Bikes, Cars, and Bruises

!!BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

On May 14, 2012 we added a new member to our family! Her name is Kim Wendy Garvin. Born sometime in 2007. Red hair. Yellow Eyes. Weighs a couple of hundred pounds.

Here she is..

I had to do the cheesy announcement because getting this bike is a HUGE deal to this family.
First of all, Dan grew up riding them, but he never had one of his own and it has been his dream to get one. Whenever someone would drive past us on a motorcycle he would say something to the extent of "Look! Look, Babe! Look at how happy he is on that bike," or he would go the other route and make a big sigh with a sad "awww" at the end of it, trying to make me feel his "pain".
A few weeks ago, our beloved Gertrude (our `97 Grand Marque) passed away, and we had to sell her.. so we have been sharing a car (nightmare). Knowing that in a few years we'll need to get a bigger vehicle, we didn't want to buy a cheaper, smaller car right now just to replace it later, and we didn't want the extra expense of a big one right now. A cheap bike with amazing gas mileage seemed to be a pretty good option since Dan only works a few miles away. Hopefully we are right about that!
I made sure to set up rules like
#1- he HAS to wear his helmet when he gets outside the parking lot. No matter what.
and #2- he must always remember that he has a pregnant wife and an awesome little boy at home who need him in their lives, so he better be careful!!
You know, just normal wife-type rules to keep him alive.

While we were buying the bike, Logan tripped on the sidewalk and banged his head against the concrete. It was the worst thing I have ever witnessed. Here is the evidence..

Back to our vehicles.. I would like to share with everyone what we have owned in the last 3 years. This is mostly for my kids to see when they are older...before you read this, you must understand that in this family, cars are people too. They all have names and are strictly called by their names and coinciding pronouns :)

#1 Starting on our wedding day.. Dan's brother was generous enough to give us Mavis (his Lincoln Park Avenue- I don't even know what year she was, she was that old) as a wedding gift, which we drove away in from our reception. The next day we drove her to Vegas where we spent our honeymoon, and then traveled all the way to Prescott, AZ, during which she overheated and barely made it to our destination. She was SO comfortable and roomy though, and we were grateful to have her. Here are some beauty shots of her at our wedding..

We went to register Mavis at the MVD (Arizona is so backwards), and the ladies who did the "inspection" were laughing so hard! Yes, there were still a few oreos and tortillas stuck on the car, and the writing was still on the windows, but I'm pretty sure they would have laughed even without those on there!

While in Arizona, Dan got pulled over multiple times JUST because he was driving Mavis and the cops were suspicious. It was awesome.

#2 Dan's Grandma was SO kind and generous, and gave us her car since she wasn't supposed to drive. She lived in Prescott, so when we arrived there she gave it to us. We named her Gertrude, and believe it or not, she was even more comfortable and roomy than Mavis. We loved this car! We had her for almost 3 years until the engine broke and it wasn't worth replacing.

Bad picture of her, but she is the gold car, parked right next to good old Mave!

#3 This should probably be counted as vehicle #1 since Dan has had this beauty since high school, but since we couldn't drive her much while we were married, I count her as our third child. Most of you who know Dan, know about Wendy. She is the red-headed, topless, "beauty" that he has been in love with for years. He loves her so much that he wants to name our actual daughter after her.. which will not happen, don't worry! I don't think I could live with myself if we named our child after an old jeep! We did have some fun times in it while we were dating though. Like the time that the headlights started shorting out so they kept flashing on and off and people thought we were being rude. Or the time he taught me how to drive it and I had to use both hands to pull the stick back into 2nd because it was so old. Or the many cold nights when we drove around with no heater, so he bundled me up in a few of his hoodies while he froze to death in his light jacket.

Anyway, here is his beloved Wendy, who we sold a few months after we were married. I don't think he'll ever let me live that one down. These were taken back in 2006..

Can you tell he was in love? I'm surprised he had room for ME in his heart!

#4 Our most recent, and decent car yet! Beautiful Hallie, our 2007 Hyundai Sonata. She has been our only reliable car, and we love her for it! This is currently the car I drive now, while Dan drives Kim. We bought her in 2010 and pray that she lasts longer than all of our other cars did! Hallie is special because this is the first car we actually purchased, and the only car that Logan has ever really known, besides Gertrude who he rode in a couple of times.

This is the only picture I could find of her.. I'll have to take some more and post them later.

#5 You've already heard about Kim..

..and Logan has already fallen in love with her.

Just Some Projects..

With less than 6 weeks left, it's crunch time to get things ready for the baby. While I was making my list of things that I still need to get, I realized that I can MAKE make a lot of the clothes that I'm missing.. for FREE. A few weeks ago I went through my closet and took out all of the shirts and pants that I haven't worn in the last year. The pile was surprisingly huge! Instead of getting rid of my shirt with a tiny stain on it, or my cotton pajama pants that shrunk in the dryer and now reach right above my ankle (hott!), I thought I would try to transform them into cute little baby clothes.

The first thing I attempted was taking this shirt that fits me like a belly shirt...

and sewing it into this baby dress...

The only problem.. it turned out so small that it will probably only fit my baby girl's doll! Hahaha, gotta laugh at novice mistakes, right? At least I'm trying!

My second attempt was a ruffle skirt made out of a dressy shirt that just didn't fit me right...

I think it turned out pretty cute! I'm hoping it will fit her right around 6-9 months, which will be Dec-Feb.. perfect time for gray.

Then I found a tutorial on how to make easy baby leggings.. This is where my shrunken pajama pants come in. It was very easy! And the best part was that I could just use the bottom of the pants that were already hemmed as the bottom for the leggings. I'm planning on making a white dress that goes over these to make them a little more girly...I'll be making a lot of them in different colors over the next few months!

Last night I decided to make up my own pattern for a dress out of two really cheap tank tops that I bought a little while ago.. This is probably 12-18 month size, and I'm planning on giving it to my niece who is turning one this month. Hopefully it fits! It looks a little fat, but it will be easy to take in..

Here are some headbands I made..

Oh, and I cut my own hair..

Explanation? Okay.. Last week I was taking a shower thinking about how much I hate my long, nappy hair. So I got out of the shower, grabbed our household scissors, and started cutting! I like to blame it on the pregnancy hormones.. they've been making me to weird things lately!