It's a dog's world....

It is certainly is a dog's world at our home.  Never and I say never several times did I ever imagine having a dog especially a house dog.  I grew up having no pets (no my childhood wasn't traumatized as a result) :).  So when my in-laws decided to serve a mission they needed someone to take care of their miniature schnauzer.  Liv instantly jumped on the "I'll do it wagon" but I didn't so much. 

Schatzie at Christmas time.

Not having pets my whole life and having just recently remodeled our entire house I was less than excited. In the end, democracy ruled and Schatzie came to stay with us in July.   My neighbor observed the other day, "You have become attached."  I admit it is true she has won me over. More so, Liv and Bellar absolutely adore her.  Liv wanted to write a post of Schatzie so Grandma and Grandpa Shelley could see her living at our house.  They may rethink their decision when they see her dressed up!

Liv and her friends make Schatzie into a "Diva"

Schatzie even made our family picture shoot this year.

August 2011

Bellar and Schatzie

Hiking with Liv and her cousins....she loves to be outside.

Yes the kids decided on a schnauzer pumpkin carving this year.

Who would have thought I would ever carve a dog on a pumpkin ? :)

Kids bought their dad a Grinch shirt for Christmas so Liv made antlers for Schatzie to be Max.

Schatzie a.k.a Max

6 Simplified!

I love the fact that Bellar's birthday requests were very simple - a white cake with pink frosting, balloons, donuts for breakfast, a birthday hat, and a birthday lunch with her two friends at Wendys.  She wanted a tea set, baby doll, plastic food, and a Webkinz.

Cinderella baby doll

She wanted a lot of balloons so this is what she woke up to birthday morning.

Donut breakfast

My All About Me Poster for Kindergarten

 

 

 

Our Happy Birthday Banner

Isabel decorated her own Cinderella cake the sprinkles are her dress.

She couldn't be any happier with her creation

Now the cake was truly one of a kind.  Isabel wanted to use the Cinderella cake pan.  I informed her I didn't have the bags and tips to decorate it (misplaced in the move) but she insisted she would decorate it beautifully.

Lunch at Wendys and gift from her friend Sophie

Double Digits

It is a double digit birthday this year for Liv.  At the top of her wish list was a pair of roller blades.

Dad wrapped the gift in shrink wrap, duct tape, etc. etc.

Modeling the new roller blades

Among other things Liv received for her birthday was the above peace jacket which she loves, clothes, Selena Gomez CD (from her sister), and money.  We decided to have a double digit birthday party with a few friends.  Thanks to a great deal through Groupon we went to Get Air Sports an indoor trampoline playground.  The theme for the party came from a computer graphic Liv found on the computer of a monkey....so we did a sock monkey motif.

Sock monkey treat bags for each girl to take home.

Candy buffet for each girl to fill up their treat bags.

Now off to jumping.....Oh goodness we had such a great time.  They had a foam pit to jump into, trampolines that ran up the side of the wall, dodge ball,  and basketball hoops.  After an hour of jumping we were exhausted.

Liv in the foam pit

Bellar

What a great group of girls!

 

Spin the bottle if the fingernail polish points at you paint one nail that color.  Put a new bottle in the middle and spin again.  Play until everyone has their nails painted.

Lunch, presents, monkey cupcakes, and a few games and party is over....phew am I tired but a lot of fun.

Love is in the air....

This post is all things Valentine's Day.  Although not my favorite holiday it is fun to celebrate it with the kids.  For me, I would rather a thoughtful loving surprise any other day of the year than on a day where you are expecting it.  BUT nonetheless a fun day.  

First, class valentines.  I turned to the Internet particularly pinterest for ideas.  The first came from dandee-designs.com.  The mason jar is a free printable.  A couple bags of bugs from the dollar store, some scissors, and dab of hot glue and we had our kindergarten boy valentine cards.

 

I cannot remember where we found our "Write on Valentine" idea.  This one taught me how to use my Silhouette Cameo (I love it by the way).  My great husband helped me figure out how to send to printer, registration marks etc.  He even figured out how to cut the marks to slide the pencil through...what a guy.

Teacher gift ideas came from http://www.make-it-do.com.  If you have a silhouette cut a rectangle at 3.5 by 4.5.  On a 12 x 12 sheet you can cut six squares.  

The valentine box.  I found a lot of cute ideas on the Internet but in the end my daughter wanted to make a book for her box.

From the Layton, UT Best Selling Author....Daughter named her 

box Stupendous Me.

A Drama Queen Series - Book One

What the kids woke up to Valentine's Morning - Each heart had a reason we love them.

"No bark about it you are the best daughter ever."  Then of course a pair of traditional holiday socks.

Home

 I share with you a now funny, it wasn't at the time, story that evidences our stumbling blocks in finding a house.

Our realtor told us she had a listing which was a short sale she wanted us to see.   We fell in love with it.  It was in a great neighborhood, it was in the elementary school boundaries we wanted, it was very well maintained etc. etc.  The home was listed as a short sale and offers were ending in a couple days.  If we wanted to make an offer we would need to do it quickly.  I kept thinking, "This is too nice of a home for what they are asking.  I can't believe we came across this house."


Well, we hurried the paperwork through staying up until all hours to get everything submitted for our offer.  I nervously and anxiously and fidgetly (if that is a word) waited for word from the realtor.  "Mrs. Shelley, there is a small problem on our offer."  My stomach lurched.  "What could be wrong?"  I am thinking to myself here.  "Well, your offer was made on the wrong house," she said.

What?  Are you kidding?  Yes, this is true.  I know shake your head and chuckle under your breath, it is true. There was another short sale listing just a few houses down on the same street.  The house the realtor showed us was another sale listing for a higher asking price.  Yet, the address on our offer was for the listing we did not see.  So here we were making an offer on a home we had never even stepped foot in.


Of course the realtor was very apologetic, "This has never happened to me in all the years I have shown houses."  She promised she would have our offer withdrawn.  


So yes we inadvertently put an offer on a listing sight unseen by the mistake of our realtor.  So after a few months of taking a break from looking we set out with a new realtor (wonder why?) to look again.

My husband called and said he wanted me to go look at a listing the realtor had shown him.  "Just look at the bones," he said.  Well, that instantly got me excited!  Feel the sarcasm in that line.  The bones were there after I looked at the house and good thing because the rest of it NOT so much - Cookie Monster stained carpet throughout, a painted mural (nicely done but not our style), an unfinished master bath etc.  but with it all this really felt like our home.  I will end my long story there and leave out the headache of going through the short sale process but in the end we bought a home!

We don't particularly love the color of our front door.  Painting it is on our really long to-do list.  My sister suggested we decorate it for Halloween.

"Finally"

A blog name?  Who knew you could stew over such a thing? After many suggestions from all family members and none anyone could agree on I decided easily and in as little words as possible  968 Established.  Why?  Simply it is our house number. Although it is only a number it is one of significance to me.  This is the first home we have purchased in our 13 years of marriage.  This is the house that we gutted on the inside and have spent the last 10 months renovating, constructing, demolishing, tiling, painting etc. to make it our home. 968 gives our family roots.  Military deployments of 12 and 15 months temporarily separated our family.  968 allows our family to live under the same roof.  What a blessing this is! 

Hence 968 Established. 

For 6 months, my ten year old daughter has been asking to start a family blog mainly for her grandparents who are serving a LDS mission in Cambodia.  Her words this morning as I sat down to the computer, "Finally!"

So I ask myself, "Am I the master of procrastination?"   In all honesty, I would have to say a resounding YES as far beginning this blog.  But I also stand to reason it has not been on the top of my priority list as it has been on hers.  Priority has been in establishing 968 as we have spent the last several months renovating our home.  This has been a learning process and a journey that has been extremely hard, frustrating, stressful, enjoyable, and memorable.  We hope to chronicle some of our before and afters here.