Un, twoo, treee Elephants!

This week flew by.  We did not have a whole lot planned, but we had a lot of fun.  Monday was a relaxing day around the house with some yummy food.  I made some chicken taco chili in the crockpot.  Very tasty and a nice change up from your everyday chili.  I was introduced to this recipe from my bestie, V, and now I'm going to pass it along to you.  The other thing I made tonight, perfect for a fall day, were pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling.  These are fantastically delicious!  I highly suggest trying them.  I made my own pumpkin puree out of some little pie pumpkins that Big D and I had picked up from the farmer's market; however, canned pumpkin will just as well.

To give credit where credit is due, here are the websites that the recipes came from and, of course, I adjust to my liking:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/11/crock-pot-chicken-taco-chili-4-pts.html
http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/10/08/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins/

On Tuesday, Big D's daddy wasn't feeling well, so for our health's sake, I stayed home.  Since I didn't have anything planned for our day and the weather was still nice, we decided to head to the zoo after breakfast!  Our first stop at the zoo is, almost always, the elephants and that was the case today.  Big D has been working on counting and today I was pleasantly surprised.  Momma said "Let's count the elephants" and this is the response as he points to each one:  "Un, twoo, treee."  No that's not misspelled, that's what he sounds like; and yes there were three elephants.  Eeek, I just love him!  Tuesday night we took some pumpkin muffins to one of momma's friends and his wife and caught up for a little while.  Big D got to see the music room with all the different guitars and musical instruments.  It was fun watching him listen to the stories and nod his head in agreement every once in a while.  What a charmer!

The penguins putting on a show for Big D!

The rest of the week was fairly tame.  And while we didn't have anything major planned, it was all the little things that matter anyway!  Wednesday, Big D spent the day with Pepaw and Mamaw since his daddy was still sick.  He had a blast, but I think he wore Pepaw out with all of the Thomas the Train viewing.  You can only watch the same episode/movie so many times.  Thursday, Momma ended up locked out of her house!  That prompted for a change of the locks so I had a working key and can avoid that situation in the future.  Extremely stressful, but cuddles from Big D before bed time melted all the anxiety away.

Saturday morning we got some chores out of the way and that afternoon, Aunt T came over for a while.  We headed to a craft show at one of the local high schools where Mamaw caught up with us.  It wasn't as busy as normal, which meant we could move without bumping into everyone.  I didn't end up buying anything except food related products; mind you delicious food products!  After dropping off Aunt T at her car, we headed to Mamaw's house for some dinner and visiting.

Saturday playtime, Neicy and Big D both in the tent. As a side note, recently I've been finding Neicy just hanging out in the tent.

Big D with his cupcake in an ice cream cone from the craft show.  He wasn't sure, at first, if it was ice cream or not.

Sunday, we headed to the grocery and then spent another quiet day at home.  We did our chores, played outside, played inside, and then played some more.  We've been slowly starting potty training and today Big D used his potty numerous times.  He didn't tell me when he had to potty, so I had to be very attentive.  Of course there were just as many accidents on the floor, but that's the name of the game.  I am still very proud of him and he enjoyed the sticker rewards.  Honestly, I think the only reason he used the potty was so he could run around the house naked!  No rush on the potty training;  he's still a little guy.

The weather here is supposed to get quite a bit colder this week with a chance of snow.  Wishing you all warmth and happiness wherever you are!  Make the chicken taco chili and pumpkin cream cheese muffins and you will have both warmth and happiness...just saying.