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 I love this picture of Ximon. My favorite part of it, is that his face reminds me some much of my brother Silas. It looks so much like him when he was playing football and running it in for a touchdown.
Ximon is so great and so fast at this game, it amazes everyone! This was his second run for a touchdown, he ran the entire field all 3 times, and no one was even close to getting him.

 This is my husbands work. He is really turning into such a great photographer! I love this photo of James. It actually takes my breath away, every time I look at it.

My boys. I love this picture of them just hanging out taking a break. Talking and laughing. It makes me just think of 5 to 10 years from now, hoping they are as close then as they are now, and I can capture them in a real moment like this.

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Dinner! Which tonight includes one of my favorite ingredients, peppers, cooked anyway and in any color, I love these things!
Tonight I made Rachael Ray chicken, I am sure she has a name for it, but I don't know what it is, so I just call it by her name.
I love Rachael Ray, total side bar I know. But by watching her everyday she has encouraged me to try new foods and cook things differently. This dish is the first of hers I ever made, and I love it and also hold it dear to my heart as my symbol of stepping out of my comfort zone and creating tasty, unique meals. Most of my meals now a days come from her books, tv show, and online. I have tried and made my family so many different things, things I would never had made, filled with things I would never eat, but now I do! I can't wait everyday to watch her show and see what great meal she comes up with again and recreate it for my family.

 Goodies from Amazon! Our box arrived today filled with some grown up goodies for Shawn and I. Another pack for dominion (we are only one pack away from owning the whole huge set, I know we are nerds!), a pack for munchkin and a new game we played with some friends called Quelf. We love games, I am so happy that I am married to a man who loves board games as much as I do. Now my favorite is monopoly and my precious man will not play that with me but at least there are several others that we both love that can take up all of our free time! :) The big awesome bonus to all of this, is that I only paid $10 total for all 3 games, thank you Swag bucks!
You may see lots more pictures of game night here soon, because we are sure to set up our couch and coffee table and/or our dinning table and play the day and night away!

Ok our other obsession now a days, Hunger Games Trilogy! We are again really late on the band wagon of books/movies to read and watch, but we started this series about a week ago and are now in the middle of book two, and we are crazed by it!
I love it, I love to read, and read almost anything, however Shawn is not a big reader so this is our first book or series of books that we are reading together. We decided to read it aloud, I know kind of cheesy, but let me give you our reasoning. :) First of all, my husband wants to read, he is not a big reader so for both of us this is quite a big deal. And I read so fast, crazy fast in fact that I would be done with all 3 books by now, well by 3 days after I started reading them! After I started the book, I wanted to tell him about it, but he actually wanted to know what I was talking about in detail, which for him is not the usual, so he decided he wanted to read the book too, but instead of waiting, then reading ahead, then waiting we decided to read together. So now we can gasp at the same places and talk about things that are happening. I am loving it, every night we curl up in bed and read about Panem. It's one of my favorite parts of the day! And the crazy, "Oh my gosh", parts of this book are even better because I have someone right there, oh my goshing right with me!!

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Corban's injuries. Early on Sunday morning, he and Ximon were playing around. They were both standing on the couch and Corban had Ximons leg, which he wiggled away and Corban faced dived into the coffee table. He hit so hard he left teeth marks in the table.  His teeth went all the way through his lower lip, the upper teeth pushed back and up about a 1/4 of an inch, the inside of his lip was pretty cut up, and man there was lots of blood.  I think he was in bit of shock all day on Sunday, that was scarier than the cut I think, but he was so brave and we are so proud of him. We also visited the dentist and they said the teeth are ok, nothing major, the gums are really bruised and will stay that way for awhile, and now that the stitches are out you can hardly tell there was an injury. He still has a huge bump on the inside of his mouth, but no infection and again it may just stick around for awhile.
Oh the life with boys, I guess I should be grateful this is only our second real huge  hospital worthy trip. Not bad for 6 boys!

 Soldiers ready for war!  Just a few men the boys set up ready for battle on the hockey table.

Bryce and our dino. The dino is roaring and walking towards him. I don't think he really knows what to think, hence his wonderful questioning face.

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 My boys! Well we are missing one (he is in FL with grandma for a few weeks). This is us at multicultural night at school. This is the second year and we love it. We go, walk around seeing a lot of different items from places around the world. To make the night even better is all of the different foods we get to try.  The boys do so great, because some of it is just not good, but they endure while we try a bite of everything.

 Camera phone pic, which is not great but I still wanted to capture the moment.
Ximon reading at the check out at walmart. He is very interested in the Titanic and life magazine had some articles and pictures. He spotted it right away and picked it up and just started reading all about it.

He is finally here!! This is the very handsome Titus!! I was so blessed to be there right after he was born. Can you believe this little man is just a few hours old? He is so beautiful! His mom did so wonderful in labor and birth, his dad glowing with love and pride. I was so excited just to be there, but then he opened his perfect little eyes and looked at me forever, so I was able to snap a lot of wonderful pictures of him! I can't wait to watch this little man grow up and watch his parents learn, grow and experience the best joys in life with their new little man!! I love you Yvonne, Scott and Titus!!

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Nothing sweeter in life than dessert!!

Again showcasing my husband's work. I love this shot he captured the other night before diving into his cheesecake! 

 Proud Parents and a very special little man!
Tonight we celebrated and attended Ezekiel's awards ceremony for being selected as one of Aurora's scholars! Oh my we are so proud of him! He received a special key and award for his academic excellence. He was honored by the Mayor, city council reps, and so many more people. He walked down the line shaking about 15 peoples hands. He was so nervous, and thus so cute!
We learned during the ceremony that not many are chosen for this and he was one of the few lucky ones to receive this great honor. Once he received his key and award he just sat smiling away so proud of himself, which made my heart swell with pride and love, of course I even cried a little. :) I am so blessed by this young man each day and I can't wait to see what more the Lord has in store for him!

Light, I think of some many things when I see pure, wonderful light such as this. I love candle light, it's beautiful, it is cleansing, it's powerful, and amazing. It reminds me so much of the Lord and all that he teaches about light and how he relates it to us. 

We are the light, we are HIS light, light in a dark world, light to our children, light to our friends, coworkers, neighbors, lights to anyone we may meet at any time or at any place. We are to show Christ through us. It is how he shines in our words, our thoughts, our actions. Are you showing light today? Take a moment and remember what gave you light in your dark world, and share that with someone today. Bring light to someone's dark, broken, hurting world!

You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14

Let you light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven Matthew 5:16

Autism Family Ski get away

 A few shots of us on our autism family ski get away. There are so many more on flickr and videos, so be sure to go there and have a look too.

We were so lucky to take this trip. It was a blessing for us to get away as a family and do something that we couldn't usually do because of the cost and needing the extra help since so many of us are new to this. We are grateful to NSCD (national sports center for the disabled) that they put on this great event, keeping the cost really low and giving us all of the help we need to have a fun successful weekend.
The boys jumped right in and did so well skiing, they are all naturals, if you can believe it. By the second day the older boys and even Corban were running on bigger hills and having the time of their life. Jordan and James worked really hard on the first day to get the basics down and by day two were doing jumps and running down the hill faster than even me.
We even did an easter egg hunt on a green hill and came home with 6 very full bags of eggs filled with candy and toys. The boys loved this part, since we didn't do our regular Easter celebrations at home.
Shawn of course was an expert but stayed with us, well mostly me to make sure I didn't kill myself! :) I made it down the hill several times never falling, yay me. Though I did take it really slow and was a bit frightened, I said I skied the way I drive, riding the break! :)
We can't wait to go back next year and actually hope to go more than one time, we will see! I am so proud of all of my boys and I was so thrilled to watch their faces as they skied past me, laughing and just having so much fun. As always my cup runs over and I am so fulfilled in my life and with my family, I have no words! Thank you Lord for opportunities, memories and joys such as this weekend, ones we will never forget!

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 Autism Family ski getaway, put on by the NSCD (national sports center for the disabled). We were so honored and blessed to be able to take this weekend away as a family.
Everyone except Shawn is new at skiing so we didn't really know how it was going to go, but the boys blew our minds! Everyone is so great, even by the end of the first day Jordan was skiing alone down the hill, amazing. The boys had so much fun and we had such great help!
This is Corban on one of his first runs down the big hill, following right along with his helper!

Shawn on the lift, just being himself!! He was so patient with all of us, and forfeited his time to ski down bigger hills, to hang with us, well mostly me and make sure I didn't kill myself!! :) I even made it down the hill quite a few times on my own, I was super slow so the boys out ran me 10 to 1, but I had a great time, and am really proud that I didn't crash out and fall on my butt!

All of my ski bunnies! They are so cute in their ski gear! I am so proud of how all of them did and we can't wait to go back next year!

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 The missing picture 91. My numbering and days were off, but here it is.
Our wonderful football team for the spring 2012 season! They are all so cute, and such hard workers. It's going to be a great season!

Little B. I wanted to capture the babiness of him while it's still around. I love his little fingers, beautiful eyes and wonderful pouty  lips. So cute! 

MJ painting outside this morning. We took some time to enjoy the weather and of course paints, who doesn't love finger painting? This little man really did, we made tons of perfect pictures for mommy and daddy!!

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Our new side yard. We decided after a few years of really not liking part of our front yard to fix it. Yay! The picture on the left is a before shot, but it was awhile ago, so right before we changed it, it was really over grown with parsley and lots of ugly wood chips. The after is nice beautiful white rock, no weeds, my one bush that I love at the end (it grows beautiful yellow and orange flowers in the fall).
However I realized today that I really don't like the plainness of the white rock, so I am off to buy some very colorful pots filled with some very colorful flowers and they will set in the rock. I will take another picture of the final project in a few weeks!

 Baby B and Corban playing! The boys are so excited to have a new friend come and play! And he just loves the camera, he will look right at me, one day I will capture a smile and I can't wait!!

Night time tree with snow and our street light. I couldn't get the exact look I wanted or was seeing in my head, but this one comes pretty close.

April is Autism Awareness month

I know I am a bit behind on this, but please remember that April is Autism Awareness month! Show your support where you can, pray for those families that handle this each and every day. Remember to not prejudge a child or a parent who you see out in public, because you don't know the whole story.
And as a personal request in this month be praying for us, our John and all of those at school that work to help him. As he is getting older things seem to be harder not easier, and his outbursts more severe and aggressive. I know autism and all that it brings is something we will all deal with for the rest of our lives. I just know that I am running out of steam, I'm tired, and it's always an uphill battle and I feel like I'm losing, I could use a break, but one doesn't seem to come.
School is harder, kids are meaner, teachers are working as hard as they can to do all that they can for him during the school day. We all could use a bit more strength, patience, support and most of all prayer! I know the Lord will renew us each day and has since the day John was born, it's just some days my brain needs to line up with my heart in this matter. Thank you all so much for the love, support and prayers that you do give to us each and every moment. We love you all!

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 My empty house! The boys went with grandma to the Springs and to the Cabin for a few days, so I have the whole house to myself! Yay! The first day is pretty hard, I miss my little men, but by day 2 I am rethinking why I had kids in the first place, lol. I do love being a mom, but I am so grateful for the times where I am alone and I don't have to worry about anyone but myself, it's a nice break. And as an added bonus, Shawn and I got to have a few date nights alone. We went out to eat, we stayed up late, and we also went to be really early one night, and we just enjoyed being together, just the two of us. Thanks mom for the huge blessing of giving us some alone time!

Date night! While the boys were away we had a much needed date night with our two best friends. It was filled with yummy food from a new restaurant, a few tasty desserts, many, many laughs and a nice break from day to day life.
Also a great cause for celebration, this may be our last date night without kids for awhile. Our friends are due to have their first baby any day now, and we can't wait!! I am excited to see them as parents, I know they are going to be amazing and I can't wait to see what that little boy will look like!  Hurry up and get here "BOB" (that's not his name, it's just what we call him, Baby Of Brown)!!

Precious MJ out riding his scooter. I do love this little man so much! I can't believe how big he is getting. Everyday he still amazes me and makes me laugh!

Living in the flesh vs. the spirit

I'm so humbled, convicted and blessed by this morning teaching.
I live in the flesh so often and always make excuses on what I do in the flesh. " I'm just that way, I yell because that's me, I can't help it, you are causing me to live or act this way", etc. Such a sad thing that I blame others and don't even depend on the Lord to change me, to do a full work in me. To think that these things, this anger, this bad habit is bigger than God, that I can't be different even with God in my life.
A few scriptures really stuck out to me today, ones that I know by heart, yet can't seem to live by. Galatians 5:19-21 (living in the flesh), and Galatians 5:22-26 (living in the Sprit). So often we desire verses 22-26 but live in verses 19-21, I am guilty of this so often. But two another great verses/promise was given to me today that give me power and encouragement. Philippians 2:13 "for it is GOD who works in you both to will and to do for HIS good pleasure." and Zechariah 4:6b "not by might, nor by power, but by MY spirit".  God does the work, it doesn't matter how much we try, or all that we do in our own flesh to change something, the only thing that will fix it, to change it, to make us more like the Lord is HIS spirit!!
I encourage you in that today, give it to God. The flesh is strong, our sinful desires are strong, but God is so much stronger, let him work in your life, it will radically change you. I want to live in these promises everyday and turn all of that ugliness that I have in my life, in my heart, in my flesh over to God and let him work that good work, let him make me filled with the spirit, let him change me radically, to be the woman, wife, mom and child of God that he sees and desires in me!!