Happy 1 month!

It's hard to believe that it's already been a month since we welcomed Aidan into the world! He amazes us each and every day and its incredible to watch him as he becomes more aware of the world around him :) Here are a few shots of the little man, enjoy!

Updates!

For all you Aidan watchers out there, we apologize for the delay in blog postings. We've had several strong storms here in Texas lately, and the internet was out for about a week and a half. Now that it's back up, we have some updates to share!

First, we all enjoyed a visit with Grandma Murphy (and I think she enjoyed meeting Aidan too!) while Brian was still here. We were able to spend a week with her enjoying her company, even if the weather chose not to cooperate!


After Aidan's cord stump (Mostly) fell off, we were able to give him his first bath - which he didn't seem to mind too much. He got wrapped up nice and tight in his froggy towel when he got out, and the pictures were too cute not to post :)






Here is a picture of Aidan wearing his cool new rock n' roll onesie from his "older , more mature" buddy Jack Cerrone. Jack has his own blog where he shares his witty comments and his first moments too! Jack's mom and dad know that Brian loves music, and he was sure to dress Aidan in it the first chance he got!


Aidan loves his Daddy!


Having such an Irish name, and a bit of Irish blood, Aidan just HAD to dress up for St. Patricks Day!!! No green guiness for this little man, but the Kiss Me, I'm Irish shirt sure charmed the ladies at the doctor's office!


Here is Aidan and Brian parting ways. It was a hard day for Mommy, Daddy and Aidan as we said goodbye and watched his plane take off en route to Iraq. Daddy should be home in June though, and Mommy and Aidan can't wait!!


This past Wednesday, Aidan met his Papa Pete for the first time! Below you will find the men checking each other out. Papa Pete and Babci took a detour to San Antonio due to weather and the plane almost running out of fuel, but they made it here to Ft. Hood eventually, albeit a few hours late and tired from traveling. They certainly were excited to meet (and reconnect) with their grandson though!


We'll continue to post updates as they happen, thanks for reading!

Settling In

Hello! Brian, Aidan and I are all settling in to life at home. I've added some new pictures below of Aidan in days three and four. He had his first doctor's visit yesterday and did great! He did not enjoy having his heel stuck for a blood draw, but did great in the car and on his first outing. We all said goodbye to Babci Kasarjian yesterday morning and welcomed Grandma Murphy yesterday afternoon. Aidan enjoys being spoiled by his grandmothers!

We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for all for your congratulations and all the well wishes. We are enjoying the flowers and fruit and Aidan is happy to have received his "teddy bear twin" and some new outfits!!!

Mr. Aidan joins the family

Hello everybody! Just woke up (if you call not sleeping a wink due to that whole new baby keeps you up all night kind of thing) for Aidan's first full day at home. He joined us on the 5th at 3:33PM central standard time at FT Hood Texas. He was 7 pounds 4 ounces, and 20.25" inches long. He started out with a bang, hitting his high notes early. Its quite possible he'll be a great singer one day. After 1 night and 1 full day in the hospital learning how to eat and poop, and also learning that the hospital is a place where people insist on waking you up to poke and prod you, he managed to settle in to a nice sleep (notice how I said he got sleep- Mom and Dad learned how to be zombies and dad can now deftly change poopy diapers with one eye open in the pitch black, not sure if he is actually awake or dreaming [I was not dreaming]).

Ok, so here we are at home. Doing nothing (which is pretty awesome). Me, Kate, and Aidan, with Babci (Grandma for you non-Polish types) taking tons and tons of pictures. Please feel free to call and bother us at any time. Check some of the first pictures below.

Update from Brian

Hello All,
Its been a long time since I've typed up something, so here we go. About 23 days from now, we'll be waiting on Aidan to grace us with his presence. It seems like it went by so fast for me, but I'm guessing its seemed alot longer for Kate. I'm basically keeping my nose to the grindstone here, trying to stay out of trouble and have so far managed to not anger any of my 3 bosses at all. (Why is it, we all always seem to have 3 or more bosses?) I have included a couple of photos of my living space (very cramped section of tent as you will see) and our little chritsmas tree here in the office. I HAVE NOT INCLUDED ANY PHOTOS of me, sorry folks, but I've dropped close to 25 pounds[NOT BY CHOICE] (Down to 170 from 195), and I'm in absolutely no mood to have a picture of skinny old me to haunt me for years to come. So you'll have to wait until I can get home and eat for 3 days straight, and by the time Aidan shows up I should be bulked up enough.

There are plans in the works for at least the round robin with Aidan this summer in New York and Mass, maybe even Vermont. If we miss Vermont, not to worry, I'll be running the Burlington Marathon, May 2010 (they wouldnt let me out early to run it this year). I recently received a letter from Aunt Jeanie with Photos of Olivia and Gracie, they are both looking good! I expect a photo of Tori's little man, so some break out the camera and help me (although i'm sure there are photos in abundance).

I've also gotten tons of packages from everybody and they've been great (I'd be about 160pounds without them). I'm working my way through some letters of thanks to everyone, so bear with me. THe 16-18 hour days kinda make ya wanna crash as soon as you can, so there isnt much spare time outside of work and sleep. The work is neverending and demanding. But its not too bad all in all.

Katie and I are going to be trying to plan out our next 3 years which will either see both of us in advanced civil schooling (Katie=Med School/ Me= Law School) It all depends on a few of the programs the army has to offer and if either of us get accepted. Otherwise we'll be testing the civilian waters come 2011. Alright, i'm out here, but I'll be talking to alot of you soon when i get home.

Brian

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! We hope that each of you enjoyed the holidays and we want to wish you a happy, healthy new year! Now that I know that these photos arrived to Brian safe and sound, I thought it was time to share our newest glimpses of Aidan with each of you! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving!

While we were sad that Brian was unable to spend the holiday with us, I enjoyed a wonderful visit with my Aunt Karen and Uncle Wayne Barnes over Thanksgiving. They drove in from Santa Fe, NM on Wednesday afternoon just in time to meet me for an ultrasound (more on this with pictures in the next post!), then we headed out and had a catfish dinner at Texas Roadhouse. On Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a great meal at The Range Restaurant in Salado, TX. The Range is a quaint restaurant with excellent food (family owned restuarant run by a husband and wife team trained at the culinary institute of America - a rarity in Central Texas!!) housed in a restored historical physician's home and office from the 1800's. We did end up eating in the basement (or as we termed it, the "dungeon") but we were eventually joined by another party and enjoyed our meal. Aunt Karen and I hit up the Black Friday sales for a little bit Friday morning and managed to pick up a small Christmas Tree and fresh wreath for the front door. I suppose it is time to change out the fall decorations for the Holiday ones. We also got a chance to explore Austin on Saturday and checked out the eclectic shops on South Congress, toured the flagship Whole Foods Store and watched some live music while eating appetizers at Eddie V's. The BEST thing we discovered was a cupcake vendor selling their wares out of a "silver bullet" trailer in a vacant lot on South Congress. They were the most delicious cupcakes I can remember eating - my favorite was the one that was like a hostess cupcake (with cream filling!) but REAL. We also got a chance to drive through the Annual "Holiday in Lights" display that the post puts on. It took quite a while to get out to Belton Lake, but the displays were great. I think my favorite was the whale, however I think Aunt Karen and Uncle Wayne enjoyed the tunnel of lights. I hope you enjoy some photos from Thanksgiving that Aunt Karen was kind enough to email me to share with all of you, and I hope that you were all able to enjoy as wonderful a Thanksgiving Holiday as I was.




Uncle Wayne and I in front of our House



Aunt Karen and I in front of our House



The "Belly Shot" (for all of you who have been asking!)



Aunt Karen and I at the Range in Salado



The three of us following Thanksgiving dinner