUTIFUL bassinet / changer / pack-n-play. Look out Residence Inn... here we come!