Grand Canyon

So, I have a million pictures that I want to share with yall. But its late, my parents are leaving AZ tomorrow and I really should get to sleep....so that I can sadly drive them to the airport. 

But I wanted to chance to share at least one image that I have been working on right now. Maybe a few words. 

This Thanksgiving week as been so incredible. The opportunities and the memories that I have made will stay with me forever.

 Being able to be with my family, standing at the edge of one of the worlds seven wonders has been uplifting and so inspirational. The fact that its only three hours away from me is even more thrilling. I can honestly tell you, you MUST go see it for your self. Pictures, no matter how many I took, do not do this wonder any sort of justice. When I walked up to Mather point and saw this view, my breath was gone. My mind blown. I couldn't believe that something like this existed. My husbands description of it was and I quote "a giant hole in the ground" haha. But there is something moving about this giant hole in the ground. 

I am such a lucky person to have the opportunities to have lived in Idaho (near Yellowstone) for several years and to now move to Arizona and have the Grand Canyon in my backyard. 

I hope yall enjoy the image and I look forward to sharing the rest as I finish them up. 

Chicken Cajun Pasta.

Hello All,

I am back again with another yummy blog post. This time its about my husbands all time favorite meal......Chicken Cajun Pasta. And can we take a moment and talk about how obsessed he is.....he asks me to make it at least four or five times  a week. He cannot get enough of it.

I originally got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, but I adapted it for my own liking so.....enjoy!!!!

So we start off with some yummy veggies. I keep peppers frozen around here (get em when they are cheap!!!) and then we slice and dice them. I used five roma tomatoes, one onion and a handful of peppers (use as much as you want....we love peppers over here so we always have quite a bit)

Then we take some yummy chicken breast and chop that up into little bite size pieces. 

At this point we are ready for some cooking. Take a skillet and heat it up, put a little olive oil and butter in it. Once they are nice and hot throw in the chicken breast and sprinkle a little Cajun sauce on them. (if you are making a lot or use a lot of chicken, cook in batches so that there is no over lapping). Now after you throw the chicken in the pan.....just wait and sprinkle more Cajun sauce. Let them get nice and brown, then flip and wait on the the other side. After they are cooked completely, with a slotted spoon pull them out and set them to the side. 

Next, add a little more butter and oil and throw those veggies in there sans the tomatoes. Add a spoonful of garlic and some more Cajun sauce. After they are fragrant pull them out with a slotted spoon and set to the side (be sure to keep all the yummy juices in the pan)

At this point I would get your fettuccine cooking!!!! 

Now with all those yummy juices add a can of chicken stalk (if you make your own i add about four ice cubes) and let that simmer for about 5 minutes or until it starts to brown. 

Next add two cups of heavy cream. and whisk it all in. Let simmer and thicken for about 3 or 4 more minutes. You want this to become saucy!!! I also add more Cajun sauce here until I like the flavoring. 

After the sauce has thickened up throw everything back in there and add some tomatoes. Let cook on medium heat for about 6 more minutes. 

Next drain those noodles and get them into that pasta. Cook until everything is heated. 

Then add some parsley and voila....serve!!!! 

Sunday Dinner

A recent goal that I have set for me and Ryan is to have a home cook meal 6 days out of the week. I thought that it would be a wonderful idea to share some of my yummy recipes that I make. Sundays are usually our biggest meals and they would be perfect days to set goals to share with yall at least one meal, once a week. So I hope yall enjoy...this one is a pintrest one that I made to work for me and my husband. To say that its a husband favorite would not describe the love my husband has for this meal. Its in one of his top tens.

Beef & Broccoli

First things first I make a marinate for the meat and let it sit for at least an hour (some times its several hours). I put baking soda, sugar, cornstarch, water, soy sauce, and some veggie oil in a bowl and whisk away. Then I cut up my steak into yummy bite size pieces and throw it in the bowl. I then let it sit for at least an hour but more is most certainly preferred. 

After we marinate the beef and we are ready to eat, I chop up some broccoli (you can use thawed frozen, but fresh is the best in my opinion). I then heat up olive oil on the skillet, after its nice and hot I throw the broccoli and cook for about 3 min. A warning, dont walk away, you dont want to burn them! 

Once the broccoli is done just transfer it to another plate and in the same skillet toss the meat in. While the meat is cooking I usually make the sauce. In this sauce I put some soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and flour and whisk. 

After your meat is nice and brown I add some of the sauce and let simmer for about 3 min. Once the meat fully done cooking I add the broccoli. Here I let it cook on low for about 2 min and dump the rest of the sauce. 

Careful to not let it cook for to long, dont want the broccoli to get mushy. But now is the best part, serve it with some yummy white rice (this night I was craving potatoes so there are some mash potatoes)  And Voila!!! 

Please leave a comment or let me know how you enjoyed it, if you choose to make it!! 

Monsoon season in the desert

I am the worst...at journal-ing, blogging...really anything that has to do with documenting my life.

But lately I have been having this strong desire, a strong push to do it, to write something. And I want to full fill that. I want to set a goal to update just for my self on here twice a week...

On a other note...its been hot and rainy (really its only rained two days out of the month) but the rain here is crazy. It rains a whole bunch in just a few hours and then floods everything. We had a local park behind our house fill up so much that we had people out riding their jet skies on it. It was pretty cool.

So far we still love Arizona. Ryan and I are still shocked at how unbelievably hot it is and we are almost to October. Not sure how this winter is going to be (I am sure very dramatically different from Idaho). We are supposed to have a week in the 80's next week, we are so excited because after months of 115, 80 degrees sounds heavenly.

Ryan received his diploma in the mail the other day, that makes him an official grad with an official job! I truly cannot believe that we are graduates, actual grown ups, expected to do grown up things. Often we talk about how weird that is, it feels like just yesterday we were just meeting and worrying about making straight A's and impressing our teachers. And now, we have four chinchillas, living in the desert, making lots of decisions.

Believe it or not, we are certainly missing Idaho. Something I honestly never thought I would miss. There are times where we talk about maybe going back there...to live. But who knows where we will be. Ryan's job looks like it will keep us here for the next five years at least. After that, who knows.

Over all though its been wonderful. We have enjoyed the past few months here and look forward to what the future brings.

First day of school....

Wishing I was in Georgia this past week.

My younger brother leaves for his mission and my younger sister is starting her first day of HIGH SCHOOL. Oh my.

These past few weeks I have been reflecting on how quickly time moves. I remember like it was just yesterday that I was playing softball and my little sister was kicking and screaming because she didn't want to leave. I remember all the car trips we used to take as children, all the video games, movies and song we would sing on our way. All of the inside jokes from those random moments with each other. Truly God gives no greater gift than to have a sister. And I am truly so thankful for mine. I wish her luck and hope she has fun on her first day!!

And just because i love her, here is how cute she was when she was a weeeeee little one. 

called to serve

My thoughts this past week have been on my younger brother. Just a few months ago he received his mission papers (if you dont know what a lds mission is please go here) to serve in the Salt Lake City North mission. I am so incredibly proud of him and the work that he will be doing ( I am also some what jealous). 

Just a few years ago the lds church changed there mission requirements. They moved the age for women from 21 to 19 and for men from 19 to 18. This was huge! I mean major. (I know that if when I was 19 and they changed the age I would of most certainly gone almost immediately!! But instead I was led on a path to meet my wonderful husband.) The change was good on so many levels, it enabled men to go serve right out of high school rather than waiting around for a year (or starting college and leaving in between) and for girls it helped us get more options on what we want to do in life after we graduated (I know I had no clue). 

My Brother has decided to commit 24 months or 2 years of service. That's not just walking around and preaching, and doing what the typical person thinks a missionary does. Its doing actual SERVICE...helping people move, helping them do whatever it is that they need. Its so incredibly selfless and so personally rewarding. So when I say, I am proud of my brother and the work that he is going to be doing, I mean I look up to him, and I want to be able to learn to serve like he does and will. This week I have been reminiscing with my family about my younger brother (lets just call him Elder Hendrick). I want to share a story that was brought to my mind this week:

In 2009 I broke my ankle playing softball. To say it was one of the hardest experiences in my life at that point would be an understatement (not  being able to walk and get around taught me so much and makes me so thankful for the ability to do so every day). At the time it happened I was so lucky to have my family out visiting me in Idaho. More especially my brother (Elder Hendrick), he took such good care of me. He helped me get around, he checked to make sure I was okay. Isaac (Elder Hendrick now) was at my side almost night and day, I remember the kindness and love that I felt from him as he served me. He showed me just how much he truly did love me, and to this day it will always be memories I will cherish. 

Wednesday July 30th Elder Hendrick entered the MTC, I truly wish him luck and cannot wait to be reunited with him in two years. 

this and that...

Well, here we are. Just three months in to our move and we are enduring some of the worst heat either of use have ever experienced. So far though, we both love it here. I officially feel like a small town girl, coming to a big giant city (after 6 years, the Rexburg way of life has most certainly gotten to me).  Frequently I find my self just staring in awe at all of the options I have, in just my area there are three different malls I can go to. That's just malls, lets not even talk about food...in that area I am pretty sure I've died and gone to heaven. Not only is there a BUNCH of choices, but there's like different restaurants of each choice, all with in miles of us.  We lucked out and managed to get an apartment right next to Ryans new job. He was so excited and made us go over there almost every day until he finally started in June. He absolutely loves his job, and with out even really knowing it, was able to get the exact position he was wanting. Since moving here, we have both decided that its to hot to do things in the "summer" and plan to go adventuring come fall. That might sound a little weird, BUT with temperatures hitting anywhere from 100-116 daily, being in side is so much more enjoyable. It seems to be the logic that the locals here have.