My name is Alexandra Holt, but I’ve always gone by Alex (or Axe… or Axeskull, or whatever else my little tomboy heart asked my very compliant parents to call me during my formative years). Somehow, the names have stuck, and I will forever be known as Axe by my mother and father.
I have been married for almost 8 years. Together, my husband and I have three rascally boys who keep me on my toes. My four-year-old shocks me with his knack for creativity when it comes to drawing and building with Legos. My two-year-old is my little clone, rambunctious yet sweet. He loves to sneak candy at 3 a.m. and we wake up to him being covered in melted chocolate. My youngest is almost a year old and, is in my opinion, the most mellow and happy baby on the planet. That guy can sit through a state wrestling tournament without so much as a whimper. I love seeing all of their weird quirks, hearing all of the terrible potty jokes, being asked to help build Legos, and just enjoying all things boy. My husband and I hope to have all boys because I genuinely don’t do my hair or makeup on a regular basis, and I am pretty unsure if I would be able to teach a daughter how. My sisters refer to me as their favorite brother because I have always been very unladylike, and I’ve got a reputation to uphold – ha!
I have lived in Idaho my entire life, being raised in Boise until I was 18. I grew up loving ballet, lacrosse, basketball, and just about any other sport that my parents were willing to let me participate in. I was a hellion of a child, microwaving foil, setting things on fire, painting the walls with nail polish, all that jazz.
My parents fondly recall the time I ran away from home as a toddler, only to be picked up by my dad’s brand-new boss: the police chief. Everyone is probably impressed that I grew up to be a contributing member of society. I was that kind of child. Thank heavens I mellowed out!
I moved to Idaho Falls right after I graduated and met my husband just as he was coming home from a two-year church mission. We were ‘Parent-Trapped’ by our younger sisters who, like every young teenage girl, dreams of becoming sisters with her best friend through some miraculous event. In their case, stealing our phones and texting one another totally worked. I convinced my husband to marry me after I assured him I really do like video games (true) and I would totally go hunting with him (not so true). Here we are, eight years later, with our sisters breathing down our necks that they have naming rights on our children.
Aside from being set up by our sisters, we fell in love riding tractors, moving pipe, putting out fires from burning ditches, and everything else that comes from dating someone that was raised on a hay farm. I had never stepped foot on a farm until I realized that was the only way I would get to spend time with my sweetheart during planting and harvest season. I learned how to drive stick-shift by driving a farm truck and worked on my ‘hot wedding bod’ by moving pipe while my husband drove tractor.
My husband is a Sergeant in the National Guard. He joined when he was 17, and, as such, is much neater and more disciplined than me. He is an engineer and works for NRF out at the site. Together, my husband and I have lived in Rexburg, Rigby, and Idaho Falls, settling into our home in Rexburg just last year. My husband can make me pee my pants from laughing so hard, but he can also make me want to pull my hair out… so, balance! I adore him to pieces even though he is quirky and finds my lack of hunting experience to be quite the setback.
I am a teacher but have decided to take a year or two off to raise my kids (hello, daycare fees!), and have started working towards my Master’s Degree. If all goes well, I will graduate with a Master’s in Reading and Literacy by the end of December 2020. I love teaching and am very passionate about my students, past, present, and future.
Growing up, I never thought I would be a teacher. That was always my little sister’s dream. In fact, when we would play school and my sister would be the teacher with her perfectly-made Microsoft Word worksheets, I would do all I could to drive her crazy so we could play Legos instead. I would pretend that I was a deaf student or that I only spoke Spanish. Once, when she introduced herself as “Mrs. Holiday”, I told her that I couldn’t be her student anymore because I was a Jehovah’s Witness. I’m shocked that she hasn’t needed extreme therapy after all of the terrible things I put her through when she was just trying to educate me and two-thousand of her stuffed animals.
I realized that I had a passion for teaching when my mother remarried a man who has two children with disabilities. After our move to Idaho Falls, my mother and step-father asked me to watch my siblings and get them started in school and their therapies. Watching my step-brother learn to read despite his severe autism was the turning point for me. I began pursuing the field of education and graduated with my Bachelors in December of 2016. I love teaching middle schoolers because they are so spunky and snarky, my favorite combo. I think I love this age because I know a thing or two about how to deal with sass; I was the original back-talking student, thanks to terrorizing my family.
These days, I love developing new crafting hobbies, such as calligraphy, macramé, and card-making. I love to carve stamps, collect paper, paint with watercolors, and spend unholy amounts of money on craft supplies, much to my husband and my wallet’s dismay.
I dream of writing and illustrating a children’s book one day, as well as creating a book series. Other dreams include being a voice actress (mainly to drive my husband crazy – I can do a mean impression of that slug lady from Monsters Inc.), owning land with some farm animals, and collecting all of the Harry Potter Lego sets.
If you see me around Rexburg (most likely scouring the DI for some good children’s books) please stop and say hi! I love to chat and am always ready for some quality girl time with all of the testosterone in my house.
