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