Hello to Peanut's new friends

New little folks that have arrived in the past year.

Lincoln David Eberly was born Friday evening the 29th of June at around 7pm, 9 lbs. 4 oz.

Mika Liwen Chia was born July 12th at 10 pm, 7 lbs 7 oz.

Jillian Andie Wong was born Friday, July 20th, at 5 lbs 15 oz.

Cooper Allen was born Saturday August 25th, at about 5 am a healthy 5 lbs 4 oz.

Maxwell Gregory Lorenz was born October 28th, 9 lbs 5 oz.

Alexandra Margaret Hawthorne was born in December at 8:19 am 7lbs, 14 oz.

Matthew Walsh was born December 22nd, 6lbs 13 oz.

Showers for Peanut

In early December my friend Noelle, from Arizona, with help from my mom, threw a really nice baby shower for Peanut. It was a fun time to get a bunch of the girls together to oohhh and aahhh over cute baby outfits, have some tasty treats and just get a chance to chat. Thanks to everyone for all of the adorable outfits and gear which we received, in addition to the books for little Peanut's library. He has quite a good collection going!

As you can see in the photos, he received a couple of very special quilts. The one which is brightly colored is the one which Grandma Elaine made. David and I purchased the pattern and the fabrics when we went on Peanut's first vacation in August of this year to Hawaii. We bought all of the batik fabric from Kimura's on the Big Island---it was like sensory overload trying to pick out which ones to purchase. The picture is not the best, so when it is completely finished I will post one which shows more of the detail. It is in the process of having the actual quilting done at the moment. The scene on the front is one of three sea turtles swimming around---it is adorable. Grandma Elaine did a great job!

The other very special quilt was created by Great Grandma Grace. She tried out a new quilting pattern and used a variety of materials from all of the twelve previous great-grandchildren's quilts. It is nice and warm, as it is made from all different flannels. It will be a very special quilt to Peanut, we are sure! Thanks to both of you for making such precious quilts for Peanut to enjoy.

David's colleagues at ABI also hosted a baby shower for us a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to meet people from the office and spend time having lunch and chatting with them. They had a really cute cupcake cake in the shape of a baby carriage. The Target gift cards will definitely come in handy for all of those diapers, and perhaps a Britax carseat once he outgrows the infant carseat which we have already. Thanks to everyone for your thoughtfulness!

Golfing with Peanut

We are really hoping that Peanut will be a good golfer. If my golfing performance during this pregnancy is any indication, he may be. He has definitely helped my game---that is for sure. Perhaps it is the different center of gravity, a change in the swing to try to get around the tummy, or just the extra weight. Not sure what it is, but I've had two of my best rounds ever, with Peanut's help. We even went out a couple of Sundays ago and still had a good time. My doctor seemed to be surprised, but ok with it. She said that she has never seen anyone who actually wanted to go out and play at this point. Hey, it was a nice day and a good way to spend time together, so why not!

A Changing Table for Peanut

Over the past few months, we have been working on many projects to prepare for Peanut's arrival. The latest, which was tackled last weekend was a
changing table. As many of you know, our apartment is not really large enough for alot of extra furniture, so David came up with the idea to make a changing table similar to those which you see in public restrooms---the ones which fold down from the wall. Really good idea! A search on the Internet showed an overview of something similar which was done on "Wasted Spaces" on the DIY Network.

So, David made a changing table from scratch and it is now proudly mounted on the wall in the hallway between the two bedrooms. It looks great, is efficient and will be used many, many times in our future. We tested it out, using one of Xena's toys, as you can see in the pics. Xena was very interested and helpful in the whole process.