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!