Christmas 2008

There are so many things to be thankful for in this Christmas season.

1. We are thankful that the Lord has kept us safe through the many snow storms. We definitely had a white Christmas this year. :-)
   
2. We are thankful for the opportunity to have had a Christmas eve service. Thanks to all for making a memorable night!
3. We are so very thankful that the Abbotsford Stobbe family was able to join us for Christmas. They even left a day early to beat the snow. It was such a blessing to be with them.
4. Mostly we are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

There were a few funny moments come Christmas morning at our house. Isaac was a great ad for Best buy as he opened the Wii. "This is soooo AWESOME!" Wii think they should hire him for next years holiday ads.
Another fun moment was letting the kids know about our trip to Disneyland. Both Isaac and Megan had letters written to them from their favorite disney Character and when Isaac was reading his letter, all of the sudden his jaw dropped and he dropped the letter and yelled, "We are going to Disneyland". Of course by the time this happened, my memory card was full :-( So this is what we recorded after the fact.

Thanksgiving

Wow there is really so much to be thankful for with all that is going on in our lives these days! We have a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes to wear, wonderful family and friends. God is so good for all that he provides for us!

This past sunday was a great day in the Stobbe family! Isaac decided that it was time for him to take the next step in his relationship with the Lord and was baptized. He also had two good friends join him. (Jonathan and Daniel) As well as another girl from the middle school.

I am so grateful for not only the physical needs that the Lord provides for us but the spiritual. It has always been a desire of my heart to see my children follow the Lord, and for this I have prayed. My heart is totally overwhelmed with this step Isaac has taken, as it is his decision for his life.

What are you thankful for?

Looking back

Summer has come and gone. There was much traveling to see family. We look back with many fond memories.

We spent time with the Stobbe's and Taylors up at the lake. It was such a great time! Tim thinks that the new dirt bikes are awesome! Isaac thinks one day soon he will get the hang of riding one.

We also spent time in Calgary as we celebrated 60 years with Tina's dad! It was a great time visiting as well as seeing many cousins and aunts.

At the end of August, we were blessed with the chance to spend time with our good friends Chris and Rachel Smolko and their family in Birch Bay. It was a great week of fishing and crabbing! Isaac thoroughly enjoyed going out with Chris in the boat!

We are now back into the routine of life with both kids at school (Megan in preschool) as well as Isaac being in soccer. Tina has continued teaching piano and new this year is helping with the High school youth group. Tim has much on his plate with the new building coming along nicely. Framing is to start in the beginning of October with the hope that we will be in by Spring of 2009. Stay tuned as I am sure that we will keep you up to date.

Cincinnati!

What an incredible week we had with the Taylor family! We enjoyed hanging out with them so much. It was sooo good to see what their life is like in Cincinnati.

While we were there we did many fun things. We started with a visit to King's Island which is an amusement park. The kids enjoyed seeing characters such as Dora the explorer, Spongebob Squarepants and The Backyardigans. We saw the Eiffel tower (american version) and of course got to ride the roller coaster, swings, helicopters etc. I (Tina) got to experience a ride on the "Beast". It has been such a long time since I have been on a roller coaster. Let me tell you that this was a good one to jog my memory! Whoo hoo! Thanks April for going with me. (at the very front too!) And thanks Jeremy for watching the kids while we did this!

Isaac and I went with April to The Freedom Center. This is a place in downtown Cincinnati that talks about Slavery, the underground railroad and much more. From the Freedom Center, you can see the Ohio river. This river is where many slaves would swim across as they began their journey to freedom. As disheartening as it was to learn about slavery and how people were treated, Isaac very much enjoyed learning about the underground railroad and how it helped people find freedom. We learned how to tell which houses were safe to go to and which weren't. A lantern in the window means that this home will hide and help protect people escaping from slavery. (Can you see Isaac hiding?) It was good for us to learn about all that has happened and to see how far we have come with this issue. However, there are still many people in our world that are in bondage. This flame will continue to burn at the Freedom Center until we see an end to slavery.

Of course there was much playing, swimming and ice cream eating! As well as having a chance to visit Kenwood Baptist. The place that brought the Taylors to Cincinnati to begin with. We leave with many fond memories and look forward to many more.

Happy lots of things!

This past week was one full of much joy.

July 1st marked Canada Day as well as Tim's birthday. We were blessed to be able to celebrate with our friends in honor of Tim. Of course the event was marked with yummy food, including the CAKE (the ever important ingredient to a successful birthday). Even our relatives the Taylor's took a turn celebrating this great day as they enjoyed their cake as they thought of Tim and of course the homeland.

A few days later, we spent most of the day with many friends as we honored and celebrated the United States of America. There was swimming and fireworks and food and fireworks and volleyball and fireworks. You get the picture. At the end of the day we were blessed to spend time with our friends down at the beach where we watched and participated in a spectacular display of pride for this nation. A great time was had by all.

Summer

School is out! It is nice to have a change of pace and be able to relax and sleep in a little bit. (At least hopefully sleeping in)

This summer is going to be a busy one for us Stobbes come the end of July as we plan on doing a bit of travelling. The kids and I (Tina) are headed to Cincinnati for 1 week to visit the Taylor family. The kids are so excited that we decided to make a chain to hang up in the house, allowing us to rip off a link of the chain for each day that we get closer to visiting our family. Thankfully this has stopped them from asking "how many more sleeps until the trip?" because they can now see........thanks to the chain. :-)

After our trip to Cincinnati, we will travel to Abbotsford (Canada) with the Taylors. We are very much anticipating a trip up to the lake with all the family. (Stobbe's and Taylors) We are very excited about this. Dad Stobbe has just bought a new dirt bike and there is a rumor that they are trying to fix up the small bike that perhaps Isaac can learn to ride all by himself. This was VERY exciting news for him. Makes mom a little nervous though.

From Abbotsford our family will head over to Calgary for a long awaited visit with the Dow family. More importantly we will be celebrating Dad Dow's 60th birthday! We will stay there for about a week and then return home.

At the end of August we are planning a little excursion with our good friends Chris and Rachel Smolko and their family up to Birch Bay, which is very close to the Canadian Border. The guys will fish, the girls will shop. Life is good. :-)

So........until the travel starts, we will hang out, play with friends, swim at the lake, BBQ, mmmmmmmm. Let the good times roll.

Catching up!

~Wow, it has been a long time since we have written anything! Sorry to those of you who may have come to see new news and found nothing. ~

Since the last entry, much has happened for the Stobbe family.

- We have had two new additions to our family. Tim's sister April and her husband Jeremy welcomed their daughter Naomi Corrine Taylor to the family last August. Tina's sister Heather and her husband Mike welcomed their son Ewan George Joseph Mitchell in October. We are so blessed!

- Megan started her first year at preschool and Isaac went to 2nd.

- We received our green cards and are now free to travel to Canada and the US as we want! We are super excited!
- We welcomed our puppy Tucker to the family this past April. So far he has been an excellent dog for us and look forward to many happy times with him.

This past spring, Isaac and Tina were involved in a musical at the local theater in Gig Harbor called "A Pirates Life For Me". It was tough work but in the end proved to be an excellent experience. I(Tina) am so proud of Isaac. He danced and sang his way to a very successful first theatrical experience as the boy who wanted to be a parrot.... And all he wanted was a cracker.

We are pleased to say that we have begun the building project for the new church! Our ground breaking ceremony was held yesterday. As we stood in the spot where we will hold our services, I was overwhelmed with joy! After we sang a couple of songs, the children were invited to come up for the turning of the dirt. It was explained to us adults that as much as this new building will be for us to use, it is also for our children as they will be the ones to come after us. It was such an encouragement to remember that we need to teach our children that the building to come is to be used as a tool to reach out to those who need Jesus! May the words of the one song we sang be ever true in the future at Waypoint Church.

"Let your glory fall in this room, let it flow forth from here to the nations. Let your fragrance rest in this place, as we gather to seek your face."