covered in a a layer of ice...

this is what we woke up to this morning....

ICELAND!

it rained all night.
freezing rain.

power went out just before 3am~ugh!

it's now 11:15 am and the power is still out.

the hubs was on top of it though.
he had gas on hand because he heard a storm was a com'n.
got our little generator going right away to avoid a flood disaster in the basement!!
we have a portable heater going to keep the chill out and he hooked up my wireless internet for me too.
i was also able to power up the keurig to make coffee~a must this morning!!
he's such a great guy.
about an hour ago, he headed over to friends of ours,(who, btw, are in sunny florida now) just to check their house & make sure their basement wasn't flooded.
yes, he's very thoughtful of others...another reason why i love him ;)!

church was cancelled this morning.

i ran out in the rain & snapped some pics(missing my SLR :( )

it's not freezing anymore, but it is still raining..

the kids are playing a game & i'm enjoying a quiet morning home...

quiet & coffee....nice.

we are safe, warm & blessed that it's not any worse!

just hoping that the hydro is back on soon!!

Merry Christmas!

the Christmas cards are mailed with the letter inserted...

and BEFORE Christmas!

on time(ish)

this is for those who do not receive one in the mail~a brief update of our year:

Dear family & friends,

Wow! It’s that time of year again for an update on the otten family. We hope that our annual Christmas letter finds you all well and that you are enjoying the Blessings of this Season. We wish you a joyous Christmas with your loved ones, with God’s richest blessings for 2014!

We have been blessed once again with health & prosperity for which we are very thankful! As we get older, the years seem to go by quicker! This will be a brief highlight of our year.

Eryn~19, is enjoying her second year of university much more than her first! This year’s courses are much more focused on her program rather than the general classes she had to take last year. She has learned so much and really finds it all so fascinating and difficult at the same time. She enjoys spending any free moment in her week with Kevin. They have been dating for just over a year, and love being completely silly with each other!

Dani~18, is in her first year of college in the occupational/physiotherapy assistant program. She is attending Niagara College, the Welland campus, so she can live at home with school being just 20 min away.  She’s just finished up her first set of exams for this term and is ready for a nice long Christmas break!  Danielle is also now a first time vehicle owner…yep, bought a car to get her to school and to her boyfriend’s house! She & Ron have also been dating for just over a year now and see a lot of each other, as he also goes to our church. This past summer, together they had the opportunity to head up to Moose Factory Island in Moosonee, Northern Ontario(just south of James Bay), with the youth group to work with the Cree people. They worked with another youth group from Pennsylvania, doing VBS and outreach work with the locals. They were able to show the love of Christ to the people there and bring God’s Word to them.

Veronica~15, is enjoying her sophomore year in high school. She is becoming quite the chef as she took a foods course this semester. For this class she needed to make from scratch any recipe of her choosing and then do a blog post complete with photos to document each step. She has made cinnamon rolls (which, by the way, we have every Sunday morning), chili, quiche, butternut squash soup and pizza with all the fix’ns. These are just some of the great meals she’s made for us. Next year, she is eager to get her G1 driving permit~gulp! Veronica has also been doing a lot of babysitting for area families. She has taken over these jobs that her two older sisters used to claim, but now are too ‘socially busy’ to do! Veronica loves to oblige as she loves the kids!

Levi~14, is adjusting well to his freshman year in high school. Levi got to experience his gr 8 year end class camping trip to Algonquin park with his dad! They had a ton of fun doing lots of canoeing, swimming & hiking. He has made the basketball team and has me out there at 6:30am for Monday morning practice~yawn! This year he has also decided to grow…he’s almost caught up to me(I know, not much of a stretch!) and if this keeps up will surpass me soon~sigh. He enjoys having the older boyfriends around more…a little more testosterone in the air!

Jordyn~11, loves gr 6. Actually, she has always loved school. She has been growing her hair long in order to donate it someday to ‘angel hair’ for kids battling cancer. Her hair is almost waist length so, we will be cutting it soon!! Very often she’ll ask me if she can ‘do’ my hair, as she loves to style & braid hair. She has even done Veronica’s hair for school~cute, eh! Recently, Jordyn has been outfitted with an appliance in her mouth as her teeth/jaw need adjusting. She has been getting used to talking with an upper and lower retainer in her mouth. I did ask her teacher to not call on Jordyn to read aloud in class till she can enunciate her words more clearly!! Soon, she’ll have a mouthful of metal just like Veronica, most likely in 6 months.

Wayne & I continue to be blessed with work. Earlier this year we were blessed with a trip to Mexico, courtesy of Turkstra Lumber! We Had a Blast!! We took every opportunity to explore & try new things in the Mayan Riviera! We braved the heights of para sailing, snorkeled amongst the beautiful reefs off the coast and discovered Mayan history at the historical ruins at Talum. We were definitely pampered for a week~so nice!

Another change here was that we were unable to keep the little French bulldog that we had, due to the fact that he was getting increasingly aggressive. He had bitten a couple of us and I was unwilling to risk that he would bite a guest coming to our home. Our boxer, Mika, missed him terribly, but is doing much better. We fondly remember the little lug, and were sad to see him go. We continue to be busy with school & church functions as well as spending much time together as family. 

God has certainly blessed us richly once again this year. May we continually give Him the glory for the wonderful gift He has given in the birth of His Son & thus the reason for this Christmas season!!

Sending our love, Wayne, Brenda, Eryn, Danielle, Veronica, Levi & Jordyn Otten

we hope & pray that you all may experience God's wonderful gift He has given, this holiday season and also for the coming year!

for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

the return of the nutcracker...

the return of the nutcracker is not a new ballet production nor a new rendition of Tchaikovsky's famous musical score.

it's all of my 'little men' that i've been receiving over the years.

they make up my diverse collection of soldiers standing guard or ready to play a tune.

as a little girl, i've always loved the nutcracker figure.

my mom had one that my dad gave her years ago, and every year when the nutcracker came out for the holidays, i would admire him.

shortly after i was married, my dad started giving us~my sister & me, a nutcracker for Christmas.

i had a few before he started giving them to us, but the collection has grown over the years.

the one standing behind the word 'joy' was the first one.

this impish fellow was last year's gift...

 this little white one was purchased in germany~authentically handcrafted...

these two stand on guard above our heads when entering the house
the one wearing red stands just over 2' tall...

i have 16 of these soldiers in all shapes and sizes.

big, small, fat, tall, tree ornaments & even a stuffed door~stopper one.

i guess you could say i have my own army.

my infantry men :)

since the nutcrackers are scattered throughout the house, it's fun to watch guests take a mental note of how many there are. 

they always end up asking, "how many??" then i get to tell them how they come from my dad.

i look forward to this year's nutcracker from my dad~i still love getting one *wink wink dad!! :D

so, having the urge to decorate for the holidays, the nutcracker returns.

fall is here

annnnnd.... i'm back (insert smiley face)

i know i'm a bad blogger....i just haven't been able to find time these days to post anything!
sigh.
i really do wish i kept at this more regularly, buuuuttt.....
ok.
enough excuses.
here's a short little peek at what's been happening here.

on tuesday, our boy celebrated his 14th birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEVI!!

he'a turning into quite the young man!
gone are the days when he was a wee lad....so sad (for me, anyway)
he's a grow'n....literally (& finally!!!)
he has caught up to me!
oh, i know, i can hear y'all say'n it ~"that doesn't take much"
it's true. it doesn't!
but he has taken a while to get here!
the girls all surpassed me when they were in like, gr 4 or something...
actually, i'm not sure when, but i know it was much earlier than age 14!!!
i give this kid another year or two and he'll be 6'2'' like his pops ~i'm hope'n anyway, & not a shorty like me!!

anyhoo...

so, we've had these pumpkins sitting on our porch for several weeks now & the kids were begging to carve them up.
sure. why not?
have fun!
eryn's boyfriend kevin, was over and was pumped!
i don't think he's ever carved a pumpkin before...
here are the 'crazies' in action....

as a side note, just cuz you can see it....

we've got some walls down in the kitchen & dining room!
we've been enjoying the cozy look of insulation between the wall studs & the lovely feel of the hardwood plywood under foot....
{if you look closely, you can see my laundry room in the back that is 99% finished}
it's coming along people...but that is another post for another day!!


i know think they feed off of each other's crazyness....

jordyn is in there like a dirty shirt!

no, really, her shirt is dirty!!

eryn went on pinterest & found some loads of fun pumpkin carving designs...

leave it up to good 'ol pinterest!!!

kevin, being the artistic guy that he is, came up with his own design...

the pipe is a nice touch, don'tcha think??

 ooooo...how cool are they???!!!

i like my glowing orange orbs...
they turned out quite nice!

now...there's a nasty, slimy mess to clean up and some seeds that need to be roasted ~mmmhmmm

good bye ronin...

it was a sad day today in our house.
we had to say 'good bye' to ronin.
last august if you remember, we got ronin.

we were to take care of this little guy and his breeder would use him once a year to father some beautiful pups!
he soon fit in our family routine and right away loved mika.
the feeling feeling was mutual...mika would let him totally take over share her pillow.

we was quite the little piggy though.
he would snort like a pig and snored like you wouldn't believe!

he had this strange little habit of sucking on a ball, kinda like a baby sucks a soother...
he would lie in his pillow and close his eyes & suck...i mean, his mouth would make the same motions as a baby going to town on the soother!

this little fellow wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed...if ya know what i mean.

he did things when he wanted and was stubborn.
he was a sweet little lug most of the time, but this past spring, his behavior started changing.
he would growl & try to bite if one came too close to his food bowl while he was eating.
he started being aggressive if you got too close to his things, like toys, bed etc.
when other kids visited our home he would bark aggressively and try to bite...i guess in his mind he was protecting his territory.
it got to the point where he had bitten me once and dani twice. he almost got jordyn a couple of times too.

i. will. NOT. have. a. dog. that. bites!

as much as he could be lovable, he was also ornery!

so, before he could seriously hurt someone....my dear ones or a complete stranger....he had to go!

and since he was going back to his breeder this week b/c we were going up north, we explained to her that this was kind of a deal breaker. i can't have a biter in my home! she was very understanding & did not hesitate to take him back.
she was a 'dog behaviorist' before she started breeding dogs.
i'm hoping she'll be able to get his aggression under control & snap him out of biting!

this was the scene this morning....
eryn & dani were working for wayne today so they brought him with them to fort erie...

mika sensed something was up...
'why was her little buddy leaving'?

she didn't like it one bit that he was in there & not ripping around the yard with her.
she chased them down as they drove out of the driveway...

but stopped when she got to the invisible fence and just watched them take her pal away...
to be honest, it broke my heart.

all day she was restless, & looking for him.
for her, he was her best bud.
they played awesome together!
they balanced each other & he took his cues from her.
he would look to her when he had to bark if someone drove in the driveway....she always barked first :).
he never tried to be aggressive with her though....actually, he did.
only. once.
and she let him have it. he knew she was boss.
he never tried it again!
mika couldn't hurt a flea, yet, instinct kicked in and she put him in his rightful place.

we will miss him.
he would sit by my feet wherever i was...he always wanted to be near someone.
the kids will miss him a lot!
even though, he had a 'jekyll & hyde' character, they had a soft spot for his 'so~ugly~he's~cute' face.
they did not want to send him back.
i was they bad guy who made the decision....well, wayne agreed too, of course :)!
mika will miss him the most.

so, it hadn't been quite a year...we got him aug 24 2012.
it was a day of mixed feelings...
on one hand i'm relieved that no one will get hurt ~whoever comes over.
on the other hand we will miss his sweet face & easy way he had.
it's just been 'one of those days'!

kick dat ball....

i'm doing a little catching up here

we're full swing into the soccer season.

levi & jordyn are lov'n it.
this is their first year playing on a league and have picked up sweet skills early on...

jordyn usually plays the defense position.
here she is doing a stellar job beating her cousin (boy in blue) to the ball :)!

 levi is small, but fast!
many of the kids on his team are a lot bigger, but levi has the agility and can scoot around the opposing players..quickly!

 the last few times, jordyn's coach has put her in half~back position, which nicely gave her the opportunity to score!
sweet!

 at the beginning of the season in may, it was still a little chilly watching their games...

 dani helps coach the wee ones~they're so cute!

 give me 5 buddy...

soccer is 2 nights a week~tues & thurs.

the nice thing about it, is that all the games are played at one location...all the time!
so, even though jordyn & levi are in different divisions, they still play their games at the same park.
there are probably 12 (maybe more~not sure)soccer fields for all the divisions to play on.
another bonus, is that most of their cousins play in this league and many friends from church and our christian school community play here too!

there's always someone you know at the soccer field & it's fun catching up with friends and family as you watch your kids play.

new beginnings...

well, we just came home from a relaxing weekend up north.
so nice to get away from all the past weeks busy~ness!!

this past thursday, dani graduated high school!
(sorry about the poor quality~scanned pic)

her class of 53...

friends...

with her sweetie...
{aren't they cute~matching :) }

after receiving their diplomas...

the principle hands out the awards...
dani won the 'female athlete of the year/sportsmanship' award!!
she was pleasantly surprised (as were we all!) b/c there were a bunch of other girls that could have also won this.

it was an enjoyable night, reminiscent of their high school years together!
life long friendships formed and memories forever etched in their minds.
we are so proud of you danielle and what you have accomplished!

this is a new beginning for you and God knows where this road will take you!
as you walk this road, trust Him to guide you in all the paths of life & live your life fully serving Him.
be, who you were created to be, giving God the glory in all the joys & trials that will come your way.
we love you and are so extremely proud of you!