Hello World! Meet A2!

Joel and Amanda would like to announce the birth of...

KIDNEY BEAN (Aron James, 7/26/2005 at 648p)

and

PEANUT (Alyssa Marie, 7/26/2005 at 650p)

A little about the names:

Neither of the babies' first names were fashioned after anybody specific. The middle names are more than just coincidence. Alyssa's middle name is somewhat a family name, with her great-grandmother's first name being Marie. This name shows up in both her daughters as well as her grandchildren, and now in her great-grandchildren. I guess it is sort of a tradition in the Bammerlin line.

The middle name for Aron is indicative of something more. The spelling of Aron is to make it unique, however I found a few parents on the St. Ann's on-line nursery spelled the same way. His middle name, James, is meant to remember a very kind individual who was a very good friend of the Volk family. While it has been more than ten years, this person has been in my thoughts on many occasions (and Superbowls). To this day, I can not pass by shrimp in any form without thinking of him. He was taken from those he cared for way too early. The best way that I could honor him was to include his name in my son's. After checking with my father to make sure that this would would not offend him or the memory of Aron's namesake, Joel and I decided to name Aron's middle name after the late James Monhart. (Well, this was my reason for wanting his middle name to be James. Joel will say it was because it sounded good with Aron! :-) It is the least that I could do for one of the most wonderful teachers that I have ever had the privilege to know and a great family friend. I know that not too many people remember him nowadays, and this is the best way that I could honor him. My only regret is that he was not here to meet them. We miss you a lot, Mr. Monhart.

And now on with the real stuff...

This picture is of me at just shy of 34 weeks and three days before I delivered on 7/26/05. I had reached critical mass in both weight and girth, and had hit at least duce and a half (250 lbs). The shirt, which was 2XL and belonged to the Hubby, says, "Beer gut under construction," and I was lucky to have pants to wear as those were getting quite tight. 3x was NOT big enough for the Pesters...

I will post more pictures as I have the time. Right now, I am being paged by a little mewing sound that is Alyssa! :-)