LOVE day

Since Valentine's Day fell on Sunday, I had the girls wear red.  And while they were looking so festive, I had them grab the boys for a picture.  Less than cooperative.

The kids thought it was fun when they were behind the camera.

Grandma Hillman had invited us over for dinner, so we made some chocolate covered strawberries.  I don't know if I like looking at the or eating them more, it's a toss up.  They are so pretty.

The kids get to gather around the table in the kitchen where clean up is much easier.  Over the years, things around the table have continued to get louder.  They sure to enjoy being around each other.

We grabbed the box of supplies that were still gathered from Hudson's class party.  The cupid arrow shoot was a hit.  You use a q-tip and straw to create a blow dart that you try to get through the suspended hearts.

Next up, unwrap a chocolate kiss while wearing oven mitts.  I'm pretty sure every single kid cheated on this, but it was fun to watch.

We had heart-shaped notebooks for everyone.  We all took turns writing something nice about each person.  It was fun to watch people read through them and smile.  We're not a very expressive family, so it was fun to hear what people had to say.

Uncle Tracy and Aunt NiCole were swinging people and throwing them onto the couch.  You had to get in line and only the manageable sized kids got a turn.

I found these warm, fuzzy, heart sweatshirts  and thought they made the perfect Valentine's gift.  I like to get everyone a little surprise to show how much I love them.

Home Arcade

You know the long winter nights are starting to take their toll when we start up our own arcade.  Forget the cold car and icy parking lots when you can enjoy all the fun without having to step foot outside.  As a bonus, just setting up the games and prizes can easily make it an entire day's activity.  

We had picked up a fun light game while thrifting.  It was sporadic and unpredictable so we just made up our own rules.  No one really cared as long as they got tickets.

We had Wii cow racing, a bing bag toss, and horseshoes.  The favorite was easily the game that paid out the most tickets which happened to be horseshoes.  By default I became the ticket dispenser and there were frequent disputes.  So we paid out a lot of tickets.

Look at the smile tickets bring.

We raided the candy cupboard and people rummaged through their things to contribute to the prize store.  It may very well become a tradition.  

Meeting Time

I remember the first one of these meetings, 3 weeks after giving birth to Delsie!  Oh man, the insanity.  Here we are 3 years into this tradition.  It's an opportunity for Brent to give back to his customers and educate them in the process.

Of course, the kids are always excited to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's and have them come out and eat lunch with us.

An official welcome on the marquee "Welcome Progressive Crop Systems."

The timing is always a shot in the dark.  This year a lot of our customers were on tour in the Bahamas, so the turnout was a little off.  Nice consolation prize anyway.

Down by the lobby there is a claw game.  One of the workers gave Delsie this unicorn out of it.  After several quarters later, the other girls finally began to realize that the only way you get an animal out of it is to have one handed to you from an employee.

Drying Corn

Brent always has a project going on.  So even in the dead of winter, he couldn't keep still.  The high moisture corn market has always been a bit of a headache, trying to find willing buyers.  So Brent his best to eliminate this problem by getting a corn dryer.  After months of research and head scratching , the DeLux dryer finally arrived.

It was an exciting time here on the farm.

There was a cloud of steam hovering above it for a good part of the winter.

Hudson is always caught up in the excitement.

Watching it do it's thing.

It was set up temporarily over by the corrals.  The next installment of the project will be to erect grain bins and move the dryer permanently behind our house.

Like one of these many screen shots that filled up my desktop:

Partying With Grandma

Dad put plans into motion for us to meet in Logan to celebrate Mom's birthday.  The adults took in a session in the temple before the snow really started falling.  The kids enjoyed playing in the snow right at Chris and Deidra's house.

I enjoy playing in snow as much as the rest, so we started some forts.

We tried a game of capture the flag, but it fell apart as kids fell off the structure and were eliminated.

Snowshoeing got the kabosh when tired kids started into their whining.

After some naps in cars, it was off to the Smithfield Cemetery hill for some sledding.

Dalliance likes to fix hair and little girls are the perfect subjects.

We celebrated in style with a fancy cake from Lee's.  It was funny because we never had bought cakes growing up, so when we decided to get one the girl writing on the cake messed up.

Since Brent was in Minneapolis for trading school, we spent the night and headed home in the morning.  

We were surprised to come home and find 4 1/2" of snow on our front porch.

McGee is Three

I remember the birthday plans used to be a bit more extravagant.  Now they just kind of happen or evolve.  The one constant is Hard Times cinnamon rolls.  

This year Delsie got a baby.

She decided to go swimming.  We were only there for 45 minutes when we got kicked out for 'sanitary reasons.'  We decided to wait it out and keep swimming.  But the second time it happened, we just got out of dodge.

It came as no surprise that our birthday girl wanted to eat at McDonalds.  Try as some people might to persuade her, we ended up eating there.

The kids cashed in their attendance coupons to get fries and sundaes for everyone.

We combined a family party and get together at Tracy's on Sunday.  The girls had so much fun making the cake.  It was a group effort.

It turned out pretty good.  Not perfect by any means but they were much happier with the outcome and I didn't have to worry about it.

Since Delsie's the youngest Hillman grandchild, there's no shortage of older kids to dote over her.  Her absolute favorite is Sydney.  They were all so excited to watch her open gifts.  The best one was a butterfly that the Jensen's gave her.

All of the kids circled around and were mesmerized by it.