I am always up to be on any kind of stage, even if it means a moving stage. Bro Hale in our ward builds a float every year for the Phoenix Electric Light Parade, he has been doing it for like 6 years now and has won a bunch of times. This year the parade theme was Christmas Round Up and our float theme was the sherrif having Christmas dinner with the outlaws. Bro Hale had asked Will to be the sherrif and he was stoked! This was a two night event, Friday was judging night, where the judges would walk around and score each of the floats. Will had to work that night, so I asked an old high school friend that I had kinda lost contact with to come (I also have zero western wear and she rides horses, so she was the prefect person to ask!). Friday night was super cold and we didnt come prepared with blankets and such, but we got a free t-shirt at the end of it. After the judging, Katie (my friend) and I went to the this awesome healthy resturant right now the street, La Grande Orange. I was so nice being able to have a little girls night and catch up with an old friend.
 Saturday night was the big parade, but Will and I had a busy day that day so we were rushing to get ready for the parade that night. We all met at my house, Katie brought another old friend of mine that I use to cheer with Courtni, and we all headed to the parade float. Mind you the traffic was crazy! Once the parade started it was so much fun! Its funny to see people ready really excited to see normal people on a float. Will soaked up all the attention and really played up the Sherrif role. After the parade our hands and cheeks were so sore from all the smiling and waving ( such hard work riding a float). I guess the parade was on TV too, So look out for us on the news! If anyone asks you to be on a float, SAY YES, it's to much fun to say no too.

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, so time to play catch up! It's a busy time of year and I would forget my head if it weren't attached. Will and I get to do all of our first Holidays this year, and we are really excited to start new traditions!

First things first-Thanksgiving

Surprisingly Will likes my cooking, but I wasn't going to cook a whole Thanksgiving for the two of us. First, We are poor and don't have the money to go out and buy a whole Thanksgiving dinner, Second, We both not really like Thanksgiving dinner. Third, I didn't want to bake a turkey. Lol! So, We decided that morning, to make a nice breakfast. I ran to the store grabbed some breakfast essentials. Made some awesome pancake mix from scratch, with vanilla. So Yummy! But, my experience with cooking pancakes has been very minimal. So, you guessed it I burnt the first pancake, but Will ate it anyway. I cut up some strawberries and sprinkled them with sugar. Warmed-up the syrup ( grew up with warm syrup on my pancakes-pancakes are not good unless the syrup is warm) and set the table. Here was our little Thanksgiving breakfast.



Happy Smokey Thanksgiving! # BurntAPancake #IWillCookYouBreakfast #NotATurkey

For Thanksgiving dinner, we got invited to have dinner with a wonderful family in our ward. They cooked a beautiful dinner, we talked about each others future plans, they all tried to convince me to move to Hawaii (The parents met and BYU Hawaii, and Will will take every chance he can get to convince me), and Will got to jam out on a Ukulele. After dinner, Will and I played our new Mario game (that we are obsessed with) on the Wii U. It was the perfect first Thanksgiving for us!

Next-Black Friday!!!!

We werent sure if we were going to be brave enough to venture out on Black Friday-But we both had the day off and thought was the heck we might as well. Will has been living out of a laundry basket since we have been married and it was our mission to find him a dresser on black friday. So, we decided to hit up IKEA. Wrong-o, they had ZERO sells. We walked out spending $9.00 for mixing bowls and a stuffed alligator. We saw some furniture stores around IKEA that were having sells and popped to see what they had. Nope, the furniture on sell was still like $700, we are poor remember. Our Black Friday was a flub. But, I wasnt about to give up! We headed to target. We got some towels, DVD's, and a mop on sale! Our Black Friday wasnt totally a downer, but we still were left dresser less. :(

Side Note- I found a nice IKEA dresser for $50 on Mesaconsign facebook page like two days later. I dont think any Black Friday Deal could top that!


Lastly- Christmas

Because this is our first Christmas together, I wanted to start some traditons. Also, Im really excited to decorate!! Our Christmas decor is black and white themed with touches of red. 

I wanted to make as much as I could for decorations. I found an awesome fabric store that sells by the pound and went to town on making stockings.

It's week before Thanksgiving and I am thankful for alot of things. First my husband, he is my best friend and I love being with him. I love coming home to someone who will play with me, love on me, and make sure everything is okay. Second I love my jobs (its no secret that I love to work, I have 3) because it makes me feel good and successful. My office job loves me and makes be feel important. They are always amazing by the things I can create and I love that! My two other jobs are my passions, I get to work with children and teens and love that they are amazed by little me. Third, I am thankful for the gospel. I have been slacking lately, Working 3 jobs makes you sick a lot. I haven't been to church I a couple of weeks because by Sunday I cant even stand. But, I know my heavenly father loves me and watches over my little family. I get so much happiness from serving my fellow Brothers and Sister. There is some much more to be thankful for, but these are my favorites.

I think I've mentioned before Will and I are ward missionaries and we take this calling kinda seriously. lol! We are always visiting investigators with the missionaries and I feel like they are always at our house for dinner. Anyway, last Saturday night WE GOT A BAPTISM! Actually two, a mother and her daughter. I haven't been to a baptism in over a year and I had forgotten what it feels like to be part of one and was reminded of the convents you make with Heavenly Father the day you get baptized.



I know what baptism is and what it is for, but I had forgotten how strong the spirit is when their is a baptism, and how much you feel the saviors love when you are part of a child of god turning their lives unto Christ. One thing that stuck out to me during one of the talks was baptism is representing our death and Resurrection. I knew this, but hearing it again made me ponder on it. We are laid down in the water to represent our death, and brought back up out of the water representing Resurrection. We become clean and pure under the water and brought back up perfect. This convent is the first step towards our Heavenly Father and returing back to him. The next steps are to keep his comandments, get married in the the temple, and endure to the end. I am married to my eternal companion forever and I was able to go to the temple because I made covent when I was eight years old to follow Christ. Its crazy to think that the decision I make when I was eight affected my whole life and lead me to where I am today. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me and a plan for everyone. I know that he is extremely happy when his children do good and follow in his path to return to him. I am so blessed to have the Gospel in my life, it truely makes me happy. I am so greatful that I am able to be with my sweetheart forever thur the priesthood. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much that I am forever in debt to him. I love the Gospel! Amen.

So last night, Will and I went to a concert invited by an awesome family in our ward and a few other members, instend of going to leadership training (Shhh!). All we were told was that it was an acapella women's group. We had no idea what we were getting into. Lol! Funny thing is that Will was youtubing acapella groups that day and was super pumped to go. I was really excited to because I had never been to see an all acapella concert before. The concert was down at the Chandler Center for the Arts, so we had a good hour to talk and get to know some more people in our ward. Will and I are ward missionaries and mostly hang out with the investigators at church, so we don't really get to know anyone. But, it was awesome to get to know some more people in our ward.
We get the Chandler Center for the Arts and their is alot of gray in the audience, one of the ladies that came with us said "I'm so glad you guys came, because I am usually the youngest one here.". The curtains open and it's about 100+ women is bring sparkly blue tops and black velvet pants, they start to sing and then they start dancing. It was something straight our of glee. Will turned to me half way through the show and says "I could see you doing something like this", to bad I have no idea how to sing. Lol! I was so happy and entertained. The show was fabulous, they had the Chandler High choirs sing and a couple of quartets also. But the main show was the women, they are called Scottsdale Women's Chorus, they are 4 time international winner, so a pretty big deal. I was so impressed of how professional and energetic they were. Overall the most entertaining concert I have ever been too.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own world (the cheerleading world), you forget that there are other worlds out there. Barbershop style is a world I have never heard of before and it is to interesting to get push out of your world into another.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a groupon for a glass blowing class at a local studio in Phoenix. It was right down the street from our house and looking really fun for a date night, so I bought it. The studio was behind a house and looked kinda sketch, but we decided to still do it as long as Will had his keychain pepper spray on hand. It was a small class of about 10 or so people. The instuctors were really funny too! Everyone got a turn to go up and make their pumpkin, the instuctors were really hands on so our pumpkins didnt turn out like a blob of glass. We got to choose our colors and help with the blowing, and melting. We picked up the pumpkins a few days later because the pumpkins could not be taken home right after class, and they turned out really pretty cute, and great for fall decorating.





 

So, we are almost at the half way mark for our first year and I want to share a list of all the little things I love about Will since we have been married.

• I only have to wait 5mins to get into the bathroom
• He can reach the top shelf
• He laughs at my bad jokes, not to be sweet, but because their so bad
• I love that Will is not a girl and doesn't steal my clothes, shoes, jewelery, and make-up
• The car oil magically gets changed before the light comes on.
• A personal garbage man and the garbage never piles up
• I never leave the house with bad fashion
• A personal banker and he makes sure I don't go broke from shopping
• Eats my leftovers, so I don't have too
• He makes sure I have all the things I need or may just want
• Checks in on me to make sure I'm not dead
• He makes sure I don't cut all my hair off when I'm sick of it
• A personal Chiropractor (Well kind of)
• I dont have to give talks and lessons by myself anymore
• and Lunch dates

But, most important thing I love about Will is his Love. He has some much love for the lord, for living things, and me. I couldnt ask for a better eternal partner.

Last Wednesday, Will and I went to the John Mayer concert. It was at the Desert Pavillion, which has outdoor and lawn sitting. We got the cheapest seats in the house and that put us in the lawn. I have never seen a concert there and really liked it. We could change our seats as many times as we wanted. I love John Mayer! I make my office listen to the John Mayer station everyday and our first dance was to a John Mayer song, so I was really excited to go.
The Pavillion is about 45mins away from our house, the parking was crazy (everyone and their mom was there). Will and I got to the concert right as his opening act was finishing up. We found a good peice of grass with a good view.  We waited maybe 30mins for John to come out. Once he came out everyone stood up and so did we and we listened to 3 or 4 songs and then decided to walk around. About the 6th song in, Will and I looked at eachother with the same thought, you wanna go get slushies and watch X-files. YES! Mind you Will and I worked all day and we both had work early the next day. I was kinda over the whole concert thing and getting out of the parking lot after the concert was going to take forever. So we headed for the exit.
We headed to the nearest sonic and got some slushies, listened to Britney Spears on the way home, and watched an episode of X-files (We in the 3rd season. LOL!) before going to bed. We were in bed by like 10:00 the latest.
I guess I'm just to old for mid-week late night concerts. So glad I have Will who agrees with me.

I'm a couple weeks late, but FOOTBALL season is here, which means CHEERLEADERS!! JV and Freshman had their first game a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to post some pictures, because coaching cheer is a HUGE part of my life. Sometimes I feel like a second mother to theses girls. I am so proud of them for doing an amazing job at their first game. We even got a compliment from the athletic director!

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love all the free candy and getting to dress up like something totally crazy. This year because we are out on own I got to decorate how I wanted. I must say the Holmes are ready for Halloween!

About two weeks ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to go to Panama for a wedding. But, for some background, because Panama is such a random place to go.

Will served his mission in Panama, and just fell in love with the people there. He has gone back almost every year after his mission and he's been back for about 7 years. One of his best friends, Emil, invited to us to his wedding in the Panama City Temple and how could we not resist.

I was pretty nervous going because even tho I live in Arizona, I hardly know Spanish and have never been south of the border. I was afraid I would be the cute silent wife sitting in the corner, not saying a word because I couldn't understand the language. I must say it was a little like that but I had so much fun and fell in love with the people there as well.

We we got there, Noriel (Will's very best friend) picked us up from the airport and we had dinner at Tyty's house, one of the families Will taught of his mission. The food is super strange, I didn't really eat anything that whole week, I'm a very picky eater.