It's all over!

It's all over! :(

Yes, another wonderful Christmas is over! This Christmas

was so awesome! Now, yes it was really hard because

my brother wasn't around and this was the first

Christmas he wasn't home, but everything turned

out way perfect!

Christmas Eve we went up to my parents

& had our usually Christmas Eve party with family

& friends! It was such a blast!

We had delicious mexican food, and played bingo. Then

Adam & I were in charge of putting on the 'Minute to Win It'

game, which turned out to be a big hit! That night

Adam & I stayed @ my parents house with my sister

so she didn't have to stay alone. When we were younger

we all slept in the basement Christmas Eve and watched a

Christmas movie. so this year Adam & I stayed up there

and slept downstairs in the theatre room and watched

the Grinch.. I didn't last long I fell asleep fast, but it was way fun!

I was so happy to be home at my parents house and sleep over on

Christmas Eve! Christmas morning I was the first one up-weird haha i know-

I was excited! I woke everyone up around 7:30 to open presents!

I loved LOVED all my presents! it was awesome!

And I gave Adam two special presents..

a homemade quilt of all his favorite sports teams,

and a wedding ring! He lost his about a year ago

and it has been really sad that he hasnt' had one,

so I found a great deal on a large Tungsten style ring

that looks just like his old one! He LOVED it! :)

I was soo happy that he was excited about a

wedding ring, and he was really happy

to have a wedding ring back on-thank goodness right? :)

Christmas morning we went down to Adam's families,

and then back up to my parents to talk to my brother!

He's in Florida-we gotta talk for an hour and a half-

I love him! he's doing great!

Then that night we were over again at Adam's

families for Christmas Day/Night.

This Christmas was definitley one of my most favorites.

I loved the spirit that surrounded the month, and I was

really happy with the presents that I gave, and received!

And I love Adam! We were able to have a really special

holiday together again - going on #3 now! :) yes.. 3

Christmases, haha.

I love him!

I will try and post pictures really soon of Christmas!

And then soon I'll be posting pictures of New Years Eve,

we are heading to Vegas tomorrow! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful amazing Christmas!

:)

Counting down the hours!

It's so close... It's Christmas Eve day and I am currently

counting down the hours to get to my parents house!

Today as I was getting all packed and ready I was thinking

how blessed I am not only to be receiving some

awesome 'materialistic' presents but I am so blessed that I

have a warm house and wonderful family members

to spend time with! I am so blessed that I have such great

parents that always want to put together awesome parties and that

they are so giving to everyone around them!

This Christmas season has been an amzing one, I have

really enjoyed every bit of December (and it's not even over yet)

I have been able to do a lot of fun activites

that really got me in the Christmas Spirit!

I am really glad that my husband has been willing to

do a lot of activities with me and watch a bazillion Christmas

movies this season! I cant wait for everyone to open my gifts and

well let's be honest, i can't wait to open mine either  :)

I hope everyone can remember the true meaning of

Christmas as we celebrate today and tomorrow! And always be thinking

of the people that can't be with their families this year! I know

that we have three friends that will be spending the holidays with us

because they couldn't go home for Christmas this year and

we will be missing my brother a lot since he is in Flordia! ..but I do

get to talk to him tomorow! yay! I am grateful for great friends and family

that come together this time of year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I love you all!

Christmas Spirit

I love Christmas time!

It's by far my most favorite time of the year!

I not only love all the family traditions, but

I also love the spirit of Christmas.

This last week was a busy one at my house!

I had a work Christmas dinner, shopping for

Kony Coins for Kids, and then

Forgotten Carols.

I am really happy that every year 99.9 puts on Kony Koins for Kids!

In the past I have been able to wrap for the children

and shop for them but it has been a really

long time.

This last week I decided that I really

wanted to go shoppping so who better to ask to

come with me than my husband?

so we went to Wal Mart and

started shopping like crazy!

It was really fun for me to pick out cute things for the

little girls! We had two girls

and one boy.. Thank goodness

we had a boy or Adam would have gone crazy!

It was so fun to pick out things that we thought these little

kids would love to open on Christmas morning.

The only sad part is that they only have enough for $70 per child

which is pretty hard even at Wal Mart believe it or not!

But I am glad the kids will at least have new clothes

and a few awesome toys on Christmas.

Did I mention Adam hates hates crowds? and shopping with me?

haha he was seriously a great husand to come and support me though!

Anyway- Forgotten Carols - if you haven't seen this

in St. George, please go.... next year because it's already over!

This really put me in the Christmas spirit.
Such a great story and great performances!

I loved the music and the spirit they left with us when we left!

I can't believe Christmas is only in a few days and I am so excited!

I have some pretty awesome presents for people

and I am really excited to see them open them! :)

I hope you all are getting in to the spirit of Christmas

and remembering the true meaning!

Love you all!

Great Christmas-ey Night!

Last Friday night was such a fun night!

Adam & I went with my family to Anasazi Steakhouse for dinner.

This place is delicious! We rarely.. okay basiclaly never

go here because it is pretty expensive! It's so cool though!

They bring your food (steak/chicken etc.) on a hot rock

where you cook it yourself to how you like it!

Next cool part? they have fondue! I love fondue.. who doesn't?

They have yummy cheese fondue that you dip with veggies and bread, and

then their wonderful dessert fondue where again they bring out

yummy fruit and other items to dip into

a great assorment of melted chocolate.

So that started off our night great..

Then as a family we got in my dad's truck and went to look at Christmas

lights all around town!

Usually it get kind of boring after a while, but

we just had so much fun together!

And also stopped and had the best hot chocolate ever!

(it's at the Shell gas station on bluff)

We also saw some amazing lights!

At the end of the drive around town we stopped at Denny's and had some

dessert to top the night off!

I loved being with Adam and my family

and being able to enjoy the Christmas spirit

and see some amazing lights!

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season..

it'll be over before we know it!

Christmas Time!

These are so cute huh! I love the movie Elf! (& I did get to watch it the other night!)

Oh I love Christmas! I love the whole month of December! I love all the cute decorations at my

house and I love my Christmas tree! I love the chilly weather-only in December though!

I love giving and getting :) I love suprises and I love Christmas treats.. ok I could go

on for awhile, but that would be totally boring for you!

I am happy that Adam & I have some people checked off our shopping list already!

I got his parents gift and I picked Tony (my bro-in law) this year for a present

and I already have him done! And....we have our neice and 3 nephews done! YES!

We got them a combined gift which was a great idea! So left on my list.. friends,

Meserve Fam, and Adam's brother! Not soo bad right? I don't think so!

I have Adam's presents almost done too! I am making him a sweet sports quilt, which he already knows

about, and no I haven't started on that so I need to get that finished in the new 2 weeks!

And then I got him another really cool thing.... but you'll have to wait till

after Christmas to know what it is.. (in case he reads this) :)

Well I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!

Little Survey!

A is for age: 23

B is for band of choice: umm. I love hip hop/country/pop - I dont know! I love Lady Antebellum & Sugarland! and a lot of hip hop artists that aren't in bands?

C is for career right now: Administartive Assistant

D is for your dogs’ name: Montana!

E is for essential item you use everyday:  chapstick!

F is for favorite TV shows at the moment: Life Unexpected, Gossip Girl, Biggest Loser!

G is for favorite game: Solitaire - I know so lame, but for some reason I am addicted.

H is for Home town: St. George/Diamond Valley, UT

I is for instruments you played: Flute in 6th grade! yay band class! & piano for like 5 years or so when I was younger!

J is for favorite juice: O.J. or Pineapple Juice

K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: hahah.. um? who knows!  

L is for last place you ate: at home on my dining room table!

M is for marriage: yep.. for 2 years now! holla!

N is for your nickname: Manda, manda panda, manda bear..... i didn't have a lot of nicknames.. i mean you can't shorten 'amanda' - NO you can't.

O is for overnight hospital stays: none, thank you! so far!

P is for people you were with today: my boss Chad at work .. all day. Adam & Mel at my house earlier

Q is for quote: 'Life isn't measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away'

R is for biggest regret: hmm.. not dancing longer. I quit at about 16 - should have done it longer!

S is for status: Fb status? something about Dickens Festival tonight my little sis is singing!

T is for time you woke up today: 7:20

U is for underwear you're wearing: hot sexy g's!

V is for vegetable you love: red/yellow peppers, cucumbers!

W is for worst fault: fault? me? what!  hmm.. blurting things out I should think about first, being judgemental, talking.. a lot..

X is for x-rays you've had: a lot on the mouth! and I think maybe one on my knee?

Y is for yummy food you ate today: a yummy warm tortilla... big delicious grapes!

Z is for zodiac: Gemini! :)

xoxo

BYU vs UTAH

Once I got married I became introduced to a long lasting family tradition! The BYU vs UTAH game! My husband is in love with BYU.. they are his favorite most favorite college team! He has  loved them since he was little! So.. every year since I"ve known him we have had a little 'party' at our house w/friends and family to watch the game! When I was growing up I never was really into football and honestly had no idea how intense and crazy the 'Holy War' really is! haha.. well anways we had our annual party this last Saturday! It was fun to have family and friends over but unfortunately the game was not in our favor this year. BYU lost by only 1 point! I really couldn't believe it because the Cougars were up the whole entire time until the 4th quarter and then the stupid Utes beat them by 1 point. It was a sad night after that! But all in all our party was a success! Here are just a few pictures I took!

 

Adam & Ladd wouldn't smile for me!



mom & I





sister & mom



Kris & I





Mom & Dad



xoxo

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving #1 at the Meserve Family! Adam, I and our roomie Keli'i went up to my parents house first around 11 and then had dinner with them at about 1. I love Thanksgiving dinner! It was so good! My favorite dishes are green bean casserole, my dad's homemade stuffing, and of course pies! This year it was a little different at my families house because we didn't have my Aunt's family or my grandparents or Trevor...but it was still really fun!

Tay & I

 


Parents Cooking





Adam Cooking






Montana!



Yummy Thanksgiving Dinner



She is stuffed and sleepy



Adam & I

After we finished at our first Thanksgiving house we went down to St. George to have our 2nd dinner at the Holden's! This house was definitley more busy and had a lot more people! We got to spend it with aunt & uncle, brothers and sisters and Adam's parents! It was a delicious meal!

I love Thanksgiving time! I had a really great holiday and a great weekend! It always goes by too fast which makes me sad, but I am looking forward to Christmas! I have some awesome presents in the works and I am excited to spend time w/our families again!

Thank you everyone I love you!

xoxo

p.s. sorry for the picture overload! :)

Great Quote for Thanksgiving

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

-William Arthur Ward

quite a different Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving is going to be quite different! 

See every year we always have family around for Thanksgiving!

 Well this year is different...

First things first, my brother is gone on a mission :(

He is going to be missed this year during the holidays! He has only been gone since August and so to not have him around for the holidays will be an adjustment. And Trevor has always been involved in all holiday traditions/festivities and so it will be weird

Last year we had the great experience of having my grandparent's (mom's parents) come to our house for Thanksgiving. They usually always come out for Christmas but hardly Thanksgiving, so this was a great time! Well this year, unfortunately I don't know if we will be getting that special opportunity to see them at either holiday. They are going to for sure be staying in Colorado over Thanksgiving. boo, i am very upset about this!



Grandpa Shifflet & me



Other changes... One of my favorite cousins and one to who I am most close with got married this last October so she is now splitting up the holidays between 3 families.. her mom, dad and new in-laws.



These are my Shifflet side girls! I love them all!



My Aunt Amy got divorced a few years ago and usually we can count on having her around for the holidays, but this year she will be spending it with her boyfriend's family (i think) and her kids will be with her ex-husband. Therefore.. that leaves me with 4 people..

Adam

Mom

Dad

Taylor

:)

Yep, just us five this year! I know dinner will still be AMAZING, because my parents are cool like that! My dad is a great cook and I know dinner will be fabulous but it'll be just different! I am not really use to having just us 5 for a holiday!

But I think we will make it special since it will just be us few!

For Adam's family

They all come down here to St. George! Which I am truly blessed for because this way Adam and I get to spend the holidays with both of our families and enjoy activities with both sets! I am thankful that they don't live too far away and we get to see them often!

We will be seeing them on Thanksgiving as well! Luckily, our families do Thanksgiving dinner at different times of the day so we get to have 2 dinners and hit up both places!

Both houses are very different. See Adam is the baby in his family, while I am the oldest by 4 years!  My family this year will be the 4 of us(as mentioned above) and no young children, or older children that are married yet (except me :))

but you see in Adam's family he has two older siblings who are both married and then we have 4 little niece and nephews! The house is full and so fun! Both houses I wouldn't miss out on!

It's kinda fun because I get to be the baby in Adam's family....

and I've never gotten to be the baby of any family!

can't wait for next week..

xoxo

monday model

One of Adam & I's good friends own the hair salon, Colour. I finially was able to get in to see Jess and she dyed my hair (see previous post). She is amazing! Anyway she had asked if I would be a model for one of her hair shows this last Monday. I was more than willing to do this, it sounded way fun! I didn't realize that we would be getting our hair styled by a very talented person and I didn't know I was going to have a crazy up do! There were six models and we all had super awesome hair! As you can see in the above picture I have like tooel in my hair and a styrofoam circle that we wrapped my hair around! And yes, that is all my natural crazy hair! Jess did my make up - I had some tooel over my left side of my face, so they only did make up for this one side shown! We had to model up a little run away and then sit and pose as Jess did her presentation! It was a really fun experience! Thought i'd share the crazy hair do with all of you!

xoxo

New Hair!

One more thing...

I got my hair done! FINALLY. You probably can't really tell in the picture below but I dyed it red and put a few blonde highlights in the front! The red is actually quite intense in the sunlight and I loved it! (yes I realized that sounded retarded) :)

Vegas November 2010

Yet again another softball tournament! But this time it was in Vegas and it was actually a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures of the trip!

We went down to Vegas on Friday night and had dinner with my parents who were down there for one of Linzi's races! She is freakin good, although sadly, I haven't been able to see her race yet! Anyway, we stayed at the Sahara our first night because it was cheap.. haha.. well cheap prices=cheap rooms :) probably enough said! It was crappy.. I dont really recommend stayin there to anyone! Then Saturday was the all day tournament! Lucky for me, most of the wives come so I have fun hanging out with them! Liz, Karla, and I kept each other company through out the day! The boys ended up not doing so well, and were done by about 7 that night! (I didn't mind) So we went back to our room.. Thank goodness though that we ended up reserving the Riveria hotel for Saturday night. The Riveria was actually a really nice room.. SO much better than Sahara. That was the first time for me staying at either hotel. That night we went out to the Planet Hollywood Casino and ate at PF Changs which is one of Adam & I's favorite places to eat! It was a fun night out with everyone! I am so glad that everyone on the team gets along well and we can all hang out together. Sunday we spend most of the day shopping and then had dinner at the Pink Taco at the Hard Rock Casino- which was really really good! I'll defintiely be going back there next time I'm down!

I have more pictures which you can check out on Facebook! All in all it was a fun trip! :)

2 years ago

So two years ago on October 25, 2008 I married Adam Davis Holden! Now I know that October 25th has already come and gone but I thought I would re-cap our day and our 2 year anniversary! I loved my wedding! It was the most amazing day ever! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect beautiful day! I am so grateful that I have my wedding video that I can look back on and watch over and over again! I also am so happy that I had great friends and family there to support us! Even though we have had our up's and down's the past 2 years it has been one amazing adventure, literally! We have both gotten new jobs, left old jobs, made new friends, fizzled out old-friends, gone across the country together, experienced plenty of road trips, played in the snow, had 2 amazing holiday seasons, gone to Hawaii together, sat at the softball fields, watched great friends get married, bought new cars, sold old cars, had hospital visits, got a cute puppy, fought, snuggled, cried, laughed, kissed, hugged, lived and loved!
I love this little boy... (He's little at heart!) :)

This year was Adam's year to plan our anniversary! Now.. we are a poor married couple so we couldn't really go on any elaborate trips so ... Adam decided that I was taking work off and we were going to Pine Valley to stay at my parent's cabin. We went up to the cabin after church on Sunday and packed a bunch of groceries! The weather was pretty chilly we had to bundle up to go outside, but the leaves were gorgeous! I love fall and so does Adam.. it's our favorite time of year so we were both excited to get out and take a drive to look at the leaves! Pine Valley is a beautiful place and had was sure ending it's fall season we were up there!

We didn't do a whole lot when were up there. We mostly lounged around and relaxed and then went for a little hike and a drive to look at the leaves!

This is a picture of us at a beautiful spot where the leaves are changing! I love the yellow!

Adam has a special attachment to dogs! This black lab comes over to our house whenever we show up there! She loves Adam! .. oh and montana!

I had a great anniversary weekend! It was really fun to just hang out and get away for a few days! I am so happy we have now been married 2 years I cannot picture myself with anyone else and look forward to many more years ahead! love you Adam!

Save a Sister 5k

Two weekends ago ( I know I've been terrible at blogging lately) was our Save a Sister 5k Run for Breast Cancer! Me, my mom, and my sister all ran it! It was actually really fun, especially being able to run it with my family! And it made it even better since it was for a good cause! The weather was also perfect. It had rained the night before and so it was a little chilly but not bad and it was nice and cloudy! I placed 20th in my age division, which is like 19-25 i think, so it wasn't horrible but wasn't the best either! I am trying to beat my times each time I run! My last 5k I did in 44 minutes and this one was done in 41 minutes... okay 4 minutes, not a big deal, I was hoping for a little more than that, but oh well!

I will be posting more soon! I have a lot more to blog about my days have just been so busy lately! :)

Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner finally!

Can I just tell you how much I love these girls?

So I was finally able to attend one of our monthly dinner/get togethers! I was SO happy! And yes, I'm late blogging about it. It was over a month ago that we went but I wanted to upload all my cute pictures now!

Below you can see cute Tasha's prego belly! She is having a boy and due in December! She's so so cute!

Above is Tash me and Karalee! It's so awesome that we are able to all keep in touch and see each other often! I have known these girls since I was little and now we are all on crazy adventures!
Tasha has been married for 2 years now and is expecting her first baby in December!
Karalee just recently finished serving a mission for the church in Brazil! She is amazing!
Carrie has the cutest (almost) 3 year old girl named Lilly who is adorable!

Sarah (missing the dinner I attended) but she is getting married in less than a month!!

Chelsey & Liz . I miss them and love them! :) They both moved away from St. George! Luckily I see Liz quite often, thank goodness! But Chels I do not see enough!!!

Here are some more cute pictures of us at dinner w/Tasha's belly! :)

It's so crazy that not too long ago we were all having sleepovers talking about our 8th grade crushes, going to high school games and dances together, and playing summer night games in Diamond Valley!! And now.. we are all married, old, have or having children, and going after our careers! Life has certainly changed for us all, but not our forever friendship and bonds we all share!

Love you girls :)

5k run #2

My mom, sister and I decided we wanted to do this 5k run here in St. George. It is on October 23rd at 9:00 a.m.! I am really excited because it is the Save a Sister run and 50% of the registration fee goes to Dixie Regional Medical Center's Breast Cancer Division! I think that's awesome! Obviously I am excited since this is the Breast Cancer Awareness month and I am getting to contribute in some way! I haven't really been trainig that often.. so I hope I can make it! :) I have only ran a few times since the last 5k run in August... so since I am a procrastinator I realized I only have like a week and half so I better start running now! It'll be a fun race to do w/my sister (who hasn't ever done a race before) and my mom (who has ran the marathon a few times).. and me (who has only ran one 5k).. good combo! haha. We are happy to support Breast Cancer and I hope there are a lot of surviors out there running it!
:)

new update!

Well I haven't updated on anything in awhile! September flew by for me! I can't believe it has already come and gone! September consisted of

1) Labor Day weekend in Pine Valley with the family!

2) Softball tournament for Adam in St. George

3) Brother -in-law had back surgery so Adam & I helped his family out and watched our cute niece and nephews!

4) Every Saturday went and watched Adam coach football! It is actually fun to watch!

Well that about sums up our September! It wasn't a super eventful month but it seemed to be busy!

Now the month of October! Oh how I love thee! October has always been one of my favorite months. I love fall time! I love the beautiful red orange and yellow leaves, I love pumpkin pie, apple cider, hot chocolate, crisp nights, and everything else about fall :)

I also have an extra love for this month because it is the month I was married! Adam & I got married on October 25, 2008! yes.. this year is our 2 year anniversary! CRAZY I know! It's on a Monday so unfortuntley we can't really do anything far away or go anywhere, but oh well. It'll still be special!! And... my parent's annversary is October 11, and now my dear sweet cousin Kelsey will have her wedding anniversary on the 9th.. For me.. it's a big month of love :)

Also.. I love the fall/Halloween decorations! My cute hubbie suprised me last week and went out and bought some cute Halloween decorations for our house! I didn't buy any new decorations last Halloween so the very minimal decorations I had were older. Adam picked out the cutest things. He really knows my style and for some reason has a really good eye for decorating! (haha love you).. anyways, here is a little picture of our front door! Cute new wreath and rug!

Cute isn't it! :) He did a good job! Now my house is all ready for Halloween!

I have a lot going in October as well! I am so ready for everything! Here is my list for October!

1) (already) had a great weekend last weekend! Had a fun day in Mesquite for Adam's little league football game! Then spent a great day in Pine Valley to watch General Conference.

2) Tomorrow night I get to go to the temple and see my cousin kelsey take out her endowments. 3) Kelsey's wedding day on Saturday October 9th!

4) Adam has a softball tourney the 23rd!

5) I want to do this 5k race for Breast Cancer on the 23rd! I am hoping to get my butt in gear for it!

6) Adam & I 2nd wedding anniversary!

7) HALLOWEEN! :)

Again.. love this month and am excited for these fun activities ahead!

On a side note.. I am feeling really grateful today for my husband. Yesterday was a great day! I came home for lunch as I always do and Adam had the garage door open for me so I could pull right in since it was pouring rain outside! See my garage door opener doesn't work, so I thought it was super thoughful that he opened the door for me so I wouldn't have to run in the rain! He also.. had warm chili cooking for me for lunch! :) And... last night as he was watching Monday night football he was browsing through channels on the commercial break and one of my all time favorite movies was on and I so wanted to watch it!... well he was so sweet and sat there and watched the cute movie with me instead of football! :) These are probably little things to everyone, but I love the little things! They mean so much to me, and I am so happy that I have a thoughtful husband who thinks of these little acts!

That's all for now! :)