Utah Bound!

Well it is official! We are moving to Utah next week for Brandon's internship. We have been waiting (and praying) for many months to know where we are heading after our college days. Brandon has accepted an internship with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Product Manager Intern. He will be working in Riverton, UT from January until April. We will be making the move sometime next week so we can be somewhat settled by the time he starts his job. We are so thrilled and blessed to have this opportunity! I have been searching for a job, so hopefully something will present itself soon. I am just so happy that Brandon will be completing his internship and will be learning in such a great environment. He will have such a great experience and it will hopefully help us when we are looking for a real job in the future.

We are going to miss all of our friends in Idaho! It is going to be weird moving, but I know that it is the best thing for our little family.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

graduation!

The day I never thought would arrive finally did! As we were going through all of the events and ceremonies associated with graduation, it never really felt real. It felt like I was just going through the motions and that I would just have to start school again in a few weeks. I'm not sure when it will actually sink in, but I am glad that I am finally done!

My parents and sisters and Brandon's parents were able to come up for graduation. We loved having them all here to celebrate with us! Graduation day was also Brandon's 24th birthday and Kamilla's 20th birthday! It was such a busy day for our family. We were able to go to Applebee's (the only real restaurant in Rexburg) before the events for a birthday/graduation dinner. I felt so bad that both Brandon and Kamilla had to suffer through a graduation on their birthday! But oh well, they will get over it :)

It was so cold that night, so I decided it would not be the best thing to wear my open-toe black heels. But with the graduation gown I couldn't wear my boots either, that would have looked super weird. So I was stuck wearing my 4 inch (maybe taller) purple heels. My feet were killing me the entire night! Not to mention during the processional it felt like one of my heels was going to snap while walking to my seat! To avoid a disaster such as that, I had to walk slower. This created a HUGE gap between me and the person in front of me. People were staring.

There were two parts to graduation, commencement and convocation. Commencement is where all of the graduates gather and we are addressed by the President of the University and a guest speaker. Convocation is where the graduates separate by college and actually have their names read and walk across the stage to receive their diploma cover.

Commencement was in the new BYU-Idaho Center. It is the huge new auditorium and it can seat around 16,000 people. Our convocation was then held in the Hinckley Building on the opposite side of campus. We decided that we should walk over there because it would have been such a pain to find our cars and then fight for another parking spot. It has been a very dry semester. It has only snowed a handful of times and even then it wasn't that bad. Luck would have it that right as we were leaving Commencement it started to snow! And if any of you know Rexburg, you know how bad the wind is. The combination of the snow and the wind made for a very interesting walk from the I Center to the Hinckley.

Everyone always mispronounces our last name. They always say Heinrick or Henrick or some form of it. Brandon and I were joking that they would mispronounce it when we walked across the stage, and they didn't disappoint! At our convocation (I walked with Brandon's college) they had two different people reading the names. Brandon walked first and I was just behind him. Brandon handed his name card to one guy, and I handed mine to the other. They BOTH said Henrick! Haha it was so funny. And the guy reading Brandon's card said his major was Social Work when it is Sociology. Their mistakes gave us great memories that we will laugh at for years to come.

After graduation, we all came back to our apartment to have ice cream cake for the birthday boy and girl! All in all it was a great day! We can't believe that this part of our lives is done. We never thought it would come, and now that it is here we aren't sure what to do. We are still working on getting Brandon an internship, but we have a feeling that good things will start coming our way! Here are some pictures from the big day!

(at our apartment before the activities) 

(the BYU-Idaho Center during Commencement) 

 (right after Commencement--look at those shoes!)

(with my parents) 

(i love my sisters! missing Chad though!) 

(us with my sweet cousin Jaime who sat through the whole thing!) 

 (both of our families who came)

(officially alumni!) 

(the video of me walking across the stage. notice how he says my name! haha)

a new beginning

I can't believe that I am finally done with college. Sometimes it felt that it would never get here. But now it is here and it doesn't seem real. I have been finished with my classes since Monday and today was my last day of work. It hasn't sunk in yet that our time in Rexburg is over. This has been our home and security blanket for the past 4 1/2 years so it will be a very big change once we actually move.

We still don't know exactly where we are going just yet. Brandon has an interview tomorrow at a very up and coming company in Idaho Falls. Hopefully that works out for us so we can get things ready to move there. I don't really want to move to Idaho Falls, but a job is a job and we can't turn down a job at this point.

On a good note, my family is coming tomorrow! They flew into Salt Lake today and they are driving up tomorrow. I am so excited for them to get here! Maybe then it will actually sink in that I am graduating. These next few days are going to be really busy, but really great!

On to bigger and better things!

(our graduation announcement)

Kamilla's Visit/Trip to Jackson, WY

We have had a pretty eventful couple of weeks. My little sister Kamilla came up to visit us last weekend. I loved seeing her! She came up last Friday and stayed until Sunday. We wish she could have stayed longer. The weather that weekend was just horrible. It kind of ruined our plans. We were going to go to the Haunted Straw Maze they have every year in Rexburg, but the snow and the extremely cold weather ruined that for us. So instead we kind of had a lazy weekend just hanging out and being together. On Saturday we went to Idaho Falls for some shopping and then we walked around campus. Later that night we had our cousin Jaime come over for some of my mom's famous Chicken Supreme.

(me, kamilla, and jaime at our family dinner)

Later that night, we carved our pumpkins. The pumpkins we got caused us a lot of problems a few nights before. Long story short, those pumpkins almost caused Brandon to lose his wedding ring. Luckily we found it, so it all worked out. But anyways, me and Kamilla shared a pumpkin and Brandon did his own. But lets be honest, Brandon pretty much carved both pumpkins himself. I am not very good at carving pumpkins. Here is the final product:

(Brandon did Bane from Batman, and Kamilla and I did smurfette)

The next day Kamilla had to leave to get back to Provo. We really enjoyed having her here with us. Luckily we will get to see her in less than 6 weeks when we graduate! 

Yesterday, Brandon and I decided to take a day trip up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's only an hour and forty-five minutes away from Rexburg so we decided to try something new. On the way up there you pass some really really small towns. Some of them didn't even have a stop light. These towns made Rexburg look like a huge city. It's a good thing we went the day we did. You have to drive up this very steep and narrow mountain pass in order to get there. It would have been better if our car would of had 4-wheel drive, but we were able to get there and back safely. 

It was both mine and Brandon's first time going to Wyoming. It was fun being able to share that experience with each other.

(Wyoming state sign)

(me in front of the Wyoming sign)

(Brandon in front of the Wyoming sign)

Jackson is such a pretty place. It was such a pretty day and it was in the 50s! It felt so good compared to what it has been around here lately. There was some snow in the mountains but not as much as I thought. In Jackson's town square they have these elk arches that lead into the park. They are so cool.

(The Elk Arches in Jackson, WY)

(me in front of the arches)

(Brandon in front of the arches)

Jackson really is a beautiful place. I really love the feel of these ski/snowboarding resort towns. I love seeing all of the log cabins and all of the little shops that surrounded the town square. It was very quaint and peaceful. This would definitely be a cool place to come to during Christmas time to see the snow everywhere and the place lit up.

(Brandon and I in front of the arches)

It was really fun to get out of Rexburg for a few hours and to explore a new place that neither of us had been to before. Going to Jackson was on our "Rexburg Bucket List" so I'm glad we are able to cross that off! 

P.S. Exactly 40 more days until we are officially college graduates!

Oh, and I hope you guys went to Taco Bell on Tuesday to get your free doritos locos taco. We sure did!

The First Day of Snow

I hate living in Idaho because I do NOT like snow. It has already snowed twice this week and it just makes me so sad. It snowed on Tuesday but it didn't stick. But today we woke up to at least 3 inches of snow on the ground. The roads were horrible and slushy on our way to school, and no one here knows how to drive in the snow. Needless to say, I am so ready to move somewhere new, hopefully with less snow.

P.S. My sister comes up to Rexburg tomorrow! I am so excited! I have missed her so much :)

Allie...the Seller

So ever since we got married I've been trying to sell some of our stuff. Once we moved in together I realized just how much junk we had. It's pretty pathetic actually. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment and we only use one of the rooms because the other one is just plum full of the junk we never use. It really bugs me, so I've been trying to sell most of it for quite some time. I had some luck but not a ton. I would sell a few things here and there but not consistently. And since we are moving here in just a few short months I want to get rid of most of the stuff we don't want or use. I don't see a point in moving stuff to wherever we go when we don't use it anyways. It feels like a waste. Well a few people here in Rexburg came up with this fabulous idea to create a Facebook group where you could post stuff you wanted to sell and people could contact you about it. I have only been apart of this group for a little over 2 weeks and I've already made $33 on the junk we never used! I am just so happy that I can actually contribute in some small way. I am going to go through our spare room within the next few weeks and get the rest of the stuff I want to sell posted. I have decided to save the money we are getting so we can put it towards a trip for us or something! I am pretty excited to see how much more I can make before we tell Rexburg goodbye. Wish me luck!

P.S. Brandon just laughs every time someone comes to our apartment to pick up something. (He'll thank me later!)

Back to School

Well the day we had been dreading finally caught up with us. Yes, the first day of school. For some reason it was much harder to go back to school than usual. I think it's because this is our last semester before graduation and we are just so anxious to be done. I am only taking 10 credits and Brandon is taking 12. We are both working part time at our on-campus jobs as well. This semester should be a piece of cake compared to others, but I am having a really hard time being motivated. Hopefully my "senioritis" will go away so I can do well in all my classes to finish off my college career.

Before we left for school on Monday I made us take the classic "first day of school" picture with our book bags and everything! We didn't take one together because we were running a little late! 7:45am classes are brutal! (Please ignore our messy apartment, we had just gotten back the night before from our weekend trip to Montana.)

(my first day of school picture)

(Brandon's first day of school picture)

I have also finally tried some of the things I've seen on Pinterest! I am so proud of myself. Brandon always makes fun of me for telling him about all these cool things I see on there and then I never follow through. But I finally did! Last week when we were up in Montana visiting Brandon's parents I made a Halloween wreath with his mom. I was a little worried because I'm not really crafty so I didn't know how it was going to turn out. But it actually turned out pretty well.

This picture is a little small, but I think it looks pretty good! We wrapped the Styrofoam ring in ribbon and then pinned in the geo mesh. We added some ribbon and then some cool Halloween stuff like a purple glittered spider and a pumpkin. I haven't hung it up yet, but once I do I will post a better picture!

I also tried a dessert recipe called Brownie Refrigerator Cake that I found on Pinterest tonight. I did an okay job. I messed up with the cream cheese. It says to mix softened cream cheese with powdered sugar and cool whip. I thought the cream cheese was soft enough, but it wasn't. So we had little chunks of cream cheese in one of layers. Brandon didn't seem to mind. He really enjoyed it. But now I know for next time. You live and you learn I guess!

(It looks good, huh?)

It is starting to cool down here in Idaho. The leaves will be changing soon and it will start feeling like fall. I just wish it would stay fall and never be winter. Good thing we are leaving in December and won't have to worry about another crazy winter here in Idaho. We are already getting excited for the haunted straw maze they have here in Rexburg during Halloween. We took my sister Kamilla last year. It was so much fun and really scary! It is definitely a must do before we leave Rexburg. I will post more about our fall adventures as they happen!

we made it 1 year!

Well last week was our 1 year wedding anniversary! It seems crazy that we have been married for a full year. We are planning on properly celebrating once we get paid again. We did go to Olive Garden for our anniversary dinner and we just spent the day hanging out with each other. We walked around Rexburg just reminiscing about what we were doing a year ago. It was great just being with each other and not worrying about anything else. We are excited to see where we will be next year! It will be a fun adventure finding out!

(here is us during our walk through the BYU-Idaho Gardens on our anniversary)

Carolina In My Mind

We have been back from our trip to South Carolina for 2 days now and I wish we could go back already. Today was very painful as we went back to work after being on vacation for a little over 2 weeks. But I guess that is life! We did so much during our trip so I will try to recap the best that I can.

The first thing we did once we got home was go to the beach! The beach was so awesome, it wasn't miserably hot and the water wasn't boiling hot either. It was the first time this summer we were able to wear our bathing suits. I guess that's what happens when you live in Idaho during the summer.

(Having a blast at Isle of Palms!)

I finally was able to get my haircut and dyed! It had been about a year and a half since I have cut my hair, so it was long overdue. Chad came from Knoxville to see us. It was great seeing him! While he was there we drove up to Charlotte and went to Carowinds, an amusement park which is right on the North and South Carolina state line. It was so much fun! It was blazing hot the day we went and there were no clouds in the sky at all that day. We rode a ton of roller coasters. I used to be a huge roller coaster person and they never really scared me, but this time I was super freaked out on almost everyone we rode. I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older, but man did I turn into a huge wimp! Brandon was very sweet and didn't make fun of me (at least not to my face, ha!).

(This rollercoaster, named the Intimidator, was the first one we went on, and I regret that decision. So scary!)

(The family resting during our fun filled day at Carowinds!)

(Brandon and I being dorks!)

(North/South Carolina state line)

Brandon got to eat at his favorite place in South Carolina! We love our Zaxby's!

We went to downtown Charleston with my sisters during our trip. I have lived in Charleston my entire life and I still don't know my way around. It is pretty sad. But luckily my sister Kamilla knows her way around so she was our tour guide. I love going downtown. It is beautiful and so historical. We walked along the Battery, down to Waterfront Park, past Rainbow Row, and down to the Market. I just love my hometown!

(The harbor at the Battery)

(One of the Charleston mansions. Love the porches!)

(Rainbow Row)

(Brandon, me, and Jessa on the swings at Waterfront Park)

(In front of the big pineapple at Waterfront Park)

(Love my sisters!)

(Us in front of the Ravenel Bridge)

Last but not least, we were able to somewhat help my parents move into their new house! My dad put Brandon to work and had him rip up carpet and pull out staples from the floor. We missed the big move by one day. I wish we could see the house with all of the furniture in it. I guess we will just have to wait until our next visit. It was so weird seeing the house I grew up in being all packed up. But change is good! I guess my dad was preparing Brandon for when we buy our first house. I think Brandon is up for the task :)

(My childhood home.)

Our flight back to Salt Lake was very painful. We almost had a heart attack when we were woken up by a phone call saying our flight had been cancelled. Only to find out that the flight number changed and that was it. And then our 4 hour layover in Detroit turned into an 8 hour layover because of maintenance issues. That really sucked! But we survived and we are home safe and sound.

Needless to say, I am having James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind" stuck in my head since we've left! I am so grateful for our trip to South Carolina and everything my family did for us! I really wish we lived closer because I miss them so much! But at least I will get to see them when they come out for our graduation in December! I can't wait.

We have some exciting things coming up in the Henrich home. One year anniversary, starting our last semester of college, graduating, moving, and Brandon starting his internship. We are excited to see where life takes us!

fourth of july

This year for the 4th of July we went up to Montana to celebrate with Brandon's family. We were there for about 5 days and it was such a nice and needed break away from school and Rexburg. We got to spend time with all but 2 of Brandon's siblings and their kids. It was so much fun being with everyone. Our time was spent:
-going to the Butte 4th of July parade (which is complete with a belly dancers float consisting of ladies over the age of 50)
-almost getting blown up when my father-in-law's lawn mower caught on fire (yikes!)
-getting sunburnt
-chasing around our nieces
-making s'mores around the fire pit
-playing games
-going to Virginia City (a little ghost town about an hour away from Butte)
-and cuddling with our sweet 8 month old niece Harper

 (isn't she just so cute?)

We had so much fun being around family and not having to think about school or work for a few days. We wish everyday was like that! It makes me even more excited now that we are only 8 days away from being in South Carolina and being able to spend 2 weeks with my family. Ahh I can't wait to be home and back on the coast for a little while. We will be done with school for the semester in 4 days and then we will get 7 weeks to just relax until our very last semester of college starts in September! These next few months are going to be wonderful :)

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July and remembers what our great nation stands for!

(it's a bit close to our faces, but we don't look too shabby)

getting so close!

Brandon and I are officially registered for our LAST semester of college! WAHOOOO! We are beyond excited to finally be done. I am taking 10 credits and Brandon is taking 12 and come December we will be college graduates! We are so excited to see where life is going to take us. If I have it my way we will move somewhere much warmer than Rexburg. Today when we left the house it was 35 degrees outside. Keep in mind, it is June. That should not be happening. I am just so glad that we will be done with Rexburg in 6 months and we don't ever have to live here again!

We can't wait for December!

Apartment Fever!

I don't know if its because I'm married or what, but I absolutely hate living in an apartment! We live on the bottom floor below a family that has 2 kids. It makes it really hard for me and Brandon to do homework and to just relax. So because we are having apartment fever (mostly me) I watch HGTV all the time! You name the show and I've probably seen it. Needless to say I am getting some great ideas for our future home. I can't wait until we get settled in a place where we can actually buy a house! I'm sure I get on Brandon's nerves because I tell him that almost daily! But we only have to put up with the noise for another 6 months and then we will be leaving Rexburg and onto our next adventure.

I am actually watching House Hunters right now. (I know, I'm pretty lame!)

Brandon and I are about half-way through the semester. It hasn't been too bad of a semester so far, but I am still so ready for it to be over. I have really bad senioritis. We get to register for our last semester of college next Monday. We are so excited that we are almost done! It seems a little surreal how close we are. Brandon needs to find an internship for the Winter semester. Hopefully he will find one that he likes and they like him so we can get settled in a place fairly quickly. But only time will tell. I just hope we end up somewhere that is much much bigger than Rexburg, ID. :)

Life Update

I knew I was going to be horrible at keeping up with this thing, but I didn't think I would be this bad! Well let me update you on what we've been up to.

April:
- We went down to Utah for Brandon's brother Dennis' wedding at the beginning of April. It was really nice to get away from Rexburg even if it was just for a few days. While we were down there we got to see my sister Kamilla for a few hours. I am so glad we were able to see her since we won't see her until July now!
- I turned 22 on April 12th! Brandon spoiled me by getting me the first season of Modern Family and Just Dance. He decorated the apartment and made me a homemade cookie cake (my favorite) and he cooked steak for dinner! We were also able to Skype with my family on my birthday which I just loved! I miss them so much.
- I finished my tax internship on April 16th. It was a really good experience and I definitely learned a lot. I am so glad it is over though. I absolutely hated driving to Idaho Falls everyday and we did not like how much we were spending on gas either.
- We started a new semester on the 17th. This is mine and Brandon's second to last semester and we are so happy to be almost done! I am taking 15 credits and Brandon is taking 12. We are both working 20 hours a week at our on-campus jobs. We are so lucky to have jobs that revolve around our school schedule. It is so nice!

May:
- My baby sister Jessa turned 17! I can't believe she is almost graduated from high school. Where did the time go? Pretty soon my parents will have an empty nest. I wonder what they are going to do? :)
- Brandon's fast grad was approved! It is now official that we will both be graduating together in December! I can't wait for that day to come so we can move on to another chapter of our lives! :)
- We purchased plane tickets to visit my family in South Carolina for 2 weeks in July/August! I am so incredibly excited for our trip! I miss my family and my hometown so much! I have been out west for way too long.

I can't wait to see this again!

Besides school and work, we don't have a lot going on. The weather is starting to warm up, finally. We actually took out our fan from storage just the other day. I am so glad the weather is getting warmer, but I know I will start complaining since we live in an apartment with no air conditioning :(

We have been blissfully married for almost 9 months now! I can't believe how fast time is passing. Pretty soon we will be planning our anniversary!

Well that's it for now. Sorry that we aren't too exciting. Maybe I'll have more stories to tell once the weather stays warm!

I love my Mom!!!!

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday! She turned 29 (again!) My Mom is the best person I know. She has always been there for me and I can't thank her enough for that. I wish we lived closer to my family, but for now we are stuck in this icy tundra! We have had such great times together as a family! This picture pretty much sums up our Italy trip. I'd cuddle up with these people any day of the week!

We are planning a trip to South Carolina for the end of July and I can't wait! I miss my family so much and I wish I was there right now. I love you Mom! You are so awesome and you are going to be a wonderful grandmother one day!

On an unrelated note, Brandon and I have been married for 6 months! What a great 6 months it has been. Sometimes I look back on our wedding day and it feels forever ago, and other times it feels like it was just yesterday. I am so thankful for a temple marriage and for everyone that encouraged me to seek out a temple marriage. It has been the best decision of my life!

2012 Resolutions

I know that January is pretty much over, but I need to put my resolutions in writing that way I actually stick to them.

1. Work out! If you know me than you know that I say this all the time and never do it! I always have a good excuse. Going to school full time, working part time, and being a new wife is very busy. But right now I am off-track and only working so I need to actually stick to it this time!

2. Cook more. I am not a very good cook and I am very impatient when it comes to food (my husband is too). We need to be better at cooking and not getting a quick meal. It will save us a lot of money and I will get more practice!

3. Take more pictures. I am the worst at taking pictures of special occasions. Case in point, I have no pictures from Thanksgiving or Christmas. I want to try and get better at this so when we start having kids they will actually have baby pictures. :)

4. Grow closer with our families. It is so hard being able to talk to my family because of the time difference. By the time I am off work it is late on the East coast. And if you know my mom, you know she goes to bed really really early :).

We are so excited for this year! We will both graduate from BYU-I this December and we cannot wait for that. It will be so nice to be done and to both have our degrees. We don't know where we will end up but we know that it will be great!

We hope that 2012 will be an amazing year for everyone!

1 Year Engagement Anniversary

Yesterday was the anniversary of when Brandon asked me to become his wife. I am so lucky that he chose me to spend eternity with. It was a little weird thinking about how different things are from a year ago. Being married is a very different from being single up here at BYU-I.

The biggest thing I love about being married is not having to deal with roommates anymore! It is so great being able to have control over who comes over. It is awesome! Being married is so much better than being single. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend.

Here is the story of how he did it:

Well I was off-track last Winter and I was taking my last GE class on campus. It was FA 100 and I had to go to all sorts of different performances to fulfill the requirements. I went to this foreign French film to fulfill my first requirement for the class. It was really long and really confusing (since it was in French). It was snowing a lot once the show ended and the roads were starting to get pretty bad. I headed over to Brandon's apartment after the show ended. Brandon asked me if I wanted to walk to the gas station to get hot cocoa (we did this the first night we met). We were walking by the park (the place we first met) and I was just talking about the movie I just suffered through. I started walking ahead of Brandon and he stopped, turned me around, and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He told me that I was his best friend and that he loved me. He asked me if I would do him the honor of being his wife. I very excitedly said yes! It is history ever since :)

To celebrate our engagement anniversary we went to the gas station and got hot chocolate like we did the first night we met. It was very low key but I loved every second of it. I am so grateful for these almost 5 months of marriage.