El Final de los Finales

Tomorrow is the last final I will ever take in my life. I just need to finish up my thesis (easier said then done) and then I will be graduating in April with my masters in public health! I can see the light. It is a beautiful, warm, satisfying light.

Love and Lights

Christmas season is here and I am in love with it all! One of my favorite things so far this Christmas has been the Christmas chain Chance made for us. He wrote a goal or activity for us to do each day in December and it has been the best thing.This is definitely going to be a Hendricks family tradition for us!

 Here I am in our "Christmas Corner" as we like to call it.

We also went up to see the beautiful lights on temple square with Brad and DeLyn this past weekend, which was a treat.

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year! I hope everyone is enjoying this special season!

Dia de Gracias

Wow... this post is a little late, but we have been just a little busy! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Lodi. The roads going there and coming home were not too fun, but I was very grateful for the days we were able to spend with my family. I love family, it is one of the greatest blessings in my life. Thanksgiving morning our whole family ran the Run Against Hunger 5k in Stockton, it was the best way to start the day! The food was delicious as always (my mom is a culinary expert) and the company couldn't get any better.

Love him.

Loved spending time with these girls. They are my best friends. 

Lily was one of the highlights of Thanksgiving. I loved following her around, holding her, climbing up stairs with her, and playing "I'm going get you!"

Chance and I are grateful for this time of the year when we get to spend time with family and ponder upon the many blessings we have been given.

cold weather = soup

I made this delicious cauliflower soup and artisan bread this week, it was a delicious combination and I loved eating it with Chance and one of my favorite girls in the world Sarah Campbell.

Wisconsin Cauliflower Cheddar Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1 head cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1. In 4-quart saucepan, butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes.

3. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth.

4. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve. 

 

 

Master Artisan Bread

Note: Makes four 1-pound loaves3 cups lukewarm water (about 100º F)
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour (no need to sift)
Cornmeal for the pizza peel

1.In a 5-quart bowl, mix the yeast, water and salt. Add all the flour, then use a wooden spoon to mix until all ingredients are uniformly moist. It is not necessary to knead or continue mixing once the ingredients are uniformly moist. This will produce a loose and very wet dough.

2.Cover with a lid (not airtight). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours, but no more than 5 hours.

3. After rising, the dough can be baked immediately, or covered (non completely airtight) and refrigerated up to 14 days. The dough will be easier to work with after at least 3 hours refrigeration.

4. On baking day, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the bread from sticking when you transfer it to the oven. Uncover the dough and sprinkle the surface with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough (serrated knives are best). Store the remaining dough in the bowl and refrigerate for baking at another time.

5. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick. Create a smooth ball of dough by gently pulling the sides down around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. While shaping, most of the dusting flour will fall off. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out during resting and baking. Shaping the loaf this way should take no more than 1 minute.

6.Place the dough on the pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes. It does not need to be covered. The bread may not rise much during this time.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, place a pizza stone on the center rack of the oven. If you don't have a baking stone, use another baking sheet. Remove any upper racks. Place a broiler pan on a rack below the pizza stone or on the floor of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F.

8. When the dough has rested for 40 minutes, dust the top liberally with flour, then use a serrated knife to slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top.

9.Slide the loaf off the peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door.

10.Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Allow the bread to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack.

 

key lime pie

So I LOVE Yoplait's thick and creamy key lime pie yogurt. It is one of my favorite foods. I used to buy six or so every week when I was single (Sutton can attest to this), but now that I am married and living on a strict food budget I decided to cut my yogurt obsession. Anyways we were at the check-out at Smiths on Saturday and I saw the key lime pie gum and I just had to try it! I am chewing it right now and I love it. End of story.

Cutest pumpkin award

Chance and I carved our pumpkin last night and probably had way too much fun doing it. I wanted to do a winking pumpkin in honor of a really cute wink that Chance does and I think we captured it perfectly! What do you think?

I was laughing so hard taking this picture. I just love Chance so much, we are best friends and have so much fun together no matter what we are doing.

Cutest pumpkin award... awarded by me.

Surprise Package

Chance was talking with his parents on Sunday and his mom was making her famous (and Chance's favorite) breaded steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. Chance and I both didn't have school on Monday and he was seriously considering leaving right then and driving up to Idaho Falls to eat dinner!

Well he talked himself out of it, but later that night we got a phone call from one of Chance's friends from Idaho Falls. DeLyn had found out that she was coming back to Provo Sunday night and gave her a cooler of tupperware full of leftovers from dinner to give to us!

Thanks DeLyn, you are amazing!!

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are amazing and always remind me of our church's world wide General Conference every six months. My parents and Emma were able to come up to Utah for a week at the beginning of the month and it was so great to have them here. Nothing beats time with family. We made cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning conference and they were amazing as ever!

True Blue

 

The Hendricks family came for a fun visit this weekend and we were sad to see them leave today! It is always fun to have visitors. Saturday we had a true blue day. Brad and DeLyn and I hiked the Y early Saturday morning, which is always fun. It was their first time and I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince Brad to do it again, but oh well it was fun while it lasted! (Chance had a weekend course he had to go to on Saturday and Brandon didn't want to get his new Nikes dirty). Later that day we were able to go watch the BYU vs. Nevada game, it was sad to see them lose, but really fun to be there in the stadium. 

 

 

 

Chance is the biggest BYU fan I know and so he is the best person to go with. He can find the good in anything.

 

Cute brothers.

Thanks Brad and DeLyn for treating us so special this weekend and thanks Brandon for keeping us laughing! 

We are excited for the new week, the Brink fam comes in on Tuesday and we can't wait!

Happy birthday to me!

Chance and I decided to celebrate my 22nd birthday by going on a weekend camping trip to Zion National Park. Neither of us had been before and we absolutely loved it! So so beautiful!

We found a great little campsite and went on some amazing hikes! As soon as we set up our tent we headed off to hike Angel's Landing. The last half mile of the hike you are holding on to chains climbing some steep cliffs with drop offs like you wouldn't believe!

Starting the chains...

This is the last portion of the hike and at the tip top is the end, the view was quite spectacular up there.

We made it!

We finished off the day hiking to Emerald Pools, everything in the park is just so beautiful. 

Saturday morning we packed breakfast (thanks Meg and Mom for the AMAZING granola) and went to hike Hidden Canyon bright and early. We were the only ones on the trail!

Chance slipped off one of the edges here and was yelling for my help, but I had to grab the camera to take a quick photo of the view before I helped him up. Luckily he held on!

Alive and strong as ever!

Hidden Canyon had some chains too, but nothing as crazy as Angels Landing. It was so cool being the only ones on the mountain! We packed up Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend in Hurricane with Chance's cousin Brittany and her wonderful family. We hung out by the pool, ate some In-N-Out, and had fun with their cute kids. Thanks Brittany and Jeremy! Anyways we had a beautiful weekend and are excited for a new week.

The Year of Love

One year ago yesterday Chance and I were sealed together for time and all eternity. We seem to reminisce about that day quite often simply because it was perfect in every way. We have agreed that this past year has been the best yet and we are looking forward to many more!

MPH degree - Maid of Provo Homes

So we have an interesting neighbor in our new apartment complex. We have talked on many occassions and every time the neighbor asks for my name. This was no big deal at first because I am not the best with names either; however, the other day I realized it was not just my name he didn't remember.

I was leaving our apartment the other morning with cleaning supplies to go clean our old apartment before the cleaning check walk-through. My neighbor was leaving for work and he says hello to me (normal enough right? but no) then he asks me if I am the housekeeper for that apartment. Yes, he asked me if I was the maid for the ONE bedroom PROVO apartment I was walking out of. Not to mention he had seen me walk out of that apartment with Chance several times! I tried to stifle my laughter, but could barely contain myself. I guess if nothing works out with my MPH degree I could always go into house cleaning... I am pretty good at it.

The Other Wes Moore

I just read a great thought provoking book called The Other Wes Moore. Chance and I have been talking about it for several days and I would recommend it to anyone! It is pretty intense, but very insightful about a true story of young boys growing up in the inner cities of Baltimore and how a supportive family and good role models can make a powerful difference in someone's life. The author gives a quick summary of his story at this link, check it out if you are looking for a good read!

Provo Canyon

Provo Canyon is beautiful! One of my favorite things about living in Provo is packing a picnic and driving to the canyon to have lunch along the river. Chance and I have our favorite lunch spot and it always seems to be open for us. This time we stopped and bought some delicious peaches from a stand on the way there, making our picnic even tastier!

My man is 26!

Chance had a birthday this week, the big 2-6!

We went up to Idaho Falls over the weekend for the blessing of Blakely Tangi Larsen, Chance's sister's darling baby girl and celebrated a little there with the family and then in Provo too. It was practically a family reunion in Idaho Falls for the baby blessing, Chance's extended family are so supportive. It doesn't matter where they live, they all come to the special events. It is pretty neat.

So, somehow my camera was on video setting for all of Chance's birthday pictures, whoops! Well yesterday we were able to go watch one of my friends Alex Rivers from high school play against the Orem Owlz which was really fun. Our friends Tyler and Chelsey came with us and it was such a beautiful night to be outside. It was so great to catch up with Alex and hear about his life.

Well I am excited for a new week! Life is good.

go girl

An older woman is walking up and down the aisles of the library (my home for the entire summer while working on my fieldwork and masters project) in what appears to be her exercise clothes. Some might laugh at her, but I say you go girl. You get that exercise!

Fun in the Sun!

This past week was full of excitement! Last Sunday I was able to fly and meet my family in Santa Cruz for a few days and it was wonderful. 

We played a lot of Just Dance...

and Bananagrams.

All the girls got amazing pedicures.

And I loved just spending time with my family... they are the best.

Chance wasn't able to come because of school, I missed him so much! I came home Thursday evening and Chance and I started moving into our new apartment. We worked until way too late and then started again in the morning, but everything has found its place and we love our new place! To top it all off we had our ward campout this weekend. We have the BEST ward and I am so glad we are able to stay for a few more years.