My sister Kate is the best.  The bomb!  Dot com!  My fave!  LYLAS (wait a second...)!!  Basically, she has a really busy life with an energetic 14-month old, is in the middle of a move, a new job, and making her main man Mike puh-leased (a full-time job alone).  But still, she surprised me--the new Mom (kind of... you know what I mean) who was recently feeling all down-and-out (waah, waah) that I didn't have much family close by to share Parker's every moment with--and she and her cute 'lil family drove up for Thanksgiving.  She made my heart so happy.  Seriously.  Best friends that are also sisters are the best kind.  Hear hear!  Plus, Parker was kind of a bum the last time he and Quinn saw each other and I knew he could do better.  When I found out they were coming I was all, "Parker, put your best foot forward this time, dammit!  Last time you just laid there!"

We have matching strollers.  Cute, I know.  And sort of matching sweaters.  Cute, I know.  Or is it just getting weird and stupid now?

Mah tea.  One of my favorites.  Get yourself some of that pronto.  It's yum cold too.

Catching up on the Occupy Wall Street latest.  Duh, what else?

"Steve!  There could be dog-poop in those leaves!"

"Bridget, it's natural."

(He's good for my psycho-self.)

Oh, and his hoot hat?  Cause I know you're gonna ask.  He pretty much wears it EVERY DAY thanks to Sarah who sent it to him.  And Joy, who, ya know, made it.  

Lindsey is obsessed with Kate and asked me if we could have an unofficial "God-parent" ceremony to which Kate and I replied, "YES."  Isn't that sweet?  And just so ya'll know, we're not replacing Kate and Mike with already existing God-parents... cause that'd be, um, wrong.  I'm pretty sure Lindsey doesn't have any.  Every gal needs herself some God-parents!

"Oh haaay Parker.  Aren't you lookin' handsome today!  Who's yo' Daddy?!"

I did not claim to eat healthy all the time.  Onion rings, why you gotta be so dern good?!

And that was our weekend.  Wahoo!

It was a success.  Bellies were full... of turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes (both regular and sweet!), cranberry pear chutney, and rosemary rolls, wine, peanut butter mousse pie and a bumbleberry pie too... yummm.  And, as you've already seen, we were able to eat that deliciousness for days.  I really enjoyed hosting Thanksgiving, more than I thought I would.  Minus the little hiccup when, the night before, I realized my table cloth didn't fit the table when it was extended (as it had to be so everyone could sit comfortably!).  It was a typical form over function fight.  Me being like, "Steve, we can just make it work!" and Steve saying, "No one will be able to move their elbows cause they'll be sitting so close!"  Pinterest came to the rescue.  I saw this pin and one quick stop at our local farmer's market, the greens and tangerines were bought and I added the cranberries and swapped out the pillar candles for my silver candle sticks.  Shazam, thanks Pinterest.

How was your Thanksgiving?

yesterday is history

tomorrow is a mystery

today is a gift

{eleanor roosevelt}

{the song... a favorite of mine}

currently protesting any form of napping, 

 i'm forced to leave out cute details like his fondness for bathtime or mah big boobs...

it's operation get-parker-to-sleep up in this house.

leftovers.

unfortunately, they're just about gone as we've been eating thanksgiving since thursday.

it's been good.

how was yours?

(and i didn't kill anyone with an undercooked turkey.  in fact, it came out perfectly.  bam!)

in the spirit of thanksgiving, i thought i'd take a go at some things i'm thankful for...

for lindsey's willingness to help me cook dinner... almost every night.  she's becoming quite the little cook and i think is always more eager to eat what's on the table be it brussel sprouts or tacos when she's had a hand in the process.

for my husband with whom i feel like i can do anything.  so corny but so true.  

for heat that kicks on whenever i want it to.

for nathaniel's smarts.  he's doing so well in college and i'm really quite proud of him.

for my body's ability to do what i tell it to whether it's stand up, sit down, go for a walk... limbs that move and work... 

for the love of a family... from my kids, from my sisters, my mom and dad... the love of a family.  ugh, so good, sooo good.

for william's helpfulness.  that kid gets such joy out of making me and steve happy.  i hope it lasts!

for jordan's sense of humor.  though he can be a bugger at times, when the mood is right, he's still got his sense of humor.

for the eyes that parker gives me.  even when i'm chatting away with a friend i look down and see him staring at me like, "you're the best."  no parker, YOU're the best.

for tv shows.  sad, but true.  i'm enjoying pan am this year, you guys?  and revenge too.  yeah... i do like tv.

for books.  and this one is soooo good these days.  i'm almost through it and i got it a few days ago which is good consider parker's a demanding little fellow.

for gracie's eagerness to fetch.  while it's terribly annoying at times, she really is so stinking cute.  

for the 23-lb. turkey i'll be making on thursday.  wish me luck.

happy thanksgiving!

{last year's thankful lists}

{image}

seriously.  how fun would that be.  we'd just listen to russell make jokes and we'd say, "YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE FROM LONDON!" (name the movie) and katy would be like, "shut up and put your money where your mouth is," and steve and i would just be like, "you guys are so much cooler than us."  

who would you pick?

who would you soooo not pick?  (for some reason harrison ford and calista flockhart are coming to mind as people i wouldn't pick.  i'm not sure why since harrison ford is like INDIANA JONES but i think he's a little boring these days.  and calista, a little boring too.  sorry guys.)

First things first.  Just know that I am not claiming to be the queen of knowing the ins-and-outs of sponsorship.  Thus, if you were planning on getting pissy in the comment box, no need!  I feel like a cheeseball even doing a "how-to."  But, to toot my own horn for one brief second, I have been told by a few of my sponsors that this blog is one of their biggest traffic sources while they're a sponsor.  And there is nothing worse than sponsoring a blog and seeing ZERO traffic from it, yes?  So what works and what doesn't?  I'm not entirely sure but after checking out the blogs that give less versus more, I've come up with a few hypotheses as to what those might be.

1. Don't have your sponsors start halfway (or more) down the page.  Your Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest account links shouldn't take precedence over people who are paying to be on your page.  Shuffle things around, get rid of things, do whatever you need to do, but sponsors, in my opinion, should start at the top of the page, or very close to the top anyway.

2. Rotate your sponsors!  This is one of the craziest to me.  You buy a sponsor spot.  You get stuck in that sponsor spot and you remain at that very spot for the whole month (or however long) that you sponsor that blog.  What???  The amount of traffic you get should not be based upon luck.  Rotate that ish so that everyone is getting a spot at the top, the middle, the bottom.  I rotate mine every few days so you're always seeing some new ads.  It makes sense to me.

3. Don't accept too many.  This is hard because, after all, you're hoping to make money doing it, and turning down money is not something any of us are probably good at.  But, I think the fewer sponsors you have, the more exposure the ones you have are getting.  Sounds obvious.  So, when I go to a blog and they have like thirty-plus sponsors, I'd rather sponsor the blog where I'll be one of twenty over one of forty.  Duh.

4. Do consider blog swaps.  But, look for blogs in your range.  It doesn't make sense to be a brand-new-just-out-of-the-gate blogger and be e-mailing a four-year-running-five-thousand-followers-plus blog saying, "Let's swap ads to promote traffic to both our blogs!"  Which blog do you think is gonna benefit more from that?  I'll give you one guess.

And that's all she wrote.

If you've broken one of these cardinal rules of sponsorship, I'll still love you just the same.

dear parker,

you've been in existence for one year now.  it was one year ago that i discovered you were growing when i got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  best belated birthday present ever.  it was sooo exciting, so surreal... i woke your dad right up and we couldn't go back to sleep, of course.  then you grew, and grew, and i finally started taking pictures of myself so i'd always remember what it was like having you inside and what i looked like while you grew.  i look back on those pictures and think, "that was parker in there.  all along, it was you."  i get emotional just thinking about it.  you've been with us for three and a half months now and buddy, i love you so much.  i cannot imagine my life without you and i feel so blessed when i look at you and think, "you're my son.  my son!  i get to have you forever!"  

we go everywhere together and i just watch you marvel at the world whether it's the sky, the trees, gracie, william's funny faces, me dancing in front of you, daddy making his sound effects, your auntie kate making noises over skype... some days we cuddle in bed for hours, not often enough, and i lay down on my side and you're on your side and we look at each other and i kiss your mouth (about a hundred times a day) and pull the covers up over our head, and back down, and back up... and your eyes get big every time.  i love helping you discover the world (buddy... mama's got tears in her eyes right now just writing this).  i love seeing things as you see them.  i love going everywhere with you... we've been attached at the hip since july 23rd and i like it.  today we were at cvs and you were looking up at me in the carrier with this huge smile on your face as if to say, "mom... i love you so much."  it melts my heart.  you melt my heart.  it's so cliche to say but, gosh, sometimes it feels like it's really melting.

i've cried more than i normally do in three months.  i cried when you were born, i cried when you had to be under the lights for 24 hours, i cried when you seemed not yourself for a few hours, i cry when i think you're growing up too fast, i cry when i think that your tiny little hands are the same hands that will be holding your baby one day, i cry when i'm writing you this simple letter... mama's can cry pretty easily.  you'll see that soon enough.  having little babes makes us mamas real vulnerable.  i love your little personality.  the way you want to be with me all the time and you settle down immediately if i hold you in my arms.  i love how happy you are.  you smile all the time.  in fact tonight daddy put you on the dinner table after we were done eating and you took turns going around the table smiling at everyone so big your whole mouth is wide open while we all just smiled back at you.  you have brought so much joy into our lives.  we're so lucky to have you.  i'm so lucky to have you.  i love you forever and ever and ever, sweet baby boy.  thanks for being mine.  thanks so much.

love, mom

ps. and i realize i'm totally manipulating emotions by having you listen to the song while you read, but it's my blog and i do what i want to do.  plus, i was listening to this song while i wrote it (and it was on my birth list, so it's kind of fitting, no?).

on sunday we celebrated both mine and jordan's birthdays (our birthdays are one day apart... so i must also say, happy birthday jordan!) with a delicious breakfast of, my favorite, egg, cheese, + bacon on an english muffin (some had theirs on bagels... i prefer the english muffin.  the bread to filling ratio is off with a bagel... too much bread.  clearly i've given this some thought.).  william and lindsey made berry muffins all by themselves, oj for the kids, coffee for mom and dad... and we feasted.  we used to be really good about having what we called "fiesta breakfast" every saturday morning but we've let that tradition slip away a bit.  it needs to come back.

anyway, nathaniel came home for the night which was great.  and it gave me a chance to work on our christmas card (which i'll hopefully send out by christmas... that's the idea, isn't it?) then later that day we went out to lunch.  i got some mocassins that i'd been coveting, and a gift card to anthro... which brings me to this point... is it just me or do you guys stress out a little over anthro gift cards?  it's all, "WHAT DO I GET!?  WHAT IS THE BEST THING TO SPEND THIS MONEY ON?" cause, it's not every day i afford anthro clothes.  in fact, steve once got me a gift card to there and i was so stressed out with what to buy myself that i bought KITCHEN KNOBS INSTEAD.  stupid.

so, that was that.  since my birthday actually fell on a monday (which should be illegal), we did most of our celebrating sunday.  but i did enjoy a leisurely breakfast with steve and parker at an old diner near us on monday morning.  the type of diner that has juke boxes at the booths, waitresses that you know have been there for years and years, and an old-fashioned cash register with an old man sitting at it, drinking coffee, ready to cash you out before you leave.  the best kind of diner if you ask me.  oh, and here's the birthday girl, that's me... (and the boy who has become like an appendage... with me, always.  and i quite like it that way).

today's giveaway is from the etsy shop lee la la

which has some really cool wrap bracelets that would fancy up

a boring outfit.  i, for one, am loving that red wrap bracelet...

and the black and gold one -- good combo.

the shop also has some little girl accessories like hats and headbands!

you want in?

this giveaway is for a 

$40 shop credit.

to enter:

{u.s. residents only}

+ leave a comment below (and include email!)

additional entries:

{separate comments}

+ follow the leelala blog or facebook page

+ favorite the shop on etsy

giveaway closed.

k is the winner.

i trust that you all can read that even though photo booth makes it backwards.

oh, and i can give my address out if you want to send me gifts.

catch ya on the flip-side!

at times, these days, it feels more appropriate to call him a boy... he is growing so fast!  newborn days, be gone!  he's reading!  look... evidence above!  anyway, he is seriously such a pleasure.  he is happy most all the time and he's always discovering.  when i take him for walks, he looks up at the trees like, "mom.  have you SEEN THESE THINGS?"  full of wonder.  all the time.  we could all learn a thing or two from our babies.  their worlds are so simple and innocent.  even the trees fascinate them.  

and happy veterans day!

You like comfort food?  Who would actually answer no to that question?  A fool.  Anyway, yes, we all like comfort food and the best kind of comfort food is the kind that's actually decent for you too.  Folks, I give you the tamale pie.  My dear friend, Jenny, brought me this when Parker was about a week old and I was like, "MARRY ME."  It's so good and food for the postpartum Mom is the best thing ever.  It feels a bit decadent too because of the corn bread topping.  Anyway, my pictures suck (nighttime!  no flash!) but trust me when I say it's real good and you should give it a try.  It's a highly adaptable recipe so I'm going to tell you how I made it and I'll include variations.

Tamale Pie

serves 5-6

15 oz. corn bread box (or the equivalent of your homemade version)

1 lb. ground beef (you could use more but I always go light on the meat)

2 red peppers, diced (any color and amount would do)

1 onion, diced

half bag of frozen corn (this is just how much I had... a can, a bag, whatever)

salsa (any amount to give it some liquid)

sour cream (a couple spoonfuls, again, to moisten it)

cheddar cheese, grated (however much you want)

1 can black beans (if you don't like beans, skip it... or pinto, kidney... all would do)

optional: 1 can of condensed tomato soup (I didn't have any this time and didn't miss it)

optional: chili powder

Directions:

It's easy.  Cook beef.  Add peppers + onion and sautee.  Add corn to warm it up.  Take off heat and add your sour cream, cheese, salsa, beans.  Put it all in a 9x12 casserole dish.  Take your favorite corn bread (ours is Trader Joes boxed.  I will never attempt to make it myself because I'm in love with theirs) mix (already mixed up with the oil + eggs, etc.) and add it right to the top, uncooked, spreading it out evenly.  Yeah, it seems weird to add raw corn bread mix to the top of the cooked meat + veggies but that's how it's done, people!  Then cook it for 400 degrees for like 20-25 minutes or so.  This is probably different than the corn bread baking directions but it still works.  Just make sure the corn bread is truly cooked on top or the underside can be really undercooked since it's right on top of the casserole fixings.    

Like I said, there are a ton of variations.  I did it totally different this time then I did the last (it didn't call for cheese or sour cream or beans... but they work.) and I loved it.  The kids all asked for seconds and it made my man go, "Mmmm."  Winning!

so last night was one for the books.  parker awoke around 4:30 am with a big smile on his face like, "hey guys, it's time to get up now."  i was not having it.  neither was steve.  so, while we desperately tried to get some more sleep, he basically kicked and hit us with his flailing limbs repeatedly, all the while cooing at the top of his lungs (did you know babies could coo loudly?) from his center-spot until we shimmied so far to either side that we were basically falling off the bed.  then, i feel him.  he's wet.  diaper change in the dark.  two seconds later, we hear the poop.  steve feels wetness on his arm.  he couldn't have filled his pants that quickly.  "i've been shat on!"  (he didn't really say that but it sounds funnier than, "do i have poop on me?"). we turn on the light.  yes, indeed he did, but not because he had a blow-out.  his diaper is empty but the diaper is actually wedged between his butt cheeks giving him a major wedge and letting all the poop out.  plus one for mom!

we strip the sheets and mattress cover which are now nastay.  back to bed?  hardly.  parker wanna nurse?  please??  the only hope of getting him back to sleep at this point.  he tricks us.  nurses for like five minutes and then is all, "suckas!  you thought that was gonna put me back to sleep?  not i!  i'm only re-energized now!"  so we lay there, getting kicked and shat on and i start dreaming of food.  i decide i must have a johnny rockets burger, fries, and milkshake.  i tell steve.  we'll try to make it happen.  he has the day off.

hours later (remember, this was all happening at 4 am) we get in the car.  to feed the ravenous woman, that's me.  parker promptly falls asleep in his car seat... finally.  wake him so soon?  no.  let's drive around.  i'm starving.  steve keeps suggesting different places in lieu of going as far as johnny rockets because i was all, "I HAVE BEEN SUSTAINING A LIFE TODAY AND HAVE YET TO EAT A THING," and at this point i'm considering looking for a dirty diaper (there's got to be one in this car somewhere!) and eating that.  i can't think straight.  we come up with drive-thru to maintain a sleeping parker.  my dreams of johnny rockets are dashed and replaced with a wendy's number one and a frosty.  sooooo not as cool.  nevertheless, i stuff my face and like it.  all that talk of health food on this blog?  phony.  and the number one was good, my friends.  did you know wendy's fries are way better now?  then we walk around town with a finally awake parker who totally thwarted our plans and was thinking the whole time, "serves you right for not playing with me at 4 am.  did you have me so you could get your sleep???  you idiots."

and did i mention the weather was spectacular and it was awesome to have steve all to myself?  oh, and that we totally celebrate mediocrity here by taking pictures of a WENDY'S DRIVE-THRU MENU.  someone put us out of our misery.