Engagement Pic Sneak Peak..For Real This Time

The moment you have all been waiting for, i know...

I'm pretty sure I might be the only one who is totally in love and completely excited over one pic,

But It my engagement pic so that makes sense...right?

Alright and to put an end to the suspense engagement pic sneak peak....

Um can you say amazing?....

Asombroso

Stupefacente

Erstaunlich

(for those of you who speak other languages if that doesn't say amazing, no offense ok i tried)

But seriously I could stare at this pic all day long. I feel like I'm looking at a movie ....

www.jessicadonofrio.com

She does wedding, commerical, dallas, fashion...

Healthy Food Tips

Instead of using Mayo on sandwiches USE YOGURT! 

Ok so I know if your a die hard mayo fan (Like myself) this is like totally out of the question. 

It took me baby steps...

One side mayo other side yogurt.

To tell you the truth after my lettuce, meat, cheese, avocado and everything was on it I couldn't even tell the difference! 

Seriously worth your health to switch!

Also you can use yogurt in your tuna salad sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, on your baked potato instead of sour cream, in place of butter & oil in muffins  (add 1/2tsp baking soda per cup of yogurt)

The possibilities are endless

TRY IT!

E-V-O-O 

Meet your new best friend....

Use her often...

One way to use EVOO 

Is instead of spreading a ton of butter on each piece of bread for your grilled cheese

Put some evoo in the pan first let it heat up some lay the bread down on top of the evoo

Add the cheese, add the other piece of bread, flip AND helloooo...

The same dang grilled cheese sandwich BUT without the side of love handles :-)

Turning 23!

Once upon a time this precious little girl came into the world on July 26, 1988.... THAT'S ME! 

Actually I'm sure I was precious then...teenage years, ahh not so much. Sorry mom & dad. 

So this year was number 23. 

It felt just like last year...

This year was simple.

Took Brynlee to Hawaiian Falls water park.

A dinner at our usual place for my birthday- Al Biernat's, with another couple. 

Awesome! 

And today a massage. And I got a new study bible. :-)

Because I turned 23 what better way to pay tribute than to list 23 things that I'd like to accomplish this year!!!

(In no specific order)

1. Spend more time with God.

2. Make my self more available for friends

3. To stop interrupting people I'm about to marry when in a "heated" discussion. 

4. Teach fitness.

5. Play with Brynlee more.

6. Learn more sign language to teach Brynlee.

7. Plan our wedding - stress free? COME ON!! I'll pray about it. 

8. Save more money.

9. Make more money.

10. Let go and let God.

11. Forgiveness.

12. Start journaling.

13. Start writing letters to Brynlee. 

14. Singing lessons. It could be fun...I'm sure I sound better in the shower.

15. Get my personal training & group fitness certification. 

16. Vacation more.

17. Another baby after the wedding? Hmmm...Maybe. 

18. Take a photography class.

19. Eat more good food at places I haven't been to. 

20. Finish painting the house. ( So we can move about the time i finish right? Probably)

21. Manage my time better.

22. Sell all my old prom dresses. (Anyone know of a good way?!?)

23. Grow. (Mentally& Spiritually guys...I know I'm going to be 5 ft forever I'm over that)

We'll see how much I can accomplish in this next year!!!

Thankful Thursday!!!!

I love me some Thursdays! 

Its like when you're running a race about a mile from the finish line, your favorite jam comes on, your beating your previous time...and yep you've got this your gonna finish strong

Its the day before Friday...so lets get to it!

I'm thankful for my Fiancé's prayers. It used to bug me when people would say "I'm praying for you" When I hadn't mentioned anything in particular needing to be prayed for. To me it felt like...pity. I'M SO WRONG. Luckily, Dalton has shown me it's so much more than that. And I'm so glad he has prayed for me and that one was about our handling our wedding, becasue today EVERYTHING about our wedding came into one big picture in my head. Every little detail. LOVE IT! Now im over flowing with ideas!

When the mama bear is needed. As much as I hate to see my little bumble bee upset I can't help but just love the feeling I get when I am the one who can soothe her pain or dry her tears. Plus it gives me an excuse sometimes to just hold and rock my baby to sleep :-)

For my dry cleaner lady helping me load, unload, hold Brynlee etc while I'm getting our dry cleaning items out of the car when it's 100+ degrees.

The days where I eat 6 microwaved s'mores (thanks Cindy Goodyear for the tip) and I just don't care. Because they're campfire good without the fire and with all the chocolate-y goodness I will eat ALL SIX.... and then workout the next day... but it's so worth it. 

The Dirty Truth About Food

Most of you know this, but for those of you who don't consider yourselves about to be informed

Did you know ORGANIC means..no pesticides or chemical fertilizers were used. 

WHICH MEANS... workers and farm neighbors aren't exposed to the chemicals other farm workers are on non organic farms...

Did you think about that?

Well as you know I'm big on healthy and organic. In fact if I mention food to my friends or pretty much anything they tease and ask me if it's organic. To their surprise when they asked me if Brynlee's hair product was organic, I said well technically "It's all natural"...

lol Then they just stare at me...

But Anyway if you can't afford to go pedal to the metal Organic.

There's at least 12 foods you should buy Organic if not anything else. 

You can reduce your exposure of pesticide residue and chemicals by 80% just by switching to Organic on these 12 foods

1. Apples (Thats right they may keep the dentist away, but ew your still eating chemicals, psh you washed it with water...not enough) 
2. Celery 
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines-imported
7. Grapes-imported
8. Sweet bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries -domestic
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens

Your grossed out right? 

Ok just to make you feel better i'll post the least contaminated...

1. Onions
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapples
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet Peas (Frozen)
8. Kiwi Fruit
9. Bananas
10. Cabbage
11. Broccoli
12. Papaya

Quick trip!

This past weekend Dalton, Brynlee and I went on our first plane ride family trip! 

It was not bad at all! In fact Brynlee was fabulous. 

We went to california for two reasons 

1. My cousin Joey was getting married which meant family time and plus Brynlee was in the wedding

2. Check out our wedding venue

We only had two real days there so it was all go go go when we were there. 

The night we landed we had dinner with my cousin Joey, his soon-to-be wife, her sister, my aunt Debbie and cousin Melissa. We probably didn't get back to the hotel till 11pm ish which meant it was 1am Texas time and Brynlee was out as soon as we hit the driveway of the restaurant. 

Day 1: We headed to the Huntington beach pier to walk around, eat lunch and get Brynlee in the sand. We ate at Rubys on the pier which was good. Way more burger than I could handle. Dalton and I easily could have shared. But sadly Brynlee wasn't diggin the sand. We made sure it wasn't hot but once her toes hit the waterworks came. Then we headed out and got ready for the wedding. Which Brynlee was a mini flower girl and I the wagon puller. 

She's a happy camper as long as she's on the towel haha

Brynlee and the other mini flower girl

Day 2: We went to the Sawdust festival (artsy stuff). I got a fitted toe ring! Literally the only place I will get them from. We walked around for a bit, watched some glass blowing and then headed to find something to eat. We ended up eating right off Laguna Beach at Las Brisas. SO. GOOD. Then we went to check out our wedding venue. Which we still love. And headed to my Aunt Debbie's house to visit with some relatives before we headed home. 

Us as the festival 

Brynlee playing with her cousins and a little boy my brother watches 

All in all it was a good trip. Definitely too short. But I'm glad we got to go. It was nice to spend time as a family even if it was two days. And it was nice to see all my California family, since I hadn't seen them since 2006. I love and miss them so. 

Thankful Thursday!!!!

Oh my goodness!!! I'm posting my Thankful Thursday ON Thursday!!!!

Well lets get to it!

• For my awesome future cousin in law Meredith! She has been so helpful this past month! Keeping Brynlee occupied during Dalton and I engagement pictures is no easy task. 
• The ability to go to my cousin Joey's wedding this weekend!!! Even more so thankful that Dalton gets to go! It's his first time to meet my whole family.
• For God listening to my every word. I haven't felt this good about going home in a long time. When I went to Lindale recently it was the best trip I have had. It makes it easier for me to visit more often. I thank God for making me thankful for the family I do have despite our differences or imbalances (lol), because others only wish to be so lucky. 
• The God given talent of being able to dye my own hair (without a box-salon style) and it always turning exactly the way I had planned. Good thing to because I always decide to color my hair right before and important event...such as the day before my engagement pictures! 
• For our Independence. Take it all in because not everyone gets to enjoy the lifestyle we do.
• Such an awesome 4th with our friends in Addison and our friends from FBCA. It was so nice to get together chill on the grass and watch some fireworks! 

Fourth of July 2011

Holy moly this 4th was smokin!!! Like literally ...it was 104 degrees out side at 5pm. 

On Sunday July 3rd we went to Addison's Kaboomtown, It was ranked 3rd in the nation. 

I so badly wanted to bring Brynlee out but we went for a long time and it was hot. Every time an infant came by I would think of her and how I wished she could be there. The fireworks were great and there we tons of activites for the kids. Would I do it again? Prob not. I think it was a little too overrated for how far we drove, how long it took us to get home and there are options more near where we live anyway. But it was nice to try. I heard there was 500,000 people there! And we were on Channel 5 that night. 

The spot we had picked out to watch the show was right in front of the Channel 5 set up, so when the anchor was like and heres addison to say hi a crowd waved and cheered...we were in the crowd. 

Then on July 4th (Monday), Dalton had to go into work for a little bit so I took Brynlee to the Arlington parade by myself that morning. 

She spent time visiting with all our parade watching neighbors lol

Loving the parade!!! She boogied when the bands/music played :-)

Hydrating in that crazy heat

(The Swarbricks feet are in the background lol)

Monday night after Dalton was home we pre-fireworked at Piranhas Killer Sushi, then watched the fireworks with some awesome people from our Sunday school Class in the Arlington Highlands. 

Brynlee and her friend Aubrey Kate...She'll be sad when she moves

With her daddy watching the fireworks

The whole gang

The Carroll family ..or well soon to be anyway :-)

Engagement Pic Sneak Peak

So this past Wednesday we did half of our enagagement pics!!!

We were supposed to start them at 9am but i don't think we started till 10 something.

I think after we got situated and set up everyone was sweaty and already over it lol ...Or at least I was. Luckily in the photos of me by myself I had Dalton standing behind our photographer dancing around and making me laugh. 

Im no good at pretend laughing... or smiling. At least when I prcatice by myself I am but then it gets hard when you hear a clicking noise of a camera as your in mid kiss or something... Awwwkkkward. 

And we did have Daltons cousin there to corral Brynlee for us. Which was definitely a task. Brynlee wanted nothing to do with waiting around unless she was in the AC-ed car watching veggie tales or in the pictures lol. 

Anywho, So I thought I'd throw out a little teaser pic for you all. Notice I didn't say the where, what or the theme of the pics if there was one. 

Here's your one and only clue....

Did I mention we love everything about our wedding to be a surprise?

Thankful Thursday!!!!

My little Bumble bee is Walking!!!! She started on 6/24/11. Two days before she turned 15 months old!!! She's not running all over the house yet but she is definitely getting closer to that each day!

I'm loving how she is enjoying the pool so much more now since she can just strut through the 1.5-2ft deep waters in the kid pools. Although her chlorine intake is a little worry-some lol 

We had Dalton's cousin Meredith stay with us from the 6/24-6/27, which we always LOVE! Especially Brynlee! She has a backseat friend and a playmate all day long! Its a start to a beautiful friendship..although there is a 14 year difference. Anyway, she's an awesome role model for Brynlee. And we asked her to be in our wedding while she stayed with us!!! 

For my Fiance´s outstanding patience. I am what we call "shattered goods" and sometimes the shadows of the past that still linger in my head get the best of me. But since Dalton knows my past, he can be patient with me and talk me through it. :-) Thanks for accepting me and patiently putting the pieces all back together with me. 

Krista Grant's yummy Nutrigrain recipe. It's great. I made my own and I'll probably continue to make them so we have a protein packed healthy on hand snack! Thanks Krista!