Our First Look...

Choosing to do a first look for our wedding day was pretty easy. After seeing various versions of first looks on wedding blogs, I decided that it was a must for our wedding day. Looking back I am so glad we did it! Every time I look at those pictures, I feel the love, anticipation, excitement, and butterflies that I felt while it was happening.

 

xoxo,

Megs

**All photographs taken by St. Anne Photography**

The Weight Loss Chronicles: Saying Goodbye to Sugar...

Surprisingly enough, sugar is quite bad for our bodies. Now I know there are certain sugars that are kind of hard to avoid. According to this article, our bloodstreams convert sugar into 5 times more fat than if we were to consume starch!

I've recently decided to give up most sugar....well for 5 days of the week that is! I would NEVER be able to quit cold turkey. There are just some days that I need a sugary bite of goodness to make it through.  I say most sugar meaning unnecessary sugar ie: soda, candy, cake, cereal, etc. So far I've been doing pretty well (I'm only in week 2) lol! Last night I had a small brownie and was pretty much sick to my stomach after I ate it....probably a good thing I'm doing this challenge. 

xoxo,

Megs

4th of July

First of all I have to say that the weather on 4th of July was kind of bizarre. It was cloudy and rainy most of the day in Arizona. With that being said, we still had a good time hanging out with friends and watching fireworks. I wish it wouldn't have been in the middle of the week because then we would've been able to spend time at the lake with Matthew's family. Embree was not a fan of the fireworks. She had her tail between her legs and wanted to hide inside during them.

xoxo,

Megs

 {Embree hiding inside}

 {Sparklers}

 

{Sparklers}

 

{Fireworks}

 {Embree & Matthew :) }

 {Happy 4th of July}

 *All personal photographs unless noted otherwise*

California Trip

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled to California for a wedding and a mini vacation. Our friends Rachel & Erik go married in a beautiful ceremony on the beach. The weather was great and the view was perfect.

{Mr. & Mrs.}

{ :) }

Rachel & Erik

{Matthew playing on his phone before the reception}

The next day, we made our way up to my brother's house to visit him and some of Matthew's family. We spent most of our days relaxing! It was a nice little break from work and school.

 {Making funny faces with my nephew}

{Gavin & Keria being silly}

{Cameron & Matthew playing video games}

xoxo,

Megs

*All personal photographs unless noted otherwise*

The Weight Loss Chronicles: Smoothies for Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We've all heard this many times before but for me it is one of the hardest meals of the day. In the morning I'm running around trying to get ready for work, taking care of Embree, and sometimes packing lunches. By the time I have to leave the house, there is no time for me to make something to eat. Usually I just skip breakfast all together and then I'm starving the rest of the day!

Recently I've seen and pinned a lot of smoothie recopies on Pinterest and decided I was going to make smoothie bags to simplify my life in the morning. Surprisingly, they were pretty cheap and easy to assemble and I now have breakfast for the next 24 days. There are many how to's out there on the interweb about making smoothie bags. I personally followed this one but instead of using ice cube trays, I used a muffin tin. 

When I went to the store I purchased a 64 oz bag of frozen strawberries, pineapple, bananas, yogurt, spinach, and almond milk. I bought the frozen fruit because it was slightly cheaper than buying it fresh, even with the sale that was going on. When I got home I divided up the yogurt into the muffin tin. Since I used a standard size muffin tin I was able to fill each cup with about 1/2 of a yoplait yogurt container. I chose to buy different flavored yogurt because I've tried making smoothies before with plain or vanilla and it just wasn't for me. Once the yogurt was in the tin, I put it in the freezer and started dividing up the fruit. I cut each banana in half and then into smaller pieces so it would be easier to blend. Then I add about 2 cups of fruit to each bag. Once the yogurt was frozen I added them to each bag.

I placed one smoothie bag in the refrigerator before I went to sleep. That way it will somewhat thaw out before I blend it up in the morning. If its not completely thawed in the morning, you can let it sit on the counter while you're getting ready. When I was ready to blend it up I added a handful of spinach to the blender first. To help blend the spinach I added about a cup of almond milk, you could also use water if needed. Once the spinach was blended up into a nice liquid, I added the contents of my smoothie bag and blended until it was the thickness that I like. You can add more almond milk if need to aid in blending. Surprisingly enough, I was unable to taste the spinach in my smoothie this morning and now I don't have to think about what I want to eat in the morning because it's already made.

xoxo,

Megs