Five on Friday - Brain Dump

Happy Friday!! I hope this week has been going well. It's been a fast and busy one for us (with a visit from the stomach bug in between - yuck). 

1. KC turned 9 months old yesterday! T is so excited because soon she'll be 12 months and she'll get dessert (he is also obsessed with hearing about the day she was born because he only remembers 2 things from that day - it is really really sweet).

A lot of people ask if I love having girl, and honestly I love having a baby! Then they'll ask if there's a difference between the boys and KC, and honestly there isn't. The only real difference I see is ruffles in the air when she's crawling around:

2. Daylight savings time ends this weekend!! I'm so excited - bring on the sunshine! KC is being baptized on Sunday. I searched high and low for a dress for her and me (I have no clue what the guys will wear, but I can guarantee N will dress himself in a sweater vest and nice pants and T will argue about wearing comfy pants and a Curious George shirt). Why is buying clothes so hard? I mean it's so easy to buy clothes for the kids, but trying to find a dress for me - not fun at all! I settled on this Gap dress (and it was on clearance for $18)! And by settled I mean it was the most perfect shift dress I ever did see (for my body type). Now to decide if I wear flats or heels - and find a stunning necklace (all before Sunday) - opinions welcome!

gap dress by playgroundprepster featuring d'orsay shoes

3. I made a hair appointment to cut my hair for Locks of Love. I did this to celebrate my 30th birthday and have been growing it out ever since. I wasn't sure I was going to do it again, but twice now I've heard how expensive wigs are and how even if a cancer patient doesn't feel normal, they would like to look normal. 

Here's when I cut it back in the day:

 (it never looked like this again, it's impossible for my hair to turn under)

My hair has some wave to it now so I'm hoping I can pull off something like this (with a lot of youtube video help):

(from wiki)

4. I'm going to start a new Pinterest trend with the Keurig on my nightstand. After a month, getting up early is getting HARD! Of course staying up too late doesn't help, but I am tired. Until this week I could jump out of bed at 5:15am without a hesitation. Now, I dragging until that first smell and sip of coffee. And I would love to drink it in this (sold out) mug:

5. I just finished the 4th Harry Potter book. When I went to check out the next one from the library I realized that being 8th on the hold list wasn't going to cut it. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime and 2 day shipping. The 4th book has been my favorite by far. I should probably go ahead and put the 6th book on hold. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! We are meeting to have our wills done this morning (what a delightful topic) and then N's preschool teacher is in town visiting so we get to meet up with her! Then we top off the weekend with KC's baptism (assuming no one else catches this lovely stomach bug). 

I'm linking up with the awesome Five on Friday ladies! 

Snowball Cookies

Last week snow was in the forecast twice! Twice! That's huge here. T had a friend over and I thought it was a perfect time to make one of my favorite winter treats - snowball cookies. We've made these many times before because they are perfect for little hands to help create. The recipe is from a newspaper clipping that was in my grandmother's cookbook. I used to cook with her all the time which makes me sentimental about sharing this experience with my kids. (You can skip the pictures and go straight to the recipe if you'd like) 

Snowball Cookies

The recipe starts off with creaming butter and powdered sugar.

Add flour and stir.

Next, you mash the dough around Hersey Kisses. We didn't have kisses (and I don't really like them in the middle) so we hid chocolate chips. It was a lot easier for the guys to do, although they still needed help. This is perfect fine motor skill work! Over the holidays I forgot to stock up on the peppermint kisses - they are AMAZING in the middle of these!

 Bake the little dough balls.

Sift a ton of powdered sugar into a baking dish (hello snow)!

When the cookies come out the oven, drop them in the sugar and roll them around to cover them in the "snow."

Sometimes it sticks better than others, but either way they are perfect with hot cocoa (topped with whipped cream of course)!

Ours were gone before the next morning when the actual snow arrived.

Here's the official recipe (with my changes):

Snowball Cookies

• 8 tbsp unsalted softened butter
• 1 1/2c sifted powdered sugar (you will use just 1/2 c at first)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4c flour
• 1/2 c finely chopped walnuts (I NEVER add these)
• 24 unwrapped chocolate kisses (I sub peppermint kisses or chocolate chips or nothing at all)

• Beat butter in mixer set to medium high for 1 minute
• Reduce speed to low and add 1/2 c powdered sugar
• With a wooden spoon, add vanilla and salt
• Stir in flour and nuts just until blended
• Using a tablespoon of dough (or more if you use chocolate chips instead of kisses), wrap the kiss 
• Gently roll to form a ball (this is hard for little hands, but great practice)
• Place on ungreased cookie sheet, 1" apart
• Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes (they will just slightly brown)
• While cookies bake, sift the rest of the powdered sugar into a baking dish (sometimes I use more than just the left over cup of sugar)
• Place the hot cookies in the sugar and roll them gently to coat
• Let them cool in the sugar, rolling them a few more times

Normally this makes about 24 cookies, if you use chocolate chips, it makes less because you use more dough per cookie.

The snow was exciting! Unfortunately school wasn't cancelled but after dropping off N I decided T could stay home and play (Chris agreed). 

There was even a bigger call for snow on Thursday and we were sorely disappointed. The good part was that Chris was flying in that afternoon so there wasn't an issue with him coming home!