Weekly Update

annoying: Blogger, that is what is annoying! See this cute background I put up, yup, but the cutest part is covered by the idiot color of orange you see right next to this post. Seriously?

Looks like I will just have to ignore it. I hope I honestly just forget about it. Anyway, life has been good for the past week here in Michigan. The only thing is it gets dark at about 5, yup, you read correctly 5. In Utah it was like 6, one hour really doesn't seem like a lot, but in actuality it is. Apart from that it has been awesome!!! I had my first Orchestra Concert last Wednesday. It went pretty well, but I wish it went better. I really miss beginning orchestra at Legacy. I had the greatest teacher, Mrs. Barney, she was so awesome, and taught me some things kids here who have been playing for 3 years don't even know! Also, there was 9 of us, here there is about 60-70 kids in the whole orchestra. It is a lot different performing, and getting ready for a performance. Matt had a pretty good week, he went to hockey, and had some friends over Friday, and Saturday! Blake headed off to Ohio for the weekend to a hockey tournament, he only played one game but they won 3-9! YAY!!! The saddest part of last week was sweet Nana left! :'( It was so sad to see her leave! We miss her so much, and can't wait for her to return! Mom and I also went to T.J. Maxx and we got SO MUCH DONE! It was fabulous, and what makes a better day than spending time with your mom and going to T.J. Maxx? If so let me know! :) We got Christmas presents, needs for the dining room, kitchen, family room, it was just great! Mom and Dad had a nice week last week, as far as I see, they are doing awesome, this week is easy so that means more time with us!! YAY!! and hopefully dad will get out of his den (office) more! Also, YW in excellence is this week for me! Wish me luck! I am actually performing and doing a presentation! :/ Our love goes out to all of you! (sorry for the odd post, I figured I might as well do something since I am not doing anything!)
Love, The Holmes

The past month....in a nutshell...

So here is our month is words and then in pictures: Words.....

Well, we have had quite a haul of visitors...and I being so lame did not take pictures of their visits! But Ashley, and Nana have been out and a seventy is coming to join us for a few days this weekend! We feel very blessed to have general authorities and their wives come and stay with us! They bring such a great spirit here! Also, Nana has been out for 2 almost 3 weeks now and it has been awesome having her here, she leaves in about a week...:( Then Ashley, she only stayed for a little bit because she didn't want to leave her hubby for too long! What a loving wife! It was awesome to have her here and to make trips to all our findings here in Farmington Hills, and in the hood! Blake has been doing well and has been playing hockey on the varsity hockey team for fall season! It has been a great experience for him and he is at this moment trying out for winter season, so we will see what happens there! Then Matt has gone from a football player to hockey player, and from 9 years old to 10 years old! He is the funniest kid around here and he gives us a laugh whenever we need one! I am doing awesome and couldn't be better! I have friends, a good school, and things I never imagined! I just started voice lessons up again with our neighbor. She is incredible! I have only gone once, but I can already tell how much my voice is going to grow with her! Mom and Dad keep busy with the mission, and making sure us kids are doing good! They are just so incredible! We have had a good month for baptisms, I believe 25-30 in the month of October! We are extremely thrilled with these numbers, and can't wait to be able to meet all of those new converts! We have also enjoyed the missionaries in out home multiple times this month and are very grateful for there willingness to serve!
Pictures:

Matts Birthday cake

We had the Cartwrights over for Matts Birthday. They are a family in our ward.

Matt enjoying his birthday breakfast! yumm!
Below: The fam with some elders!

Memory

Today the new missionaries came in. 10 of them actually. Matthew and I were outside playing basketball with 4 or 5 of them when one of them asked me, "Do you miss your home?". I responded "Yes, I do. But it has just taken some getting used to." For some reason this made me think of how I felt on my first day here in the mission home; how happy and peaceful it is. I felt like I could do this for 3 years..no problem. That is how incredible the spirit in the mission home is. There are truly no words that can describe the feeling. I wonder now if any of the missionaries feel the same way I did on my first day here. Obviously we are in totally different circumstances but I hope they feel the way I did. Looking up at these missionaries and think that they have agreed to put everything on the alter of sacrifice for 2 years to serve the Lord. WOW! To where his name on your shirt everyday and represent him! How joyful that would be!!! I know these new missionaries feel that and I am so greatful they do!
I am sorry I don't have a picture of the new missionaries for this post-I know it would make it sooo much better! I will try to get one from the office missionaries to post! More to come!
Love, The Holmes

We just wanna have fun!

Abraham Lincoln Monument! My absolute Favorite!!!

Washington Monument! SOO Beautiful!!

World War II Memorial-one of my FAVORITES!!!

After the rally, me, Heidi, and Allison went around to some of the monuments. When we went to the World War II monument we found that everyone was putting their feet into the water which we are never able to do so we stayed and cooled off in the water!!! :) It was great!

About 1/6 of the people there! It was AMAZING!!

I was able to go to DC with my great sisters and some cousins for the 8/28 Restoring Honor rally! It was soo awesome!!! We were able to go to Georgetown Cupcake, the new food network cupcake show! They were pretty good but there are better cupcakes in Farmington, UT.

Leaving Utah :"(

Our last night in Utah we were lucky enough to go to The Portlocks for FHE and dessert! This is the best picture we could get of the clan!

I was able to spend lots of time with my beautiful sister Allison! :)

Our Aunt and Uncle live right next door to Our Grandparents so we got to see them and their cute son Stone a LOT!!! :) :) :)

Benjamin and Matthew were practically inseparable while we were in Utah! This is a day we went bowling! It was very entertaining!

Us kids were able to visit Utah a couple weeks ago and I went out with some friends and took pictures and this is one that I came back with! :)

Bridge to Canada up in Lexington

Beautiful Michigan!

Morgan has become a good friend of mine in our ward!

and so has Chelsey! :)

This isn't the greatest picture but this was on the fourth of July when we did fireworks!

Above are some pictures of the past 3 weeks and some other things that we have enjoyed while being here! We h`ave loved being with the missionaries! Me, Blake, and Matt were able to go bowling with 3 of the companionship's on Monday and had a blast! School starts in a week and we aren't so excited but it will give us something to do daily! YAY!!! More to come! Thanks for the love and support!

1 month down 31 more to go!

the highest roller coaster in the US was there and me and Blake were able to go on it! It was 120 mph in 100 yards and then up 420 feet and then back down! It was awesome!

Waiting in line...again! :)

All smiles at Cedar Point! :) haha

So I know I have stunk at posting! But here is a little re-cap of the last couple of weeks!
Blake started playing with the hockey team! YAY!!! He does conditioning with them a couple times a week and is doing awesome! The guys on the team or cool and Blake has been able to hang out with them a couple of times. I (Whitney) have made a couple of friends and we have been able to have a sleepover and hang out a couple of times which has been awesome! I also went to girls camp 2 weeks ago which was pretty good. Matthew has also made some friends and he has hung out with them a few times and it has been awesome! He actually just left to go Ice Skating with them. President and Sister Holmes are starting to get into the hang of things and they have been working very hard! The family has been able to do many things! We have gone to 3 converts baptisms so far and it has been wonderful to see how happy the converts are and the spirit there is so sweet! We have also been able to explore a little bit by going down into the city and getting a flat tire there and we also have had the chance to go to Cedar Point amusement park! We went yesterday and it was awesome! every ride there is a roller coaster! It was awesome! Above are some pictures of our adventures!!! Oh and i tried to get some pictures up from the baptisms up but it didn't work! grrr.. so hopefully I will be able to get those up some time!
The Holmes

More pictures of the house..or you could just come visit and see it for YOURSELF!!! :) :) :)

We have enjoyed eating outside every night we have been here! We have usually stayed out til dark and we have been able to see fire flies!!! There are so cool!!!! :) So here is the Fam last night!!!

Mom and Dad's office

The nicer dining room

The still nice but not as nice as the other dining room, dining room!

The house when you look at it from the front (Click on house to come see the house for yourself!!! :))

this a a big red tree in the back (If you remember correctly there is a tiny one in our backyard in Utah! haha.)

The Bike Barn: Where Elder's old bikes, bikes left here, and bike parts are, for the mission.

This is a little "garden circle" thing and there are little benches in the middle!!! (A PERFECT place for reading!!! :))

Our BEAUTIFUL backyard! We love it!!!

Blake's truck! He finally got to drive it today! In his words it's LIGIT!!! :)

Dads car! In Matthew's words it's SICK!!! :)

Our kitchen- it looks small but really there are 3 freezers, 2 ovens, 2 pantries, a compacter, and the rest is shelf space!

So as you can hopefully tell, we are doing pretty well and the house is truly amazing!!! Well, more posts to come! Keep looking and reading for more info on Adventures of the Holmes'!! :)

We see a visit to Detroit in your future... ;)

The Family room (Great for watching movies in! :))

The living room

The fam, with President and Sister Rawson

Matthew got to ride his rip stick through the Detroit airport! :D He enjoyed it!

The Family, leaving for the plane to Detroit.

Ok-yes, I know the blog has been lacking because obviously it is July 1st and still no post on the MTC, the flight here etc. etc. So here is me trying to fit the MTC to now into one blog post and let's hope it will make sense to all of you.

Now, President and Sister started off this Michigan Detroit adventure with a 5 day retreat to none other than the Provo, Utah MTC. They truly had a marvelous experience and couldn't explain how much peace they felt about this adventure (mission). They learned so much there and they couldn't make the point clearer that the teachers there taught them that they were first and foremost, parents. And that they should bring the kids along with them as much as they could. So there is the MTC..and now onto the flight.

The flight went very smoothly except for some turbulence here and there..a little worse than usual but we made it of course. OK, except for I was freezing and everyone else was perfect! I realized that I wasn't ready for Michigan weather quite yet. Haha. Anyway, we got in really late and all went to bed around 2:00 AM.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready to meet President and Sister Rawson, and the office missionaries. They were very kind and showed us the mission office and mission home. We were with them for a short while and then they left and President and Sister Holmes got to work and us kids, hung out, and just looked around the house.

Today, President and Sister Holmes had some meetings to go to while all of us kids, unpacked boxes and got situated. We then delivered lunch to the meeting. We ordered 19 foot longs from Subway! The people working there thought we were joking at first but then they realized we weren't. They then continued to begin making the sandwiches, accompanied by many jokes about ordering 19 sandwiches. One personal favorite- (customer to worker)- " What's all these random sandwiches?" (worker to customer) "Some girl came in and ordered 19 foot longs! She's feeding an army!". Our inside response to the last comment was, "Yes we are! The Lord's army!" Anyway, after delivering lunch we went to pick up Allison from the airport. She had quite the flight! Let's just say it included these few things- a fat guy, a cowboy, a yapping dog, and 3 sick people! I won't go into any more detail than that! But, she got here in one piece and glad she is here!!! We then came back to the mission home and just relaxed for the rest of the day! Above are some pictures from our adventure so far! So, come visit soon! We would love to have visitors!

Moving- but it's not us...

OK, OK....Yes we are still moving but everything we are taking left yesterday. The moving guys came and were so nice and polite. They packed up so much (I believe at least half of our stuff). Anyway, our stuff is on it's way to Farmington Hills, Michigan, where our home is. We are not sure when all our stuff will be there but we have packed enough for 14 days just in case it isn't there when we get there. So all in all our stuff has moved to a Bailey's moving truck and then on to Michigan.
Also, an introduction to the Holmes Family blog. This blog is mainly for us in Detroit but also for goings on for the 3 who are left behind (a.k.a Allison, Heidi, and Taylor and Ashley) . So if you need an update please just go to the blog and please do not call. My parents have a very busy life and a message or phone call takes exceptional time, especially with my mom. So please look at this blog for updates. Oh, and yes it will be updated every time something important happens.

With mounds of Joy and Love,