Solomon’s 2nd Birthday

Almost two weeks ago Solomon turned 2! We’ve been slowly celebrating as family has been in town for Christmas and are usualy gone right before his birthday. So he’s had a few mini birthday celebrations:

With Uncle Paul and Aunt Becky from Chicago

 

With the Stiles-Oldrings from Canada

 

 

With the Cojocneans at our new apartment in Redlands

 

Christmas 2009

Better late than never!

We’ve been offline for almost two weeks so  I hope you’re not quite sick of Christmas yet. Here’s a giant photo post to enjoy. XO the Stiles

Playing with Uncle Tim

Newlyweds Uncle Carl and Tusa Jackie at Santa Ana Zoo

Proud to be an uncle!

2 of 6 cousins from Sacramento

Making Pumels at Aunt Sue’s house

Ella and Dawn, the pumel frying support team :)

Christmas Eve, Santa arrives and terror ensues! Note Solomon hiding while crying hysterically.

Spoiler Alert! It’s my dad.

Stiles-Fernandez Men Christmas morning

The stocking spread

Tim’s dad and sister

Tim’s sister Daisy on duty with Mimosas.

Chef Paul

Iron Chef Ricky Bobby

Dawn and Rick

Christmas Part III at my parent’s house.

Sasha, my mom and brother Tim

Christmas Part IV at Tim’s brother’s house the day after Christmas.

Advent Season

This Christmas season has been a little more exciting for us as we don’t have to travel to see family and we’ve started a new tradition of doing advent activities counting down the days to Jesus’ birth. Starting with December 1st, we try to do a small activity each day reminding us of Jesus birth and what it accomplished for us and also anticipating Jesus return to claim his kingdom. That’s been fun to do with Solomon even though he doesn’t quite get it, I am hoping as we keep with this tradition over the years, it will become a very special time of year.

It has been extremely wonderful to be with mine and Tim’s family on a daily basis, regularly eating dinner together and hanging out. Watching Solomon and his cousin Rhys grow and change together is probably the most rewarding. Being back here came after a lot of really big changes and difficult circumstances, but I look back and am amazed at God’s timing.

We’ve seen our nephew start walking and talking. My younger sister is getting married this Saturday and what a blessing to be here in CA rather than far away in Seattle. The warm weather and sunshine has helped me relax and get out more with Solomon. I have one friend from highschool whom I am still close with, and how special it was to be here last week to visit her in the hospital after she gave birth to her first child. To be there for her, hang out with them, encourage and love them has been awesome. We even got to spend Tim’s birthday here, as well as Thanksgiving, something we have only done once in the last 5 or 7 years! Most of all, we appreciate the encouragement from our families on a daily basis as Tim has relentlessly looked for work, treating it as a full time job. We even found a great church to get plugged into, where we have been well loved, and am sad to leave now!

Another great thing has been to see Solomon checking out the Christmas trees and lights. I think I can say, he’s obsessed! From morning to night, he reminds us of the “ki-ma-ti”. He loves to look at the lights in the dark and is regularly asking for “night walks”. I was just hoping to share all of this with you as today is the first day with our extended family in town for the holidays and I’m realizing how much happens day to day, not wanting to get too far behind. Here are some pictures, with more to come in the following days.

Big hugs, the Stiles.

Changing Seasons

It’s starting to feel a bit like fall now that it’s darker earlier and it’s “cooled” off here in sunny southern California. We still miss Seattle but we’re anticipating a new season for us as a family. Tim has had a handful of great interviews and we’re anticipating a decision will be made soon with a local company. Please keep us in your prayers as Tim has his fourth and final interview with this company and a follow-up interview with another local company. Things really seem to be picking up in pace and we’re trusting that the Lord will continue to provide for us as he has so clearly over the last few years.

Just in this last month we’ve celebrated Tim’s birthday and the engagement of my younger sister who will be married this December. So you can imagine between job interviews, raising Solomon, planning a wedding and anticipating a move before Christmas, we’re quite busy! But God’s grace to us is a spirit of peace and trust, and for this we’re SO grateful.

Solomon is 22 months old, seems like we’ll be celebrating his birthday  again in no time at all. He’s chatting all the time and as you can imagine, very active and going, going, going all the time! He’s doing well and seems to finally have adjusted to the move. Here are a few photos of us hanging around and enjoying the time we have together as a family. Love you and miss you all! The Stiles family.

Great Grandparent’s on my mom’s side.

With Aunt Becky visiting from Chicago.

With Uncle Paul visiting from Chicago.

Sol and my sister Jackie.

Helping shop for wedding dresses :)

Sol & Rhys

At the fire station’s open house.

Trying to color with his toes!

Future Uncle Carl

The first birthday with family in years!

Baby shower for Ryann & Paul.

Congrats to Carl and Jackie!

So Far in OC

So far so good in Santa Ana!

Sol's first train ride!

Tim is still looking for a job but we’re patient and trust that the right one will come at the right time. It’s been great being here with family while going through this. We’re slowly settling in and getting what we don’t need into storage. It’s been nice seeing family more regularly and actually getting out every day since the weather is so much warmer and drier than Seattle. Although, as I’ve always said before, I would reather be cold and put on a sweater than be hot and unable to cool off… you can only do so much you know?

Reading on the front lawn

Solomon’s adjusting ok, although he does on occassion as to go home. However, most days he’s running wild in the back with my sister’s dog Charlie. He also has been able to play with his cousins at least once a week which is great. We’ve also gotten out a bit and met up with some old friends and gone to see the great grandparents.

Great Grandma Jungkeit

Great Grandma Cojocnean

The best part has been the weather… we’ve been sleeping with the windows and doors open. Every day we head outside in shorts and a t-shirt and there’s always just enough of a breeze to stay cool.

Sol loves going down the slide

I think we need to soak in as much fun, beach, and family as we can since we don’t know at this point where we’ll end up once Tim finds work. Keep us in your prayers and know that we love and miss every one of you!

Trying to get his sippy cup

 

Hello Hello

Welcome to our new blog… we’ll be posting soon

New Blog Address

Hi friends,

We’re going to start posting pictures and updates at a new blog address called Ransomed Souls. Check out the link and subscribe via email for updates when we create new posts. We’ll let you know what we’re doing and where we’re going if anything changes. Love you all and miss you if you’re in Seattle

Packing Up

4th of July 2009

At the beginning of the month we made the decision to follow God’s lead and leave Seattle. Lots of things have added up recently to cause us to feel like it was the right thing to do and that’s a story for another post. But in the meantime, we’re packing up and getting ready seeing as we need to be out of our apartment next week.

Tonight, Tim is dropping off a few more things at the Goodwill down the street. We’ve been clearing out lots of stuff as we feel God calling us to let go of material things and focus on storing up treasures in heaven. It’s been a blessing to give things away to friends, thrift stores and even a garage sale benefiting the Breast Cancer 3 day walk. People have been so generous with us since we’ve been here, it just feels right to do that for others.

This has been both a wierd and exciting process for us and we’re encouraged as we head back to our families in California. Since we’ll be staying with my parents, we’ll be able to focus on  job searches and even make some time to relax as a family, something I don’t think we’ve really done since Solomon’s arrival one and a half years ago. But school’s finished now and we’re looking forward to what God is doing in us during this season. We’re learning practically how being obedient to Christ means rejoicing in trials and suffering, so that’s kind of where we’re at right now.

I’ll be getting another blog ready, that won’t be geographically named since we feel like we could end up anywhere in the country in the near future. So this time we’ll be a bit more practical and keep it simple. When we do that, we’ll let you know and post it here. Pray for us as we make this transition and know that we’ll love and miss all of the friends we’ve made here in Seattle! Here are a few photos from recently. 

Greenwood Classic Car Show

Today we were on our way home after being out when we came across the Greenwood Classic Car Show. Greenwood is the neighborhod North & East of Ballard up on Phinney Ridge. I had been anticipating this for a long time and had just forgotten about it. I have always loved classic cars and so I insisted we pull over immediately to attend! We parked and walked around as the car show was starting to wrap up, but we still managed to see a ton of beautiful vintage cars. I was a bit bitter as I saw a couple Lincoln Continentals with suicide doors since I actually had one that my dad and I were supposed to work on together. But as I started college and things got busy, my dad had to sell it to get it off our friend’s car lot out in Riverside. I was really upset for a while and it rekindles on occassion when I see one just like it. Tim was sweet enough to chase one down today as it was pulling out to snap a photo for me. He promises that one day, I’ll have my continental… but I have been eyeing some old station wagons recently which would hold more kids. We also saw an old 1932 Ford Roadster, similar to the one Bus used to drive! We did get some good ideas for working on the Scout while out, and that will be for Solomon and Tim to do together. Enjoy just a few of the many amazing cars we saw!

Lincoln Continental, suicide doors

1932 Ford Roadster

Chevy Bel Air

Studebaker Lark… my future “Momma-mobile”

Lincoln Continental, suicide doors

Lincoln Continental

Mini Cooper

Mini Cooper

Cadillac Coupe de Ville, ’09 Best in Show

Cadillac Coupe de Ville

1955 Chevy Bel Air

Stingray

Father's Day 2009

We enjoyed a nice and relaxing Father’s Day. We attended church in the morning as usual and then after Solomon’s nap, we headed over to Mooberry for frozen yogurt. Then we went to the Ballard Locks so Solomon could see the Salmon run and the “big boats”. Last, we had a nice dinner at home since that’s Tim’s favorite.

It was also a special day for Tim and I because we were also celebrating eight – yes 8! – years together. I remember it like yesterday that we had a very special conversation which marked the beginning of our relationship.  It was also the date, four years later, that Timothy would propose! What a special day to celebrate, lots of memories.