Our Trip to San Antonio

Hey there, everybody! Today we just got back from a nice weekend trip to San Antonio for Taj's dad's 70th birthday party. It was a surprise party, so we had a lot of fun doing a treasure hunt and giving him a birthday cake with 70 candles on it. Later in the evening we surprised him by taking him on a dinner cruise on the riverwalk and had a great time. Later we watched the Super Bowl with our 3D glasses, very cool and what an ending! Now the kids have 3 days off of school so we are just reorganizing and getting ready for the week ahead. Here is some pictures and video of our time there:




3D Super Bowl Glasses from Jonathan Brown on Vimeo.

In addition, there is a new poll on this site on the right hand side. Just scroll down a little bit, you'll find it. We'd really appreciate it if you voted! As always, comments are welcome (just click the post title). Thanks so much for all your encouragement, prayers, and support! Hope you have an outstanding week.

An Update From Elisabeth

Hey this is Lizzy updating our family blog! Over the past few weeks we have been pretty busy, with many different things such as swim meets and college visitations (for JB). My dad just recently went to San Antonio to do some meetings, so the kids were at different houses. I was at my best friend Gabby’s house and the rest of my siblings were at the Anchors house. When I was at Gabby’s house, my schedule was pretty different, but I had lots of fun. I kept in touch with my siblings a little bit by email and text (of course) which was nice. When my dad got back last Friday, I was very excited to be able to sleep in my own bed again. But not for long! Soon we’ll be visiting my grandparents, because my grandpa is celebrating his 70th, YES 70th, birthday! Wahoo!

Other than that, life’s gone on as normal. The second semester started last week, and I’m proud to say that I had all A’s on my report card! I am loving school, and I am a part of my school’s backstage crew in our most recent musical, The Little Shop of Horrors. I actually have rehearsal tomorrow, so that should be interesting. At rehearsal there is never time to sit down because so many things have to be done in such a short amount of time, but I love it. Other than that, I don’t participate in any other extracurricular activities. I love that the work load at my school is manageable, and I usually have no problems getting it completed.

Well that is about it for now! I hope that you and your family are having a great first month of the year as well!

Love, Lizzy

Update from Jonathan:Below are some recent pictures from our annual Super Bowl family football game, played at Hill Country Bible Church:

The Empty Seat

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning at church just before Christmas. As we start a New Year, make every moment count with your family and loves ones. Let the trivial, unimportant things go....


I am sitting in church with Jonathan, Emily and Elisabeth and there is an empty seat next to us. A seat that Taj will never fill again, it is such a huge void. This was a seat that she fought so hard and long to sit in. Taj endured tremendous suffering to live and be in this seat and be with us. God why is this seat now empty ? Who will now fill this important seat ?

God would you fill this seat with your Holy Spirit ? God did you feel this void we're feeling when Jesus, your precious Son died on the cross ? You didn't see an empty seat, You saw a blood stained and empty cross.

We just sang a beautiful song, the chorus was " Great is the name the name of Jesus, Great is the name the name of Jesus " As we sang this melody from our hearts the seat next to us and void in our hearts didn't seem so empty.

For all of you with an empty seat in your life, I pray that during this Christmas season that Jesus would heal the hurts and pains you have. A perfect peace can be found in Jesus Christ alone.

Psalm 18:6 - King David writes, " In my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice, my cry came before him, into his ears "

Merry Christmas, we love you all,

Six and One,

David, Jonathan, Emily, Elisabeth, Josiah and Daniel on earth

Taj Renee in Heaven

Our New Year

Here we are already a week into a New Year and chapter in all of our lives. I hope this update finds everyone doing well and staying healthy. My mother and father in law in San Antonio have been sick for almost 2 weeks with a nasty virus. In Texas the unpredictable weather of one day being 80 degrees and the next day 40 degrees plays havoc on our bodies.

So how was your New Year’s Eve ? The kids and I went over to the Anchors for an evening of food, fellowship, games and of course watching the ball drop in a zero degree NY Times Square! The kids were all in bed by 12:30am, about 1am I headed to bed only to lay there for about an hour. I couldn’t stop thinking about Taj; we had brought in over 20 New Years together! If I could try to impart any words of wisdom at the start of this year, it is to let go of the trivial and make every moment with your loved ones count. To often we are distracted with work, TV, the internet, our homes and waiting on the sidelines is our wife, husband, our children, other family and friends. We need to fill our lives and time serving others and not being so concerned about ourselves. Ok, I will get off my soap box... :)

Well school is back into full swing and with it comes to with a new level of activity around the Brown household. I am so thankful that all 5 of my kids are doing well and have good overall attitudes in regards to school. Hopefully it will continue...

Please stay in touch and post a comment on how you are doing! We would love to hear from each of you.

- David

New Year's Resolutions - Part 3

In the final installment to our New Year's Resolutions series, David and Jonathan give some quick insight into what they plan on working towards throughout 2009.

David's New Year's Resolution

My New Year's Resolution