Our Break in AZ (via iphone)

We love our AZ family. It was so nice to get away from the bitter cold in Idaho and soak up some Vitamin D :) Heres (some) of what we did over the 2 weeks we were there.

I loved all the new traditions i got to be a part of this year! The Rollenders get matching PJ's on Christmas Eve. So, naturally, we all piled into the suburban on a QT run

The thing about the desert is that it gets really hot during the day, but cools off during the night! I wasnt prepared for this fact. I just figured it would be warm all the time, right? This is why we have random sweaters on! The lights on the Arizona temple is always a beautiful way to ring in the new year/celebrate the reason for the season.

Took the quads out with the cousins:) This was fun. My past experience with quadding consisted of driving around really fast at the cabin, or in the backyard. Never on a dirt trail..or jumping over hills! I was a little REAL nervous at first. But it ended up being really fun! We weaved in and out of sand washes and up a rocky mountain..it was gorgeous! But real dirty..haha.

All week long (before Christmas) Sophie saw Dev and I's longboards and kept saying, "I hope i get one for christmas. I probably will!" Little did she know, Devin an I had had one spcially made for her up here in Rexburg, and brought it down for her to open from her parents on Christmas. When she opened it she looked at me and said.."Did you know!!" haha-she was so excited to go to the park and break it in. I fell. Hence the scrape on my elbow. Its fine. It was fun. I love my little sister in law..shes 14 and turning into such a great friend!

Had to post this one..because whats a trip to Arizona without Bahama Bucks?

One morning, Devin and I were feeling particularly lazy, so we just sat outside and read our books.. I miss the feeling of the beautful sun on my skin! ps- im re-reading the Harry Potter series.. its just as great 10+ years later!

One day the girls had a painting day. I was nervous about this, too. The women in Devins family are ridiculously crafty and creative..and to sit next to them in a line-up of easels was intimidating. But I ended up loving everyone's paintings. It was fun to see all the different paintings that each had a bit of our own personality in them. We each had our own foam board. Juliana told us to be abstract! And let the juices flow. So this is what I ended up with, and I love it:) Dev and I's hands are in the corner, our anniversary in the middle, and there are lots of color blocks, splatters, and detailed scratches to give it the "crazy" look. And of course, the big L-O-V-E to tie it all in!

Our niece, Kenzie, wanted to do my hair in church. This is what she came up with. She is such a girl.

I think ill post a part 2 later because i have more pictures on my real camera. We had so much fun being home and cant wait till we get to visit again!
Back to the grind!

xoxo, lexi

The Toy Drive

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to co-spearhead a Toy Drive for our local foster kids in the Rexburg area. My friend and fellow intern, Erik, and I volunteered to put it on as a service to our internship at Child Protection. We spent hours cutting out little Christmas Trees and snowmen-each had a real foster kid (that we know and love)'s gender and age on them. 

We got volunters to do 2 hours shift from 9am-5pm.

The day of, Erik took the morning and I took the afternoon. 

How it worked: We stood outside WalMart (a volunteer on each door, with a cart and a handful of paper snowmen and christmas trees) and asked patrons as they were walking in if they would like to buy a present for a local foster kid in their area. They could generally pick form the pile the age and gender they preferred to buy for, and then return it to us in our carts at the door. 

The response that we got was incredible.

We had a good 4 or 5 van loads of presents by the time we were done. 

The people of Rexburg were so generous and willing to help!

It was freezing.. frost bite is a real thing.. it stopped being funny when it hurt to walk, my feet were so cold! im 99% sure i got sick from this day.

But it was worth it. 

People were coming up to me and saying. "Of course we will help, what do you need?"

or

"No.. thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve."

To me, that is what the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ is all about. 

I was reminded of that this weekend. 

Thanks, Rexburg. I just love you. Youve brought so much joy to my life!

Dev was my runner. He came the last part of the day-when a cart would fill up with presents, he would empty it into the van!

Mary holding our paper snowmen and holding down the side door!

Stuffing the van to the brim!

Erik and I in front of our loot! The tables stretched clear down the hallway behind us.

..And there were presents on every surface of the tables.

Thank you, thank you. To everyone who helped in any way. Happy Christmas:)

Pictures with Britt.

oh heyy... im sick. so that means I get to sit on our bed and do NOTHING. 

ha. i wish. ive still got a paper to write! But then im DONE with classes! 

can i get a "yay"? 

this weekend (before i got sick) we finally got to go out and take some pics with Brittany, our cousin. 

she is an amazing up-and-coming photographer. 

-Before I go on I must tell you that getting Devin to take pictures you would think I was trying to get him to get a tooth pulled.. he hates pictures. But I convinced him it was for the Christmas Cards!-

(which i prob wont send out..its real late by now) ha!

anyways. 

it was so much fun.

Devin put on his best smiles and humored me with the cheezy poses. 

He is just the cutest guy I know. 

I love when Britt is behind the camera. She does amazing things.

See her blog here! to see our pictures.

If anyone is in the Rexburg area, and needs engagements, weddings, family, or newborn pictures done..she's your girl :) 

xoxo, lexi

ps- off to AZ on Saturday! **yay!**

Thursday 3!

Can it be that time again already? Well, I came prepared this week.

This is actually an accidental picture. But i decided to share :) My mommy is the best mommy. This year for (early) Christmas, she bought Devin and I our very own PERSONALIZED stockings to hang! Aren't they so cute! I love them. Cant wait to fill them with yummy fun things!! But the great-ness of this picture is that we are super ghetto and dont have any stocking hangers..so i slapped some Velcro to the back of those babies and also my dryer. And we went for it! I think they really spice up the laundry machine, am i right?

This, my friends, is my greatest accomplishment for the week. I finally! beat my high score on the forever-addictive Iphone game, DOTS. If you've never played it, you have to download it. seriously. its free. 

And this is our Christmas tree! Happy Chrismukkuh everyone!

Tis the season! Im grateful to have a cute little family this Christmas. I love this man more than anything, and am grateful for his patience and unconditional love! This Christmas will be my 1st one away from home. We are going to the Rollender's in Arizona. yay for sun! It will be wonderful to be with family; I will miss my fam though. New traditions, yummy food, and lots of love headed our way!! 

xoxo, lexi

Thursday 3

Its that time again! Hopefully you enjoy just a few of our happenings as of late:) Stay warm everyone!

So.. as a lot of you are aware..it got super cold here in Rexburg this week. (Just -9 overnight) and unfortunately, my baby girl couldnt handle it. The battery died. Yesterday (since the power was out from 7am-1pm and we didnt have school/internship/work) We and our wonderful neighbor tried to jump it for a couple hours..to no avail. So what you see here is the men's attempt to push it back into a parking spot...but anywhere after that they were just ice skating! This is the current location of my car..until my Uncle Glenn comes to the rescue with a new battery today. haha.

 

My good friend Tara and I go on walks during the week..anddddd well. I just love snapping shots of her cute little man, Karson. Hes 6 weeks now and growing fast! He was so snuggled last night in his carseat! Just cute:) 

This is a weird picture of me. haha. But sometimes husbands cant find any better place to nap than the boob. (its fine)

Halloween.

Quick post about our Halloween fun. 

Devin and I are usually pretty laid back.. But this year we got invited to a Pirate-themed Mystery Party. I was reluctant to go, because, really!? A pirate?! But my wonderful husband convinced me and we threw our costumes together in 5 days. 

It ended up being lots of fun. Our characters were Capt'n Redbeard (Devin) and Sharktooth Brandy (Lexi). The Captain was an enthusiastic leader and was involved in all the business on land and sea. I, Brandy, was his sassy little sister, supposedly a mistress on land and sea;) 

Anyways, it was a night full of betrayal, love, and downright scandal. I think my favorite part was watching how into it Devin got. Also Ive never worn red lipstick before.. And I gotta say, it's fun! There was around 6 couples there altogether? We only knew 2, so I feel like it would've been a lot more fun if we knew everyone because I was still a little shy haha. The decorations were awesome- the host couple really went all out. The food was great, the company was better, but spending a night out with my hubby was the best. Here are some more pictures.. And we failed for not getting a group shot.

Brennan (the governor) Jonathan (thumbless jacky) and Devin (the captain) conversing 

Isn't my husband a hottie? 

I can't believe were on the downward slope of our semester already!! It's gone by real fast-which I'm okay with! Graduation in April, here we come! 

Xoxo, Lexi 

Thursday 3!

A very cute friend of mine does a "Thursday 3" blog post every week and I wanted to start it too. Basically every Thursday you get 3 random pictures from my phone (old/new) with an explanation :)

#1. Brag Post on how cute my husband is. I was at my internship..he went home for lunch. He said he was eating an apple.. I happen to be eating one too! So we had an apple date. I love him!! 

#2. Karson Haymore. It's so weird when friends you've known since elementary/middle school get married.. It's even weirder when they have a baby!!! He is so precious. Yay for another baby I get to snuggle!!! 

#3. My missionary! (He's the tall one on the right) I literally never would have guessed from the amount of screaming and hitting we did when we were young, but Jakey makes me proud everyday. He has grown up to be an amazing man! He is serving in Natal, Brazil right now and baptizing the heck out of everyone! 

Until next week!! 

Xoxo, Lexi

ps- for other "thursday 3" fun, see Audrey's  post! 

This Crazy Thing Called Life

Im going into my third week of my internship this week! It has been crazy. Even though I am only going to school T/TH, I am still working at the school 18-20 hours a week, and at CPS 20-25 hours a week. So its proving to be busier than i had originally thought! Its a weird concept to grasp that I am basically working full time, but only getting paid for half of it.

Free labor sucks!

But that is why its an internship, not a job :) 

I am learning SO MUCH. I work with (under) 5 other social workers in the office, and there is also a senior intern. The internship is 2 semesters long, so the students overlap. Having a senior intern has helped so much! A lot of times we just end up hanging out in the office for lack of things to do..im grateful to have him there to show me around and help with everything.

With 5 other social workers, there are lots of options on what to do. I get there at 9am and go to each of their offices and ask what they are doing that day, and I can pick where i want to go and what i want to do. The office is super chill and the social workers are all so willing to teach and be shadowed!!

Right now I am just trying to be a sponge. 

I havent seen anything too crazy yet, but I have gone to court a few times, done home visits, re-checked a dirty home, transported clients to and from foster homes/visits, read lots of case files, and scanned/filed lots of papers..

This was my first day-Here I am in the closet that they made an intern office! haha. its pretty great, i have a desk and computer, (in front of me) and then a large bookshelf lining the wall to the left.

 On another note: this past weekend, I was reminded why i LOVE working for the ticket office at school. Kris Allen came and performed! And I stood 3 feet away from him for an hour directing his 'meet and greet' line- then we snuck in and got a picture. I even had a small convo with him about a particular stalker that comes to every one of his performances...it was great. Hes so normal! and hott!

xoxo, lexi

 

So long, summer.

Well. Tonight was my last shift at work before school starts on Monday! 

See below for my really enthused look of locker room bliss. 

This summer was full of family, fun, weddings, and lots of driving! 

I love the extra time I got to spend with my handsome hubby. I love the paychecks I was blessed to work the long hours for. But mostly I'm happy to report that I read 3 books! 

1. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower-someone 

3. The Best of Me-Nicholas Sparks 

I think my favorite was #3. 

I'm also on season 5 of Private Practice. If you haven't seen it- it's pretty great. It's made by the same woman who created Grey's Anatomy... But not nearly as good. Just a good summer break time-waster. 

I think it's safe to say that we have had a pretty wonderful summer. But, alas, the streets are flooded once again with hurried students moving into their apartments and jumping in front of cars to cross the street.. ;) oh, rexburg. I just love you. 

Here's to a semester full of facing fears at my internship! 

Xoxo, Lexi 

Ps- I love to see the temple!

Today.

Today was a weird day.

We woke up and decided to float the river despite the growing clouds we saw in the sky. 

This was possible because we borrowed a friend's floater tube from them.. Because they're so great to let us!! 

So we set out to float.

Then the car air pumper didn't work when we got to the river. 

So we stole some electricity from a nearby house. 

Everything was great. We floated. The sun came out! It was relaxing. For bout 25 mins. 

Then there was a giant stick of death in the middle of river and we tried really hard to dodge it but we couldn't!!

DEATH TO THE RAFT. 

Air was bursting, we were sinking, towels and bums were wet. 

It was crazy! (But really funny)

We had to walk the last 0.75 miles of the river. 

So we laughed and went home. 

Later this afternoon we decided to continue the fun day off and go to the state fair!! Ronnie and Chels came with us. It was so much fun. We blew some money on food because I was STARVING. And then we rode the Ferris wheel.. I HATE heights. But it was great. 

Devin: "hey babe, can I win you a stuffed animal?"

Me: "sure, yes!" 

--walk up to the balloon popping game.. See a stuffed pig/cow above it---

"That one?"

So he throws it and makes it an whatever I get this 2 inch long snake thing.. Then the dumb swindler-of-a-carni hands Devin a couple other darts as a 'bonus'.. Again and again.. $15 MORE dollars later!!! I get a little stuffed pig. 

It was so frustrating. Because he mumbled and totally made us believe he was giving those darts to us for free!!!

So the moral of my rant: when you have a day off and you want to go have fun with your husband.. Sometimes it's better just to stay in bed all day and read books. 

I'm grateful for a husband that can laugh about a weird day. Heavenly Father stuck me with this one for a reason, people. Hes just so patient with the world. He's my best friend! 

Xoxo, Lexi

Also: my phone's broken.

So my phone is unable to connect to (any) wifi.. im taking it in next weekend. 

(and its a brand new phone!) Oh, Apple, if i didnt love you so much i would hate you! 

Heres some pictures to go along with my last post!

Sacramento, Aug 3rd. 2013.
My stud of a little brother, Walker, and I at Nathan's wedding!

My big brother, Nathan, moments after he tied the knot for eternity!
Sacramento, Aug 3rd. 2013.

My sissy and I @ Nathan's reception. I love herrrrr.

Aug 4th. 2013.
Marley Maria, and I, playing on the swings outside Daddy's house. 

Aug 5th. 2013.
My Lopho came over and watched The Bachelorette Finale with me! I am constantly inspired by you, everyday. So happy we have been friends since 3rd grade. 

Aug 7th. 2013.
Went to "brunch" with my Best Fran (and Dev came, too) @ Panera Bread.
This girl will forever be my best fran. Its like i never left. 

Aug. 8th. 2013.
San Diego, CA.
My Chels went through the San Diego Temple before her wedding day. So happy and blessed to be part of her special day. Ps- Devin and I barely made it to this session..we were coming from the beach and got stuck in traffic..hair in a bun, threw the skirt on..made it with 2 minutes to spare. #winning

After the temple, Chelsey's parents took us all out to P.F Changs. It was tasty. And my man is handsome. 

Aug 10th. 2013.
Chelsey and Ronald get married!
My Kimmay and I were honored to be part of the wedding party!!

August 16th. 2013
Island Park, ID.
Happy Birthday, Daddy! We celebrated with fun-fetti cake at the cabin with a giant candle i found in one of the drawers.
He's 53 and lookin better and better everyday!!

The second half of Daddy's birthday was spent in West Yellowstone. We got yummy milkshakes and saw Fiddler on the Roof at the Playmill theatre.

Aug. 19th, 2013.
Idaho Falls, ID.
Go Chukars! I just love him. 

xoxo, lexi.

Big Things

Big things are happening in the Rollender House!

Were growing up.

And its weird. but great.

Summer has proven, so far to be quite busy. Im at work, so im lame and going to post this post with no pictures!

{if you really want to keep up with our lives, add me on Facebook or Instagram (@lexi_roll)- thats where all the updates happen.}

California was amazing. We went to Sacramento: Nathan an Alicia are all cute and married! I loved seeing my family after 8 months of being home! We celebrated Devins 24th year of life..my cute old man, he is!!

And my mom gave us her old car! So we are a two car family now. YAY. 

We went to San Diego: We got there early enough to go through the temple with them for the first time. It was such a blessed experience and it renewed my testimony of the power of the blessings that stem from the temple. It was amazing! Then the wedding was beautiful, too. I love being able to go inside the temple for the ceremony. Each sealer is different as he speaks to the couple, and i try to take away something from each wedding we attend:) 

We came home, and went to the cabin: Daddy and Walker came up to the cabin in Island Park the week we came back. So we got to spend a couple days with them up there, too. We celebrated his birthday on the 16th by going to the Playmill Theatre. We saw Fiddler on the Roof! I highly recommend this place if youre ever in West Yellowstone. Theyre the best.

And thats that! Devin and I are both trying our hardest to get in 40 hours a week during these weeks we have left of no school. It doesnt leave a lot of time for each other, but were trying to squeeze in some cheap dates here and there:)

For example: Last week we went frisbee golfing. Devins favorite thing (besides me). It was pretty fun, and free! Marriage tip: Do the things your spouse likes to do. ;)

The other day we went to the Idaho Falls Chukar's baseball game. That was a fun experience, too. Devin and I both agree that baseball is pretty much the most boring sport ever..but hey, the tickets were free and anything is fun when youre with your best friend!!

Thanks for reading the rant. Ill post some pictures soon. 

Ps- Im finishing Pride & Prejudice in the next 5 minutes. Anyone have any good reads suggestions for the remaining 3 weeks of summer?

Happy Summer!

So i promised my lopho that i would blog for her by the time she got back from her East Asia trip. Shes been gone for 5 weeks. She gets back this week. I am blogging.

From Special Olympics, to company picnics; we live such a blessed life. AND we are happy!

Here is a rough overview I suppose of the last couple months. I apologize for not having pictures of everything! 

We went to Yellowstone with Jenn and Blake. So much fun! It rained. But then we saw Beauty and the Beast at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone...so it was worth it.

My best friend is getting married! August 10th we will be in the temple watching her marry her best friend. (Which happens to be Devin's cousin!) How lucky am I to have my best friend become a part of my family!! This is from her bridal shower Kimmie, Jenn and I threw for her. Shes pretty. And thats cider in her cup.

I would be no where without these women in my life. I am going to miss Jenn this next semester when she moves back to AZ. I was just beginning to feel like i had a real sister in town :( 

 

 

My little brother, Walker was in town a couple weeks ago. We had so much fun hanging out! I felt bad because Dev and I were in finals, but we tried to pack in as much fun as we could. He is 10 years younger than I, but look how tall! Sometimes i wish he was just my little baby again. 

 

Last weekend we went to The (my) Walker Family Cabin. This place is my happy place, and it meant so much that i was able to share it with the ones i loved!

Midnight Penny BlackJack. Dev was the dealer..and he lost! ha

The men after their creek adventure...They didnt know it here but Ronnie had a leech on his leg!!

 

So there you go. A little update on us. 

Nathan gets married on Aug 3rd, were going to Cali on Friday!! I am so excited to see my crazy family. It will be great! I would love to say Ill blog after the weddings, but i will prob forget. haha. 

These next 7 weeks of summer will be spent in cali, then we will be back here in idaho trying to work as many hours as we can and saving money. 

Happy Summer, everyone!