C . . . Cookies, Candy and Cake Galore

The first two-thirds of my day was less than exciting and the cookies, cakes, and candies I dreamed of for "C" were nowhere in sight . . . Cereal for breakfast . . . the same cereal for lunch . . . and a crummy bowl of cottage cheese for a mid afternoon snack :BLAH:
However, my evening was spent at a girlie church Christmas party, and it was BEAUTIFUL!! There was this pretty (white themed) dessert table, and coincidentally, or though it seemed, EVERYTHING started with a C!!

Cream Puffs
Cookies
Coconut Bars
Cocoa
Cupcakes
and Candies . . . . okay, okay, so although tempting, i didn't try it all . . . just a cupcake and a cookie or three :)

On the way home (after delivering our carload of sweet old ladies safely to their homes) mom, Aubrey, and I took a little detour by the soon-to-be-burnt-down bomb house and stopped at Wendys for an after dessert dinner . . . Crispy Chicken sandwich (hold the mayo please)
Up next . . . "D" the dessert girls dream

B . . . Hello December 1st

24 more days til Christmas, and 24 more days of this wacko challenge :) It was Burrrr today and I missed my morning hot chocolate but I survived. . .

Bagel for Breakfast
Baked Potato and Broccoli for lunch
Banana Bar
Blueberry and blackberry fruit cup
Bean Burrito for dinner
and I froze my Blueberry Yogurt for dessert
. . . oh wait, I just discovered the mini Butterfingers in the Halloween stash! The BEST!!

"C" ya tomorrow . . . haha, get it :)


So below are my kids celebrating SNOW day in Southern California. . . .we have this awesome fake snow stuff which Cayd decided to put in balloons and have Aubrey pop with a dart over his head. It was quite hilarious to secretly watch from a far. Kids are weird!!

A . . . Apples, apples, everywhere

9 pm and I have totally worn out all the "A" options in my house . . . maybe this is an AMAZING diet idea afterall :) I actually had a super fun day - something I never remember admitting before on diet day #1. I loved the comments yesterday. . .to be totally honest, when Shawna and I first thought this all up, we weren't super worried about X, Y, and Z because we pretty much were certain we would flop LONG before that!! But now, I think we are both pretty dang excited and EXTREMELY worried about what the heck is going to be eaten on December 23, letter X!! Maybe a day of Hershey Kisses?? We decided as long as we can justify it, it counts! Anyways, so what did I eat today?? . . . Anchovies? Alfalfa sprouts? Antelope?? I think I got a picture of everything today . . .

Looks like apples were on my mind (or coincidentally in my house) . . . apples, applesauce, apple cider, american cheese, artichoke pizza pocket, angel hair pasta, artichokes, and delicious Andes mints :)
I'm ready A change, bring on the Bs . . . .

Be prepared to see us skinny :)

. . . or NOT! haha

So my sisters and I often have brilliant ideas . . . okay, maybe the ideas are usually mine, but it takes very little convincing to get my sissies to join in on my "FUN!" A couple of weeks ago for my birthday my wonderful dad got me my traditional self help book, this year titled "The Secrets of Millionaire Moms." I havent yet had the chance to read it, but my mind often wanders, and I find myself thinking about what the secrets in this book could possibly be. . . . what easy, snap-of-the-finger method would instantaneously make me a millionaire?? Somehow, off topic as it may seem, it came to this . . . . the invention of a crazy fad diet. Cuz that's what most diets are, CRAZY! But do people really make money inventing diets?? I guess Atkins did, but I think the money came after he died (not of a heart attack or congestive heart failure of course).

Cabbage soup, the ZONE, Hollywood, tapeworm, grapefruit, special K. . . . so my theory?? . . . basically, all "diets" limit your intake, as healthy or unhealthy as they restrict, making food boring and in the end, starvation and immediate, unhealthy weight loss . . . . so somehow this thinking lead my equally crazy sister and I to establish the ABC diet. I figure we should give it a whirl before I take it to marketing. Its a 26 day diet and is as simple as this. Day 1: eat only foods beginning with the letter A, Day 2: eat foods beginning with the letter B, Day 3: you guessed it, the letter C :) Diet?? Weight loss? I'm not sure since Day 3, letter C gives us the possibility of cakes, candies, and cookies galore followed by day 4: donuts, Dairyqueen, and dreamwhip . . . YUM!! So we will simply call it a challenge, a competition between sisters . . . Call us crazy, or loony, or whatever you choose, maybe it is simple boredom in the life of the Kelly girls. . . but for the next 26 days (or until one of us messes up or bails out) be 4 prepared to see our exciting daily menus!! We have had so much fun talking about it, hopefully the participation will be equally exciting :)

The prereturn of posting. . .

So tomorrow will begin a string of 26 (hopefully, but not likely) continuous post! I figured before I jump into THAT I should write a welcome back blog :) attempting to recap life is impossible but maybe a couple blurbs would suffice. . .

So I turned 23 again this month and got to spend a long weekend in Catalina with some friends. The weekend adventure was planned far in advance and when i told people, they always responded with something like " oh fun, but what are you going to do there for 3 days?" . . . Ummm HELLO, no kids . . . 3 days . . . .HEAVEN! (haha, no offense little loves)!! So the day of departure came, we loaded the ferry (some of us got sick), arrived on the beautiful little island and pretty much immediately asked, "What the heck are we going to do here for 3 days??" We did eventually figure it out and had a BLAST!! Relaxing ,eating, walking, golf carting, bike riding, exploring, celebrity (or so he thought) stalking, shopping, para sailing, a morning at the spa, tv watching, ummmm even sleeping :) It was pretty great and a lovely way to celebrate!





Much to my liking, Aubrey has made an excellent transistion into middle school. Just this last week she was named the 6th grade student of the month. It took them 3 short months to realize my Aubrey is a superstar :) She will be honored at a breakfast in a couple of weeks. We are super proud of the choices she has made and sets such a good example for her little brother.

AND whats a blog without a quick story about our family comedian CAYDEN . . . so the other day we went to the new In -N-Out for lunch. The place was packed and like most In-N-Out experiences go , I sent the kids to scout tables while we ordered and filled drinks. The kids found 2 empty "bar style" seats next to 2 "hopefully soon to be empty" spots. I was watching the kiddos from afar waiting for our number to be called when I see Cayden reach over and grab a french fry from the now empty seat besides him. At that very moment Shawna kind of turned around and was like, is Cayd eating french fries?? It took me a second to get through the crowd and stop my kid from continuing his appetizer . . . ."CAYDEN!! what are you doing?? Those people are still here!!" His face is immediately shocked and he chucks the fry to the ground. "Oh, I thought they left" Okay kid, whether they left or not - we DO NOT eat strangers leftovers. "They looked normal and I'm hungry!!" This guy at a neighboring table totally watched the 30 second ordeal and was cracking up as he shared it with his friend - giving my little food snatcher thumbs up on their way out. He drives me BONKERS!!

. . . okay, just one more. . . . we recently flew off to throw my adorable pregnant sister a baby shower. Our trip to Indiana was quick and sleepless but we were honored to throw her a shower, meet her friends, play with the triplets she watches, and help set up baby Brooklyn's nursery :) We cant wait til the baby arrives and Molly practically moves back home ooops, I mean visits a lot :)

Not SWEET Aubrey

. . . Oh yes, sweet little Aubrey has a not so sweet side too :)

Last month, I made a "motherly" decision and pulled Aubrey from her softball team. While she completely understood my reasoning for why she couldn't be on the team anymore, she was devastated. Thinking quickly, I came up with this "exciting" plan to train her to be a runner, and compete in short races with me (ones with medals of course). I figured it would be something fun for us to do as a family. She was totally on board, and the plan immediately lifted her spirits. I made cute charts, convinced grandma to join us, and everything seemed great. . . ummm, that is, until the training and running aspect of the plan actually started :) GRRRR! Our training progressively leads us through series of run/walk cycles, leading up to 30 minutes of continuous running. We have basically the same ritual every day (or 5 days a week), I come home from work and chipperly announce. . . . "it's time to change into running clothes!" and my sweet little Aubrey immediately turns into the BEASTmaster :) The first two weeks we had a 6 minute walk/2 minute run cycle, repeated 5 times. We got through the first week with minor whining and complaining but when week #2 rolled around, the HOT SUN also decided to roll in to town. Not far into our run one day my Aubs turned into her crabby runner self and was purposely doing everything I was training her not to do. To say the least, she grew frustrated with my critiquing and yelled "I HATE YOU," and proceeded to spit on me. Ummm, I was a little shocked, and in my stern, mean mom voice (holding back my laughs) she got a yelling :) I believe she immediately regretted her actions, and even more so now. . . .A couple weeks have passed and not a day goes by that someone doesn't mention it. "Hey Aubs, you're not going to spit on me, right." We all laugh at her, and sometimes she laughs too. I am happy to report we are currently working on week #4 and today's run increase was fabulous. Mom and Aubrey did amazing and Pregnant Auntie Molly is here visiting and joined in the training fun :) Yeah for our new hobby. I hope one day Aubrey will admit she kind-of-sort-of likes it and I can relive my early running years through her :) The reason we have kids, right? Oh how I love them and their little mistakes too :)

Dedicated to my dear, sweet, pregnant (w/ my lil' Brooklyn) sister who doesnt believe changing fonts & layouts counts as blogging :) Here's your post

Hooray for fall!! A time for new beginnings . . . or is that Spring? Guess it doesn't matter, I am ready for new beginnings. I love it. . . the kids are back in school, the decorations are up, apple cider, chilly weather, yummy soup . . . fall is the BESTEST!!

Besides a great family vacation, the exciting reveal of my sisters baby girl, and Caydens 8th Birthday (okay, I guess there was more good there than I thought) August was basically a BUST in my life. . . . I lost my 2 best friends to the wicked witch of the west (ummm, like seriously), discovered a boy I dated but 3 months earlier ran off and got married (hmmm, you think he was dating us both??) , and lost the current bf when he ran off to Greece for a month and ummm, never returned??
I'll just assume he got married too. I was sad all month, but now it is September, I am putting it behind me, and trying to find humor (and a lesson) in it all :)

The kids have fallen into their school routine and so far everything is perfecto. Aubrey started middle school (attending the same school I did as a kid) and LOVES it. To be honest, I think the transition was harder on me. She is getting so old and I don't like it :) I actually wasnt even able to drop her off on the first day and had to take her to a friends. . . I have since over come that haha. I went to preregistration, back to school night and parents lunch day and am so happy with her teachers, the staff and the school environment. It is awesome and I know she will continue to grow in to a bright young lady there :) Cayden is now in 3rd grade and getting so big and responsible too. He was sad his sister wasn't at his school anymore (although they rarely even saw each other) but has proven to be quite independent and happy with school life. He loves his teacher (his first man teacher), is doing well with his school work, and hasn't even had a close call with the principals office (knock on wood). He got a new bike for his birthday from grandma and grandpa and it is still (yes 3 weeks later) his most favorite present ever. He practices riding it every day in hopes of proving to me he is responsible enough to ride it to and from school. Awww, maybe one day little one!! He is also having a competition with grandpa (although gpa may not realize the competition factor) to grow the biggest pumpkin. He wakes up extra early each morning to tend to that growing plant. It is beyond cute!
Okay, okay. . . I will stop rambling. Hope this post will satisfy my sister . . . Happy new school year and fall to all :)