Cheeseballs for the New Year!

Back in October my sister had her 30th birthday! Which clearly brings to mind that I've written far to little these last few months!

For her party she wanted my homemade cheeseballs made into a "30". I was very nervous about how it would turn out, but was very pleased in the end!

I wanted to share the recipes for my cheeseballs with you, in case you were in need of a snack idea for New Year's Eve!

The first cheeseball is a recipe handed down to me from Hubby's grandma.

Beef & Cheeseball

3 pkg Budig brand beef (if you can't find Budig brand beef, I have substituted Ham and it work's fine. The only place I can find the Beef is WinCo if you have one by you)

2 blocks Philadelphia cream cheese

1 Tbsp Accent seasoning

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

5 green onions chopped

Open all 3 pkg of beef & stack, then chop the beef into small squares & put half of it on a plate spread out liberally. Combine the other half of the beef & the remaining ingredients. Using your hands squish it all together until very well combined. Form into a ball & cover in the remaining beef. Serve with crackers.

This second cheeseball is my sisters favorite :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheeseball

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup crushed chocolate cookies or extra peanut butter & chocolate chips to cover the cheeseball.

With mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, & peanut butter until creamy. Stir in sugars, cocoa, peanut butter chips, & chocolate chips. Form in a ball & roll in the crushed cookies or remaining peanut butter & chocolate chips. Serve with graham crackers & cookies.

If you would like to make the cheeseballs into a "30" like I did, then split the first cheeseball into 2 pieces, one a little more than the other. Roll the bigger piece between your hands like making a fat snake & set it down in a "c" shape. Then form the second half the same way as you see above.

Then mold the 2 pieces together

And cover it in the remaining beef (I used ham for this one).

With the second cheeseball leave it in one piece & roll it out in a long snake & lay it down in a "0" & mold the ends to meet. Then cover it in the crushed cookies or as I did the remaining chocolate chips & peanut butter chips.

Then serve both cheeseballs with crackers & cookies :) if you are brave & try this with other numbers I would love to hear about it! You could even make a "2014" for tonight!

Happy New Years! Have a wonderful night!

I Love My Birthday!

Even opening up my phone & seeing the date makes me smile! I really love my birthday! 

Today I turned 29! My last year of my 20s! I still don't particularly feel grown-up & I can't believe my friends are having kids! But maybe one of these days I'll finally grow up ;)

What about you, do u love your birthday, or is it more of a love/hate relationship?

Ghost

I have been dying to tell you about the newest member of our little family!

Meet Ghost! Isn't he adorable! I thought Halloween would be the perfect day to introduce him to the world ;) and yes, if you were wondering, my Hubby is a fan of Game of Thrones : / and he conveniently forgot to mention that's where he got the name from until I had agreed to it...

He adores me :) & the feeling is mutual!

He also loves car rides :)

He joined our family because my brother & sister found him abandoned on the side of the road the night before she was to have my nephew! Not a great time to be taking in stray dogs! So he came to live with us :)

This weeks photo challenge theme is Halloween Fun. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided Ghost and weird gourds would be a cool Halloween pic! At one point he took off with the yellow gourd in his mouth! I thought surely that was the end of it, but I was able to get it back with only a few teeth marks! So needless to say, this is not the picture I envisioned, but it took a bag of dog treats to get it!

Ghost wishes everyone a happy Halloween!

Photos

I owe you 4 weeks of photo challenge pics! And I don't want to disappoint!

Three weeks ago the theme was Guilty Pleasure, more importantly it was the week my nephew was born!

This is my pic for that theme because it is my pleasure to share pics of my adorable nephew!!! However I guess that's cheating since I don't feel guilty about it ;) Also, I made nephew that owl :)

Also, can you believe how great my sister looks after just having a baby!! :) she's awesome!

Two weeks ago the theme was Think Big

Think Big nephew! You can do amazing things through Christ! You have a family who loves you very much! :)

Last week the theme was Blast to the Past

My sister gave my brother this bear when they had just started dating, now nephew gets to cuddle with it :)

And this weeks theme is Borrowed

Tuesday my mom & I borrowed these adorable boys & took them to a pumpkin patch! They had a great time! :)

So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods :)

The State Fair of Texas

Today Hubby took me to the Great State Fair of Texas!

We have several traditions to stick to when at the state fair, one of which was to get our pic taken in front of the newly rebuilt Big Tex! It was such a shock when Big Tex burnt down last year, we were very excited they were able to rebuild him before this years fair started!

We also had to get a couple Fletcher's Corndogs! The jalapeño cheese ones of course! I crave that Corndog all year long, just waiting for the fair!

Then we went to the bird show, the 25th anniversary of the bird show, & the last year for it to be at the fair! It was a little emotional, so many people have made this show part of their fair experience for so long! But fourtunately they have started a permanent bird show at our Dallas Zoo :)

This guy flew out of the Ferris wheel to catch a leather lure & took it way up there!

Then later in the show Levi the Harris hawk also flew out of the Ferris wheel! Always such a great show!

Hello beautiful birdie!

Thank you for the donation!

Beautiful birds!

And here's my truck! Dodge Ram 3500 longhorn larimie edition :) another of my traditions is to take a pic in the newest edition of my truck! One of these days I will have one! Hubby said so! "When I win the lottery", he promised ;) I'm not worried that we don't actually play the lottery...

Big Tex in butter, I love to see the butter sculptures every year! They amaze me! And this years was extra special with its hat tipped to Big Tex :)

Then we went to the special Big Tex exhibit, where they showed all his changes over the years & had a special video about his rebuilding this year.

Look at the size of those pumpkins! We stopped by the greenhouse as we were leaving & happened to catch the finishing touches of this pumpkin carving :) what a piece of art!

We had an amazing time at the fair today!!! I love living in Dallas where we can enjoy these wonderful Texas traditions!

He's Here!

My nephew was welcomed into the world on Wednesday! :) Luke Dwaine, 6lb 13.9oz, 19.5", a very loved little man!

He's adorable! I made this owl for him, it ended up being mommy's pillow during their hospital stay :)

He loves to have his hands up around his face! He did it in his sono pics to.

Luke & his Nanny

Luke with his great-grandma! This is her first great-grandchild! He will call her Ma, after our Ma :)

Luke with Uncle Patrick, I'm sure there were some bad habits being shared ;)

Luke & Uncle Patrick's mommy :)

And now he meets Grandpa Jim-Jim :)

And Cathy!

Such joy from someone so small!

"Are you my mommy?"

Luke with Cassie

Look how tiny! They will take pics of him with CJ the bear as he grows, to show how big he is :)

Tiny clasped hands :)

Daddy's turn, & time for Aunt to leave the hospital so the little family can get some rest!

But don't you worry, I went back & have day 2 pics! :)

Peek a boo!

A whole day old! Yet, doesn't look a day over newborn ;)

Hello hands!

Hands taste good!

Now Luke is meeting his Grandma :)

And his Papa :)

He is such a sweet little thing! The whole family is excited to have him! I already love being an aunt! :)