Aidan's 1st Birthday Party at NANA'S and GRUMPY'S

Aidan had his 1st birthday party a month early since we were with family and when its his real birthday we will be in Germany. So we decided to celebrate it in the states with family. So we did one with Heidi's family and it turned out really well! His cousins gave him some cool toys! We made sure we didn't bring much so that we could take his toys home! My friend Jen made Aidan and amazing 3D car cake. Little Danny came out and looked at it and said WOW thats AWESOME!
Aidan sure loves to be around his cousins! He gets along with them all very well! Here's some pictures of Aidan's party! Well we sure enjoy doing this blog! I try so hard to keep posting things! I will do my best to keep updated! Today we are headed to the zoo so I better add the pictures and get ready! I'm just gonna add them on here randomly! hope thats ok!

Kiddie Kandids Pictures!

We went and got Aidan's 1 year old pictures the other day! ( I know he's only 11 months but we will be in Germany next month when he turns 1 and wanted to get them done at kiddie Kandids so we did it early!) He was so so sick with a cold but was still so smily! We had lots of fun the last 3 nights taken care of him. He gets to sleep in bed with us when he's sick and Ben loves that! Ben sure would let Aidan sleep with us every night if he could. He's really missed out on being a dad so he's been making up for lost time. Ben turns on the camera and just starts taking all this pictures of Aidan and he's like "Sorry I just love taking pictures of him" We think Aidan's a HAM for the camera! I know he's our kid so of course we would think that but who knows maybe he really is!


Here is Aidan's halloween costume! Isn't he the cutest shrek ever?!? We love him in this costume! He has such a personality I think he'd make any costume cute! He still gets really excited and waves his hands like he's riding a harley! He's mastered crawling everywhere and standing up by things and now he has started to CLIMB! Well not really climb but his little body wants to. The other night Ben and I watched him as he tried so hard to climb out of his crib! He is going to be so crazy when he's older! He loves to explore!

My sister has bought Danny these little ACU's so we put them on little Aidan (although he's very tall so they pretty much fit him) Then I wore an ACU jacket and we looked like a cute little army family! YIPEE! We love being a family! We love having Ben home! I know we say that lots! But we really do!


Well anyway I sure hope that you guys have enjoyed our family pics and Aidan's 1st birthday pictures! He had one heck of a birthday party with Heidi's side of the family and it was fun! Heidi's friend Jen made him an amazing car birthday cake we'll post pics of that day! Well hope you are all doing good! Love you all!

Typo in last blog

Just a little note we had a little typo on the last blog. I meant to put then Benjamin and Aidan could keep all the boys off of Aunt Betsy's little girl!!
Hope you all enjoy!

Family Pics

Mandy went with us today up to Sherwood Hills and took our family pics. We can't even explain how much fun it is to have Ben home! Aidan is so crazy in love with him already. Its great I have my two favorite boys home! I just want to thank you all for being there for our family throughout this deployment! Its been great to have family and friends! There is much to be adjusted to now that daddy is home. Aidan has two people to listen to instead of just mommy. We are enjoying spending time with cousins. We just found out that Aunt Betsy is pregnant! We are so excited for her. We hope that she has a little girl! Then Benjamin and I can keep all the boys off of her when she's older! Right Aunt Betsy? This month we are celebrating Aidan's first birthday with my family and Ben's family. We are doing them separate since both of our families are pretty big! I can't believe Aidan will be 1 next month! Holy Cow he's getting so big. Where did my baby go? Well hope you guys enjoy our family pics. Hope to hear from you all!

Ben being home!

Aidan got sick on our trip

Poor little Aidan got sick while we were in Utah visiting and he still is feeling a little uneasy! But he's been puking lots but hopefully he will be feeling better! He is enjoying seeing his cousins and playing with them! He is almost 11 months. I can't even believe it I think MAN WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE? Well I took 2 pictures of Aidan while he wasn't feeling good. He's so confused with the time difference that we just let him be in comfy clothes and relax! Hope your all having a good week!

Aidan and Mommy waiting for Daddy! We are so excited can't you tell?
Daddy standing at attention before they'd let us have him! Isn't he so cute!

This is our happy family! We were so happy to be able to hug Daddy! He squeezed both of us really tight!

Dad and Aidan! The Stars and Stripes did an article on our family. I hope we are able to see the article so we can keep it in the scrapbook!

Dad and Aidan playing! He was making Aidan laugh so hard it was hilarious! I love these two boys so much! They are the best Holladay's ever!

Okay guys I am trying to post a new blog on my page but its all in German! So lets see how good I am at all of this! I know there are ladies in the ward out here that do it so I might have to email someone in the relief society and ask them how to change it to english. So Ben made it home on the 19th! We couldn't be happier having him home! Aidan and him are the best of friends! Although Aidan still wants mommy in the morning! (shh don't tell but thats my favorite!) Aidan is up crawling around and moving everywhere! He's so adorable! He moves a little slow still but we have a lady coming over to teach Ben and I what we can do to help Aidan. They say he has low muscle tone and we need to be doing special things with him to help him! Who knows after we do these home visits with this lady Aidan might end up being a QuarterBack in the NFL!!!!! JK Well Ben is taking time to adjusting but he is doing his best to not let it show! Its so adorable if he even hears Aidan make a tiny peep in the night he runs to him! I stop him and say "he's fine!" He's just an awesome daddy and wants to catch up on lost time with his son! Anyway here are some photos from the day! Hope you guys can see us while we are home!

Love you all!

Just some new fun pics

Aidan loves to smack his lips he does it on a daily basis!
He's trying to tell me to stop it! He's my little booger face! Love him!

ahh I am gonna eat you mommy!

Hey everyone! I hope you all read this. I'm pretty sure only a couple of people do so I am having a hard time keeping it updated cause I don't get feed back on it! I will do my best! Here's some new pics of Aidan having fun! Loving life with Mom!

Ben's feelings!

This is the motto of the U.S. Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) otherwise known as the "Night Stalkers". I hope to someday fly in this unit, but I have a ways to go to get myself in shape and ready for selections. This is my long term goal, And I am so lucky to have such an amazing beautiful wife, who supports me through everything, and sticks with me no matter what.
I have been very dissapointed with the whole "Big Army" (that is what the SPECOPS comunity calls the rest of the Army). Before I got to Germany I was under the impression that being a soldier was about being a part of something greater than yourself, for standing up for what is right, being part of a brotherhood, but lately I haven't seen anything of the sort. Instead of being "Service Members" we are basicly encouraged to become "Self Service Members". I do not believe this is what is taught in Army Doctrine, and I believe it makes us less effective. When did a symbol on our chest become more important than the man to your left, and your right? I was trained to believe that the life of the soldiers around you was more important than your own, and that every soldier on the battlefield feels the same way. This is the key to our success; Unity of force, and Violence of action.
When did being a "tattle tale" become an admirable trate? When did the Army start giving Platoon Leaders "brownie points" for punishing soldiers under UCMJ? To me this only reflects poorly on their leadership.
And that leads me to my next point. This whole operation in Iraq could be ended very quickly, if we were allowed to remove the "kid gloves" if leaders actualy lived up to their Warrior Ethos and "always place the mission first" and worry more about that then how they will look on CNN. It's the same old problem as always though; The "Legacy Leader" everybody wants to be remembered as a hero, not the guy who shot some car to hell in an effort to save his squad. I say the only way to stop a terrorist is to kill him, and anybody who dissagrees with me is ignorant to the facts; these people will die to kill us because they hate us that much. a great man once said that "The only thing neccessary for evil to prevail is for good men to stand by and do nothing" well I think this is what we are doing now, except it's worse than that because were doing nothing in a way that gets good people killed every day.
I'm not saying we should pull out or stay here. That isn't realy my place. I'm simply saying that the self serving leadership style that has filtered all the way down the ranks is hurting us all.
I'm getting tired of asking why we do things a certain way and being told "if it makes sense it isn't the Army way" that is so stupid. What realy sucks is this statement is very true. We often waste time doing things over and over, filling out the same stupid form, counting the same bullets, beans, or whatever else, ect. Insted of being able to call up to higher that the IP's arent at a station we have to sit there with nothing to do all day. Of course the leadership is back on the FOB asleep so why would they give a shit about us peeons anyway right? I mean were just rungs on the ladder of promotion anyway.
well I guess I better end this before I have to hire a lawer or something. I just want to have anybody who reads this pleas comment, even if you arent millitary, but before you do ask yourself one thing; would you die for your country if you knew nobody would ever know about it? that you would'nt get any medals, or promotions. No front page news story, ect. This to me is the definition of selfless service. There are countless operators who have paid this price. Brave men who fought and died protecting us from an enemy we never knew existed, in countries that we have never heard of. To me these are the real heros. Men who understand the brotherhood, and the meaning of word "Leader" these are the kind of people I want to work with.
So go ahead and tell your poser ass war stories. You can proudly wear your combat patch, CAB, and whatever else, But remember that while you are talking about how you have PTSD and your going to "combat stress" there is an operator training for or actively engaged in a mission to keep you safe
"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying who shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I Here am I, Send me"

Some more flordia pictures to share!

Aidan sure loved Flordia! He loved the characters and thought they were quite funny and cute! He loved the water although sometimes he was very unsure about it! He was such a good kid too. We played all day and even late into the night and he was so awesome! He was tired though. When we went back to Kathy's finally he was so tired he practically slept all day and night! He loves disney just as much as mom and dad! We will have to take him again when he's a bit bigger! Dad was pretty jealous he wants to go to disney world! Well we are at the browns now for 2 weeks and will be really busy training the new nanny and getting their house unpacked! So we love you all and hope you'll take time to comment us and let us know what you think! Take care!

Some pics from Flordia!

Checking in From Flordia

Hi guys just checking in for a bit! We have been enjoying the sun in Flordia! I took Aidan to the beach for the first time and he loved it. Got a little scared of the ocean waves coming and and feeling like he was sinking! But he is a trooper and loved it! And yes I kept lots of sunscreen on him! He's so much fun and keeps growing up everyday! I taught him how to stick his tongue out and now he does it all the time! Well hope everyone is enjoying themselves......one more month and Ben is home!

Utah trip!

Aidan and I just got done watching the firetrucks put out the fire across the street from Aunt Mandy's house! This was his first time seeing the firetrucks!



Aidan was sick of the sun getting in his eyes. He took off his glasses and closed his eyes due to the sun being in his eyes


Me just goofing off out front!

Jen, Mandy and I were going to the movie and I had just colored my hair so I thought I would be silly and take pictures!


Aidan loves his Mommy!


So there is some pictures from our trip to Utah. Now we are headed to Flordia to play in the sun then back to CT for 2 more weeks then we get to go see our daddy! Yeah Ben could be home anywhere from Sept. 11-25 or so. Love you all!