Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

I think it's only about time that we introduce you to the newest member of our family. This is Bulah (I know, it's really spelled Beulah, but that's not how Dan spells it). This is Dan's little pride and joy. When he's having a bad day, he jumps in the truck and life is suddenly a lot of fun! She is a 1956 Chevy that he brought back from the dead. She had 3 tires in the grave when he rescued her. I wish I had some before pictures, but just picture turquoise rusted paint, a chain stearing wheel, and vice grips to roll down the window). He and some buddies have spent some serious time restoring and modifying her ("resto-mod" is apparently the term for it for those in the classic car circles), well at least they were good at telling someone else what to do. Bulah has totally become a member of our family. All Dan has to do is rev the engine when he pulls up and Colt goes running out to the garage for "blulah". That little boy loves that truck like nothing else. He will sit in the back or the cab for hours just playing and pushing every button he can find. Dan finally gave up keeping the windows polished since they constantly have little hand prints all over them. Danni loves to go for rides in the truck nestled right up next to her daddy. The two little ones even have their own theme songs that Dan will blast for them when they're going for rides around the block - Danni's is "In Your Wildest Dreams" by the Moody Blues, and Colt's is "Born Free" by Kid Rock.

She even inspired the interior of Dan's new car lot. We were stumped for a couple of months on how to re-do the office after Dan bought it. Bulah gets parked inside the show room when the weather turns yucky, so one day it just dawned on me...there was no other option, we have to make Bulah part of the interior and do a 50's car theme. That's all I had to say and he ran with it. It turned out pretty cool, I will have to post pictures of that later.

I was a lot hesitant in the beginning and it took me a while to get on board, but seeing how happy she makes my family, I guess I don't have a choice but to welcome her to the family!
This is the boys giving her a quick wash and dry on one of her first trips home. The roads were kind of wet from the snow and you should have seen how fast these guys worked to get the gunk off of her! For Christmas I surprised Dan and had our good friend Micah who is an artist paint a picture of Bulah (Micah is the one with a big cheesy grin in the picture below). Dan was so excited and couldn't stop looking at the painting for an hour! Obsessed much?
Last night at our ward trunk or treat, Braden was handing out candy in the back of Bulah. His little secret was that anytime someone complimented the truck, he would give them a full-size candy bar! It didn't take long for the older kids to figure it out and come running!

We're Back!

Colty is our adorable 2 year old. He rules our house. His favorite things are his little TV and his big sister Danni. He knows his letter sounds and loves to point out all of the colors. We can tell he will keep us on our toes for a long time to come!
Danni is our little Drama Queen. She is a girlie-girl from head to toe. She loves her dance class, to play with her best friend Lu Lu, and to go to preschool.
Emilee is our social butterfly. Whenever the phone rings no one else answers it because they know it's going to be for her. She started a competitive dance team this fall and absolutely loves it. She was also blessed with a good heart and easy going nature which she needs to survive being the middle child in a house of 5 kids!
Brianna is a busy little athlete. Right now she is doing cross-country and club soccer and just had basketball try-outs this last weekend. Even though she's 12 now, she's still a Mama's girl and can always be found trying to sit right next to me (it drives her Dad CRAZY she won't give him any "love"). She's a good example to all of us and makes us laugh with her quirky sense of humor.
Unbelievably, Braden is 14 now and a Freshman in high school. I am not old enough to have a high schooler! He is currently participating in his favorite sport football. He plays O-Line and loves to "lay-out" the defenders. He is busy with school, golf, scouts, and teasing his little sisters. He can't wait for Colt to be old enough to play a little back yard tackle football!

The family picture's a little outdated, but the Burrups are back! After I was pregnant with Colt it made me nauseous to look at a computer screen and I stopped blogging. When he was born, he came out a little high maintenance (to put it nicely) and I finally feel like i can manage life again. I would love to start blogging again to be able to keep a record of these times that seem to go so fast. Our kids are much bigger now and it seems like time has flown by.